“Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?”
My Notes
What Does Zechariah 7:5 Mean?
The people have been fasting — specifically during the fifth month (commemorating the temple's destruction) and the seventh month (commemorating the assassination of Gedaliah). For seventy years, these fasts have been observed faithfully. And now God asks a question that peels back the entire religious practice.
"When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years" — the duration is the emphasis. Seventy years. The entire exile. They kept the fast for the entire period of captivity. Not once or twice but annually, consistently, for seven decades. By any measure, that's impressive religious discipline.
"Did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?" — the question demolishes the entire enterprise. Unto me? The Hebrew repeats the pronoun for emphasis: to me, to me? Was I the one you were fasting for? Or were you fasting for yourselves — to process your own grief, to maintain your own identity, to feel the solidarity of shared suffering?
God doesn't deny the fasting happened. He questions the orientation. The people fasted because they lost the temple. They mourned because their national life was destroyed. The emotion was real. The discipline was genuine. But the motive was self-directed — they were grieving what they lost, not seeking the God who allowed the loss.
The next verse (7:6) extends the logic: "And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?" The fasting and the feasting had the same orientation: self. Whether they were abstaining or indulging, the object was themselves. God was absent from both the denial and the celebration. The religion was real. The relationship was missing.
God isn't opposed to fasting. He's opposed to fasting that has no divine audience — religious practice performed for human benefit while God watches from outside the transaction.
Reflection Questions
- 1.If God asked you about your spiritual practices — prayer, worship, giving, fasting — would the honest answer be 'unto me' or 'unto myself'?
- 2.How do you tell the difference between a spiritual discipline directed toward God and one directed toward your own emotional or identity needs?
- 3.What does it reveal that seventy years of disciplined fasting could be entirely self-oriented without the practitioners realizing it?
- 4.What would change in your spiritual practices if you paused before each one and asked: is this unto Him, even to Him?
Devotional
Seventy years of fasting and God asks: was any of that for Me? The question should make every religious person uncomfortable. Because the answer, for the returned exiles, was no. They fasted because they were sad. They mourned because they lost something. The discipline was real. The devotion was self-directed.
The double emphasis — unto me, even to me — is God insisting on being noticed. He's not asking to be the beneficiary of your spiritual practice in an abstract sense. He's asking to be the audience. The one you're talking to when you fast. The one you're seeking when you deny yourself. The one whose face you're looking for in the hunger. If the fasting is about you — about your grief, your identity, your religious resume — then it's not fasting unto God. It's fasting unto yourself with a spiritual label.
This question applies to every spiritual practice you maintain. Your prayer — is it to God or to your own anxiety? Your worship — is it unto Him or unto the feeling you get from the music? Your giving — is it unto Him or unto your sense of being a generous person? Your Bible reading — is it unto Him or unto the satisfaction of checking the box?
The practice can look identical from the outside and be completely different on the inside depending on the answer to God's question: unto me? The fast that's oriented toward God transforms you. The fast that's oriented toward yourself just makes you hungry. God isn't interested in your religious calories burned. He wants your attention. Even to me.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink,.... Either at common meals, or at their festivals:
did not ye eat for…
Speak unto all the people of the land - They of Bethel had spoken as one man, as Edom said to Israel, “Thou shalt not…
When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth - month - This they did in the remembrance of the burning of the temple, on the…
This occasional sermon, which the prophet preached, and which is recorded in this and the next chapter, was above two…
The Answer. First Section
5. seventh month This fast appears to have been observed during the captivity, because in the…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture