Chapters 7 and 8

During the Babylonian captivity the Jews had four fasts every year. The feasts were set aside but the fasts continued.

1. The fast Tamuz — Jeremiah 39:2; 52:6,7. The purpose was to recall the capture of Jerusalem in the reign of Zedekiah. Tarmuz was the fourth Jewish month.

2. The fast of Ab, the fifth Jewish month — Jeremiah 52:12,13; 2 Kings 25:8,9. This recalled the destruction of Jerusalem and the first temple in 586 BC.

3. Tshere, the seventh month — Jeremiah 41:1; 2 Kings 25:25,26. This recalled the murder of Gedeliah.

4. Tueth, the tenth month — Jeremiah 39:1; 2 Kings 25:1. This recalls the events of the siege of Jerusalem.

A fast

They put on sackcloth and ashes. They went through overt self-abasement, beating the chest, “Woe is me", etc. Now that they were back in the land the people of Bethel had just been through one of these feasts. They began to look toward Jerusalem where the temple was being built. The temple meant Levitical offerings. Why should they go through the fasts when they could go back to Levitical offerings? So they sent a delegation to Jerusalem.

Verse 1 — “Chislev,” the month of December.

Verse 2 — “house of God” should be translated Bethel which, while it means the house of the Lord, is actually a city. The verse should read literally: “Now Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men to pray to the Lord in Jerusalem”.

Verse 3 — “the priests” — their responsibility was to communicate Bible doctrine; “were in the house of the Lord of hosts” — the priests were now functioning because of the coronation of Joshua in the previous chapter; “and to the prophets” whose responsibility was also to communicate doctrine. Difference? The prophets received their message directly from the Lord. They had a message for the people of their day. The priests had a different system of communication, they always communicated doctrine from the Torah. They taught the Mosaic law, the Levitical offerings, the holy days, etc. They simply took scripture and taught scripture; the prophets made scripture. However, they were both communicators. Ritual without reality (doctrine) is meaningless. “Should I weep?” — God is not impressed with ritual and false modesty; “separating” — from food, making vows and dedications — hiphil stem, he is caused to do this by pressure of religion.

Verse 5 — “all the people” — the three were not the only ones wondering about this question; “to the priests” — there is no precedent, the priests only teach what is in the Word and to this point there was nothing in the Word to answer their question; “when ye fasted and mourned” — it was ritual without reality. They had been crying because they were losers.

Verse 6 — the problem of the feasts. Eating and drinking represent the principle of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. With fasting there is no eating. There is no spiritual benefit in going without food. In their eating and drinking they had missed the boat. They were doing it to self rather than doing it as unto the Lord and therefore orienting to its spiritual connotation. When they forgot what was behind the eating and drinking, all they had was ritual.

Verse 7 — “hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets.” In other words, “Shouldn’t you have been learning doctrine instead of going through ritual?” Ritual without reality (doctrine) is meaningless. They were warned before 586 BC — see Hosea 4:1-6.

Verse 9 — “execute true judgement”; execute, qal imperative, means judge, cf 2 Corinthians 11:31, judge yourselves, rebound, name your sin; “show mercy” — mercy is grace in action. Showing mercy is the believer treating other people in grace. Which looks better, a person who shows grace or a person involved in ritual, sackcloth and ashes?

Verse 10 — some illustrations. Stop maltreating widows and orphans. Widow represents a helpless female; “stranger” — someone who is obnoxious; “poor” — someone who embarrasses you; “imagine evil” — mental attitude sins; “in your heart” — the mentality of the soul.

Verses 11-12, the reaction of the pre-exilic people.

Verse 11 — “refused to hearken” — negative volition; “pulled away the shoulder” — turned the shoulder (cold shoulder), an overt manifestation of negative volition toward Bible doctrine; “stopped their ears” — refused to listen and put their fingers in their ears.

Verse 12 — “adament stone” — diamond. The hardest stone in existence. Solid negative volition; “great wrath” — 5th cycle of discipline. They went negative so that they would not have to hear the Word of the Lord of hosts.

