Turning the Fast into a Feast
Zechariah 8:1-23
I'd like us to turn to the 8th Chapter of Zechariah for our time tonight; Zechariah Chapter 8. And the title that I've given to the chapter is When God Turns The Fast Into a Feast; When God Turns The Fast Into a Feast. This is a tremendous chapter. It's a continuous of Chapter 7, which we looked at last time as we'll see in just a moment. In the 13th Chapter of John in the 1st verse, there is statement there that I think is very important because it gives us a great insight into the nature of God. It says that "having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto perfection." "Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto perfection."
God has always had a tremendous love for His people. In John 13 it is saying that Jesus loves His own unto perfection, unto the very limit, unto the extremity of the capacity of love. There is no diminishing of God's love to His children, to His people. It is unbounded. It is unlimited. And one of the great truths that Christians have through the years celebrated about the character of God is this aspect of God's love. In fact, if you were to ask the average Christian to name the number one and primary attribute of God, no doubt most of them would say His love. Perhaps quoting the words of John "For God is love." And it's true that we are the people of God and that we most excitedly think about the love of God insofar as we experience the wonderful grace that comes as a result of that love. And so we study the Bible and we find out that God has always overflowed with love to His people.
Whether it is the church of the New Testament or whether it is Israel of the Old Testament. God has always manifested boundless love to His children. And I think we are more aware of God's love for His church in the New Testament than we are of His love for Israel in the Old. And so I'd like us just briefly to examine the concept of God's love for His people Israel. And to begin with if you want to follow along, we'll start in Deuteronomy Chapter 7. And we're just going to mention a couple of things to kind of focus in on this thought. God's love for His people Israel.
We really don't question His love for the church, we who are Christians, we who study the New Testament, but perhaps we're not as clear about His love for Israel. In Deuteronomy 7:6 it says, "For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God has chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself above all people who are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love upon you nor choose you because ye were more in number than any people for ye were the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn to your fathers hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt."
So here you have a couple of mentions of the love that God had for Israel and the consequence of that love, the calling of Israel, and the deliverance of Israel from out of bondage in Egypt. In individualizing that love we could note 2 Samuel 12:24 and I'll just read this to you. It says, "And David comforted Bathsheba, his wife, and went in under her and lay with her and she bore a son and he called his name Solomon and the Lord loved him." Here then is the individual love that God has for the individual child, the individual person who is in His family.
In the Psalms there is a great expression of God's love for His people in many places. And we could look at many, many verses, but if we just would remind ourselves, say for example, of Psalm 91, it would be sufficient to assure us of the tremendous love of God. And it talks about what God is going to do to preserve the object of His love. "The one who dwells in the secret place of the most high." Then over in Isaiah Chapter 49, I told you we were going to go in a hurry. Isaiah 49, verse 14, one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible speaking of God's love. "But Zion said," and Zion refers to the children of Israel, "the Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me." And then God answers, "Can a woman forget her nursing child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Ye, they may forget yet will I not forget thee. Behold I have engraved thee upon the palms of my hands."
God does not forget His children. His love is unending. There is also in Isaiah other...there are, I should say, in Isaiah other passages that speak of God's tremendous love for His people. But for the sake of time, let me show one in the minor prophets, and that would be Malachi, which is the last book of the minor prophets, Chapter 3, verse 16. This is one I've preached on many times in past years. "Then they that feared the Lord spoke often on to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it in a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and thought on his name. And they shall be mine says the Lord of hosts in the day when I make up my jewels, I will spare them as a man spares his own son that serveth him."
In other words, God says these are mine. And in the day that I make up my jewels, I will hold onto them. I will crown them as it were. They who were written in the book of remembrance. In the 11th Chapter of Hosea, another wonderful beautiful picture of God's love for Israel, in fact, the whole book, but in Hosea verse 1 of Chapter 11 it says, "When Israel was a child then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. And then when they wouldn't come along and when they wouldn't obey," he says in verse 4, "I drew them with the cords of a man with bands of love." And verse 7, "And my people are bent to backsliding from me though they called them to the most high, none at all would exalt Him. How shall I give thee up Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee Israel?"
In other words, even though you turn your back I can't let you go. I can't release you. I love you too much. In Jeremiah summing it all up, the 31st Chapter, the first three verses, God speaks. "The same time says the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of the earth and they shall be my people. Thus saith the Lord, the people who were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness, even Israel when I went to cause him to rest. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me saying yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee."
