Zechariah 7
(1) Israel/Judah Forgot the Reason behind God’s Holidays
In the fourth year of King Darius’s reign, the Existing One’s message came to Zechariah on the fourth day of Chislev (the ninth month of the Jewish calendar). At that time, the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer, Regemmelech, and their men to try to get on the Existing One’s good side by talking to His priests and prophets. They asked,
“Should we keep crying and fasting in the 5th month in memory of the temple’s destruction like we have been for years?”
Then I received a message from the Existing One of all creation that said,
“Ask all the people and priests these questions for Me:
When you fasted and mourned every 5th and 7th month these past 70 years, were you actually doing it for Me? When you eat and drink on My holidays, aren’t you eating and drinking for your own enjoyment?
Isn’t this the same message I sent you through My spokesmen who came earlier?—I’m talking about the prophets that came when Jerusalem and its surrounding cities were nicely populated and felt at ease. In those days, even the Negev [the south] and the foothills were populated.”
(8) Israel/Judah Didn’t Listen to God, so God won’t Listen to them
Then the Existing One sent a message to Zechariah that said,
“I told everyone to be fair, kind, and empathetic toward their brothers. I told them not to take advantage of widows, orphans, immigrants, and the poor. I told them not to make plans to harm each other.
“Yet they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder while plugging their ears. They made their hearts like stone, unable to hear the instructions that the Existing One behind all creation had sent them through His initial spokesmen [the prophets] who had His Spirit. That’s why the Existing One behind all creation got so mad. In the same way that I called out to them but they didn’t answer, they will call out to Me, but I won’t answer.
“I used storm winds to blow them away, scattering them out across foreign countries, leaving their own land desolate behind them. They came and went, turning a desirable region into a wasteland.”
