Zechariah 7:8

The word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying, "Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts: Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassion every man to his brother, or to one another. And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor. Let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart."

But they refused to hearken, pulled away their shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit, or in His Spirit, by the former prophets. Therefore, a great wrath came from the Lord of hosts. It came to pass that as He cried, they would not hear. So they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts. But I scattered them with a whirlwind among the nations, whom they knew not. Thus, the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned, for they laid the pleasant land desolate.

Father, I just find that my heart is heavy every time I read words like this in Your word. The Old Testament is filled with passages like this, prophetic passages where You spoke by men whose hearts were dedicated to You. They spoke with great passion, calling the people back to You to repent, to return, and yet they hardened their hearts. They didn't listen, pulled away, and stopped their ears.

Lord, the consequences of that sin would come. When I see passages like this, it reminds me that You still are calling out to man.

And You are long-suffering. You are not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance. However, there is a day of wrath, a day of judgment. It is appointed to every man to die once, and then comes judgment. We are given an opportunity to heed Your word, but there is a day of judgment coming.

Lord, would You open our hearts that we would heed Your word as we receive it? As we hopefully read it regularly and meditate upon it, there are passages we come to that challenge us and that rebuke or chasten us. We are left with a decision of whether or not we will heed and hearken, or if we will harden our hearts. Lord, would You, by Your Spirit, touch our hearts so that they would be soft and able to be molded by You, the great Potter, as we are the clay? We want to be fashioned more and more into the image of Your Son. So work this in us by Your Word and by Your Spirit, we pray, for we ask this in Jesus' name. And all God's people agreed, saying, Amen.

You can be seated.

Zachariah the prophet was given a ministry, a prophetic ministry, to the people of Judah, the children of Israel, after they had returned from Babylon. If you remember the history of the children of Israel, you may recall that after they came into the Promised Land, they were led or governed by judges for a period of time. Then there came a time under the leadership of the last judge, Samuel, when the people came and said, "We want a king to rule over us."

So, really against God's perfect will for His people, He gave them a king, the king that they chose for themselves, King Saul. They came to recognize rather quickly that Saul was not everything they had expected him to be. God then gave them a king after His own heart, even though it was God's real heart that He would be their governor, their leader. He did give them King David, who led them for a time, although he wasn't perfect. I mean, he messed up significantly.

The thing that made David great is his willingness to repent, which Saul would not do. We see that David, although he was a sinful person like us, was a repentant person. God would say, "You're a man after my own heart," which is just phenomenal to me every time I consider it.

After King David came his son Solomon, to whom God gave amazing wisdom. God came to him in a vision and asked him, "What do you desire that I would give to you?" Instead of asking for greatness, riches, and all the things he could have asked for, Solomon replied, "Lord, I want wisdom to be able to come in and go out." God granted him wisdom and gave him all the other things as well that he did not ask for. However, after Solomon's death, which the book of Ecclesiastes reveals very clearly, his son Rehoboam took over the leadership of the nation, and he was a foolish man. Through his actions, the nation was divided into two kingdoms: the northern and southern kingdoms.

The northern kingdom consisted of ten tribes, while the southern kingdom held the city of Jerusalem, which included Judah and Benjamin. The northern ten tribes, through their wickedness, never had a good leader. Throughout their history, they were ruled by wicked kings. Ultimately, in the 8th century BC, they were destroyed by the Assyrians, who came and led them away captive, scattering them throughout the Assyrian Empire. They became known as what we call today the lost tribes of Israel. Many of the people from those tribes did flee when the Assyrians came and returned to Judah and Benjamin, so they are not completely lost. However, for the most part, the northern ten tribes were scattered and lost.

Then, in the 6th century BC, King Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came into Judah and Benjamin. Over a period of about 20 years, he destroyed the nation. In the early part of the 6th century BC, he destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and led the people away captive into Babylon. They remained captive for 70 years until Babylon was destroyed by the Medo-Persian Empire. Cyrus, the king of Persia, who was prophesied 150 years before he was even born, was foretold by God through the prophet Isaiah, that a king named Cyrus would come.

