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A Bible Teaching Ministry of Galyn Wiemers
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![Daily Devotions, Evening and Morning Devotional](../images/Reps&Sets-banner-815LG-devotionTitle.jpg)
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![Sunrise on Temple Mount in Jerusalem; Back to Previous Devotion](../images/sunrise-previous.jpg)
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September 19 - Morning
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. The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men,
to entreat the Lord 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?”
Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me:
“Ask all the people of the land and the priests,
‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for
me that you fasted?.....Are these not the words
the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets ….’” And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.
Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless,
the foreigner or the poor.
Do not plot evil against each other.’
- Zechariah 7:4-10 |
![Sunset on the Sea of Galilee; Click to go to next devotion](../images/sunset-previous.jpg) |
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Rituals and Righteousness |
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On December 7, 518 (22 months after his eight night visions) Zechariah is asked by God to
prophecy to a delegation of Jews who have come down from Bethel to ask the priests and the prophets in Jerusalem a question regarding the fast they have been keeping for 68 years to mourn the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians in 586. This seems like a logical question since Zerubbabel is in the process of rebuilding the Temple on the same location.
The names of the men from Bethel are Babylonian names so it would appear these men are Jews who were born in Babylon during the captivity and have returned to Israel to reside at Bethel.
Although it is a reasonable question concerning the observance of the fast considering the
situation and the activities occurring in Jerusalem at that time, yet the Lord through Zechariah rebukes the Bethel delegation. The reason for the rebuke is simple: The forefathers in the
previous generation had been taken to captivity not because they failed to follow rigid religious
rituals, but because they did not practice justice and mercy in their society. The prophets of
those days (Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Ezekiel, etc.) warned them that God was looking for godly
lives not religious rituals alone.
The very fact that these men had made the effort to make a trip to Jerusalem to enquire about
a single religious ritual meant they were getting started on the wrong foot. Through Zechariah
God told them the same thing he told the people of Jerusalem before they were taken into
captivity. God is looking for justice and mercy. He does not want to see violence and oppression. Obviously the rituals were important considering the fact God was empowering his people to
rebuild the Temple where rituals could be conducted and knowledge could be gained through the explanation of these religious practices. The problem in the past was lack of obedience, not the lack of knowledge. |
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![Christian Quote from Church History](../images/quote-box.jpg) |
"Let us rejoice in the truth, wherever we find its
lamp burning."
– Albert Schweitzer
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![Something to Ponder??](../images/ponder-box.jpg) |
"Truth is a
description of reality." |
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![Personal Prayer](../images/personal-prayer-box.jpg) |
![Church Prayer Item](../images/church-prayer-box.jpg) |
![National Prayer Concerns](../images/nation-prayer-box.jpg) |
![World Prayer Concerns](../images/world-prayer-box.jpg) |
Godly character
and words |
Life application
of Biblical Truth |
Political parties |
Niger - need missionaries |
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Reps & Sets is a daily Bible devotional for Christians from Generation Word Bible Teaching used each morning and evening. |
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