Rebuke for Not Listening

Transcript

GR 1012
Rebuke for Not Listening
6/12/1977
Zechariah 7:1-14
Gil Rugh

Zechariah chapter 7 in your bibles, Zechariah and the seventh chapter. Last week we concluded the first major division of Zechariah, excluding what we have as the introduction on our outline, the first six verses of chapter 1. From chapter 1, verse 7, through the 6th chapter we had a series of visions. Last week we reviewed those visions briefly. If you weren’t here there are some review sheets, green sheets, with just with a brief summary of each vision that is contained in the first six chapters. The thrust being on God’s anticipated restoration of Israel and the glory that will be theirs in the kingdom that will be established under the leadership of Messiah. Involved in this will be the judgment God will bring on the nations that have abused Israel. There will be judgment for Israel for their disobedience to God. Then there will be the setting up of the kingdom under the kingship of the Messiah.

Now if you have your outline that we gave out awhile ago, you’ll note the the next major division, it’s either the second or third major division depending on which outline you are using. The third major division on the more detailed outline, the question of fasting, ritualism and spiritual reality. This covers chapters 7 and 8. Then the closing chapters of Zechariah contain some of the greatest prophetic material that we have in all the bible, focusing from chapters 9 through 14 on matters relating to the Messiah, the coming kingdom, and so on. But the two chapters before are important, and they do get to the heart of the matter that is the problem with Israel as Zechariah writes. The material covered will be very similar to the material in the first six chapters, because God’s program with Israel is God’s program with Israel, and all He can do is talk about His program with Israel. He can talk about it in various ways, but He’s still talking about His program with Israel.

In chapter 7, where we are going to focus our attention, He talks in response to the question about fasting regarding the condition of Israel at this time. And there is rebuke given and Israel’s condition is clearly seen. Now we’ve moved two years from the end of chapter 6 to the beginning of chapter 7, so this just isn’t flowing on the same night. We noted that all of the visions of Zechariah, his eight visions, and then that concluding symbolic act of crowning Joshua, probably all occurred the same night, the crowning of Joshua the next day. But now chapter 7 opens up two years after that event. If you want to mark in the margin of your bible beside verse 1 you could write 518 B.C., that’s the date, 518 B.C. We can date it because we are told it’s in the fourth year of King Darius. The fourth year of King Darius was 518 B.C. Chapter 1 of Zechariah opened up, “in the eighth month of the second year of Darius,” so from the second year of Darius to the fourth year of Darius, two years. So, not so difficult, you just have to remind yourself to check the date. So, two years have transpired.

Okay, “then it came about in the fourth year of King Darius that the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month which is Chislev. Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men to seek the favor of the Lord.” Now Bethel, that well known center of idolatry, several miles north of Jerusalem; it had been there that the calf worship had been set up and the problems associated with it, and so on. Now representatives from Bethel are sent. Their names Sharezer and Regemmelech. Now these are not Hebrew names, they are Babylonian names, and would seem to indicate that these two men who head the delegation had been born in Babylon during the captivity and then had returned from Babylon with the returning remnant, and now were representatives of the town of Bethel. They come with their men, this delegation, from Bethel to seek the favor of the Lord. Now that sounds good, and it starts off well. Isn’t that wonderful? Here’s a delegation coming from Bethel to Jerusalem to the house of the Lord, and they want the favor of the Lord. That sounds like it ought to be a plus, but it will end up being a minus.

Verse 3, “Speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, ‘Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain as I have done these many years?’” The priests were to be the interpreters of the Law and to render verdicts where the Law is involved in spiritual practice. Here’s a question on spiritual practice. So where else would they go? To the priests and the prophets. What would be the will of God in this area? Now they want to know about continuing a practice of weeping in the fifth month. You get the idea it’s getting to be a burden, the way they put it. “Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain as I have done these many years?” It’s going on now, it’s the seventieth year that we have carried on this fast and, quite frankly, it’s getting to be a chore, and we were wondering if it’s necessary to continue. Now the time for the feast involved, verse 5, just to pick it up before we do the details, when God responds and says, “when you fasted and mourned the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me you fasted?” There’s a series of fasts involved. They ask about the fifth month in verse 3. God responds regarding the fifth and the seventh month in verse 5.

