Introducing… Zechariah: The Book of Zechariah
June 8, 2008 Zech 1:1-6
Intro:
When Jesus taught his disciples to pray that God’s kingdom would come, he taught them more than how to pray: he opened his heart to them and challenged them to be inspired by the same vision he had, and for which he would go to the cross. For Jesus’ whole life and ministry was about the kingdom of God. The message he preached was the good news that the time had come for the kingdom of God to be manifested on earth. In other words, that the hope of the Old Testament prophets was about to become a reality in his own living, dying and rising again, and that this would be God’s doing from beginning to end. Indeed, the strong apocalyptic language in which Jesus spoke about the coming of the kingdom shows quite clearly that for him it meant nothing less than the beginning of the end of the world… The same Jesus who spoke of crisis also spoke of process… Indeed, the prayer ‘your kingdom come’ would make no sense at all if there were no interval between the ‘now’ and the ‘then’… That interval is precisely the time that Jesus was preparing his disciples to live in… So to be a disciple of Jesus Christ is (among other things) to be fired by a great vision, and to live in the interval between its initial and final realization. (Barry G. Webb, The Message of Zechariah, Introduction, p 19-20).
This is not an easy thing to do – to be “fired by a great vision” yet have to “live in the interval”. The middle isn’t generally the fun part, wouldn’t you agree? Wouldn’t you rather be there in the beginning – when the vision is new and exciting, and you get to shape it and be captivated by the charismatic leaders who have a great dream and inspire by their words and actions? Or wouldn’t you rather be there at the end – when the vision is accomplished, when the results are seen and celebrated, when the sacrifices are recognized and honored, and when the party is in full swing? What is in the middle?? A whole lot of hard work, that’s what. Times of discouragement. Seasons when we get distracted from the grand vision, when we get caught up in other things that while not as important seem more urgent, when we get tired and sometimes even question the entire vision.
And yet, like it or not, we are in the middle. Between Jesus’ first coming, when he began the kingdom of God, and His second coming when the kingdom of God will reign completely. That can be a hard place to live.
So I wonder… where can we find some help with how to live in the middle? Are there any resources, and stories, any peoples who have been here before that can help us?
The Grand Story:
Last week we talked about how as Christians, we have a better story. Our understanding of history being the result of a creative God who loves us and wants to be in relationship with us is far better than thinking that we evolved by chance and without design. My goal was to help us reconnect to the grand story, to know we are part of something bigger than ourselves, which began long before us and which will carry us into eternity. And so last week I sketched the story in very broad terms. This week, and in the weeks ahead, we are going to narrow in to one particular time in the grand story, and allow God to speak to us through it. A time with many parallels to our own time, with a people who understood what it meant to live “in the middle”.
Introducing Zechariah:
I have a question for you: how many of you have ever read the latter prophets? How many of you even know what they are? For those who have read them, what did you think… honestly…
There are 12 books, right at the end of the Old Testament, that are grouped together and often called the “minor prophets”. That sounds to me like they aren’t very important, so I prefer to call them the “latter prophets”. They are short books, and probably the group that was hardest when you tried to memorize the books of the Bible. I know I can’t recite them in order… can any of you – I’ve got a chocolate bar here for anyone that can get all 12 in order.
My experience in reading these has generally been difficult. They can be hard to understand, perhaps feel inaccessible to us. We aren’t sure, when we just open the Bible and start to read, what on earth they are talking about! They can seem far away, and unrelated to our times and our lives.
The reason for this is fairly simple – we don’t understand the context, and the book itself often doesn’t tell us much of the basic background. It is available, we just have to search for it, and once we know what is going on in the larger story, the books of the latter prophets make much more sense. And are, in fact, quite exciting.
I’ve chosen one of these latter prophets for us to study together over the summer – Zechariah. Let me return to the author I quoted earlier to tell us why:
“For the Christian, then, a journey into the world of Zechariah and his contemporaries is not a journey into alien territory, but a pilgrimage to the land of his spiritual ancestors. It is to meet people fired by the same vision as himself, and living with many of the same tensions and challenges. That is why the study of the book of Zechariah is bound to be so enriching; it is imbued, from beginning to end, with the same heart-cry that Jesus turned into a prayer for all of us: ‘Your kingdom come’.” (Webb, p. 20)
To The Text: Zech 1:1-6
Let’s turn to Zechariah and read the intro, and then I’ll return to the background story.
1 In November of the second year of King Darius’s reign, the Lord gave this message to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah and grandson of Iddo:
2 “I, the Lord, was very angry with your ancestors. 3 Therefore, say to the people, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.’ 4 Don’t be like your ancestors who would not listen or pay attention when the earlier prophets said to them, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Turn from your evil ways, and stop all your evil practices.’
5 “Where are your ancestors now? They and the prophets are long dead. 6 But everything I said through my servants the prophets happened to your ancestors, just as I said. As a result, they repented and said, ‘We have received what we deserved from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. He has done what he said he would do.’”
The Background Story:
The story begins by locating itself in a very specific time – “November of the second year of King Darius’s reign”. I’m going to back up even further than that, with a quick outline of the highpoints of Biblical history.
In Time (approx.) In Scripture Events
Pre-history Creation- 2000BC Gen. 1-11 Creation, Babel, Noah
Patriarchs 2000-1700BC Gen 12-50 Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph
In Egypt 1700-1400 Exodus Moses
Wilderness 40yrs in the 13th century Leviticus, Numbers, Deut.
