Transformation Over Tradition
Repent and Return

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Good morning, church! We’re in the book of Zechariah. We have to do these kinds of transitions because we have another service, another venue, next door that is watching this service on the video screen. We’re excited to have you next door! We, also, have many people watching online. I, actually, met a woman earlier before the service started, saying that she’s been watching us from Texas. We have people, all the time, telling us that they watched us online before they ever visited the church. Our online ministry is something that we never had before covid. The Saturday that the governor said we couldn’t meet, we said, “What do we do?” We set up an iphone down here on a tripod. That’s how we started. Since then, we have streamed our service online. We have found out that so many people, so many of you that are watching online, have been faithful viewers.

Today, we’re in part six of the book of Zechariah. We’ve entitled this message, “Transformation over Tradition.” Here’s something that I’ve learned, after thirty years of being a pastor of a church: people can get really upset if you mess with their religious traditions. They get really upset about it.

I mean, one person might say, You know, I don’t think it’s a church unless it has a steeple with some stained glass windows. Then, the next person shows up and says, I don’t think a church should have a building at all. Then, another person says, I really miss the old hymns; I wish we’d sing the old hymns. They were so rich in meaning. Then, another person says, I love the new praise choruses. They really speak to my heart. Someone else says, I don’t get this casual dress at church. I wish we could go back to church clothes. You know, I really like dressing up in a suit and tie and having the ladies in dresses. I just don’t get it. Then, someone else says, You know, I would go to church, but I don’t have any church clothes. I wish there was a church that had a pastor who wore blue jeans when he preached. A lot of our traditions come out of preferences. Some traditions have good roots under them and some just come from our preferences. What all of these have in common is that they all have to do with religious traditions that build up over time. What if we could ask the Lord, “Lord, is this tradition correct? Should we do it like this? Is this the right tradition?”

That’s what’s going on in the book of Zechariah, chapter seven and eight, because the people, the exiles that had been in Babylonian captivity, have come back now and said, “Should we keep the 70 year old tradition of fasting because of the destruction of Jerusalem? Should we keep doing that?” Because this is the way the Lord often answers, He says, “Let me ask you a question.” He answers a question with a question. “For whom were you fasting? Was it for Me?” See, that’s really the key question. “Was it for me?” He asked, “Were you doing it for me?” You see, God cares more about heart transformation. He cares more about the motive of our heart than He cares for our traditions. If you have a tradition, if you sing a hymn or you sing a new praise chorus, if you sing it, having a transformed life from the Lord Jesus, then it’s a good song. But, if you sing it without a new heart, it’s not pleasing to God because God looks on the heart, not on the outward. As He told Samuel, 1 Samuel 16:7 (ESV) “…For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

If your traditions are filled with a heart that’s for Jesus, then God Is pleased. If they’re not, then your traditions don’t matter.

What does God see when He looks at your heart? What is it that you’re thinking, even now, as you came into church today? Why did you even come? Was it because, Well, I was brought up that way, that’s what my parents taught me to do and I need to put a check in the box. I just don’t feel right if I don’t go to church. That might sound like a good motivation, but I’d say to you, before the Lord, that that’s not good enough. He wants to know if you’re doing it for Him. Are you doing it for yourself or are you doing it for Him? Are you just going through the motions? Why are you here today? Is it to hear from God? Is it to express your worship and thanksgiving? Is it to be in fellowship with God’s people because you love Jesus or did somebody drag you here today? Either way, we’re glad you’re here. We’re glad you’re here.

We want the Holy Spirit, right now, to examine your heart, because without heart change, you cannot please God. That’s what we’re talking about today. God wants to transform your heart.

We have a lot to read today. If you’ve looked at your bulletin, you’re already a little afraid because it’s a “five-pointer.” Those of you that know me, you’re thinking that there’s no way he’s gonna be able to do this. Well, the first service got out of here before you got here, so that’s proof that I’ve been able to do it at least once. We’ll see if I can do it again.

