Zechariah is, for many Christians, a book with clean, shiny pages that has been seldom read, hurriedly read, or read with some confusion. As with many prophets, Zechariah asks more of the reader and must often be accompanied by careful study. Yet we might repeat the opening of Revelation: "Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it." May the Lord shine light on his word for us this morning.

Who is Zechariah and what is his message? With the biblical prophets we always must ask whether this is a pre exilic prophet, an exilic prophet, or a post exilic prophet. Zechariah is a post exilic prophet; his ministry was to the returning Jewish exiles from the Babylonian captivity after Cyrus’s decree. Zechariah’s ministry is primarily to encourage the governor Zerubbabel in rebuilding the temple at Jerusalem; Zerubbabel needs to know that God is in his work and that by divine aid he will see the project through. In Zechariah 4:6 we read, "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, 'Not by might nor power, but by my Spirit,' says the Lord of hosts." That is a message all God’s people need to hear at times.

The seventy years of exile were now at an end and the returnees were in desperate need of encouragement in the Lord. Yet Zechariah’s message has a far broader scope than mere temporal promises and blessings; this is a book that looks to the eschatological kingdom of God. Zechariah speaks of a glorious reality to come when the Messiah King shall reign over a kingdom; that kingdom is inaugurated in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Using prophetic idiom, Zechariah says in Zechariah 6:12, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'Behold, a man whose name is Branch; he will build the temple of the Lord. Yes, it is he who will build the temple of the Lord and he who will bear the honour and sit and rule on his throne.'" Zechariah holds out to the exiles an eager expectation because their faithful and righteous covenant Lord had issued a promise that points forward to the first Christmas Day.

We want to consider, then, the promise of Christ’s coming, and specifically how Zechariah holds out to the exiles and to us today the eschatological promise of Christ and his kingdom when he says, "Sing for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion; for behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord."

Joy For The Coming King

What fills your heart with joy and gladness? What amazes me about God’s design of humankind is our inability to experience lasting joy in anything but God himself. It is no wonder Scripture exhorts us repeatedly to sing for joy in the Lord. You may recall the gladness of your first job when you received your first pay; I remember that day myself when I got my first cheque. Perhaps you felt joy when you bought your first car, the first day you fell in love, when you were married, or when you had your first child. Yet, however much we have, there remains an emptiness and a longing for more.

There is a large cavity in every human soul wherein joy lives, and the more we try to fill it with ourselves, the more it drains away. Even with money, love, family and all the rest, joy will slowly deplete. God tells us in his word that true and lasting joy is found in him. David says in Psalm 16:11, "In your presence is fullness of joy; in your right hand there are pleasures forevermore." David knew. Zechariah says here that God is going to do something that causes singing and gladness in his presence.

Zechariah’s message does not offer the exiles a new reason for joy; rather, it reiterates the ancient reasons for joy. When Zechariah tells the people to rejoice and be glad in the Lord, he is stirring them to consider ancient promises that God still intended to fulfil. He calls them to join with earlier generations in praise, as in 1 Chronicles 16: "Sing to him, sing praises to him; speak of all his wonders; glory in his holy name. Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad." Zechariah is saying to these returnees, "Rejoice, daughters and sons of Zion; will not God deliver? Will he not fulfil his word? Shall he not come down as he has promised?"

Sometimes God puts all the evidence of his love and provision right in front of us and, being foolish, we do not discern it as we ought to. We do not recognise the people God has brought into our lives, nor the provision of work, opportunities, or the various ways he shows care. The exiles in Zechariah had every reason to see God’s promise before them: the Davidic line was still alive. Despite seventy years in Babylon, Zerubbabel, a descendant of David, stood before them. The Lion of David was alive; Israel’s hope, and our hope this morning in biblical language, was in the loins of Zerubbabel. If it were not for Zerubbabel, there would have been no Lord Jesus Christ; this is the messianic line preserved through Seth to Noah to Shem to Abraham to David. Despite everything seeming against its survival, God preserved it.

