Hope in Suffering
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Prayer
Prayer
Unto you, O Lord, do we lift up our voices!
You are the God of peace, and we are a people of turmoil. Send out your peace, that it might flow through your church to the nations. Pour out your spirit like water, and let the rivers flow.
May we find that living water today and may we be known as a people of peace. Teach us to speak words that build up, encourage and bring health to the soul.
Give us peace in body and soul, give us peace in our communities. We have become so angry and rude; restless and critical. Help us to sit calmly under our own vine and under our own fig tree.
Fill us with your spirit that we might truly walk in love and joy, peace and patience. Calm our restless hearts. Heal our wounds with the balm that only you can provide.
We pray that you would give the authorities in Sacramento wisdom and insight into this mass shooting, that justice would be done. Give comfort to the families of the victims. Give healing to the injured.
Lord we beg of you that you would restrain violence, for if you do not restrain violence, there is nothing we can do. There will be no police force big enough, no laws strong enough, no strength powerful enough – if you do not restrain.
For the sake of your bride on earth, Lord, restrain. May we know what it is to walk on the streets and night safely, to discuss ideas safely, to disagree safely.
You are the God of peace – but we are so restless and angry. Forgive us, Lord. Heal the nations by the gospel of peace.
Deliver us from false prophets. Deliver us from the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life. Deliver us from ruthless and violent men.
Give peace to our community. Give food to the hungry. Give shelter to those with none. Deliver the captive – deliver those in bondage to sin. Bring the wandering ones back home.
Thank you for healing and for health care – thank you for hearing our prayers for Gary and Roger, for Naomi and Bud. And continue to heal.
Heal Susan from her infection. Give healing to Victor. For those who are still waiting for tests and test results, we pray that you would open the door and speed the care that is needed.
When we see so much death and senseless destruction, we get scared. We know that the devil uses that fear to drive even more death and destruction. Teach us to respond instead how Jesus responded. Teach us to boast in weakness, rather than strength. Teach us to wait on you for perfect justice. Teach us to turn the other cheek. Teach us to use the strength and power that you give us to do good, speak justly and love kindness – but all the while walking humbly with you, relying on your strength alone.
And when we are weak and can do nothing, hear our cries. Sit us gently on your lap and hold us in your arms and remind us that you are coming in strength, in justice and every wrong will be made right and every tear will be dried.
Until that day, may we hold firmly to you even when we don’t understand,
Bless the reading and preaching of your word this morning. Guide my lips and give us ears to hear.
And together,
“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
Text
Text
Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, And your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; The city shall be taken, The houses rifled, And the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth And fight against those nations, As He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west, Making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south. Then you shall flee through My mountain valley, For the mountain valley shall reach to Azal. Yes, you shall flee As you fled from the earthquake In the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Thus the Lord my God will come, And all the saints with You. It shall come to pass in that day That there will be no light; The lights will diminish. It shall be one day Which is known to the Lord Neither day nor night. But at evening time it shall happen That it will be light. And in that day it shall be— That living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, Half of them toward the eastern sea And half of them toward the western sea; In both summer and winter it shall occur. And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be “The Lord is one,” And His name one. All the land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be raised up and inhabited in her place from Benjamin’s Gate to the place of the First Gate and the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses. The people shall dwell in it; And no longer shall there be utter destruction, But Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, Their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, And their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths. It shall come to pass in that day That a great panic from the Lord will be among them. Everyone will seize the hand of his neighbor, And raise his hand against his neighbor’s hand; Judah also will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations Shall be gathered together: Gold, silver, and apparel in great abundance. Such also shall be the plague On the horse and the mule, On the camel and the donkey, And on all the cattle that will be in those camps. So shall this plague be. And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. In that day “HOLINESS TO THE LORD” shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.
Sermon
Sermon
I approach this passage with fear and trembling.
As I was studying this chapter, I came across this quote by Martin Luther:
"Here, in this chapter, I give up. For I am not sure what the prophet is talking about.”
That has a way of making me feel much better.
The commentaries, almost without exception, put all of this into the end times - with a great final battle and then God comes in judgment.
But there are difficulties there. The first one that strikes me is that the first verse seems to have more immanent fulfillment.
This was fulfilled literally in the days of Antiochus, as well as in the days of Titus after Jesus came into the world.
This is fulfilled again and again in the church. Even in our day, the church in Sudan, Nigeria, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, India, suffer tremendously.
