Having referred to the words of the former prophets (v. 7), Zechariah now summarized them as an exhortation to his own generation of Israelites.
7:8-10 Zechariah received another message from the Lord related to this inquiry. The sovereign Lord commanded His people to dispense justice (Heb. mishpat), to exercise kindness (Heb. hesed) and compassion (Heb. rahamim) toward each other, not to oppress the weak and vulnerable among them, and not to plot evil against each other.
"Here . . . is a concise yet comprehensive range of ethical teaching condensed into four pithy utterances."150
"Morality is certainly not piety, but the piety which does not include morality is a mere delusion. It mocks God and insults man."151
7:11-12 When the former generations of Israelites had heard these commands, they refused to pay attention to the Lord. They turned away from Him stubbornly like a rebellious ox, and they put their fingers in their ears so they would not hear Him. They hardened their hearts (minds and wills) like flint (Heb. shamir, diamond) so they could not hear the Law or the Holy Spirit's messages through the former prophets whom God had sent to them.
"This remarkable doctrine of the Holy Spirit as mediator of God's word to the prophets, who were themselves its mediators, has no parallels in the prophetic books. . . . Zechariah is the first to record this aspect of the doctrine of the Spirit."152
God had proceeded to dull the people's ears in discipline because they would not hear (cf. Isa. 6:10; Acts 28:27). Consequently great wrath had come from the Lord against them.
"One indispensable ingredient in true spirituality is a dogged attentiveness to familiar truths, but they did not pay attention.'"153
7:13-14 Since the forefathers refused to listen to the Lord's Spirit when He called to them (cf. Neh. 9:20, 30; 2 Pet. 1:21), the Lord refused to listen to them when they called to Him in prayer (cf. Jer. 11:11-14). Instead He scattered them among many nations, as though a windstorm had blown them off the Promised Land (cf. Deut. 28:36-37, 64-68; Hos. 13:3). As a result, the land had become desolate with none of the Israelites returning to it during the Captivity (cf. Deut. 28:41-42, 45-52). This desolation of the formerly "pleasant land"of Israel was due to the sin of the people (cf. Ps. 106:24; Jer. 3:19; Dan. 11:16, 41).
". . . while Zechariah may well not have answered the original enquiry [sic] directly, he had nevertheless taken up the very essence of ritual in the heart of the worshiper, which was that the outward form of religious activity was useless and lifeless without an accompanying spirit of obedience, confession and repentance."154
