And they made their heart [as] an adamant, that they should not hear the law, and the words that Jehovah of hosts sent by his Spirit by the hand of the former prophets therefore was there great wrath from Jehovah of hosts.
Zechariah answers a question about fasting by pointing the people back to their fathers. This verse names the root of the disaster that once emptied their land. It was not ignorance. It was a heart hardened on purpose. (Older translations say "adamant stone" where the ESV says "diamond-hard." The quotes below use that older wording.)
One Hebrew word carries the picture behind "diamond-hard." Its other uses in the Bible show how strong that picture is.
shamir. Ezekiel 3:9; Zechariah 7:12. In Jeremiah 17:1 it was once translated "diamond." It stands for extreme hardness — "harder than a flint." The same word is also translated "briars." It means any "sharp point": so a diamond point, or anything hard.
Notice who acts in the verse: they hardened their own hearts. They did it for a reason — so that nothing could get in.
There was not only indifference, but active hostility to the word of God, even open rebellion against Him and His claims. … So Israel chose not to hear. They refused to listen, they stopped their ears, they "made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear," and in this way they firmly turned away from the pleadings and warnings of the prophets.
The verse gives their aim: lest they should hear. They hardened themselves so the law could leave no mark.
They had deliberately made their hearts as hard as a rock, so the law of God would make no impression, nor His Word sent by His Spirit through the prophets.
The verse does not credit the prophets with ideas of their own. It says the Lord of hosts sent His words by His Spirit. Scripture makes that same claim for itself from Moses onward.
The words. Paul states that the apostles taught in "words" taught by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:13). This has been a principle from the earliest days: God had said of the true prophet, "I shall put my words in his mouth" (Deuteronomy 18:18-20). … Or, as David put it, "The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and his word was in my tongue" (2 Samuel 23:1). See also Ezra 7:11, Zechariah 7:12, and even the last book of the New Testament (Revelation 22:18-19), all referring to "the words" God had spoken.
The law they refused was the law of Moses. The men rebuilding the temple in Zechariah's day measured their work by that same law.
The books from that time describe how the leaders of the Jews worked to restore the temple and the worship as they had been before the captivity. The law of Moses set the standard for all of it. … Zechariah testifies against Israel that "they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law."
The verse turns on one word: therefore. What follows is not random misfortune but a measured answer, matched to the offence.
The reader will notice the connection shown by the word "therefore." … "So it happened: as He cried, and they would not hear, so they cried, and I would not hear, says the Lord of hosts. But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations they did not know." … The Lord reminds them of the conduct of their fathers, to force them to see the root of all the evils that had come upon them. He tells them that what they had suffered in judgment was His wrath.
The men standing in front of Zechariah had come back from exile. The old tendency had come back with them.
In verses 11-14 of our chapter Zechariah reminds the men who asked this question of all that. He challenges them straight out about the present attitude of themselves and the people of their day. … The moral evils that had wrecked the nation were still working among the people who had returned to the land. A remnant may return, but the deep-rooted tendency to develop the old evils remains. Let us never forget that.
The same process can start small, long before anyone would call it rebellion.
To treat any truth lightly is dangerous, and a hardened heart is bound to follow. How many people have a conscience that is paralysed in one spot (if I may put it that way)! They once recognised the voice of God in something and then refused it — perhaps they refused to listen because they feared God might be speaking there.
- Hearing refused. It starts with a decision not to listen. Stopped ears came before the stone heart.
- Hearing blocked. They made their hearts harder than flint on purpose, so the law could leave no mark.
- Hearing despised. They shut out more than human advice. These were words the Lord of hosts sent by His Spirit. Scripture claims the same for itself from Moses to Revelation.
- Hearing withheld. Then came the "therefore." He cried and they would not hear. They cried and He would not hear, and the whirlwind scattered them.
- Hearing today. The people who came back from exile carried the same tendency home. Refuse a truth you once knew as God's voice, and the same hardening starts now.
And it came to pass, like as he called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear, saith Jehovah of hosts;
Zechariah is speaking to people who came back from exile and wanted to know whether to keep their fast days. God answers by taking them back to why the exile happened at all. The verse leaves a hard question: can God's ear be shut, and how does it open again?
This verse is not a new message. It closes a summary of what God had already said.
At first sight verse 8 looks like the start of a new message. But a closer look shows that the Lord is only giving a summary, through Zechariah, of the words He had already cried out through the earlier prophets. Verses 9 and 10 give the substance of His former messages to His people. Verses 11 and 12 point out how His word had been refused. Verses 13 and 14 show that the judgments which had withered Israel and the land were the result of their hardened hearts and sinful rebellion.
What God asked of them was smaller than we might expect.
In this time of decline, God, who loved them, had not even asked them to return love to Him. He only impressed upon them to leave their self-love, their self-will, and to think of others and do the will of God.
The refusal in verse 11 was not a failure of hearing. It was a decision, and it did not stop at indifference.
There was not only indifference. There was also open hostility to the word of God, and open rebellion against Him and His claims. … Israel chose not to hear. They refused to listen, stopped their ears, and made their hearts hard as stone so that they would not hear. In this way they firmly turned away from the pleading and warnings of the prophets.
The cry goes unanswered, and exile follows. The punishment fits the sin.
God cried loudly to Israel, but they would not listen. So when at last they cry out in distress, suffering the results of their rebellion, God said He would not listen (v. 13). Instead, in His righteous government, He scattered them from their land among many nations where they were strangers (v. 14). Since they did not want God, He put them among people who did not know God. There they would learn by experience how bitter it is to be away from the kindness and care of their faithful Creator.
