7:1 Another prophetic message came to Zechariah from the Lord in 518 B.C. The fourth day of the ninth month would have been in early December. Chislev is the Babylonian name of the month. This message, which comprises the following four messages in chapters 7 and 8, came to the prophet almost two years after he received the eight night visions (cf. 1:7) and about halfway through the period of temple reconstruction (520-515 B.C.).
7:2-3 Israelites who lived in Bethel, about 10 miles north of Jerusalem (cf. Ezra 2:28; Neh. 7:32; 11:31), sent two representatives to ask the priests and prophets in the capital about how they should worship Him (cf. Mal. 1:9). The names of the two ambassadors were Babylonian suggesting they had been born in Babylonia during the Captivity.143They wanted to know if they should continue to observe a fast that had become traditional but which the Mosaic Law did not require.144
"Coming as they did from a place long associated with apostate worship (1 Kings 12:29-33; 2 Kings 10:29; Jer. 48:13; Amos 3:14; 4:4; 7:13), these men would be particularly concerned to determine orthodox praxis on behalf of those who sent them."145
There were four fasts that the Jews in exile had instituted to commemorate various events connected with the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. (cf. 8:19). The one in the fifth month memorialized the destruction of the temple (cf. 2 Kings 25:8-10).146Since the temple was almost complete (cf. Ezra 6:16), did the Lord want His people to continue to fast? The people knew that the captivity would last 70 years (Jer. 25:11-12), and 68 of these had already past. It seemed to them that fasting over the destruction of the temple might be inappropriate since the Lord had enabled them to rebuild the temple and reestablish worship. The question was a reasonable one.
"What may have appeared to be an innocent question about the propriety of fasting was instead a question fraught with hypocrisy, as YHWH's response puts beyond any doubt. It therefore appears that the query to Zechariah by the Bethelites may not have been so much a matter of piety as it was of posturing. May it not be that the delegation was trying more to impress the prophet than to gain instruction from him?"147