Now if you come over to chapter 8, verse 19, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the fast of the fourth, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth months will become joy, gladness, and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah; so love truth and peace.” There are four feasts involved altogether. We’ll mention the details in chapter 8 but just to rehearse what these four fasts were and what their significance was. We’ll take them in the order, taking all four, from verse 19 of chapter 8. The first fast would be the fast of the tenth month, and that commemorated when Nebuchadnezzar began his siege of Jerusalem. If you want to turn back to 2 Kings quickly, chapter 25; you might keep your finger in 2 Kings then. Verse 1, “Now it came about,” 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles. You always remember them because they go down, they go in the alphabet, the “s” then the “k” then the “c” just the reverse of the order that they would be, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles. Verse 1, “Now it came about in the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month.” So here you see we are in the tenth month, that “Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon came, he and all his army against Jerusalem, camped against it and built a siege wall around it.” So, the Jews had begun a fast day to remember this event, and they continued that fast throughout the seventy years of their captivity. Now they wonder if they should continue. Now, God had not commanded it to be done. They had taken it upon themselves to begin this fast day, and it’s a burden to them.

Now, the second feast, you can just stay in 2 Kings 25. It’s a feast that takes place on the fourth month and that commemorates when Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian armies penetrated into the city of Jerusalem. That’s in verses 3 and 4 of 2 Kings 25. “On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city there was not food for the people of the land. Then the city was broken into and all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls which was by the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans were all around the city. And they went out by way of the Arabah.” So, they had instituted another fast. So, the first fast was to commemorate when Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem. The second one was to remember the time he penetrated into the city.

Now the third fast mentioned by Zechariah occurs in the fifth month. This is when the general of Nebuchadnezzar, and his name is Nebuzaradan, burnt the temple down in verses 8 and 9. And incidentally in between this you have the capture of the king by the Babylonian armies. In verse 6 he is brought to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and sentence is passed on him. “And they slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, then they put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon.” The purpose of that gruesome event of course is so that the last thing that Zedekiah sees is the destruction of his own family, then he is blinded so he can live with that memory. God told Zechariah, don’t feel sorry for Zedekiah. It’s hard not to in this case, but God constantly told him through the prophets, you know, if you’ll do it My way, it will be alright; if you don’t, destruction. Zedekiah had to find out for himself, and he did. But we are on our way to verses 8 and 9. “Now on the seventh day of the fifth month,” so this is the fast of the fifth month, “which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and he burned the house of the Lord, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, he burned with fire.” So the Jews began a fast to remember this event because for the nation Israel, and particularly here the southern kingdom, Judah, these events are the most significant that ever occurred in their history. It is the end of them as a nation, and as a kingdom. Now they are deported, and the destruction, so they institute these fasts as a remembrance.

One more fast. This is when Gedaliah, who was placed as governor of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, is slain. He is executed, that was a tragic thing. Again, there was warning from Jeremiah about that event. They kill him, and then they have to pack their bags and flee to Egypt because Nebuchadnezzar will be back. But Jeremiah warned them. You do that and Nebuchadnezzar will come to Egypt and plant his throne right there. Nebuchadnezzar did, so they never did escape Nebuchadnezzar.

Down in verses 23 to 25 of 2 Kings 25, verse 22, “Now as for the people who were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, he appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan over them. When all the captains of the forces, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah governor, they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, namely, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johana the son of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth.” Now you want to get some names for your children, some of you are expecting, you can mark this verse down. “The Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men. And Gedaliah swore to them and their men and said to them, ‘Do not be afraid of the servants;’” and, “live,” and so on. But, verse 25, Ishamel came and they “struck Gedaliah down so that he died.” That was a tragic event because that removed any semblance, even. It was a pitiful remnant left in Jerusalem, but at least they had a man over them, to rule over them. But with this activity that comes to an end. Because of Ishmael’s rebellion, he is in no place to stay in Jerusalem. So he kills Gedaliah, and the only thing he has left to do now is to try to leave the realm controlled by the Babylonians. And this is, of course, when Jeremiah the prophet is taken, kidnapped in effect, and taken to Egypt with them. So these are the four fast days.