Haggai singled out Zerubbabel as the Lord’s chosen vessel; Haggai 2:23 says, "I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, my servant, declares the Lord. I will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts." At Christmas we remember that Zechariah’s prophetic cause for joy began its inaugurated fulfilment at the birth of Jesus Christ; we rejoice in a word now inaugurated, not merely promised. Matthew 1:12 records, "After the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel." God kept his promise and brought the Messiah into the world; rightly we see great rejoicing at the birth of the Messiah.

The wise men in Matthew 2:10 rejoiced exceedingly with great joy when they saw the star; the angels announced to the shepherds in Luke 2:10-11, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the peoples. For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Saviour who is Christ the Lord." Joy for the King.

Dwelling With The King

Notice the twofold mention of God’s dwelling. Zechariah 2:10 says, "Behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst," and again in verse eleven it says, "Then I will dwell in your midst." The gospel, the incarnation, God becoming a man, Jesus’ perfect life and atoning death, was a means to a specific end; the end is that God would dwell with his people to provide the conditions for divine human relations. This is where the image and the image bearer dwell together eternally, uninterrupted and unspoiled by sin, in perfect communion. It is a state where our full satisfaction is in God and our eyes will not be tempted to drift to other things.

In the beginning Adam and Eve were placed in the garden sanctuary as priests unto God to serve under him as co regents to exercise dominion; they would dwell with the Lord. Adam disobeyed and the covenant of works was broken, the promise of eternal life withdrawn, communion ended, creation cursed and relationship severed. Dwelling with God was no more, and since that day humanity’s only hope was that God would provide the means to dwell with him again.

The types and shadows of the Old Testament pointed to the reality that God was coming to dwell with his people. When Jesus came, God fulfilled that promise in a way that breaks the mind’s capacity to reason; the Creator himself was born. The uncaused first cause clothed himself in humanity; the one who created lungs to breathe took on lungs, the one who keeps the heart beating made for himself a beating heart. John calls Jesus the Word who was both with God and was God; John 1:14 says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." The older translations render this as, "and he tabernacled among us." God came to dwell.

John emphasises the profound mystery that in Christ God himself has come down in a way that outshines by an incalculable magnitude all those earlier types and shadows. Every tabernacle the Israelites erected and every temple with its Shekinah glory in the holy of holies pale in comparison to God incarnate. There is now a new temple and new tabernacle supplied by God himself in the person of Jesus; God on Mary’s lap as she nurses him, in Joseph’s workshop as a boy, in the temple preaching as a youth, on the shores of Galilee as a man, and on a Roman cross dying for our sin. He came, and he came first to die, that we might dwell with him forever.

Joined To The King

Wedged between the promise of the Lord’s dwelling is a prophecy that many foreign peoples will join this covenantal people of Israel. Zechariah 2:11 says, "Many nations will join themselves to the Lord in that day and will become my people." Notice the phrase "my people." Elsewhere in Zechariah, and virtually everywhere in Scripture, "my people" refers to the nation of Israel; in the Old Testament, when God says "my people," he is speaking of Israel. Here, however, Zechariah states plainly that the future "my people" would look different; this eschatological Israel would be a reconstituted Israel.

We have already seen this in Matthew’s Gospel. In response to the Roman centurion in Matthew 8:10-11, Jesus marvels and says, "Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel." Here, through faith rather than blood, is a true Israelite. The background to this eschatological Israel reaches back to Genesis 9:26-27. After Noah’s son Ham disgraced his father, Noah blessed Shem and prophesied that Japheth would dwell in the tents of Shem; "May God enlarge Japheth and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant." Genesis 9:26-27 is a seminal promise concerning the present New Covenant church.

For most of redemptive history God revealed his covenant primarily to the descendants of Shem, the messianic and Davidic line; his revelation was narrow, like a small trickling stream carrying the messianic line. The vast majority of humanity before the Messiah had not received covenant revelation. Until Christ came, the covenant tents were, for the most part, closed to all except the Abrahamic descendants of Shem. There are Old Testament examples of outsiders being brought into the covenant, Ruth and Rahab for instance, but salvation’s silos were largely sealed until the time the nations would be welcomed.

