Episode
What Does the Lord Require?
- Podcast
- Grace for All
- Published
- Jul 7, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 404
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Summary
Zechariah 7:9-10 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgment, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress, the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in you hearts against one another. The prophet Zechariah is mentioned in passing in Ezra 5:1. Both he and the prophet Haggai were part of the generation that returned to the land of their ancestors after the King Cyrus of Persia released the exiles. They went to Jerusalem to settle and rebuild the city and the Temple of the Lord. A small number of the people who traveled were part of the exiled generation. The majority, though, were the descendants of people who experienced the destruction of the city, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and the Temple. We may marvel at the courage involved in going to a place they have never seen and starting life anew. The nagging question on everyone’s mind had to be what will we do when we get there? They would rebuild, live, be the people of God again were among those answers. But what do we rebuild first? Do we build our own houses, the Temple, or the city walls? How should we live when we are settled? Haggai will argue that the people need to complete the Temple. Zechariah will say, “We need to do what God is doing.” What does God want? Our text says God wants this new generation to do community life better than the previous one did. These verses in Zechariah 7 repeat the teaching of the prophets of those earlier generations. We should live honestly and never mistreat another person. While we may desire to leave the lesson there, Zechariah names the people whom he saw as the most vulnerable. He wants his readers to ask, “How are we treating orphans, widows, aliens, and the poor?” He suggests the key is to ask how are we treating another per…