Bible Reading Challenge Blog

There is a lot that is hidden and relegated to the time when this was written.  But there is some that we can read and understand.  One of our favorite verses is found in this Scripture.  Look at vs.6 where we read “not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord.”  I might just  end today with the song.  

This isn’t the best rendition, but you get the point.

So far we have had visions that are similar to Revelation with horses and creatures, but here we have a blast from the past with the warrior Joshua who in this passage is seen as a high priest.  We knew him as the one who led his people into the promised land, who was an accomplished warrior, but in this passage he is the protagonist who is being antagonized by Satan.  Remember, the term Satan in Hebrew simply means: accuser or adversary.  There really wasn’t a formal concept of a creature named Satan like we have today.  Rather, anyone or anything which was our adversary could be considered a satan.

This Joshua has to be a personification of Israel as he is wearing dirty rags and then has them replaced and as we read in vs.9 that the Lord will remove the guilt of the land in a single day.  The only way that this could be accomplished is through the sending of a Savior who dies for his people and in that death and resurrection we have been redeemed.  That could happen in a day.

Have you ever heard the phrase: “apple of my eye”?  Well, we find it here with the Lord referring to the people of Israel.  At the beginning of this chapter we have the good news that the city of Jerusalem will become populated again, to the point that people will not be able to live in houses because there are so many people who are living in the street and in the city.  

Starting in vs.6 you then have the call for the people of God to come back to the holy land.  Throughout the recent history of the very young, modern nation of Israel you have had this appeal for people to come back to their homeland.  I know many people who are Jewish who have spent time, a significant amount of time, in Israel on a kibbutz or some other communal setting which reinforced this sense of coming back to the mother land.  

We see the Lord being a protecting agent who puts a ring of fire around Jerusalem, then he raises his hand against those who would threaten Israel.   The final command is to be silent before the Lord because he is back in his holy dwelling, which would be the temple in Jerusalem.  That is the final goal in all of this.

Here we have a prophet who served during a very specific and well known time period in the history of Israel.  We know for sure that his prophecies take place in October and November of 520 BC and December 17 in 518 BC.  Remember the people of Israel had just been in exile and now they are back in the land and looking to rebuild.  Zechariah was very adamant that the temple ought to be one of the first things that was rebuilt.  This book of the Bible is divided very clearly into two sections.  The first section, chapters 1-8 and the second section is 9-14.  Let’s look at chapter 1.

The name Zechariah means in Hebrew: “God remembered.”  What a wonderful name for a son whose family is heading back into Israel after years of  captivity and slavery in a foreign land.  They are finally settling back into what they know had been assigned to them by the Lord as the promised land.  But since their nation was unfaithful, they had to leave, they were taken, and now they are back.  Now, after all these years, God remembered, and we are back.  

Do you notice which word is repeated quite a few times?  The word return and specifically the phrase: “return to me”  is repeated quite a few times which makes sense since that just happened and the people are “returning” back to the place that they understand as being their home.  But they are also returning back to the Lord and his commandments.  Nothing reflects that more than rebuilding the temple which is in essence the presence of the Lord in structure form.

Then you get this image of horsemen who were sent to protect and guard over the earth.  It seems like we went from pretty normal prophecy stuff of returning home to now all of a sudden some pretty apocalyptic revelation type stuff that causes a lot of our eyes to glaze over.  The good news is that it is pretty explicable.  There is peace over  the land as the horses find themselves in a quiet meadow.  If you look at vs.16 you will see that a measuring line has been drawn over Jerusalem which indicates new construction.  The first thing on the agenda is the reconstruction of the temple.  Then we move  forward with the people who have returned.

I told you that there was going to be a chapter of encouragement and a time when God is going to turn around and look for an opportunity to bless.  The change in tone is seen in these words which are found at the end of vs.13 where we read “no one shall make them afraid.”  Isn’t that a part of what all of us want?  There can be an overriding desire in all of us to make sure that we do what we can so that we are not afraid, so that we do not find ourselves making decisions based on fear.  What a relief to hear that we shall not be afraid, at least at some point in our history.

From that things only get better.  We start in vs.14 with a song of joy.  It is a song of joy because as this chapter began with a castigation against Jerusalem, so it ends with things being restored under the watchful and caring hand of God.  So we went from a castigation against Israel in chapter 1, to a castigation against the nations in chapter 2, and now 3 begins with a castigation against Jerusalem.  

If you look at vs.10 you see a reference to what some people say is the scene at the birth of Christ where the wise men offer him gifts.  It is a reference where people from afar bring offerings.  What a great way to finish the chapter.  From destruction and desolation to a song of joy.

While the past chapter was a castigation against all the people of Israel, actually all the people of the earth, in this chapter he actually identifies those countries that are going to be destroyed.  While the last chapter was pretty much focused on the people of God and their impending destruction, this chapter stretches the focus wider and names the countries that are going to be under the wrath of God.

