SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/5/2016 10:37 PM
My Worship Time
Focus: The Request
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?’”
The verses
that we are looking at this evening are under the first main point from Dr.
Wiersbe’s commentary on Zechariah which he entitles “Problems concerning
tradition.” This first main section covers
the entire fourteen verses from the seventh chapter and there are three
sub-sections in it which we will be looking at beginning tonight and then into
our next Spiritual Diaries.
As we begin
to look at the introduction to this first main section the topic is about
tradition, something that this seventh chapter is all about. Tradition can be a good thing, something that
can help tie generations together and it can also keep society moving in a
united way. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Whether
the traditions involve the way we eat and dress, how we treat our parents and
family, the way we move from childhood into maturity, or the way we choose a
job or a mate, tradition helps to stabilize things and guide us in making
acceptable choices. But sometimes
tradition creates problems, especially when the times change radically and
people don’t want to change with the times.”
Now as we have gone over some different books in the NT, especially Mark
and now John we see that the Pharisees had a great deal of things that they did
that were traditions, and we also saw that Jesus did not speak kindly about
their traditions because they went against the written word of God.
According
to Dr. Wiersbe there is a two year span of time between the time that Joshua
was crowned and the rebuilding of the temple that the events of chapter seven
takes place. The temple was not
completed as of this time, but would be in three more ears along with being
dedicated. We have to believe that
although there were no written messages from Zechariah during this time period that
he would still be speaking to the people during that time.
From our
study of the OT book of Leviticus we found that there was only one national
fast day which was on the annual Day of Atonement as seen in Leviticus
23:16-32, but as we come into this eight chapter of Zechariah some new feasts
were added. “Thus saith the LORD of
hosts; The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of
the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and
gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love the truth and peace (Zech. 8:19).” These “extra” feast days had to do with when
Babylon had begin to defeat the people of Jerusalem. The feast in the 10th month was
about when Babylon had begun the siege of the city, and then the one in the
fourth month spoke of when walls had been broken through, Next one in the fifth
month when the temple was burned, lastly the seventh month when the Jewish
governor Gedaliah had been assassinated (Jer. 41).”
The
question of the hour was should these new feast days continue since the temple
was nearing competition? We will be
looking at answers for this question as we move on in this study of the seventh
chapter of Zechariah.
7/5/2016 11:02 PM
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