He would deliver the people, allowing them to return to Judah and Jerusalem. Cyrus came in about 539 BC, and he released the people the following year, 538 BC. They returned to the promised land, back to Judah, with the plan to rebuild the temple, restoring what had been destroyed. The work began under the ministry of Ezra, the scribe. Only about 50,000 of them returned, many more having been taken captive into Babylon. They started to rebuild, but along the way, they became stalled and discouraged due to various challenges. Enemies were coming against them while they were trying to build, and the city was filled with rubble from the previous destruction, making the work difficult. As a result, they stopped for about 20 years.

Then another builder, Zerubbabel, emerged. At that time, God raised up Zechariah, who encouraged the people to continue the work that God had called them to do: to rebuild what had been taken down and to support Zerubbabel. In Zechariah chapter 4, Zechariah comes to Zerubbabel and says, "Listen, Zerubbabel, it's not by might, nor by your power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord, that this place is going to be rebuilt." He encouraged the hearts of the people, and they began to rebuild again.

Here they were, rebuilding the temple of God, the place where God would meet with them and they with God. Yet, as you go through the book of Zechariah, you find that although they had an outward appearance of religion, their hearts were still wicked. This is often the case, isn't it? We can fall into a pattern of life where we may go to church, serve in a church, give to a church, carry a Bible, and even identify as Christians, perhaps with a dove or a fish on our car, while our hearts can be far from the Lord. This was happening among the people of Judah and Benjamin at the time of Zechariah.

God gave Zechariah a word to speak to the people. In Zechariah chapter 7 through the end of chapter 8, He delivered four different messages to them. Tonight, we will look at the second message. The first message deals with a rebuke, addressing their hypocrisy in Zechariah chapter 7, verses 4 through 7. After that rebuke, He calls them to repentance in verses 8 through 14, as we just read through. Following that message of repentance,

He calls them to a restoration of the nation in chapter 8, verses 1 through 7. Then, he calls them to rejoice in the future of what God would bring. As they are building this temple, the people see that this temple is not as beautiful, grand, or awesome as the one that was torn down by Nebuchadnezzar. Some people who had previously seen the old temple look at the new one and feel discouraged. They weep, saying it will never be as glorious.

God gives them a great message of encouragement, saying the glory of this temple is going to be greater than the one before. This is not because of what it will look like, but because the glory of the Lord is going to come. The Messiah would come to that temple; ultimately, Jesus would come to that temple.

In verses 8 through 14 of chapter 7, God gives them a call to repentance. The word of the Lord, as we see in verse 8, came unto Zechariah. God speaks to him and says, "I want you to speak to the people." This was the ministry of a prophet in the Old Testament. We see this very clearly in the book of Jeremiah, chapter 1, where God says to Jeremiah, "I have called you to be a prophet to the nations. I've ordained you to this. I put my words in your mouth. You speak to whom I send you."

That is the ministry of a prophet, and that is exactly what Zechariah was doing. The word of the Lord came to Zechariah, and God said, "I want you to speak this." He goes forth to the people in the city of Jerusalem, who are rebuilding. They have been encouraged and called to rebuild what was torn down. He says, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of heaven's armies." The New Living Translation translates it as, "Thus says the God of heaven's armies, execute true judgment."

He goes forth to the people and says, "God is calling you to do justice." It is an amazing thing to me, but we are so very quick to return to our own ways, aren't we? Remember, God is speaking here to the people who had returned from exile. They went into captivity in Babylon because...

They didn't execute true justice. Injustice abounded in Judah and Jerusalem during the time of Isaiah and then later in the time of Jeremiah. The entire city was filled with injustice. That's part of the reason, not the whole reason, but part of the reason why they went into captivity in Babylon.

Now, they have come back from captivity, and you would think that they had been refined. In fact, that's a big part of the reason why God sent them to Babylon: to refine them by that refiner's fire. The punishment of God was for purification. Now they come back, and you'd think, okay, this is the best of the best. These are the ones from the children of Israel, the ones who said, "We're dedicated to the Lord. We're not staying in Babylon anymore. We're going back to rebuild the temple."

