Zechariah started to speak when the remnant resumed the rebuilding of the Temple.
• His first words were ‘repent and return to God’, never to repeat the mistake of the past and reject God again.
• They would have understood, having suffered the wrath of God and 70 years in exile.
God has not abandoned the people. His covenant with them, given through Abraham and David, remains intact. God did not change.
• If they return to God genuinely, in the land that God has given and which they had now returned to, then they would experience God’s blessings.
• God sent Haggai and Zechariah to encourage them to stay faithful and trust Him for what He has planned for them and through them, as He reveals a glimpse of the future.
• Haggai ended his messages in the 9th month of Darius 2nd year and Zechariah received the visions in the 11th month.
God assures His people, through the 8 visions given to Zechariah In one night that His plan for Israel remains intact. Nothing has changed. The future is in His hands.
• They might be living in uncertain times but God is their certainty, their hope.
• God is not hidden nor is He silent. He send His prophets to speak His mind.
• If He has to do it 8 times in one night, He will. He did! God spoke to encourage His people. The future is not uncertain.
• If God is silent in some of our own experiences, then it is because He has nothing to say. Either he has already spoken (therefore nothing to add, so we just need to recall what He has said), or there isn’t anything more that we need to know.
Let’s read the 3rd vision today - Zech 2:1-13.
The 1st vision assures them God knows and He cares. It’s a word of comfort.
• A man among the myrtle trees sending out surveyors throughout the earth and they found it to be at rest and in peace.
• If the people think that the hostile nations were experiencing good times while they are suffering, they are mistaken.
• 1:14-15 … the Lord Almighty says: “I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion. I am very angry with the nations that feel secure. I was only a little angry, but they added to the calamity.” ESV: “they furthered the disaster.”
• They crossed the line. They had overdone the punishment. And God judged them.
The 2nd vision states that clearly, the four horns (powers) that scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem would be crushed. A word of judgment.
• The 4 empires judged by God would likely be Assyria, Egypt, Babylon and Medo-Persia.
• Those who oppressed Israel would not be left unpunished.
And then Zechariah looked up and saw this 3rd vision. With the judgement on the nations, the Lord reveals He would bless and restore Jerusalem.
• Zechariah saw a man with a measuring line, a surveyor of the city of Jerusalem.
• His purpose, as indicated in his response to Zechariah’s question, was to mark out the boundaries of Jerusalem, apparently to ascertain its size.
• This would be the natural first step if you are planning to rebuild a city.
But another angel came and indicated that this would not really be necessary.
• The city would be expanded beyond its size, beyond its current boundaries.
• 2:4-5 …“Run, tell that young man, ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of men and livestock in it. 5And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,' declares the LORD, `and I will be its glory within.'
• 2:11a “Many nations will be joined with the LORD in that day and will become my people.”
• God has in mind, for His Kingdom, to go beyond the boundaries of Jerusalem.
The Lord says He will be a wall of fire surrounding them and He will be its glory within. The Lord says, “I will live among you,” (2:11b).
• This would mean the coming of Christ. It could mean His first coming and also His second coming.
• Both can be in view here. Biblical prophecy can have multiple fulfilment.
Zechariah was led to see, not the earthly Jewish city of Jerusalem, but the future Kingdom of God. The people of God would include believers from among the nations.
• In the words of John (Revelation), God’s Kingdom would embrace “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language…” (Rev 7:9)
• In the words of Paul (Galatians), “there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female…” for God’s people are one in Christ. (Gal 3:28)
• God will bring in His people from all nations, those who believe in Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and they will overflow beyond any walls.
• That was the covenant He made with Abraham when He said, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you… and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Gen 12:2-3). This has been the plan of God.
This would sound quite unbelievable for Zechariah’s generation when all they cared about then was the physical Temple and their city Jerusalem.
• The city walls then were still in ruins and they were trying to get their act together to rebuild the Temple.
• We read in the book of Nehemiah that even after the completion of the Jerusalem walls, Nehemiah had to encourage the people to draw lots and move into the city and repopulate it (Neh 11).
• To believe that their city would be rebuilt was difficult; to believe that God’s Kingdom, the people of God, would surpass these walls was even harder to believe.
But that’s the prophecy of God; His plan through Israel. God spoke to encourage them and get them to see beyond the present and immediate, to this glorious future.
That’s the same struggle we have today when we take a microscopic view of life. We can easily be discouraged by the present and immediate, and not see God’s will.
• Jesus Christ will one day rule over His Kingdom and we as His people can expect His protective presence.
• This defines the people of God, right? Not the place, nation, tribe, people or language, but the presence of the glory of God dwelling in our midst.
Today we are the living proof of this prophecy, right? Listen to what Paul says in Eph 2.
• Eph 2:12-13 “ …remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.”
• Eph 2:19 “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household…”
Hence in the light of this glorious future, those remaining in exile ought to return and rebuild this city of God.
• 2:6-7 “Come! Come! Flee from the land of the north," declares the LORD, "for I have scattered you to the four winds of heaven," declares the LORD. 7"Come, O Zion! Escape, you who live in the Daughter of Babylon!"
• He is calling all those who were scattered in the lands of the exile to come home and rebuild Jerusalem, in the light of what God has prophesied.
For those who have returned, praise God! 2:10 “Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,” declares the LORD.
• For all who put their trust in God, they can praise God for a certain future, one that is beautiful and glorious. The future is certain and will come true.
That's the message of God to the people, through prophet Zechariah. What are the take-away from this?
God rules. The future is in His hands. The future is His future.
• Christ has come to establish the Kingdom of God and one day He will return to put an end to all the evils and injustices of this world.
• Our lives in Christ is a purpose-filled one, a God’s purpose-filled one.
God loves us and guards us as “the apple of his eye” (2:8). Deut 32:10 “He shielded him and cared for him; He guarded him as the apple of his eye…”
• His presence is our security. Return to God today, if you are still wandering.
Listen to what God says because that’s true and it will come true. We are the living proof that it's being fulfilled today.
• We don’t have to listen to the words of men or what the world says.
• It’s so sad to read in the news that a young Korean actress-singer took her life because she was overwhelmed by the spiteful, malicious comments posted by netizens online. Words of men kill; it takes your life away.
• Only the Word of God gives life. It gives hope. We listen and believe what God says.
God will surely accomplish His purposes, but not apart from the willing obedience of His people. Israel’s participation is part of the plan.
• We see God’s absolute sovereignty, on the one hand, and yet at the same time, we see the cooperation of the people of God in His plan.
• Israel must get their act together, which they did. We know. We read the book of Ezra and Nehemiah.
• The Bible affirms BOTH God’s sovereignty AND human responsibility, not either-or but both-and. Our willing obedience fulfils His will.
• Phil 2:12-13 “12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed - not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence - continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.”
• Remember, our obedient acts and service to God today have eternal significance.