In other words, God again is reaffirming this tremendous love that He has for His people. But if we've learned anything in our study of love in the New Testament, we have learned that love is not just something you say, love is something you do, right? And we've learned from 1 John that John said, "my little children love not in word and tongue, but in," what, "in deed and in truth." So that if God really loves Israel, is it not only God saying He loves Israel, it is God manifesting that love in some great acts of love and that is what Zechariah 8 is about. It is all about what God has planned for those He loves in Israel. It is a tremendous statement about the love of God that manifests itself in the kingdom provisions that God has for the nation Israel. And it's as if in the 8th Chapter Zechariah opens the window in the house of Israel so every Jew can look out on the kingdom to see what God has prepared for them that love Him.
Now remember in Zechariah's day and we'll run this by you quickly and then we'll just look at these principles as we go through the chapter, but remember in Zechariah's day the Jews had been in Babylon in captivity for 70 years. They were taken there when Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed the city and flattened the temple and wiped out everything. They were taken to Babylon for a 70 year period. This was to purge them once and for all from idolatry. They had come back to the land and under Haggai and Zechariah, they are beginning to finish the building of the temple and the wall and the city.
Many years have gone by and they are now really at the work, finally. And God had promised them through the words of Haggai and the words of Zechariah that the city will be rebuilt. That the temple will be restored. That the wall will be complete. That they will be restored to their land. But God has said all through the prophecy of Zechariah that that is only like a token or a preliminary to what God is going to do ultimately in the restoration of the nation in the millennial kingdom. For some of you who may not know what I mean by that, there is coming a time in human history according to the Bible when God is going to send Jesus Christ back to earth to reign on the earth for a thousand year period in a kingdom, a literal kingdom. And that kingdom will find its concentration and its center in the nation Israel. And there will be a throne set up in the city of Jerusalem and the throne will be occupied by none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in His resurrection body.
And in that thousand year period every promise ever given to the nation will be fulfilled. And so here all that Zechariah has been saying about the rebuilding of the restoration temple and the restoration city is only a preliminary or a token or only a down payment as it were on the ultimate inheritance that will come in the millennial kingdom. And so we see God's love here manifest in this marvelous thing that God is going to do for Israel. His love was seen in bringing them back from Babylon and His love is seen in its most magnanimous manner by seeing what he will do in the millennial kingdom.
Now Chapter 8 also is a continuation of Chapter 7. Now you'll remember in Chapter 7 that there was a question asked and the question asked was is it necessary for us to keep having these ceremonial fasts that we've been having, because ever since the city had been destroyed and ever since the Babylonians had come in and wiped them out the Jews had established a whole series of fasts, which were times of mourning and times of sorrow and times of bitterness and in each of those fasts, they would go without food and they would weep and they would wail and they would go through certain things like that. Well, now that the city was being rebuilt, now that the temple was being restored, now that there was a new revival of life and everything looked great, a group of people came from the town of Bethel to the priest and the prophets and they said is it necessary to keep on having these fasts now that everything seems to be so rosy.
And so there is an answer to that question that comes in Chapter 7 and Chapter 8. The answer in Chapter 7 is negative and the answer in Chapter 8 is positive. Now if you were here last time you'll understand what I mean. Because in Chapter 7 there is a negative response insofar as God says to these people who are asking the questions, look I never started the fast to begin with. Secondly, you've never observed the fasts as unto me anyway. It's just been pure ritual. Remember that? And the very fact that the way they stated the question at the end of verse 3 of Chapter 7, "Do we have to keep doing this as we have done so many years?" It's getting to be a real drag.
We're getting tired of this routine. And so He says to them in Chapter 7 in effect, you really have never done unto me at all. In fact, in verse 5 He said, "When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month even those seventy years did you at all fast unto me even to me? And when you did eat and when you did drink, did you eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?" In other words, since when was any of that stuff ever for me anyway? It was nothing but ritual religion. And so He answers their question with an indictment of their ritualistic approach to religion.
And you remember last time we talked to you about the difference between ritual and reality, didn't we? And He says to them in effect in the rest of Chapter 7, you know, I don't like what I see in this ritual because you're going to fall into the same pattern that your fathers fell into and they turned their reality into a ritual and you know what happened? That's why they went into Babylon. Here you are coming out of Babylon falling into the same pattern that your fathers fell in and for that reason I had to punish them.
So Chapter 7 is a warning against a ritualistic approach to religion, which in fact was the very thing that brought the captivity they were fasting to commemorate. And the reason they fasted was so they would never forget the lessons. And here they have forgotten them already and turned to very fast which was to teach them not to forget into a ritual in itself. And so Chapter 7 is a call to repentance and a call to true worship. And to a solemn reminder that the sorrows that they showed in the fast were not really directed toward God, rather they were ritualistic. And so we learn something about love. Sometimes love responds negatively, did you know that? You've been telling your kids that for years, bend over kid. I love you so much I've got to hit you, right?