Go back to Zechariah. These are the four fasts that had been instituted by the Jews. They are not commanded by the Law, but they had taken it upon themselves to institute these as a time of remembrance. So we are back in Zechariah 7 now. The two that they are concerned with are the fast of the fifth month, which commemorated the burning of the temple, very important fast day for the Jews, second only in importance to the day of Atonement, the destruction of the temple; and the seventh month, the slaying of the governor Gedaliah. Now shall we continue to do this as we have done these many years? “Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me saying, ‘Say to all the people of the land and to the priests.’” You note, this delegation from Bethel comes with a question but God’s response goes far beyond simply the delegation from Bethel. It’s to “all the people of the land and to the priests.” The message to the priests comes through the prophet here and all Israel is included in this injunction. “When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted?” And that implies a strong negative answer; the way that’s expressed here, it implies a strong negative answer. You can imagine something of the shock. These men come to ask if they have to continue this because it’s been such a burden. So, after carrying this burden for seventy years God says surely you don’t think you’ve been fasting for Me. What do You mean you don’t think we’ve been fasting for You? What do You think we go through all this for? I mean, you talk about crushing, I would have quit sixty-nine years ago if I’d known it wasn’t for You. Surely, it wasn’t for Me that you fasted. “And when you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves? Are not these the words which the Lord proclaimed by the former prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous with its cities around it, and the Negev and the foothills were inhabited?” In other words, what they had done is they had instituted these fasts or feast days to commemorate God’s judgment, but instead of concerning themselves with what God had commanded and with what had occasioned the judgment, they concerned themselves with the remembrance of the judgment. They missed the point all together. That’s why verse 7, “are not these the words which the Lord proclaimed by the former prophets.” The former prophets were the prophets who prophesied before the captivity, men like Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Isn’t this exactly what God said would happen? This prophecy came when Jerusalem was inhabited, when it was prosperous. When the Negev and the southern region, the foothills of Judea, they were prosperous places. They were inhabited. Remember when I came with my prophet’s message and you were doing alright so you didn’t have any ears for the message? This is what I said. Now what did you institute the feast for? What I want you to do is be obedient to my word. I’m not excited about the fact you institute fasts to remember the judgment. I want you to remember My word and be obedient to it. They thought it was a great thing that they had a fast to remember the judgment. That didn’t do anything except to remind them that they had been judged. What God wanted them to do was remember what were the messages of the prophets. They still didn’t remember the messages of the prophets, they still didn’t get the point.

So what Zechariah’s saying is, remember what the former prophets said. I don’t care about your religious ritual. That’s something you do, and since you decided to do it you don’t do it for Me. What you do for Me is what I tell you to do. What you decide to do, that’s not for Me. I say that has multitudes to say about the religious ritual that goes on today that men have instituted. God never instructed it, never commanded it, but people do it. It’s a great burden. They’ll get up all hours of the morning to go and carry on their burdens. God says, “are you doing that for Me? If you want to get up early in the morning and crawl around the city on your knees, go ahead, but don’t say you are doing it for Me because you’re not. What I want you to do is hear My word and obey it.” That’s too simple. Hear My word and obey it? Well what about my ritual? What about all this that we go through? Well it’s not for Me. If it makes you feel good to go and be a part of that ritual that’s up to you, but don’t say you’re doing it for Me. Quite frankly it disgusts Me. In fact, it’s rather repulsive. In fact, I can’t stand it! Now wait a minute, Zechariah didn’t say that. Well, yes he did. And so did the former prophets. I just jotted down a couple of verses. Isaiah, Isaiah 1 beginning with verse 10. Now Isaiah had prophesied several centuries before the Babylonian captivity so he goes back to when there was a kingdom in the north and a kingdom in the south. He prophesies before the northern kingdom is taken into captivity, Isaiah being around 800 years before Christ. But note what God says through Isaiah. This is new material. “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give ear to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah.” That’s a strong statement. He’s writing to Jews, and he says you are Sodomites. You are just like the people of Gomorrah. That would certainly be repulsive to the Jews. “’What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?’ says the Lord. ‘I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams, the fat of fed cattle; I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. When you come to appear before Me, who requires of you this trampling of My courts?’” Now here people think they come to worship Him and God says you are committing sacrilege. You are trampling My courts. What are you doing here? Well we’re worshipping. He says no you are not. You are committing sacrilege. Verse 13, “Bring your worthless offerings no longer, their incense is an abomination to Me. New moons, sabbath, the calling of assemblies—I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. I hate your new moon festivals, your appointed feasts, they have become a burden to Me; I am weary of them. So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I’ll hide My eyes from you. Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of bloodshed.” Then He goes on to tell them what He expects and comes up to that very familiar verse in verse 18. “’Come now and let us reason together,’ says the Lord, ‘though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be as wool.’” External religious ritual is always repulsive to God. Better that a person go play golf on Sunday morning than they go out and just go through religious ritual. Better to stay home in bed. We think, well at least they are religious; at least they get their family up and go to church. That’s too bad. Too bad they don’t stay home in bed, because if all they are going to is religious ritual, God hates it. That’s worse than no religion at all.

