Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Reflections on Zechariah 1


    Zechariah 01 (Contemporary English Version)

  1. I am the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah and the grandson of Iddo. In the eighth month of the second year that Darius was king of Persia, the LORD told me to say:
  2. Israel, I, the LORD All-Powerful, was very angry with your ancestors. But if you people will return to me, I will turn and help you.
  3. (SEE 1:2)
  4. Don't be stubborn like your ancestors. They were warned by the earlier prophets to give up their evil and turn back to me, but they paid no attention.
  5. Where are your ancestors now? Not even prophets live forever.
  6. But my warnings and my words spoken by the prophets caught up with your ancestors. So they turned back to me and said, "LORD All-Powerful, you have punished us for our sins, just as you had planned."
  7. On the twenty-fourth day of Shebat, which was the eleventh month of that same year, the LORD spoke to me in a vision during the night: In a valley among myrtle trees, I saw someone on a red horse, with riders on red, brown, and white horses behind him.
  8. (SEE 1:7)
  9. An angel was there to explain things to me, and I asked, "Sir, who are these riders?" "I'll tell you," the angel answered.
  10. Right away, the man standing among the myrtle trees said, "These are the ones the LORD has sent to find out what's happening on earth."
  11. Then the riders spoke to the LORD's angel, who was standing among the myrtle trees, and they said, "We have gone everywhere and have discovered that the whole world is at peace."
  12. At this, the angel said, "LORD All-Powerful, for seventy years you have been angry with Jerusalem and the towns of Judah. When are you ever going to have mercy on them?"
  13. The LORD's answer was kind and comforting.
  14. So the angel told me to announce: I, the LORD All-Powerful, am very protective of Jerusalem.
  15. For a while I was angry at the nations, but now I am furious, because they have made things worse for Jerusalem and are not the least bit concerned.
  16. And so, I will have pity on Jerusalem. The city will be completely rebuilt, and my temple will stand again.
  17. I also promise that my towns will prosper--Jerusalem will once again be my chosen city, and I will comfort the people of Zion.
  18. Next, I saw four animal horns.
  19. The angel who was sent to explain was there, and so I asked, "What do these mean?" His answer was, "These horns are the nations that scattered the people of Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem, and took away their freedom." Then the LORD showed me four blacksmiths, and I asked, "What are they going to do?" He replied, "They are going to terrify and crush those horns."
  20. (SEE 1:19)
  21. (SEE 1:19)

Zechariah was a contemporary of Haggai whose prophecy comes just before Zechariah's in the Old Testament. Both prophets returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian exile with about 50,000 Jews. While Haggai's prophecy addresses Judah's failure to stay with the task of rebuilding the temple, Zechariah's is concerned with her whole-hearted return to the Lord.

Zechariah's prophecy comprises a series of eight visions which are apocalyptic in nature. While the messages of the visions had a partial fulfillment in the near future for those who heard the prophecy, they will not have a complete fulfillment until the millenial reign of Christ yet to come. The opening message of Zechariah comes directly through the prophet telling the people that the cause of their exile was the Lord's anger due to the sins of their ancestors, and calling them to return to the Lord. Added to this is the Lord's promise that if they return to Him, He will return to them. Zechariah goes on to encourage them not to be like their ancestors who failed to heed the warnings given them, and then asks, "Where are your ancestors now?" This question is followed with another, "But didn't My words and My statutes that I commanded My servants the prophets overtake your ancestors?" The implied answer is 'yes,' their ancestors did not heed the warnings of the prophets, and the Lord's statutes delivered by the prophets overtook them.

With this introduction and preparation for the people to hear from the Lord, Zechariah then delivers the first of the eight visions. The first vision is of a rider on a red-horse standing among the Myrtles. With him were red, sorrel, and white horses. To Zechariah's enquiry, the angel replied that these were sent to patrol the earth. Then their report was given, "We have patrolled the earth, and right now the whole earth is calm and quiet." Thus, the people of Judah have no pending threats. It is the other nations that should now be worried, for the Lord is angry with them. While the Lord 'commissioned' these nations to punish Judah, they carried it too far, causing more suffering upon the people than God intended. Now He will deal with them. But He assures Judah that He has "graciously returned to Jerusalem." His house will be rebuilt and a "measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem." Furthermore, the cities of Judah will again overflow with prosperity.

On the heels of this first vision comes another announcing the judgment to come on those nations that persecuted Judah. Zechariah sees four horns which represent the nations that scattered Judah and Israel, and then he sees four craftsmen who represent those who will "cut off the horns of the nations that raised their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it."

Yes, God at times demonstrates anger and judgment, but these are not His predominate characteristics. Every characteristic must have a contrasting characteristic for it to be viable. For instance, we don't know what good is unless we have bad for a comparison. We don't know what love is unless we have hate to which it can be compared. In God's case, the predominate characteristics are love and mercy. Concerning His love for Judah and Israel, the contrasting characteristic is not hate, but anger. But the argument can be made that anger accompanies love at times as a protective measure. What do I mean by this? When one loves another they do not want the other to be harmed by bad choices. This applies particularly between parent and child. A parent will express anger and even give punishment to keep the child from being harmed by bad choices, yet the anger and punishment emanate from love.

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