Today in God's Word—December 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
December 25, Zechariah 8
”Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’” - Zechariah 8:23
Remember in Chapter 7, a delegation from Bethel had come to Jerusalem to ask the priests and the prophet a single question. For decades, they had fasted in the fifth month to commemorate the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. Since the temple had been rebuilt, should they should continue to keep the fast that marked its destruction?
Zechariah’s answer was really God's answer to their inquiry. Ten times spanning these two chapters (7 and 8), Zechariah stamped the words he spoke as the word of the LORD, not his own. The six-part answer could be summarized in three brief points. They should listen to God, return to God and obey God.
The answer God gave these inquirers had both an immediate application to their lives and provided a look far into the future. The full meaning of the promises would only be realized in the times of Messiah. The word "Zion" signified much more than the state or national Israel. It contained spiritual overtones to God's promises to Abraham that reached far beyond the ruined state. Zechariah and his contemporaries could not grasp these long-reaching meanings in the prophet's words. But with 2,500 years of hindsight and New Testament revelation, you and I can see how these words had application far beyond the people of the returned remnant of the Jews.
When God spoke of his great jealousy, we should remember that God’s jealousy is not like typical human jealousy that we know quite well. God's jealousy is holy, righteous affection. It is not the hateful, selfish, sinful emotion we have felt in ourselves and seen in others around us. God wanted to cherish, bless and show his favor to his people. This sometimes meant that he would pour out his great wrath on those nations who opposed his people. That wrath rained down on Israel's enemies when they were faithful to God, and on the Israelites when they turned to idols and forsook God and their covenant promises to him. It would one day be true of the Jewish nation and its leaders when they rejected and killed Messiah. It will be ultimately true at the final judgment when those who rejected Christ will suffer the full and final wrath of God against all evil.
God promised to bless the people who listened to the prophets and kept his laws. He painted a picture of economic prosperity and social stability in which his people would flourish. Those material, temporal blessings were just shadows of the true blessings of salvation and peace with God that were coming in Messiah's kingdom. These blessed people would tell the truth and live by the truth, because God is a God of truth who hates falsehood.
These people had witnessed how God kept his promise to punish his people who forsook him. God kept his word and sent terrible consequences on them because they practiced ungodliness and turned to idols. By the same faithfulness, God assured them that he would keep all the promises of blessing he made to them.
At last God answered their question about the fifth month fast with an answer far more wonderful than a simple yes or no. He said their fasts in the fourth, fifth and seventh months (that he never commanded) would become feasts of joy instead of fasts. He was going to bless them in ways that would make their Gentile neighbors want to serve the Jews’ God and be like them. That part of the prophecy must certainly look past the little struggling remnant of Jews. It foretells a glorious future, when people of all nations would take hold of one particular Jew (Jesus) and become followers of God among his new covenant people. Like the hemorrhaging woman who in desperate trusting faith reached out and touched Jesus' robe, you and I can know healing and forgiveness when we come to God through Jesus Christ. The blessings God has in store for his people in Christ go far beyond the material blessings he used to describe them to Zechariah's hearers. In the following chapters of this mighty little prophecy, we will learn more about Messiah and his kingdom.
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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