Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20090531.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Zechariah: Paving The Path Toward A Blessed Future
Part III: Instructing God's People About Man-Authored Rituals, Zechariah 7:1-8:23
A. God's Rebuke For Self-Centered Rituals Versus God-Centered Obedience
(Zechariah 7:1-3, 4-7)
  1. Introduction
    1. Down through history, be it in the Old Testament or the New, and even into the history of the Church, there has been a tendency for the true worship of God in His people to deteriorate into dead ritualism!
    2. In Zechariah 7:1-7 NIV, this whole issue arose involving God, His prophet Zechariah and the returned Jewish exiles, and this passages records the first of four messages on this matter.
    3. We study that first message in the series in Zechariah 7:1-7 for application to our era as follows:
  2. God's Rebuke For Self-Centered Rituals Versus God-Centered Obedience, Zechariah 7:1-3, 4-7.
    1. When the delegation of Jews arrived from Bethel, a former cultic center in formerly apostate Israel, to ask the temple priests if they should keep observing the man-authored fast of the fifth month that recalled the fall of Jerusalem, God had Zechariah give the first of a series of four messages on the matter, Zech. 7:1-4.
    2. Showing the importance of the subject, God had Zechariah address all of the people of Israel, Zech. 7:5a.
    3. The first message was a twofold rebuke for the Israel's self-centeredness and disobedience in her rituals:
      1. First, God rebuked Israel for having initiated two fasts that were self-centered rituals, Zechariah 7:5b:
        1. The first man-authored fast held in the fifth month questioned by the men of Bethel commemorated the burning of the city of Jerusalem and the temple in Nebuchadnezzar's invasion, 2 Kings 25:8-10.
        2. There was a second man-authored fast held in the seventh month commemorating the assassination of Gedaliah, governor of Judah set up by Babylon after Jerusalem's fall that occurred in a time of civil strife among the survivors of the Babylonian invasion, Ibid.; Jeremiah 41:2-3. After this event, the remnant of the Jewish armies that were still in the land faithlessly left Israel for Egypt, Jeremiah 42-43, effectively marking the end of any Jewish ruling entity in the land after the fall of Jerusalem.
        3. Accordingly, God spoke of both of these fasts (Zech. 7:5) that recalled the trouble these people had faced, and rebuked such a focus on their self-centered pain versus a focus on God's interests, 7:5!
      2. Second, God rebuked Israel for having finished these two fasts with eating and drinking that only satiated their self-centered appetites opposite focusing on the Lord's interests, Zechariah 7:6.
      3. Then, the Lord explained that the tragedies recalled by these fasts would not have occurred had the people obeyed God's Word through the pre-exilic prophets! Thus, Zechariah's rebuke called Israel to obey God opposite the disobedience of their fathers that had led to these former tragedies, Zech. 7:7:
        1. Zechariah announced God's call for Israel to heed the words that the Lord had cried by the pre-exilic prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns had been inhabited and prosperous, Zech. 7:7a.
        2. That message had been one of repenting from departing from worshiping God through burning incense in dead ritualism to other gods, and of worshiping the idols they had formed with their own hands in vain and dead ritualism borrowed from the Gentile nations around them, cf. Jeremiah 1:16!
        3. This message would have special force for the delegation from Bethel, a past center of idol worship!
    4. In other words, idolatrous dead ritualism had been the cause of the Babylonian invasion that had led to the tragic events behind the man-authored, ritualistic fasts! Thus, God rebuked Israel for being stuck in a downward spiral of hopeless, dead ritualism that had replaced simple obedience to His Word!
Lesson: Regarding Israel's man-authored ritualistic fasts commemorating the tragedies faced in God's judgment for having turned to pagan ritualism, God REBUKED Israel for (1) self-centered rituals that (2) failed to direct them toward obeying and worshiping Him in spirit and in truth, cf. John 4:23-24.

Application: (1) May we focus on OBEYING SCRIPTURE versus REACTING to TROUBLES with SELF-CENTERED, MAN-AUTHORED RITUALS that vainly seek to PLACATE our PAIN! Then we can avoid God's painful discipline from the start! (2) If we face relentless trials, may we check God's Word to see if He is DISCIPLINING us THROUGH the TRIALS to get us to OBEY Him in spirit and in truth OPPOSITE our resorting to DEAD RITUALISM just to avoid the PAIN of His discipline!