7:6,7
They are then urged to look at the times when they weren’t fasting and mourning, but feasting. What were they doing then? Just living for themselves. So whether they were feasting or fasting they were doing it for themselves. This is not to say that we should never fast nor feast, but we need to live for God all of the time. They had been through terrible times and were still in pretty straitened circumstances, but during times of peace and prosperity the prophets warned them that they were not living for God (eg see Amos), but they paid no heed. In short, the question of whether to have a particular fast or not was neither here nor there, it was of the utmost irrelevance.
7:8,9
We now come to what really does matter, to the issue that the people should be concerned with. As humans we have a great capacity for finding an excuse to neglect what is truly important and focus on triviality instead. What the Lord wanted was for them to administer true justice, and show compassion and mercy towards each other. And these were what God had been saying through the prophets for many years, and what the Law was all about. Indeed, there is a very close connection with Micah 6:8. It is especially worth noting that justice and mercy/compassion go together. We have a terrible habit of over emphasising one of these at the expense of the other. The Bible does not do this, and if we do it then our teaching and practice is unbiblical.
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