I remember a time when Christians wanted to “be.” Just be. “Being” was juxtaposed to “doing.” Then people began to need to “be” and not “do.” We were planning and implementing strategies to plant churches among various peoples in Southern Europe. One missionary wrote me saying, “Right now, I just need to be and not do.” I understand what my colleague was saying. The people were unresponsive, the area was dynamic, and life was extremely stressful. This dichotomy between being and doing defies the whole idea of what it means to be a being. Beings do things. My mother used to ask me, “What are you doing?” I would answer, “Nothing.” As beings, we have to do nothing.
Questions of religious practice plague us. What does it mean to live the Christian life in this world? We are prone to want some kind of device against which we can measure our lives to determine if we measure up. On the scale of Christian existence, people range from extreme legalists to extreme libertines. One the one hand, the Christian life is defined by a traditional set of “dos and don’ts.” One the other hand, being a Christian is about affiliation with a church or nominal Christianity. One person says, “I pray, fast, read the Bible, go to church, and try to keep the commandments.” The other person says, “I am Protestant, Catholic, or Non-denominational.”
A better question may be, “What does it mean to be people of the restoration in the present age?” How do we live out restoration life in the world and in our churches? It means that we live in the tension of the now/not yet realization of the Kingdom of God. It means that we struggle with sin, yet we are not under that power of it. It means that we experience all that goes with the old age and all the realities of the KOG at the present time. We experience both fasting and feasting at the same time. One thing we know for sure, as long as there is need for fasting, the Kingdom has not come in its fullness.
In this text, a delegation from Bethel approached the priests and the prophets with a question about the practice of fasting in the fifth month (7:1-3). In light of their question, the Word of the Lord came to Zechariah in answer to issues concerning covenant faithfulness among those who had returned to the land. We could say this another way. Zechariah answered with instructions about how to live life in the restoration.
Preaching the ethics of the prophets is difficult. I do not want to appear legalistic or heap condemnation on our heads. I do, however, want to be true to the Word. One of the problems is the way we think in silos. If we see a command, we forget about grace. If we talk of grace, we forget about commands.
To aid us we must keep in mind that restoration was initiated by God in calling His people to repentance and grounded in the justifying grace of the Branch who would take away sin in a single day. A firm standing in grace was the platform from which God’s people were to pursue covenant faithfulness or living out the character of God or living in relationship to God in the world. Failure in achieving perfection was not why their fathers were exiled. Exile came because their fathers’ did not believe. Because they didn’t believe, they didn’t repent. Their religious practice was not reflective of their hearts. Thus they were idolaters and hypocrites.
Isaiah’s reflection on his generation was quoted by Jesus to warn His Own generation: You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” (Mt. 15:7-9 cf. Is. 29:13)
As we approach this text, we must keep in mind that God’s mission is restorative. The temple was prophetic. It represented the Kingdom of God—God Present and reflected in the character of His people. The mission of the temple and Jerusalem, the city of God, was to spread to all the nations (2:4, 10-11; 6:15 cf. Rev. 21:1-2). In the present age, the mission of the temple and Jerusalem is fulfilled in Christ and the church as God’s mission of restoration spreads to the nations. The ultimate fulfillment is in the new heaven and the new earth when the new Jerusalem, the bride, is complete, and God dwells with His people (Rev. 21:1-4).
I want us to see what it means to participate in God’s restorative mission in the world as His church and as His people. The temple and Jerusalem were a microcosm of the Kingdom of God. The church in the present age is the visible evidence of the Kingdom of God spreading throughout the world. Jesus said the Kingdom of God is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened (Mt 13:33).
Restoration refers back to Eden and the Fall (Eden was God’s temple and the fall was exile.) God is on mission not merely to repair a small garden, but to advance the mission of Eden to encompass the whole earth. In the history of redemption recorded for us in Holy Scripture, the temple and Jerusalem was part of that redemptive mission. The temple was prophetic. The mission of Christ and the Church fulfills the temple in the flow of the restoration.