We’ll stay with Isaiah. One more chapter back in chapter 66. Isaiah 66, one of the great prophetic chapters in the bible culminating on a note of triumph talking about the future for Israel. We want to look at the opening verses. Here it is reversed. In chapter 1 we talked about God’s disgust with the religious ritual and then what He wanted from them, the proper heart. Here He says He wants the proper heart, and then He talks about His disgust with religious ritual. The end of verse 2 says, “But to this one I will look. To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, who trembles at My word. But he who kills an ox is like one who slays a man. He who sacrifices a lamb like one who breaks a dog’s neck and he who offers a grain offering is like one who offers swine’s blood.” Now that’s as far as you can go in talking to a Jew. You’ve offered the blood, but to Me that’s just like you’ve offered a pig’s blood. There can be nothing more defiling. When Antiochus wanted to defile the altar of the temple he offered a pig’s blood on it. Now here God says, your offering, your blood of the offerings is just like pig’s blood. You don’t honor Me but just the opposite, then on to talk about it.

But several other passages in the prophets I’ve jotted down we won’t turn to. One other passage that I do want to turn to is back in 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel 15. Now here we’re going way back. We’re going back a couple of hundred years before Isaiah, and we could go all the way back to the Law but we won’t because of time, to Deuteronomy. Here Samuel speaks to Saul, and Saul—we won’t go into the account. A very interesting account. Saul spared Agag, king of the Amalekites, up in verse 9, when God had told him to destroy everyone, everything lived and breathed, human and animal, was to be destroyed. But in verse 8 you read, “he captured Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive.” And verse 9, “he spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, and the fatlings, the lambs and all that was good but everything that was despised and worthless he destroyed.” So, you have partial obedience here. Interestingly, Saul spares an Amalekite, and at the end of Saul’s life it’s an Amalekite that kills Saul, so a little bit of tables turned in Saul’s life. But you come down, Samuel comes on the scene. Saul comes, and he’s just aglow. What a victory, Samuel. Wow! We did everything! He starts out in verse 13, “Blessed are you of the Lord. I’ve carried out the command of the Lord.” That’s Saul speaking. Those very famous words of Samuel in verse 14, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?” That gets right to the point. Saul says, oh Samuel we have obeyed the command of the Lord. Samuel says, hmm. I hear some sheep, baaa. That’s pretty good for a city fella. What’s that Saul? I mean you were going to kill everything that breathes and obviously you didn’t take any sheep into battle with you, and you weren’t supposed to bring any back out, and you’re bragging about your obedience. You say, well that’s a minor thing. Well, it’s not minor because what follows through is simply Saul, you are not fit to be king. You can’t be partially obedient. If you are partially obedient you are disobedient. So read verse 22, “And Samuel said, has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed the fat of rams, for rebellion is as the sin of divination and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.” And that’s it, Saul’s finished. He can’t be obedient. But you note, what we want to pick up here is verse 22, “to obey is better than sacrifice.” That’s what God was telling Israel from the moment He called them. That’s what His message constantly was through the prophets. I want you to obey Me. I want you to submit yourselves to Me and My word. They skipped that, but thought they could go on with the sacrifice. Not possible. I can’t leave this account without drawing it to a close. Verse 32, the Amalekites and Agag came to him cheerfully and Agag says, “surely the bitterness of death is passed.” Huh huh. “Samuel said, ‘As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.’ And Samuel hewed Agag to pieces before the Lord at Gilgal.” Quite effective in bringing Agag’s career to an end.