However, within 20 years of returning—this is about 20 years after they had come out of Babylon to return to Judah—the nation is once again filled with injustice. It is so quick to revert to old ways. I think of Abraham, whose name was Abram before it was changed to Abraham, in Genesis chapter 12. In Genesis chapter 12, he hears God's call. God says, "Abraham, I want you to leave your country, leave your family's house, go to a nation, to a land I'm going to show you, I'm going to tell you, and just follow me."

He follows the Lord, and as soon as he gets there, he experiences a famine. He has followed God, who has been saying, "You follow me, I'll bless you." Yet now, he gets there, and there's a famine. Immediately, he turns to Egypt for help. He goes down to Egypt for assistance. We are so fast to go back to the things of this world. Egypt, often in the Scriptures, is a picture, a type of the world. He is drawn to what he knows, and that's what happens with us too.

Here we see that the people of Judah and Jerusalem have fallen back into injustice. God speaks to them and says, "I want you to render true justice. I want you to execute true judgment." We even sang tonight that we are prone to wander. So prone to wander. As the song says, we even feel it; we recognize that proclivity to go back. I think it's a good thing that we recognize it. We should see and acknowledge that we can easily fall back. That's what Paul says.

In Galatians chapter 6, we are reminded to take heed when someone else falls into temptation. We need to be cautious when restoring them, considering ourselves, lest we also be tempted. It is a dangerous thing to think, "I have this licked." Yes, I used to struggle with that sin in the past, but I have it taken care of. Just as the Scriptures say, take heed when you think you stand, lest you fall.

It is important to recognize that we are weak and could easily revert back to what God has called us out of. The people of Judah and Benjamin, who had returned to the land to rebuild the temple, were the best of the best, dedicated to God and separated for His purpose. Yet, they too easily fell back into injustice. God commands us to render and execute true judgments, administer true justice, and judge fairly.

God takes notice when He looks at a people or a nation and sees that they do not exercise justice. He does take note, and He will judge. These matters are important to God because He is just. It is His nature to be just.

Today, we live in a world where even those who are not believers, or who deny the existence of God, still possess a solid sense of justice. They want justice to be done. This is evident in the widespread interest in the current court case in Florida, the Casey Anthony case, where many are eager to see justice served. There is a collective presumption that we know who committed the crime, and that person needs to pay.

This sense of justice transcends belief in God. Where does this sense of justice come from? It comes from God; we are created in His image. He is just. He does not merely act justly; He is, by nature, just. As a result, God is passionate about justice. While we may think we are passionate about justice, He is even more so. There are various places in Scripture where people question the justice of God.

But God always shows Himself to be just. His nature is this, and so He requires justice. God requires justice. We should prove that statement with the Scriptures. Micah chapter 6, verse 8, is a verse that I find myself going back to often. He has shown you, O man, what is good. God showed us what is good, what the right way is, and what the Lord requires of you.

Now, this is encouraging to me. God is not up in heaven saying, "I want you to do what is right, but I'm not going to tell you what it is." There are some people who actually think that this is the way God works. They believe that God wants you to do right, but you have to try to figure out on your own what is right. No, God says, "I want you to do what is good and what is right, and I have told you what I require."

Here's what I require: He names three things here. The Lord requires of you to do justly. Number one, do justly. Because God is just, He requires that we do justly. He is pleased with justice. He requires it, and He is pleased with it. Again, the Scriptures should be our guide. Proverbs chapter 21, verse 3, tells us that to do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. It is more acceptable to the Lord than offering a burnt offering or sacrificing a bull. Even if you gave a hundred thousand dollars to the kingdom of God and to the church, and you wrote a big check, one of those big cardboard ones that says, "A hundred thousand dollars to God," He is more pleased with justice and judgment. It is more acceptable to Him that you work with justice and judgment.

