Religion or People

"When you held days of fasting every fifth and seventh month all these seventy years, were you doing it for me? And when you held feasts, was that for me? Hardly. You're interested in religion, I'm interested in people." Zech 7:5-6

When we do something over a long period of time we can sometimes lose focus on the reason why we do it. The people from Bethel had been following their days of mouring and abstinence for 70 years and were looking for God's blessing as to whether they should continue to hold their ceremonies as they had done for many years. God's response via Zechariah was as per the verses above.

It must have come as a bit of a shock to them. I doubt whether they were expecting quite that response. How would they have reacted? Would they be outraged or would they have mulled over the response and realised that, yes, they had indeed forgotten the reason why these times were remembered and they had become nothing more than some religious rule keeping.

As a denomination, the Salvos are still doing some things that were done years ago. But I wonder whether some of the things we do have become religious rule keeping or whether we still remember the original purpose. The response may be different from person to person.

Are we still interested in the people? A couple of verses on we read this:

"Well, the message hasn't changed. God-of-the-Angel-Armies said then and says now:
"'Treat one another justly.
Love your neighbors.
Be compassionate with each other.
Don't take advantage of widows, orphans, visitors, and the poor.
Don't plot and scheme against one another—that's evil.'"

It's a constant message. Don't forget the reason for your existence. Don't get caught up in rule keeping for rule keeping's sake. Remember what is important to God not religious leaders.. And so on...

Remind me again God of your values and your love for people. Remind me again about the reason for doing the stuff we do.