Zechariah 1

Zechariah!

There’s a lot of visions and messages in this book, and I know a lot of the stories will have a LOT of specific meanings that I couldn’t even begin to get into or describe.

Chapter 1.

Lord of Heaven’s Armies. In other translations it says Lord of Hosts. The Hebrew word for that is describing war, an army, and spiritual warfare. It can be a host of angels in the sense of war, which is what this usage is for, but it can also be hosts of sun, moon, and stars, or of entire creation. There are 486 occurrences of this word in the bible! It’s used a lot in Zechariah.

In verse 3 God says, “Return to me, and I will return to you.” The exact same sentence is used in Malachi 3:7. In Malachi the people ask, “How can we return when we have never gone away?” and God replies that people have cheated Him out of tithes.

Zechariah verse 3 says, “Therefore say to the people, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.’” In other translations it say, “Thus saith the Lord,” or “declares the Lord” and it’s actually the same phrase three times in this verse. It’s only used 2 times in NLT and NIV, but I find it interesting that it’s used 3 times in other translations because of the meanings of the words. I used biblehub commentary to look more into this and this is what it said about it (in my words, since I used more than one commentaries to look at it):  –“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says” is closer translated “thus saith the Lord” and it denotes his power. There is a second “thus saith the Lord” – is a more threatening form than the other two – that is after “return to me” because he can punish you or reward you for returning or not. The last one is at the end, and it is more of a promise. He promises to return to His people, to bestow favor on them, to forgive them, etc.

Zechariah is relaying a message from God in verses 3-6 that says to repent and turn from your evil ways, and that their ancestors did not do that. I feel like this is for people who are straying and doing bad things… but does this apply to me in any way? Sure it’s easy to point fingers and think of other people who need to return to the Lord, but am I in any way part of this? Yes I sin, but yes I constantly repent, so I don’t feel like this part is particularly relevant to me.

That was his first message. The second one was three months later (vs 7). Zechariah had a vision at night. He saw men on different colored horses, and asked the angel what the horses meant. The angel explained that the horses patrol the earth, and they came back and reported that the earth was at peace. By peace they meant (in explaining a few verses later) that other countries were at peace, but Jerusalem and Judah were not. I find it interesting that the angel of the Lord prayed to God at that point. And then “the Lord spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who talked with me.” I love it!

The angel says to Zechariah that God is a little angry with His people, but the other nations “inflicted harm on them far beyond my intentions.” Things I noticed about this section: God spoke kind and comforting words to the angel (vs 13), His love for Jerusalem is “passionate and strong” (vs 14), God was “very angry” with the other nations for ejoying peace and security (vs 15), “only a little angry” with His people (vs 15), and soon “the Lord will again comfort Zion” (vs 17). Comforting, passionate and strong love, very angry, and a little angry. The Lord is full of emotions just like us. We are made in His image, and He has emotions that are very clear and evident in scripture. His emotions are always justified and rational, even when they are stronger than any of our emotions could ever be. Ours our often skewed and tainted with sin. His anger is righteous anger, ours isn’t usually. His love is unconditional and holy, and we try to copy it but don’t always get it quite right. He comforts and consoles, and we try to replicate that but are unable to fully do so because God is the ultimate healer and comforter.

In verse 13 where God spoke kind and comforting words, the word “kind” in Hebrew here also means “beautiful,” in the sense that “the good kind words spoken in promise.” In verse 14, “passionate and strong” is also translated to extremely jealous. It is the type of jealousy “of God for His people, especially in battle” according to the Hebrew use of the word.

The third and very short vision in chapter one is still part of his previous night vision but is only 4 verses long. There are 4 horns which represent 4 nations that scatter and destroy Israel, just like the horn of a bull would do, and then there are 4 blacksmith or workers who come to stop them.

