We have said that 8:1-3
says in a nutshell what is given in the rest of the chapter. Let us note the rest of Zechariah’s message
from the LORD.
·
8:4-6: Jerusalem will be a thriving city,
thriving with people. Remember, people,
not riches, are the glory of a king (Prov. 14:28). The thought of all these people is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of
Zechariah’s time. But it will not be
marvelous to God, by which He is saying it will be a small things for God to
bring about. Remember His zeal and fury!
·
8:7-8: How will Jerusalem be the City of Truth and the LORD’s Holy Mountain? It will happen because God will not just
bring the people back; He will bring them back and save them. They (God and the people) will dwell together
in truth and righteousness.
·
8:9-13: As always the messages of the LORD
through Zechariah have an impact on the building project at hand. God promises blessing, unlike what Jerusalem
had experienced previously. Instead
there will be prosperity, the kind that comes through the land. That is always the foundation of God’s
blessing to Israel, His Nation.
·
8:14-17:
This paragraph expands on the simple thought we saw in 8:2: With the
same fervor (fury) God had when He poured out His wrath on the fathers, so now
He is determined to do good to Jerusalem and Judah. He calls them to live in righteousness given
the hope God has given them.
In the past, in the
midst of God’s furious judgment, the people had looked to the future,
afflicting their souls (declaring these fasts),
pleading with God to forgive and restore them and the City God Himself had
chosen. Now, in the midst of God’s
furious determination to do good, the fasting times need to become times of joy,
gladness and cheerful feasts.
It is interesting
that around this same time, the governor Nehemiah had uttered words many of us
find familiar: The joy of the LORD is our
strength (Neh. 8:10). It was in a
similar context. The Scriptures had been
read and the people were in tears before the LORD. Instead Nehemiah told them then needed, at
that time, to rejoice in the word of the LORD.
They were to send gifts to each other and have times of gladness.
To punctuate this
call to gladness, Zechariah again speaks of the glories to come in the future
Messianic Kingdom. When the LORD reigns,
the Messiah, many will go up to the Mountain of the LORD to seek the LORD. Jerusalem will be at the center of all this
as will the Jewish nation.
Let us now step back,
with the truth of Zech. 7-8 in hand, and consider our own approach to traditions and spiritual disciplines. What
this chapter tells us is that there must be reality in what we are doing. We do not change our practices just for the
sake of having something new and exciting.
That is a dangerous approach often used in evangelical
Christianity. The openness to something
new and different has led to some of the most bizarre practices and
doctrines.
On the other hand,
we do not reject changes in our spiritual disciplines simply because we ain’t never done it that way before. This basis for rejecting change, especially
in our corporate practices, has led to churches that, like Sardis, had a name that you are alive, but you are dead
(Rev. 3:1). We are doing the same things
our fathers did, but our churches lack the life of the churches of our
fathers. The Lord is not seeing the
faith, hope and love that He Himself values.
There is no magic
answer to how we stay in the way of the truth in this. But there is the promise of our Lord to send
the Holy Spirit to lead us by the word of Christ. It is most appropriate for us to ask the
questions suggested in Zech. 7-8 as we consider everything we do.
·
Are we glorifying God or merely satisfying man? satisfying
ourselves?
·
Do our practices help us meet God’s revealed
will or does it replace God’s will for us?
·
Are our practices founded in truth, in
reality? Do they help us to know God or
do they merely help us to know about God?
Do they lead us to Christlikeness or do they merely manufacture
cookie-cutter Christians?
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