ZECHARIAH 8:9-23

-{Zechariah 8}

-In no way, shape or form am I mechanically inclined when it comes to automotives. I could give your battery a jump or swap out your tire, but beyond that you might want to seek a professional. But I have always been fascinated by the guys (or gals) that are able to take old vehicles and restore them. Almost like a puzzle, they get the pieces and put everything back together again so the vehicle is almost like brand new. They’re able to restore the looks and restore it to functionality.

~Just the other day I was talking to someone who was restoring something, and they were explaining to me what they were doing...and I just nodded along like I understood what he was saying. But when his work would be done, a classic car of old would be made new.

-What can be true of a vehicle can also be true for the entire universe, including ourselves. The message of what we are reading tonight is that our God is a God who can restore that which is broken down. This old universe is broken down. We ourselves live in our own existence of brokenness in some form. And yet, the great promise that we are given is that God will restore. He will restore what was lost in the Fall of humanity, by renewing creation. And He will restore us to splendor as humanity was originally intended to be.

-So, when you look around and things seem pretty dismal, you hold to the promises that all this desolation and devastation will be restored to the glory that God had always intended.

-We are looking at the book of Zechariah. The Jews returned to the land after their exile to Babylon. Things weren’t going that great—partly because of their own disobedience, and partly because of the circumstances of living in a broken world. That’s just existence.

-So, Zechariah is used of God as a prophet to lead them to obedience—specifically rebuilding the temple, which they did finally get around to. But he is also a messenger of encouragement, reminding the people that God has great plans for them that will lead to blessings for the whole world. And that is true in what we are reading tonight. We’ll take it bit by bit tonight, and we first see:

1) God’s promises of restoration favor

Zechariah 8:9–13 LSB

9 “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, ‘Let your hands be strong, you who are listening in these days to these words from the mouth of the prophets, those who spoke in the day that the foundation of the house of Yahweh of hosts was laid, to the end that the temple might be built. 10 ‘For before those days there was no wage for man or any wage for animal; and for him who went out or came in there was no peace because of the adversary, and I set all men one against another. 11 ‘But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as in the former days,’ declares Yahweh of hosts. 12 ‘For there will be peace for the seed: the vine will yield its fruit, the land will yield its produce, and the heavens will give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these things. 13 ‘And it will be that just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you that you may become a blessing. Do not fear; let your hands be strong.’

-God begins the message LET YOUR HANDS BE STRONG. This was an encouragement to keep at the work that God had set out for them to do. For the immediate context, it was telling the Jews to keep hammering away at getting the temple rebuilt.

-There were a lot of things going on that caused a lot of discouragement that may have caused the people to want to throw up their hands and give up. There were economic hardships—it says there were days when there was no wage for man or animal. There was hostility from enemies—it says there was no peace because of the adversary. There was even some internal struggles amongst the Jews—it says they were set against one another.

-This was true before the exile, this was true during the exile, this was true after the exile during the times of their disobedience. God judged His own people; just like God judged the world when Adam and Eve joined the rebellion of Satan. But after Adam and Eve sinned, God gave a promise that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. There would be restoration. And here God says I will not treat the remnant of this people as the former days.

-God says He will bring peace, God says He will bring prosperity, and most importantly God says He will use this people to become a blessing to the world—a concept that He fleshes out a little later. God is not done with this people yet—God will restore. But these aren’t present realities, so He again says Do not fear, let your hands be strong. Keep at the work of the Lord.

-And God now deals with His church. The effects of the Fall might be hitting heavy on you personally—you’re going through some rough times. Or you look at the world, it is a place that seems so far from peace and joy and hope. We look at the gospel ministry and it seems like it’s stagnant—there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of progress in the world because it is still lost and living in the muck and mire of its lostness.

-But God tells us do not fear, let your hands be strong. Our encouragement to keep going is the fact that we know there will be a future restoration. God will once again return this broken earth to a restored Edenic paradise. Not now...but one day. And it is the promise of that one day that keeps us going. But until the day that it happens, we don’t let our circumstances to get us off track. We let our hands be strong. So, the next part of the message is that the prophet talks about:

2) Our righteous response to God’s promises

Zechariah 8:14–17 LSB

14 “For thus says Yahweh of hosts, ‘Just as I purposed to bring about evil to you when your fathers provoked Me to wrath,’ says Yahweh of hosts, ‘and I have not relented, 15 so I have again purposed in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Do not fear! 16 ‘These are the things which you should do: speak the truth to one another; judge with truth and judgment for peace in your gates. 17 ‘Also let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do not love false oaths; for all these are what I hate,’ declares Yahweh.”

