Trivial Pursuits

II Four Explanatory Messages

A The Requirement Text: 7:1-3

Title: Trivial Pursuits

Introduction

I was engaged in evangelism on a street in downtown Philadelphia when I was accosted by a man who inquired as to whether I had spoken in tongues. When he heard me say, “No,” he wondered why I was out there trying to introduce people to Jesus when, in his opinion, I was not saved myself because I had not had the evidence of the Holy Spirit by speaking in tongues. Such was, and is. life among those who profess faith. This man and those like him had isolated one small and comparatively trivial thing and made it a test of the authenticity of faith. History is littered with the corpses of such ideas. Sinful men seem to be drawn to the idea of measuring others by their performance in peripheral matters. Modern people have a different set of criteria but the people of Zechariah’s day had criteria too. And they were just as focused on externals and appearances. Remember the Pharisee who stood on the street corner and prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” The children of Israel had been warned about this centuries before by the Lord, speaking through Isaiah the prophet. The Lord’s indictment of Israel is found in Isaiah 1:10-15, Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah! “The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me?” says the Lord. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations —I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood! And in Isaiah 58:5-7 God speaks specifically about fasting, Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter —
when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Hollow ritualistic performances are something God despises. Yet in our text, immediately after God has told them they they need to obey, where is their attention? On another formal conventional procedure. In the face of God’s clear mandate, they come up with a question. We shall examine the implications of this question under three heads, who asked, where they asked, and what they asked.

I Who

The obvious answer would be the people asked, but it is more complex than that as we read in verses 1 and 2, In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev. The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech, together with their men to entreat the Lord. These were not people with a great pedigree. Bethel was the place in the north where Jereboam set up a false center of worship in opposition to Jerusalem. The names of their delegates also imply their lack of devotion to the true God. Sherezer is an Assyrian name meaning, “Prefect or protector of the king,” and Regem-melech means, “The king’s official or friend.” These names intimate the semi-heathen character of the inquirers since they retained their Assyrian names after their return. The first name, Sherezer, was actually the name of a son of Sennacherib the Assyrian king who had invaded Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah and the name Regem-Melech belonged to one of the chief princes of Babylon. The translation of the Hebrew in the words “entreat the Lord” is better than some translations that simply say “pray,” but actually the Hebrew implies flattery. This in turn implies that they sent to Jahweh’s house as their forefathers sent to old Beth-el, not in the spirit of true obedience. They are courting God’s favor for their city by their seemingly pious request.

II Where

Again, according to the first part of verse 3 they came up to Jerusalem to entreat, by asking the priests of the house of the Lord Almighty and the prophets their question. It was the task of the priests to interpret the law so this was the right place to come but not with their superfluous question. As noted, Bethel was the place where Jereboam set up a golden calf for the worship of Israel. In those days Amos prophesied against Jereboam and the false worship and was told by the false priest, Amaziah, in Amos 7:13, Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom. It was not a true sanctuary of the Lord. Now as they send delegates up to Jerusalem their motives are suspect. It is to their credit that they came to the right place to inquire of the priests and prophets, but the fact that they came Jerusalem to ask a question about fasting throws doubt on their understanding. The question was not about the law at all, but about a practice that had been adopted that was not in the law of God. It is a little like the celebration of Christmas; some do and some don’t. The elders might decide that we should have special services and events at the Christmas season to honor the incarnation and birth of Jesus. However, no one is bound by that to celebrate the holiday because God has not commanded it. Many fasts had been initiated during the suffering of the Jews, and they were not wrong. Fasts could be appointed by religious leaders at any appropriate time, But to construe this as vital to their spiritual life is a little suspect. They seem a bit too much like the Pharisee that was proud of his fasting twice a week. It is like a pilgrimage which draws attention to their piety. They are in Jerusalem I believe to ingratiate themselves with God with an account of their past humiliation. It is too much like Muslims fasting in Ramadan.

III What

Now we get to the question of what they asked in verse 3, “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?” There were four extraordinary fasts instituted and observed during the Captivity. They fasted over the capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in the fourth month. They fasted because of the burning of the temple and city in the fifth month. They fasted in the seventh month to remember the Murder of Gedaliah a governor in Judah who was assassinated by a neighboring Ammonite king. Lastly, they fasted in consequence of the commencement of Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem in the tenth month. I have called this a superfluous question. A significant amount of time had passed and the building of the temple was well underway. Why would sensible people continue to mourn over the lost temple? Some think this question was sincere. but I for one, do not. They were tired of this self-imposed fast, not having observed it in the spirit of true religion. Matthew Henry comments, “Though the question looked plausible enough, those who proposed it were not conscientious in it, for they were more concerned about the ceremony than about the substance; they seemed to boast of their fasting, and to upbraid God Almighty with it, that he had not sooner returned in mercy to them; “for we have done it these so many years.” As those, voicing their discontent in Isaiah 58:3, said, ‘Wherefore have we fasted, and thou seest not?’ And some think that unbelief, and distrust of the promises of God, were at the bottom of their enquiry; for, if they had given them the credit that was due to them, they needed not to doubt but that their fasts ought to be laid aside, now that the occasion of them was over.” Their hypocrisy appears because they showed more concern about a ceremony of human institution, which was not improper in itself, than about moral obedience. If, too, they had trusted God’s promise as to the restoration of Church and State, the fast would have now given place to joy, for which there was more cause than for grief. Their fasting would have turned to feasting. We have an old saying, “It’s either feast or famine,” meaning last week I had no work, and now I am too busy! This was obviously a time for the feast. This becomes clear in God’s answer through the prophet in the ensuing verses.