Zechariah Chapter 7
Showing all 14 verses for Zechariah Chapter 7.
The People's Bible is written by people, for the people. Each verse below shows:
"And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chisleu; "
"In the fourth year of King Darius's reign, on the fourth day of the ninth month (called Chisleu), the Lord's message came to Zechariah."
I meet you in specific moments of your actual life, not in some vague spiritual fog. Pay attention to what's happening around you right now - that's often exactly where I have something to say.
"When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men, to pray before the LORD, "
"The people had sent a delegation - Sherezer, Regemmelech, and their men - to the temple to pray and to ask a question of the Lord."
It's good to actually ask, sincerely and directly, when you're unsure what the right thing to do is - rather than just guessing or defaulting to habit. I welcome honest questions, even about long-held customs.
"And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years? "
"They ask the priests and prophets: should we keep observing the mourning fast in the fifth month, as we've done for so many years now?"
It's healthy to periodically ask whether a habit or ritual you've kept out of routine still serves its real purpose, or whether circumstances have changed and it's time to reconsider. I don't want empty repetition from you - I want honesty about where you actually are.
"Then came the word of the LORD of hosts unto me, saying, "
"Then the Lord's message came to Zechariah."
When you bring me an honest question, I answer - maybe not instantly or in the way you expect, but a genuine question asked sincerely gets heard. Keep asking rather than assuming silence means no answer is coming.
"Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? "
"Tell all the people and the priests: during those seventy years of fasting and mourning in the fifth and seventh months, were you really fasting for me at all?"
I care far more about why you do something than the fact that you do it. Check your own motives honestly - are your habits genuinely turned towards what matters, or just performed out of routine?
"And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves? "
"And when you ate and drank at other times, wasn't that also just for yourselves?"
Even the ordinary, everyday things you do - eating, resting, celebrating - can either be lived selfishly or lived with real awareness of me and of others. It's not the activity itself that matters most, but whether your heart is turned outward or only inward.
"Should ye not hear the words which the LORD hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain? "
"Shouldn't you instead listen to what the Lord already declared through the earlier prophets, back when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were still thriving?"
Sometimes what you need to hear isn't a new message but a return to wisdom you already know and have set aside. Before looking for something new, check whether you've truly lived out what you already understand.
"And the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah, saying, "
"The Lord's message came to Zechariah."
I keep returning to speak with you, patiently, until the message actually gets through. Don't assume one missed lesson means the conversation is over.
"Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother: "
"This is what the Lord says: judge fairly, and show mercy and compassion to one another."
I'm not impressed by rituals performed without real fairness and kindness behind them. If you want to honour me, start with how you treat the people right in front of you - be fair, and be kind, especially when it costs you something.
"And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart. "
"Don't oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, or the poor - and don't plot harm against each other even in your thoughts."
How you treat the people with the least power to demand fair treatment from you tells the truth about your character. And I care about your inner thoughts too, not just your outward behaviour - real change starts in the heart.
"But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. "
"But their ancestors refused to listen - they turned their shoulder away stubbornly and covered their ears so they wouldn't hear."
There's a real difference between not knowing better and knowingly turning away from what you do know. Be honest with yourself about which one you're actually doing when you avoid something you sense is right.
"Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts. "
"They hardened their hearts like the toughest stone, refusing to hear the law and the words the Lord had sent by his spirit through the earlier prophets - and because of that, great anger came from the Lord."
A hardened heart doesn't stay neutral - left unchecked, it leads somewhere painful, and that pain is a consequence, not random punishment. I'd rather soften your heart now, gently, than let it harden into something that eventually breaks under its own weight.
"Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts: "
"So this is what happened: just as God called out and they wouldn't listen, later when they called out, he wouldn't listen either."
Relationships, including your relationship with me, aren't one-directional - how you respond to what I say shapes what happens later. I always want to hear you, but don't wait until crisis forces you to call out; stay in conversation with me now.
"But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate. "
"So God scattered them like a whirlwind among nations they had never known, and the once-pleasant land was left desolate behind them, with no one passing through or returning."
The hardships you experience are sometimes tangled up with choices made along the way, by you or by others before you - understanding that isn't about blame, but about learning what actually needs to change. I want to help you break cycles, not just endure their consequences forever.