We’re going to be looking today at how the Lord wants to transform your heart. That’s what he’s asking the people during Zechariah’s time. ‘Instead of Me answering your question about your fasting tradition, let Me ask you a question. Are you doing it for Me?’

As we look at the text today, I think we’ll see five ways that God wants to transform our hearts. Let’s read chapter seven of Zechariah; we’ll make some comments about that, then, we’ll read chapter eight and do the same.

Let’s start with chapter seven: Zechariah 7 (ESV) 1 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. 2 Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men to entreat the favor of the LORD, 3 saying to the priests of the house of the LORD of hosts and the prophets, “Should I weep and abstain in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?” 4 Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me: 5 “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? 6 And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? 7 Were not these the words that the LORD proclaimed bythe former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, with her cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?’” 8 And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, 9 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, 10 do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.” 11 But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. 12 They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts. 13 “As I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear,” says the LORD of hosts, 14 “and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate.” was made desolate. This is God’s word.

We’re listening for five ways that God wants to transform our hearts. Here’s the first way:

1. From selfishness to service.

The question really is the answer, ‘Who did you do it for? Who are you singing for? Who are you giving for? Why did you attend? What’s the motive of your heart? Is it to serve yourself or to serve the Lord? Is it for His service?

Let’s note some things about chapter seven. Chapter 7 is a break in the book. We had the first six chapters, like a diary entry from Zechariah. He said it was in the second year of King Darius; he named the month and the day; we worked out the math on it and worked it out to be 520BC, February the 15th. February 15th, 520 BC is when he made his first six chapters of diary entry.

Now, we see that two years have passed. Notice verse one, 1 “In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev.” This is two years later. He tells us what day and what month. He says the fourth day of the ninth month. That’s in the Jewish calendar. The ninth month is September, you’re thinking. Well that’s not how it works for the Jewish calendar. In fact, he names the month Chislev, which, actually, is November or December in the Jewish calendar.

We’ve talked about this, in days gone by, as we’ve been looking through the book, that the Jewish calendar is based on the moon. It’s a lunar calendar, whereas our calendar today is a solar calendar; it’s based on the sun. And so the months don’t work out perfectly, but this would have been 518 BC, along about the 4th or 5th day of November or December.

We also know that they had, two years prior to this, started rebuilding the temple. The the first six chapters of Zechariah andfrom the two chapters that we see in Haggai. They started rebuilding the temple. We know, historically, that it took four years to rebuild the temple, so they’re halfway.

That’s when this word comes. Here comes this group of people, an envoy from the city of Bethel and they’ve got a question, ‘Hey, we’ve been fasting for 70 years for the rebuilding of the temple and the rebuilding of Jerusalem and it looks like we’re halfway there. Do we need to keep fasting?’ That’s the question, basically. There has been a lot of fasting for 70 years. We’ve been fasting and brokenhearted because the temple was destroyed. It names a couple of the guys who led the envoy: Sharezer, which is an Assyrian name, which points to the way the people had been carried off into exile by the Assyrians earlier and Regem-melech, which is a Hebrew name, which means “friend of the king.” If you see “melech” in a name, it’s always the word for “king” in Hebrew. These are prominent men who had other men coming with them. They came to the priests and the prophets and said, ‘Hey, can you ask the Lord for us? Do we have to keep fasting?’

They came from the city of Bethel, which was north of Jerusalem. If you go to a Hebrew synagogue or a Jewish synagogue anywhere in the world, you’ll see, “Bethel,” usually over the doorway, which means “House of God.” If you remember Jacob in the book of Genesis, he named it “Beth El” because he had a vision of a ladder between heaven and earth and angels ascending and descending upon the ladder. That’s the place that they came from asking their question. And so, that’s the background. I would say that there’s no other book that dates as clearly as the book of Zechariah. He was very particular about giving us his diary entries and when they happened. You’ll see this this term, “LORD of Hosts,” throughout the book of Zechariah, but especially in chapter 7 and 8. “LORD of hosts” is in the book of Zechariah 52 times. Just in these two chapters, it’s here 24 times. So, half of the occurrences are in these two chapters. It’s very important to understand that this is the Lord of angel armies. It is another way to say that this is the Lord of armies of power that’s speaking to us. Zechariah calls Him by this title, “LORD of hosts,” 24 times in these two chapters.

