Zechariah 8:16

 Zechariah 8:16 says, These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates:  God told the people of Judah what He expected of them.  They were to speak the truth to their neighbors, execute judgment and live at peace with one another.  I believe the truth and judgment would be God's truth and judgment, and when they spoke His truth and executed judgment in accordance with His word that His peace would follow, and this still applies to Christians today.  Verse seventeen adds, And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD.  Just as there were some things that God expected them to do, there were some things that He expected them not to do.  They were to not even imagine, or think about, doing evil to their neighbors and they were to love no false Gods.  God still expects that of followers of Christ today.  We are to love our neighbors, and we are to love nothing more than we love God.   Ir we do love anything more than God, it becomes an idol to us.  Verse eighteeen declares, And the word of the LORD of hosts came unto me, saying,  Verse nineteen adds, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love the truth and peace.  God said that their fasts in the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months were to be fasts of joy.  We may not associate fasting with joy, but God said these times of fasting were to be times of joy for the people of Judah.  I believe this was because these were to be days associated with all that God had done for them and were to be days dedicated to giving up the richer things of the world in order to show their obedience to Him.  When we worship God today, we should put aside all the things of the world that could come between God and us, and we should do so joyfully.   If we do fast to show our love for God, we should not do so to call attention to ourself, but to show our devotion to God and we should have joy in our life when we do it.  Verse twenty states, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities:  Verse twenty-one adds, And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts: I will go also.  God said there were going to be people of many other cities coming to worship Him.  God said they were going to come speedily and pray to Him.  God did not redeem just the people of Judah who put their faith in Him, but people everywhere who did.  We should recognize that God does not just redeem people from certain countries today,  but He redeems everyone who accepts Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.   Verse twenty-two continues, Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD.  God said people from many strong nations were going to come to Jerusalem to worship Him. Verse twenty-three concludes, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.  God said that people from everywhere would come to the Jews and tell them that they would go with them because God was with them.  People come to Christians today when they are seeking the truth of God, and we need to lead them to Him.  Sadly, this does not happen too often today, but we are still to be a Godly example to the world.