Audio Download

Zec 7:1-14  “Is not this the fast that I have chosen?”

[Study Aired July 13, 2023]

Zec 7:1  And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chisleu; 
Zec 7:2  When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men, to pray before the LORD, 
Zec 7:3  And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years? 
Zec 7:4  Then came the word of the LORD of hosts unto me, saying, 
Zec 7:5  Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? 
Zec 7:6  And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves? 
Zec 7:7  Should ye not hear the words which the LORD hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain? 
Zec 7:8  And the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah, saying, 
Zec 7:9  Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother: 
Zec 7:10  And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart. 
Zec 7:11  But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. 
Zec 7:12  Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts. 
Zec 7:13  Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts: 
Zec 7:14  But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate. 

Here is some historical context that will help explain why this entourage was going up to Jerusalem to inquire of the priests of the Lord in the first place. We want to understand the spiritual significance of their actions, as those actions and the details surrounding these events were written for our sakes upon whom the end of the ages are come (1Co 10:11, 1Pe 1:12).

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1. Confronting the sin of religious hypocrisy.
2. (1-3) A question about fasting.

Now in the fourth year of King Darius it came to pass that the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, on the fourth day of the ninth month, Chislev, when the people sent Sherezer, with Regem-Melech and his men, to the house of God, to pray before the LORD, and to ask the priests who were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month and fast as I have done for so many years?”

1. In the fourth year…on the fourth day of the ninth month: On December 4, 518 B.C. a delegation came to Jerusalem with a question about fasting. At this point, the temple was somewhere around halfway completed.
2. Should I weep in the fifth month and fast: The fast in the fifth monthcommemorated the destruction of the temple (2Ki_25:8-9). Zechariah also mentioned a fast in the seventh month (Zec_7:5), which remembered the murder of Gedaliah, the last act of rebellion against the Babylonian governor of Judah (2Ki_25:25).
3. The Law of Moses commanded that on the Day of Atonement, the people of Israel should afflict their souls (Lev_16:29-34). The text in Leviticus does not specifically say they should fast, but it has long been understood by Jewish teachers as a command for Jews to fast on the Day of Atonement. In addition to this, during the exile the Jewish people instituted four more fasts to remember key dates in the tragic defeat of their nation. Here are the additional fasts:

1. (Psa_137:1-8)beautifully – and powerfully – described the sadness of heart that made the exiles remember their sin and such tragedies with these additional days of fasting.
2. To ask the priests who were in the house of the LORD: These men knew that during their forced exile in Babylon they observed these fasts that commemorated the tragic fall of Jerusalem. Now since God’s people were back in the land and the temple was rebuilt, they wanted to know if it was appropriate to continue to observe these fasts of mournful remembrance.
3. The matter brings up an issue relevant today: How long should we remember and mourn over our past? Should we do things to remember either our sins or the tragedies of the past?
4. As I have done for so many years: These additional fasts were not commanded by God but instituted by man. Yet because they were traditionally practiced for so long (at least 70 years), they developed a legitimacy of their own. They thought, “We’ve done this for so many years, we may as well keep doing it.”

***end of excerpt from Enduring Word Bible Commentary Zechariah Chapter 7***

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The natural progression of our sojourning in Christ has been shown in the last three chapters of Zechariah. Chapter four was about the two witnesses who have been given the power of God to prophesy for a time, times and half a time, and chapter five explains how God’s elect, by the grace and faith of Christ, come to see Babylon out of which we are mercifully being dragged in this age by God’s hand alone (Joh 6:44). Chapter six details for us the four sore judgments (Eze 14:21) that we must go through  as we come out of Babylon, not by our own might or power, but rather by God’s spirit (Zec 4:6) that are used in our lives to overcome the complete beasts which we are, typified by four horses, each horse having their own symbolic meaning and presence in our life-long journey of ‘coming out of her my people’ (2Co 6:17).

In this seventh chapter we are shown the natural hardness of our hearts that serves God out of selfish motives, “supposing that gain is godliness” and that those riches are the evidence we are accepted of the beloved (1Ti 6:1-21, Pro 1:1-21). The subject of learning to be content, whether we have a little or a lot, is one that can only be achieved through Christ, through whom we can endure all things (Php 4:11-13). 

Php 4:11  Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
Php 4:12  I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 
Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. 

The way we will find our liberty in Christ will not be through the negative example of fasting and prayer that we just examined [Enduring Word Bible Commentary] but rather by doing this one simple thing which requires the life of Christ within us to accomplish (Php 3:13-15).

