Zechariah Calling

(A sermon from late 2004)

Zechariah’s World: where Z fits into Biblical history.

Abraham: God’s Promise – all nations would be blessed through him.... followed by....

• Promised Land: reaches peak under David / Solomon;
• but then Division into Israel and Judah.
• Israel the bigger part in north (why it got the name ‘Israel’): has only wicked kings
• until it's finally overrun and absorbed by Assyria in 722BC

Judah, small state in south, mixture of good and bad kings

• Staggers on, but is overrun by Babylonians in 587BC – the people taken into exile (Daniel etc).

Theologically the Exile was a catastrophe for the Jews
So much of their faith seemed to lie in ruins...

• The invulnerability of Jerusalem: shattered
• The place of God’s special presence (Temple): shattered
• The promise of dwelling in their own land: shattered
• The promise of being a great nation (looked up to by others): shattered.
• It was theological meltdown: all they thought was non-negotiable - disappeared.

But there was hope: prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel...

• pointed beyond the Exile and God’s judgement to Restoration;
• promises of renewed blessing;
• of a time when God’s Law would be written on their hearts (Jer 31)
• when the nations would come up to Jerusalem to worship (Is 49)
• never again would Jerusalem be given over to her enemies (Is 62)
• of a new Temple where God would return again in glory (Ezk 43)
  Pictures of great blessing and renewal – surpassing even David & Solomon.

Then in 538BC the Persian Empire under Cyrus defeats Babylon

• and under Cyrus (e.g. Ezra 1:1-4) the first wave of Exiles return to Jerusalem.

But the return is a major anti-climax

• No massive return of people – only a trickle
• They land they return to is about 55km by 65km.
• Jerusalem itself is still in ruins & barely inhabited.
• Weak, vulnerable, poor & surrounded by enemies (Hag 1:6).
  
  A pale shadow of her former glory: never mind the one promised by prophets - a state of humiliation.

In 521BC Darius becomes Emperor and oversees a period of stability in the Empire

• so while Israel struggles: all around is peace and prosperity (1:11&15).

And it is into this world & this time in the history of God's people...

• That the word of the Lord comes to Zechariah son of Berekiah …. (1:1)

Ch.1:1-6: So who is Zechariah the Man?

Other than 1:1 we don’t know much about him

• he was a prophet (obviously);
• he may have had a priestly background: Priest called Iddo in Neh 12:4
• certainly has a concern for the Temple.

Big part of his ministry is to encourage the rebuilding of the Temple

• important because the Temple re-building had stalled (Haggai)
• Ezra started to rebuild it in 538BC and completed foundations in 536BC
• but building of the structure didn’t start until 520BC – just before 1:1
• So Z encourages the governor Zerubbabel to get on with it (Ez 5:1-2).

A Contemporary of Haggai

• who like Haggai saw the nation’s problems as primarily spiritual.
• Which is where we begin in looking at the book itself.

So v1, we are directed to an obscure corner of the Persian Empire

• to this isolated, weary and doubtful people.

What might you say to such people – what would you want to say?

• a word of encouragement / comfort / reassurance?

Rather v2: the opening words are a reminder of God’s anger – ‘was very angry’

• pointing them back to the generation before: who experienced that anger.
• unlike our present culture (even in churches) - the Bible doesn’t hesitate to attribute anger to God – OT & NT (Rom 1:18)

One of the problems the pre-exile prophets faced: was the rejection of the idea of God's anger

• so Jeremiah is persecuted for declaring God’s anger (Jer 19:15-20:2)
• false prophets declared everything is fine with God (Jer 23:16-17: 21-22)

But God’s anger is a real issue and must not be forgotten

• God will judge rebellion and the rejection of His Covenant claims.
• The previous generation: played fast and loose with the Covenant;
• so God’s exclusive place became negotiable: widespread idolatry
• His worship became superficial (going through the motions): hypocrisy
• His service became optional and dispensable: complacency.
  - and God was very angry

A danger for every generation: one that didn’t disappear even after the Exile experience...

