Readings for today: Zechariah 12-13, Revelation 19, Psalms 147, Proverbs 31:1-7
Anyone who is familiar at all with the gospel story will recognize the Messianic prophecies embedded throughout Zechariah’s visions. This is a critical reminder of the importance of the Old Testament. We have to understand the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the climax of a story that has been unfolding for centuries. Jesus is the true fulfillment of the covenant God first established with Abraham. He is the true seed. The promised Son. The faithful Israelite. He is the perfect emodiment of God’s eternal plan and its fulfillment. Throughout the Old Testament, as God interacted with His people, He dropped clues as to what was coming. The “Day of the Lord” it was often called. A day when the Messiah would come and Israel would be saved. The people of God looked for this day. Longed for this day. Prayed for this day. Especially in periods of great hardship and suffering. So again, Zechariah is prophesying at a time of great change and upheavel. Decades of exile and slavery has come to an end. The people have survived Babylon. They’ve survived attempts at genocide. They’ve survived attempts to forcefully assimilate them into a broader, pagan culture. And now they’ve returned home. To a ruined city. To ruined homes. To a ruined Temple. Time to start over. Where will life go from here? Will God remain faithful? What life will they build? These are the fundamental questions they’re asking and God sends Haggai, Nehemiah, Ezra, and Zechariah - among others - with the answer.
He gives them a picture of the future. When Messiah’s Kingdom comes to earth. And so we read familiar words like...
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9)
“Then I said to them, "If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them." And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the Lord said to me, "Throw it to the potter"—the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter.” (Zechariah 11:12-13)
“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.” (Zechariah 12:10)
“And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.” (Zechariah 14:9)
Surely, it is argued, the gospel writers ripped these verses out of context. These prophecies were meant for a particular people bound to a particular time. But such a perspective is itself bound by modern, western understandings of philosophy that would have been completely foreign to the Hebrew authors of the Bible. For them, the text is living and active and often comes layered with different meanings. So it’s the most natural thing in the world - after they meet the Risen Christ - to go searching through the Old Testament to understand the clues God left that lead us to faith in His Messiah. Such words - often quoted or alluded to throughout the New Testament - are meant to remind us that God is in control. God reigns sovereign over all the earth. His plan is being worked out. His purposes are coming to pass. His will is being done on earth as it is in heaven.
Christmas is now behind us. The celebration of the first Advent of the Messiah naturally causes us to long for His second Advent. The day pictured in Revelation 19 when Jesus shall return to put all things right, make all things new, and put an end to sin and evil and death once and for all. But until that great “Day of the Lord” comes, what should we do? Cling to hope. Cling to faith. Cling to God. He will never let us down. His promises are sure. His faithfulness is great. His steadfast love is loyal and true. So these words from Zechariah encourage us just as they encouraged God’s people so many centuries ago.
“Thus says the Lord: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain...Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country, and I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.” (Zechariah 8:3, 7-8)
“On that day the Lord their God will save them, as the flock of his people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land. For how great is his goodness, and how great his beauty!” (Zechariah 9:16-17)
“I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the Lord their God and I will answer them.” (Zechariah 10:6)
“The Lord will give victory to the rest of Judah first, before Jerusalem, so that the people of Jerusalem and the royal line of David will not have greater honor than the rest of Judah. On that day the Lord will defend the people of Jerusalem; the weakest among them will be as mighty as King David! And the royal descendants will be like God, like the angel of the Lord who goes before them! For on that day I will begin to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. “Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem.” (Zechariah 12:7-10)
“I will bring that group through the fire and make them pure. I will refine them like silver and purify them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘These are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.” (Zechariah 13:9)
Friends, the Lord will come again! He is on His way even now! Every day brings us one step closer to the day when heaven comes to earth and every tear wiped away. Believe this! Trust this! Hold fast to your faith no matter circumstances this life may bring!
Readings for tomorrow: Zechariah 14, Revelation 20, Psalms 148, Proverbs 31:8-9