Php 3:13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 
Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 
Php 3:15  Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

The fast which is acceptable with God is expressed through a life that has been granted to be broken and contrite in this age, which is a gift of God (Isa 58:6-8, Isa 66:2, Eph 2:8-9).

Isa 58:6  Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? 
Isa 58:7  Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? 
Isa 58:8  Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward. 

Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

[This old covenant type and shadow of that spirit of contriteness and brokenness found in Isaiah 66:2 is powerfully explained in king David’s repentance as a man after God’s own heart (Psa 51:1-8)]

Keeping under ourselves (1Co 9:27), dying daily (1Co 15:31), confessing our faults, and praying for one another (Jas 5:16-20) are all ongoing exercises in the lives of God’s elect who are given the strength through Christ to do all these things [“to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke“]. Having done all, we can stand before our Father (Eph 6:13) and are scarcely saved in this age through judgment (1Pe 4:17-18). These following verses in 1 Timothy 6:1-21 are a real snapshot of the problem, cause and solution to overcoming our marred, subject-to-vanity, earthen vessels over which only God can give us victory, a victory that is typified for us through the captivity Israel and all humanity must go into and be delivered out of, through Christ.

1Ti 6:1  Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. [Joh 13:13, Heb 12:1-2, Rom 12:1-2]
1Ti 6:2  And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. [These verses confirm how we do service to one another in the Lord (Eph 5:21, Gal 5:13, Php 2:3)] 
1Ti 6:3  If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; (1Co 4:6)
1Ti 6:4  He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, 
1Ti 6:5  Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.
1Ti 6:6  But godliness with contentment is great gain.
1Ti 6:7  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 
1Ti 6:8  And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. 
1Ti 6:9  But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 
1Ti 6:10  For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 
1Ti 6:11  But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. 
1Ti 6:12  Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life [Joh 17:3], whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

1Ti 6:17  Charge them that are rich in this world [Rev 3:17], that they be not highminded [Rom 11:20], nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; [1Co 3:21-22]
1Ti 6:18  That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; 
1Ti 6:19  Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. [Eph 6:13].

Zec 7:1   And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chisleu; 

Zechariah is a type of the elect who is being admonished and shown through the word of God that everyone in their appointed has to go into Babylonian captivity and then through judgment [9] ‘come out of her my people’ (Rev 18:4). This message of judgment [9] upon our old man is written for the elect, but also for the whole [4] world, as symbolized by pointing to “the fourth year of king Darius” in “the fourth day of the ninth month” in ChisleuH3691, which is the word for the ninth Hebrew month and also means “his confidence”.

ChisleuH3691 kislêv Chisleu = “his confidence”

1) the 9th month of the calendar corresponding to Nov-Dec

H3691 kislêv kis-lave’

Probably of foreign origin; Kisleu, the ninth Hebrew month: – Chisleu.

It is because we are first of the generation who have confidence in our own flesh that we must be judged in the ninth month on the Hebrew calendar [“Kisleu, the ninth Hebrew month: – Chisleu“] in order to learn to trust solely on God (Pro 3:5-6) to provide all that we need through Christ. It is with the spiritual circumcision of our hearts (Php 3:3) that we put off our fleshly minds that cannot produce the righteousness of Christ, but naturally trust in our own righteousnesses (Isa 64:6, Eze 33:13, Dan 9:18), despising the true riches of God (Rom 9:23, Eph 3:8, Php 1:19, Php 2:30, Php 4:19, Rom 2:4).

Php 3:3  For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, [Joh 6:63] and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

[It is with the body of Christ where that confidence in Christ can mature, so when we forsake the assembling of ourselves for no particular reason we are inadvertently casting away our confidence (Heb 10:25, Heb 10:35, Heb 11:25-26)]

Rom 9:23  And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, 

Eph 3:8  Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;  

Php 4:19  But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. 

Rom 2:4  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

Zec 7:2  When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men, to pray before the LORD, 
Zec 7:3  And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years? 

Unknowingly, this question of our first self-righteous religious beast, “Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?“, is equivalent to asking ‘should I continue in sin so a worse thing can come upon me?’ (Joh 8:11-12, Luk 21:34). The answer of course is ‘no’, and the answer to Sherezer and Regemmelech is also going to be ‘no’ they should not continue to dig up dead men’s bones, which is what we do when we lament and fast for past mistakes which have already been covered by the blood of Christ. There was no redemption through the blood of Christ at that time, and so these traditions were added onto the law of Moses making it more and more a burdensome relationship with God (Joh 1:17, Act 15:10)

Joh 8:10  When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, [The woman symbolizes the church, his body, where there is no condemnation in Christ (Rom 8:1).] where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? 
Joh 8:11  She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. 

