Verse 1
This chapter is a continuation of the last, both of them being the account of Zechariah's response to the inquiry of a delegation of the returned captives then living in Bethel, one of the pre-exilic centers of the paganism that had morally destroyed the chosen people. Their question carried with it the implication that they would like to omit keeping the fast day on the tenth of Ab (tenth month), which marked the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, some seventy years prior to their seeking an answer from Zechariah.
The prophet's answer (that part of it in Zechariah 7) refused even to discuss their illegal fast day, born of self-pity, not of the Word of God, and celebrating the wrong thing; but, instead, he had challenged them to "Hear the word of Jehovah," repeatedly admonishing them to "return unto Jehovah" by heeding the Word of God as delivered to them through the Law of Moses and through the Spirit-filled prophets whom God had sent to them again and again.
Four other brief sections of Zechariah's response occur in this chapter, beginning with Zechariah 8:1,9,14,18.
"And the word of Jehovah of hosts came to me, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath."
As in all of the sections of this response, there is first an assurance from the prophet that the words given are not his, but the word of the Lord.
"I am jealous for Zion ..." The use of the poetic word, "Zion," with its spiritual overtones, points further backward in Israel's history than their destroyed city of Jerusalem, the capital of their once-great empire. It was not their wicked state that God loved; in fact, God hated it. What a pity it was that the returned and recreated nation never comprehended this truth. Their hopes and intentions contrasted sharply with the purpose of God; for, throughout their subsequent history, they wanted nothing in heaven or on earth any more than a restoration of their scandalous world state. By the time of the advent of Christ, this evil desire on their part had become a savage, malignant patriotism; and the blessed Saviour's refusal to bless their wicked plans through cooperation with them in restoring their carnal state was the primary reason for their rejection and crucifixion of him.
"I am jealous for her with great wrath ..." God's zealous love for the true Israel and her priceless spiritual endowments carried with it a corollary, as stated here. That part of the total Israel which would oppose God's will and would choose to become "sons of the Devil" (John 8:44) rather than "sons of Abraham," becoming thereby enemies of the true Zion, that Israel would incur the violent and destructive wrath of God.
"Jealous," as used here denoted intense, righteous emotion, a meaning not at all related to the vindictive, wicked emotion associated with the term in its current use.
"Great wrath ..." The wrath of God would certainly be visited upon all enemies of the true Israel, regardless of whether or not such enemies were beyond the borders of Palestine or mingled among God's people themselves.
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