I'm excited that this weekend we have a good friend of mine coming to share with us. We have a guest speaker this Sunday. He is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, San Francisco, and he is going to be talking about Isaiah chapter 58. I almost completely ripped off his message and his passage today because, as we're going...

Through this, I kept going back to Isaiah chapter 58 because it lines up with this perfectly. He is going to be talking about the justice of God this weekend, and He requires of us that we work and live in this way. He is pleased by it. God requires it, as stated in Micah chapter 6, verse 8. He is pleased by it, and in Proverbs chapter 21, verse 3, He seeks it out. God looks for people who are acting with justice and judgment.

In Isaiah chapter 5, verse 7, God gives an illustration of a vineyard. He says, "This vineyard, I planted it. I got the best vines, I picked the perfect piece of land, I dug out all the rocks, I made ready for it, and I put this vineyard there." Then the vineyard produced bad, sour, wild grapes. He explains the interpretation: "The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel." He says, "You are my vineyard, Israel, and the men of Judah, you are my pleasant plant. You are the choice vine that I put right in the center. This is the one that I paid a lot of money for and searched for; you are my pleasant plant."

God looked for judgment, but instead, He found oppression. He sought righteousness, and the word "righteousness" in Isaiah 5, verse 7, could also be translated as "justice." But instead, He found a cry. God says, "I placed you where you are in the land, Judah, Jerusalem. I made every opportunity for you to produce great fruit for me, and I looked for it. I came looking for good fruit."

What was the good fruit He was looking for? Sacrifices? Offerings? Religion? No. He came looking for the fruit of justice and judgment. But when He came, He didn't find it. It wasn't there. There was no justice, no judgment. Instead, He found injustice and oppression. Oppression is really the exact opposite of justice and right judgment, where the people are pressed down and oppressed by wickedness.

So, instead of finding justice and judgment, He found oppression and a cry. As God looks at His people, whom He desires to bless, He says to them, "Execute."

True judgment. I have no problem fast-forwarding 2,500 years to now, the year 2011, June 1st. Here we are, a new month, halfway through the year. God says the same thing to you and me: execute true judgment.

But He goes on from there. Not only does He want us to execute true judgment, but He also wants us to show mercy and compassion. Show mercy. We could say very much the same thing about mercy that we did about judgment and justice. God is mercy. He doesn't just do merciful things; He is, in His very nature, mercy.

We looked at this a few weeks ago when we went to Exodus chapter 34, where God declares His nature. The Lord, the Lord God, in Exodus 34, verse 6, uses the very first word to define or describe His nature: merciful. The Lord, the Lord God, is merciful. This is His nature, just as we see in 1 John that God is love. You could fill in the blank with "God is just" or "God is merciful." There are so many attributes of God that we could put in that statement that it would take us eternity to explore.

It's going to take us eternity to see the grandeur of who God is. He is mercy. The Bible says that His throne is a throne of grace (Hebrews chapter 4, verse 16). His throne is a throne of grace, and the seat on that throne, as Exodus tells us a number of times, is called the mercy seat. I love that. I love that it is the mercy seat where He desires to meet with His people. I'm thankful that it's not the judgment seat.

Now, you may say, "Wait a minute, there is a judgment seat," and Revelation does talk about a judgment seat. But His people, those who come to Him by grace through faith, meet with Him at the mercy seat, at the throne of grace. Those who do not come to Him by grace through faith will meet with Him on an appointed day at the judgment seat of Christ. That's very clear, but that's not for His people because He has not appointed His people to wrath.

We, the people of God, who have been grafted into Christ by grace through faith and the work that He did on the cross, meet with Christ.

At the throne of grace, before the mercy seat, I am so thankful that we meet with Him there. God calls for mercy just as He requires justice; He requires mercy. We see the very same thing in Micah chapter 6, verse 8. We looked at it briefly, focusing on the first part: He has shown you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you.

What is the first thing? To do justly. The second thing is to love mercy. God wants us to do justly, execute true judgments, and love mercy. He requires mercy in the same way that He requires true judgment. Not only does He require mercy, but the Scriptures reveal in the New Testament, through Jesus, that we ought to be merciful because we are the children of our Father who is in heaven.

Turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 6, verse 36. He requires that we be merciful, and we should be merciful because we are children of our Father in heaven. In Luke 6, verse 36, Jesus says, "Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful." We are to be merciful and exercise mercy because God is merciful.

Now, check this out: Matthew chapter 5, verse 7 states that those who exhibit their Father's merciful nature will themselves obtain mercy. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." If you want more abundant mercy heaped upon you, be merciful.

God requires mercy; it is a sign of sonship. It is a sign that we are born again and children of God when we exercise mercy towards other people. Now, I think we've talked about this.

Dozens of times before, it is not our nature to be merciful, is it? We don't default towards mercy. We default towards loving justice and wanting mercy for ourselves. We want everybody else to be dealt with justly. When they do something wrong to us, we think, "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth." They should get justice, but as soon as we do something wrong, oh, how we love mercy, right?

We love mercy; we want God to be merciful to us, but we should also seek to be merciful to others. I absolutely love the mercy of God. In fact, I just tweeted about this last night. I said, "I love the mercy of God. I feel I stumble upon it on every page of Scripture. Praise God, mercy triumphs over judgment." The Scriptures make it very clear: mercy triumphs over judgment.

I don't know about you, but I could stand in awe of that verse for weeks and be just so thankful that mercy has victory over judgment. Why? Because I deserve judgment. Every second of every day, I deserve judgment. There are so many things that I say, do, or think that remind me that I deserve judgment. I am just so thankful that mercy triumphs over judgment.

I am convinced that it is one of the very important attributes of God, our Father. In the Scriptures, He exalts it so many times. He speaks so much of His mercy. He is the Father of mercies. Second Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 3 says, "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort."

In our staff devotions here at the church, just yesterday in our staff meeting, we looked at Psalm 86. In Psalm 86, verse 5, it says, "For you, Lord, are good; you are ready to forgive and plentiful in mercy." Just in case you didn't get it the first time, He says it again ten verses later, when you get down to verse 15.

O Lord, our God, full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering, and plentiful in mercy. He is the Father of mercies; He is plentiful in mercies. Why would you ever want to serve any other God, if there were another God, if He were not like this? God is merciful, and so we are to show mercy.

In Zechariah chapter 7, we are instructed to show mercy and compassion. The word "compassion" in the original Hebrew can also be translated as "mercy." However, most of the time when you see it in your Bible translated as "mercy," it is rendered as "tender mercies" or "loving mercies." Here, it is translated as "compassions." The same exact word is seen in Lamentations chapter 3, verse 22, where we read, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions, His tender mercies, fail not." That's glorious! His tender mercies do not fail.

There is never a time when you come before His throne of grace that He says, "Oh man, I just ran out of mercy. The last guy used a whole bunch of it, so you have to come back later." Lamentations 3, verse 23 continues, "They," speaking of mercies and tender mercies, "are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness." You are faithful because You have unfailing mercy.

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't have unfailing mercies. I pray that God would give me His grace to be merciful to people, but I do not possess unfailing mercies, and I am so thankful that He does. Tender mercies—God's tender love and compassion—do not fail. Therefore, ours ought not to either, but that is only possible as we walk in the Spirit, not fulfilling the desires of our flesh.

Galatians 5, verse 16 says, and it goes on to say in verse 22, "The fruit of the Spirit is love," and mercy is numbered there among the fruits of the Spirit.

Compassion, or tender mercies, is used by King David in Psalm 51. Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 51, because it is that beautiful psalm of repentance. Nathan the prophet came to David after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba, who became pregnant. To cover up the adultery, he had her husband, Uriah, killed, committing both murder and adultery. He then lied about it for an entire year, and he was seen by his nation as this great, awesome king. He took in Bathsheba, whose husband was killed in battle, and she was widowed and going to have a child. Everyone in Jerusalem probably thought, "Look at our great king! What compassion!" Yet, he was a liar for an entire year, taking glory that was not his.