Luk 21:34  And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.

When we send “Sherezer^H8272 and Regemmelech^H7278” to make an inquiry such as we see in this story, we are going before God with an idol of our heart, as an earthly king (king’s stone heap^H7278) who is being led of the devil, making me a “prince of fire”^H8272, also confirmed by the PNB translation of this verse: “And treasurer and stoning the king,  and his men, had sent to house of God to seek the favor of the face of I was, I am, I will be.” In other words, we are telling God that our many wonderful works can save us [our fasting – our lamenting], and we are in effect boasting, which is excluded by the law of faith (Eph 2:8-9, Rom 3:27).

H8272 Sharezer shar’etser
BDB Definition:
Sharezer or Sherezer = “prince of fire”
1) son of king Sennacherib of Assyria and murderer of his father
2) an Israelite whom the people sent to the house of God to pray in the time of the prophet Zechariah and king Darius
Part of Speech: noun proper masculine
A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: of foreign derivation

H7278 Regemmelech regem melek
BDB Definition:
Regem-melech = “king’s stone heap”
1) a man sent by some of the captivity to make enquiries at the temple concerning fasting
Part of Speech: noun proper masculine
A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: from H7276 and H4428

Zec 7:4  Then came the word of the LORD of hosts unto me, saying, 
Zec 7:5  Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? 
Zec 7:6  And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves? 
Zec 7:7  Should ye not hear the words which the LORD hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain?

The rhetorical question in the fifth verse would not be asked if the answer weren’t no. So the people were not properly fasting unto the Lord and they were not mourning for their current (sinful) state of being, but rather for past sins of their fathers, as if by those actions they could somehow be exempt from the judgment of God that comes upon all men (Rom 1:18, Rom 2:3-4). 

Rom 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness

Rom 2:3  And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things [those in the past who have died for instance], and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?[1Pe 4:17] 
Rom 2:4  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? [I the LORD search the heart (Jer 17:9), I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings (Php 2:12-13, Rom 9:19-20)]

These verses in Zechariah 7:5-7 reveal another way in which the flesh does not take accountability for its present sinful condition. Fasting “in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years” typifies a completely wrong way in which we try to apply God’s grace in our lives through a fast that is not acceptable to God because it is in our flesh and not in Christ the beloved (Lev 16:29, Isa 58:5, Eph 1:6).

Lev 16:29  And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you: 

Isa 58:5  Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? 

When everything is going perfectly in our lives, like the children in Israel being provided for all their physical needs in the wilderness, there is no growth to be had, a thought paralleled by this underlined portion of our verse here, “And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat and drink not the words which the LORD hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when  inhabited the south and the plain? (Zec 7:6-7 – KJV)” This same thought is reflected in the new covenant in 1 Corinthians 11:20-22 as related to understanding what our communion is all about (1Co 10:16). 

1Co 11:20  When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper. 
1Co 11:21  For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken.
1Co 11:22  What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. 

1Co 10:16  The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? 

When we take out the italics and just read these verses (Zec 7:6-7) at face value, it’s clear that they did indeed eat and drink the words of the prophets, with the point being that the witness they received or ate fell on deaf ears and blind eyes. This typifies for us our inability at that stage in our walk to hold fast to the words of the Lord, not having been yet received by God through His chastening grace, which is forthcoming for Israel (Isa 26:9, Eph 2:4-5, Heb 12:6).

Zec 7:6-7  And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat and drink not the words which the LORD hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when inhabited the south and the plain [when everything is going perfectly in our lives]? 

Zec 7:8  And the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah, saying, 
Zec 7:9  Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother: 
Zec 7:10  And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart. 

True judgment can only happen through a right relationship with our Father and Christ, which relationship matures through our being judged by God as we continue in His word. When we judge righteous judgment (Joh 7:24), we stop trying to execute judgment with our own carnal reasoning and are blessed to follow Christ’s example of executing “true judgment” (Joh 5:30, Joh 15:5).

Joh 5:30  I can of myself do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is righteous; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 
Joh 5:31  If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true [Rev 1:1-2, 1Jn 4:17, Rev 11:3, Php 2:12-13].

Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Joh 7:24  Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

The fruit of a life that is subject to God is described as showing “mercy and compassions every man to his brother“, and our religion is pure only if we “oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor” and remain unspotted from the world as we’re told to do in James 1:25-27, which describes the elect that are the “fatherless“, being separated from our former father, the devil, who is the god of this world (2Co 4:4). The elect are the “widow” who has been widowed from our former mother “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Rev 17:5). The “stranger” represents the strangers and foreigners of Ephesians 2:19, and the “poor” represents those who are now poor in spirit, humble and contrite because of the grace-through-faith relationship they have been called to in Christ (Mat 5:3-5, Isa 66:2).

