Zechariah 7:8-13
I heard a sermon recently about the Bible on the Bible, kind of. The idea was to go through various passages that discuss scripture and prophecy. Okay, sure. It started recently with a passage from 2 Timothy, but today went into Zechariah. In Zechariah 7:12, the prophet says that hearts were made hard and the words of the Lord through the prophets were ignored. All right. But what's the context? What words of the Lord were ignored.
Here's the full context. Zechariah 7:8-13. Go ahead and take a quick read.
In Verses 8-10, Zechariah said the Lord demanded the following: Be just; show kindness and mercy; do not oppress the poor, the widow, the orphan, or the immigrant; and do not plan evil against anyone. Those were what the Lord demanded. When those specific things were ignored, punishment was enacted upon the people.
Loving your neighbor. Show compassion to the downtrodden. Showing justice and compassion.
When the people ignored those calls as a society, they were punished by the Lord, according to Zechariah.
The prophet did not provide some form of blanket statement about people ignoring scripture or prophecy or God's word. It was an incredibly pointed statement by a prophet of God telling the people that they as a culture had hardened their hearts and became devoid of compassion and justice.
Context matters.
But, also, as a Christian, this is central to the Gospel message of Christ. Jesus said to love the Lord your God and to love your neighbor as yourself summarize all the law and the prophets. He also said that all mankind are your neighbor. Not merely your friends, but also your enemies.
He said to love radically. Seems like that's pretty consistent with what the Lord expected of the people in Zechariah.