Verses 13-14, the reality of divine discipline.

“cried” — the prophet would shout. The word literally means to shout —"they cried” — they shouted for help.

Verse 14 — “scattered” — 5th cycle of discipline; “for they laid desolate the pleasant land” — believers minus doctrine and unbelievers. They caused it to be desolate.

Chapter 8

We now have the positive answer to the delegation sent from Bethel under the command of Regem-melech who have been sent to make enquiries about the four fasts which the Jews were observing. He is informed in chapter seven that the breast-beating type of operation, the self-effacement, the sackcloth and ashes, does not interest God in the least, is a phoney front and that God is never impressed with ritual and other overt activities and manifestations of sincerity. God is not impressed with sincerity but He is impressed with Bible doctrine flowing into the various facets of the human soul. When there is a maximum number of people in a national entity taking in Bible doctrine (they are always called a remnant: born again individuals within a nation) the country is blessed. A national entity is preserved by salt. Believers are called the salt of the earth. The salt is the believer with Bible doctrine. Consequently we have in chapter eight the positive side of the fasting situation. In verses 1-17 we have the principle of the restoration of Israel. This is still a part of the answer which was given to Regem-melech who has come from Bethel.

Verse 2 — “jealous” here is an anthropopathism, it ascribes to God a human characteristic which He does not have in order to communicate a divine attitude to a segment of the human race. Jealousy has the connotation of relationship and possession. The Jews are the peculiar possession of the Lord. “I was jealous” is in the piel stem. The verb is qana.

“fury” — the 5th cycle of discipline. You are not jealous of someone unless you have some kind of love for them. One of the manifestations of jealousy is anger. Here fury is added and fury is anger. The subject of this verse is God the Father and God the Father cannot sin. This is therefore an anthropopathism which has the connotation of relationship and possession. The Jews are the peculiar possession of the Lord. And that isn’t all. In addition to possessing the entire Jewish race God has a special relationship to certain of the Jews called the remnant. These are the regenerate Jews (Old Testament).

Verse 3 — “returned” (Hebrew shub, qal perfect) — I have returned to stay. Because in the 70 years they learned the importance of doctrine and are going to operate on doctrine.

“dwell” — to dwell in a blessing sense, relaxed atmosphere, peaceful dwelling. Jerusalem has no wall but the Lord dwells there, “in the midst of Jerusalem”.

“city of truth” — of doctrine. Jerusalem shall be a city of doctrine. There is the change.

“holy mountain” — on which the temple is built. The temple is doctrine and it represents the whole principle of communication of doctrine at that time in history. The temple is the place where doctrine is taught and all ritual in the temple, in front of the temple, in connection with the temple, the operation, the modus operandi, the Levitical priesthood, is Bible doctrine being communicated. There is the restoration of the nation; there is why the temple must be completed. The city of doctrine simply means that doctrine has a maximum influence and whenever this is true then the nation also has prosperity. The prosperity is described in verses 4 and 5 — the aged and the youth. Bible doctrine provides for all stages of human life.

Verse 4 — “old men and old women” .The very existence of these indicates prosperity and this was especially true in the ancient world when it was very easy for people to live just a short time and not to survive. Whenever you have old people in a population, and lots of them, it means that the population is under some sort of prosperity. It also indicates that there are conditions in the national entity where they have not been subjected to a lot of warfare, and consequently they have not suffered casualties from combat or slavery or malnutrition, or the diseases that often accompanied wars in the ancient world.

Verse 5 — “boys and girls playing in the streets” is indicative of prosperity. The word for playing is a piel participle that means laughing. The children are living normal lives.

Verses 6-8, the several deliverances of Israel described. The future deliverances of Israel are involved here and the one which would attend the completion of the second temple.

Verse 6 — “if” is literally, because. “Because it is marvellous in the eyes of the remnant” .What does all this mean? Well the remnant is the key.

