Good morning. Would you turn your Bibles, please, to Zechariah, chapter seven. Zechariah, just a few books before Matthew, it's one of the last books of the Old Testament. Easy to find. Zechariah, chapter seven. It says in Ezra, chapter five, the Jews returning from Babylon, the Babylonian captivity began to build the temple. of the Lord in Jerusalem around 536 B.C. Although the construction was delayed for a number of years after the foundation was laid, during that time the Lord used the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to spur the people on to continue the construction of the temple. Haggai prophesied some four months during the captivity or during the early construction of the temple. And shortly after Haggai finished his messages, Zechariah continued revealing the word of God during the time of the temple construction. And our last messages we had went through the eight visions of Zechariah, these visions he had in one evening. And these were very positive messages for the future of that very small temple. And for the future of Jerusalem, that would someday be a great and growing city, and even for the future of the leaders, for Zerubbabel, the governor, and Joshua, the high priest, for both of these men were seen as types of the coming Messiah, and that is our Lord Jesus Christ. So about two years after Zechariah had these great visions, The Lord spoke to him again, and that occurs in Zechariah, chapter seven. And so let us begin reading Zechariah, chapter seven. Now, in the fourth year of King Darius, it came to pass that the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month with his chislev. This is about two years after Zechariah's last vision and word of the Lord. Verse two. When the people sent Shirzer and Regem-Melek and his men to the house of God to pray before the Lord and to ask the priests who were in the house of the Lord of hosts and the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month and fast as I have done for so many years? Then the word of the Lord came to me, that's Zechariah, saying, Say to all the people of the land and to the priests When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and the seventh month during those 70 years, did you really fast for me, for me? When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves? Should not you have obeyed the words of the Lord proclaimed through the former prophets when Jerusalem and the cities around it were inhabited and prosperous? And the Southland and the Lowland were inhabited. The scene here is a group of men had appeared from the captivity from Babylon, and they had come from Babylon to the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem to worship. But they also had a question to ask. Their question was, should we continue fasting and should we continue weeping? in the fifth month and the seventh month, as we have done for some of these last almost 70 years. Now, the Bible doesn't say much about these fasts, but I guess the history of the Jews from ancient times, Matthew Henry recovered some of this history, and this is what he found. He said the fourth month was there was a day of fasting, remembering the tearing down of the wall around Jerusalem almost 70 years ago. The fast of the fifth month was a remembrance and a mourning for the destruction and the burning of the temple in Jerusalem. The fast of the seventh month was a remembrance and a mourning for the killing of Getaliah. Now, Getaliah was the governor that Nebuchadnezzar had appointed to be ruler of the Jews after he had taken most of the Jews away from the captivity and carried them away to Babylon. But there were still a few very poor people that remained in Getaliah. And he was a Jew. He was to remain and be the governor over them. But trouble is, is one of the Jewish own countrymen of Gedaliah. I believe his name was Ishmael. He rose up in rebellion and killed Gedaliah. And so this seventh month fast was a remembrance of the old governor Gedaliah. And then the tenth month fast. They fasted in the tenth month, it's mentioned in next chapter, not this chapter. And that was a remembrance of the siege of Jerusalem by the army of the Babylonians. You remember that the Babylonians completely sieged Jerusalem for 18 months, and they basically wouldn't let anybody come in or go out. And that included food and supplies. And so basically, they starved the city to death. So there was hardly any will of the people left to fight against them when they finally did break down the walls. So these were the four fasts that there was a fast each month of these four months, one day fast. And these inquirers from Babylon wanted to know, well, do we still need to keep on doing these fasts? Because one of the fasts is fast for the destruction of the temple, but we've almost got our new temple already constructed. So do we continue to mourn and fast for the old temple? And then one of these fasts was for the killing of Governor Gadalaya many years ago, but you've got a new governor now. It's irrevocable. It's irrevocable. It's your new governor, so we don't really need to fast for the old governor anymore. So we want guidance and direction on this. Can you tell us what to do? To put this in perspective of our own times, in the year 2001, on September 11th, One of the greatest tragedies in our country ever happened, the famous 9-1-1 event. And I find it interesting that since that time, the spirit of America