Back to Zechariah. That’s why I don’t preach the Old Testament much, I get off the track so much. Back to Zechariah 7. “To obey is better than sacrifice.” Now isn’t that a simple message. “To obey is better than sacrifice.” Now you’d think that that would be clear, but two thousand years after Christ, three thousand years after Samuel, twenty-eight hundred years after Isaiah, people still don’t understand that obedience is what God wants. They go to church, they give their money, they get on their knees, they take communion, they get baptized, they go through sacraments and everything else. And what are they doing? Religious ritual that classifies under sacrifice, but what God wants is obedience and submission to His word. And yet people can’t understand that God’s not going to accept me. Just the opposite. It’s rejection not acceptance.

Alright, verse 8 then. He carries on. “Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah saying, “Thus has the Lord of hosts said, dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion, each to his brother. Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger, or the poor, and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.” Very interesting verses. If you read them out of context you’d think that the Old Testament taught that you are saved by your works. What has God done? He said don’t do this ritual but do this one? No. Obviously that would make no sense at all. But what is said here is what is true, Old and New Testament alike. That is a right relationship with God will manifest itself in a right relationship with God’s people. And for the Israelites it meant that they would conduct themselves properly with other Israelites. They would dispense true justice, practice kindness and compassion, each to his own brother. Not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor, those who were helpless that could be taken advantage of. “Not devise evil in their hearts against one another.” Evidence that Israel would have been right with God is that they would have functioned in proper relationship with one another. And that carries over to the New Testament. The evidence and proof that a believer is in right relationship with God is the kind of relationship he has with other believers. That hasn’t changed. What did Jesus say? “By this shall all men know that you are My disciples,” if you say it loud enough? No. If you really love Me? No. “By this shall all me know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another.” The real evidence and proof of a vital alive relationship with God is a proper functional relationship with God’s people. That’s been true in the Old Testament, it’s true in the New Testament, and it’s always taken as a sign that God’s people are out of relationship with Him by the way they are treating one another. When they are oppressing the poor. When they are stealing one another’s land. When they are not dispensing justice. That’s evidence that their relationship with one another is not the problem, their relationship with God is. And that’s no different than today.

James talks about pure religion and undefiled before God is this…and he says basically the same thing. We visit the orphans, the widows, and those in affliction. Now what’s he saying? You are saved by what you do? Obviously not, God doesn’t contradict Himself. He is basically saying though that if you are rightly related to Me, that will evidence itself in your relationship with one another. And if I as a believer am not functioning in the right relationship with other believers, that’s an indication that the problem is in my relationship with God. I am in rebellion against Him, and that fragments my relationship with other believers. So that’s what God is demanding. When He demands this of them it would not be possible until they were in submission to Him then they could be in harmony with one another, but they can’t go in the reverse. So, in effect, when He commands them to do this, that presupposes that they’ll have to get in right relationship with Him.

Okay, moving on. We don’t like that because it brings it into the concrete realm. You know, we like to make it a little more nebulous, but all you have to do is look at my relationship with other believers and you can tell what kind of relationship I have with God. You can tell what kind of walk with Him I have by what kind of walk I have with other believers. A person who can’t walk with other believers hasn’t learned to walk with God. You say, ouch, that’s judgment. That’s right, and the one who can judge is God. He says it. If I haven’t learned to live with other believers it’s because I haven’t learned to live in submission to God Himself, and that manifests itself in other problems.

