Not So Fast
- The people have been trying to keep up their rituals while in exile and ask the priests if they should still practice fasting and mourning during a certain day of observance in the fifth month. (This might be referring to the fast in commemoration of the destruction of the Temple.)
- God asks them if all this fasting has really done them any good, since it wasn’t done from the heart.
- What he really wants is for them to be just and compassionate with one another. Because of all their empty sacrifices, he’d scattered them in other nations.
- But now God reassures them he’s back in Jerusalem for good.
- He recalls the time when Jerusalem was so filled with evil that you couldn’t go outside without getting mugged.
- But now, things will be peaceful and prosperous. Lots of figs!
- All the people have to do is speak the truth and act justly. Is that too much to ask?
- All the fast days will turn to days of joy.
- Jerusalem will become a hot tourist destination, and anytime a gentile sees a Jew, he’ll grab him by the cloak and ask to go to Jerusalem.
- People of all nations will want to go there to seek out God.