“remnant” refers to the believers, the salt of the earth. They have Bible doctrine and this is what will carry the nation now from 516-323 BC. This is always what carries a nation, this is what preserves the population of a nation from its deterioration which destroys a nation.

“marvellous” — verb. Niphel, passive voice, imperfect tense, which means the action is continued. The verb connotes grace, receiving and being aware of Bible doctrine. When you have a population of believers with a maximum knowledge of doctrine they are the recipients of maximum grace. That adds up to being “marvellous” .The verb actually means something which is wonderful or a marvel. The niphel stem indicates this is something which is received, not earned or deserved. It also has a dual fulfilment — ref. to the remnant in the Tribulation.

“these days” — the days immediately following the construction of the second temple.

“marvellous” — from the standpoint of the Lord. If it is marvellous to those who are oriented to grace, how much more so to the Lord?

Verse 7 — “my people” refers to Israel restored under two different situations.

“east country” — Babylon, called the east country because you have to travel east to get there. First administration of the 5th cycle of discipline. The golden age followed because they learned the importance of doctrine.

“west country” — Rome, the second administration of the 5th cycle of discipline, AD 70 to the second advent. The fifth cycle of discipline will ends with the second advent when Christ will regather Israel. And what will happen? A golden age will follow — the Millennium — with Bible doctrine. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters that cover the sea. So we have a parallel: 586 BC, the fifth cycle of discipline which terminates in 516 BC and followed by a golden age with Satan on the earth. The second one, the west country one, is followed by a golden age with Satan and demons removed from the earth. In other words, perfect environment.

Verse 8 — “bring", cause them to come; “dwell” — shakan, which means to dwell in the sense of prosperity; “they shall be my people” — this is the fulfilment of the four unconditional covenants; “I will be their God” — relationship. There can never be doctrine in the soul of the believer until there is relationship. Relationship with God always precedes doctrine. Learning doctrine is a phase two operation, relationship with God is a phase one operation. No one can appreciate, utilise, or enjoy the monopolies and by-products of Bible doctrine until he is born-again, until he is a child of God.

“truth” — doctrine. There is no prosperity for the people of God without Bible doctrine; “and in righteousness.” There are three kinds of righteousness. There is phase one righteousness: doctrine of imputation — Romans 3:22; 2 Corinthians 5:21; phase two righteousness: experiential righteousness which comes through learning doctrine and through the filling of the Spirit; phase three righteousness: absolute righteousness.

Verse 9 — an exhortation to the people. The people are in danger of getting into apostasy, of being led astray by their emotions. How do you stop all this?

“be strong” — chazaq, qal imperative, keep on being strong, don’t quit. It means to have a firm hold on something, to latch on, having something stabilised by which one gains strength. Latch on to Bible doctrine, the basis for strength. This is the idea of having something stabilised by which one gains strength; “ye that hear” — to listen and obey, the only means by which you become strong — a lifetime activity. The qal active participle means you have to keep on listening. You don’t graduate in a year or two years. Learning the Word of God must become a lifetime activity; “in these days” means in Zechariah’s day. When Zechariah was alive and ministering two years before the temple was completed there was a tremendous Satanic challenge to the nation, just before the fifth cycle terminated. It was a challenge to get the people on apostasy, a challenge which would have resulted in the scribes, the Pharisees, and the hypocrites immediately after 516 BC. It was a challenge that would have destroyed the prosperity for minus doctrine would mean minus, prosperity. It was a challenge that would have destroyed the nation. In other words, the religiosity that came in Jesus’ day would have come after 516. So we are actually looking at a passage that headed the Jews off at the pass and kept them in the prosperity bracket. It kept them with Bible doctrine and made them realise the importance of doctrine day by day in their lives.

“by the mouth of the prophets” — there was more than one prophet operating; “in the day that the foundation the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid” — this takes us back to the rest of the prophets. Zechariah and Haggai are post-exillic, but we have pre-exillic prophets mentioned here by the fact that the house was originally built — when the house was built, Heb. banah which means to construct, niphel infinitive. This takes us back to Solomon’s temple.

Verse 10 — national discipline. “before these days” — before the 5th cycle of discipline; “no hire” — unemployment because there was no economy to boost it — no Bible doctrine. Here are some of the situations that developed under the third and fourth cycles of discipline. The fourth cycle is always a warning of the coming of the fifth cycle; “no peace” — no prosperity under the fourth cycle of discipline; “no hire for beast” — a part of the agricultural economy; “went out and came in” — people hired themselves out for a day’s work under an agricultural economy; “because of the affliction” has to do with the fourth cycle of discipline; “every one against his neighbour” — dissension in the nation. When things begin to fall apart people begin to blame each other. This is going on in our country today and will become an increasing factor.

Verse 11 — “residue,” same Hebrew word as remnant and refers to the believers. It is not enough to start well, it must be kept up; “as in the former days, saith the Lord” .What does this mean? It means that believers who have returned to the land under the leadership of Zechariah and Haggai have resumed the construction of the temple, they are operating under Bible doctrine, and therefore they must continue this. To start out right does not mean that it will be perpetuated. They must start with doctrine; doctrine must be first every day. Everything else in life must be secondary to the Word because through doctrine we come to know and appreciate the Lord. It must be kept up.

Verse 12 — a believer with doctrine is prosperous; a believer with doctrine can handle prosperity, he doesn’t let prosperity get between him and the Lord. The Lord has to be first.

In this verse there are a lot of phrases which were used in the agricultural economy of the ancient world. For example, “the seed prosperous.” This is literally, the seed of peace, which simply means the prosperity, the economy will be very prosperous. The economy is agricultural, so “the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase”; “The heavens shall give their due” — the means by which the crops were developed; “and I will cause the remnant [believers with doctrine] of this people to possess all things.”

Verses 13-15, the restoration of Israel in Zechariah’s day.

Verse 13 — a nation that goes for Bible doctrine not only enjoys great blessing but is also a great blessing to others. Illustration: Great Britain in the 19th century. When a nation is so saturated with Bible doctrine, having a maximum number of believers in that category, this nation not only has tremendous internal blessing both spiritually and economically, but it also has a tremendous impact on other nations round about.

“curse” — during the Chaldean captivity, the 5th cycle of discipline. This is all going to be changed to the antithesis; “house of Judah” refers to the southern kingdom; “house of Israel” refers to those Jews who left the northern kingdom and came south. The southern kingdom actually had representation from all the tribes of Israel.

“I will save you” — literally, I will cause you to be delivered. It means they would be delivered from their enemies, those who would seek to destroy them; “fear not” — qal imperfect — a command to regenerate Jews only. It is also a command to regenerate people who perpetuate the faith-rest technique in phase two to put their problems in the Lord’s hands; “let your hands be strong” — cf verse 9, the concept of stability and tenacity, strength of character based on Bible doctrine. It means to hold on and not let go, tenaciously holding on to doctrine. It is in the qal imperfect which means that this must be a continuous thing. The Jews demonstrated their strength of character when Alexander arrived at the gates of Jerusalem. Verse 14 — “thought,” means to plan. It could be translated: “I devised a plan” (in eternity past). It refers to the whole plan of Leviticus 26 where the five cycle of discipline are set out. It was a perfectly designed plan whereby grace pervades. Every cycle of discipline is a gracious warning from God. You do not have to keep going with the cycles, they can all be erased. This requires getting with Bible doctrine. They failed to do this in the past but they did not fail after the Babylonian captivity. They learned their lesson; “your fathers” — the population of the southern kingdom before 586 BC, the pre-exillic population, the three or four generations that are described under the principle of Hosea 4:-6. They were punished for lack of doctrine. This is the basis for the fifth cycle of discipline; “provoked” — a hiphil infinitive construct, they caused God to take these steps. Principle: You do nothing for blessing, that’s grace; you always do something for cursing. How did they do it in this case? Lack of Bible doctrine, no orientation to grace. Bible doctrine orients to grace; “repented” — nacham, a complete change of mental attitude. Repentance never means to feel sorry for sins. God did not change His mind about the 5th cycle of discipline because there were a handful of people only who had Bible doctrine. This is a niphel stem. The niphel stem is usually passive, here it is reflexive. It means: “I myself did not repent” .In other words, the whole decision was in the hands of the Lord and if they had been putting their problems in the hands of the Lord they wouldn’t have to make a decision of that kind. But since they were not using faith-rest and were not even believers then they forced the Lord into the only decision He could make, and that is the completion of His cycle of national laws with the fifth cycle of discipline.