The question that they have is, ‘Do we need to keep weeping and abstaining?’ In other words, ‘Do we need to keep fasting?’ He names the fifth month; ‘Do we need to keep fasting in the fifth month?’

Let’s look at verse five; it actually adds another month. It says, 5 “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?’ Then, when we get to chapter eight, there’s two more. 19 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth…” So, there are a total of four fasts that they have been doing for 70 years. If you work this out, you can go to 2 Kings, chapter 25, and find out why these particular months were the ones that they had fasted. The fourth month was for the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem, where Nebuchadnezzar had breached the walls. The fifth month was the destruction of the temple. The 7th month was the murder of Governor Gedaliah. The 10th month was the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem. You will see those referred to later in chapter eight. By mentioning the fifth month, he’s really mentioning all four of them because they all have to do with the destruction of Jerusalem.

For some of you, your eyes might be glazing over right now because of all the historical references and times I’ve given you. What I’m doing, and I hope you’ll understand this, is showing you that this book that we’re reading is not a myth. It’s not an allegory. It’s the word of God and it’s historically accurate. These things really happen. These are real people. These are real places. These are real events. This is why I take the time to give you the historical background.

Then He says, ‘Was it for me that you fasted?’ They had turned the fast into a time of self pity. Oh woe is me. We’ve lost the temple; oh woe is me. They had failed to fast in repentance, saying it was our sin that caused us to lose everything.

I’m the parent of three children. I’m the grandparent of nine grandchildren, with a tenth one on the way. I know a little bit about parenting. Here’s something I’ve learned through the years: When you’re correcting a child, because they’ve done something wrong, they’re really good at being sorry that they got caught, but not quite as good at being sorry for what they had done wrong. My second son, Jonathan, got in trouble at school. He comes home; we had already done all the other things because it was kind of a repetitive problem he was having. He likes to talk; I have to say that, maybe, it’s my fault because I like to talk, too. Jonathan liked to talk and he would get in trouble at school. He comes home; I tried everything and I thought this would get him – One month of no video games. He thought his world had come to an end. You would have thought I had killed the kid. He was sorry, but, why was he sorry? Was he sorry, because he had a repetitive sin problem of getting in trouble at school? Was he sorry, because he had disappointed his father? No and no. He was sorry because he couldn’t play video games for a month.

The Lord said, ‘why were you fasting, wasn’t it for yourself? It wasn’t because of what you lost. It wasn’t because you were repenting and saying, I’m sorry Lord, that we weren’t listening to You. I’m sorry Lord, that we did life our own way rather than following Your way.’ True fasting would be saying, ‘I repent, I want to get my life right.’ False fasting would be, ‘I feel bad that I lost some stuff.’

This is what’s going on here in the book of Colossians 3:23-24 (ESV) 23 “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” Whatever you do, do it for Jesus; then, your traditions will be right. Your work will be right. Your relationships will be right. But, when you do it for yourself, you put everything at risk.

Here’s the second way that God wants to transform our hearts: 2. From religious to relational.

He wants to move us from religious to relational. From ritual, just doing it because we’ve always done it that way, to thinking about our relationship with Him and others. The kind of fast that He’s talking about.

We’re in verses 7 through 10 now. He begins to talk about the former prophets. 7 Were not these the words that the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, with her cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?’” And then, he tells them that this is what a fast should look like. 8 And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, 9 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, 10 do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.” He lists some things. One of the former prophets he might be talking about here is Isaiah.

