There are two wonderful truths here in Zechariah 7 given by God to the people that have returned to Jerusalem, rebuilding the Temple after 70 years in captivity. The main one is in God inquiring of the people if they are fasting for Him, or are they fasting in pity for themselves? God is touching on what happened to Israel and Judah in that in their ritual religiosity they were violating His law which led to their destruction.
Zechariah 7:4–10
[4] Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me: [5] “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? [6] And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? [7] Were not these the words that the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, with her cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?’”
[8] And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, [9] “Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, [10] do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.” (ESV)
And though touched on above, God explicitly states that scripture is God’s words recorded by men as given through His Spirit. This is why when you read the words of God they are unlike anything written by man’s creation. They’re consistent and even the detail of the time and languages for which they were originally recorded fit perfectly in with God’s plans for the millennia that have unfolded. And combined with all the fulfilled prophecy, God telling the future before it happens, we can look confidently at the promises yet unfulfilled. Many people going to hell are going to weep at having dismissed and neglected the Word of God while they still had a chance at salvation.
Zechariah 7:11–12
[11] But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. [12] They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts. (ESV)
Zechariah 7
A Call for Justice and Mercy
[1] In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. [2] Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men to entreat the favor of the LORD, [3] saying to the priests of the house of the LORD of hosts and the prophets, “Should I weep and abstain in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”
[4] Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me: [5] “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? [6] And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? [7] Were not these the words that the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, with her cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?’”
[8] And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, [9] “Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, [10] do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.” [11] But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. [12] They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts. [13] “As I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear,” says the LORD of hosts, [14] “and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate.” (ESV)