Zechariah 7:4 Commentary and Bible Study

Zechariah is commanded to address only the people in Jerusalem and the land round about. He is not addressing those people who have remained in Babylon. He speaks to them about these fasts and the future blessing of the Lord, but what he has to say is, ‘Do not succumb – presumably like those who never returned – to coldness and backsliding.’ They have fasted when they were in Babylon, even those who have now returned, but their fast was a wrong response to the situation. God had called the nation to repentance and truth by the prophets such as Jeremiah who had preached to them before the exile. Instead of obeying the prophets and turning from their sins, they had failed to understand the true cause of what had happened, and this fast had been inaugurated as if they did not know why God was treating them in this way. They should have known. They should have repented of their sins even while they were in exile, and pleaded with God to have mercy on them again and restore them to their land. So the question that has come from Babylon with these messengers is ill-founded and confused, and almost refuses to see the real cause of the judgment which the nation has faced.Speaking to those who are now back in Judah, the Lord asks them to remember how they conducted those fasts when they were still in exile. What was their thinking as they fasted? Was this something they were doing with reference to the Lord? No, he says, it was done with reference to yourselves. They were sorry for themselves and for all that had happened to them, for the loss of prestige of the nation, and the destruction of their capital and the temple there. This was the wrong response.