Go to Isaiah 58:4-7 (ESV) “Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high… Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? “Is not this the fast that I choose: toloose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him?” He says that true fasting is a change of heart. You treat people differently than you used to treat people. You treat the Lord differently. You treat others differently. As he’s saying, ‘the former prophets told you about this, but let me remind you.’

In verse 9 and 10, he begins to remind them of what true fasting would look like. It would look like a changed heart, rendered true judgments, kindness and mercy. That word, “mercy,” If you look it up in the Hebrew, is “ḥeseḏ,” which is a covenantal love, a lovingkindness, a committed love. “To one another.” Love your neighbor. That word is like the equivalent of the Greek word, “agape,” in the New Testament, which is God’s kind of love. It’s unconditional love . In the Hebrew, “ḥeseḏ,” has even this further meaning of covenantal love; the kind of love that never gives up on another person. One way I like to think of it is “sticky love.” I won’t let you get “unstuck” from me, kind of love. This is an important kind of love. It’s the kind of love that a husband and wife should have for each other, in a covenant, but it’s also the way fellow believers should feel towards one another. If someone, that you normally see seated near you, is not here, “ḥeseḏ” love would cause you, when you get home, to give him a call and say, ‘Hey, I missed you at church today. Is everything okay?’ Or, if you’re in a community group, don’t let somebody just “disappear and fall off of the map.” “ḥeseḏ” love pursues and doesn’t let people disappear. It says that they are important.

Then, he has a list of people not to oppress, not to press down, but to lift up. He lists the widow and the fatherless. By the way, your pastor, “yours truly,” was raised by a widow. My father died when I was eight years old. I am an example of a fatherless child. I was raised by a single female who raised me from the time I was eight. I recognized that there were people who helped to take care of us because we were not in great shape financially. When I was growing up, people would come and help us with home repairs and help us with financial things. I’m glad there were Christians that didn’t oppress my mom. I say I was fatherless, but I’m not anymore, because I have a Father in heaven. But, there are fatherless children; there are widows, either through the death of a husband or because of divorce. They are “the least of these.” The widow. The fatherless. The sojourner; that’s the person who’s not from here. Their passport is from another country . We’re not to oppress them, the poor, these are the least of these. This is evidence that you have changed from just being a religious kind of ritualistic, judgmental person to someone full of “ḥeseḏ” love. It is the way you treat “the least of these.”

One of the ways you can do a “heart checkup” today is to think about how you react when someone in your neighborhood, in your family or in this church, comes near you and they’re needy. They want something; they have something in their life that needs help. Maybe they’re socially awkward. You don’t want to talk to them because you don’t want to have to deal with it. You can do a “heart check up” when they’re coming towards you. Oh no; they made eye contact with me and I’ll be here awhile. If that’s your heart condition, I want you to lift it up to the Lord right now. He calls us to “the least of these.” I have to confess to you, and I hope you’ll be honest with yourself, that when I feel that, I have to rebuke it in the name of Jesus and say, ‘No, I need to lean into that relationship instead of running from it. If you’re sitting thinking, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I can’t think of a person like that, then, you’re probably that person.

It says in James 1:27 (ESV) “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” He makes it very clear that religion, if it’s pure, it’ll look like loving the least of these.

Here’s the third way that God wants to transform our hearts:

3. From stubbornness to submission.

We’re still in chapter seven. We’re moving now into verses 11 through the end of the chapter. The third way God wants to transform our hearts is to move us from stubborn hearts to submitted tender hearts. In verse 11, it says, “But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear.” When they heard this from the former prophets, the forefathers of these exiles, they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder. Can you picture a kid doing that? They weren’t finished and they stopped their ears. They turned a stubborn shoulder, so, the Lord told them, through the prophet Isaiah and the other prophet Jeremiah , what was going on and how to repent. They didn’t want to hear it. “But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear.”

12 “They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts.” They hardened their hearts diamond hard; that’s the hardest substance known to man. They made their hearts so hard and they did that lest they should hear the law and the words of the LORD of hosts.