Alright, moving on. Verse 11, “They refused to pay attention.” Now note, God speaks and man refuses to listen. “They turned a stubborn shoulder” comes from the reaction of oxen. They turn their shoulder to avoid the yoke being put on. “They stopped their ears from hearing. They made their hearts like flint.” Now you note, four ways God drives home the point that they wouldn’t accept My word. “They refused to pay attention.” Secondly, “they turned a stubborn shoulder.” Third, they “stopped their ears.” Fourth, “they made their hearts like flint.” What else can you say? You get the idea that they didn’t want to hear the word of God, that they weren’t interested in what God had to say? Now basically that’s it. You say, how could the Jews be like that? But how can people be like that today? How many people crowd in churches this morning or went to churches not so crowded, but they went as part of religious ritual? They had no vital relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. All they have to do is hear God’s word and know that’s not what God wants. But they refuse to hear. You talk to them, and it’s just like they put their fingers in their ears—they don’t want to hear it, their hearts are closed to it. What else? Things haven’t changed, have they? The fact that God recorded the experiences of Israel so we would learn from it, and because of the stubbornness of our heart, we’re not willing to learn from it. We have just as hard a heart.

“They made their hearts like flint.” That’s a hard metal. A hard metal, a hard substance. It can be used of a diamond that can engrave on hard substance. That says how hard they made their heart. They made their heart hard. Not just a rock, but harder. It was impenetrable. Now it wasn’t God’s problem. God spoke, that was an act of grace. The very fact that God would speak to them is an evidence of mercy and grace. But how do they respond? Don’t want to hear it. Don’t tell me, I’m not open to it.

“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.” That’s a strong statement on inspiration right there. Who was speaking when Isaiah spoke? Who was speaking when Jeremiah spoke? Who was speaking when Ezekiel spoke? God was speaking. It was the word which the Lord of hosts had sent by the Holy Spirit through the prophets. So when they said no to the message of Jeremiah they weren’t saying no to Jeremiah, because all Jeremiah was, was a vehicle through whom the Holy Spirit was conveying the message of God the Father. I take it that’s a strong statement on inspiration. When you read the Old Testament you are reading the message that God gives. That’s why it’s important, even though often we don’t appreciate its importance. It’s God speaking. That makes it important, that’s what makes it significant. That’s what makes it necessary to know and understand.

They wouldn’t hear. The result of not hearing is always the same. “Therefore, great wrath came from the Lord of hosts.” What else could He do? They won’t hear My word, what else can I do? The only thing to do is intervene with wrath. “’And it came about that just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen,’ says the Lord of hosts.” Verse 12 and 13 I have marked in my bible because it does say something. Israel was the people of God in the Old Testament. The church is the people of God today. As God’s people harden their heart, God must chasten them. But you know what happens often when a chastening process begins? That’s when the cry comes out. What verse 13 tells us very simply is that there is a time when it is too late to call. That can be carried both for the unbeliever and the believer, obviously. I don’t want to hear the word of God about my sin. I don’t want God to tell me about my sin, and I don’t want you to tell me about my sin. But God begins to chasten me for it, and bring disaster in my life, then all of a sudden I’m calling on God. What am I calling upon Him for? To remove the chastening, but it’s too late. It was too late for Israel to cry out when the Babylonians were breaking into the city. God, we’ve changed our minds. It’s too late to change your mind, and I’ll tell you what you can do now. You can submit to the judgment, and this is what I’ll do, and I take it. That’s what’s in view in verse 13. They called and He wouldn’t listen. It was too late to change events and, I take it, that’s true for you and I as believers as well. I have to take it in the proper context. When a believer tolerates sin in his life and God intervenes, then is when we want to cry out. We’re crying out not because we’ve decided to abandon the sin, but because we don’t like the chastening. But that doesn’t always result in its just breaking off. It doesn’t mean that God has left us. God didn’t leave Israel. God was very gracious, and He says you go to Babylon. You submit to the captivity, and it will go well with you. Some people still couldn’t take that, so God had to chasten them further. So a word of warning. Obviously it applies to the unbeliever. The unbeliever right now, in the age of grace, has opportunity to call upon the Lord. To submit himself to the Lord, to believe in Jesus Christ. There’s coming a time when he will cry out, but it won’t be possible for him to be saved. So the analogy is the same, but I take it here we are talking in the context of God’s people.

