Zechariah 7 Devotional

Whom Our Devotion Is For

““This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Administer true justice. Show loving devotion and compassion to one another.”Zechariah 7:9 (BSB)

Men from Bethel ask whether they should keep weeping and fasting in the fifth month, as they have for years (7:2-3). God answers with questions of his own. When they fasted and mourned all those seventy years, was it really for him? And when they ate and drank, were they not doing it simply for themselves (7:5-6)?

Then he repeats what the earlier prophets had said. Judge with true justice. Show steady love and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the foreigner, or the poor, and do not plot harm against each other in your hearts (7:9-10). Their ancestors stopped up their ears and made their hearts as hard as flint, until God scattered them among the nations (7:11-14). The point is not that fasting is wrong. It is that God is after hearts turned toward him, and those hearts show up in how the weak are treated. God's question to Bethel invites you to ask whom your devotion is really for.

To think about: Is there a spiritual habit you keep mainly for yourself, and how might it turn toward God and the vulnerable people near you?