SHOW MERCY AND COMPASSION
Zechariah 7:1-14
“This is what the LORD Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’ (9-10)
chapter 7
1. 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.
2. The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the LORD
3. by asking the priests of the house of the LORD Almighty and the prophets, "Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?"
4. Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me:
5. "Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ’When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?
6. And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?
7. Are these not the words the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?’"
8. And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah:
9. "This is what the LORD Almighty said: ’Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.
10. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’
11. "But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears.
12. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.
13. "’When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the LORD Almighty.
14. ’I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land they left behind them was so desolate that no one traveled through it. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.’"
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
1. About two years after Zechariah received his first vision from the LORD (1:1, 7:1), some people asked the priests and prophets whether they should mourn and fast as they did in the past. The people thought that fasting and mourning would please God and bring God’s blessing.
2. Mourning and fasting can be the outward behavior of healthy repentance. But the LORD Almighty saw through this request. Through Zechariah, the LORD rhetorically asked the Israelites if their fasting, when in exile, was truly for God. It had not been. Earlier prophets, like Micah (Mic 6:6-8) and Amos (3:4-5; 5:10-12), proclaimed that the LORD did not want empty religious acts but true repentance that is demonstrated in how people treated others. God gave Zechariah the same message – to administer justice, mercy, and compassion. The heart of God’s law is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Does your repentance result in justice, mercy, and compassion toward those around you?
3. The Israelites ignored the prophets of the past. Because they did not listen to God when he called them, God did not listen to them when they called on him. God was angry and sent them into exile. True repentance results in seeking and loving God and obeying his word.
Prayer: Father, make my repentance pleasing to you with fruit that results from obeying your word.
One Word: Justice, mercy, and compassion