The Obedient Israel God Creates | Zechariah 8:1-23 | Richard Caldwell

Scripture

• Zechariah 8:1–23

About this sermon

Introduction: A wonderful picture emerges when you compare Zechariah chapter 7 to this 8th chapter. The two chapters have to do with the same issues, but the view of the issues is very different. The difference between the two chapters is the difference between man’s ability and God’s ability. In both chapters there is the mention of religious observances. In both chapters there is the mention of genuine obedience. But the differences are highly instructive. Chapter 7 is full of rebuke and warning. Chapter 8 is full of encouragement. Chapter 7 demands obedience. Chapter 8 promises obedience. Chapter 7 describes what the Lord demands. Chapter 8 promises what the Lord will produce. Chapter 7 describes what man owes to the living God. Chapter 8 describes what the living God will produce in a saved ethnic Israel. It is a good reminder that an essential aspect of repentance and course correction, as we walk with God, is a sound view of the future. It is WITH PROMISE IN VIEW, that God is calling ZECHARIAH’S GENERATION to obedience. In this case God is calling His people to focus on the very specific promises that He has given regarding the kingdom of His Son on earth. The hope of the people of God is not some foggy generalization found in a generalized view of fulfillment in Jesus. It is to BELIEVE GOD about EVERY DETAIL of what He has promised to DO IN JESUS. And God hasn’t been vague about that. People who seek to spiritualize the kingdom promises of God, that are all over the Old and New Testaments, are FORCED to avoid clear statements of Scripture. It is laying a theological grid over the top of CLEAR WORDS, and that is not sound. There is a reason that this section has at least 12 REFERENCES to the fact that God is putting His name on these words. It is the FAITHFULNESS of God that is at stake. It is our WILLINGNESS to let God say what He says that is at stake, and to believe Him. What does God say through Zechariah in this section? I. GOD’S UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR ISRAEL (vs.1-2) The zeal that is being described is not the zeal of wrath, it is the zeal of love. Wrath is involved, but it is God’s wrath upon those who have done harm, or would do harm, to Israel. It is the kind of jealousy that will deliver. It is the kind of jealousy that will defend. It is the kind of jealousy that AFTER DISCIPLINE MAINTAINS LOYALTY. And that very same kind of love was expressed at the very outset of this book in the 1st chapter. ESV Zechariah 1:13 And the LORD answered gracious and comforting words to the angel who talked with me. 14 So the angel who talked with me said to me, 'Cry out, Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. 15 And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster. 16 Therefore, thus says the LORD, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be built in it, declares the LORD of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. 17 Cry out again, Thus says the LORD of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.'" How do you explain this kind of love AFTER A HISTORY OF UNBELIEF AND COVENANT UNFAITHFULNESS on the part of Israel? It is ELECTING LOVE. It is UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. It is GRACIOUS LOVE. ESV Deuteronomy 7:6 "For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Topics

• Obedience
• God the Father
• Prophecy & End Times