What God Actually Wants
Is my religious practice making me a better neighbor or just a busier person?
The study notes for this passage are still being written. The passage itself is below — read it now, and the notes will be here when you return.
Zechariah 7:1-8:23
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1In the fourth year of King Darius, the LORD’s word came to Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev.
2The people of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem Melech and their men to entreat the LORD’s favor,
3and to speak to the priests of the house of the LORD of Armies and to the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?”
4Then the word of the LORD of Armies came to me, saying,
5“Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month for these seventy years, did you at all fast to me, really to me?
6When you eat and when you drink, don’t you eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?
7Aren’t these the words which the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and its cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?’”
8The LORD’s word came to Zechariah, saying,
9“Thus has the LORD of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother.
10Don’t oppress the widow, the fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.’
11But they refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear.
12Yes, they made their hearts as hard as flint, lest they might hear the law and the words which the LORD of Armies had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the LORD of Armies.
13It has come to pass that, as he called and they refused to listen, so they will call and I will not listen,” said the LORD of Armies;
14“but I will scatter them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they have not known. Thus the land was desolate after them, so that no man passed through nor returned; for they made the pleasant land desolate.”
1The word of the LORD of Armies came to me.
2The LORD of Armies says: “I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath.”
3The LORD says: “I have returned to Zion, and will dwell in the middle of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called ‘The City of Truth;’ and the mountain of the LORD of Armies, ‘The Holy Mountain.’”
4The LORD of Armies says: “Old men and old women will again dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, every man with his staff in his hand because of their old age.
5The streets of the city will be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.”
6The LORD of Armies says: “If it is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in my eyes?” says the LORD of Armies.
7The LORD of Armies says: “Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country.
8I will bring them, and they will dwell within Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.”
9The LORD of Armies says: “Let your hands be strong, you who hear in these days these words from the mouth of the prophets who were in the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD of Armies was laid, even the temple, that it might be built.
10For before those days there was no wages for man nor any wages for an animal, neither was there any peace to him who went out or came in, because of the adversary. For I set all men everyone against his neighbor.
11But now I will not be to the remnant of this people as in the former days,” says the LORD of Armies.
12“For the seed of peace and the vine will yield its fruit, and the ground will give its increase, and the heavens will give their dew. I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these things.
13It shall come to pass that, as you were a curse among the nations, house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you shall be a blessing. Don’t be afraid. Let your hands be strong.”
14For the LORD of Armies says: “As I thought to do evil to you when your fathers provoked me to wrath,” says the LORD of Armies, “and I didn’t repent,
15so again I have thought in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Don’t be afraid.
16These are the things that you shall do: speak every man the truth with his neighbor. Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates,
17and let none of you devise evil in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate,” says the LORD.
18The word of the LORD of Armies came to me.
19The LORD of Armies says: “The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months shall be for the house of Judah joy, gladness, and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace.”
20The LORD of Armies says: “Many peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come.
21The inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, ‘Let’s go speedily to entreat the favor of the LORD, and to seek the LORD of Armies. I will go also.’
22Yes, many peoples and strong nations will come to seek the LORD of Armies in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD.”
23The LORD of Armies says: “In those days, ten men out of all the languages of the nations will take hold of the skirt of him who is a Jew, saying, ‘We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”