Jas 1:25  But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. 
Jas 1:26  If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
Jas 1:27  Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [Gal 6:10] and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Eph 2:19  Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 

Mat 5:3  Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
Mat 5:4  Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Mat 5:5  Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

We are to be persuaded of our elders (1Th 5:12-13, Eph 2:6, Luk 16:31), and convinced of better things of each other (Heb 6:9-10) and not to “imagine evil against his brother in your heart” which is what we do when we impute motives on Christ’s body. We execute true judgment by showing “mercy and compassion every man to his brother.” These were the words the LORD brought to Zechariah because this spirit was lacking in Israel as a type of how we can be lacking in natural affection and proper judgment (2Ti 3:3-5, Eph 5:29). It is such spiritual apathy that the Lord is burning out of the body of Christ (Col 1:24, 1Pe 4:12) as we decrease and He increases (1Co 3:6) through each joint that supplies in love what the body needs to build itself up (Eph 4:16).

Zec 7:11  But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. 
Zec 7:12  Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts. 

Here’s the problem with spoiled children, which we all were in our appointed time, and this eleventh verse echoes back to the point of hearing the word of the prophets but not doing, “but they refused to hearken” (Luk 6:46). 

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

When we refuse to hearken we pull “away the shoulder” which is the part of our body that is symbolic of what should be bearing the burden of the body of Christ and so fulfilling the law of Christ (Neh 9:28-30, Gal 6:2-3, 1Ti 6:19).

Neh 9:28  But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee: therefore leftest thou them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them: yet when they returned, and cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and many times didst thou deliver them according to thy mercies; 
Neh 9:29  And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law: yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments, (which if a man do, he shall live in them;) and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.
Neh 9:30  Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by thy spirit in thy prophets: yet would they not give ear: therefore gavest thou them into the hand of the people of the lands.
Neh 9:31  Nevertheless for thy great mercies’ sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God.

Gal 6:2  Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. 
Gal 6:3  For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.

We all stop our ears at first, and, God permitting, He gives us ears to hear and eyes to see as a result of the pruning and chastening God gives to every son being received of Him (Heb 12:6, Joh 15:1-4). God willing, we see the day approaching (Heb 10:25), and are being given to strengthen each other and prevent iniquity from abounding in our midst (Eze 33:13). 

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 

Joh 15:1  I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 
Joh 15:2  Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Joh 15:3  Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Joh 15:4  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

This 12th verse “Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts” is talking about us in our appointed time. Yet if God is working with us, that “adamant stone” of a heart can be changed and softened into a fleshy converted heart that no longer wants to operate in carnal fleshly-driven self-righteous flesh (Jer 31:33, Eze 36:26, 2Co 3:3), but rather only wants to be found in Christ having His righteousness (Pro 7:2-3, Php 1:21, Php 3:8-9).

2Co 3:3  Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. 

Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 
Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Zec 7:13  Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts: 
Zec 7:14  But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate. 

Because we all ask amiss at first, the Lord does not hear these fleshly-driven prayers that are not in accord with His will, or He answers us according to the idol of our hearts; either way it is a work of the Lord for our good (Jas 4:3-5, Eze 14:4). In order to bring us to stop asking that way, God “scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not.” It is in Babylon where we are scattered, and our lands are desolate of any stay of God’s bread and water (Isa 3:1), where “no man passed through nor returned“, meaning that this is where we will stay for the duration of our life experiencing God’s wrath upon us for laying “the pleasant land desolate” unless He drags us out of Babylon and shows mercy to us in this age through His judgments upon us (Rom 11:30-32, 1Pe 4:17).

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. 
Rom 11:32  For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

To lay the “pleasant land desolate” is to be overcome by the devil whom we can only conquer through Christ (1Jn 4:4). With Christ in us as our hope of glory within (Col 1:27), we can look to him and present our bodies a living sacrifice (Heb 12:1-2, Rom 12:1-2) and overcome all that is in the world within us including Satan’s influence that preys on our weak flesh and whom we can resist through Christ (1Jn 2:16-17, 1Pe 5:8-9, Jas 4:7). This is the fast God has chosen for God’s elect today, to overcome the wicked within us and the world’s influence of which Satan is the god, and we do that by being granted to recognize and fulfill (Rev 1:3) the verses which were mentioned earlier, (Isa 58:6-8, Isa 66:2).

Isa 58:6  Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? 
Isa 58:7  Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Isa 58:8  Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward. 

Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.