David Baron

“ Truly a fit figure to set forth the hardness and obduracy of the natural unregenerate heart. It is altogether hopeless, and nothing can be done to improve or soften it; the only hope for men in such condition being in this stony heart being altogether taken away by the power and grace of God, and in the creation within them of " an heart of flesh," responsive and impressionable to the Spirit and Word of God. ”

“ Because even in their fasting and mourning they were centred on themselves; they fasted not unto God. It was not the outward sign and accom paniment of true sorrow and repentance for sin, but of sorrow for their calamities. They were self-imposed, to begin with; and they regarded them, not only as intrinsi cally meritorious, but as an end in themselves rather than as the means of turning away from self and all idea of self-merit to the grace of God. And not only in their fasts but also in their feasts there was the same concentration on self and regardlessness of God. ”

“ And let me remind you, dear reader, that Christians do have need to lay these moral precepts to heart, for though we are not under the law, the law of God is written on our hearts, and it is His purpose that the righteousness of the law should be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. ”

“ Now, in conclusion, to sum up the negative part of the answer to the question put by the deputation from Bethel. Its purport was as follows: There is no occasion as yet to abrogate the observances of the fasts in which you call to mind the calamities which you and your fathers have brought upon the land, by your evil ways and doings, for the underlying cause of the evil which came upon you namely, sin and rebellion against the word which God spake to you through the former prophets you have not yet truly repented of. ”

“ We note also that it is particularly man's duties to his neighbours which are here summarised; but man's duty to God is presupposed, for even the precepts which inculcate love and mercy to our fellow-men, are enforced by the words, " I am Jehovah thy God" which remind us of our relation and obligations to Him, even as in the New Testa ment it is our debt of love and gratitude to Christ which is the impelling motive of love to the brotherhood. ”

“ Ye shall not fast as ye do this day to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread sackclotJi and ashes under him? ”

“ Notwithstanding the many sacred memories connected with their city, and the fact that it had been the seat of a Temple in the days of the Israelitish kingdom, to which the tribes of Israel had resorted in numbers, no attempt was now made on their part to dispute the legitimate right to Jerusalem being regarded as the only place where the sacrifices and services enjoined by the precepts of the Mosaic Law could be offered. ”

“ Your fasting and mourning, however, are in themselves nothing to God so long as they are not the accompaniment of a real sorrow for sin, and a heartdesire to do His will as expressed in His moral law. Take warning, therefore, from the experience of your fathers who kept on hardening their hearts, until there was no more remedy, and great wrath from God came upon them lest the same, and something worse yet, happen to you. The positive part of the answer, which tells when and how the fasts shall be abrogated, yea, turned into feasts, follows in chap. ”

“ Jerusalem and the cities round about."
There are many Scriptures in the former prophets which bear witness to the truth of what Zechariah here affirms, namely, God's repudiation of mere outward acts of religious observances, and particularly of fasting, as being in any way pleasing to Him. " Wherefore have we fasted," we read, for instance, in Isa. Iviii., " and thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and Thou takest no knowledge? " Then the answer, which is very much the same as in Zechariah, " Did ye at all fast unto Me, even Me? " " ”

“ The question, therefore, naturally agitated the minds of the people whether, with these signs of apparent prosperity the restored remnant should continue to observe the days of national sorrow and fasting which had been instituted in commemoration of the destruction of the Temple, and the desolation of the land at the commencement of the seventy years captivity. ”

“ Pusey rightly observes that the expressions "nations whom they know not," "whose tongue thou shall not understand" are meant to set forth the intensifica tion of their sufferings in captivity because the common bond between man and man, mutual speech, shall be wanting. ”

“ But apart from the special message which they conveyed to those to whom they were originally addressed, and their application to the Jewish people at the time, there is a solemn lesson in these words which men at the present time, both Jews and Christians, should lay to heart. Are there not thousands now who are very zealous and regular in religious observances, and who think that they are acquiring great merit before God, to whom Christ in that day will say, " Depart from Me ”