has not been one so much of mourning and fasting, but rather, let's go get the guys that made this happen. We have adopted more a spirit of revenge than repentance, but getting back to get Elias time, although the Jews in the captivity were noble to mourn their recent tragedies with days of weeping and fasting. The simple truth is, is that these fasts were the traditions of men and that God had never commanded them to do it. In fact, as far as I know, there's not a commandment anywhere in the Old Testament or the New Testament to fast. We've just finished the Ten Commandments. Was any of the ten that are fresh in your mind now, I know you can all name them by heart. Were any of those ten commands to fast? Was there a day that said thou shalt fast on a certain day? Did Jesus ever command any of his disciples to fast or his followers to fast? As far as I can tell, no. Now, there are plenty of occasions for fasting in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. By many great men, I'll just name a few. In the Old Testament, Moses fasted for 40 days while on Mount Sinai, waiting to receive the instructions about the ceremonial law. Old King Saul, the first king of Israel, and his armies fasted in the field while waiting for an attack by the Philistine army. When he became the new king of Israel, declared a day of fasting after he heard about the death of Saul, King Saul, in a battle. David fasted for the firstborn child, to both he and Bathsheba, when the baby was dying. He also fasted, it says in Psalm 35, for his sick friends. The whole nation of Israel fasted before engaging in a civil war against their own tribe of Benjamin. That was quite an event, Israel battling against one tribe of Israel, they fasted before they began the third and final attack against Benjamin. And then we read that after the Jews had gone into captivity and companies returned here and there, one of those companies was Ezra, and before he began his great journey from Babylon, He prayed and fasted for protection while they went on this dangerous journey. And then we read that Daniel fasted some three weeks during some of the visions that the Lord was giving him in the later part of the book of Daniel. Nor was fasting something that only Jews did. We read that the people of Nineveh fasted for three days after hearing the preaching and the prophecies of the prophet Jonah. warning of their coming destruction. We read that King Darius of Persia fasted for Daniel after the king had been tricked into signing a law that condemned Daniel to the lion's den and the king. I think Daniel slept better that night than the king did. But the king, this Persian king, not a Jew, fasted. And we even read, speaking of kings, even the old wicked King Ahab, the king of Israel, although he was a Jew, even he fasted after he'd heard the prophecies of the prophet Elijah against him and his family. We read in the New Testament that John the Baptist and his disciples fasted. And when the Lord Jesus was just a young baby and he was brought into the temple, He was greeted by an old widow. Her name was Anna, and she held the baby and rejoiced because she was had given her life to prayer and fasting. The Apostle Paul testifies that in his travels, he had been in hunger and thirst and in fastings often. We know that the Lord Jesus fasted, he went 40 days without food in the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And there was occasion in Matthew's gospel where a particularly difficult case of demon possession had occupied a young child and the disciples of Jesus couldn't cast him out. And Jesus was able to cast out this demon and his disciples said, Lord, why couldn't we do it? Why didn't we have the power? And he said, this kind comes out only by prayer and fasting. And so all of the great saints of the Bible, Moses, Elijah, David, Daniel, John the Baptist, Paul and even Jesus himself fasted. And yet there appears to be no scriptures for anyone to fast. The closest the Bible comes to commanding a fast is back in Leviticus, chapter 16, which speaks of the great day of atonement. And that was, of course, when the high priest of Israel offered the sacrificial lamb for the sins of the nation and for his own sins on that day. On that day. The children of Israel were to afflict their souls, and probably the best way to do this was through fasting. Now, Dr. Don Whitney, in his book, The Disciplines for the Christian Life, observes that fasting is mentioned more times in the New Testament than baptism. I'm much indebted to Dr. Whitney for his observations on fasting in chapter nine of his book. In fact, I have a hard time myself even mentioning fasting as a Christian virtue because you all know my fondness for food. I'm a self-confessed glutton and a coffee bipper. I have a hard time controlling myself around any good food, especially the treats that you ladies offer me each Sunday. I think I'm fasting when I miss my morning snack between breakfast and lunch. However, I want you to know that fasting is much more than being hungry. So don't listen to me. Listen to our good friend, Dr. Don. If you have read his book, I recommend his chapter on fasting. He opens it with a quote from a Cornelius Planting Day, Jr., who said in 1988, He said the early desert fathers, that is our spiritual forefathers, believed that a person's appetites are linked. Full stomachs and palates soiled by food take the edge from our hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God. They spoil the appetite for God. I like to say it another way. After stuffing oneself with fine pastries at the dessert line, who feels much like praying? We wouldn't play a basketball game on a full stomach. And a stuffed tummy doesn't do too much to enhance prayer and Bible study either. But we're not talking about moderation of food intake here. We're talking about fasting. the denial of food and water from the body and for God's purposes. Dr. Don Whitney suggests a number of reasons for Christians to fast for personal godliness, and let me review a few of them. One of the reasons we should fast is to strengthen our prayer. The first missionary journey in the world The one undertaken by Paul and Barnabas from the church at Antioch. This journey was begun after the church at Antioch had prayed and fasted. And we have already mentioned how Ezra fasted and prayed before his dangerous journey in an earlier time. I believe fasting shows to God that we are dead earnest about our requests. Another reason for fasting is to ask for guidance. It says in Acts, chapter 14 and verse 23, that Paul and Barnabas fasted and prayed before they appointed elders in the new churches they had planted in Asia. Fasting does not always ensure that we're going to get a clear answer, but it does sharpen our hearing to the one who guides us. Third reason for fasting is to express grief. When David first heard the news that Saul and his dear friend Jonathan had been killed in a battle, they mourned and fasted until evening for these men and for the defeated army of Israel. In the very chapter before us, the fast of the fifth month and the seventh months were annual expressions of Israel's grief for the destruction of the temple and for the governor that was later murdered. Christians may fast over grief for their own sins. They may fast over the sins of others. Jonathan, the great friend of David, when he heard the evening before his father Saul pronounce his intentions to kill David, Jonathan was so upset that he ate no food the next day. It's an expression of grief for his dear friend, David. for prayer, we fast for guidance, we fast to express grief, and we fast for deliverance and protection. Queen Esther, at a time of great crisis to the Jews in captivity in the land of Persia, before she was asked to intrude upon the presence of the king of Persia, remember, you couldn't just go barging in before the king and say, hey, you know, I've got a request. No, you had to actually be invited to speak before the king. Remember, he had to He had to hold that scepter out to you and invite you to come. And if you came in uninvited, you could be killed. And so even though she was the queen, she had to have the audience of the king to protect the Jews against the plot that Haman had contrived. And before she went in to speak before the king, she asked that the people in Jerusalem pray and fast for her. for three days and three nights without food and water, and that she had intended, along with her maidens, to do the same. She fasted for God's deliverance and protection. In Psalm 109, we read, and that we're going to be reading in a couple of weeks, David pleads to God for personal protection against his enemies, and he laments, in verse 24, that my knees are weak from fasting. Dr. Whitney says, fasting rather than fleshly efforts should be one of our first defenses against persecution from the family, from schoolmates, from neighbors or co-workers because of our Christian faith. We are tempted to strike back with anger, verbal abuse, counter accusations or even legal action. But instead of such actions and gossiping, In imitating the tactics of the world, we should appeal to God with fasting for protection and deliverance. That's on page 170 of his book. And another reason Dr. Whitney recommends fasting is for repentance and for return to God. And we read of such an assembly in 1 Samuel chapter 7, where Israel had been under heavy harassment by the Philistines. And Samuel had called the people together to the city of Mizpah. And he told them to put away their foreign idols that they had been worshiping and to turn their hearts to the Lord. And the people all confessed to Samuel that day and said, we have sinned against the Lord, and they fasted all that day. Another reason for fasting, Dr. Whitney gives, is to humble oneself before God. As I mentioned earlier, the old King Ahab fasted after hearing Elijah's dreadful prophecy concerning him and his family. And the Lord took notice of Ahab's repentance, that he'd humbled himself before the Lord. And he observed, he said, see how Ahab has humbled himself before me. And he actually delayed some of the prophecies against Ahab and his family and passed them on to his son instead. Well, these are some of the reasons that Dr. Whitney lists, and he lists a number of others, and I'll just read them here before I and not expand on them, but one of them is to express concern for the work of God in this world. And we try to do that for our missionaries during our prayer meetings. We fast and pray to minister to the needs of others. We fast and pray to overcome temptation. We fast and pray to dedicate oneself to God and to his work. And we fast and pray even to express love and worship for God. Now, not everyone can fast. There are medical reasons, there are people who are hypoglycemic, there are people who are diabetic, and