In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men to seek the favor of the Lord, speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, "Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain, as I have done these many years?" Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, "Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted? ‘When you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves? ‘Are not these the words which the Lord proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous along with its cities around it, and the Negev and the foothills were inhabited?’"
Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah saying, "Thus has the Lord of hosts said, ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’ "But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing. "They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts. "And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen," says the Lord of hosts; "but I scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land is desolated behind them so that no one went back and forth, for they made the pleasant land desolate."
My thoughts -
What good does observing a religious calendar do? What good are traditions? What good are rituals? What do they do?
These questions assault me as I read this passage. The Lord, through Zechariah, is calling out the people and the priests. Zechariah is a prophet of Judah during their exile in Babylon. Zechariah is speaking here about rituals of mourning and fasting that the people observed.
It's not that solemnly observing moments of historical and religious significance is a bad thing. But in light of the people's lives God questions whether these solemn remembrances are about God or just about themselves.
When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted? When you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves?So what does the Lord hold against the people and the priests?
Thus has the Lord of hosts said, ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’ "But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing. "They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts.They didn't do God's will. They were going through the motions of ritual but they did not live lives of righteousness. What good is ritual without righteousness? What good is it to solemnly observe religious tradition without any regard to living a life for God? What good is it to mourn and fast and pray but to not observe God's law that demands justice, kindness, compassion, and care for the poor?
What good are traditions and rituals without righteousness?
Pushing this text forward a few thousand years let me ask this: Do we attend worship regularly? Do we observe Lent? Do we work our way through all of the emotions of Holy Week? Do we rejoice in the resurrection for Easter? Do we get excited for Advent and especially for Christmas? Is there anything wrong with this?
Of course there isn't. But why do we do these things? Is it just for ourselves? How can we test this? Are we living righteous lives for God? Do we desire justice? Are we kind and compassionate? Do we care for the needs of the poor, the weak, the lost, the lonely, the broken, the powerless, and the oppressed?
If we don't do these things then what good is even the most enthusiastic adherence to religious ritual?
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