Who Holds the Future
Aug 17, 2008 Zech 6
Intro:
Would you think with me a moment about your life. Whatever place you are at, whatever your joys or frustrations, your struggles or victories, your dreams and your disappointments. Think about it for a moment, wrap your head around it, imagine how you would answer the honest question from a trusted friend who genuinely asks, “how are you doing? what’s going on in your life?”
Now with that thought clearly and firmly in your mind, let me ask you this: what could God do with that? With your life, as it sits today as a big jumbled mass of good and bad, complex relationships, places of grief and places of celebration – what could God do with your life? What do you expect Him to do, today and in the future?
Zechariah Background:
As we’ve been walking through the Old Testament book of Zechariah, studying the first 5 chapters, we’ve seen God speak to Zechariah through a series of visions. We’ve looked at seven of those visions, today in the first half of chapter 6 we find the eighth and final vision. The visions have been about God’s people rebuilding their nation, specifically their temple, as they have returned from 70yrs of slavery in the northern country of Babylon. The visions are, in a lot of ways, about answering that question that I began with – “what could God do with us?”
Zech 6:1-8 (NIV)
Let’s read the first half of the chapter in the NIV:
1 I looked up again—and there before me were four chariots coming out from between two mountains—mountains of bronze! 2 The first chariot had red horses, the second black, 3 the third white, and the fourth dappled—all of them powerful. 4 I asked the angel who was speaking to me, "What are these, my lord?"
5 The angel answered me, "These are the four spirits of heaven, going out from standing in the presence of the Lord of the whole world. 6 The one with the black horses is going toward the north country, the one with the white horses toward the west, and the one with the dappled horses toward the south."
7 When the powerful horses went out, they were straining to go throughout the earth. And he said, "Go throughout the earth!" So they went throughout the earth.
8 Then he called to me, "Look, those going toward the north country have given my Spirit rest in the land of the north."
Bookend Visions:
Does this vision sound familiar to anyone? Have we seen horses of different colors before, have we seen this idea of “rest” before? Back in June when we started this journey, we saw the very first vision Zechariah had and there are a large number of parallels, and some significant differences. In that first vision the riders have just arrived back from patrolling the earth, the scene is likely at dusk, and they report: “We have gone throughout the earth and found the whole world at rest” (Zech 1:11, NIV), and as we explored that we discovered that the “rest” was actually a picture of the nations sitting idly by while injustice raged everywhere around them, and the people of God were waiting and needing an upraising to overthrow the oppressors.
Now the horses are back, not just as scouts but now pulling war chariots, and they are “straining to go throughout the earth” and bring God’s justice. Some commentators place the vision at dawn, drawing from the picture of the mountains of bronze, and if so then this last vision ends the period of night which began with the dusk in the first vision, and it wraps the series of visions up with the unleashing of the chariots of God that bring justice to the world.
Aside from the spiritual truth, which we’ll come to in just a moment, there is a great literary beauty in this as well. This first half of Zechariah is bookended by these two visions, it is beautifully constructed, and what is begun in the first with the patrols is now completed in the eighth with the unleashing of the armies.
The spiritual truth we find in the result of the sending of the horses, reported to us in vs. 8: “Look, those going toward the north country have given my Spirit rest in the land of the north.”. The false “rest” that the nations enjoyed in vision 1 is now contrasted with the “rest” that the Spirit of God has achieved. The “north” is specifically mentioned, and the Jews would have immediately known that this was Babylon and that the vision had a very clear meaning – God has taken care of it. He promised that He would deal with those who had taken His people into slavery, that His Spirit which had been troubled by the treatment of His people is now satisfied, God has done what He had promised, and it is finished.
Living in the “night”:
Before moving on to the second half of chapter 6, let’s pause here for a moment and look at the bigger picture. In many ways, we live in the “night” – in this time between the first vision at dusk, where God’s army is scouting and preparing and the Angel of God is asking God “How long?” (Zech 1:12), and between this final vision where God has sent His Spirit out in power and acted definitively to deal with the opposition.
As God’s people today, we live in this “in-between” time because we’ve seen the announcement of God’s Kingdom in Jesus, but we are waiting for the full arrival of the Kingdom of God when Jesus returns. And we see this in our own lives, where we live in the tension between having heard and believed and accepted God’s promises for us, but not yet experiencing them all.
It takes a unique mindset to live in this “night” between the two visions – to live in the time “in-between” Jesus’ first and second comings – to live with the promises not yet fulfilled. Does Zechariah help us with this at all? I think it does…
Zechariah teaches us that it is ok to be in the “night”, in the “in-between”, in the “tension” of promises awaiting fulfillment, because we know the ending. It reminds me of watching a movie or reading a book, and you know there is a sequel, so whatever terrible mess the hero is in, no matter how hopeless it might look, you know it’s going to work out and you know the hero survives because you know she appears again in the next movie, or the next book in the series. Except now we can scale that idea up – the “hero” doesn’t just live another day, now the “hero” is victorious over every evil force in the universe, and sets every prisoner free, and rights every wrong, heals every sickness, destroys every bit of pain and sadness, and replaces all that with life and love. Vision eight gives us a picture of the dawn, when the chariots of God that are “straining” to bring justice are released, and are victorious.
Remember that picture of your life that I asked you to think of at the very beginning? And I asked you “what could God do with that?” Here is the answer – God wins. God fights through all the darkness. We make it through the night, we see the dawn, we see the release of all the might of the “God of the angel armies” released to bring justice and to set us free. Whatever our night, our struggle, we hang on this: God comes, God acts, God wins.
