Reflections on Zechariah 8

Zechariah 08 (Contemporary English Version)


1. The LORD All-Powerful said to me:
   
2. I love Zion so much that her enemies make me angry.
   
3. I will return to Jerusalem and live there on Mount Zion. Then Jerusalem will be known as my faithful city, and Zion will be known as my holy mountain.
   
4. Very old people with walking sticks will once again sit around in Jerusalem,
   
5. while boys and girls play in the streets.
   
6. This may seem impossible for my people who are left, but it isn't impossible for me, the LORD All-Powerful.
   
7. I will save those who were taken to lands in the east and the west,
   
8. and I will bring them to live in Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be their God, faithful to bring about justice.
   
9. I am the LORD All-Powerful! So don't give up. Think about the message my prophets spoke when the foundation of my temple was laid.
   
10. Before that time, neither people nor animals were rewarded for their work, and no one was safe anywhere, because I had turned them against each other.
    
11. My people, only a few of you are left, and I promise not to punish you as I did before.
    
12. Instead, I will make sure that your crops are planted in peace and your vineyards are fruitful, that your fields are fertile and the dew falls from the sky.
    
13. People of Judah and Israel, you have been a curse to the nations, but I will save you and make you a blessing to them. So don't be afraid or lose courage.
    
14. When your ancestors made me angry, I decided to punish you with disasters, and I didn't hold back.
    
15. Now you no longer need to be afraid. I have decided to treat Jerusalem and Judah with kindness.
    
16. But you must be truthful with each other, and in court you must give fair decisions that lead to peace.
    
17. Don't ever plan evil things against others or tell lies under oath. I, the LORD, hate such things.
    
18. The LORD All-Powerful told me to say:
    
19. People of Judah, I, the LORD, demand that whenever you go without food as a way of worshiping me, it should become a time of celebration. No matter if it's the fourth month, the fifth month, the seventh month, or the tenth month, you should have a joyful festival. So love truth and live at peace.
    
20. I tell you that people will come here from cities everywhere.
    
21. Those of one town will go to another and say, "We're going to ask the LORD All-Powerful to treat us with kindness. Come and join us."
    
22. Many people from strong nations will come to Jerusalem to worship me and to ask me to treat them with kindness.
    
23. When this happens, ten people from nations with different languages will grab a Jew by his clothes and say, "Let us go with you. We've heard that God is on your side." I, the LORD All-Powerful, have spoken!
    

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The previous chapter began a series of four messages, two of which were in that chapter and the other two in this chapter. They were initiated by a delegation from the town of Bethel who came to Zechariah with a question. They wondered if they should continue to observe two fasts that had been established while they were in exile. They were fasts of mourning commemorating events of sorrow for them. The Lord did not answer them until the fourth message in the series which comes toward the end of this 8th chapter.

Chapter 8 opens with the third message. It is a message of hope for the remnant gathered back in Jerusalem. A time will come in which the Lord will return to Jerusalem. Then the people will be able to sit along the streets in peace while the children play. At that time the Lord will gather all His people back to Jerusalem and they will again be His people and He their "faithful and righteous God." When will this take place? That is a difficult question to answer and receives differing answers by various commentaries. To a degree, at least, there was some fulfillment in the lifetime of those original recipients of the message. History does not appear to bear out an extensive fulfillment of it even yet. But then, that depends on how you interpret the promise and history itself. My thought is that there seems to be a pattern to both Zechariah's and Haggai's prophecies, both of whom were contemporaries, of bouncing back and forth between the present time in which they spoke and the time of Christ's second advent with little reference to the lengthy period between. If that is understood correctly, then the intent of this third message would likely fall into that pattern as well.

Having said all that, the bulk of this third message seems to be in the present for its recipients. Verse 9 begins an encouragement to the people in their task of rebuilding the temple. Verses 14-17 speak of a renewed relationship between the Lord and His people. Moving beyond those years of punishment for His rebellious people, the Lord says, "so I have resolved again in these days to do what is good to Jerusalem and the house of Judah." But the people must hold up their end. They must "Speak truth to one another; render honest and peaceful judgments in your gates. Do not plot evil in your hearts against your neighbor, and do not love perjury." No more empty ritual. It is changed lives the Lord wants.

The fourth message in the series begins in verse 18 and brings with it the answer to the question raised by the delegation from Bethel. What about those fasts established while they were in exile? Yes, they will continue, but they will become "times of joy, gladness, and cheerful festivals" rather than times of mourning. The remainder of the message appears to jump the centuries and go to Christ's second advent, describing a time when Israel will fulfill God's original intent for her and will point all nations to Him.