We have all of these scholars, history, knowledge, and future fulfillment of these visions and dreams, so we are able to interpret them and study them. But I wonder what would happen if God gave people dreams and visions today and we had current day prophets. I don’t think people would believe them until something they said came true because there are so many people out there that lie for attention, fame, money, or just craziness. I also wonder how long it would take that person to realize it was a dream from God instead of just a random dream like any other night. Unless you just woke up and you just knew. I also wonder how different it would be to get the word out to people if your dream or vision was to tell other people – would you blog about it, share it on all your social media, and keep posting it for people to see? Would you hope it goes viral or would you try to reach famous people to repost it or something? And if it was from God and it came true, how would you prove or show that it came true?

While I'm waiting

"Then Jesus said, 'Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.'" - Matthew 11:28

"Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him." - Psalm 62:5

"Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done." - Philippians 4:6

"Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And if worry can’t accomplish a little thing like that, what’s the use of worrying over bigger things?" - Luke 12:25-26

"Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through your word." - Psalm 119:37

"I'm waiting, I'm waiting on You Lord
And I am hopeful, I'm waiting on You Lord
Though it is painful, but patiently I will wait

And I will move ahead bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience

While I'm waiting I will serve You
While I'm waiting I will worship
While I'm waiting I will not faint
I'll be running the race even while I wait."

- While I'm Waiting, John Waller

 

 

Being anxious and worrying is not something that God has in mind for us. But it seems like such a foreign concept sometime. Oh yeah, that's because it is. "Dear friends, I warn you as 'temporary residents and foreigners' to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls." - 1 Peter 2:11. "But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." - Hebrews 11:16. So sometimes thinking about resting in the Lord while I'm waiting or while I'm hurting seems impossible. I don't know what that looks like sometimes.

 

People in the bible did a lot of waiting too. God gave Joseph dreams of ruling Egypt, and then he waited years before seeing that promise fulfilled and in the meantime he was in slavery and in jail, separated from his family and in an unfamiliar land. God told Abraham he would finally have a son, but years went by and he still didn't have one... it took a long time, and Abraham's effort to speed up that process was a giant failure. Mary, Jesus' mother, was told that she was going to have the Son of God and that He would save the world, and she waited 30 years before seeing what Jesus was even doing on this earth! She might not have had any idea when he would perform miracles, and I know she didn't know the extent of what those miracles were! I feel like when he was 29 she would have thought, "Ok really God? Not much has happened in His 29 years of life so far."

 

Pulling vegetables out of the ground too early will give you unfinished vegetables. Stopping the oven too soon will give you unfinished cake. Throwing a flower away before the bud opens will make you miss the point of the flower. Turning off the TV before the show is over leads to confusion and unanswered questions because the show wasn't over yet.

 

I want the finished product, the solution, the answers, the beauty, the greatness of what is to come! But God's not ready for that yet. And just like in the John Waller song I posted above, I will still worship and serve Him while I'm waiting. I will still follow His commands to the best of my ability, I will still chose to love instead of giving up on people, and I will still seek to know Him better, so that when God says, "It's go time!" then I will hear His voice loud and clear, and be ready to go right then.

  

That smile

You know how people say your heart swells or bursts with excitement? Is your heart beating faster, or getting more oxygen? And you wonder if just for a moment your heart actually grew bigger, and then went back to it's normal size. Tunnel vision occurs, and when you think back to that moment, you can't even remember the people standing around you or maybe even an entire conversation you had, because whatever it was that made your heart grow bigger was the only thing you can remember. Sometimes it brings a smile to your face that you can't get off your face, to the point where someone asks, "Why are you smiling like that?" And you know that even if you explained it to them, they wouldn't feel the same way, so you almost don't want to explain it.

So I won't explain it to you. I won't tell you exactly what those moments are for me, because words don't even do it justice. And even in trying to describe it or even just saying what happened, I would keep going to the point of rambling or repeating myself. Like when you ask a kid how their week long vacation was, and they go on a non-stop conversation with jumbled up pieces of different parts of their week. "We had ice cream and we watched movies and went to the kids museum and oh! They had this cool thing where you walk in front of lights where it takes a picture of your shadow and we saw fish in the river on the way to the grocery store..." And you think, "Uhhh... I'm totally not following kid, but I'm glad you had a good time!"

