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7:1–8:23 From Fasts to Feasts. This section mentions fasts that commemorate the destruction of Jerusalem, which will be transformed into feasts celebrating its renewal. The renewal gives the people another chance to exhibit a society of justice and love, and to be the means by which light comes to all the world.
Zech. 7:1–14 Like the prophets before him, Zechariah emphasizes that religious observance without obedience and justice is empty.
Zech. 7:1 The ninth month of the fourth year of King Darius is December 518 b.c., two years after Zechariah’s earlier prophecies. The temple work has not yet been completed.
Zech. 7:2–3 The weeping and fasting described here were rituals intended to show repentance in the hope of gaining help from the Lord (see 2 Sam. 12:21–22). Now that the temple was being rebuilt, it was natural to question whether this ritual was still needed. The fifth month was the month in which Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the Jerusalem temple nearly 70 years earlier.
Zech. 7:7 The South is the area to the south of Jerusalem, around Beersheba. The lowland is to the west of Jerusalem. Though the original question reflected a ritual concern, the Lord’s response asks a deeper question: “When you fasted and mourned, was it really out of a concern over the loss of my favor?” If they have simply been fasting for selfish reasons, then they have not learned the lesson that the temple’s destruction was intended to teach. Such fasting was a waste of time.
Zech. 7:9–10 The test of true repentance is a life of obedience to God. Obedience includes giving true judgments that show kindness and mercy to the widow and fatherless, the sojourner and the poor.
Zech. 7:12 The law and the words of the former prophets were the two means God used to communicate his will to his people. Yet earlier generations “refused to pay attention” (v. 11), thus causing his anger (1:2).
Zech. 7:14 The Lord’s judgment came upon his people like a whirlwind. It scattered them among nations that they had not known and made them as vulnerable as the people they had oppressed.
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