On That Day!

“And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day there will be one Lord – his name alone will be worshiped.” – Zechariah 14:9 NLT

Zechariah and his fellow returned exiles are sitting in Jerusalem, staring at an unfinished Temple and a city with walls still in need of repair. Everything looks bleak and overwhelming to them, but God knows how this story ends. Not only had He read the last chapter, He wrote it. He is not concerned or worried about how things are going to turn out, because He has already foreordained the ending, and now He reveals it to Zechariah. In a wave of imagery, God tells Zechariah exactly how things are going to turn out in the end – “On that day.” Zechariah gets the fantastic news that a day is coming when God will restore the fortunes of Israel, not back to what they were in the days of Solomon or David, but to what they should have been all along. The defining moment is the return of Christ – His second coming. “On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem. And the Mount of Olives will split apart, making a wide valley running from east to west. Half the mountain will move toward the north and half toward the south” (Zechariah 14:4 NLT).

When Christ returns, it is not going to be like the first time He came. His initial arrival on earth was wrapped in secrecy and insignificance. He came as an innocent, helpless baby born to an obscure couple from a backwater town. His first coming went unnoticed by most of the world, but that won’t be the case when He returns. When His feet hit the Mount of Olives, it will split in two. Christ is coming, “and all his holy ones with him” (Zechariah 14:5 NLT). He will come as a warrior and He will wage war against the enemies of God one last time. And He will be victorious. The result will be that all nations of the earth will end up worshiping the God of Israel. The Israelites, their eyes opened by the Spirit of God, will finally recognize Jesus as their Messiah and mourn over their rejection of Him the first time He came. But this story has a happy ending. In fact, it has a holy ending. The last few verses of the book of Zechariah paint a picture that is hard for us to imagine. Christ is on His throne. The enemies of God have been destroyed. The world is at peace and the people of the world are worshiping the one true God. And in the end, everything and everyone is set apart or holy to the Lord – once and for all. “On that day even the harness bells of the horses will be inscribed with these words, HOLY TO THE LORD. And the cooking pots in the Temple of the Lord will be as sacred as the basins used beside the altar” (Zechariah 14:20 NLT). There will no longer be a division between that which is sacred or holy and those things that are not. ALL will be holy and completely set apart for God’s use. There will no longer be lost and saved, believer and unbeliever. All will believe. All will be His. All will worship the Lord. All will be holy. Today, God is setting apart, making holy, a people for Himself. We are a remnant, just a portion. We live in a world that is living apart from God, refusing to acknowledge Him as God. Like Zechariah in his day, we are a minority surrounded by the enemy. We have been set apart by God for His use, but our numbers are few when compared with those of the enemy. The future can sometimes look bleak and overwhelming. It can appear as if we aren’t making any difference. It can feel like our efforts are futile and worthless. But God reminds us that the day is coming when He will make ALL THINGS holy. He will make ALL THINGS His. He will restore the world to the original splendor and glory that it had before the fall – before sin entered the scene. He will reestablish shalom – peace, order, unity, wholeness to the world. And we can rest in the fact that this promise is from the one “who stretched out the heavens, laid the foundations of the earth, and formed the human spirit” (Zechariah 12:1 NLT). It will all happen just as He said it would.

Father, keep my attention focused on the ending. Don’t let me lose heart because things don’t appear to be going well. Remind me regularly that You have already worked out the ending and there is no need for me to worry or fret. The day is coming when all will be holy to the Lord. Help me live like that even today. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Looks Can Be Deceiving.

“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: All this may seem impossible to you now, a small remnant of God’s people. But is it impossible for me? says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” – Zechariah 8:6 NLT

