Two years after the night visions and about halfway through the rebuilding project, a delegation from Bethel came with a question for the priests and prophets.
• “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?” (7:3)
• Zechariah gave them these FOUR messages from God, two in chapter 7 and 52o in chapter 8.
• We identify them by this line: “Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me…” (7:4, 8 and 8:1, 18.)
The first message highlighted the truth that it’s not about traditions or rituals but the conduct of their lives that matters.
• The self-imposed fasts or feasts were not God’s idea in the first place. What God is looking for is the truthfulness of their hearts before Him.
• God looks for spiritual reality and not the empty rituals. Are they doing it for God, or for themselves? The repetitions and the routines mean nothing.
In the second message God states clearly what He is looking for:
“Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.” (7:9b-10)
• Care for those who are weak and in need. This is true spirituality, not the rituals of some external formalities.
• I like how the Lord puts it, “In your hearts do not think evil of each other.” You need not have to do it to be wrong. Even without actions, the evil thought in your heart – the unseen and undone – is enough to condemn you.
• God is looking for such spirituality, and He is going to make that happen for the people to truly honour Him.
Read message 3 – Zech 8:1-8. God promises to establish His Kingdom through them.
God says He is exceedingly jealous for Zion. He will return and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. He will transform it into a city of truth.
• This reformation happens when God makes His presence felt in Jerusalem through the reign of Christ in the end times.
• God is going to reverse all that Jerusalem has experienced. The future Jerusalem will be so peaceful that both the old and young can sit and play freely in its streets.
• God’s presence is their security and peace.
The exiles who were now back in the land of Judah had a foretaste of what is to come.
• They were back because God was very jealous for them and God made their return from captivity a reality.
• And now they were told this was just a precursor of the greater blessings to come.
Such a scene was too marvellous for the remnant in Zechariah’s time, and almost unreal.
• But the Lord says, “… will it seem marvellous to me?” (8:6). Will this seems too impossible for me? I planned it!
• 8:7-8 “I will save my people from the east country and from the west country, 8and 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.”
God will regather His scattered people, from East and West, meaning from all over, and bring them back to this land.
• We see the same prophecy in Ezekiel 11:17 …`This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.'
• The group of returnees in Zechariah’s time were just the beginning of what God will ultimately do for all Israel.
God will reverse Jerusalem’s past. Read Zech 8:9-13.
• The past situation was difficult and the circumstances harsh. The enemies were against them. But that’s the past.
• “I will not deal with the remnant of this people as I did in the past.” (8:11)
• He will save them and transform them. The land will produce. Instead of being an object of cursing among the nations, they will become a blessing.
• If that is Jerusalem’s future, then “do not be afraid, but let your hands be strong.” (8:13). God is charting Jerusalem’s future, so to speak.
But is this for real? Can this really happen? [God heard you.] Read Zech 8:14-17.
The Lord affirmed the certainty of the fulfilment of what He has just said.
• Look at the past. I did what I said I would do. I said I would punish your forefathers when they sinned, and I’ve done it.
• And the remnant could testify to this because they lived through it - the exile.
• God: As I had determined to bring disaster upon them then, so I have determined now to do good to Jerusalem and Judah, so I will save you and you will be a blessing. (cf. 8:14-15)
They will not just RETURN to this land but be RESTORED in their relationship with God. “They will be MY people and I will be their faithful and righteous God.” (8:8)
• The people will no longer go through the motions of honouring Him with rituals and rites, but with truth, justice and mercy.
• They will “speak the truth to each other, render true and sound judgment in the courts; 17not to plot evil against their neighbour, and not to love to swear falsely.” (cf. 8:16-17) The Lord says, “I hate all this."
See again the prophecy in Ezekiel 11:18-19 18"They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. 19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
• God will remove their heart of stone - Zech 7:12 the hearts as hard as flint, ESV diamond-hard hearts – and give them a heart of flesh – tender and responsive.
• The redeemed of the Lord will do the things God loves and not the things God hates. Holiness has become their hallmark.
• That defines the people of God. That defines spirituality, not the rituals and rites, not the fasts and feasts.
And again the word of the Lord Almighty came to Zechariah – Zech 8:18-23.
God states the IMPACT of His Kingdom, when the redeemed Israel will become a blessing to the nations.
The fasts they had been keeping would not be necessary nor appropriate. These fasts will become occasions for the joyful celebration of God's goodness.
• The Lord listed all their man-imposed fasts – in the 4th, 5th, 7th and 10th month.
• We were told of 5th and 7th month fasts in Zech 7, and here we have two more, 4th and 10th month.
These Jewish fasts were all self-imposed fasts, remembering sad events in their history:
• 10th month (Tevet) – in mourning of the siege of Jerusalem
• 4th month (Tammuz) – commemorating the breach of the walls of Jerusalem
• 5th month (Av) – destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple
• 7th month (Tishri) – lament the assassination of Gedaliah (puppet Jewish governor, after the fall of Jerusalem) which left Judah devoid of any Jews and Jewish rule
The time will come when Israel will live in holiness and enjoy God’s blessings.
• They will hate what God hates, and love what God loves – “love truth and peace” (8:19c) – a summary of verses 16-17.
• We don’t just hate what God hates, we have to love what God loves.
• Administer true justice; show kindness and mercy (compassion) to one another. Care for the widow, the fatherless, the alien or the poor. (cf. 7:9) Speak the truth to one another; render judgments that are true and make for peace. (cf. 8:16)
The Lord says the fasts will become “joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals”.
• Because they will be living in holiness and in obedience to God, loving truth and peace.
• Clearly true joy and happiness comes when we live in righteousness and holiness, when we do what God loves. Anything apart from this can only bring agony and grief.
And the world will see this relationship Israel has with God and longs for it.
• The peoples of the earth will recognise that God is with them and that they are God’s people.
• They will say, “Let us go with you because we have heard that God is with you.”
That’s the future of Jerusalem. That's’ the future of Israel.
Paul understands this and wrote in Romans 11:25-27.
25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
"The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
27And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins."
Later Zechariah received another oracle in Zech 12:10.
10"And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
By the grace of God and the work of God’s Spirit, the people of Israel will return to God in a big way. Their restoration will come through Christ.
• It will become a powerful testimony to the world. This blessed nation will become a blessing to the world.
These words of hope about God’s future for Jerusalem would encourage the struggling remnant to persevere and finish the work of rebuilding God’s house.
• Even though they would not be seeing its fulfilment, they had a foretaste of God’s blessings and he certainty of God’s Word from Haggai and Zechariah would encourage them to stay FAITHFUL even through the present trials.
All that we have read regarding the future DEPENDS on God and not on them.
• Zechariah did not paint a positive and optimistic picture because he wanted to find some good words to encourage the people.
• He spoke the truth of God’s plan, revealed to him by God. Zechariah kept repeating, “The word of the Lord Almighty came to me…”
• “This is what the LORD Almighty says…” NIV repeated 10 times in this chapter. ESV “Thus says the Lord of hosts” (except verse 3 no ‘Almighty’)
We take God at His Word. The future belongs to Him.
• As the redeemed of the Lord, we hate what God hates and love what God loves.
• True joy, gladness and happiness comes from living like that, which is like Christ.
• We keep serving the Lord like the remnant in Zechariah’s day, through distressful times and difficult trials, knowing that His work is significant and He is working through us to accomplish His will.
• It is not going to be BY our might and power; it will be THROUGH us but BY His Spirit. Our faithful role in God’s Kingdom is important.
