What Can I Do?
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?”
Zechariah 7:1–3
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What Can I Do?
Two years had elapsed since the beginning of Zechariah’s ministry and his series of visions. By this time, the Israelite presence in Jerusalem had been strengthened, the temple was within two years of completion, and the people were settling into a life of some ease and routine. Years earlier, King Jeroboam I had set up a golden calf in Bethel for citizens of the Northern Kingdom to worship, hoping to keep them from going to Jerusalem. Bethel had been occupied during the Babylonian exile, and now its people sent delegates to Jerusalem to inquire whether they should continue to observe special days of fasting, something they had done for nearly 70 years. Often we come to the Lord in this way. Thinking that we need to do something to earn God’s favor. Maybe we should conform once again to the Old Testament Laws, or maybe we should invent new ones, either way we want to do something. Yet in Christ Jesus, God has accomplished everything we could never have done. He atoned for our sins, His sacrifice was sufficient to appease the wrath of our Father, His resurrection defeated sin, death, and the devil. So now we are freed to love God and to love our neighbor for Christ Jesus has accomplished all for us.
Zechariah 7:1–3
+
What Can I Do?
Two years had elapsed since the beginning of Zechariah’s ministry and his series of visions. By this time, the Israelite presence in Jerusalem had been strengthened, the temple was within two years of completion, and the people were settling into a life of some ease and routine. Years earlier, King Jeroboam I had set up a golden calf in Bethel for citizens of the Northern Kingdom to worship, hoping to keep them from going to Jerusalem. Bethel had been occupied during the Babylonian exile, and now its people sent delegates to Jerusalem to inquire whether they should continue to observe special days of fasting, something they had done for nearly 70 years. Often we come to the Lord in this way. Thinking that we need to do something to earn God’s favor. Maybe we should conform once again to the Old Testament Laws, or maybe we should invent new ones, either way we want to do something. Yet in Christ Jesus, God has accomplished everything we could never have done. He atoned for our sins, His sacrifice was sufficient to appease the wrath of our Father, His resurrection defeated sin, death, and the devil. So now we are freed to love God and to love our neighbor for Christ Jesus has accomplished all for us.
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