God is telling Zechariah incredible news regarding Israel’s future. He is describing a time in the future when Israel will not only be restored, Jerusalem rebuilt and the Temple completed, but the people of Israel will be abundant, filling the land and once again serving Him. Things will be radically different. Instead of punishing His people as He had done in the past, God will bless them abundantly and restore them to favor. This all had to be hard for Zechariah to comprehend as he looked around at a partially completed foundation on the Temple, the incomplete walls of the city of Jerusalem, and the demoralized remnant who were struggling with the task God had given them due to the opposition that faced them. And God knew what Zechariah was thinking. So He tells Zechariah, “All this may seem impossible to you now.” It’s as if God is saying, “I know this doesn’t look so good right now, but don’t judge Me based on what you see.” But isn’t that what we do? We take a look at our current circumstances and make sweeping judgments regarding everything from God’s faithfulness and presence to His love and power. If things are not going too well for us, we automatically assume that God is either angry with us or oblivious to us. He is upset and punishing us or out of touch and ignorant of us. We pray and He doesn’t answer us in the way we believe He should, so we conclude that He is not hearing us or is simply refusing to do what we’ve asked Him to do. Our view of life begins to influence our view of God, when it should really be the other way around. God tells Zechariah, “I know this all seems impossible to you right now. After all, there’s just a handful of you and the job is far from complete. BUT THIS ISN’T ABOUT YOU!”

The point of it all is that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD. He knew what was going on. He was well aware of the situation. He was not surprised by what was taking place down in Jerusalem. He had a full grasp of the facts regarding the status of the Temple, the presence of opposition, the size of the work force and the condition of their hearts. Which is why He took so much time to tell Zechariah His full plans for their future. Then He simply said, “Be strong and finish the task!” (Zechariah 8:9 NLT). “So don’t be afraid. Be strong, and get on with rebuilding the Temple” (Zechariah 8:13 NLT). This wasn’t about their strength and ability to get things, but about their faith and trust in a God who could do ANYTHING. They just needed to do what He had called them to do and leave the rest up to Him. God had gotten them back to Jerusalem, provided a royal edict to secure their work, and provided the funds to pay for the entire restoration project. He had more than done His part. But they had failed to complete theirs. It was way too easy for them to take a look at their relative lack of success and the overwhelming size of the task at hand and become disillusioned. The same thing is true of us. We get overwhelmed and begin to feel way in over our heads, and start to wonder if God is with us at all. If we ever begin to think it’s all up to us, we are missing the point. Nothing is impossible for God. That’s the point. There is not one thing He can’t handle and doesn’t have fully in His control. Nothing is impossible for God. That’s the message we need to hear. There is nothing that God can’t do. There is not a single circumstance that is out of ability or power to handle. Nothing is impossible for God. That’s the message of the Bible. It is all about God, not us. It is all about His power, His will, His promises, His faithfulness, His salvation, His Kingdom, and His ability to finish what He has begun and to restore what is broken. Nothing is impossible for Him. Do you really believe that today?

Father, I admit that too often I am like Zechariah, doubting Your power and Your presence. I wonder whether or some things really ARE impossible for You. Intellectually, I know that’s not true, but when things get tough, I begin to wonder. I start to try to solve my own problems and begin to take matters into my own hands. Rather than turn to You, I start to turn to other things and begin to place my hope for salvation elsewhere. Never let me forget that nothing is impossible for You, and that I can’t judge the reality of that statement based on the circumstances of life. You are never limited by the odds or the opposition. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

When God Is Not Our Focus.

“Say to all your people and your priests, ‘During these seventy years of exile, when you fasted and mourned in the summer and in early autumn,d was it really for me that you were fasting? And even now in your holy festivals, aren’t you eating and drinking just to please yourselves?” – Zechariah 7:5-6 NLT

The visions continue. Each one seemingly more strange than the one that came before it. God is continuing to reveal to Zechariah things that will be taking place in the future. He is providing His prophet with a glimpse of things to come in order to help Zechariah and the people deal with life in the present. They can trust God for the future and, therefore, live with peace and confidence in the here and now. They have no reason to fear or doubt the outcome of their efforts, because God is behind it all.

But the people have a question for God. They want to know if they should continue to mourn the destruction of the Temple as they had for the 70 years they were in captivity. After all, the Temple is now being rebuilt, so should they keep on commemorating its destruction now that it is being restored? It seems that the people had held a fast and a time of mourning each summer during those 70 years of captivity and want to know if they can stop. But God sees behind their request and reveals something about their hearts that they probably had no idea was there. God tells them that there was one important thing left out of all their mourning and fasting during those years in exile: HIM. They weren’t fasting or mourning because they were separated from Him or because they had offended a holy God. They were fasting and mourning because of their situation. There was no repentance based on their sins and the fact that God had only given what they deserved. He had warned them that if they continued to rebel against Him and reject His will, He would punish them severely. And He did.

