NOTES for Zec 8:7-17

For Christians, Jerusalem is the city where Christ’s death and His Resurrection into eternal life are worshiped. During the fast, through prayer and the reading of the Word, we follow Christ’s path. We walk on, and many people, even those who do not belong to the Church, know about the season of fasting and take inward notice of it. Prayer will become a very important part of our spiritual labor during this time. Not only the weak and needy, but also the strong will come and stand in prayer. By God’s mercy, prayer will bear fruit, and on the night of Pascha we will meet the risen Christ in Jerusalem.

Zechariah, like some other prophets, observes that at different periods in Jewish history God seems to turn now one side, now another, towards His people. At first sight this may even seem somewhat strange: the same prophets repeatedly said that God is not a human being, that unlike human beings He does not change His purposes and plans, remaining faithful to the covenantal alliance He once made. Yet the matter is not so simple. Much is written in the Bible about divine punishments that fall upon the people because of apostasy and other sins. It is often said that God ‘turns away’ from sinners and apostates, or ‘forgets’ them. Then, after they turn back and repent, He ‘remembers’ His people and turns His face towards them once more. Is this a beautiful metaphor? Or perhaps something more? God, of course, forgets no one and nothing. But He is a real, living Person: like us, He is gladdened by one thing and saddened by another, looking on one thing with pleasure and another with revulsion. Our feelings may not be His, but He does have a will; in this we are alike. And if something displeases Him, if there is someone or something He does not wish to look at, the focus of His attention, and therefore of His providence, inevitably shifts away from whoever or whatever is repugnant to Him. Then God's people essentially cease to be God's people—cease actually to be so at that particular moment when God turns away from them. They are left at the mercy of the winds and waves of history, which at times overwhelm even far more numerous and powerful peoples. Yet all this is reversible: repentance and turning back restore a proper relationship between God and His people. And a new period of flourishing begins.

Through the prophet Zechariah, the Lord calls the people, after their return from captivity, to trust His blessing and work. "Do not be afraid!" are the key words of all chapter 8, expressing the prophet's faith that the ways of the Lord, however inscrutable they may be, draw a person toward salvation and life. In verses 14-17, again repeating the call, "Do not be afraid!", the Lord says something exceptionally important and unexpected. All His preceding words can be understood as a call to persistent labor in building the Second Temple, if we stay within the limits of the historical context. But the Word of God does not leave us that option. "These are the things you shall do," says the Lord. At this point one expects a list of architectural details for the Temple's construction. But it turns out that the heart must be applied to a completely different labor: "...speak the truth to one another; judge with truth and peace in your gates. Let none of you devise evil in your heart against your neighbor..."

So the constructive labor by which we are called to take part in God's saving action consists in judging rightly, loving peace, and not devising evil against one's neighbor. First, these words immediately broaden the context of the prophecy: from a word of comfort to the Jerusalemites of the late sixth century B.C., they become a promise about the Kingdom of the age to come. Second, almost for the first time in the Old Testament, God's rejection of evil is so clearly extended not only to people's actions but also to their thoughts. Clearly this too is a foretaste of the New Testament. Finally, it is important that the Lord calls people to this work of righteousness, peace, and mercy for a specific reason, expressed in negative form. One must not devise evil against one's neighbor or swear falsely because God hates this. Such a calling to become like God is also one of the essential features of the New Testament.

We usually believe that particularly and only the revelation of the New Testament emphasizes not so much on acts, than on the intentions of man, by assimilating them practically to acts. However, even before the arrival of Christ, God had already revealed to people this simple fact: that intention does not only precede the act, but, in a certain degree, is itself an act. And it is not only a question here that, when a decision is taken, man can hold on for its realization only by an outside strength, so a practically conceived act can be considered as achieved.

The question is above all, in what makes the basis of the spiritual life: in the purpose, or as sometimes say the psychologists today, in the intention. Certainly, even if somebody decided of an act, it does not still mean that he will accomplish it absolutely. Maybe, to the murderer, will not appear for example, the opportunity to reach the potential victim.

But all the same somebody who did not kill another only because the opportunity is not presented to him, from the point of view not only of the Gospel, but also of the Torah is considered as murderer. And not because, by having such an intention, he becomes dangerous for the society, but because such a taken decision means that the system of values, by which is guided the potential murderer, is already so deformed that, even if he does not succeed to accomplish what he conceived because of reasons independent from him, system of values cannot change any more, if, of course, the sinner does not repent of his plan and does not refuse it not under the pressure of circumstances, but voluntarily.

And the destruction of the system of the values and priorities under the influence of intentions, contradicting God's commandments, is this destruction of the heart, which, in the long run, obliges man to turn away from the way of righteousness. If not in one, then in another.

The prophecies in the first part of the book of the prophet Zechariah end with the Lord's words that not only the Temple, but all Jerusalem and the whole life of its people will be restored. The Lord promises the Jews who have returned from Babylonian captivity that the city's streets will again be filled with children and the elderly, that people will return to it from all over the world, and that the Lord will be their God. The city still lies in ruins, and many of its inhabitants view attempts at rebuilding with considerable doubt. Everything is lacking: money, strength, materials, food… How much time and effort will it take to restore it? But the Lord says that what seems marvellous and impossible from a human perspective is not so in His eyes. His words reveal the difference between the way people and God see events. The words conveyed to us by the prophet Zechariah sound, in essence, like a statement of a fact that lies for us in an unseen and doubtful future, while for God it has already happened. This is precisely why the formula customary among the prophets and in the Bible generally sounds so assured: ‘I will save My people… and will be their God.’

