Skip to main content

Zechariah, Watching

Life can be discouraging. Often times this happens after some great victory. Something good happens to us and we feel great. Everything seems to be going right, but it doesn't last. Typically after the mountains comes the valleys. What goes up must come down.

The people of Judah began to feel this way after returning from exile. Finally they were allowed to live in their homeland again. They were able to worship God on Mt. Zion again. Everything seemed to be going their way. Then the realities of a harsh world set in.

While they were able to go home, they were still ruled over by a foreign power. They were able to begin rebuilding God's temple, but they were surrounded by enemies who wanted nothing more than to see Judah destroyed. The people became discouraged.

Background

The book of Zechariah was written by the prophet Zechariah and was written over the course of twenty years or so, from 520 BC to about 500 BC. We see this sharp divide between chapters 1-8 and chapters 9-14 that is best explained by Zechariah writing the two parts at different times in his life. This would explain the stylistic differences, since style changes with age.

Unlike a lot of the other prophets, we actually know quite a bit about Zechariah. He was a member of a priestly family, the son of Berechiah and the grandson of Iddo. He returned to Jerusalem alongside Zerubbabel. 

Themes

The central theme of Zechariah is God's vigilance. The people are discouraged from all the hardship they have had to endure. To them it seems like God isn't present or even paying attention to them. The initial joy and fervor of returning home and rebuilding is gone. 

Much like Haggai, Zechariah is encouraging the people to continue to rebuild God's temple. Unlike Haggai, who is pretty direct, Zechariah goes about this differently. Zechariah's aim is to show the people of Judah that God has not forgotten them. 

Zechariah presents the people of Judah with this reality; though you may not see it, God is always watching. God has not forgotten his people. He is able to watch them along with the entire earth. When the time is right, God will make his move to destroy evil. When the time is right, the one who shall defeat the enemies of Judah will emerge. 

Theological Point

God is always watching. We sometimes forget this very important point. With all the evil and violence around us it is easy for us to think that God isn't paying attention. Surely if God only knew about the atrocities that are being committed he would act! Surely if God only knew what was happening to Christian around the globe he would do something!

In these moments we must remember something very important; God already has done something. He has already given us the answer. When a person shoots up a school, the answer is Jesus. When a town of civilians gets gassed and bombed, the answer is Jesus. When someone commits suicide, or is diagnosed with cancer, or hates their family, or is grieving, the answer is Jesus.

God is watching. He knows every evil deed. He grieves over every sin, over every child who is senselessly slaughtered. He is not sitting idly by, but reconciling the whole cosmos back to him through the blood of Jesus. Until that is completed and the final day comes, God is watching and working. We may not see it, but that doesn't mean he isn't there.

Conclusion

It is hard to believe that there is only one more book left in the Old Testament. Soon the story will culminate, and all the prophecies and hopes of Israel will be fulfilled; just not in the way they were expecting. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thankful

Today is Thanksgiving, the day that we are supposed to celebrate all the things we are thankful for. It is a time of family reunions, football, and turkey eating. I sincerely pray that each and every one of you has a good day today. I'll admit that being thankful has not been easy for me this year. As pretty much all of you know, my mother passed away December of last year. Though she had been in the hospital for months, we were not expecting it. In fact I was sure she would be finally able to come home within a matter of weeks. Instead she peacefully passed on into the arms of Jesus, whom she loved more dearly than anyone else. As you can imagine, the entire family was heart broken. After what can easily be described as the worst Christmas ever, I returned to home to Illinois. It was here that I finally broke down. I spent the next months doing everything except being thankful. I cursed God, wept, screamed, begged to have her back, and was generally not the nicest person to be...
3 comments
Read more

What is Theology?

Greetings all! For the first true post I have decided to cover what will be one of the defining aspects of this blog; theology. I know that when I was growing up theology wasn't a word that was used in the churches I attended. In fact I don't recall ever hearing the word until I was in high school, and even then it was used negatively like theology was a bad thing. Theology is inseparable from Bible study, Christian living, and being a disciple of Jesus in general. It is an indispensable part of being a Christian. The thing is we haven't always treated it that way. We have allowed our theology to fall by the wayside, believing it to be useless or not appropriate. So what is theology exactly, and why is it so important? What is Theology? The word theology simply means "the study of God." The goal of theology is to reveal who God is, and when we know God we also come to know ourselves, sin, the world, and so on. What we've done in the past (and this may ju...
1 comment
Read more

The Name of God

In the book of Exodus we are introduced to many important elements that appear throughout the rest of the Bible. This is where we meet Moses, the first prophet sent to the nation of Israel. It is in Exodus that we first learn of the tabernacle and God's intention of living among his people. It is in Exodus that we witness the first Passover, which is the type of what is to come in Jesus. There are several other events that we could look to in Exodus, but there is one in particular that is very important that we have largely ignored; God revealing his name. We typically only refer to God by his titles. We call him Lord, Father, Judge, King, and God (yes, God is technically a title). I would like to emphasize now that there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing so. In fact I would say that it is right for us recognize the power and authority of God in what we call him. What today's post is about is the fact that we have forgotten or even ignored the fact that God reveals his n...
1 comment
Read more