Their fasts were fruitless because God was not their focus. They were simply going through religious rituals that were devoid of an emphasis on God, His holiness, and their own sinfulness. And now that they were back in the land, God tells them that their holy festivals and feasts were more about them than Him. “And even now in your holy festivals, aren’t you eating and drinking just to please yourselves?” (Zechariah 7:6 NLT). It’s amazing how easily we can turn worship into something God never intended it to be. We can make it all about us when it was supposed to be all about Him. We can come together for worship and focus all our attention on what WE get out of it, instead of the one to whom we have come to worship. Their problem was that they were still not listening to God. Their hearts were still far from Him. They were still disobeying His commands, treatingDo not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other. each other unfairly and living unjustly among one another. “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Judge fairly, and show mercy and kindness to one another. Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other” (Zechariah 7:9-10 NLT). All their religious fasts, feasts, and festivals meant nothing if they were still disobeying God and refusing to live their lives according to His revealed will. They were still doing the very things that God their ancestors sent into exile in the first place. God was not the center of their worship, thoughts, and actions. God wanted them to worship Him by obeying Him. Anything else is not worship at all. To worship Him is to give Him the honor and worth He deserves. It is to recognize who He is and live out lives in such a way that it reflects our knowledge of and respect for Him. What God wanted from His people was for them to have truly repentant hearts and a desire to return to Him in obedience and reverent worship. He wanted them to make Him the focus of their efforts and actions. He desires the same from us today.

Father, it is so easy to lose our focus and begin to zero in all our activities and think that as long as we are doing “religious-type” of activities, we must be doing the right thing. But we can do all of those things without thinking about You in the least. You look at our hearts and You know when they are not focused on You. Give us insight to see when we have lost sight of you. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Do Not Despise These Small Beginnings!

“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.” – Zechariah 4:10 NLT

Zechariah is given a series of  “night visions” or dreams, in which God reveals to him things that are going to take place — some in the near future and some that have yet to take place even in our day. Zechariah is prophesying to the Jews who had returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. God is giving Him a message for them that lets them know what is going on and what is going to take place. God reminds them that all that has happened, including their 70-year exile, has been in exact fulfillment of His Word. “He has done what he said he would do” (Zechariah 1:6 NLT). But God is not done yet. He assures Zechariah and the people of His love for them. “My love for Jerusalem and Mount Zion is passionate and strong” (Zechariah 1:14 NLT). He lets them know that He has come to show them mercy, to see that His Temple is rebuilt, and to repay the enemies of Israel for their actions against them. One of the visions receives is a future Jerusalem overflowing with people and protected by the presence of God Himself. This is one of those future visions that has yet to be fulfilled. God is revealing what it will be like in Jerusalem during the Millennial Kingdom under the righteous reign of Christ. There is also a day coming when God will replace the sins of the people with purity. He will take off their old, filthy clothes (sin), and give them new clothes (righteousness). This will only be possible through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. So God tells Zechariah that His servant, the Branch is coming, and He will remove the sins of the land in a single day. This is a reference to the crucifixion of Christ, which paid for the sins of all mankind on the cross. On that day, sin was paid for and God’s righteous wrath was satisfied, once for all.

God reminds Zerubbabel, the man who was assigned the task of overseeing the rebuilding of the Temple, not to “despise these small beginnings.” In other words, he was not to look at the seemingly small role he was playing and think that his part what not significant. Each step in the chain of events God was enacting, was important. It was vital that the Temple be rebuilt and the sacrificial system be restore. It was important that Zerubbabel do his job faithfully and completely, and leave the results up to God. We don’t have to worry about the future because God has that part handled. We just need to be faithful to do what God calls us to do. It may seem small and insignificant, even unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but God has a reason for each thing He calls us to do. “The Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand (Zechariah 4:10 NLT). What is God calling you to do? What part has He asked you to play? Do not despise these small beginnings. Just be faithful to do your part and leave the rest up to God. He will do what He has promised to do. He always does.

Father, there are times when what I do doesn’t really seem to matter. My part appears to be unimportant and insignificant. But You remind me that my job is to be faithful to what You have called me to do. I don’t have to worry about the results because You have that all worked out already. You love to see us doing our parts, faithfully fulfilling Your calling on our lives. Keep me focused more on obedience than significance. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org