Zechariah 10

Verse 2 "The idols speak deceitfully, diviners see visions that lie; they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd."

A friend of mine recently posted on facebook that he is sick of twitter. To be on twitter one must follow people and he doesn't want to be a follower.

The truth is we all follow somebody. Some may march to the beat of a different drummer, but they are following a drummer.

The Israelites had started to worship idols and follow the kings of Greece. They thought these idols and kings would provide for them. They were sheep looking for a shepherd. And of course, they were led astray.

Who is your shepherd?

I think it is natural to look for a shepherd that will lead us where we want to go. We want someone to tell us what we want to hear, someone that agrees with every decision we make. Who does that best?

Ourselves. We don't need a shepherd because we can shepherd ourselves.

Until we take a wrong turn, and then another. We never notice the first wrong turn, or the second; it's not until we are so completely lost that we ask for directions.

But no matter how lost we get, God is always there waiting for us, directing us back home.

Zechariah 9

Verses 9 &10:
9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.

Zechariah is a prophet, which means he has prophecies, like this one. Verse 9 is a Messianic Prophecy, it points to the coming messiah.

This Sunday is Palm Sunday, the day in the church year where we remember the day that Jesus victoriously rode a donkey into Jerusalem while the people along the streets rejoiced. It is the start of Holy Week. The week conitnues with the betrayal, trial, beating and crucifuxion of Jesus.

What kind of victory is that?

Jesus did not come to battle people, he came to defeat death. Which he did 7 days later on Easter morning.

Death has been defeated for good, for all. That is the greatest victory the world had ever seen!

Unfortunately verse 10 has not happened yet. The world does not know peace.

So we live in between verses 9 and 10... And we wait.

We wait for the end of violence and the need for weapons.

We wait for God to come and make everything ok.

And we know He will... Because he promised us he'd come.

Zechariah 8

Verses 4-5: This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each of them with cane in hand because of their age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.”

This is a beautiful image from God, old people sitting in the streets watching children play. It is a vision of peace. A peace which God promises if the Israelites will obey God's commands.

There is nothing new in regards to the incentives of true religion. Where there is obedience there will be blessing. Where there is disobedience there will be judgment.

Unfortunately obedience is difficult for Israelites. They worry about enemies beyond their borders coming to attack when in reality they are their own worst enemy because of their sin.

So what is the result? There is still no peace in Jerusalem.

Is it because God has brought enemies to fight them?

No.

When we obey God's commands of genuine love, we don't have any conflict. It is written in Proverbs 16:7 "When a man's ways are pleasing to the LORD, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him."

It is no wonder that in the last 3,000 years the world has only known 130 years of peace.

What does that say for our ability to please God?

Zechariah 7

Now that the temple is underway the people ask if they should continue the religious traditions of the past. God gives an intersting answer:

5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? 6 And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? 7 Are these not the words the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?’”
8 And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: 9 “This is what the LORD Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another."

The people had been following the traditions, but they had lost sight of God. They were feasting just to feast, which makes me wonder if we celebrate Christmas just because television commercials tell us to.

The people wanted a yes or no answer… God’s answer is more than they bargained for. God is not content with acts, but hates them if they are not accompanied by genuine love for God and other people.

God’s reply is simple... move away from formalism toward seeking God.

Is the church today too formal? Do we do things just because that's the way we have always done them? Have we lost sight of God?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

We can never seek God like we ought to. We can never love God enough...

But we can try.

Zechariah 6

Zechariah has a vision of chariots coming to earth from between two bronze mountains, which means they came from heaven, they came from God.

Chariots come for one reason, war. God had a war to rage with the people of the north (Babylon) and the people of the south (Egypt). Why did God go to war? Because these nations were hostile towards God's people.

So God acted out to defend His people... And their is no better defender than God because God is all-powerful, or omnipotent.

God can do anything... there is no power in the universe that can come close.

And yet God allowed humanity to nail His naked son to a cross and leave him to hang there until he died.

Because there is more power in love than any weapon on earth. Weapons may have the power to destroy, but love has the power to save.

Zechariah 5

Wickedness shows up in Zechariah 5 in the form of a woman in a basket. Angels then take wickedness back to Babylon.

The Iraelites had recently returned from Babylon after almost 100 years of living there. One could imagine how engrained the Babylonian culture had become in the Israelites. They were born and raised in Babylon. The Israelites from 100 years ago were dead... All these people knew was Babylon.

I have officially lived in Texas fro under 2 years now and it's amazing how much Texan culture has becoem a part of my life. I even say "y'all." If I stayed here all my life and had children and grandchildren that were born here move to Michigan, they might not understand the Michigan I grew up in.

These Israelites didn't understand the Israel of 100 years earlier. They are bringing a piece of Babylon back with them.

God is not interested in Babylon. Send all the Babylon in you back where it belongs.

Babylon was known for commercialism and greed, not the virutes that God wants for His people. Stuff all that junk in a basket and send it back.