Compared with other prophets, an important aspect of Zechariah's formulation of this promise stands out. He conveys the Lord's words thus: ‘I will be their God in truth and righteousness.’ At the end of the previous chapter the Lord said that even before the captivity the Israelites had been offered a way of salvation: to administer fair judgement and show mercy to those in need, but they had refused to listen. Strictly speaking, the promise the Lord gives at the beginning of chapter 8 is conditional. It can be fulfilled only in God's truth and righteousness, which consist precisely in mercy and honesty among people. The prophet goes on to dwell on this in greater detail.

God gives the promise of coming salvation not simply to comfort the people, to ‘raise their spirits’… The Lord says, ‘Strengthen your hands’, because the making of God's miracle takes place through the labour of particular people. Once again the Lord says that the times themselves have changed compared with the period before the captivity. Whereas formerly the labour of people and animals yielded only precarious fruits that vanished like smoke because of people's enmity towards one another, the new age whose approach the prophet senses will be distinguished by the lasting quality of what God gives us. Speaking of why our labours cannot create anything lasting, the prophet draws attention in passing to something very important for us. ‘I allowed every person to act with enmity towards another,’ he reports God as saying. This concerns the exercise of our freedom without God's intervention. Until purified in the crucible of suffering, this freedom expresses itself chiefly in hostility. The Lord says that under certain historical conditions He allows this. Perhaps the purpose of His action in history cannot be reduced to simply ‘establishing order’ in human society… God's saving action reaches into eternity, where the human mind cannot penetrate; only there can its purposes and results be seen.

In any event, the Lord calls the people to trust in His blessing and work. ‘Do not be afraid!’—these are the key words of the whole of chapter 8, expressing the prophet's faith that the Lord's ways, however inscrutable, lead people towards salvation and life. In verses 14–17, again repeating ‘Do not be afraid!’, the Lord says something exceptionally important and unexpected. If we remain within the historical context, all His preceding words can be understood as a call to hard work on the building of the Second Temple. But God's Word does not leave us that possibility. ‘These are the things you must do,’ says the Lord. One almost expects a list of architectural details of the Temple's construction… Yet it turns out that we must put our hearts into a quite different kind of work: ‘Speak the truth to one another; judge truthfully and peaceably at your gates. Let none of you devise evil in your heart against your neighbour.’

Thus the constructive work by which we are called to participate in God's saving action consists in judging justly, loving peace and not devising evil against our neighbour. First, these words immediately broaden the prophecy's context: from words of comfort to the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the late sixth century BC, they become a promise of the Kingdom of the age to come. Second, here, perhaps for the first time in the Old Testament, God's rejection of evil extends so clearly not only to people's deeds but also to their thoughts. This too is evidently an anticipation of the New Testament. Finally, it matters that the Lord calls people to practise righteousness, peace and mercy for a particular reason, expressed in negative form. We must not devise evil against our neighbour or swear falsely because God hates these things. Such a call to likeness to God is also one of the essential features of the New Testament.

In the closing words of chapter 8 and of the whole first half of the book, the prophet returns to the question of fasts devoted to mourning Jerusalem's destruction. The Lord tells people that even a mournful fast can become a source of joy for them, because it will commemorate not human sins and weakness but the Creator's saving love. The only thing needed for fasting—and similar observances—to become a ‘joyful celebration’ is to love truth and peace. To express the content of the prophecies about Jerusalem's restoration as briefly as possible, we might use the Lord Jesus Christ's words: ‘Go, and sin no more.’ Life in renewed Jerusalem will be bustling, and everything in it will be a joy, says the Lord, if only we are willing and able to love truth and peace.

Then Israel will fulfil the mission God has entrusted to it. Shortly before Zechariah began his ministry, the Lord said through Second Isaiah that Israel was called to be His witness, to bear witness to His righteousness and mercy. This is the essence of Zechariah's words in the final verses of chapter 8: all nations will come to Jerusalem to pray before the Lord's face and seek God. If Israel loves truth and peace, ‘ten people will take hold of the hem of a Jew's garment’ and go with him, because they have heard that God is with this people. Thus the prophet anticipates the Saviour's words: ‘By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another’ (Jn 13:35).

As the prophet lists the Lord’s promises, he continually names the One from whom they come: the Lord of hosts, which means the Lord of armies. This name is usually associated with notions of strength and might, with everything we are accustomed to connect with an army. Yet words of peace and forgiveness come precisely from the One whom we are accustomed to regard as fearsome and surpassing everything imaginable.

This does not mean that manifestations of the Lord’s power in the world cease to inspire awe, but we begin to approach an understanding of the true meaning of His might. It uproots evil and keeps the universe from destruction.

Once again we hear a prophecy about many other nations coming to the God who revealed Himself to the Jews. At that time many Jews did not value the knowledge of God revealed to them, just as today many sons and daughters of Christian nations seek revelations among pagans. Yet today we also see the spiritual thirst of those who were cut off from Christianity. The very appearance of such seekers reminds longtime Christians of the importance of what they have ceased to value...