Zechariah - Talk 2

‘The Lord Almighty and the Temple of all the earth’

Introduction
Now today we are up to our second and last talk on Zechariah, and as you may remember from last week if you were here, that Zechariah is a prophet of God who lived in Jerusalem in 520 BC. Now the whole of the nation of Israel had been invaded and exiled from their land in two parts, the north fell in 722 BC and the south in 586 BC.

The Persian emperor who was now in control had allowed the people to return to the land and start building a new temple of God in 538 BC. Zechariah is given his first message of God in 520 BC for the people. And the message is essentially, stop stuffing around and get on with it.

Today we will be looking mostly at Chapter 8 and it is at middle point of the rebuilding work in around 518 BC, so they are back under way with building, but haven’t finished yet.

As you may remember I mentioned last week, the story of Zechariah is really the story of the temple. The temple is the place where God meets his people. The Temple is where God does business with his people about sin. The Temple is the sign of God’s Kingly rule amongst his people in the land.

We pick up today from our final Idea last week that God doesn’t just let the small things bear his name, infact.

God has passionately set the desires of his heart upon his people
8:1-3a
Again the word of the LORD Almighty came to me.
2 This is what the LORD Almighty says:
"I am very jealous for Zion;
I am burning with jealousy for her."
3 This is what the LORD says:
"I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem.
This verse goes out of its way to stress that God is exceedingly jealous for his people, he is not interested in some sought of spiritually ‘open’ relationship, he is steadfastly and sacrificially committed to his people and they should be the same in return.

But previously Israel’s determination to reject God’s love ensured that God would have to enact his judgment on this unfaithful people in their exile from the land of Israel to Babylon. The judgment of God can sound extremely harsh in it’s starkest moments, to be stricken by God is a terrible thing. But for Israel’s centuries of at best apathy and at worst out right disobedience, God shows the overriding depths of his mercy because in only 70 years he orchestrates the return of his people and a new chance to get their relationship right.

God is the one who is risking it all, to make this relationship work. God is the one who putting out his heart – with the very real danger of it being trampled on. Can you see just how miraculous it is to be able to say that God passionately desires a relationship with his people?

For the ancient Greeks, god was just a watchmaker of the world, the one who puts it together and sets it moving and then cares nothing for it.
Or today events of our world that are too awesome for us, are put down to being a act of mother nature, or maybe fate… some sought of indeterminate, random natured force that intervenes in our life when it’s fickle whim pleased it.

And who really wants to live in a world like that?

But this is not the way of the God of the Bible, the creator God who passionately desires that people would have a relationship with him, a God who is not fickle or disinterested but steadfastly committed to his people and his promises to them.

If you had to sum up the message of the whole Old Testament it is found in Zech 8:8 God’s Covn’t promises of:
they will be my people, and I will be faithful and righteous to them as their God."
And we see this time and time again ()
Zech Zechariah 13:9 - 14:1 I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'The LORD is our God.'"

God is determined to be with and care for his people, he will return and he will dwell amongst his people, and not even the doubt or compromise of his people will prevent it. God loves his people and will return, will the people be ready and will they stump up and show it by finishing the temple and preparing the way for God’s presence.

Sometimes in life God’s interest in our particular affairs can seem like an inconvenience, I mean why can’t he just let us do our own thing, be more like a policeman who stays out of my life until I need help, rather than being like an over eager parent.

Even the psalmists lamented the challenge it was for broken people to live under the intense gaze of a holy God. But it is this intense interest, this passionate gaze of God is a good thing, it’s a good thing for all of us because God’s intense interest is what gives every life meaning.

The world may think your life is small, and unimpressive by it’s standards, it may even to you feel – well boring at times – but make no mistake, every life is important because it is lived in the site of God whether it is 70 days or 70 years long. No matter how bland, no matter how short.. God sees, God knows and God cares..

God is not dispassionate policeman, but a loving father who cares for us at a cost beyond anything that we deserve, even when we mess up the good things he gives us. God is a passionate father is the clear testimony of all the scriptures.

