Continuing from the previous lesson, God spoke to the prophet Zechariah with instructions for what the people should do, instead of at least some of what they were doing.
And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: “This is what the LORD Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’
Zechariah 7:8-10 NIV
(By the way, do you notice the past tense in what God “said”? It sounds to me like these instructions were given long before this prophecy, and God is just reminding the recipients of what He had said before.)
The people were also instructed to not oppress. In a world where the word “oppression” has been overused to the point of diluting its meaning, nearly every action might be called oppressive. However, our call is not to subscribe to a worldly view of who feels oppressed, but rather to ensure that we are legitimately not burdening others inappropriately or taking advantage of them.
For instance, Christians can oppress people when we impose legalistic human rules on them, or when we raise the bar on who is welcome to worship with us (based on their appearance, behaviors, or beliefs). We can be oppressive when we expect others to do work in the kingdom of God that we should be doing, ourselves.
Let’s each do some self-inspection to consider whether we are leveraging our power or authority to limit others or to make them do things our way, rather than seeing them as fellow human beings, created in the image of God. And. when it comes to other Christians, let’s consider if we are being fellow servants of God with them, or expecting them to fill our role (or God’s role) in the kingdom.
Also, the people were told to not plot evil against each other – This sounds like a pretty serious accusation against the people in Zechariah’s time and region…plotting evil is pretty harsh, especially against our neighbor.
Do we practice a sanitized version of this? Do we hope that the other sports team will get a penalty, or that a political figure will suffer harm and step down, or that the person who cut us off in traffic will get a flat tire?
I’m not here to accuse, since thoughts run through my mind as well, but this is another opportunity to think about whether we are honoring God in what thoughts we invest in, versus those that we let pass on when they enter our minds.
OK, I know that’s a lot. Let’s ponder whether we’re inclined to follow the path that God outlined for His people (which is good for all of us to follow), or if we’d prefer to “take the low road”. I think that there’s something in here for each of us.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for August 11, 2024
References:
- The Lookout, August 11, 2024, © 2024 Christian Standard Media.
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – Minor Prophets Vol. 2 Nahum-Malachi, by Mark Allen Hahlen and Clay Alan Ham. © 2006 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 