Verse 15 — “again have I thought” — zaman, to devise a plan. In verse 14 the Lord devised a plan for discipline; here a plan is devised for the period of great blessing, blessing through grace. In verse 14 we have cursing — they kept doing things until they had the full measure of God’s cursing. Now they’ve learned through doctrine not to be doing something, but to stand fast and sit still — “fear not” is doing nothing, rebound in doing nothing. Now they have oriented to grace, so here is a plus doctrine period and in this plus doctrine period they are going to have the greatest blessing nationally they have ever had and ever will have until the Millennium.

“in these days” — 516-323 BC, nearly 200 years; “do well” — jatab, to produce divine good. It is the hiphil stem, God personally will cause the divine good. It is an infinitive, this is God’s purpose. God always purposes and devises and plans to do good on the basis of grace, which is the only way He can do good. To do divine good is blessing.

Verse 16 — “things” is literally, words. Doctrine is in categories and these categories are the words. The words are doctrine. This is something they can do — “ye shall do,” doctrine applied. Doing here means you will continuously do these things. What are they going to do? What is required of them by way of application of doctrine? Well, first of all a qal imperative: “speak ye the truth,” which does not merely mean accuracy, it means doctrine. It doesn’t mean that you have to speak doctrine all of the time. This is comparable to 2 Corinthians 10:5 which says: “Bring every thought into captivity for Christ” .In other words, it means what you do will be based on doctrine; “gates” refer to your personal life; “execute the judgement of truth” — literally, execute the justice of doctrine. Justice means fairness, grace, minus mental attitude sins, minus sins of the tongue, minus retaliation. Live on the basis of grace. Blessing is always going to be there for grace people; “peace” — relaxed mental attitude. Communicate doctrine, execute the justice of doctrine in your private life. Make doctrine your life.

Verse 17 — “Let none of you imagine evil” — wicked imaginations. The mentality of the soul is where it all starts. Avoid mental attitude sins in order to communicate doctrine. The mind is where we fail or succeed; “against his neighbour” — anyone with whom you have contact, not just the person next door to you; “hearts” — the thinking part of the mind; “false oath” — simply the concept of that which is not true, concept of anti-doctrine, false doctrine. False doctrine leads away from the path of a relaxed mental attitude to legalism and pseudo spirituality.

Verses 18-23, the future of Israel.

Verse 18 — “the word of the Lord,” the absolute criterion. The final norm and standard is what the Word of God says.

Verse 19 — the metamorphisms of faith: “fast of fourth month,” the fast of Tamuz to recall the capture of Jerusalem in the reign of Zedekiah — Jeremiah 39:2; “fifth month” — fast of ob recalled the destruction of Jerusalem and the first temple — Jeremiah 52; 2 Kings 25; “seventh month” — Tishre recalled the murder of Gedeliah by Nebuchadnezzar — Jeremiah 39:1; 2 Kings 25:1.

All of this fasting has been for nought. They were doing something — not the concept of grace. Doing compounds the problem. God is not impressed with sackcloth and ashes or the things we do. So how are we going to convert what we are doing into blessing?

“and the fast of the tenth [naming all of them], shall be to the house of Judah joy” — inner happiness which comes from fellowship. For us it is the inner happiness that comes from the filling of the Spirit; “gladness” — overt manifestation. You cannot have gladness and wear sackcloth and ashes -How are they going to get it? “Love truth and peace” — lit. love doctrine and the relaxed mental attitude.

In verses 20-21, we have contemporary population worship and in verses 22,23 we have future population worship. Once you learn Bible doctrine you want more doctrine and more doctrine. This is the basis for true worship. What verses 20-21 are saying is that these people wanted Bible teaching. People are going to come, once the temple is constructed, and from 516 BC-323 BC there was one thing that characterised the population: the people would make any sacrifice to get doctrine, more doctrine, and more doctrine. They could never learn enough Bible doctrine. Verses 22-23, the same thing will be true in the Millennium. In the Millennium, after the second advent and for one thousand years, the third legal temple will be in the same spot in Jerusalem. And during that 1000 years people are going to come from all over the world to get Bible teaching in the temple — “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters that cover the sea” .This is described in these last two verses of the chapter. These verses remind us again of a principle whereby a nation becomes a strong nation and a great nation, and whereby we as individual believers are blessed, oriented to the plan of God, learning to utilise the grace of God. All of these things come through Bible doctrine. Any nation or individual who is going to have a marvellous life on this earth in history must build his life as an individual, or the life of a nation, on the principles which are enucleated in the Word of God.

In verses 13-15 we have the restoration of Israel in Zechariah’s day. In 516 BC the temple will be completed and the fifth cycle of discipline will be over. In Zechariah chapter eight the events occurred in 518 BC when the temple was still in the process of being built. A group of men came down from Bethel and they wanted to know if they should still observe the fasts. We have seen the farce of fasting and how this does not accomplish anything spiritually, and was absolutely useless and ridiculous, and now we are looking at the other side of the fence: there ought to be inner happiness and inner peace based on Bible doctrine rather than going through a lot of ritualistic activity.

Now in 518 BC, just two years before the completion of the second temple, Zechariah has a few things to say about the restoration of Israel which will occur in 516. And then in the next chapter there is a description of that golden age. When the Jews were out under the fifth cycle of discipline they learned the importance of Bible doctrine. Now Bible doctrine is going to pay fantastic dividends for almost 300 years, down to 323 BC, the death of Alexander the Great. This Bible doctrine is going to pay off through spiritual blessing and a fantastic economic prosperity that lasts for nearly 200 years. In addition to that the Jews are going to be protected from the tremendous series of wars which will exist between 516 and 323 BC. They are going to have peace in one of the only two ways that you can have peace within a nation, and that is through the protection of God through the utilisation of Bible doctrine. The only other way, of course, to have peace within a country is to be so strong and so tough, and to win every war, that people will keep away from you as far as trying to attack.

Verse 13 — It just so happens that any national entity which in its own area actually goes for Bible doctrine not only blesses the nation internally but that nation becomes a blessing to others. When a nation is so saturated with Bible doctrine, having a maximum number of believers in that category, it not only has tremendous internal blessing but it also has a tremendous impact on other nations round about.

“curse” — is a reference to the fifth cycle of discipline during the Chaldean captivity. This is all going to be changed to the antithesis; “house of Judah” refers to the southern kingdom “house of Israel” refers to those Jews who left the northern kingdom and came south. Remember that the southern kingdom had representation from all of the tribes of Israel; “I will save you” should be: “I will cause you to be delivered” .The word does not mean salvation but it means actual deliverance in the full concept of the word. They are going to be delivered from their enemies and those who would seek to destroy them during this period.