Nathan came in and you probably remember the story. He told David about a man in his kingdom who had everything, while his neighbor had nothing but one lamb. The rich man had some guests at his house, and he stole the poor man's lamb, slaughtered it, and served it to his guests. David, outraged, declared that this man shall die. Nathan then said, "You are the man."

Psalm 51 is David's prayer of repentance, and it opens like this: "Have mercy upon me, O God." Could you say anything else when you are caught red-handed as a sinner? "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions."

David acknowledged that he did not deserve God's forgiveness. He laid himself bare before God, saying, "I am so worthy of judgment. All I deserve is Your wrath. But God, according to Your tender mercies, would You blot out my transgressions? Please take them away." This is what made him a man after God's own heart, not the fact that he led the children of Israel.

The nation of Judah was not great because David killed Goliath or because he was better than Saul in so many ways. What made him great was not that he wrote a whole bunch of Psalms or could play skillfully on instruments that he invented. What made him great was that he threw himself upon the mercies of God in repentance and said, "God, blot out my transgressions according to your tender mercies."

So, what does God say to us, just as He said to His people, who were a sinful people there in Judah at the time of Zechariah? He says, "Render true judgments, execute true justice, show kindness and mercy to one another, tender compassions, tender mercies, every man to his brother." Then He goes on in verse 10 and says, "Oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor. Let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart."

These were the very things that caused them to go into captivity in Babylon in the first place. Of course, idolatry was a big part of that. Isaiah chapters 40 through 47 speak to this. A significant reason why they went into captivity was their wicked idolatry. However, another huge part of their life before they went into captivity was that they were filled with injustice. This was seen in the fact that they oppressed the widow, the fatherless, the stranger, and the poor.

Now, here again, they are back in the promised land, and they are falling back into these behaviors. Why? Because they are carnal, just like you and I. They fall back into their old sin. God says, "I want you to do true justice." So, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the stranger, or the poor. The easiest to overlook in this world, the easiest to wrong or defraud, are the widow, the fatherless, the stranger, and the poor—what we might call the disenfranchised.

These are the easiest for people to prey upon. It is harder to prey upon the rich, those who are high up and have all kinds of things that insulate themselves. But it is so easy for people to prey on the disenfranchised, the defenseless, the widow, and the fatherless.

The stranger, the poor, and the defenseless are often taken advantage of constantly. Israel was judged for not defending the defenseless. In Isaiah chapter 1, verse 16, God says to His people, who were committing injustice and fraud, "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings before My eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well."

How? "Seek judgment," which means justice. God wants their cleanliness and righteousness to be evidenced in the way they live. They are to seek judgment and do what is right for those who are oppressed. In Isaiah chapter 1, verse 17, He instructs them to "relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widows." Here, He is saying that if they want to be right before Him, they must stop being wicked and evil. He wants them to be clean, and this is how it will be evidenced: by doing justice, loving mercy, and defending those who are defenseless.

Skipping down to verse 23, God addresses the leaders of Israel, saying, "Thy princes are rebellious and companions of thieves. Everyone loves gifts or bribes; they follow after rewards." They do not judge the fatherless, nor do they cause the widow to come unto them. God declares that they are wicked and evil. If they want to be right before Him, they must do justice and defend the defenseless. However, their leaders love bribes, and as a result, they are committing injustice.

About 100 years later, the prophet Jeremiah, in Jeremiah chapter 5, speaks to the people, saying that their leaders are "waxed and fat." They shine and surpass the deeds of the wicked. They do not judge the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper, and they do not judge the right of the needy. God was going to judge the people of Judah and Benjamin because of their injustice in failing to defend those who were defenseless.

For the last five years, I have had the joy and privilege of teaching the book of Isaiah at the Bible college. Every single time we go through the book of Isaiah, we delve into this topic and begin to discuss it.

