Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

God the Judge of the Righteous and the Wicked.

A Psalm of ^[a]Asaph

Hearts like Flint

7 In the fourth year of [the reign of] King Darius [of Persia], the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev (Dec 7, 518 b.c.). ² Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men to seek the favor of the Lord, ³ speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the Lord of hosts and to the prophets, saying, “[Now that I am returned from exile] shall I weep in the fifth month [mourning the destruction of the temple], and fast as I have done these many years [in Babylon]?” ⁴ Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me (Zechariah), saying, ⁵ “Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years [that you were in exile], was it actually for Me that you fasted? ⁶ When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves [to satisfy your own needs]? ⁷ Should you not hear the words which the Lord proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous along with her cities around her, and the South (the Negev) and the foothills were inhabited?’”

⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, ⁹ “Thus has the Lord of hosts said, ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion, to each other; ¹⁰ and do not oppress or exploit the widow or the fatherless, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise or even imagine evil in your hearts against one another.’ ¹¹ But they refused to listen and pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder [stiffening themselves in resistance] and stopped up their ears. ¹² They made their hearts [hard] like flint, so that they could not hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts. ¹³ And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen,” says the Lord of hosts; ¹⁴ “but I scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land was desolate after they had gone, so that no one passed through or returned, for they [by their sins] had made the pleasant land desolate and deserted.”

⁵ Now I want to remind you, although you are fully informed once for all, that ^[a]the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe [who refused to trust and obey and rely on Him].^{(A) 6} And angels who did not keep their own designated place of power, but abandoned their proper dwelling place, [these] He has kept in eternal chains under [the thick gloom of utter] darkness for the judgment of the great day, ⁷ just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the adjacent cities, since they in the same way as these angels indulged in gross immoral freedom and unnatural vice and sensual perversity. They are exhibited [in plain sight] as an example in undergoing the punishment of everlasting fire.^(B)

⁸ Nevertheless in the same way, these dreamers [who are dreaming that God will not punish them] also defile the body, and reject [legitimate] authority, and revile and mock angelic majesties. ⁹ But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil (Satan), and ^[b]arguing about the body of Moses, did not dare bring an abusive condemnation against him, but [simply] said, “The Lord rebuke you!”^{(C) 10} But these men sneer at anything which they do not understand; and whatever they do know by [mere] instinct, like unreasoning and irrational beasts—by these things they are destroyed. ¹¹ Woe to them! For they have gone the [defiant] way of Cain, and for profit they have run headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of [mutinous] Korah.^{(D) 12} These men are hidden reefs [elements of great danger to others] in your ^[c]love feasts when they feast together with you without fear, looking after [only] themselves; [they are like] clouds without water, swept along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted and lifeless; ¹³ wild waves of the sea, flinging up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of deep darkness has been reserved forever.

¹⁴ It was about these people that ^[d]Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, when he said, “Look, the Lord came with ^[e]myriads of His holy ones ¹⁵ to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ^[f]ungodly of all the ungodly deeds they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh and cruel things ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” ¹⁶ These people are [habitual] murmurers, griping and complaining, following after their own desires [controlled by passion]; they speak arrogantly, [pretending admiration and] flattering people to gain an advantage.

Keep Yourselves in the Love of God

¹⁷ But as for you, beloved, remember the [prophetic] words spoken by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ They used to say to you, “In the last days there will be scoffers, following after their own ungodly passions.”^{(E) 19} These are the ones who are [agitators] causing divisions—worldly-minded [secular, unspiritual, carnal, merely sensual—unsaved], devoid of the Spirit. ²⁰ But you, beloved, build yourselves up on [the foundation of] your most holy faith [continually progress, rise like an edifice higher and higher], pray in the Holy Spirit, ²¹ and keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously and looking forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ [which will bring you] to eternal life.