Luke 15:11-32 11 Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. ………. 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' 20 So he got up and went to his father. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21 "The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' 22 "But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'

Zechariah is challenging us today that God has passionately and great expense sought a relationship with us. It is a genuine offer, have you given a genuine acceptance?

God has passionately set the desires of his heart upon his people

There is a future to come that is much greater than these small things!

3 This is what the LORD says:
"I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem.
Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth,
and the mountain of the LORD Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain."

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

6 This is what the LORD Almighty says:
"It may seem marvelous to the remnant of this people at that time,
but will it seem marvelous to me?"
declares the LORD Almighty.

This imagery of peace and contentment, the old age of the people who watch the multiple children play in peace, is all because of God’s return. God will change the very nature of life itself when he returns. The animosity or fear between God and people we see in verse 11 will cease, or more correctly God will cause it to cease. As will the animosity amongst the people themselves, which we see in v10.

This peaceful ‘eden’ like existence of people living in harmony and the ground will give bountiful crops as in verses 12, and it will be, it seems, a reversal of the curse of Genesis Chapter 3, where the ground will no longer bare fruit easily and there will be enmity between man and beast and indeed man and woman.

This harmonious picture is because sin has been removed from the frame. A picture of no more hurt or pain or hardship. This will be a powerful act of God as we see from verse 6, where it seems a miraculous to the small band of returned people of Israel who are trying to build the temple, but it won’t even rate on the scale of being miraculous to a mighty God.

The building of the temple is of course was the key to preparing the way for God’s return, but this little temple was never going to rid sin from the land, much less the entire earth, much less from the hearts of a stubborn people. The removal of Sin is something that only God can do. And it is something that God will do as, those you who have had a chance to read the book will know from chapter 5, when there is a vision of metaphorical woman of sin being put in the basket and carried from the land.

IF you notice in this section of the book, a good question is where are all the people, we met last week? Where is Joshua, and where is Zerubbabel and Darius and co. Well their absence highlights for us the important truth that this Great work will be all God’s action. Nearly the whole chapter is the Lord speaking and doing in a unaided fashion.

For God to dwell in Jerusalem, for there to be peace and prosperity in the land, well only God can do it. Only God can turn this unfaithful people and city into a city called truth and a holy mountain as promised in verse 2 & 3.

These images of peace are of course end of time pictures which many of the prophets told of the ‘Day of the Lord’ and of the new Jerusalem of ‘Mt Zion’. The great end time event when God’s breaks into time and acts in profound and unchallengeable way to recreate his world and bring peace.

The book of Zechariah itself uses this imagery of the day of the Lord in chapter’s 12 and 14 where God will deal comprehensively with his enemies as we read:

Zechariah 14:5-9 Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. 6 On that day there will be no light, no cold or frost. 7 It will be a unique day, without daytime or nighttime-- a day known to the LORD. When evening comes, there will be light. 8 On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and half to the western sea, in summer and in winter. 9 The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.

As important as the rebuilding of the temple is, it will never achieve this, which is the profound work of God.

So, There is a future to come that is much greater than these small things!


So what does this message of Zechariah mean for us. Well it means that return of the Lord we experience now is not yet what it will be. So knowing God and serving God mightn’t feel as passionate and personal as the picture that Zechariah 8 gives, but that’s because ‘Day of the Lord’ has not come in full yet. The best is yet to come, we only have a deposit at this stage.

As Paul reminds us in
1 Corinthians 13:12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

As surely as God judge Israel, he will return and make it right.. verse 14 tells us. And hopefully it is soon.. because as good as a lot of life is, it isn’t great is it, I mean we all know of people who have had a rough trot recently, or worse. But God Will Return and he will make things right.

But this hope informs us as to what is important now doesn’t it? I read this idyllic picture of Zechariah 8 a couple of times, and you know what, it never mentioned people driving suv’s, worrying about the latest Ipod or sweating over real-estate prices in order to stump up to by a place near the beach!

