Zechariah’s vision of four chariots. Work on the Temple is finished after Darius confirms it should continue. Then a call for justice and mercy: Zechariah 6:1–15; Ezra 5:3–6:14; Zechariah 7–8

Was there some sense of déjà vu? As in the ‘olden days’, God was still pointing out the people’s lack of true fasting. Instead, their feasts and fasts were  for their own enjoyment rather than any sense of pursuing the holiness of God. God was looking for this:

^{Zechariah 7:9-10}  … Judge fairly, and show mercy and kindness to one another. Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other.

Indeed, it was Israel’s failure to do this over a long time that led to their troubles some decades earlier. It was likened to putting their fingers in their ears so they couldn’t hear God. And the long-term result of that was:

^{Zechariah 7:13} Since they refused to listen when I called to them, I would not listen when they called to me, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.