Return from Exile: Zechariah 7-10 (3)

Pray Psalm 85.1-3.
LORD, You have been favorable to Your land;
You have brought back the captivity of Jacob.
You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people;
You have covered all their sin.
Selah
You have taken away all Your wrath;
You have turned from the fierceness of Your anger.

Sing Psalm 85.1-3.
(Lyons: O, Worship the King)
O Lord, You Your favor showed to Your land; Your people You saved by Your mighty hand.
Their sins You forgave, all Your wrath You withdrew; You turned back the anger which to them was due.

Read Zechariah 8.1-23; meditate on verses 20-23.

Preparation
1. How did the Lord counsel His people?

2. What did He say was yet to come?

Meditation
Let us admit that this is a lengthy passage, and we cannot do it full justice. After all, Jonathan Edwards wrote an entire book just on verses 20-23! The point of this chapter is the point God has been making all along: Don’t get bogged down in present difficulties, challenges, or temptations! Embrace God’s vision of time and the future. Focus on what He has done and will do. Build what is before you and believe that a great branching-out is yet to come. Work for the day when “many peoples and strong nations” will come to seek the Lord at His temple (v. 22).

Too marvelous, you say? For whom? You? Or God (v. 6)? God doesn’t see time according to the present moments in which we live. He sees it in terms of His eternal plan. He sees marvelous things happening, and if we can learn to hear Him—as He speaks to us in His Word—we can see marvelous things as well: God dwelling powerfully in our midst (v. 3); joy and peace abounding among His people (vv. 4, 5); salvation reaching to people from east and west, incorporating multitudes into the family of God (vv. 7, 8).

In view of how God sees things, our duty is to get busy with the work at hand, whatever it may be, and no matter how “small” it may appear (vv. 9, 10). God intends to prosper His people and use us to bless the nations (vv. 12, 13), but He requires that we walk the path of His righteousness “for truth, justice, and peace” (vv. 14-17). Then our worship will be truly joyful and full of love and peace (vv.18, 19). And, as our neighbors—and even distant nations—see us seeing and living from God’s vantage point, they will want to get in on this (vv. 20-23).

Now if we could only shake off our current captivity to the present and its vanities. Then we could learn to see things God’s way, and oh, what a difference that can make.

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
It is true that when we can glimpse life in the way that God sees it, we are truly able to see it from a different perspective. We are lifted out of present circumstances into a new time continuum. We push through the veil of the here and now present into God’s never beginning never ending there and then. To live in that realm is to vaguely grasp heaven on earth.

“Thus says the LORD of hosts:
‘If it is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days,
Will it also be marvelous in My eyes?’ says the LORD of hosts” (Zech. 8.6).

Yes. Of course, it will be. Instead of fasts in the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months, He instituted a new protocol: joy and gladness and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah. “Therefore love truth and peace” (Zech. 8.19).

And whereas He was determined to punish them, He was now equally “determined to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Do not fear” (Zech. 8.14, 15).

“Let us continue to go and pray before the LORD, and seek the LORD of hosts” (Zech. 8.21).

It is only in seeking and serving Him that our fasts are turned into feasts.
“They shall neither hunger nor thirst, neither heat nor sun shall strike them;
for He who has mercy on them will lead them, even by the springs of water He will guide them” (Is. 49.10).
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matt. 5.6).
“They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7.16, 17). Yes. Please.

Although it is daunting to live around and through circumstances that appear overwhelming, and are glaring us in the face, it is in the realm of the possible to see them as God sees them. For we know that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8.28).

“For with God nothing will be impossible” (Lk. 1.37). Seems improbable—but true, nonetheless.

For reflection
1. What does it mean for you to see your life from God’s perspective?

2. Why should we want to learn how to live this way?

3. How does a fixation of the present—presentism—keep us from seeing things the way God does?

It is good to be with those who have God with them; if we take God for our God, we must take his people for our people, and be willing to take our lot with them. But let not any one think that mere zeal, either for Jews or Gentiles, will stand in the place of personal religion. Let us be living epistles of Christ, known and read of all men, so that others may wish to go with us, and to have their portion with us in the realms of bliss. Matthew Henry (1662-1714), Commentary on Zechariah 8.18-23

Pray Psalm 85.4-13.
Give thanks and praise to God, that what He has promised, and what we hear Him speaking to us, He will perform. Ask Him to direct your steps today in the path of revival, renewal, and awakening.

Sing Psalm 85.4-13.
(Lyons: O, Worship the King)
Restore us, O God, renew us in peace, and cause all Your wrath against us to cease.
Will You evermore all Your wrath to us show? Revive us that we may Your joy again know.

Lord, show us Your love; restore us, we pray! And help us to hear the words that You say.
Speak peace to Your people; in truth let us stand. We fear You; let glory and grace fill our land.

In Jesus God’s grace and truth are combined; both goodness and peace in Him do we find.
Truth springs from the earth as He walks in our midst, and righteousness flows from the heav’ns as a gift.

The Lord by His grace will give what is good; our land will produce abundance of food.
And righteousness will go before the Lord’s face, and make of His footsteps a way in this place.

T. M. and Susie Moore

Two books can help us understand our own captivity and lead us to seek revival and renewal in the Lord. The Church Captive asks us to consider the ways the Church today has become captive to the world. And Revived! can help us find the way to renewal. Learn more and order your free copies by clicking here and here.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (Williston: Waxed Tablet Publications, 2006), available free by clicking here.