NOTES for Zec 8:1-23
The prophecies of the first part of the book of the prophet Zechariah end with the words of the Lord that not only the Temple, but also all of Jerusalem, the entire life of the people in it will be restored. The Lord promises the Jews who have returned from the Babylonian captivity that the streets of the city will again be filled with children and old people, and people will return to it from all over the world, and He will be their God. The city still lies in ruins, and many inhabitants view the attempts at restoration with considerable doubt. Nothing is sufficient: neither funds, nor strength, nor materials, nor food... How much time and effort must be expended to restore it? But the Lord says that what is marvelous and impossible from a human point of view is not so in His eyes. His words reveal the difference in how events are seen by people and by God. What the prophet Zechariah conveys to us sounds, in essence, like a statement of a fact that for us is in an invisible and doubtful future, but for God has already been accomplished. This is exactly why the formula adopted by the prophets and in the Bible in general sounds so confident: “I will save My people... and will be their God”.
Against the background of other prophets, the way the prophet Zechariah formulates this promise draws attention to itself. He conveys the words of the Lord thus: “I will be their God in truth and righteousness”. At the end of the previous chapter, God said that even before the captivity, the Israelites were offered the path of salvation: to execute fair judgment and show mercy to the needy, but they did not want to heed. The promise that the Lord gives at the beginning of the 8th chapter is, strictly speaking, conditional. Its fulfillment is impossible other than in God's truth and righteousness, which consist exactly in mercy and honesty among people. Further on, the prophet dwells on this in even more detail.
The promise of impending salvation is given by God not simply to comfort the people, to “lift their spirits”... The Lord says: “strengthen your hands”, because the creation of God's miracle happens through the labor of specific people. And again He says that the very times have changed compared to the pre-exilic era. If formerly the labor of humans and animals yielded only fragile fruits that disappeared like smoke due to the enmity of people with one another, then the new time, the approach of which the prophet feels, will be distinguished by the durability of what God grants us.
Speaking of the reasons why our labors are unable to create anything durable, the prophet passingly draws attention to a very important thing for us. “I allowed every man to be at enmity against another”, Zechariah conveys the words of God. We are talking about the realization of our freedom, which occurs outside of God's intervention. Having not passed through purification in the crucible of suffering, this freedom is expressed predominantly in the fact that we are at enmity. The Lord says that in certain historical conditions He allows this. Perhaps the goal of His action in history does not fit into a simple “restoration of order” in human society... God's saving action is directed into eternity, where human reason does not penetrate, and only there can the goals and results of this action be visible.
One way or another, the Lord calls the people to trust the blessing and work. “Do not fear!” are the key words of the entire 8th chapter, which express the prophet's faith that the ways of the Lord, however inscrutable they may be, draw a person to salvation and life. In verses 14-17, reiterating the call “Do not fear!”, the Lord says an exceptionally important and unexpected thing. If we limit ourselves to the framework of the historical context, all His previous words can be understood as a call to hard work on the construction of the Second Temple. But the Word of God leaves us no such possibility. “These are the things that you must do,” says the Lord. You would expect here an enumeration of architectural details of the Temple's structure... But it turns out that one must apply one's heart to completely different labor: “speak the truth to one another; judge truly and peaceably at your gates. Let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor”.
Thus, the constructive labor by which we are called to participate in God's saving action consists in judging in truth, loving peace, and not thinking evil against one's neighbor. Firstly, these words immediately broaden the context of the prophecy: from a word of comfort to the Jerusalemites of the late 6th century BC, they become a promise of the Kingdom of the age to come. Secondly, almost for the first time in the Old Testament, God's rejection of evil is so clearly extended not only to the actions, but also to the thoughts of people. Obviously, in this too is a presentiment of the New Testament. Finally, it is important that the Lord calls people to this doing of truth, peace, and mercy for a specific reason expressed in a negative form. It is forbidden to think evil against a neighbor and swear falsely because God hates it. Such a calling to Godlikeness is also one of the essential features of the New Testament.
In the concluding words of the eighth chapter and of the entire first half of the book, the prophet returns to the problem of fasts dedicated to sorrow over the destruction of Jerusalem. The Lord tells the people that even a sorrowful fast can become a source of joy for them, because it will be a remembrance not of human sins and weakness, but of the Creator's saving love. The only thing needed for a fast (and other such institutions) to become a “joyful celebration” is to love truth and peace. If one tries to express the content of the prophecies about the restoration of Jerusalem as briefly as possible, one can use the words of the Lord Jesus Christ: “Go, and sin no more”. Life in the 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.
And then Israel will fulfill the mission that God entrusted to it. Shortly before the beginning of Zechariah's ministry, through Deutero-Isaiah the Lord said that Israel is called to be His witness, to testify to His righteousness and mercy. This is the essence of Zechariah's words in the final verses of the 8th chapter that all nations will come to Jerusalem to pray before the face of the Lord and to seek God. If Israel loves truth and peace, then “ten men will take hold of the skirt of a Jew” and go with him, because they have heard that God is with this people. Thus the prophet anticipates the Savior's words: “by this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).