maybe that's why there's no command in the scripture for it. But even for those people who are medically afflicted, although they must have something in their stomachs most of the time, they can abstain from some of their favorite foods at times when they want to get closer to God. Well, let me summarize that fasting teaches one self-control, it brings Humiliation to our pride. And it teaches our dependency upon God. He provides the good things that we eat, and we are as dependent upon him for those things as we are for the bread of life. The kingdom of God, Paul writes in Romans chapter 14, verse 17, is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. I believe our Lord Jesus taught us well when he said that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Having said these things about fasting, I want to offer three cautions about the practice. First, it has to be done in the right spirit. Fasting has to be done in the right spirit. It is meant to turn our attentions and affections to God. and not to tell us how hungry I am. If all you can think of is your hunger during a fast, it does little good. A better mindset is that I'm so busy for the Lord's work that I have no time to eat or rest. And this appears to be the case in John, chapter four, when Jesus and his disciples had been on a journey to Samaria. And the disciples went into town after their journey at noontime to get some food. And there the Lord Jesus met the woman at the well. And He ministered to her. And when the disciples came back, they brought food to Jesus and said, Here's the food, Lord. It's getting cold. And He says, I have meat to eat that you know not of. The Lord Jesus had more important things to do than taking on food at that hungry time as He ministered to that woman. And we read in Mark's gospel, I love this passage because I think it speaks so much about what our Lord's ministry was really like. It says that Jesus and his disciples were so thronged by crowds that they didn't even have time to eat. So fasting means that your devotion to God is more important than even eating. Fasting has to be done in the right spirit. And the second caution about fasting, and this is pretty obvious to all of you, is it's not to be done for show. One of the things about fasting in the scripture is that unless it's done by a company of mutual consent, it's something that's very private, very personal. Do it in secret. Our Lord advised us on the Sermon on the Mount that when you fast, anoint your head, wash your clothes, and put on your happy face. This is not a time to go around fasting today, wearing the long disfigured face. That's what the Pharisees did. And they were proud of it. And they have their reward, the Lord says. But you want to, as much as possible, hide the fact that you are fasting. This is a matter only between you and God. And the third caution that we have brings us right back here to Zechariah chapter seven is that fasting is never, never to be done as a substitute for other obedience in the Christian life. It might be easier to fast than to go to a brother or sister that you've offended and ask forgiveness. It might be easier to fast than to admit you were wrong and apologize for it. I think it is easier to fast and pray for someone than it is to witness to them. It's easier to fast than to cough up enough bucks to help a brother in need, a brother or sister that has financial trouble. So often we can sacrifice our hunger, but not our money. And so it was easier for the Jews in captivity to fast in mourning rather than to face up to the fact that their captivity to Babylon was not an unfortunate accident out of God's control, but indeed a judgment of God against their fathers for their social injustice. And so if you still got Zechariah open, please let's read the last verses. Of chapter seven, beginning at verse eight, Zechariah chapter seven and verse eight, then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, execute true justice, show mercy and compassion, everyone to his brother. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother. But they refused, this is their fathers, they refused to heed, shrug their shoulders and stop their ears so that they could not hear. Yes, they made their hearts like Flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent to him to them by his spirit through the former prophets. Thus, great wrath came from the Lord of hosts. And therefore, it happened that just as they proclaimed that just as he had proclaimed that they would not hear. So they called out and I would not listen, says the Lord of hosts. But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they had not known. That is, the nations to which they were going. Thus, the land became desolate after them so that no one passed through or returned, for they made the pleasant land desolate. And all these things that you mourn and fasted for, they were not something that was done by accident. God had done it and he had done it for a very good purpose. It says execute, execute true justice and judgment, show mercy and compassion, everyone to his brother. And then in verse 10, a very strong admonition, do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. There was a strong appeal throughout all of the Old Testament for social justice. And you read it in a number of the Psalms and the prophets. and I won't go into them for time this morning. Although there's not a whole lot of