Conquest In the 13th century Joshua
Judges 1300-1020BC Judges, Ruth
Monarchy 1020-922 1,2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1 Chron Saul, David, Solomon
Divided Kingdom 922BC 2 Kings, 2 Chron
Fall of Israel (northern Kingdom) 722/1 2 Kings, 2 Chron, various prophets To Assyria
Fall of Judah (southern Kingdom) 587/6 2 Kings, 2 Chron, various prophets To Babylon
The Return begins 538 Ezra, Nehemiah, various prophets Edict of Cyrus, beginning of temple reconstruction, second temple completed and dedicated in 516
Zechariah appears on the scene in “November of the second year of King Darius’s reign”, which is the year 520BC. Spiritually, this is truly an “in-between” time: the days of exile are over, King Cyrus has said that the exiles were free to return home and some do, celebrating the end of their captivity. Yet when they get home, it’s a mess. The temple built by Solomon is destroyed, the walls of Jerusalem are a pile of rubble, there are tensions between some Jews who stayed and the ones who came back, and yet they have seen God answer their prayers to be free and to be able to return home.
They are stuck in the tension. Stuck in the middle. Having a great history, which was destroyed, hearing God’s promises while they were in exile and now seeing them begin to come true, but in this moment facing a mess. They’ve heard the vision, seen the first steps, and they believe in the ending (a restoration of the people of God, and of God reigning over everything), but now they are in the middle. They know the kingdom of God is coming, that the promised Messiah will come and deliver them, but today they just see a pile of rubble. Does that sound at all familiar for us Christians today??
Next week I’ll tell you more of the background story (and I can’t wait!! it is a great story!!!), but let’s return to the passage and hear the message for today.
Anger, Repentance, and Relationship:
The message begins, in vs. 2, with these words: “I, the Lord, was very angry”. Ouch. That’s why the kingdoms were over-run, and why the people were led into slavery. Those are words we don’t like to hear – we don’t like to think about the anger of God, certainly not if it might be directed towards us. God’s anger comes when His people – His loved ones – reject God by going our own way, living by our own rules instead of God’s. And it is important to say that the heart of the anger is not so much against the actions, but it comes from the rejection of the relationship. That is what hurts, that is what angers, God – when His people reject Him, even in light of all God has done for His people – and turn away from Him and live life on their own.
And that message is as true for us as it was in Zechariah’s day. Our sin, our turning away from God, our rejection of God, still hurts and angers God. Sometimes we think that is just what God is like in the Old Testament, and somehow God is suddenly different in the New Testament, no longer angry at sin but just all mellow and soft like a grandpa. But that isn’t true at all – listen to this: “5 But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 He will judge everyone according to what they have done. 7 He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. 8 But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness. 9 There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil.” That might sound like the Old Testament, but it is Romans 2.
But here is the great thing about God’s anger: God never wants it to last. God continues to love His people (and that is why He gets angry), and God continues to go to extreme lengths to be able to forgive and restore. We see that in Jesus, we see it in forgiveness, we see it in restoration of our relationship with God in our own lives.
And we see it in Zechariah. These next words are incredibly beautiful: “Return to me, and I will return to you.” In the face of the anger we’ve just heard, and with the knowledge of what that anger meant, those are amazing words. The anger doesn’t last forever, God wants restored relationship, and so He invites His people back. “return to me, and I will return to you.”
I want you to try to picture this in your mind. Imagine you are one of the Israelites who has returned to Jerusalem. You heard King Cyrus say you could go home, to the land you longed for, where Abraham and Isaac and Jacob had lived, where Moses and Joshua had led your people, where King David had ruled in strength and where Solomon had build a glorious temple to worship your God. And now you’ve come home, feeling a strong connection to this place, believing that God has led you back and will keep His promises. And you look around, here in Jerusalem, and you see the broken stones, the temple in ruins. You walk through, knowing where once the holy places were, the sacrifices were made, where God spoke, and now they are in ruins.
And then you hear these words from Zechariah’s mouth: “I, the Lord, was very angry with your ancestors. 3 Therefore, say to the people, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.’ 4 Don’t be like your ancestors who would not listen or pay attention when the earlier prophets said to them, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Turn from your evil ways, and stop all your evil practices.’” Hear those words as if you were an ancient Israelite.
Conclusion:
And now I want you to imagine this: this same God who spoke to the Israelites in 520BC is now in front of you. He is looking at your life. Your whole life, not just the parts you like to show to other people. He sees it all, even the most shameful places, the ones where your greatest fear is that others might find out. This God looks around, and sees that some places of your life are in ruins, just like Jerusalem was. Not all of them, but some of them. Piles of rubble, evidence of neglect and destruction, places that once were strong where you loved to pray to God or read His Word or sing to God or were passionate to serve God in any way possible, and now they are not as strong as they once were. Some of them are maybe even in shambles. Maybe you started off well, but have since gotten bogged down in the “middle”, when it was hard work, and have strayed. And in the midst of this, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies speaks. “I was very angry… but return to me, and I will return to you… Turn from your evil ways, and stop all your evil practices.”
Hear the past tense in God’s voice: “I WAS angry”, hear the invitation in God’s voice, “return to me”, hear the promise – the amazing, glorious promise of a relationship with the infinite God of the Universe, who says, “I will return to you”.
And now, in the depth of your soul, respond to Him. Talk to Him. Say “yes” to Him.
