September 27: Zechariah 1:7-6:15

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Zechariah 1:7–6:15

 

 

In today’s passage, we read about Zechariah’s visions for the restored people of Israel.  Chiefly, we notice major assurances that God reveals through these visions:

 

1.  That the people will be restored in prosperity;

2.  That Israel’s oppressors will indeed be punished;

3.  That God will be among His returning people;

4.  That the One Who is called the Branch will remove the sins of the people;

5.  That God will complete the temple through His two anointed ones;

6.  That God will always punish wickedness;

7.  That God will bring wicked nations to their knees; and

8.  That there will be rest at last.

 

 

Due to their corporate rebelliousness over many generations, God had removed the people from His promised land.  Yet, at this time, God indicates that “I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there my house will be rebuilt....  My towns will again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.”  God would bring them back to the land and offer His protection, explaining that “I myself will be a wall of fire around [Jerusalem],... and I will be its glory within.”  The people would have God’s presence among them.  In their efforts to rebuild the temple and Jerusalem, the people would find that God had anointed His chosen laborers.  In the end, God wished to show the people that His work would move forward “not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit.”  As Leroy Eims explained about ministry and living out the Gospel, if anything of spiritual value comes about in this world, it will be because God did it.

 

In addition to these near-term promises, God also refers to the coming of a righteous Branch who would remove the people’s sin in a single day.  Here again, we have testimony to the coming Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.  We learn that this coming Branch will bring the offices of Priest and King under a single Head, whose fulfillment would partially come under the authority of the High Priests in the restored Israel:  “Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will brank out from his place and build the temple of the Lord.  It is he who will build the temple of the Lord, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne.  And he will be a priest on his throne.  And there will be harmony between the two.”   As the Book of Hebrews later illustrates, Jesus clearly fulfilled this role of High Priest (in the order of Melchizedek) and became, through His sacrifice of Himself, the Author of salvation.

 

By comparing these words to Colossians 1:15–20, we can see how Jesus has authority as Creator and Ruler over all!:  “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by him all things were created:  things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.  For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

 

 

QUESTIONS

 

1.  Why might these assurances have calmed the people’s fears?  How do they indicate God’s concern for His people?

 

2.  What assurances spoke most powerfully to you right now?  What other passages offer you assurances for today’s challenges?

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