August 15, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, there they were strangers. The land they left behind them was so desolate that no one desired to travel through it. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.” (Zechariah 7.14)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

How did they make the land “so desolate”? The simple answer is that they failed to listen to what God had told them through the prophets. In reflection, the point is that God did not make the land desolate. The people who did not listen to God made the land desolate. What God revealed to Zechariah is that He scattered the “desolators.” The “desolators” were desecraters of the Law of God. How did the “desolators” desecrate the Law of God? The took on the image of the Law by form and never took on the function of the Law to transform. Remember where this chapter started. It began with Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to inquire if they should continue to mourn and fast in the fifth month as they had for seventy years. Seventy years was the length of time that the exile in Babylon had existed. It would make sense that those “left behind” should mourn the loss of their loved ones, their leadership and the things of the Temple which they held dear. Those “things” represented for them the presence of God and thus the blessing of God for them, His people. Further, they not only fasted in the fifth month for seventy years but in the seventh month as well. They were “doubly” diligent to declare their grief and sorrow at their loss for what had been taken from them. Let’s consider the question just from this perspective without getting to the God reply. From which perspective were they approaching God? They mourned for what had happened to “them.” They lamented in sack cloth and ashes and fasted to show themselves as still faithful and worthy. They presented the form of faithfulness but did their practice meet the function of faithfulness. Another way of looking at this is “they looked faithful but were they really faithful.”

What was God’s reply? “When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted? And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?” It would seem logical and appropriate for those left behind to fast and grieve for what they had lost. They wore those opportunities (as with the fast of the fourth and tenth months) as badges of honor and letters of duty. But God exposed the condition of their intention to be not so honorable and dutiful. What started out as a worthy sign of grief and contrition had become, over seventy years, a function of self-service. They took on the “responsibility” of fasting as a matter of rote. They met for more of the purpose of meeting to commiserate than to commemorate. They used these fasts to self-soothe and medicate their lives without it truly being a time of reflection upon the situation. They had so practiced the opportunities that they had become tasks and burdens. It was this question that was presented to Zechariah and the priests in Jerusalem: “Will we have to keep doing these things even after the Temple is rebuilt and the exiles have returned home?” But God did not condemn the fasts nor did He address the question about fasting for the future. God spoke to the heart and intent of those who were fasting and mourning 2 and four times a year. He asked, “Who were you fasting for: for God or for yourselves?” Were they truly in mourning and in anticipation? Or were they now complacent and indulgent having surrendered to the reality that things will never be the same? In that conundrum had they surrendered to a futility and settled into a sense of entitlement? You know “Hey, we’re hear just as we have always been but it seems useless, so let’s throw a party…a pity party.” Except, where was the heart, mind and spirit turned toward God? Hadn’t they really failed to practice the true measure of fasting?

If you are having a difficult time grasping the frustration of God in that moment, then consider the seasons of “preparing to celebrate” which exist in the traditional Church year. There are three I would specifically offer for your consideration: Advent (leading up to the celebration of the birth of Jesus who is the Christ); Lent (leading up to the commemoration of the death of Jesus who is the Christ) and Communion (leading up to the anticipation of the return of Jesus who is the Christ.) In specific, we can look at Communion as a direct parallel to the question of fasting in the fourth and seventh months as presented by those from Bethel. Before doing that, however, consider how we some now prepare for Christmas (the remembrance of Jesus being born in Bethlehem) and for Easter (the remembrance of Jesus dying in Jerusalem.) Are we not convicted by what these two holy days of remembrance have become in the current climate and culture? Are we not convicted by what these days have become all in the name of “a holiday” instead of a “holy day”? It is like we use Christmas as an excuse to promote and supply one’s self needs and Easter as an opportunity to gather with family and feast. What should those days be more like if they are truly “holy” days? And what of the preceding seasons of preparation to get us in the right heart, mind and spirit to execute those “holy” days so that the world may know the truth and thus be set free? Or is that even a thought and consideration? What does the world and, in perhaps greater measure, the Church really think about in those seasons? What is the real message being communicated as “the gospel.”

And in all of that, by example, we ought to remember that God eschewed such practices previously because they had come to mean nothing at all but opportunities to be more human than divine. It was not in the right spirit such practices of worship were conducted. It was not in the right mind such practices were considered as to their meaning and purpose. And what had happened to the condition of their heart but to grow cold, hard and dead as a stone? So much so that we would hear in Ezekiel 36 the petition for the removal of such a heart to be replaced with a heart of flesh. Ah, flesh out this image with the scene at the Garden Tomb. Within the grave Jesus had been laid “stone cold dead.” His heart had ceased to function. It had been pierced and bled out. So, then, all his organs were dead and empty of any sign and presence of the spirit of life. He had surrendered all that was life for him into the care of others: His mother to John and John to His mother and His Spirit into the hands of God. At that moment, Jesus breathed His last for as the Spirit departed so, too, did the ruach– the “breath of God.” But, as the scene changes from the Garden Tomb where Jesus was laid across the span of three days (Passover, Sabbath and the first day of the week) to the Empty Tomb, what do we find? Things are not as they were. The “heart of stone” had been rolled away. The grave clothes were neatly folded and put in place to indicate a living function had been performed to show completion and the setting of things in order. What followed was the capturing of what had preceded His march to the grave which included betrayal, judgment, crucifixion and burial. What had preceded it? Communion. A transformed fast of remembering the past to a consecrate for the future. Didn’t Jesus say, “In remembering me, in remembrance of me, as often as you break bread do so in remembering me and I will not drink this cup again with you until I drink it new in the Kingdom yet to come?” He was directing them toward a certain future. Passover would never mean the same again for the believers in Christ! They should not wear sackcloth and ashes and spread blood over their door to protect them from the spirit of Death. Death was defeated. The fast would be a celebration of a commonality of all believers who received the gift of life through the fellowship of the breaking of bread, through the covenant of wine toasting the coming of the King and in remembering Him as He was, is and will forever be. We may not all like the word “institution” because it speaks more for some to be a form instead of a function. Yet, James the brother of Jesus wrote for the Church that “We are to be DOERS of the Word and not merely HEARERS.” (James 1.22) It would seem this had been the message of the prophets of old, Zechariah in their current day and for the Church in the days to come. But, failing that, the result and consequence was a desolate land due to a desecration of God’s command. Let those with eyes to see perceive and ears to hear listen!

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit in order that others be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind so we would know we are Your people and You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.