A meditation to Zechariah 7.
OBEDIENCE is shaped in all sorts of forms, and unfortunately obedience
may occasionally be shaped by a covertly disobedient heart. Such a legalistic
obedience obeys God’s rules but does not genuinely trust in the will of God,
for instance, the fasting of the exiles in the fifth and seventh months for
seventy years. Somehow they had lost their way; their fasting was not really
done to honour the Lord. They
fasted but they wasted their ‘devotion’ because they didn’t do it for the right
reasons.
We have the same problem. Many times I’ve completed tasks
diligently, but without the heart of joy God willed me to have. At other times
I’ve done the right thing without the right attitude, which just isn’t right.
But much more a concern than these two generalised examples is the ‘obedience’
that also seeks to manipulate.
Many of the rulers and powerbrokers in the Bible ran afoul of
God because they were seen to keep the law but with the wrong motive. As a
result they used power subversively and people under them, often the
vulnerable, were abused.
When the Word of the Lord
came to Zechariah at verse 9 it was in the form of the Prophets of old — a pre-exilic
Word — a recounting of the sins Israel committed before the exile that caused
it. This Word sounds remarkably like Micah 6:8. And this chapter overall has
the mood of Hosea 6:6 and Isaiah 58:3.
True leaders act justly, and they show kindness and mercy; their
heart — the seat of their intentions — is steadfast in humility before the Lord.
True leaders never expose the vulnerable and they don’t devise
evil in their hearts. But if they do either of these things inadvertently they’re
quick to repent. They do not do what Zechariah cites of the leaders of old, who
“stopped their ears from hearing…” (Verse 11)
***
The key test of our faith in the
realm of relational life, whether we’re leaders or not, is an ethical test; a
moral scrutiny. The Lord misses
nothing. We get away with nothing. And why would we wish to — if we have a
conscience?
If we refuse to listen to our Lord he will refuse to listen to us; we’ll
end up banished.
But if we have a healthy fear of
the Lord we’ll prosper. And so
will others around us.
The opportunity of leadership is
not power for ourselves but blessing for others.
© 2015 Steve Wickham.
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