Therefore, what is the conclusion? “fear not, let your hands be strong.” We have two commands here, “fear not” which is a qal imperfect. The command here is given this way because the fear here depends upon two things. It is a command to regenerate Jews only. It is also a command to the regenerate people who perpetuate the faith-rest technique into phase two. “Be strong” here is chazaq in the Hebrew. It originally meant to hold fast to something, to hold on to something and never let go of it. The concept is that if you can hold on to something and never let go you are strong. This was not originally used for physical strength, it was used for strength of character, for the type of person who had a character and would never let go of something which he had. It had the whole concept of stability and tenacity and here it has the same concept. This does not mean that all of the Jews were to go to the gym and build muscles! It means strength of character based on Bible doctrine. Again, it is the qal imperative which means this must be a consistent and continuous thing. Chazaq connotes the whole idea of tenaciously hanging on to doctrine, using doctrine, living by doctrine, and so on.

Verse 14 — “thought” is the word zamam, which means to set up a plan. So it refers to the whole plan of Leviticus 26 where the five cycles of discipline are enumerated. It was a perfectly devised plan set up in eternity past where the Jews would be warned one step at a time and whereby grace actually pervades. Every cycle of discipline is a gracious warning from God. You do not have to keep going with the cycles, they can all be erased. Of course, this requires getting with Bible doctrine. They failed to do it in the past but they did not fail after the Babylonian captivity. They learned their lesson — “to punish your fathers” — the “fathers” refer to the population of the southern kingdom before 586. In other words, the pre-exilic population. They were punished for lack of knowledge of doctrine, the basis for the 5th cycle of discipline; “provoked me to wrath.” The word for “provoke” is a hiphil infinitive construct which means “they caused me to take these steps.” In other words, you do nothing for blessing but you always do something for cursing. In other words, if every time you have a problem and you sit down and do nothing you will actually get blessing out of it. But if you start to do something — retaliatory schemes, mental attitude sins, some system of operation vengeance, etc — it ends up in cursing. They did something for the 5th cycle of discipline; you do nothing for blessing — grace. They provoked the Lord through lack of Bible doctrine; “and I repented not” — this word is nacham which means a complete change of mental attitude. Repentance never means to feel sorry for sins, it always means a change of mental attitude. Repentance is a transitive verb. In this case the subject is God, the object is the Jews minus doctrine. Sometimes we have man repenting, God is object, he changes his mind about God. In salvation man repents regarding Christ, the revealed member of the Godhead.

In 586 BC God did not change His mind. Why? Because of minus doctrine. Therefore God said: “Out you go.” And they did. God did not change His mind about the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline because there was a handful of people only who had enough doctrine to come in out of the rain. “I repented not” is a niphel stem which is usually passive but here it is reflexive. And it means “I myself did not repent.” In other words, the whole decision was in the hands of the Lord, and if they had been putting their problems in the Lord’s hands then the Lord wouldn’t have to make a decision of that kind. But since they had not been using faith-rest and most were not even believers, and therefore way out, then they forced the Lord into the only decision He could make — the completion of His cycles of discipline.

Verse 15 — “thought,” zamam again, which means to devise a plan. The first time zamam was used it referred to the fifth cycle of discipline (verse 14), now zamam is used for that period of great blessing, blessing through grace. Now they have learned through doctrine not to be doing something but to stand fast and sit still; “fear not” you see, is doing nothing. Now they have oriented to grace so here is a plus doctrine period and they are going to have the greatest blessing; “in these days” refers to 516-323 BC, nearly two hundred years; “to do good” refers to divine good. God personally will cause divine good. God always purposes and devises and plans to do good on the basis of grace which is the only way He can do good. And to do divine good is blessing.

In verses 16 and 17 we have a second exhortation to the people. In verse 16 we have the positive side; in verse 17 we have the negative side.

Verse 16 — “These are the things that ye shall do.” Literally it says: “These are the words (not the things).” Doctrine is in categories and these categories are words. The words refer to doctrine and this is something they can do; “ye shall do.” Doing here means “you will continually do these things.” What are they going to do? What is required of them by way of application of doctrine?

