CHAPTER 7
Unless you are Jewish or very familiar with the Jewish calendar, we are likely to read Zechariah 7:1-3 without realizing the significance of the date that these people from Bethel have come to ask about.
We don’t know if they are descendants of the few Jews left behind in the land after the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem or if they are descendants of the mixed races who populated the region of the northern kingdom and who had adopted some Jewish customs. Either way, they’re asking about an observance of fasting and sorrow in the 5th month. It’s a day still observed by Jewish people today. It’s called Tisha B’Av, or “The 9th of Av.” It’s the anniversary of the Fall of Jerusalem.
Every year on the 9th of the Hebrew month of Av, observant Jews from around the world fast for 25 hours. They pray and read the Lamentations of Jeremiah and abstain from any pleasant activities. On the Gregorian calendar it’s usually in late July or early August.
For 70 years, these people from Bethel had been observing the sad mid-summer day of remembrance. And I can kinda understand their question. Do you continue having a Memorial Day for a destroyed temple, if there’s a new temple being built in its place?
The answer to that is, yes. Yes you do. It’s why most countries have days of remembrance to commemorate national tragedies. The US still observes Pearl Harbor Day and 9/11 even though those sites are no longer covered in ash and debris. Tisha B’Av not only marks the destruction of Solomon’s Temple, but also – astonishingly – the 2nd Temple was destroyed by the Romans on the exact same date.
God’s reply to these people was not very flattering. They were observing the annual ritual at a surface level. They weren’t serious about the LORD. They were just going through the motions. The rest of the year they were as sinful, selfish, oppressive and as hardhearted as the former residents who had been banished from the land on the very day they were supposed to be observing with fasting.
It’s a staggering lack of self-awareness.
The way to honor the memory of what was lost is to be the kind of person who brings peace and blessing, not strife and punishment.
CHAPTER 8
We recall from Haggai and Ezra that the temple foundation was laid and then the project stalled… for a VERY long time. Up to 20 years it sat there. God’s messages through Haggai and Zechariah are given to motivate the people and get them back on track.
When I read chapter 8 I get the feeling that it wasn’t exactly cool to be a Judean. Jerusalem had a reputation as a city of rebels. The Babylonians had smacked it down and taken the people captive. Even their God was finished with them and left His own temple. They were quite literally outcasts. The whole place sat as a pile of rubble for 70 years.
Judea and Jerusalem had been nothing but curses and ruination for as long as anyone alive could remember. They were the butt of jokes and the whole land was viewed as “the bad part of town.” Would you want to build a nice house in the middle of a gang-infested slum? Why bother to rebuild a temple to the angry God Who probably won’t live in it and might just send another army to destroy it? It feels like an atmosphere of “every man for himself and Devil take the hindmost.” Not exactly something that inspires civic pride and confidence.
It’s a discouraging time.
And so the message from the LORD is, “I’m here with you. And I’m here to bless you.”
“Thus says the Lord: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain.”
Zechariah 8:3 ESV
He speaks of old people sitting on the porches with their walking sticks watching the children play freely in the streets. Those are scenes you don’t see in unsafe neighborhoods.
The LORD promises a new season for them. Dew and fruitfulness. Peace. No longer seen as an embarrassment or an albatross around the necks of their neighbors but a blessing.
The LORD has made up His mind to do this. And when God makes up His mind, who’s going to stop Him?
If you’ve not seen Fiddler On the Roof, in Tevye’s song If I Were A Rich Man, he fantasizes about important men coming to him for advice.
The Lord promises that in this new season, important people (“strong nations”) will come to seek the LORD.
“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: In those days ten men from different nations and languages of the world will clutch at the sleeve of one Jew. And they will say, ‘Please let us walk with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”
Zechariah 8:23 NLT
CHAPTER 9
The LORD continues to encourage the returned exiles by telling them how He is about to deal with the enemy nations around them. Some of them, (namely Damascus, Tyre, and Sidon) will be destroyed because of their violent, detestable practices. But the old foes of Israel, the Philistines (Ashkelon, Gaza, and Ekron)… well, this was a plot twist I did NOT see coming.
“The city of Ashkelon will see Tyre fall and will be filled with fear. Gaza will shake with terror, as will Ekron, for their hopes will be dashed. Gaza’s king will be killed, and Ashkelon will be deserted. Foreigners will occupy the city of Ashdod. I will destroy the pride of the Philistines. I will grab the bloody meat from their mouths and snatch the detestable sacrifices from their teeth. Then the surviving Philistines will worship our God and become like a clan in Judah. The Philistines of Ekron will join my people, as the ancient Jebusites once did.”
Zechariah 9:5-7 NLT
Makes me think of this statement by President Abraham Lincoln when he responded to a woman who was upset about his “leniency” toward the southern states after the American Civil War:
“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”
And then we get a very special announcement. Jerusalem is going to get a king!
“Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey— riding on a donkey’s colt. I will remove the battle chariots from Israel and the warhorses from Jerusalem. I will destroy all the weapons used in battle, and your king will bring peace to the nations. His realm will stretch from sea to sea and from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth.”
Zechariah 9:9-10 NLT
Is it any wonder the people of Jerusalem were loosing their minds when Jesus rode in on a donkey colt? As far as they could tell from this text, Jesus was about to establish world peace and reign over the whole earth. Good times! And is it any wonder the religious leaders were desperate to have Jesus taken out after Palm Sunday? He had just fulfilled Zech. 9:9. They are facing 2 possibilities:
- Jesus really is the foretold king. And, uh-oh… they aren’t his supporters and everyone knows it. How’s it gonna look if people realize they have been opposing the promised Messiah?
- Jesus is a phony but is making it look like he’s the guy from Zech. 9:9 and the people are falling for it.
And the miracles Jesus has done lends a lot of weight toward option 1.
And if he is the promised king, then the next thing he’s about to do (according to Zech. 9:10) is take firm control of planet earth.
They didn’t know about this little thing that scholars call “the Church Age.”
The remainder of the chapter speaks of God rescuing His people.
🤔 So… If God is coming to live in Jerusalem and bring world peace, what is there to rescue His people from?
Exactly. This is one of those prophecies that kinda gives the bookends and skips the middle. The king comes on the donkey colt. But then there’s a long time between that point and bringing “peace to the nations.”
Passages like this give us promises to hold on to. As surely as Christ rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He will bring peace to the nations and reign over all the earth. And I don’t mean in some kind of mystical, spiritual manner. He didn’t mystically and spiritually ride into Jerusalem. He physically showed up on an actual donkey. 🌿🫏 He will physically, visibly, return to reign as an actual king 👑 with an actual government. And you and I, dear saint, will have actual “government jobs.” It’s going to take a lot of talented people bringing their best creative skills to fix the world after all the destruction of judgment; just like it took a lot of talented and hard-working people to rebuild Jerusalem and Judea after all the destruction of judgment back then.
The remaining chapters of Zechariah have more to say about this future rescuing of God’s people and His subsequent reign over all the earth. In fact, there’s as much about that in Zechariah as there is in Isaiah and Revelation!
Keep in mind that the context of these prophecies – including the one about the first coming of the King – is getting the people motivated to build the house of God. And I would think that pondering the second coming of the King would be a good motivator for us to get to work building up the house of God too.
To The Reader 