Image: "Walking Among Us", 2018, North Shore Sunset, Oahu, Hi
Zechariah 1:2–3 “The LORD has been very angry with your fathers. 3 Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Return to Me,” says the LORD of hosts, “and I will return to you,” says the LORD of hosts.
Zechariah 2:5 For I,’ says the LORD, ‘will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.’ ”
Zechariah 2:10–11 “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” says the LORD. 11 “Many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you.
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A few years back Frank Peretti published "This Present Darkness" and its sequels which enjoyed great success among Evangelicals in our country and perhaps worldwide. I cannot endorse the theology enthusiastically but they did make an impact on me in one regard. Peretti brought home the reality of spiritual beings, good and bad, that inhabit our creation along with us and who certainly exert influences on us and the world about us. He built on the very Biblical theme that reality does not consist of just what we can see. In Jacob's vision, he saw a ladder coming down from heaven with angels descending and ascending to do the Lord's will. (Gen. 28:11) Our Lord (John 1:51) applied this "ladder" metaphor to Himself. The letter to the Hebrews treats the presence of angels among us in a most matter-of-fact manner. (Heb. 1:14) I think that we moderns, in our very sterile and overly materialistic worldview, do not take this concept seriously enough. Sometimes, even Christians are a bit uncomfortable with testimony given of "angelic" interventions in ordinary lives. The ancients, Zechariah included, had no doubts about it. Neither does God.
Zechariah saw a gathering of such beings mounted on horses in a vision of myrtle trees. They reported to the Angel of the LORD, Whom I take to be the pre-incarnate Christ and made this solemn pronouncement: Zechariah 1:10–11 And the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, “These are the ones whom the LORD has sent to walk to and fro throughout the earth.” 11 So they answered the Angel of the LORD, who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, “We have walked to and fro throughout the earth, and behold, all the earth is resting quietly.”
This vision strikes us as unusual. We don't read often of the "earth resting quietly" especially during Zechariah's days. The Persians were in firm control with the strong king Darius on their throne. As such, they had restored a measure of stability to the world scene and, as we know, Cyrus and Darius were somewhat sympathetic to the exiled Israelites and allowed them to return to their homeland. We might see a parallel here to the Pax Romana that settled the Roman Empire during the days of Augustus Caesar and we know that this was the stage for our Lord's birth in Bethlehem. What I think we should consider is that God's sovereign guidance of world history is conducted through both direct actions by the Holy Spirit and also through secondary means such as men and angels. Perhaps we might begin to incorporate this well-documented Biblical theme into our ordinary expectations and understanding as we seek to judge our world and our lives in it.
Notice how God views the overall situation in Zechariah 1:15: I am exceedingly angry with the nations at ease; For I was a little angry, And they helped—but with evil intent.” Here we have a very similar situation to Joseph's brothers selling him into captivity. They meant it for evil but God meant it for good. God is saying here that this present period of "peace" was indeed brought about by those pagan "nations" who were then "at ease." But far from gaining merit before God, they were actually just tools in His hands. "They 'helped'-- but with evil intent." They were used to set the stage for God to "return to Jerusalem with mercy" (1:16). It was time to re-establish His people in Zion and to rebuild His temple. Here the Israelites themselves would be, through angelic "help" and with God's direct oversight, again be constituted as a separate nation on the earth. But we must not see this as an end unto itself. God is preparing the world for the advent of His Son and the Jews and Jerusalem would occupy a primary stage on which this was to transpire.
What God goes on to promise here is that this restoration would be preserved until His plans for it were accomplished. He would be "a wall of fire all around her" (2:5) preserving her and sustaining her and protecting her during the tumultuous times that yet lay ahead. Even when the Persians fell to Alexander the Great and Rome itself invaded and occupied Palestine, yet Jerusalem was not reduced to rubble. Indeed, under Roman rule, she was given some special privileges. This was all God's doing and we can be sure that His angels were doing His will in moving men and nations as He directed.
The whole world is put on notice at this point. When God re-established Jerusalem the world should recognize that something special was going on. True enough, the Jews did not recognize the Lord's Presence among them because He did not show forth His glory in the rebuilt temple as He did before. Also, He did not raise up Godly kings and priests to guide them in restored authentic worship and obedience as He did in the past. But God did again "dwell in (their) midst." (2:11) His special preserving care for His visible Church was present even in their ignorance and stumbling.
God is still in the midst of His visible Church today. True, it is no longer the ethnic people of Israel who can claim that privilege. It is the Church of Jesus Christ that is now the new Jerusalem and into it are streaming all those, in every nation, who have heard the Good News and recognize that "all flesh" should be silent before Him. (2:13)
We Christians need to adopt a much more spiritually tuned world view in order to truly appreciate this.
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