Around two years after Zechariah received the last of his visions, the word of the Lord came to him on the fourth day or ninth month of Kislev, Zechariah 7:1, which is around November or December time.
It’s interesting to note that the two men, Sharezer and Regem-Melek, have now got Babylonian names, Zechariah 7:2. The name Sharezer means ‘protect the king’, and the name Regem-Melek means ‘king’s friend’. Jews usually had Jewish names, and so, this tells us how much influence the Babylonians had on God’s people during their captivity.
Here we see the arrival in Jerusalem of a group who represented the exiles asking whether they should mourn and fast in the fifth month, Zechariah 7:3. They obviously continued to fast whilst in captivity, but since the temple was in the process of being rebuilt, they ask if they should just stop fasting, Zechariah 7:3.
They mourned when Jerusalem was captured, Jeremiah 52:6-30, and they fasted at the burning of Jerusalem and the destruction of Solomon’s temple, 2 Kings 25:2-10.
They fasted at the assassination of Gedaliah and the massacre of eighty men, Jeremiah 4:1-10, and they fasted at the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar’s siege against Jerusalem, 2 Kings 25:1.
We know that Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. However, it appears that the Jews, whilst in captivity, began fasting in the fifth month, Zechariah 7:3, just before Jerusalem and the temple were totally destroyed, 2 Kings 25:8-9.
Zechariah was asked by God to ask those who asked the question about fasting, why did they fast in the first place? Zechariah 7:4-6. The reason they actually fasted in the first place was because of the murder of Gedaliah, who was appointed governor over Palestine by Nebuchadnezzar, 2 Kings 25:25 / Jeremiah 41:1-10.
The fasts that took place during the fifth and seventh months were fasts that were instituted by the people, not God. The Law of Moses only commanded one fast day, on the Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16:29-34.
In other words, they weren’t fasting because of a lack of faithfulness to God; their fasting had nothing to do with repentance. They ignored God’s words to repent, which He spoke through the earlier prophets, Zechariah 7:7 / 1 Samuel 1:1 / 1 Kings 14:2 / 1 Kings 14:4 / 1 Kings 16:7. They fasted over things that they had lost.
Henry, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Nothing is so hard, so unmalleable, so inflexible, as the heart of a presumptuous sinner and those whose hearts are hard may thank themselves, they are of their own hardening, and it is just with God to give them over to a reprobate sense, to the hardness and impenitence of their own hearts.’
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘What Israel needed was not divine wisdom regarding fasts that God had not ordained, but close attention to the Word of God as spoken through the prophets. It is of interest here that Zechariah, by these words, reiterated the divine sanction of all that those prophets had said. It was the failure of Israel to heed God’s word and their rebellious apostasy from him that had resulted in the punishments and disasters that had befallen them. The cure, hear the word of the Lord!’
The point is simply this: they should have started fasting while Jerusalem was still standing in order to turn to God.
Zechariah now reminds those who had enquired about fasting about their spiritual condition and the attitude of those who lived before the captivity, Zechariah 7:8. God doesn’t want them to be disobedient as their fathers were.
Zechariah rebukes God’s people and their fathers for being disobedient to God, and he now describes the kind of obedience God wanted, beginning with the decent and loving treatment of their neighbours.
Before the Jews went into exile, God had demanded that they practise justice, mercy and compassion, Zechariah 7:9 / Isaiah 1:16-17 / Amos 5:14 / Amos 5:24 / Hosea 6:6.
Here, God reminds them of the wicked social oppression of widows, orphans and the poor, Zechariah 7:10 / Isaiah 1:16-17 / Amos 5:14 / Amos 5:24 / Micah 3:1-3 / Micah 6:8.
They were more concerned about themselves, Zechariah 7:11. They didn’t care about anyone else as long as they lived in luxury; they didn’t care what any of God’s prophets were saying, Zechariah 7:12; they ignored all the rebukes.
Their hearts were as hard as flint, Zechariah 7:12. Zechariah knew that the Spirit of God genuinely inspired his words and the words of other prophets. They totally ‘turned their backs’ on God’s prophets, despite their preaching the truth, Acts 7:51.
Dean, in his commentary, provides the following list of the former prophets.
‘Samuel, 1 Samuel 1:1, Ahijah of Shilo, 1 Kings 14:2 / 1 Kings 14:4, Jehu, son of Hanani, 1 Kings 16:7, Elijah, and Elisha, Hosea, and Jonah, Iddo, Shemaiah, Hanani, and Huldah.’
Since they refused to listen to God, God would refuse to listen to them and answer their prayers, Zechariah 7:13. As a result of this, God unleashed His judgments upon them like a whirlwind, Zechariah 7:14.
He scattered them among the nations in order that they be disciplined, Zechariah 7:14. With the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities, He made the land of Palestine desolate of Israelites, Zechariah 7:14.