I'm so thankful for those times, for the Lord showing me what joy looks like, what beautiful things look like, and what His power looks like.

Easy? I don't think so.

I prayed about something important the other night, for the millionth time in the past year and a half, and said, "God! I don't understand! What I'm praying for is not selfish! It is something that will bring you glory, and something that could bring people to you, and something that will strengthen my relationship with you... it's a big, good thing! What's the holdup??"

"You think something like this will come that easy? There's a battle going on against you in this. A spiritual battle, trying to keep you from praying, trying to keep this from happening."

If God could have spoken audibly, I'm pretty sure that's what He would have said, and the weight of that thought just sunk into my heart. Of course. When it comes to something big for the Kingdom of God, of course there will be spiritual warfare. Of course it will be a fight not to slack on spiritual disciplines and let distraction just numb my brain as days fly by. I hadn't thought of it that way before. Some days, when I'm sad or mad or hurt or frustrated, I'd rather just read a book or watch TV, letting my brain not think about what it is that's important to me, than to pray and read the bible, because I feel the emotions so deeply. Sometimes I just don't want to feel.

There's a quote I've seen that says, "If satan can't make you bad, he'll make you busy." Well I'm adding to that, "And if he can't make you either of those, he'll just distract you."

And the thing is, there's nothing I can do to make this thing happen in my life (yes, I know this is vague... but oh well). The only thing I can do is pray and seek the Lord, and I constantly ask that He will guide my words, my actions, and my thoughts. I tend to daydream sometimes, where I make up scenarios in my head that I wish would happen, but they leave me sad sometimes because it might never happen, and I one day remembered that part of the "think about such things" verse includes, "Whatever is true." Well my daydreams that I wish would happen AREN'T TRUE. They're made up. And so I try to stop that. It makes for false hope and unrealistic expectations.

Sometimes I just want to say, "Never mind God. Just forget about it. I don't want to pray for this anymore, so just please take the desire away. I don't care anymore. I just want to let life float on instead of fight this spiritual battle. Because I don't think I'll win. I don't think I'm very good at fighting it, so I don't want to try anymore." And even when that crosses my mind, it doesn't cross my heart. It's like the Holy Spirit inside of me kicks me and says, "Nope! You stop that right now. This is in your heart for a reason even when you don't understand it. The great I AM resides in you, and you think you can just give up? I don't think so."

I pray for wisdom, for guidance, for peace, for patience, for endurance, for self-control, for the right words to come out of my mouth, for the right words to be typed, and for the ability to let go of things when God says no.

Chew on this

Good quotes from books I've read recently (some fiction, some non-fiction)...



"Battles are won and lost through prayer." - Karen Kingsbury

"Life was too short to hide true feelings of the heart." - Karen Kingsbury

"Springtime reigned in her soul and sunshine followed her into the apartment despite the dark of night outside." - Karen Kingsbury

"We were challenged to impact and serve the world in radical ways, but we never learned how to be an average person living an average life in a beautiful way." - Ordinary, Michael Horton

"Any long-term relationship that wants to grow and be healthy needs those ordinary minute, hour, days, months, and years. This is more than just enduring those moments passively. It requires engaging in intentional thought and effort as well as enjoyment. That's also true of our relationship with the triune God in his body, the visible church." - Ordinary, Michael Horton

"What I'm slowly realizing is that, for me, being in the house all day with a baby and a two-year-old is a lot more scary and a lot harder than being in a war-torn African village. What I need is courage for the ordinary, the daily every-dayness of life. Caring for a homeless kid is a lot more thrilling to me than listening well to the people in my home. Giving away clothes requires less of me than being kind to my husband on an average Wednesday morning or calling my mother back when I don't feel like it." - Ordinary, Michael Horton (a quote from someone else in his book, not him saying this)