It always comes up, the idea of pacifism. We are living in a nation that, for the last decade, has been at war. Every time a nation is under war for a period of time like that, it starts to breed a generation that wants peace at any cost. They become blind pacifists. This happened in the late 1960s and early 1970s during the Vietnam War, and it is happening again right now with the young generation that is coming up. They say, "Listen, we don't want to be at war anymore." We hear all these stories every single night of people being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, so we become pacifists. We turn the other cheek; we don't fight.

Here’s the important thing to recognize: pacifism is great. Jesus talks about non-confrontation, but if you do not defend the cause of those who are defenseless, you are guilty of sin. If it is in the power of your hand to defend them, you must do that. These two things—pacifism and defending the defenseless—have to go hand in hand. You can't separate one from the other. God says, "I'm going to judge you because you didn't defend the defenseless." He is pleading with His people to defend those who have no rights. This is a sign, an issue of sonship; being a child of God means God is interested in those who cannot defend themselves.

In Deuteronomy chapter 10, notice what God speaks in command to His people. Deuteronomy 10:17 states, "For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, a great God, and mighty, a terrible God, which regards not persons, nor takes reward." He doesn't say, "Well, you know, I like this person over here, so I'm going to lean in their favor when I'm judging," nor does He take bribes from people. He is not like the leaders of this world who honor certain groups of people and put down others, taking bribes.

In verse 18 of Deuteronomy 10, it says, "He does execute judgment, or right justice, for the fatherless and widow, and loves the stranger, and gives him food and clothing, giving to the poor what they need." So what does He say to us in verse 19? "Love ye therefore the stranger, for you are strangers in the land of Egypt."

God says, "I don't take bribes; I don't regard one person over another. I take care of the widow, the fatherless, the stranger, and the poor. Since you're my kids, you do that too. It's a sign of sonship."

God's word, through Zechariah, goes on in Zechariah chapter 7. He says to them, "Do not let any of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart. Don't plan deceit." The words of John, the apostle, are very powerful here. In 1 John chapter 3, verse 15, it states, "Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer." If you devise evil towards someone in your heart, you're a murderer, even though you don't commit the act. You have murdered them, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

God hates this. This is powerful: God hates the person who devises evil. Proverbs chapter 6 makes this very clear. There we are told in Proverbs chapter 6, verse 16, that there are six things that the Lord hates, yes, seven that are an abomination to Him. We read in verse 18 about a heart that devises wicked imaginations; this is one that God hates.

So, what does He say to His people here in Zechariah chapter 7? "Imagine no evil against your brother." Judgment will come upon the person who schemes wicked plans against another. Micah chapter 2, verse 1 states, "Woe to them that devise iniquity, that plan deceit, that work evil upon their beds." What that means is they are laying there at night, thinking, "How can I get that person?" This is called malice. When morning comes, they practice it. They dream it up at night, saying, "I'm going to do this," and then the next morning, they implement their wicked schemes because it is in the power of their hand. They say, "Well, I can do this."

Over the last couple of months, we've been going through different passages of the Bible that say, "This is how I want you to relate to one another." Here in this passage, we see that very same thing: God speaking to His people.

There were 2,500 years ago, in Judah, as they were rebuilding the temple, they were seeking to do religious things. God said to them, "I want you to render true judgments and show kindness and mercy to one another. Do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor. Let none of you devise evil against another in your heart."

Now, I don't know if you've noticed, as we've been going through these passages, where it says, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ," or as it says, "Love one another as I have loved you." If we read here, it also says to show kindness to one another and render true judgments. I don't know if you've noticed, but these are all characteristics of God. He is calling us to be like Him in the way we relate to one another. This is what He calls us to.

Now, the sad part of the story, and we'll just quickly go through this, is found in verse 11 of Zechariah chapter 7. They refused to hearken. The word "hearken" there is the Hebrew word "shema." This word is the same Hebrew word used in Deuteronomy chapter 6, which is actually called the Shema. In Deuteronomy chapter 6, it says, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and strength." The word "hear," as in "Hear, Israel," is the word "shema."