When reading Zechariah 7-8, you can easily see that Zechariah’s prophecy extends beyond his age and beyond ours. In 7:1-3, the temple was well on its way to completion. Apparently, as the building project progressed, a question of religious practice arose. The particular question asked was about fasting in the fifth month (7:3). The question reveals the persistent misunderstanding of the mission of the temple. This problem was evidenced in the first place by failure to rebuild the temple and now by the question on fasting, heart issues of meaning and motivation.
Zechariah’s answer takes up not only the fast in the fifth month but also the fasts in fourth, seventh, and tenth months as well (8:19). The Law had prescribed only one fast, the Day of Atonement. The fasts of the 4th, 5th, 7th, and 10th months arose in the exile, not as ascetic, pietistic practice. Each one commemorated a significant event in the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. In the 10th month, the siege began (2K 25:1-2; Jer. 39:1); in the 4th month, the city wall was breached, and king Zedekiah was killed (2K 25:4; Jer.39:2); in the 5th month, the temple was destroyed (2K 25:8); in the 7th month, Gedaliah, the governor, was murdered (2K 25:25; Jer 4:1-3). These fasts represented mourning over sin and a longing for the restoration.
Now that the temple was being rebuilt, the delegation from Bethel wondered if fasting was still relevant. How can you fast for what is there? Their question reveals the motivation behind their fasts. Their fasts were the same as their feasts (7:5-6). The prophets had warned their fathers of this same sin in their prosperity ( 7:7; cf. Isa. 58). They fasted for themselves rather than for God. The temple itself was the aim of their fasts, not the manifestation of Presence and the advance of God’s Kingdom. Zechariah is exploding their worldview.
The temple is not about the temple. It’s about the Kingdom of God and the mission of restoration that is to ensue until the redeemed nations become the global temple of God.
Daniel understood that the theological context of fasting in the exile was mourning sin and longing for the restoration of the KOG. In Dan 9:1-4, Daniel read Jeremiah and fasted over his sin and longed for the restoration. The answer to his prayer was the exile and the restoration is going to be a little longer than you think. It is going to be 70 times 7 until transgression and sin are put to an end, iniquity atoned for, and everlasting righteousness established in a world that has become a holy place (9:24).
Jesus took up this issue of exilic and post-exilic fasting that continued in His day. The Pharisees asked Jesus why they fasted but his disciples did not. Jesus said, Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast (Mt. 9:14-15). Jesus is the goal of the temple. His coming marked the breaking in of the eschatological Kingdom of God. He advanced the Kingdom taking dominion over sin, death, and the devil. While He was here, to fast for the Kingdom would be a contradiction.
When He was taken away, the Spirit of God was sent to characterize the age, and gifts were given for the continued advance of the Kingdom. In this tension of exile and restoration, in the overlap of the old age and the new age, in the struggle we have with sin and the longing we have for the return Christ, we will be brought to occasions of fasting, mourning our sin and the devastating effects of sin in desire for the KOG to fully come. When the Kingdom comes, there will be no fasting. As long as, we are brought to fasting, longing for His rule and reign, we know the Kingdom has not fully come.
Fasting then is not a self-help program; it is not a means to wholeness and better health; it is not to achieve a certain body image; it is not a legalistic requirement by which we measure spirituality; it’s not trying to determine if I should buy car or a house; it is not so God will be more apt to hear my prayer; it is mourning over our sin and longing for God’s Kingdom to come. If and when we fast, we fast for Him, not for ourselves. All of our fasting should demonstrate a longing for His kingdom. In all of our praying and fasting, we have to slay manipulation.
Zechariah called on the restoration community to avoid the sin of their fathers. The prophets had warned their fathers that their confession and their practice should be consistent. Problems of covenant unfaithfulness were already evident in the restored community (5:1-11). Zechariah had linked the call to repentance with the warning of their fathers’ failure to heed the prophets (1:1-6). Chapter 7 is another call to repentance, tying the people of Zechariah’s day to the sin of their fathers. The failure to heed the prophets had led to the exile (7:14).
The preaching of the prophets was the voice of God calling the fathers to repentance (7:11, 13). Again, Zechariah points out that the Word of God pursued their fathers (7:11-13 cf. 1:6).
The prophets were the preachers of the covenant. The law revealed the righteous character of God. What a contradiction to go to the temple, go through the motions of worship, and offer sacrifices for sin while denying justice and mercy, oppressing the most vulnerable, and plotting evil (7:9). The early Persian period was marked by a difficult political landscape and economic hardship. The fathers didn’t care for the most vulnerable in the good times. Hard times were no excuse either.
