God’s Word for You
Zechariah 8:1-6 boys and girls playing in the streets
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, August 1, 2022
In this chapter, the prophet preaches a summary of everything up to this point. About two years had gone by (7:1), and there were many good things spoken by the Lord for the good of the people.
8 And the word of the LORD of hosts came, saying, 2 “This is what the LORD of hosts says: I am very jealous for Zion, and I am jealous for her with great wrath. 3 This is what the LORD says: I have returned to Zion and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. It will be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain.
We have a scene like this one in Hosea 2. After expressing his wrath over the people’s sin and wandering, the Lord declares his intense emotions for his people. “I am very jealous for them!” In Hosea, the Lord says, “I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her” (Hosea 2:14). He has slapped a tabletop with a hickory switch in his rage over her unfaithfulness, but now he tosses it aside; he cannot punish his bride, his people, any more. He loves his people.
Here in Zechariah, the scene is a little different. The Lord is a husband who has left the house because of his wife’s infidelity. She invited her lovers right into their bed. The Lord warned her in his disgust: “You lavished your favors on anyone who passed by,” but Jerusalem would not listen. The false gods and heathen nations she invited in had their way with her, but after taking their pleasure, they have all gone. Now she is desolate; there is no one to take care of her because they have bled her dry of all her money and property; there is nothing left to be gotten from this aging whore of a nation, abandoned to “the cruel torture of the devil.” But now God the husband will return. “The Lord is patient, and he wants those who were called through his Son to be saved.” He will love her again because he swore a vow to love her.
He calls Jerusalem “the faithful city” and the mountain he calls “the holy mountain.” But he does not call Judah the holy or faithful people. The place will be holy because God dwells there, and wherever he dwells is holy. Therefore we should make our hearts the place where he lives and where he is always welcome. “Whoever is a servant of God has his Lord in his heart.” Our very thoughts should be a temple of his word and of his glory. We are not holy because of who we are, but because of who our God is. We want him to dwell within us, and so we don’t invite any other gods, any other things to be supreme in our hearts. We even subdue our opinions and our desires, for “nothing is hidden from the Lord; even our secret things are known to him,” so that the holy Father will take up his seat in our flesh and spirit. We want him to put up his feet there, so that we can wait upon his every wish, and so that we can submit to his holy will. So we say, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and we read in his word: “And you forgave the iniquity of my sin” (Psalm 32:5).
4 This is what the LORD of hosts says: Old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in hand because of great age. 5 And the streets of the city will be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. 6 This is what the LORD of hosts says: If it seems extraordinary to the remnant of this people in those days, will it also seem extraordinary to me, declares the LORD of hosts?
The people of Jerusalem did not really want to be there. Nehemiah had been forced to cast lots to bring exiles in from the countryside to fill up the city (Nehemiah 11:1). There were enemies all around them who were opposed to the building of the city, the repair of the walls, and the restoration of the temple. They “set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building” (Ezra 4:4). So while all this was going on (which had gone on for many years), the people in the city felt like they were constantly living on the edge of a knife.
The Lord sent them a message of hope and comfort. “Do not be afraid of the nit-pickers who live around you,” he was saying. “Let them complain to the king if they want, but the king will keep telling them you have his blessing. And more importantly, you have my blessing.” Nobody was going to die young because of war or attacks. Old people will sit in the streets, as in the days of peace. Boys and girls will play; they will not cower. It would be as the Lord told Isaiah: “My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest” (Isaiah 32:18), and to Micah: “The day for building your walls will come, the day for extending your boundaries” (Micah 7:11).
Finally, the Lord encourages them still more, anticipating that some of them will have weak faith. “This may seem impossible for you, but is anything impossible for me?” Jesus said: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:28). The Lord’s desire is always that our faith will continue to grow (2 Corinthians 10:15; 2 Thessalonians 1:3), and that we will come to rely on him, not concerning ourselves with matters beyond our control, but that we will quiet and still our souls “like a weaned child with its mother” (Psalm 131:1-2). He will look after all of our needs, from the daily bread we pray for (Matthew 6:11; Proverbs 30:8), to the great and terrible things he protects us from and about which we know nothing at all. “God surely gives daily bread without our asking, even to all the wicked, but we pray in the fourth petition that he would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.”
People of God, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.
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.