History awaited the day that Japheth, that is, the Gentiles, would dwell in the tents of Shem. Biblical scholars note that in the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul he established churches in regions historically settled by the descendants of Japheth; Gentiles were being brought in. Zechariah foresaw that nations would enter the kingdom and join themselves to Israel and to the covenant making God. Japheth would be welcomed into the tents of Shem, and Israel would become a mixed multitude, descendants like the sand on the seashore for Abraham, all under one covenant tent without distinction.

Zechariah pictures this reconstitution in various ways. At the beginning of chapter two he sees a man with a measuring line going forth to measure Jerusalem; in verse four he hears, "Run, speak to that young man, saying, 'Jerusalem will be inhabited without walls because of the multitude of men and cattle within it.'" The kingdom of God is of such magnitude that it will not contain all whom God will bring into it. We should note how the prophets use figurative language; when they spoke of the future they painted it with the colours and lines of their own world and context. The prophets were not granted the full distinction between the two comings of Christ; to them it often appeared as one great package. The prophets used imagery from their age, mountains flowing with new wine, walled cities and tabernacles, to portray spiritual realities.

When Zechariah speaks of a rebuilt Jerusalem without walls, he is using figurative language to describe the Messiah’s coming and global kingdom; it will be without walls because it will be bursting at the seams with people brought in by the Lord. Zechariah 2:5 says, "For I, declares the Lord, will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst." It is God’s city. The author to the Hebrews picks up this restored Jerusalem language and says in Hebrews 12:22, "But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels."

Zechariah 8:23 records, "Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, 'Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.'" To grasp someone’s garment was a sign of submission to authority; we see people trying to grasp at Jesus’ garments in the Gospels. Zechariah is telling the exiles that Gentiles will be ushered into the covenant in droves.

In Zechariah 9:6-7 he speaks of the Philistines, historic enemies of Israel, becoming a remnant for God and being like a clan in Judah. Even the Philistines, Zechariah says, will be welcomed into the covenant tent of Shem. Paul echoes this vision in Romans 11 when he describes Gentile believers as a wild olive branch grafted into the rich root of Israel’s olive tree so that they become fellow partakers of the covenant. The prophets foretold that in a future day the salvific floodgates would open and welcome all who would come in faith.

Jesus himself said in John 10:16, "I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd." The prophet saw that the promises Israel nurtured in embryonic form were to be inherited not only by a believing Jewish remnant but by sons and daughters of Abraham from every tongue, tribe and nation. Romans 9:8 states, "It is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants." Ephesians 2:19 says, "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God’s household." This covenant tent of Shem is now full to the brim of Japheth’s descendants; there is only one people of God, one purpose of God and one plan of God, and the church is one across the ages, with Christ as head.

At the first Christmas God began his work of gathering the nations to his Son; Isaiah 49:6 says, "It is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel. I will make you a light of the nations so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth." Psalm 87 anticipates this as well: "I shall mention Rahab and Babylon among those who know me; behold, Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia; this one was born there," that is, brought into covenant through faith. You need not pilgrimage to Jerusalem to enter Zion; here we may worship the God of heaven who sent his Son into the world and for the world.

The book of Acts traces the spread of God’s kingdom through the preaching of the gospel; its last line records the apostle Paul in Rome, "preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered," in Acts 28:31. Zechariah’s vision is being fulfilled even now as we await the Lord’s return.

Silent Before The King

Zechariah 2:12-13 reads, "The Lord will possess Judah as his portion in the Holy Land and will again choose Jerusalem. Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for he is aroused from his holy habitation." Silence is what happens when we have nothing to say; silence is what Scripture calls for when we are to be in awe of God for his works in the world. We ought to shut our mouths and behold this God who has worked such powerful things for his own glory and namesake. We ought to have our mouths closed as we worship and think, "Lord, what you have done at Christmas is beyond belief; you have welcomed me; you have opened the salvific floodgates and flung open the tents of Shem and brought me into your covenant. Lord, what have I to say but worship?" So we have silence before him; our silence ought to be sheer awe at what God has done to bring salvation to the Gentiles, as we are this morning.