The book starts by encouraging the Jewish people not to be like their forefathers but to turn from evil and follow Him. It is my understanding here that the sins of the pre-exile Jews caused the Lord to allow them to be captured by the Babylonians. The thing that sticks out to me instantly is the emotion that is fuelling Gods actions - His anger caused them to be exiled and His compassion and love for them is what is driving God to fight for their attention. In verse 14 God openly admits He is jealous for Jerusalem. Sometimes it is easy to forget that as we were made in Gods image, there are things that make us tick - like our emotions - that also make God tick.
Zechariah then launches into his first vision. Zechariah had eight visions in all - and they all occurred in the same night! In the words of Vallie Frankie, “Oh what a night”… The first vision talks about a ‘Man amonst the myrtle trees’. The man is riding a red horse surrounded by other brown and white horses in a ravine. There is also another person there - an angel who chips in with useful information now and then.
It actually gets quite confusing who is talking to who here as while their appears to be Zechariah, an interpreting angel and a man, I think the man is also known as ‘the angel of the Lord‘. He asks the Lord how long Jerusalem will be oppressed - as while the region was currently stable and at peace, the Jewish people were still being oppressed. Then the interpreting angel instructs Zechariah to proclaim the Lords jealousy over Jerusalem and Zion (another word for God’s Holy city) and then says that the Lord will return to Jerusalem and His house will be rebuilt there. This is an obvious reference to the completion of the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. The Lord also promises prosperity onto the Jewish people once again.
The second vision then details four horns and four craftsmen. Horns often turn up in visions like this (we saw some in Daniel 7) and they are a symbol of strength. It is not clear whether the four horns should be taken literally (i.e. representing four entities or nations - some suggest they could represent Assyria, Egypt, Babylonia and Medo-Persia) but the vision states they are ‘horns that scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem‘. Then come the four craftsmen - again it is not clear whether it should be taken literally (some suggest they could represent Egypt, Babylonia, Persia and Greece) but they described as coming to terrify the horns. What is clear from verse 21 is that all Judah’s enemies will ultimately be defeated.
The thing I pick up from this passage is that God is acting in sort of a fatherly manner - whilst it is clear that He has compassion and love for His nation and will go out of His way to prosper them, He is not afraid to allow them to get their ‘come-up-ence’ if they continue to walk away from Him. I love it that our God does not force our affection - but allows us to choose to follow Him or not.
Any other thoughts?
4:15 pm
At the beginning Gaz you highlighted that God has emotions, for example angry at their sin.
I have recently come across some theology called openness. One of the things it suggests is that some of the future in unknown to God. An interesting idea to most people and by no means the classical view. Part of the thinking behind it is because God so often shows these emotions, e.g. anger, surprised, jealous etc and changes his mind. How can he do this authentically if he knows exactly what is going to happen?? What are your thoughts?