Fast or Feast

One of the most common roadblocks facing a church is tradition. Now don’t get me wrong tradition is a useful and necessary part of society. It helps tie generations together and keeps us moving forward in a united way or at least it should. Every one of us has various traditions to which we hold to. They may involve the way we eat, the way we dress, our family hierarchy, how we treat our families. Tradition helps to stabilize things for us, guiding us in the choices that we need to make. Unfortunately, too often tradition gets in the way, it creates problems especially when times have changed, and people are unwilling to adapt.

Zechariah faced this same obstacle in the rebuilding process of the temple. Two years into the work project, the people are in an uproar over whether to fast or not to fast.  You see the Law of Moses only required one national fast, that was on the annual “Day of Atonement” (Lev. 23:16-32). Individually they were free to fast as often as necessary, but the requirement wasn’t there on the national level.

In Zechariah 7-9, however, the people were up in arms because to commemorate the events surrounding the destruction of the temple there had been four new fasts added to the religious calendar. One in the tenth month, when the Babylonians had begun their siege, one in the fourth month, when the walls were broken through, one in the fifth month when the temple was burned, and one in the seventh month when the Jewish governor Gedaliah was assassinated.

The question was now that the temple was being rebuilt, “was it necessary to continue the fast in the fifth month?”

I love Zechariah’s response to their inquiry. He didn’t tell them yes or no, he answered a question with a question. Smart man! He was trying to get them to draw their own conclusions. He asked them “when you fasted, did you do it for the Lord or for yourselves? And when you feasted, as it for the Lord or for yourselves? What was in your heart?”

Zechariah wasn’t condemning their traditions, rather he was imploring them to search their hearts for the reason behind the action. The prophets had long taught (dating all the way back to Samuel in 1 Sam 15:22) that the Lord wanted their obedience, not their sacrifice.

Zechariah wanted them to understand that a true spiritual walk is not simply switched on or off at our convenience.  Zechariah is trying to get the people to understand that if they fast let it be for God if they feast let it be for God. Ultimately, we see in Zechariah 8:19 all four fasts one day will be turned into feasts.

So, how does this impact us? How does this lesson affect us in the church today?

Well, the danger of tradition is that it can easily turn into traditionalism. Traditionalism is going through the outward motions instead of honoring the Lord with our hearts. Far too often in Christianity today we allow traditionalism to take hold, we do things one way because we have always done them that way, we sing songs because those are the songs we grew up with and our parents or grandparents sang them.  

We outwardly take part in a religious event but fail to have an inner spiritual experience.

We attend church, sing the songs (or don’t), might even drop whatever change that is in our pocket in the offering plate, but we aren’t doing it because we love the Lord we are doing it because it is what is expected of us as a good Christian. Notice I say we here a lot? That’s because I must examine my motivations just as you do each and every day!

I love the way Warren Wiersbe phrased it that “it's easier to have a religion of habit than a religion of the heart.”[1]  

We need to ask ourselves that important question of “why.” We collectively, be it in the larger church body, our family, or our own heart, need to examine the heart of why we do what we do. As you are inwardly questioning your heart and asking yourself why you believe what you believe and do what you do, I beg of you don’t try and lie to yourself. Be brutally honest. Because God will be brutally honest with you in the end when you face him in judgment.

Are there any cherished traditions in your life that need to be turned from a fast to a feast?

See ya Sunday!

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[1] Warren Wiersbe, Bible Exposition Commentary – Be Heroic (Haggai, Zechariah), (Colorado Springs, CO: Victor, 2003), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 463.