Zechariah 8:16 Commentary and Bible Study

Again, through Zechariah, God sets before them the standards that he expects them to live by. These are the standards which the generation before the exile had failed to live by, and which chapter 7 has told us was the reason for the judgment in Babylon (7:4-14). But now they have returned, and that should be to their great encouragement, but they must remember why they were brought under discipline in the first place.We are reminded that our God reads the hearts of his people. He is concerned about our words and the truthfulness of our statements. These are things which our fellow human beings would not necessarily be able to detect, but the Lord has an immediate knowledge of our thoughts before they even turn into words. He hates every lie, for lying takes advantage of the darkness and it belongs to and originates in the kingdom of darkness. It imitates the ruler of this world who is a liar and lied from the beginning. No liar will be allowed into heaven. God calls for justice among his people, rather than partiality or the accepting of a bribe to pervert judgment. He loves to see his people living at peace with each other and, if necessary, accepting minor wrongs from each other without complaint, in the interests of peace. So much of this is about the heart and our motivation for what we do. God hates to observe the one who has evil thoughts in his heart and who uses all his ingenuity to find ways of expressing it. He sees the vanity of those who think they can escape his detection. God also hates every false oath either to men or to God. Truthfulness is so important to him, that we must study all the ways in which we might depart from the truth and ask him to establish integrity deep within us.