So rather than turning this into an “end times” prophecy. I would like to start with a more immediate question.
Why does God allow the nations to rage and win against the church?
The description shows a church that is weak - so weak that the enemies who plunder her divide the spoils right there in front of her.
The description of an invading army - there is no resistance, no help, the enemy does as he pleases, takes what he wants, and there is no one to say, “NO!”
In our day, we praise strength. Arms. Weapons.
When God calls Deborah to judge Israel, we say, “You see. There weren’t any strong men.”
You read repeatedly - God calls strong men to defend and when they don’t, this is what happens.
But there is no hint of this in our text.
God doesn’t even speak of chastening them. He calls them his people. He talks of delivering them from their enemies.
And when you think of brutal armies dividing spoil, you can’t help but think of Jesus hanging on the cross while the Roman soldiers threw dice for the only property he had - his clothing. What hopelessness and shame and helplessness!
What cruelty! To play games while your victim is in indescribably agony.
The salvation of the world, of society, of the family, of everything - isn’t in strength. It is in weakness.
Therefore God hath given him a name
Jesus was victorious because he was weak, and his weakness was his strength. He took upon himself the form of a servant break the bonds of death. It was in his weakness that he destroyed Satan
Is Zechariah speaking of a final battle? Maybe. It just isn’t clear.
But it definitely applies to that which the church suffers in every age. Whenever the gospel is preached, men and women are united to Christ - flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone. And this always means that they will suffer as Christ suffered.
Therefore I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in distresses, in persecutions, in difficulties, in behalf of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
Why does God allow such horrible sufferings?
First, we know that God is still sovereign. “I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem”.
He gathers them together. The enemies of God war against the church and God allows it which is really really hard to process. It will never do to say that God is out of control of history, or is it is powerless to stop suffering. His power is infinite and Almighty and he does all his good pleasure and those are hard things for us to understand.
Many say, like Job’s wife - “curse God and die!”
But even though Job - and all of those who suffer - couldn’t give the reasons, they knew that their business was with God and so they cried out to him.
And our text doesn’t give reasons why God is gathering the nations together.
But we KNOW that God is good. That God loves his people. And that God is exercising righteousness, justice and lovingkindness in the earth - and that is so, so hard for us to wrap our minds around.
There was another time when God gathered the nations against Jerusalem -
In the days of Joshua, the nation defeated Jericho - “and the walls came tumbling down”
Then they defeated Ai. (I don’t have a song for that one).
And then it says that God brought five nations against them - over a million men on foot.
Terrifying.
As it turned out, the reason God brought them all together was NOT to destroy Israel. It was to destroy the five nations all at once instead of one at a time.
The sun stood still in the sky while victory was being completed.
God is good. The suffering brought by the enemies is difficult and hard to wrap our minds around. But because we belong to Christ, his sufferings also belong to us.
God hasn’t promised that he will always deliver instantly. No. There are many times when we have enemies that we are powerless against.
Sometimes those enemies are the powerful ones in the church.
Sometimes death. Sometimes illness. Sometimes foreign armies. Sometimes your own country’s armies.
Jesus said
Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!
There will be offenses. There will be trials and great tribulation.
Yes, there will also be times of peace, blessings of joy, oases in times of grief - but there will also be ravaging armies
BUT - as Jesus says - woe to those who bring the offenses!
Even though we don’t always know why God is bringing such difficulties on his church, we know this:
Jesus considers offenses against his people as offenses against himself.
He said to Paul, “Why are you persecuting ME?”
It means something to be the people of God.
Let me ask you husbands something - what would be your reaction if someone hurt your wife?
Jesus loves his bride far, far more than you love even your wife. His love is perfect, jealous, infinite…he says of her
“My dove, in the clefts of the rock, In the hiding place of the mountain pathway, Let me see how you look, Let me hear your voice; For your voice is pleasant, And you look delightful.”
What will the groom do to the one who harms the bride?
Verse 4 - certainly a figure of speech, but a powerful one.
The Lord Himself will bring cataclysmic destruction on the one who harms his bride.
Verses 4 and 5 use a lot of imagery and allusions to Israel’s history.
Israel was once backed up to the Red Sea, and God opened the Sea to let his bride through. They were baptized in the Red Sea.
Isaiah says
“Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the uneven ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley;
Isaiah is promising Israel’s return from exile in Babylon. He uses language similar to the Red Sea - just as God made a “valley” in the Red Sea, so God will make a “valley” in the mountains between Babylon and returning home.
