“This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘“Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.”
– Zechariah 7:9
Hi James and Ellen,
Has your dad and/or ma ever intentionally prayed and fasted? Do you think that guys and gals should regularly set a time – such as a day, to pray and fast? On December 7, 518 B.C. – which would have been the fourth day in the month of Kislev – which was in 518 B.C. the ninth month in the Jew ecclesiastical calendar year, God gave a word to Zechariah – who was one of His prophet spokesmen to His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah, as the answer to a query that Sharezer and Regem-Melech made to Zechariah on behalf of guys and gals who were living in the city of Bethel and to the prophets and priests who were assigned to the house of the Lord that was located in the city of Bethel. Zechariah scribed what he was told by God – as God the Spirit, in Zechariah 7 in his Zechariah Book. The inquiry that Sharezer and Regem-Melech relayed to the prophets – including Zechariah, and the priests who had duties to do in the house of the Lord that was located in the city of Bethel was whether or not that they were to continue to mourn and fast in the months of Ab and Tishri– with Ab and Tishri being in the Jew ecclesiastical calendar year the fifth and the seventh month in 518 B.C. The guys and gals who were living in the city of Bethel had been praying and fasting in the fifth and seventh months of the Jew ecclesiastical calendar year for 68 years. The guys and gals who were living in the city of Bethal began praying and fasting in 586 B.C. when God had His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem taken by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army to Babylonia as exiles. A possible initial focus by the guys and gals who were living in the city of Bethel for explicitly praying to God and for fasting for God’s sake was for the expedited return of God’s exiled specially chosen guys and gals back to the land that He gave them to always to have to live in as their very own land. God’s rhetorical response through Zechariah was to ask the guys and gals who were living in the city of Bethel why they mourned and fasted for all those years. God knew that these guys and gals who were living in the city of Bethel had not mourned and fasted for His sake; that they had mourned and fasted for their own self-centered sake. What the guys and gals who were God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Bethel got from God was a very strong rebuke for using fasting in a selfish and insincere way to try to get Him to do what they wanted their way and to . . . what do you think that God wants you to do for Him?
Do you think that God desires more from you by expecting that you will pray/talk more to/with Him and that you will fast for His sake or that you will do faithful covenant living such as always doing what you know is right to do, always showing love and care, always finding a way to help a guy, gal and kid who is caught in a difficult life situation and always keeping an evil stronghold at bay from doing heart rotting? Verse 9 has God’s answer, ““This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘“Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.” When God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Bethel refused to accept the words that God told Zechariah to pass on to them as to how to live their lives with others by stubbornly turning their backs on Zechariah and stopping up their ears, their hearts became as hard as flint. Their hardened hearts made God super angry. God told Zechariah that because His specially chosen guys and gals had not listened to Him when He told them to . . . He was not going to listen to them now when they wanted Him to listen to them. Because God’s specially chosen guys and gals wanted God to do whatever their way, God – using a ‘whirlwind’, scattered His specially chosen guys and gals to become strangers in other nations leaving the ‘pleasant’ land that He gave to them to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . completely desolate. What do you think that God wants you to do for Him?
Your grandpaa knows that God wants him to always put other guys, gals and kids before his own desires and dreams. Your grandpaa knows that God wants him to pray/talk to/with Him and to fast for His sake. Your grandpaa believes that God is not pleased with a guy or gal who does public praying and fasting. During the time when your grandmaa and grandpaa were the administrators of the rural resident leadership and Bible education training center in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez, Bolivia, your grandpaa twice scheduled a prayer and fast time. Your grandpaa paired off using lots the guys who were students at the Centro de Capacitación (Center of Learning) and their wives to pray together for an hour over a growing list of prayer requests. Even though this was a very public time of continuous praying and fasting – the first time for 24 hours and the second time for 36 hours, the times were very meaningful times for everyone. Your grandmaa and grandpaa participated in both times of praying and fasting. Your grandpaa believes that talking with and listening to God – and fasting for God’s sake, as being givens for guys and gals to do who are Christ-followers – that a guy or gal who is Christ-follower will find God leading him or her to pray/talk to/with Him and to fast. Your grandpaa confesses that he does not pray and fast as God expects him to do. Your grandpaa is grateful that God uses Him for His sake. What do you think that God wants you to do for Him?
Zechariah 7 (1125)