Is that you this morning? Do you have a hard heart today? As I’m preaching right now, is it just bouncing off or is it going in? Are you thinking about lunch, your grocery list or your finances? Are you having a hard time? We’re all human. You can be honest with the Lord. You don’t have to tell me. I’m just asking the questions. Are you allowing God’s word to penetrate your heart? It requires the heart of repentance, a tender heart.

The Lord responds, “Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts.” He responds with anger. He’s upset at them. He says in verse 13, “As I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear,” says the LORD of hosts.” If they keep doing this, it’s gonna lead to trouble. They wouldn’t listen and then, when they got in trouble, there was praying and fasting. God is going to let that go for a while. In fact, He lets it go 70 years. He is going to let them stay in that place.

Have you ever been in a place like that, where it just felt like your prayers were bouncing off the ceiling? Maybe that is where you are today. Man, that’s where I’m at right now. There’s many reasons that the Lord might give you that sense. It might be because you have a sin area in your life that you’re not repenting of and you know what it is, but you’re still in it. It feels like He’s not hearing you. It might be that you’re in a good place with God, but God’s trying to train you to chase after Him more so that you would pray like David, who says in Psalms 42:1 NKJV, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.” I believe, as you grow as a Christian, sometimes He pulls away a little bit to see if you’ll lean in, pursue and follow Him more. He’s testing us and training us so that we love Him more.

There is a season here where He pulled away. In verse 14, he says, “and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all thenations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate.” It’s like a tornado came into Israel.

To this day, you can look anywhere on planet Earth and you can find Jews. He scattered them all over the planet; they were all from the same one land. Even in Ukraine today, as we hear on the news, President Zelensky is Jewish. There’s a large Jewish population in Ukraine. That’s why the Israelis are now trying to talk to Russia to try and help protect the Jewish population there.

We see that the Lord is moving us towards submitted hearts. I was reading Dr. Rummage’s commentary, where he talked about a chamber called anechoic chamber. I had never heard of this before. This anechoic chamber is at Orfield labs in Minneapolis. It’s called the quietest place on earth. You enter the room by passing through two sound-proof vaults. Once inside, there is absolutely no sound. The chamber has a sound level of negative nine decibels. The human ear can only detect sounds above zero decibels, so it has a negative sound. Although you cannot hear any sound in the room, you will hear things. You’ll hear your heart beating, you’ll hear your own lungs functioning and you’ll hear your digestive system working. If you’re in there long enough, you’ll start hearing things that aren’t there. It causes hallucinations because your ears are searching for sound and your mind begins to make up sounds. What might have seemed like a peaceful place actually becomes like a torture chamber. It is reported that no one can Endure being in there longer than 45 minutes. Human beings can not take that kind of silence.

Can you imagine a world where God turns His back? He turns a shoulder and stops up His ears, so that we lose this book, we lose the preaching. We lose every access of Him. I cannot imagine a world like that. What a terrible place, Christian, it would be. Let’s not take for granted that God hears us. Soften your hearts.

Now let’s go to chapter eight. We have more reading to do:

Zechariah 8:1-13 (ESV) 1 And the word of the LORD of hosts came, saying, 2 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath. 3 Thus says the LORD: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain. 4 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age. 5 And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. 6 Thus says the LORD of hosts: If it is marvelous in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in my sight, declares the LORD of hosts? 7 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will savemy people from the east country and from the west country, 8 and I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.” 9 Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Let your hands be strong, you who in these days have been hearing these words from the mouth of the prophets who were present on the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built. 10 For before those days there was no wage for man or any wage for beast, neither was there any safety from the foe for him who went out or came in, for I set every man against his neighbor. 11 But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as in the former days, declares the LORD of hosts. 12 For there shall be a sowing of peace. The vine shall give its fruit, the ground shall give its produce, and the heavens shall give their dew. And I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. 13 And as you have been a byword of cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong.” Let’s pause right there and make our fourth observation:

