Mining the Minors: Zechariah (13)

Sin has consequences. The vast majority of these are no fun. The usual result of experiencing the consequences of sin is sorrow, and sorrow is an emotional mechanism designed by God to produce better things in the long run. Sadly, some people never get beyond their sin-induced misery to the state of mind God intended it to bring about, like prodigals in the pigsty to whom it never occurs to return to the father’s house.

Biblical repentance is not merely feeling bad about the consequences of your sin, but recognizing its offensiveness to God and doing something about it. That’s what this second message in Zechariah 7 is all about.

II. Four Messages (continued)

3/ Show Kindness and Mercy

Zechariah 7:8-14 – A Stubborn Shoulder

“And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.’ But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the Lord of hosts. ‘As I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate.’ ”

A Responsive Word

We should remember that this second word from the Lord through Zechariah in chapter 7 continues to respond to the question asked at the beginning of the chapter by the men sent from Bethel, which was “Should we continue to fast and mourn as we have been doing for seventy years?” The fasting and mourning to which they referred was not an act of obedience to the Law of Moses or to the word of a particular prophet, but rather the natural outcome of experiencing the practical consequences of one’s own sin and the sins of one’s fathers over a long period. The Jews in exile commemorated the fifth month (marking the burning of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar) and the seventh (probably marking the murder of Babylon’s appointed governor, which resulted in yet another deportation and degradation of Judah’s situation) as national fasts. Even upon their return from exile, the 50,000+ Jews who had been back in their historic homeland for two decades or thereabouts continued to mark these sad events with outward signs of sorrow.

God rightly puts his finger on why all this fasting and mourning fell short of his will for Judah: it was really all about themselves. The question behind the question they were asking was really “When will God’s judgment be over? When can we expect his blessing?” The answer to such a question, then and now, often requires that we do more than wallow in our own misery. Repentance requires evidence beyond tear tracks, sackcloth and ashes.

What Should We Do?

The Jews who went out to the wilderness to hear John in the first century underwent a baptism of repentance. These were more practical than the men of Bethel. Having acknowledged their sin in public before God, they recognized mourning was not enough, and asked John the obvious question: “What shall we do?” John gave them concrete ways to display their repentant spirit through their works. Evidently some heard him. But far too many people find it easier to mope than to clean up their mess.

Zechariah, under God’s direction, is doing the same thing here without being asked the question. He offers the men from Bethel (and through them the entire nation) four ways to show their repentance, two positive and two negative:

1. Render true judgments
2. Show kindness and mercy to one another
3. Do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor
4. Let none of you devise evil against another in your heart

The first two are active, the latter two passive: do and don’t do. It should be evident these are primarily directed toward the upper class of Judah: the merchants, the rich landowners and the leadership. (The poor don’t get to render judgments or choose whether or not they will be oppressed. Those decisions are made for them.) Moreover, much of the motive behind oppression, misuse of the law and the devising of evil was surely financial. A fine example of the sort of systemic sinfulness that characterized the powerful among the returned exiles is found in Nehemiah, where the nobles and officials in Judah were exacting interest from the poor on loans they took out to pay their taxes to the Persian government. The situation was so bad that the poor could not eat, had to give up their land and were even selling their children into slavery. This was a few years later, but it shows the necessity for Zechariah’s message, and strongly suggests it was not put into practice for long. The love of money really is the root of all evil, both personal and systemic.

When we truly repent of our sins and ask the Lord “What shall we do?”, there is usually a very clear answer forthcoming. Scripture is full of helpful suggestions. The question is whether we are willing to act on them, or whether our “repentance” is only for show.

A Warning About Sincerity

Having established what he is really looking for from the nobles of Judah, God goes on to issue a warning from history. This was not a new message. The command to end systemic oppression and let economic justice have its way in Judah was a familiar one. Ezekiel had written that very thing to the princes of Israel at the beginning of the seventy years: “The sojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow are wronged in you.” Note the mention of the sojourner, the fatherless and the widow. However, Ezekiel’s message and those of the other prophets before him went unheeded. God gave Jerusalem into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.

Just as he has listed four ways the Jews can show their repentance, the Lord now lists four ways in which the forefathers of the returned exiles had failed to respond to God’s earlier warnings:

1. They refused to pay attention
2. They turned a stubborn shoulder
3. They stopped their ears
4. They made their hearts diamond-hard

Note the comprehensive body language: eyes, shoulders, ears and hearts. In every way, the nobles of Judah in previous had expressed their absolute refusal to hear the word of the Lord or to change their ways.

The Consequences of Disobedience

Zechariah finishes by listing the consequences of disobedience to God’s call for justice. Again, there are four of these:

1. Anger (“Great anger came from the Lord of hosts”)
2. Deafness (“They called, and I would not hear”)
3. Scattering (“I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations”)
4. Desolation (“The pleasant land was made desolate”)

The implication is obvious. God has miraculously restored Judah to the Promised Land, but not unconditionally. If they refused to change their ways, God’s anger might well break out against them again. A little over half a millennium later, in the wake of their rejection of Messiah, this is exactly what happened. Much of the nation remains scattered today.