The exiles knew their nation's history. What they were losing was the sense that God's own hand lay behind it.
The reader will notice the link shown by the word "therefore." … Whenever we leave the ground of the word of God, we tend to lose sight of God's hand in our correction. … The stages of His dealings with them are very solemn. First, great anger came from the LORD of hosts. When that failed to produce sorrow for sin, He cried, and they would not hear. Then, when they woke up at last, though too late, and did cry to Him, the Lord would not hear.
An unanswered cry does not prove God has stopped listening. It shows what kind of cry it was.
If their change was honest repentance, God would answer. But calling out only from fear of judgment is not repentance. People often want rescue, but with no admission of guilt.
Saul asked God for help only when every other help was gone:
The pressure of despair wrung a useless cry out of his heart to the Lord. But there was no real turning to Him — and He never shuts out the most despairing cry from a soul that is truly sorry for its sin. All help was gone, and in his fear he asked the Lord, whom he had habitually disobeyed and neglected.
The chapter ends in a wasted land. The people caused that ruin themselves, but it did not change what God intends.
Although they had made the pleasant land desolate (Zech. 7:14) — they themselves had caused its ruin — God's purpose of grace had not changed. … Their disobedience would not block His plans of grace in the least.
- Word — Verse 13 closes a summary of what God had already said through earlier prophets. What He asked was small: think of others, not yourself.
- Refusal — They did not mishear. They stopped their ears and hardened their hearts until indifference became open hostility.
- Silence — God's unanswered ear mirrors their closed one. A cry driven only by fear of trouble is not repentance. God never shuts out a heart that is truly sorry for its sin.
- Scattering — God placed people who did not want Him among nations who did not know Him. They learned by experience what they had chosen.
- Grace — The ruin they caused did not change God's purpose. Their disobedience could not block His plans of grace.
and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not, and the land was desolate after them, so that no one passed through nor returned; and they laid the pleasant land desolate.
Zechariah 7 answers a question about fasting by pointing back to the exile. This last verse names the storm and the empty land, and it raises the question of who was behind the scattering.
The closing verses are not a fresh subject. One writer reads verses 8–14 as a summary of what God had already said through earlier prophets. The last two verses give the result.
Verses 9 and 10 give the substance of His earlier messages to His people. Verses 11 and 12 point out how they refused His word. Verses 13 and 14 show that the withering judgments which fell on Israel and the land were the result of their hardened hearts and sinful rebellion. So we have first a summary of what God required of His people if they were to be kept in blessing in the land… the first part of the book of Deuteronomy insists again and again that obedience was the condition of blessing and of staying in the land.
God says I scattered them. The returned exiles remembered the invasion as politics and military defeat. The danger was that they would read their history like any other beaten nation.
Whenever we step off the ground of the word of God, we tend to lose sight of God's hand in our discipline. Very likely the Jews forgot their special place in God's dealings and were taking up in spirit the same position as the nations around them. They might have reasoned: we have been conquered and carried away captive, but so have other nations. To stop any such thought, and to force them to see the root of all the evils that had come upon them, the Lord reminds them how their fathers behaved. He tells them that the judgment they suffered was His wrath.
The destination of the exile fits the offence. God sent them among peoples who did not know Him. That was the education they had chosen.
God cried out to Israel, but they would not listen. So when at last they cried out in distress, suffering the results of their rebellion, God said He would not listen (v. 13). Instead, in His righteous government, He scattered them from their land among many nations where they were strangers (v. 14). Since they did not want God, He put them among people who did not know God. There they would learn by experience how bitter it is to be away from the kindness and care of their faithful Creator. Their land was left desolate as an awesome judgment from God's government, with not even travelers passing through it. This was true during the 70 years of captivity. It happened again when Israel rejected the Lord Jesus, who came in grace.
So what could religious routine do about a ruin like this? The scattering itself gives the answer.
Religious ceremonies, whatever else they may do, never take the place of practical righteousness in God's sight, and still less the place of faith. People can show, and often do show, the greatest zeal for an outward institution while the heart is far from Him… the prophet shows how the Lord had scattered the people despite their ritual observances. Turning to those observances was in no way the true remedy for a low or evil condition, though they might have their place alongside the weightier matters.
The verse is history, but the danger it describes did not end with the exile.
The moral evils that had wrecked the nation were still working among the people who had returned to the land. A remnant may return, but the deep-rooted tendency to develop the old evils remains. Let us never forget that.
Older translations render the last clause "they laid the pleasant land desolate" — blaming the people, not the invader. The next chapter is God's reply to that ruin.
Although they had "laid the pleasant land desolate" (Zech. 7:14) — they themselves had caused its ruin — God's purpose of grace had not changed… The day would come when God would again take up the cause of Jerusalem… Their disobedience would not thwart God's purposes of grace in the least.
- Refusal. A stopped ear came first; the whirlwind came after. The judgment of verses 13–14 is the consequence of hearts that would not hear.
- Wrath. The exile was not bad luck among the nations. God tells them it was His hand, so they would trace the trouble to its root.
- Scattering. They did not want God, so He placed them among people who did not know Him. Experience would teach them what they refused to learn from His word.
- Desolation. Invaders emptied the land, but Scripture lays the ruin at the people's own door. Fasting could never repair what disobedience had caused.
- Grace. The empty land did not cancel God's purpose. Chapter 8 answers chapter 7: He returns to Zion, and their failure does not overturn His plans.