Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Zechariah 7:1-14. As usual, I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
Zechariah 7:1-7 (NIV)
1 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev.
2 The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech, together with their men, to entreat the LORD
3 by asking the priests of the house of the LORD Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”
4 Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me:
On verses 1-7: Almost 2 years after Zechariah saw those 8 visions described in Zechariah 1-6, the Lord speaks to Zechariah again. This time God speaks in response to a question that the people of Bethel were asking. The people of Bethel asked the priests and prophets whether they should continue to mourn and fast as they usually do every year (v4). God responds by questioning the people’s real motivations for their past fasting and feasting — “Was it really for me that you fasted? And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?” (v5-6) This is not to say that fasting is not important to God, but that if you fast or do anything “religious” with the wrong attitude, it becomes meaningless and vain.