The Lord promises to bless Jerusalem with happy worship
“Again the word of the LORD Almighty came to me. 19 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah. Therefore love truth and peace.”
20 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Many peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come, 21 and the inhabitants of one city will go to another and say, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the LORD and seek the LORD Almighty. I myself am going.’ 22 And many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the LORD Almighty and to entreat him.”
23 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “In those days ten men from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.’”
The final verses of chapter 8, from verse 18 through verse 23, form one last entreaty to worship. As has been the case throughout chapter 8, the Lord is referred to as “Almighty.” We remember that this is the Lord of Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts. He is the one over all. The one true God reared up from his throne of power and spoke: “This is what the LORD says—Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God” (Isaiah 44:6).
Verse 19 promised that the religious fasts would be joyful events for the people. It had to be this way. The fasting was worship for the God who worked good in their lives. They were privileged to call this God their own. They could proclaim this message by their fasting.
True worship has always been a happy, glad occurrence in the lives of God’s people. There is a place for skipping and dancing before the ark of God, as David did. And if a hallelujah should issue out of the back pew of the church on Sunday, we should not necessarily grow uncomfortable.
That might not be our style, but maybe it should be. Pity the worshipers that have no joy—the kind of joy that cannot be contained. Beating the breast is to be a part of worship too. This is the way the humble tax collector worshiped in the back of the church. But it does not end this way. God’s people go home forgiven. They receive forgiveness full and free. There must be joy! There must be the joy that surfaces and bubbles over in glad noise and action.
The verse ends with two important words—truth and peace. Happy worshipers love these two words.
The word in Hebrew for truth is the word amen. Used at the end of worship or at the end of prayer, it says that what has proceeded is true. Because it is true, the worshiper claims it for his own. Worship of the true God claims this for itself. It is truth for all people, as verses 20 to 22 tell. This dispels the notion that our faith is true for some but not for others. It is true for all, take it or leave it. Jesus said, “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:37).
The word for peace is the familiar shalom. Jews today use it for a greeting. We need peace that passes understanding. Martin Luther spoke about this peace in the Large Catechism when he spoke of the Fourth Petition: “Our life requires not only food and clothing and other necessities for our body, but also peace and concord. . . . Although we have received from God all good things in abundance, we cannot retain any of them or enjoy them in security and happiness unless he gives us a stable, peaceful government. For where dissension, strife, and war prevail, there our daily bread is taken away, or at least reduced.”
We love peace. All worshipers of God love it and desire it—and have it! The church is spoken of as “Jerusalem.” Jerusalem has the word peace in it—“foundation of peace.” What a beautiful picture of the church. Zechariah knew the importance of the picture. He closed the verse with this request: “Therefore love truth and peace.” It was not just an invitation. It was a command, the same kind of command the apostle Paul made when he told the congregation at Thessalonica, “Live in peace with each other” (1 Thessalonians 5:13). This was a carefully patrolled peace.
Verses 20 to 22 contain the dialogue of would-beworshipers among themselves. They talked to each other city to city. There was an invitation and a resolve among them all: “Let us go at once to entreat the LORD and seek the LORD Almighty. I myself am going.”
In Hebrew the literal translation of the people’s resolve to entreat the Lord is, “Let us stroke the LORD’s face.” This is an idiom for appeasing someone’s anger. These worshipers were concerned that the Lord not remain angry with them. They realized that he was angry and had just cause for being angry. Psalm 7 says, “God is angry with the wicked every day” (KJV), and the prophet Hosea warns of an angry God, who says: “I will tear them to pieces and go away; I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them. Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face” (5:14,15).
What a wonderful tribute God’s people have in verse 23. Strangers come and grab them by the corner of their robes and say to them, “Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.” This is the ultimate in compliments. The word got around that the Lord was with his people. When the night is black and the only fire is the one in the camp of God’s people, the people come like moths. “We have heard that God is with you.”
This is mission work par excellence! It was more than the people having “In God We Trust” stamped on their small change. It was not done with great programs and strategies.
It was done when God’s people lived as God’s people. Then people saw and wanted that difference for themselves.
This is an exciting idea. And it is true, as the Ethiopian eunuch and the Philippian jailer proved. They bounded in and said, “What must I do to be saved?” They wanted it. They asked for it. The prophecy came true. They grabbed one Jew by the corner of his robe and said, “Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.”
The sad thing, of course, is that just being a Jew is not enough. Jews who turned their backs on God were shipped away to oblivion. Then no one asked them anymore if they could walk with them. The fire was no longer there.
We may call ourselves Christians, but unless we have a hold on the corner of the robe of Jesus, it makes no difference. We have no attraction. Our only attraction is with him! With him in our lives, people will hear and come, and the truth of Zechariah chapter 8 will be proven true once more.
The next section begins the oracles of Zechariah. These oracles are words of prophecy about coming events. The prophet is living up to his name; he is peering into the future.