Zechariah is using this same imagery - applying it to Jerusalem.
The Mount of Olives is the elevated high ridge outside of Jerusalem. It would be a hindrance if anyone needed to escape.
So using the language - God is fighting for the church, and is providing a way of escape for his bride when the armies come. He Himself will fight against them.
This is continually fulfilled in the ages since Zechariah wrote it. The church in serious trouble. God providing an escape for them and destroying his enemies.
It describes the age, and it describes perfectly what Paul meant when he said, “I will boast in my weakness, for when I am weak, then I am strong.
The end of verse five is God, as the warrior king.
“Saints” is “holy ones” - here, it is referring to God’s angels.
God has all of the angelic hosts under his command and he is fighting the enemies of the church.
But why doesn’t he just destroy them all?
Because it isn’t time yet. When you are overly eager to pull up the weeds, you invariably get the wheat as well.
God is not impatient and he calls us to not be impatient. Wait for him. Believe his promises.
Our acts of justice are always wrong somehow. We go too far. We don’t go far enough. We respond in rage and lose control. We make it worse with our lack of wisdom.
But God’s wisdom is perfect. Wait for him, but remember - he always comes in judgment. The end result is described in graphic detail in verses 12-15.
These are the covenant curses that fall upon the seed of the serpent. We sometimes have glimpses of that judgment on this earth - Herod died a rather gruesome death at the hands of God.
But it will all be done and done perfectly on the last day.
But today is not that day. Today, we still suffer. We still watch the enemies of the church prosper and the people of God suffering and we cry out, “how long?”
And God still says, “wait”. Today is not the day. Watch and pray, for the groom is coming to get his bride, and all who have hurt her will be utterly destroyed.
We don’t know all the reasons for specific suffering. I can’t tell you why God is allowing the church all over the world to go through so much pain. But he HAS promised - that good will come out of it. His name will be exalted. The church will be delivered. And he HAS promised that he will miserably destroy all who have fought against the church.
So with Paul, for this reason, we can rejoice in suffering.
That doesn’t mean to seek it out.
It doesn’t mean to endure horrible treatment at the hands of a spouse when a way of escape is provided you.
It doesn’t mean to stop fighting for justice.
We are to hate injustice as God does, and fight against it with whatever strength we have.
There are times when God gives us strength. Esther was given access to the king and the strength of influence. Eliezer killed philistines until his hand stuck to his sword. David was king. Jacob wrestled with God and prevailed.
In the times when the Lord gives strength, use that strength to give voice to the voiceless, to hold up the arms of the failing, to encourage the downhearted, to speak out for justice - to do good and bring a place of rest and peace around you.
But no matter what strength God has given you, there will always be trials that you cannot overcome. There will be enemies too strong for you. There will be illness that you can’t fix. There will be tragedies that you can’t prevent.
There will be attacks that you can’t defeat, slanders that you can’t undo.
This chapter speaks to that. The city under seige, and the people powerless under the strength of the lusts of the wicked.
The fact is, in this world we will have tribulation. We will have battles that we can’t win because we don’t have the strength to overcome.
So we weep. We cry out to the Lord. We pour our troubles out to him.
We join our voices with Job and cry out, “Though he kill me, yet will I trust him”
Where else will we turn? He has the words of eternal life.
Are his words faithful and true? He is the one who told us that we will have tribulation in this world.
But then he reminds us - But don’t be afraid. I have overcome the world.
And then we remember
First - he hears and he cares. He carries our tears with him and not one falls to the ground in vain. He took those tears on himself and he also wept tears and the tomb of lazarus, even though he KNEW what he was about to do.
We know there is a resurrection. We know that God comes as judge. It still hurts so, so deeply.
Jesus knows that as well - even more than we do
And he will wipe all those tears away - but today is not that day.
But remember this also - He will miserably destroy the enemy that caused those tears. And when he does, he won’t lose his temper. He won’t cause further injustice, he won’t cause more problems.
His wrath also is perfect, wise, everlasting, pure and righteous. We can wait for his day.
There are positive promises here as well.
Living water will flow from Jerusalem
Jerusalem will be raised above the whole earth and exalted
All the nations who are left will come to the feast of the Lord and will worship the one true God.
And the most precious promise of all -
Even the bells on the horses will be holy to the Lord...
But all of that will have to wait until next week....