Unfortunately it didn't all fit in the basket; a couple hundred years later commercialism and greed had overtaken the temple... God's dwelling place.

God showed up and flipped over their tables.

So they crucified Him.

Zechariah 4

Zechariah has a vision of a lampstand and asked what it meant. An angel told him that it was the word of the Lord.

When we baptize someone in the Lutheran church we say "Let your light so shine before others so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven."

There is a lot of imagery in the bible that uses light and dark.

Genesis says that in the beginning was a formless void and it was covered in darkness... Darkness brings chaos.

Then God made light, one light for the day and a lesser light for the night. Light brings order.

We need light in the world if we want to avoid chaos. We need light in our lives if we want to avoid chaos.

The sun is the light of the world; the Son is the light of our lives... Jesus keeps us from chaos.

How does God shine brightest? Through us.

He is the flame, we are the candle.

Burn baby burn.

Zechariah 3

Zechariah has a vision of Joshua standing before God, like he was on trial in a courtroom and God is the judge. Standing next to Joshua is Satan, the prosecuting attorney trying to convince God to condemn Joshua and the people of Israel.

Joshua dressed in filthy clothes because their have been no sacrifices to God... There have been no sacrifices because there has been no temple, it was destroyed.

Satan is actually right, if God judged according to the law, then Joshua and the people of Israel deserved to be condemned.

What does God say? Verse 4 "See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you."

God took away the sin. There was nothing that Joshua could do to have his sin taken away, God just took it away.

God gave him the right clothes. The clothes are a symbol of righteousness; they cannot be earned, but are given by God.

Why does God do this? Because He can.

God doesn't need our sacrifices to forgive us... God doesn't need anything to forgive.

God speaks and it is finished.

You are forgiven.

Zechariah 2

In Zechariah 2 an angel takes a measuring line to plot out where the new Jerusalem will be built. His thought is that it will be built exactly where the old Jerusalem was.

The another angel shows up and tells Zechariah to run down the other angel and make him stop measuring, because the new Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of people that will live there.

There was an expectation among the people that Jerusalem would be like it was before. I think we always romaticize about the way things used to be and long for them to be that way again. We talk about the times when you didn't have to lock your doors at night and when churches were full every Sunday... The days when kids went out on a Friday night for a milkshake and everybody believed what Walter Kronkite said.

Those days are gone now and they aren't coming back.

Instead God has something bigger and better planned.

Jerusalem was to be a city without walls because there will be so many more people there than there was... the city would be more vibrant than it ever was.

For years churches have only been focused on what is going on inside their walls and ignoring the world that was changing around them until finally there was no one left to turn off the light on a Sunday morning. It's never going to be like it was and that is a good thing.

We need to start thinking bigger than our four walls because God is up to something big.

Not a religion but a movement, a love revolution.

And no revolution can be confined to a building.

Zechariah 1

Zechariah 1 introduces the reader to a new kind of tree, the myrtle.

Up until now the symbol for Jerusalem was a cedar tree; a tree that is strong, majestic and independent. The problem with cedar trees is that they are hard to grow, they need optimum conditions.

A myrtle tree however will grow anywhere. It's not a real pretty tree and is not very strong by itself. Myrtle trees intertwine with one another to gain strength.

The people of God once thought they were like cedars. They were concerned with majesty and strength. They built ornate temples and wore the fanciest robes. They took a place of honor amongst the people and lived a life of privilege.

The future of the church, as it was then and as it is now, is more like the myrtle tree. Strength does not come from how good we act or look, but it comes from relationships and how we support one another. Beauty is not about how big and ornate our buildings are but in how we love one another.

The church can and will grow, if we learn from the myrtle tree.

Haggai 2

The book of Haggai is about the rebuilding of God's temple following the return of the Israelites from exile. Chapter 2 spells out the results oonce the new temple is completed.

Verse 6 states "I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land..."

Jerusalem has been destroyed, completely bulldozed by the Babylonians. The Israelites have been taken away from their land for almost a century... their old home is now just a pile of rocks.

I remember how I felt when I saw the towers collapse on 9/11 and how long it has taken to re-build. Imagine what it would be like if the whole country had been flattened?

There would be hopelessness.

But...

God will return to sit on the throne and people will know God is there because the earth will shake. God needs a place to live first, the temple needs to be finished.

The temple will play a key role in the rebuilding of the community because it will be a sign of hope, a sign of God's presence. It will be there for people to see whenever they are feeling hopeless.

What do we have to look at for hope? Where can we turn when life gets hopeless?

We have the cross.

When Jesus died the earth shook (Mt 27:51) because God showed up in a new way... God no longer lives in a building but lives in our hearts.

We don't have to go to a temple to find God because God is on the loose. God was the first one on the scene on 9/11 and God kept showing up for days and years following. God is still there. God is still re-building in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. (Just ask the people of New Orleans)

So you haven't seen God in a while?

Look harder.