Rather frightening, all of verse 13. “He called and they would not listen.” Do you know what it is like if you have children and you call them and they won’t listen? You call again and they don’t come. You call again and they don’t come. So you send a note with one of your other kids and they say, “Now Dad said for you to get home right away.” They say, “I’m not listening.” You know what you eventually have to do if you really love them? Now, I don’t know how you handle it; whether you use a belt, or a paddle, or your hand, or a hairbrush, but you better use something. There’s no other choice. Isn’t it amazing that God calls and we won’t listen? That shows how sinful we really are, that God would call I would refuse to listen. Remarkable. We won’t accept that from our children, and yet we respond that way to God; that He calls and I’m not willing to listen. I’m not open. Is it any wonder that it brings great wrath?

Thus, verse 14. “I scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations among whom they have not known. Thus the land is desolated behind them so that no one went back and forth, for they made the pleasant land desolate.” Now you note the change. In verse 7, when God proclaimed the word to them, they were prosperous. But you know what happens when you and I get prosperous? Our ears get hard of hearing. Things are going well, I think that my sin fits in. I think that even though I’m not completely obedient to the word, I do alright. And God has to destroy the prosperity, and that’s what He had done. So you go from the prosperity of verse 7 to the desolation of verse 14. But all you can say is both were an act of grace. God didn’t desire to bring the desolation, He sent the prophets to tell them. Now if they had been willing to listen and submit to the prophets, they could have avoided that. But now what happens? The land is desolate. All the pretty homes that they had valued so much, that they were too busy acquiring, and they didn’t have time to hear what Jeremiah had to say. They were all ashes, burned to the ground. All the people who were so busy striving to get to important places? They had all been executed and destroyed. Why? Because they didn’t want to hear the word of the Lord. Amazing.

Now God wrote this through Zechariah five hundred years before Christ. Twenty-five hundred years later we still have a hard time grasping the significance of that message. What God demands of us is submission to His word. That never changes, God demands submission. He demands submission of everyone. For the unbeliever who won’t submit there’ll be destruction. For the believer who won’t submit there will be chastening. But eventually, everyone’s going to submit. “Every knee is going to bow, and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Now isn’t it amazing that I’d rather go the hard way than the easy way? Why am I like that? I can never understand my children wanting a paddling. All you’ve got to do is do the right thing. And God says, “Gil why are you so much dumber? I’ve even given you a picture book and you can read it. Why do you continue to rebel? You think I like to give out spankings? No! I want to give you blessing.” Yeah but I don’t want to hear it Lord, I’ve got plans. Let me tell you those plans are going to get washed out because the only plans that count are God’s plans. The exciting thing is that I’m part of those plans. He wants me to be obedient so He can bless me. He wants me to be obedient so I can have the fullness of joy and happiness. Why did He want Israel to be obedient? So that He could continue to prosper them and bless them. Why was Israel disobedient? They thought that there was a better way, and it cost them everything they wanted. You and I ought to be rejoicing in the word of God. We ought to be careful that we’re learning. It’s not just interesting to read about Israel, but we ought to be learning from Israel. “These things were written for our example that we might learn.” So that we do not repeat their mistakes, but we would be in a place that God can bless us. We ought to desire that, both personally as individual believers and then as a body of believers. I take it, as we are submissive His word, God will continue to bless us beyond what we can ever expect or desire, as He has already done. But He cannot if we won’t be submissive to His word.

Let’s pray together. Father, again, we are amazed at Your grace, at Your patience, at Your kindness. Lord, that even though Israel did harden their heart as a rebellious people, even though You chastened them so severely in Your wrath, You’ve not destroyed them. You’ve not annihilated them. But simply You’ve chastened them so that someday they might be prepared for the position You have for them. Lord we are mindful of the gracious way that You’ve dealt with us in bringing us salvation in the person of Jesus Christ, Lord, and the patience that You have with us day by day. Father, I pray that we might learn from Israel. That we might see Your desire as a loving Father to bless us, to prosper us that we might have all the joy and happiness and peace that You intend for us. I pray, Father, that we might be a people who are submissive to Your word. That we might recognize that it’s more important to be obedient than to sacrifice. Guard us from being caught up in religious ritual when we go through routines; even a bible study, church attendance, and bible study attendance without any real desire or real interest. I pray, Lord, that our desire might be out of a love for You. A desire to know You better, to obey You more, that You might be glorified in it all. We pray in Jesus name, amen.