4. From cursing to blessing.

Look at verse 13, he says, “And as you have been a byword of cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing.” Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the term “byword.” “Byword” is a substitute word for a curse word. I used to hear that growing up. If I said certain words like, “Gosh,” I would have a bar of soap in my mouth before you could say “lickety split.” My mom would say, “That’s a byword. You’re using the Lord’s name in vain.” She held to the byword standard and just now saying what I just said, I’m not going to repeat it because I already feel a little funny. My mom’s in heaven, but I’m kind of feeling the taste of soap in my mouth a little bit just for saying it once.

That name, “Jew,” had become a byword for a curse. You might think, ‘In what way?’ but it’s still true today. People still use that name, “Jew,” as a curse word. If somebody feels like that someone took advantage of them financially, they’ll say, ‘That person “Jewed” me.’ You’ve heard that , haven’t you? You’ve probably used it. That name is still used like a curse word, a “byword” for a curse word.

He says that there’s a day coming when your name will be a blessing for people to hear. Has that day come yet? No. So this is one of “those already, not yet” prophecies. The people of Zechariah are going to see the temple rebuilt. For the next 500 years, from this time of 518 BC, all the way up through the time of Jesus in the first century, they rebuilt the temple, they rebuilt the walls under Nehemiah. They have a season of prosperity where the vines are growing, the olive oil is pouring and the old people and the young people are in the streets. For 500 years now, they never had their own kingdom. They are under, during this time, Persia. Then, they’re under the Greeks. Alexander comes through. Then, they are under the Romans. But then, in 70 AD, the Romans destroyed the whole thing again. They destroyed the walls, they destroyed the temple, they destroyed everything. But for 500 years, this is sort of true but not fully true, but it’s going to be true during the reign when Jesus comes again.

Can you picture it where people have this picture of peace and prosperity, where the Lord takes care of everything and everything is at peace? He’s describing this season that is to come. He says that He will return and will dwell there. He will be with them. He gives a picture. He says that He is going to save His people from the east country and the west country. They’ve been dispersed all over planet Earth and He is going to gather them now.

I think one of the signs of the last days would be if God were to start doing some of that kind of thing. There’s never been a nation on planet earth that ceased to exist and then 2000 years later came back into existence. That’s never happened in human history except for once In 70 AD when Israel was destroyed and the people were dispersed all over planet Earth. In 1947, Israel became a nation again. Little by little, in my lifetime and in your lifetime, the Jews are going home. He’s gathering them together. It seems to me, if we were living in the last days, we would start seeing the beginnings of these kinds of things and so we are; He’s saving His people from the east and the west. This is a way of saying, in the Hebrew, from sunrise to sunset. That’s what it literally says in Hebrew. He says, as a result, “Fear not, but let your hands be strong.” He is going to turn their life into a blessing.

It says in Galatians 3:13-14 (ESV), Paul writes, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” Christ has done this for us, believer; He became a curse so that we could become a blessing. He took our sin. He took our separation, He took our death so that we could have His righteousness, so that we could be at one with the Father and be His children, so that we could receive His eternal life. He took the curse of sin.

Now, we’re on the 5th way. Can you believe we got here? I’m going to need to get a sip of water after this. We need to look at the last part of chapter eight. We got down to verse 14, so let’s pick it up there:

Zechariah 8:14-23 (ESV) 14 For thus says the LORD of hosts: “As I purposed to bring disaster to you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, and I did not relent, says the LORD of hosts, 15 so again have I purposed in these days to bring good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; fear not. 16 These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace; 17 do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate,declares the LORD.” 18 And the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, 19 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah seasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace. 20 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities. 21 The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD and to seek the LORD of hosts; I myself am going.’ 22 Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD. 23 Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”

We’re at the end of our reading today. We come to our fifth way that God wants to transform our hearts and our lives. He wants to change us and transform us

