Zechariah 7
Soften your Heart!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, October 15.
Zechariah 7 & 8 focus on the prophet’s response to a question posed by a delegation from Bethel who traveled to seek the Lord’s favor in 518 BC. They asked the priests and prophets of Jerusalem, “Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain, as I have done these many years?” (Zechariah 7:1-3). They were referring to the Ninth of Av, the fast day commemorating the anniversary of the temple’s destruction. Their question revealed that their concern was with external religious practices. Are we doing it right?
The Lord’s first of four responses asked them to reflect upon their heart motives throughout the seventy years of Babylonian exile, “Was it actually for Me that you fasted?” (Zechariah 7:5-7). In other words, what is the heart of your worship – yourself or God? After all these years of reflecting upon the disaster, have you returned to Me in your heart? The prophet continued with this theme in his second response in Zechariah 7:11-12, “But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing. They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts.” The prophet looked backwards on purpose; God was warning the postexilic generation to heed His commands and to seek Him, not with external religion, but with a wholehearted commitment to worship. God has always sought after His people’s heart loyalties, and He seeks after yours today (Matthew 22:37-40).
Seize the moment and soften your heart to the Lord – “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). Is your heart right with God?
God bless you!
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