First of all, the qal imperative: “Speak ye the truth” .The truth does not simply mean accuracy, it means doctrine. It doesn’t mean that you have to speak doctrine all the time. This is comparable to 2 Corinthians 10:5 which says: “Bring every thought into captivity for Christ.” In other words, it means what you do will be based on doctrine; “execute the judgement of truth in your gates” should be “execute the justice of truth in your gates.” Sometimes the gates refer to the courtroom and sometimes the gates refer to your home or just personal living. Gates here refer to your personal life. “Execute the justice of doctrine.” How do you execute the justice of doctrine? Justice means fair; it means grace. So justice means minus mental attitude sins, minus the sins of the tongue, minus retaliation. In other words, live on the basis of grace. Blessing is always going to be there for grace people. “These are the words that you shall do: communicate doctrine, execute the justice of truth in your private life.” In other words, make doctrine your life.

On the negative side, verse 17. “Let none of you imagine evil.” Or, let none of you have wicked imaginations. Everything starts in the mind. It is were we fall apart and where we succeed — in the mental attitude of the soul.

Notice again, verse 16: “These are the words that you shall execute or accomplish: communicate doctrine [look at life from the divine viewpoint] to your neighbour [anyone in your vicinity]; execute the justice of doctrine and peace [peace is a relaxed mental attitude] in your gates [in your personal life]”.

Verse 17 — “Let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour [anyone with whom you have contact]; and love no false oath [the concept of that which is not true — anti-doctrine. False doctrine leads away from the relaxed mental attitude] … “

In verses 18-23 we have the future of Israel, which will be continued in chapter nine.

Verse 18 — “The word of the Lord came unto me, saying.” Here is the absolute criterion which is Bible doctrine. The final norm or final standard for anything is: What does the Word of God say?

Verse 19 — the metamorphosis of faith. Here is the direct answer from the prophet to Regem Melech and his friends (7:2). The fast of the fourth month was the fast of Tamuz to recall the capture of Jerusalem in the reign of Zedekiah — Jeremiah 39:2; the fast of the fifth month is the fast of Ab recalled the destruction of Jerusalem and the first temple, recorded in Jeremiah 52 and 2 Kings 25; the fast of the seventh month is the fast of Tshere which recalled the murder of Gedeliah, the governor of those left behind by Nebuchadnezzar; the fast of the tenth month is the fast of Tueth recalling Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem.

All of this fasting and all of this breast-beating was all for nought. In fasting, again, you are doing something. All this is to teach the principle: in this fasting and sackcloth and ashes they were doing something, and as you do something you compound your problems. God is not impressed with sackcloth and ashes, with what we do. So how are we going to convert what we are doing into blessing? Fasting was simply a part of the curse. How are you going to turn cursing into blessing?

“the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah joy [inner happiness which comes from fellowship] and gladness [the overt manifestation] … therefore love doctrine and the relaxed mental attitude” .That is how they were going to get it. Regem Melech knew that all of that fasting was a lot of nonsense but he just didn’t know the answer. So he goes down to Jerusalem to get an answer and he gets an answer from Zechariah: “Remember that you have to love doctrine and from the knowledge of doctrine comes the peace, the relaxed mental attitude.”

In verses 20-21 we have contemporary population worship and in verses 22-23 we have future population worship. Once you begin to learn Bible doctrine you want more doctrine, and this is the basis for true worship. So we have worship in Zechariah’s day described in verses 20-21. These people say, Let’s go up to Jerusalem and hear some Bible teaching. In Zechariah’s day this is going to be the order of the day. People are going to come, once the temple is constructed, and from 516-323 BC the one thing that characterised these people was that they would make any sacrifice to get doctrine, more doctrine and more doctrine. They could never learn enough Bible doctrine. As a result this was the greatest period of prosperity that the Jews ever knew, and will be until the Millennium.

In verses 22-23 the same thing will be true in the Millennium. In the Millennium, for one thousand years, the third legal temple will exist in Jerusalem and people are going to come from all over the world to get Bible teaching in the temple. “Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord” .

Verse 22 — A Jew will be passing through on his way to Jerusalem and he is recognised as a Jew and ten people will say: “We are going to go with you.” In other words, there will be a tremendous desire for Bible doctrine and for the truth.