Exalting Jesus in Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi by Micah Fries & Stephen Rummage & Robby Gallaty

Author:Micah Fries & Stephen Rummage & Robby Gallaty [Fries, Micah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biblical Commentary, Old Testament, Religion
ISBN: 9780805496482
Google: C0wGCQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Holman Reference
Published: 2015-07-01T10:11:13+00:00

From Fasting to Feasting

Zechariah 7:1–8:23

Main Idea: Experiencing God’s living presence requires deep transformation in our lives.

I. Transformed from Fasting to Feasting (7:1-3; 8:18-23)

II. Transformed from Serving Ourselves to Serving Him (7:4-7)

III. Transformed from Pursuing Religion to Pursuing Righteousness (7:8-10)

IV. Transformed from Listening to Our Desires to Hearing His Voice (7:11-14)

V. Transformed from Trusting Our Capabilities to Trusting His Faithfulness (8:1-17)

A few years ago, Michele and I were invited to a picnic for our church’s preschoolers and their families. The picnic was on a Saturday morning in a grassy park area on the church campus. It was a fun event, with baskets filled with sandwiches, chips, and cookies, dads and moms sitting on blankets on the ground, and children running around everywhere playing games and laughing.

After we had been picnicking for about an hour I noticed a group of people walking past us on the sidewalk. They were headed toward our church’s worship center wearing dark suits and dresses. In contrast to the laughter of our picnic, they looked somber and subdued. It was then I realized that they were going into the worship center for a funeral.

What do you do when you’re having a picnic and someone else is going to a funeral?

We did our best to quiet things down for a few moments as the funeral-goers passed by. But the preschoolers pretty much kept laughing and playing. After all, it was a picnic.

I have kept that Saturday in mind ever since. It’s a reminder of a reality in life: When you’re having a picnic, somebody else, somewhere, is having a funeral. And when you’re having a funeral, somebody, somewhere, is having a picnic. At the moment when you’re celebrating the greatest joy of your life, someone else is experiencing their greatest sorrow.

Here’s the good news about our God: He can take a funeral and transform it into a picnic. He can take our mourning and turn it into dancing. He can take our sorrows and transform them into joys. He can take our times of fasting, and turn them into seasons of feasting. That’s the truth we discover in Zechariah 7 and 8.

Transformed from Fasting to Feasting

Zechariah 7:1-3; 8:18-23

It is important to understand that about two years have passed between Zechariah 6 and Zechariah 7. In the first six chapters of the book the Lord gives Zechariah a series of visions. The eight visions told God’s people that the Lord would be faithful to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and that God was going to do something great in the middle of the city of Jerusalem 70 years after His people were carried away into captivity.

As chapter 7 begins, it is now two years later and the temple is about halfway through construction. A delegation of men comes to Jerusalem from the outlying town of Bethel to ask Zechariah and the other priests and prophets who were there, “Do we keep on fasting? Do we keep on mourning? Do we keep on remembering that our city, Jerusalem, was torn down, and that the temple

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