Scripture Daily

Context No. 1705 of 4322 · Zechariah

Context · Reflection

Zechariah 8:6-13: in context

6The LORD of Armies says: “If it is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in my eyes?” says the LORD of Armies. 7The LORD of Armies says: “Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country. 8I will bring them, and they will dwell within Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.” 9The LORD of Armies says: “Let your hands be strong, you who hear in these days these words from the mouth of the prophets who were in the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD of Armies was laid, even the temple, that it might be built. 10For before those days there was no wages for man nor any wages for an animal, neither was there any peace to him who went out or came in, because of the adversary. For I set all men everyone against his neighbor. 11But now I will not be to the remnant of this people as in the former days,” says the LORD of Armies. 12“For the seed of peace and the vine will yield its fruit, and the ground will give its increase, and the heavens will give their dew. I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these things. 13It shall come to pass that, as you were a curse among the nations, house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you shall be a blessing. Don’t be afraid. Let your hands be strong.”

To a small, discouraged remnant rebuilding after exile, God speaks words of encouragement. Though this may seem impossible to the remnant, he says, is it impossible for me? He promises to save his people from east and west and bring them home; to give peace where there had been strife, the vine yielding fruit, the ground its increase, the heavens their dew. And he makes a promise of reversal: as you were a curse among the nations, so I will save you, and you shall be a blessing. Do not fear; let your hands be strong.

The promise at the center is a reversal: as you were a curse among the nations, so you shall be a blessing. This remnant had been a byword, an object of scorn among the nations, a people whose name was used as a curse, so ruined that others pointed to them as an example of disaster. And God promises to turn that completely around: the very people who had been a curse would become a blessing, a source of good to the nations that had mocked them. What they were known for would be reversed; scorn would give way to blessing. There is great hope in this for anyone who feels their life has become a byword of failure, a story of loss and shame rather than of good. God is in the business of reversal. He can take a life that has been a curse, marked by ruin, scorn, wasted years, and make it a blessing, a source of good to others; the past does not fix the future when God is at work. And notice how he steadies them for it: do not fear; let your hands be strong. The remnant was small and discouraged, and the promise seemed too grand for their weakness; God's word to them was not to fear, but to take courage and get to work, because what seemed impossible to them was not impossible to him. Is it too hard for me? he asks. The reversal from curse to blessing is God's to accomplish, and our part is not to shrink back in fear but to let our hands be strong, trusting the God who turns curses into blessings to do in us what seems beyond us.

Do I feel my life has become a byword of failure, a story of loss rather than blessing, and can I take hold of God's promise of reversal, that he turns those who were a curse into a blessing, and heed his word not to fear but to let my hands be strong, trusting him to do what seems impossible to me?

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