The word "shema" means to hear, but it's not just an inactive hearing, like when a fire engine goes by the sanctuary and you hear the sirens. You just kind of heard it. "Shema" also means that you're hearing it, but now you're listening. You're engaging your mind to listen, and then, on top of it, you make an active, willful response. Now you're acting based on what you hear.

It's as if you're in a room filled with a whole bunch of people—about a hundred people or so—and everybody's talking. You hear all this chatter, and it gets really loud, really quick. You're hearing all this, but then you hear someone say your name. Now you're listening. You look around, and oh, Eric just called me, and he's saying, "Miles, come here." Now I've heard, but now I'm listening. When I start to go towards him, I am shema. I am listening, I'm obeying, and I'm hearkening. I'm doing what he's bidding me to do. And so here God says,

But they refuse to hearken; they refuse to listen and obey. Instead of obeying, they even went a step further. They pulled away their shoulder and stopped their ears so that they should not hear. They said, "I don't want to hear what he has to say to me. I'm going to withdraw myself from hearing it." They made their hearts as hard as adamant stone, or as hard as a diamond. They hardened their hearts lest they should hear the law, the words which the Lord of hosts had sent in His Spirit by the former prophets. They didn't want to hear what the other prophets had to say.

Therefore, what is the result of this? Great wrath came from the Lord of hosts. Did they receive wrath from the Lord of hosts just because God is an angry, mean God? No, they received wrath from the Lord of hosts because they committed two evils. They didn't listen; they didn't hearken. Instead, they hardened and turned away from Him. God says this of the children of Israel in Jeremiah chapter 2: "My people have committed two evils. They have rejected and forsaken the well of living waters, Jesus." They said, "I don't want that," and then they went and hewed out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. They looked for something else other than Him.

Here again, we see these two evils. They didn't listen; instead, they hardened their hearts and turned away. Therefore, it has come to pass, as verse 13 states, that when trouble came upon them, they cried out. All this hardship came upon them, and they said, "God, save us." When they cried, God was crying to them through the prophets, but they wouldn't hear. So when they cried out, God said, "I would not hear."

That's heavy. God said, "I cried out to them, and they wouldn't listen to me. So when they cried out to me, I didn't listen to them." Why? In Isaiah 59, God says, "Listen, my hand, my arm is not short that I cannot save; my ear is not separated from you, but your sins have separated you from me. Therefore, I would not hear," says the Lord. Not that I cannot hear, but I would not hear. Why? Because of your sins. I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus, the land was desolate after them.

That no man passes through to no return, for they laid the pleasant land desolate. It was their own doing that brought this desolation into their lives. When I meet someone who comes to me for prayer or counsel, and their life is in desolation, it's just destroyed. It's not their parents' fault; it's not their social standing that is at fault. It is their own sin that has separated them from God.

The word is to hearken to the word of the Lord, to turn to Him, and let your turning to Him not just be in word, but also in deed. It should be evidenced and seen. You must render true justice and judgment, show kindness and mercy to one another, and not oppress those who are defenseless. Do not devise evil plans against them. Let this work of God be visible in our lives. Amen.

God is calling us to be like Christ to one another. He works in us to will and to do His good pleasure. He works this in us to do the things that are pleasing unto Him. But I'm convinced we have to yield ourselves to Him to do that. Has anybody ever seen this in this room? Has any of this ever just naturally happened for you, that you are just naturally kind to people and naturally merciful? I haven't experienced it, and I see from the veiled smiles on your faces that you haven't experienced it as well.

So we need to do what God would have us do. Would you fill me? That's what we're going to do right now. We're going to continue to respond in worship. I haven't left as much time as I should have, but we're going to respond in worship, coming before the Lord, asking, "Lord, would You work this in me? I want to yield to You."

Let's pray. Father, I want to be the kind of person who renders justice and shows kindness and mercy. So, Lord, I ask that You would work this in me. I want to see the evidence of You working in my life and in my heart because You have changed so much. Yet there are areas that still need to be changed. So, God, teach us what it means to worship You in spirit and in truth, that we would lay...

These things down, before You, our lives, and allow You to transform. We praise You, Father, for new people, more and more. Thank You.