“Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”
– Zechariah 7:9-10
Wow, is that not a loaded verse with commands from God to his people? In Zechariah 7, in ways that we see the people of God in the New Testament commanded to do the same things. Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another. And then in verse 10, you see these specific examples of what that looks like.
Zechariah 7:9–10 Commands Us to Care for the Poor and Needy
Don’t oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart. Wow. What if we lived this way today? Like we live today to show kindness and mercy to other people, and specifically to look for ways to care for widows, for the fatherless, for the sojourner, like the refugee in our midst, the poor. “And let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.” In your heart. What a picture. Devise good for others. Do not devise evil against anyone else in your heart.
So I just want to lead us to pray that God would help us to do these things, and I’ll just trust the Holy Spirit to move in our hearts, to help us see ways we can do this. And as part of this time in prayer, according to Zechariah 7, 9–10, I want to pray. I want to lead us to pray for the central Kurdish people of Iraq.
I want to read to you the description of them on the Unreached of the Day app from Joshua Project. It says, “Mentioned in the book of Daniel, the Medes are the ancient ancestors of Iraq’s Central Kurds. Together with other Kurds in Turkey, Iran, Syria, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, they’re the world’s largest stateless ethnic group, and are hated and undermined by the Arabs in Iraq. Their unwillingness to unite has worked against them time and time again. They have two mutually hostile political military factions which keep them weak and vulnerable.”
Zechariah 7:9–10 Leads us to Pray for Vulnerable People Groups
Do you hear that? “Weak and vulnerable.” And God makes very clear in His word, “You’re to be for them. You’re to be for the weak and the vulnerable.” That’s what Zechariah 7:9–10 is saying. And so I want us to pray specifically for the Kurds in light of this verse.
So God, we pray directly according to your word right now. You, the Lord of hosts, telling us this and we are saying, “Yes.” We want to do what you’re saying here. So help us today, tomorrow. Help us in our lives to render true judgments. Help us to show kindness and mercy to one another.
God, we pray for that kind of demonstration in our lives toward everyone around us. Everyone, even those with whom we disagree, even those who may be working to hurt us. Help us to show kindness and mercy to them. God, we pray that you would help us care for widows around us, to care for the fatherless, to care for orphans around us, for children without a mom or dad, or mom and dad.
Lord, we pray that you would help us to care for sojourners, for refugees around us. God help us to care for the poor around us. And God, we pray that we would not devise any evil against anyone else in our hearts. That we would only devise good in our hearts for other people. God, we need your help to do all these things. We pray that your spirit would lead us, guide us, cause us to live this way, according to your word.
Praying for the Kurdish People
And God, we pray specifically for the Kurdish people of Iraq, and Turkey, and Iran, and Syria, and Armenia, and Azerbaijan, for a weak and vulnerable people group of millions upon millions of people, most of whom have a little to no knowledge of who you are, Jesus. God, we pray that you’d help us to work for their good in every way, for their good physically and socially and materially in this world. And God, we pray that you’d help us to work for their good spiritually, that they might hear the gospel.
God, please hear our prayers for them now, we intercede on their behalf. Please, oh God, bless them and cause the Gospel to spread among the Kurdish people.
Bless your church wherever there are Kurdish people around them, whether in Iraq, or in Turkey, or in Nashville, Tennessee. God, we pray for the spread of the Gospel among Kurdish people in ways that they know you love them, in their weakness and vulnerability, that you are for them.
God, help us to live like this today, and may the thrust of our lives show that we are obeying Zechariah 7:9–10. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