But did you notice in vs.3 that a recipe is given on what needs to be done in order to potentially escape the wrath of God.  If you seek the Lord and do his commands then you might be hidden on the day of the Lord’s wrath.  This possibility wasn’t even given to the people  of God, this loophole wasn’t even mentioned as a possibility to those who were considered the chosen ones of God.  But here we have a recipe to what could allow us to escape the punishment.  While in the last chapter there was no escape, in this chapter there is a possibility, even though a slim one, of escaping the wrath of God.

But then the rest of the chapter is more destruction and desolation.  I’m thinking chapter 3 is going to give us even more possibilities of escape and salvation.  

Zephaniah is described in vs.1 as the son of Cushi.  It is thought that the term Cushi comes from the word Cushite which is to us Ethiopian.  We find in this book of the Bible that Ethiopia comes to the Lord, as opposed to being antagonistic which makes me think that Zephaniah’s background is from Ethiopia.  What would that make him?  How about a black Jew.   That’s not unusual as we see in Acts when Philip runs across an Ethiopian Eunuch who had comes to celebrate God in Jerusalem.  So this is fairly common, or at least not uncommon.

As we begin to read Zephaniah we see that the prevalent theme for the book, and the first chapter and the chapters to follow, is the Day of the Lord.  If you had any thought of anticipation and looking forward to the day of the Lord, well, maybe you’ll have second thoughts after reading this.  Aren’t we programmed to look forward to the second coming of Christ?  Don’t we naturally say Maranatha!  Come Lord Jesus!  But if we say that naturally, then are we taking into account that on this day the following will take place: “I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth.”  There is no differentiation whether people are righteous or not.  There will be a full scale destruction, according to Zephaniah.  

Just in case you aren’t completely convinced about the tone and the tenor of this Scripture look at vs.15.  There is no redeeming value about that day and no hint that if you are righteous or on the side of the Lord then you will be spared the wrath, anguish, ruin and devastation, darkness, gloom, clouds and thick darkness.  No one seems to be spared.  Just to make sure that we understand that he isn’t kidding he finishes it off with: for a full, a terrible end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.  So, take that for data.

Finally we get a picture of restoration.  It looks like we have a vision of what things will be when things get back to the way that God wants them to be.  The first word of this chapter is the word “return”.  This implies that the Lord is asking Israel to come back to him, again much like the father is looking out on the horizon waiting for his son to “return”.  When we return, when Israel returns, when those who have run from their Father return, then restoration is able to take place.  Restoration cannot take place in a way that is one sided and the initiative coming from a single person.  

There has to be a recognition that salvation can come at the hand of the Lord and at his hand alone.  There is no redemption in a country, there is no redemption in the work of our hands, there is no redemption in our equipment for war.  Only the Lord can bring about redemption.  

In the very last verse of this chapter we find a proverb by which we can live: “The ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them…”  That’s a good way to finish this book of the Bible which speaks so strongly about those who have transgressed the ways of the Lord.  We all have, but we have all been called to return.  It is time to return.

Remember that the only reason why Israel received a king in the first place was that they asked that God would appoint to them a king who would rule over them.  God did not really want that, it wasn’t the most ideal plan, because he told them that a king will require taxes from you, a king will take your sons and make them join the army, a king will take your daughters and they will be a part of his court.  Basically with a king you will not have the same freedoms that you have now.  But we want one, the Israelites said, because everyone else had one and they seem to be doing fine.  

But now that they have turned their back on the Lord the king will serve no purpose because this king is not drawing the people closer to the Lord, but rather has his own intentions on his mind.  He has his own desires and his own interests in mind which do not correspond to the interests of the nation, or certainly not of the interests of God.  

As I read vs.14 and following it makes me think of Paul’s Scripture in I Corinthians 15.  Death, where is your sting etc.  Read it again starting in I Corinthians 15:54-55.  It is a great consolation and assurance in times when we are in need of a reminder that God is in control even in the midst of death.  The death that is depicted in vs.16 is a terrifying one.  It is one that is echoed in Psalm 137 especially in verses 8 and 9.  

It looks like the offending parties in these few chapters are Egypt and Assyria who end up taking the people into captivity.  Egypt was more of a historical remembrance of being in captivity since it was Babylon and Assyria who took the people into captivity in the more recent modern era.  When I say more recent I mean in the 700’s and the 500’s BC.  Egypt was much earlier than that.

Really the only thing that is left of the Lord to do is to say – Remember when?  And there you have the origin of Israel as Jacob wrestled with God and so was given that name.  But those memories are wearing thin and the current situation is one where they are proud of who they are thinking that they got to where they are on their own.  

Again, hearkening back to the patriarch who was the father of Joseph who allowed the people of Israel, at least the 12 brothers, to be reunited in Egypt and live there peaceably.  But now Ephraim, remember to be understood as Israel, has to repay for the evil that it has committed in turning its back to the Lord.  That is going to happen.