Zech 6:9-15 (NIV)
So what do we do? How do we respond? What is our part? This we see in the last half of Zech 6:
9 The word of the LORD came to me: 10 "Take silver and gold from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon. Go the same day to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah. 11 Take the silver and gold and make a crown, and set it on the head of the high priest, Joshua son of Jehozadak. 12 Tell him this is what the LORD Almighty says: ’Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the LORD. 13 It is he who will build the temple of the LORD, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.’ 14 The crown will be given to Heldai, Tobijah, Jedaiah and Hen son of Zephaniah as a memorial in the temple of the LORD. 15 Those who are far away will come and help to build the temple of the LORD, and you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you. This will happen if you diligently obey the LORD your God."
A Sign-Oracle:
We leave the realm of the visions, and hear God speaking directly, commanding Zechariah to do something that is symbolic of what God wants to do. Some men have arrived from Babylon, bringing with them silver and gold which Zechariah is to take immediately (“the same day”) and make it into a crown and put it on the head of the high priest Joshua. Yes, this is the same Joshua we met in chapter 3 where the vision is of God removing the sins of the nation.
Except wait a moment. Joshua is the high priest. Crowns are for kings, not priests, and all the Jews would have immediately known that something was up… something unusual, new, a significant change is going on here. Before explaining, God goes one step further and says “Here is the man whose name is the Branch”. I thought his name was Joshua – what’s going on?
Keep in mind this critical fact: this is a “sign oracle” – God is commanding Zechariah to do something that is symbolic of something else. The word “Branch” was one of the words that the Jews recognized as referring to their messiah – the one they were waiting for to deliver them into the Kingdom of God. We find it in numerous places, and the image is that even though the “mighty tree” is cut down, a new branch will grow, a remnant will remain, messiah will come. So what we have here is a picture of the coming messiah, the “Branch”, and what follows is not so much about Joshua but about the messiah.
What does it tell us? Messiah will “build the temple of the LORD”. Jesus, who we recognize as Messiah, said, “Destroy this temple (ie: the physical temple in Jerusalem which the people of Zechariah’s day were building), and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:19), and John goes on to explain that Jesus was speaking of His body. Zechariah tells us that this “Branch” will be both King and Priest, which again we see in Jesus who is King of Kings, and who is our “priest” in the critical sense that Jesus presents us as holy people to God the Father. In Jesus, both roles come together and indeed there is “harmony between the two”.
Vs 15:
Wondering yet how this all connects to us and our part in dreaming of what God can do with us? Aside from demonstrating yet again that God is in control of all of history, that He can speak directly to Zechariah and the people of his day and yet simultaneously point ahead 500 years to Jesus, the key is in verse 15. “15 Those who are far away will come and help to build the temple of the LORD, and you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you. This will happen if you diligently obey the LORD your God.”
It begins with an incredible promise, which would have been amazingly encouraging to the Jews struggling to build their temple and their nation. Help is coming. Reinforcements are on their way. “Those who are far away will come and help”. Isn’t that amazing, to people stuck in the night, the in-between, the tension? We aren’t alone, abandoned, left to fend for ourselves. Help is on the way! I think the Jews would have naturally assumed this was their fellow Jews who hadn’t yet returned to Jerusalem, but I think there is another layer. “Those who are far away” does not just refer to Jews, but to people from all nations as well. Back in chapter 2:11 God had promised, “Many nations will be joined with the LORD in that day and will become my people”, and now we see this theme again. The Kingdom of God will be broad, people will respond from “many nations”, and we will be united in our love for God and His love for us.
Again, the promise for us in the “in-between” times of struggle in our lives is that we are not alone. Help, from all nations, will come to us. The picture is of community, and what a precious gift it is for us to be together, in relationships with one another here in our church family, where we can join together whether our lives are in a time of dusk, of night, or of dawn. That is how God has chosen to make Himself known among us – through one another.
Our Part:
Which brings us back to our role and the very last line in the passage. We have the hope of God’s victory, the promise of His presence through the night in the form of community, and now we have the plain and simple command which explicitly lays out our role: “This will happen if you diligently obey the LORD your God.”
What do we do? Simple. We obey. God tells us to pray, we pray. God tells us to give, we give. God tells us to forgive, we forgive. God tells us to care for the poor, we care for the poor. God tells us to put others ahead of ourselves, we put others ahead of ourselves. God tells us to tell the truth, so we do. God tells us to structure all of our lives around love for God and love for others – to always put love first – so we do. We obey, and eventually we see the dawn. We see the Kingdom of God in more fullness. We see God’s promises come true.
Our obedience cannot be occasional – as we feel like it, as it is convenient, as it fits in with our plan. God doesn’t tell us to pick and choose, just obey when we want to. Our translation emphasizes, “diligently obey”! I looked up the original language, and discovered that what we actually have is the same root word twice in a row, sort of like “obey obey!” Don’t just “obey”, but “obey obey!” We see the emphasis – God isn’t looking for people willing to follow sometimes. Ready to listen a little bit. Obeying when they feel like it.
The promises of God come as we “diligently” obey.
Conclusion:
In that picture of your life at the moment, with which we began, does the phrase “diligently obey” apply? Does that describe you and I? I certainly hope so, because as we do, the promise of God is that He has amazing things to do with us. Greater things. Things of hope, a future, life, significance. Are we believing them, even during the night? God can, and will, do greater things among us and with us, as we diligently obey.