Zechariah is a challenge to us, to keep focused upon working towards the Kingdom of God, even if it seems like they are small things now… they won’t always be.

God’s desire is not only for his own people, but all people!
verse 7-8

The poetic image used by Zechariah here is one that the Lord will bring people from the land’s where the sun rises to as far as the lands in the west where the sun sets. Every people will know, and no people will remain untouched by the Lord’s call to live with him in peace in Jerusalem.

Have you ever stopped to wonder why God would bother to save an Australian? I mean why are you and I so fortunate as a small bunch of people on the other side of the world to all these events? Why us and so few Christians in closer lands like the middle east or Asia?

Makes you thankful for the grace and mercy of God doesn’t it! And thankful for his faithful and humble servants who came to this back water land, with a bunch of crims, in order that God would have mercy on some!

So how will the events of Zechariah’s day, this day of small things, turn into a dramatic end time event? How will God change the day of small things and it’s prophet into being a Temple of all the earth for the Lord Almighty?

Well we know from Zechariah the primary issue, that sin needs to dealt with, and he tells us that God will deal with it in one day Zech 3:9

And in Chapter 6 God promises that these events will happen through the coronation of a priest.

The small things of Zechariah’s day looked for a priest who would be king

Zechariah 6:9-15
9 The word of the LORD came to me:
10 "Take silver and gold from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon.
Go the same day to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah.
11 Take the silver and gold and make a crown,
and set it on the head of the high priest, Joshua son of Jehozadak.

12 Tell him this is what the LORD Almighty says:
'Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the LORD.
13 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.'
14 The crown will be given to Heldai, Tobijah, Jedaiah and Hen son of Zephaniah as a memorial in the temple of the LORD.

God commands Zechariah in this passage to take silver and gold from those who have returned from Babylon and make a crown for Joshua the priest. Joshua is to be both the priest and king of the people returned from exile. Now God is doing something profoundly new at this point.

In the Old Testament there are three significant offices of people who serve God among the people of Israel, the Prophet who is the mouthpiece of God, The King who rules on behalf of God, and the Priest who mediates between God and sinful men to deal with their sin. And here God is joining the role of priest with the King.

Joshua was an important figure for the people who were building the temple, but as the crown was removed from his head and placed in the temple as a memorial, the people knew that another was to come from GOD who would truly fulfill the role.

The people were looking for the ‘branch’ a term that the prophets used to describe the Messiah figure that would come from David’s family, and more importantly God, to deliver and rule over the people of Israel.

Isaiah 11:1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him-- the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD--
3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
This branch would be the priest and king that builds the temple of God.

John 2:14-21 In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!" 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me." 18 Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?" 19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." 20 The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body.

The Temple for Israel was the place where God meets with his people and the place where God does business with his people about their sin. And all these promises of a new temple, a new Jerusalem and Mt Zion are picked up in the book of Hebrews in the new Testament.

Where Jesus is shown to be the one who has built a new temple for a new covenant, that will truly be a temple of the Lord Almighty for the people of all the earth.

Hebrews 3:1-6 Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. 2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God's house. .. 6 But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.

Hebrews 9:15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance-- now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from their sins.

God, through Christ’s work of redemption and sacrifice now through his spirit has made us his temple, the place where God meets with man as John 17 confirms for us.

So take a look at God’s temple! Not all that impressive is it? But do not despise the day of small things, because small things like mustard seeds grow into big things, like trees in which all the birds of the sky can nest. God is pleased to have his name upon you, who call on the name of Christ.

But even more than that he has passionately set his heart on you, and that is what gives life, any life, short or long, plain or impressive, meaning.

SO will you passionately set your heart on him? Zechariah and his people were to prepare the way for the coming of the kingdom of God by building a small temple. We are to prepare the way of the Lord by proclaiming a small Gospel message and living small lives of integrity, remembering that every small life is important because it is lived in the presence of a great and loving God.