-As it says:

Numbers 23:19 LSB

19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not establish it?

-God will not relent from His purposes or His promises. When Israel rebelled against God, God fulfilled the curses that He warned them about in the book of Deuteronomy—they would be carried away into a foreign land. It happened for both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. God was provoked; they had been warned; they wouldn’t relent in their rebellion, so neither did God relent in His judgment.

-But as much as God had backed up His promise of judgment, so too would God back up His promise of restoration. As much as God purposed for Judah to be disciplined, so too God purposed for their good. If God won’t relent in the one, neither will He relent in the other.

-But because of this commitment on God’s hand, there is an expected response on the part of the people. Yes, what God has vowed to do is one-sided—it’s all of Him. Just like our salvation, our promise of new heavens and earth, are all one-sided—it’s all of God. And yet in response to this favor, this grace, we in thankfulness live a certain way. As Paul says in Romans 2:4 that the goodness and kindness of God leads to our repentance. God’s goodness to the Jews led to a corresponding way of living—specifically in their relationship to one another.

-How God tells the Jews to live in vv. 16-17 might be specific areas that were problematic before the exile (maybe even after the exile). But God would have no more of it. The expectations that God lists here for them are expectations for us as well. We are to speak truth to one another. We aren’t to try to deceive people, we aren’t to try to lead people astray or give them false impressions. We aren’t to be hypocritical in our speech. We aren’t to try to take advantage of one another.

-God says to judge with truth and judgment for peace in your gates. The gates of the city was where business transactions and legal cases were done. God is looking for true justice. Biblical justice, grounded in divine mercy, aims not simply to give people what they deserve but to offer more through forgiveness—it carries both retribution and restoration, seeking to give offenders opportunity to turn from evil and restore right relationships. God commands believers to judge with true justice while showing lovingkindness and compassion.

-In v. 17 God warns against devising evil against other people, seeking to do them harm, especially when it comes to false oaths—telling lies to hurt someone’s status or reputation. God hates these kinds of things. If God hates it, we avoid it. So, it’s exactly because of God’s vow to restore that we desire to please Him with a righteous response. Then there is one final lesson here:

3) Future glory leads to present rejoicing

Zechariah 8:18–23 LSB

18 Then the word of Yahweh of hosts came to me, saying, 19 “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, ‘The fast of the fourth, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth months will become joy, gladness, and merry appointed feasts for the house of Judah; so love truth and peace.’ 20 “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, ‘It will yet be that peoples will come, even the inhabitants of many cities. 21 ‘The inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, “Let us go at once to entreat the favor of Yahweh and to seek Yahweh of hosts; I will also go.” 22 ‘So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek Yahweh of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of Yahweh.’ 23 “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, ‘In those days ten men from every tongue of the nations will take hold of the garment of a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” ’ ”

-Back at the beginning of chapter 7 there were representatives from the city of Bethel that inquired of God through Zechariah about whether or not they should continue the different fasts that they were observing throughout the year. When they observed the fasts corresponded with various anniversaries of events related to the exile—when the first captives were taken, the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, so on and so forth.

-The initial response from God was that it didn’t matter anyway because their hearts weren’t with God—they didn’t truly worship God, they were just going through motions. But this final response is a little different. They didn’t need to observe the fasts because there wouldn’t be an occasion for mourning anymore. Instead of fasting, there would be feasting. God would do something to change their mourning into joy and gladness and merriment.

-But what would it be? Zechariah talks about the fact that the people would be gathered together to seek God, and that something would happen that would cause the nations, the Gentiles, to also seek their God. Something would cause the world to seek after the God of the Israelites. What could it be?

-Some might say that this is a picture of the millennium, if that is your eschatological bent. But what this does is foreshadow Christ and the Great Commission. The only thing that would cause pagans to seek the true God is a Savior through whom a heart is changed. And it is through that Savior, Jesus Christ, that God will ultimately restore all things.

-Any loss you have suffered will be more than compensated by the graciousness of God through Jesus Christ in the future restoration of all things. To put it in terms of another prophet, anything that the locusts may have eaten of yours will be replaced.

-So, we can rejoice right now because we can look forward into the future, and see that in Jesus Christ we will receive back so much more than what we have lost. And my prayer is that this is the attitude that we take. And we also want to pray that others in the nations will join us.