How is it that someone can fast for the temple and turn a blind eye to justice and compassion, and not only ignore but actively exploit widows, the fatherless, and strangers, and plot and plan to carry out evil? In 8:14-17 the prophet takes this up again. In verse 16, “things” can be translated “words” which captures the language of the 10 commandments. This is a call to covenant faithfulness. That is, this is a call for the people of God to reflect the character of God in the world. This is a call to love what God loves and hate what God hates.
In the Kingdom of God there will be no injustice, no widow, no orphan, and no plotting evil. Kindness, mercy, truth, and peace will be the highest values.
We live in a world that is plagued by everything that is contrary to the character of God. The truth is that we cannot solve the problems of man’s inhumanity to man any more than those in Zechariah’s day could do so, but, like them, we don’t have to participate in it. As a church, we are called to bring the gospel to bear on society. When we have occasion, we need to stand up and say what God wants said.
The Kingdom of God answers every problem of humanity. The church, through the gospel of the Kingdom and the power of the Holy Spirit, is a culture changing, transforming influence in every society. The world is a better place, even the unbelieving world, because of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection and the presence of the Spirit enlivened community faith. Globally, you can follow the spread of the Christian faith and see amazing advances in basic human rights and dignity, literacy and education, medicine, and justice.
Unfortunately, it is much too easy to catalogue man’s inhumanity to man. Human history is one long string of invaders, marauders, tyrannical dictators, wars, terrorism, genocide and mass graves, natural upheavals, famine, and plagues. If that is not enough, systems of law and economics are put in place by societies to perpetuate inhumanity. For example, by 2025, abortion will claim 130 million lives a year, while at the same time fertility rates will continue to decease. By 2025, 150 million children a year will be abandoned. 80% of all refugees are women. Every day there are 50,000 new, urban slum-dwellers. By 2025, 1 billion people will still be illiterate. 80% of the world’s population lives on less than 10USD a day. 40% of the world’s population subsists on 5% of the global income. 22,000 children die poverty related deaths each day. (World Christian Trends 2005, Todd M. Johnson)
About 240 million people migrate annually to places all over the world. Immigration is used by governments to control population and create ease in living. If a country has a declining work force, say primarily due to 40 million abortions, a bubble in immigration is needed to maintain economic stability. The problem is the stranger in our gate is then oppressed to maintain a balance in power. At any rate, this gives the pundits and the politicians something to spar about.
What can we do about these issues? The church is not called to fix these global issues. This is not our mission. We are called, however, to reflect the character of God in the world. We preach a Kingdom where none of these issues can exist. These issues are incompatible with the KOG.
As believers, however, we are called to be in the world. This is our world. It is not easy to know what is right and wrong, and what is ethical and unethical. The character of God is to be brought to bear on this world as we function in the market place. As an educator, banker, businessman, stay at home mom or dad, doctor, lawyer, or pastor, I am to represent and reflect the character of God in covenant faithfulness. This drives me to pray that I might in some way represent the values of Kingdom and be an influence for the transformation of my culture and family.
We have a responsibility to the world to be truth tellers. This text, however, focuses on issues within the restoration community. Within the community of faith, we must turn our hearts toward each other and pour into each other’s lives. Living life together in pursuit of covenant faithfulness is the only way we will make it. You can’t get to the celestial city on your own. You won’t make it. Turn your hearts in mercy and kindness to each other. Oddly enough, it’s by investing in others that we find ourselves healed.
