God’s Word for You
Zechariah 14:16-19 Like the Festival—Faith
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, September 21, 2022
16 Then the survivors from all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 17 And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. 18 And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then there will be no rain, but there will be the plague that the LORD afflicts the nations with that do not go up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 19 This will be the punishment on Egypt and the punishment on all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
It doesn’t make any sense to listen to the prophet describe the coming of Christ, his passion and betrayal and the crucifixion, and then try to impose an Old Testament festival like Tabernacles on the New Testament Church. This isn’t what Zechariah has in mind. He is using the festival known to his readers (and him) that was famous for its all-inclusiveness. Unlike Atonement and Passover, Tabernacles was open to everyone; anybody who wanted to could participate: “you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns” (Deuteronomy 16:14). In this sense, Zechariah’s reference to Tabernacles is especially like the Bible’s general description of faith. He is depicting faith.
First, like Zechariah’s feast, faith is available to all, even little babies who cannot speak and infants who are not yet born (Luke 1:44).
Second, Zechariah’s feast is an expression of faith in worship, for “there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells” (Psalm 46:4), and where God’s people gather before God, there is worship (Psalm 29:2; Matthew 18:20).
Third, Zechariah’s feast is a means for receiving blessings, which is shown in negative terms by the prophet, since without it there would not be rain and this would be followed by all the plagues that come with a drought. Likewise with faith, we receive many blessings from God that come with faith, but it is not a work of man in the sense that man accomplishes it through his own powers. Faith is “worked by God” (Colossians 2:12) and a gift given to man (Ephesians 2:8).
Fourth, apart from the feast there are terrible punishments. So it is with faith, because without faith man cannot be brought to heaven. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16). Therefore the prophet sees that all nations, that is, all people who do not have faith will not enter into the true Jerusalem, the Holy Christian Church. Without faith in Christ there is no salvation.
But with faith there is salvation, forgiveness, the resurrection, and the gift of everlasting life. So nurture your faith. Do not give up on going to church to worship with God’s people “as some are in the habit of doing” (Hebrews 10:25). Show your faith, thank God for your faith, and make sure that you cherish and nurture your faith with God’s word every day, and often with the sacrament. In this way Christ helps us every precious day, week, month and year of our lives.
As Luther prayed about his lectures on this chapter, so we also pray today: “May Christ help and protect us in the singleness of his mind. Amen.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.