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. Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men to entreat the favor of the Lord, saying to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and the prophets, “Should I weep and abstain in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”
Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me: “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? Were not these the words that the Lord proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, with her cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?”
And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”
Zechariah 7:1-10 (ESV)
Well, here we are. It’s been almost two years since Zechariah’s busy night with 8 visions. We can safely assume the work has continued. And now the people are curious: should they continue to fast and mourn over Jerusalem’s destruction as they had been the past nearly 70 years?
Some of the Hebrew is interesting in verses 3 & 5: The people asked, “Should I weep and abstain…” and God answered, “When you fasted and mourned…”
In Hebrew, their question was if they should continue to consecrate themselves. And God answered they had been abstaining from food.
In Hebrew, their question was whether they should keep weeping. And God answered they had wailed.
If we are using one set of words to describe our practices and God uses a different set, we should take note of His words.
And, as always, He is interested in our hearts:
Execute true justice (mishpat)
Show kindness (hesed) and mercy.
Do not oppress the poor, the immigrant, the orphan, or the widow.
Or devise evil in your hearts toward one another.
This Mishpat and Hesed are not new concepts. But I love how applicable they are to everything in our lives.
In particular how kindness and mercy can temper our desire for justice. Especially toward one another.
In our diversity-filled, opinion-differing, non-uniform, loving unity, we show the world Who He is. Any time something goes down we consider to be unfair, we really can trust Him to handle it. He is the only one who knows every detail and can bring about true justice. And often that justice for us as His kids looks like repentance for everyone involved.
In our desire to represent Him and His kindness-tempered justice, we will all fall short.
But we can rest knowing the Ultimate Just Judge never sleeps.