Religion, but not for God?
Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me: 5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? 6 And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? 7 Are these not the words the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?”
They got more of an answer than they had bargained for. The Lord answered, “When you fasted and mourned . . . was it really for me that you fasted?” In other words, if the fasting and mourning came from hearts made low because of a knowledge of sin, then the worship was acceptable to God. If, however, the tears were just tears of habit and not heart, the worship was an insult to God.
Speaking as a prophet of God, Joel said, “‘Return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.’ Rend your heart and not your garments” (2:12,13). This is the implied message of Zechariah to his people too. “Your religion—is it for you or is it for God?” Is the practice a matter of the exterior or of the interior?
It may be that some go to church just for the discipline of it. Church attendance for them is like exercising, painful while you do it but feels great after it is over. Some may go to church for the image that a “churchgoer” enjoys in the community. (Some politicians even make a point of claiming this for themselves.) Some may go to church as a matter of culture. It is what their parents always did. They do it too, without really knowing why. Some possibly go to church for insurance—covering all the bases in life, just in case.
The Lord gives us all a good yardstick with which to measure our worship for him and to him. It comes to us in a simple question that we can and should ask ourselves when we prepare to worship: “Is what I am doing here done to the glory of God, or am I thinking primarily of myself?”
If we take stock of our faith and life and find that we have fallen short and the resulting shortage causes us grief in our hearts, then we are worshiping God properly. We are tearing our hearts and not our garments, as the prophet Joel told us to do.
The prophet Zechariah mentioned fasting in verse 5. If we could say in our hearts that we would forgo food for a day so that we might have more time to spend with God in prayer, we would be worshiping God and not ourselves. Even if we should fast for a day to discipline ourselves so that we might have better control over our flesh, this would be worshiping God and not doing the effort for ourselves. “Physical training is of some value” (1 Timothy 4:8). Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter can be special holidays of worship to our God. They can also become just occasions for friendly festivity. God’s name is sometimes mentioned before the turkey is eaten and never heard again all day. Should this be the case? The Lord would question rightfully, “When you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?”
Verse 7 is the gentle reminder that this is not the first time the Lord has mentioned hollow worship. The prophets have always warned against this. “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” is the recurring message (Hosea 6:6). Jesus quoted Isaiah and warned, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain” (Matthew 15:8,9).