SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/15/2016 11:20 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Inquiry
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Zechariah 7:1-3
Message of the verses: “1 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. 2 Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and
their men to seek the favor of the LORD, 3 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?"”
As we
closed out the sixth chapter of Zechariah we closed out the night visions that
Zechariah had got from the Lord and not we see a date given in 7:1 which is the
year 518 BC. John MacArthur points out
that most scholars believe that the temple is about half way done, and so it
would seem like things were going well with the remnant that has returned to
Jerusalem. However as chapter seven
begins two years after chapter six is finished we see that the town of Bethel
which is about four miles North of Jerusalem sends two men to give an inquiry
to the prophet Zechariah. Both of these
men have Babylonian names so they must have been born in captivity. The question they have is whether or not they
should keep the fast in the fifth month.
We spoke about this earlier but there is only one fast required by the
Law of Moses and that is on the Day of Atonement, so that helps us understand
the reason why they were asking this question, as it has become a tradition,
not from the Law. The people from Bethel
had been keeping this fast each year along with others and they were probably
tired of doing so and that is why the question is asked. We can see that this fast had empty meanings
by the way verse three ends “as I have done these many years.” Tradition, just tradition.
Once again we will look at the answer from verse four in our
next SD.
7/15/2016 11:44 PM
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