examples of how this happened, let me just review a few that I think were probably happening. When a farmer harvested his field, he was supposed to leave a few sheaves of grain standing. He was supposed to leave a few grapes on the vines of the vineyard, and he was supposed to leave a few olives yet on the olive tree. He wasn't to clean it. He wasn't to pick it completely clean. He was to leave some of these things for the poor, the widows, and those who had no other means of income. And the poor would come into his field, and they would pick these things that had been left and remained. Now, I think there was a great principle in this. You can harvest, and sometimes harvesting is done in somewhat of a hurry. You've got to try to get the crops in before the next rain. You can harvest quickly if you don't try to glean everything and pick it clean. But the other great benefit was that these poor people actually had to work in order to get their bread. And so it was a good system. But if the man is harvesting his field and says, you know, I want these grapes are so good, man, I want them all. Or I don't think I'm going to have enough to make it through the winter. I better take all. I better just clean this field. And I know the poor need to eat and all that. I don't know how they're going to eat, but I don't want to be one of them. So I'm just going to take it. That was one of the ways. Or how about the case where there's a poor woman who can't make her mortgage payment and you're the landlord. Or maybe you had loaned her the money. And so you say, well, I guess I'll just have to foreclose on you. Yeah, I know you lost your husband in battle and yeah, I know that things are tough in your family, but hey, you know, I got to have my rent. I got to have my money back. So he either forecloses on her or he sells their children as indentured servants for money and gets his payment that way. We read in Jeremiah 34 that King Zedekiah, who was the last king, of Judah had set the Jewish indentured servants free. Actually, he was just enforcing the ceremonial law that after six years they were supposed to be freed. It was the idea that no Jewish Hebrew person should be a servant forever or a slave forever. Zedekiah made this decree and the nobles and all the princes and people agreed with it. They even signed a covenant said, OK, we're going to free our slaves. And they did for a while. And then they brought them all back again, they took them all back into the bondage again. Well, Jeremiah protested violently to this. Jeremiah, the prophet. And we read in this very text. what their reaction was to Jeremiah. It says that they, in verse 11, refused to heed and shrug their shoulders and stop their ears so that they could not hear. And they made their hearts like flint. Flint is a very hard stone. You strike steel against flint and you get sparks. They refused to hear the words of the word of the Lord. And you know what? They refused to hear the law of the Lord and the prophets of the Lord. And when their time of trouble came and they cried out to the Lord, his hearing was real. His hearing was real bad. He could not hear them. If I may paraphrase Zechariah chapter seven, it goes something like this. You have mourned and fasted for nearly 70 years at set times each years because your once beautiful temple got destroyed and your governor was assassinated by his own Jewish people. Why have you not mourned and fasted that your fathers treated my people, their own Jewish brethren, wickedly? They oppressed them and they showed no mercy. And your fathers refused to hear my words, said the Lord, when they cried out for help. And so I wouldn't hear their words. And really, Zechariah is repeating something that he had said way back in chapter one. I'll just read chapter one in verse Four, where he says to the people at his time, Do not be like your fathers to whom the former prophets preached, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, Turn now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds. But they did not hear me nor heed me, says the Lord. And your fathers, where are they now? This was a message that I sometimes think the grandsons of these fathers Never really understood, never got back. I think they think that maybe some unfortunate accident happened when the Babylonians captured Jerusalem and took the people into captivity. It wasn't an accident at all. This was all by the divine providence of God. And it was a judgment upon his people. Well, I'd hope to maybe cover a little bit more Zechariah today, but I think It's a good time to stop and we'll pick up on chapter eight next week. It's an encouraging chapter. After Zechariah rebukes the people for their false fasting and bad attitudes, he offers in chapter eight a great hope that the Lord is going to turn their fasting into feasting. And so the Lord works with us. when we walk with the Lord in both humility and repentance. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Dear Lord, we ask that we will hear your words and we will be open to your truth, that we might feast upon the bread of life. And forgive us where we have been hard of hearing. Forgive us, Lord, where we've even put certain religious duties in the place of plain and simple obedience, in the place of plain and simple things that we should rather be doing. Thank you for your mercy to us. Help us to be faithful servants to you. We ask in your Son's name. Amen.