True Love
When I was reading about fasting, I came across this passage in Zechariah 7 that got me thinking and sent me through the Old Testament looking at additional texts from various prophets.
At the beginning of Zechariah 7, we are reminded that Darius is king and has been for four years. This happens to be about halfway through the rebuilding of the temple after the Israelites had been released from their exile in Babylon. Some men were sent from Bethel to find out if they should continue to fast and mourn as they had been doing the past 70 years and the Lord speaks to these men through Zechariah.
Zechariah 7:5-7
“Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted? When you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves? Are not these the words which the Lord proclaimed by the former prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous along with its cities around it, and the Negev and the foothills were inhabited.’”
It sounds to me like the question the Lord is asking them is - When you did all these things did you actually do them for me, or did you do them for your own gain?
Let’s take a minute to look at some of the other prophets and how the Lord spoke through them along these same lines.
Isaiah 1:11-13
“What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” Says the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle; and I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. When you come to appear before Me, who requires of you this trampling of My courts? Bring your worthless offering no longer, incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies - I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.”
Isaiah actually goes on. We see that the people of God have been going through the motions of keeping rituals, but their hearts have been far from God.
Jeremiah 7:8-11
“Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known, then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’ - that you may do all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” declares the Lord.
God is reminding his people that they cannot live double lives. Encountering God should invite true transformation.
Jeremiah 7:22-23
For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.’
God has called his people to obey his voice. Time and again, throughout scripture, we see the message that sacrifice is not more important than obedience.
Hosea 6:6
For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
God wants his people to worship him and him alone. He wants them to know who he is even more than he wants them to bring offerings before him. He wants their lives to be a reflection of him. He wants his heart to be evident in his people. He does not want his people to look like everyone else, he wants them to be different.
If we look back to these passages in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah we can see that there is more to the story. God is inviting his people to change - to stop living selfish lives and rather, to live lives defined by God’s love for his people.
Isaiah 1:17
Learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.
Jeremiah 7:5-7
For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own ruin, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.
Zechariah 7:9-10
“Thus has the Lord of hosts said, ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’
In the initial verses we read, God was saying stop giving me sacrifices that mean nothing. You are living lives that look nothing like me. He stated clearly that showing up and putting on a show is not what he was after.
God has always been concerned about his people. Always. We have been invited into the story to obey his voice and to bear his image in really practical and tangible ways. We are expected to care for the orphan and the widow, to love the stranger, to provide for the poor, to open our doors to the foreigner, and to seek justice for the oppressed.
These are not small expectations. You can see how these actions would make a group of people stand out from those around them.
Jesus in his final days with his disciples reiterates this call to love deeply.
John 13:34-35
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
The theme of loving one another is echoed through scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Jesus seems to be saying that this love that he has shown us is sacrificial love, and he is asking us to now love one another in such a way that those that know us would also deeply encounter the sacrificial love of Jesus.
If we fast regularly but do not love the widow,
If we pray regularly but do not love the orphan,
If we read our Bible regularly but do not love the oppressed,
If we attend Church regularly but do not love our neighbor,
Then, as Paul would say, we are simply a noisy gong.
~ Melissa