Today in God's Word—December 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
December 18, Zechariah 1
Therefore say to them, Thus declares the LORD of hosts: Return to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts.
- Zechariah 1:3
Can you think of a more important message for God's people in turbulent times than the assurance that God is sovereign, that he is Lord over the forces of death and destruction that threatened his people? Zechariah brought just such a message from God to the surviving remnant of the Jews who returned from Babylon. Three times in a single verse, the prophet reminded them that their God was "LORD of hosts." That name declares God's sovereignty over all else. It is used more than 260 times in the Old Testament, and more than 80 times in the short prophetic works addressed to the post-exilic Jews. Yes, God was angry with their forefathers. Yes, the nation suffered the bitter consequence of disciplinary punishment from God. Yes, they lived in difficult and uncertain times. The fathers and the prophets whose warnings they ignored were gone now, but God remained. He was still willing to embrace these survivors of his covenant people. He would still keep his covenant promises. He invited them to return to him, and he promised to return to them.
The book of Zechariah is filled with encouragement and reassurance. Even at such a late date, God still called his people to repent, to obey him and put their trust in him. Zechariah was contemporary with Haggai. They prophesied to God's people in the time described in the book of Ezra. It might help us remember that Haggai was about rebuilding the physical temple among the people. Zechariah is mostly about rebuilding the people themselves.
Zechariah wrote in a style that reminds us of the language and figures of speech in the prophecies of Ezekiel and Daniel, and also in the New Testament book of Revelation. The figures and symbols of apocalyptic literature revealed God's message to his people and sometimes concealed the meaning from others. Jesus said the parables he spoke often had the same dual purposes.
Like most of the other written and oral prophets, Zechariah ascribed the words of his messages to God. The Lord was the source, and the prophet was God's chosen vessel to deliver the messages. Zechariah relates eight visions he experienced as he received the information from God. The visions were filled with symbolic imagery, beginning with angelic riders on colored horses, horns of power and the craftsmen who worked on them, and a measuring line stretched over a city.
Some of the symbolic images in Zechariah are especially precious to us because they are prophetic pictures and promises about our Savior, Jesus Christ. Zechariah gave the sign that Messiah would come to his people on a donkey. We recognize that from Jesus' entrance to Jerusalem on the first day of the last week of his earthly life before the cross. Zechariah identified the price the authorities would give the betrayer when he sold Messiah into their hands — 30 pieces of silver. And Zechariah foresaw the cross and the atoning blood Jesus would shed there when he saw a fountain opened at Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness.
Those images, so meaningful to us, may not have had such weighty significance to the first recipients of Zechariah's message. But God gave them encouraging information through Zechariah as well. He explained the context of their lives, how God had been angry with their fathers and punished them. He was aware of and displeased with the excessive cruelty of the enemies he allowed to overtake his people. He reassured the Jews that they could still return to him and live as his people and enjoy the covenant blessings. He warned them not to make the same mistake their fathers made when they refused to listen to the prophets who admonished them. He promised restoration, prosperity and a glorious future that looked ahead to Messiah and his kingdom. And the Lord assured them that he was firmly in control of their circumstances and environment.
Zechariah's message is summed up in his name, his father's name and his grandfather's name. Zechariah means "The LORD remembers." Berechiah means "The LORD will bless." And Iddo means "at the appointed time." What better assurance could there be for the beleaguered returned captives than these assurances that God is faithful to his promises, that he wants to bless them, and he does everything in his own perfect time? Come to think of it, that trio of facts about God is still exactly what we need as God's people in our own time and place.
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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