About two years later, a delegation asks whether they should keep mourning and fasting as they had during the exile. God answers with a probing question: when they fasted and feasted, was it truly for Him, or for themselves? He reminds them that the former prophets had called their fathers to “render true judgments, show kindness and mercy... do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor,” but they refused to listen, hardened their hearts, and so were scattered. Empty ritual without justice and mercy is not what God desires.
Zechariah study chapter
Zechariah 7
518 BCThe question about fasting answered: God desires justice, mercy, and compassion, not empty ritual, and He recalls the disobedience that brought exile.
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