• it hasn’t disappeared today: it was still the concern of Zechariah
• the danger of ‘boredom in worship and immorality in life’. (DRD)

These were warnings Israel's fathers failed to heed (v4)

• No doubt reassured by the false prophets: God won’t mind etc
• Perhaps, it was so long in coming: that they just didn’t believe it would.
• After-all, the warning had rung out for centuries: since Solomon
  · and you know, they had got by until now
  · nothing had happened, there was always still time: tomorrow!

But WOW, it actually happened – the warnings came true

• Jerusalem was smashed, the land ravaged, the people killed & scattered
• and here they are now: this rump, this stripped out band of refugees.

V5 Where are you forefathers now? Gone, judged, ruined!

• where are the prophets now? The warnings aren’t endless.

V6 Understand this, get to grips with this: my Words are true.

• They’re not dependent on being popular/convenient
• They don’t have ‘sell-by date’: e.g. they don't become redundant even when those who brought them are gone
• They stand on their own – in God’s authority – and will be fulfilled

Let’s take this on board in our lives: learn this lesson.

• God’s warning to us: about idolatry / hypocrisy / complacency
• are not without precedence – and neither are His judgements on them.
  
  Let’s not be seduced by words of false security, e.g.
  · it doesn’t matter how I live;
  · it’s ok that God is compartmentalised in my life;
  · or that I’ll sort these things out 'soon'

But one day – for each of us...

• God’s words will be fulfilled.
• we’ll find out He means what He says

What He says: to Zechariah’s community and to us is that:

• Salvation cannot be separated from real relationship with God
• Blessing cannot be divided from obedience.

So Z says to the people: don’t make the mistake of your fathers : v4

• but ‘Return to me’ and ‘I will return to you’ v3
• if you Repent/ Return - I am ready to receive you: restored relationship

But we might ask: what is it that this generation are to repent of?

• It was their Fathers who sinned & who were judged
• and they, when judged, acknowledged they had been wrong (v6b)

Well answer is probably in Haggai (Z’s contemporary: compare dates Z. 1:1 & H 1:1)

• H's concerns about the people’s slackness in building the Temple (H 1:2)
• This failure to get on with this task – is the key to this warning call

At one level their stalling here is understandable
· Know from Ezra: lots of opposition, discouragement, hardship.
· No work on the Temple in the two years prior to Zech 1:1

But the restoration of the Temple was central to Covenant renewal....

• Central to getting their relationship with God into order: getting it running properly is getting the Temple sorted out
• which is why: Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai & Zech are so concerned with it.
• why it’s final completion in Ez 6 (motivated by Z&H) is such a joy.

But here in Ch.1: the people seem to have given up on it.
· It probably seemed too much hassle;
· Too much opposition, feeling of being vulnerable and weak
· perhaps doubts about God’s promises after all that happened

Easier to play down the God stuff and do up the house (Hg 1: 3)

• Result of this neglect was the withholding of Covenant blessing (H 1:5-6)
• Nothing wrong in itself with a bit of DIY
• but the problem was: was what was being neglected as a result!

They wanted to live a normal life: but that’s not what God had called them to:

• One writer: calls it ‘the sin of being normal’. (Webb)

But they were to be a Kingdom People, a peculiar people, a covenant people

• Called not to fit in and just be like the rest
• but to build God’s kingdom, to stand out for God,
• to put God (relationship and service) at the top of their list of priorities.

A big temptation for us today: in a day of 'small things'

• When God’s promises to build a kingdom that will fill the earth and last forever seem remote
• When we feel outnumbered, weak and increasingly out on a limb
  - is to want to just fit in, go for the easy life, and be like everyone else.

God’s call to Zechariah’s community is to Return to Him

• To put that relationship and service at the heart of our activities and lives.
• To know again the fullness of His Covenant blessing.

We realise, of course, that New Covenant blessings are not crops and land...

• but blessings are still based on obedience to God’s call;
• a return to the Lord: confident that His Word is sure: His promises are true

If we want to see God’s blessings in our lives and as a church:

• then God needs to be at the centre of out lives: knowing Him,
• attending to our relationship with Him, serving Him: must become our priorities.

Need to pray that, if God has spoken to us in this...

• We will confess where we have become complacent and turn afresh to Him,
• that we, as a church community, will be delivered from, ‘Boredom with worship and immorality of life’.