Love reproves and love rebukes and love chastens. "Whom the Lord He chastens," right, Hebrews Chapter 12. Every son He scourges. And so when Israel needed it then God had to put it that way. There must be a rebuke. Paul says to the Corinthians, I rebuke you because you are my beloved sons in 1 Corinthians 4:14. And so love warns and love rebukes and love admonishes and love chastens and love indicts and love convicts. And so God answers their questioning about fasts with an indictment of their improper motive reminiscent of their fathers and the very kind of religion that brought the captivity to start with.
God sure didn't want another generation of spiritual phonies so He warned them. But then in Chapter 8, He turns the corner and now He does the other thing that love does. He gives to them. Love warns and love gives. It's always been God's way. It's always been the way of anyone who loved. You prevent them from falling into that which harms and you give them that which blesses. And so in Chapter 8 comes the positive answer to the question about fasts. And God gives them great incomparable, unbelievable, incredible, magnanimous promises for the future.
In fact, He gives them the ultimate gift, the promises relative to the kingdom. And incidentally if you're an Old Testament student, you'll recognize that this is a very common pattern. We can probably trace it in dozens and dozens of passages where God commonly brings about a prophecy of chastisement and judgment on sin, unbelief, and obedience followed immediately by words of great comfort and great hope and great promise. That's God's pattern throughout much of the Old Testament. Now as we look at Chapter 8, we get this marvelous positive answer.
There are two basic divisions to the Chapter and I'll just call them to your attention. Here are a few little notes. Verse 1 gives us the key phrase. "And again the word of the Lord of hosts came to me saying." Now look at verse 18, "And the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me saying." Now you have two words of the Lord here and divide...this divides the Chapter into its two parts. In the first one, verses 1-17, God gives them the promises of the kingdom. From verses 18-23, God tells them the results of that kingdom or the results of that fulfillment of the promise. So really you have two times here when the word of the Lord of hosts comes to the prophet Zechariah. Once to describe the kingdom and the second time to describe the results of such a thing.
And incidentally, that is the same authenticating formula that appeared in Chapter 7. If you look at Chapter 7, verse 4, "Then came the word of the Lord of hosts to me saying," verse 8, "and the word of the Lord came to Zechariah saying." So in these two chapters four times there are four different messages. Two of them come on the negative wavelength, two of them come on the positive. Two of them are to rebuke and warn and two of them are to give and extend comfort and hope.
But in all cases there is a reiteration that this is from the Lord. This stuff is so fantastic and so thrilling and so wonderful that in the human mind it would be hard to conceive and so God continually repeats that this is from Him. And so we see that in these four formulas, but in addition to that even in Chapter 8 there is a constant repetition of the same phrase. Look at verse 2, Chapter 8, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts." Verse 3, "Thus saith the Lord." Verse 4, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts." Verse 6, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts." Verse 7, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts." Verse 9, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts." Verse 14, "For thus saith the Lord of hosts." Verse 19, same thing. Verse 20, same thing. Verse 23, same thing.
Now you get the idea that this Chapter is from the Lord, don't you? See, now that's just the point. The stuff in the Chapter is so fantastic and it is so marvelous and it is so inconceivable and it is so beyond anything they ever dreamed of that the prophet doesn't want them to have any doubt about it's genuineness so He continues to repeat that it's from the Lord because it's so marvelous. It may seem incredible from the natural. It may seem unbelievable from the human viewpoint, but these things will come to pass because it comes from the name of in the infinite, eternal, and faithful Jehovah God who is the Lord of armies. In other words, He's powerful enough to pull it off.
Nothing is too hard, nothing is impossible, and the name of the Lord stands as the pledge of the accomplishment. When people say to me well, I don't know if there ever will really be a kingdom for Israel. Zechariah Chapter 8 is a great place to take them, because the Lord ten times says "Thus says the Lord of hosts." I'm able to do it. There is no reason to stagger at the promises of God. Now notice that the phrase is used ten times. And I kind of like that. I don't want to make a big issue out of this, but if you notice the Bible, you'll notice that generally the number ten is a number of completeness. That's true in the sense of the most obvious. Human beings have ten fingers and ten toes and so consequently since the year one have always countered in increments of ten and so ten has always been representative of wholeness or fullness.
So what you have here is God presenting the fullness of His program in the millennium for Israel. It's the complete picture and incidentally the name Jehovah appears 22 times in the 8th Chapter. Boy you say what are you making all this stuff about? Why are you making such an issue? Because I want you to know this is God's message, no question. All right, let me go through the ten promises. We're not going to spend much time on them. I just want to draw them across your thinking. Here are the ten elements to God's program for Israel and the kingdom. And I want you to listen carefully folks, because you're going to be there if you're a Christian and you need really to know what to do when you get there.
So this is your directions. This is your mimeograph sheet for the kingdom. All right? Number one, the first thing we see is divine punishment, divine punishment. Verse 1, "And again the word of the Lord of hosts came to me say