These are not the largest problems of the church. David Sills writes:
Over a third of the world’s people have never heard the Gospel, without which no one can be saved. This represents over half of the world’s ethnolinguistic people groups. Approximately 50,000 people from those unreached peoples die and go to hell every day, never having heard the Gospel. While there are untold millions still untold, there is no country as blessed as the USA. No country has as many Evangelical churches, Christian colleges and universities, seminaries, and ministries reaching out to the lost, discipling the saved, planting churches, and training leaders. Yet, we retain 95% of our seminary grads to minister to us, and more than that percentage of financial resources. God loves the USA, but He loves the nations of the world, too. I cannot help but believe that these statistics indicate that there must be some who are being disobedient to His call to go to the nations to reach and teach so that all the nations might glorify Him. (http://davidsills.blogspot.com/ October 19, 2012)
When we think about mercy and compassion, the widow and the fatherless, the foreigner, truth telling, and the attitudes of our hearts about these things, we cannot think about these things isolated from the church. The church, the community of faith, answers these issues. To borrow from Lausanne, it will take the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world. I hear people make statements our missionaries start churches without trained leaders who even know what the gospel is. First, I haven’t met one that has that aim. Second, Christianity in the global south has exploded. I’ve mentioned that just 3 house church movements in China have over 16 million members each. There are around 700 million Great Commission Christians globally. About 70% of their pastors have no training. Many have no more than an elementary school education. How many million do you want to hold each missionary responsible for training? I mean, we have 5 thousand missionaries. If you see this as an issue, I have a job for you. The church must own this. All the seminaries and colleges in evangelical life must own this. Our church has a database of sermons and lectures that would educate any pastor. Anybody, anywhere, anytime is welcome to it.
As we read chapter 8, we can’t take verses 1-8 and 18-23 and assign them completely to the consummation of the Kingdom. As the temple was prophetic, so is the church. If we live in the now/not yet tension in the overlap of the old and new age, is it unreasonable to expect that we would have at least as much participation in and experience of the new age as we have of the old age? Should we as God’s people expect the worst? As people of the restoration, should we not expect to see flashpoints of Kingdom power and healing and joy and victory and peace, along with our suffering? The Old age and all that belongs to it are unacceptable realities. Our hope is not turned to despair in the face of disappointment. Our hope is in God who will redeem every aspect of our lives.
8:1-8 ties back to 1:14-17. In 8:2 wrath can be read as burning. In 1:14-17, God’s passion for His people is tied to building the temple and His presence returning to Jerusalem which will bring immeasurable blessing to his people. Here in 8:1-13, the same reality is reviewed. In verse 7, God will save His exiled remnant. Verses 3-6 give us a marvelous view of Jerusalem related to God’s saving work. Verses 9-13 assure that God will give them everything they need to rebuild the temple. In verse 13, His saving work is tied to the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. The remnant is heir of the promise and will be a blessing to the nations.
Building the temple meant blessing to the world, so does building the church. The church anticipates the consummation of the Kingdom and experiences and participates in the advance of the Kingdom globally. What blessing God has brought to the nations through building His church. On the Day of Pentecost, people from 13 nations plus Jews and Proselytes plus Cretans and Arabians with Galileans preaching became a flashpoint of Kingdom advanced that changed the world.
As a kid for a series of about 3 summers, I saw periods Kingdom advance. I remember revivals taking place so far out in the country that the church was on a deadend dirt road. So many people came, and so many were converted that the services had to be moved outside. A bootlegger was saved and poured his moonshine out on the ground by the pond where he was baptized. It was like a scene in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”
I had a professor in college who was physically blind. He always told us we were handicapped because we could see. Dr. Melton told of being caught up in a wave of revival. As he would walked down the halls of the local hospital, people were calling out from rooms asking for him to come in and tell them how to be saved. This is a present age example of 8:22-23.
Sometime I will look on facebook at churches with hundreds gathered and new churches being planted in areas that 15 years ago had no believers. I see the blessing that the building of the church is to the nations. A missionary in Guatemala told of when the gospel first went to the Quiche. The first believers were persecuted. Their houses were burned. They were beaten and rejected. Yet, they remained faithful. They understood the hatred toward them because they used to be the same way. God unleashed the power of gospel on Quiche. In a few short years, 5000 believers were among the Quiche. My missionary friend was training pastors among them. He said it was a remarkable thing to see them coming to worship. Along the mountain path from the top to the bottom, Quiche families streamed with their Bibles in their arms. From that time the church continued to expand among the Quiche.
We live in a time of unprecedented church growth globally. The growth of Christianity in the global south is eclipsing growth in the global north. The church has expanded more in the last 25 years than in its history.
We come now to the Lord’s Table. Again, we see before us a manifestation of God’s Kingdom, a moment of feasting rather than fasting for His people.