5. From fasting to feasting.

Their question was, ‘Should we keep fasting?’ He tells them, ‘You were never doing it for Me in the first place and besides, you don’t need to do anything for Me. I’m going to do something for you.’ That’s the real truth of the gospel. We can’t save ourselves, We can’t fix it. We can’t repair our own sinful lives. To soften our hearts means to admit we need help. We need a Savior. The Lord says, ‘I’m going to do this for you. I’m going to turn your fasting into feasting.’ This clearly points to what He was getting ready to do for that 500 year span. He was going to give them a foretaste of prosperity and what it could look like. And then, He’s going to give them the Messiah. But what did they do? They rejected Him. When they rejected Him, He allowed the country to be destroyed.

They’ve been through this time of testing, but God’s not finished with Israel. He’s not finished with them. He’s still coming again and when He comes again, I believe that the Jews will respond and receive Him as their own. That’s what’s coming.

Now as we read this, He’s talking about it. He’s talking about what it’s going to look like. He has a new purpose. This new purpose will be no longer to discipline, but to reward and to give them good .

We see, in verses 14 and 15, that He’s going to turn their fasting into seasons of joy, gladness and cheerful feasts. Then, in verse 23, He says, “Thus says the LORD of hosts in those days.” So earlier, He had been saying that in these days, you’ve laid the foundation of the temple. But then, He says in verse 23, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’” This is something that hasn’t happened yet. He’s going to tell us here. “Ten men from the nations of every tongue.” What does that mean? I think the number ten means the number of wholeness, so it means a lot. It means that people from every nation, the Gentiles have come to faith in Jesus and more are coming. The Gentiles are going to take hold of the robe of the Jew and say, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’

How do you say, “God with you?” You say it like this: “Emmanuel.” They have heard that God is with you. We see a clear reference to the future, a millennial kingdom, when Jesus will return and gather everyone to Himself. God is with you; this points to Jesus.

Don’t you wish that you could have the Lord transform your life and turn your fasting into feasting, your weeping into dancing, your sadness into joy and your loneliness into fellowship? Only God can do that, but you have to give Him your heart. You have to give Him your life. One day, He will wipe away every tear. There will be no more tears, no more crying, no more sickness and no more disease. There’s a day coming, when Christ is coming again. This book, written 2500 years ago, tells us that He’s coming. He did come and He is coming again and so, we can have faith.

Do you want a transformed life? Do you want a life, where Jesus turns your life from fasting to feasting? There’s a feast coming. It’s called the wedding feast of the bride groom, Jesus. I wonder if you have an appointment, a seat at the table. You’ve all been invited. Would you come to Him today?

Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for this word, that proclaims that You were coming and also points to not just Your first coming but Your second coming. We await that day. Lord, I pray for the person that came in on a thin thread today. Lord, they barely got here. Someone else invited them or they came because they need something and they don’t know what, but today, they’ve heard about You. My friend, would you pray with me right now to receive Jesus? You can pray like this, ‘Dear Lord Jesus,I’m a sinner. I’ve made a lot of mistakes with my life, but I believe You died on the cross for me, that You were raised from the grave and that You live today. I believe that, Lord. Would You come into my life, forgive me and make me a child of God? I receive You now, by faith. I want You as my Lord and Savior.’ If you’re praying a prayer like that, meaning that in your heart, He will save you. He will make you a child of God. Others are here and you’ve done that; you’ve received Jesus. You’re a follower, but today, you would admit that you’ve been going through a dry spell. ‘Lord, I’ve been going through the motions. Lord, sometimes it feels like my prayers are just bouncing off the ceiling. Lord, would You hearken to my cry? Would You listen to my prayer right now? Lord, I want a fresh touch from You. Lord Jesus, right now,examine my heart. Lord, I want to do all things for You. I ask You to soften my heart and help me to always be tender hearted towards You.’ We pray all of this now, in Jesus’ name. Amen.