Scripture Daily

Context No. 2989 of 4322 · Zechariah

Context · Reflection

Zechariah 1:12-16: in context

12Then the LORD’s angel replied, “O LORD of Armies, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which you have had indignation these seventy years?” 13The LORD answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting words. 14So the angel who talked with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘The LORD of Armies says: “I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. 15I am very angry with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, but they added to the calamity.” 16Therefore the LORD says: “I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it,” says the LORD of Armies, “and a line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.”’

The angel of the LORD gives voice to the question on every heart: O LORD of Hosts, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these seventy years? And the LORD answers with gracious, comforting words: I am jealous for Zion with a great jealousy; I am angry with the nations at ease who piled on beyond my intent. I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be rebuilt.

After seventy long years of exile, the ache of "how long?" is finally voiced, and God answers with tenderness. His anger toward his people had both a limit and a purpose, but underneath it is a jealous love for them, and the nations who exploited that discipline will answer for it. The promise is return and rebuilding: I have come back with mercy. The long silence was never abandonment; God's mercy was on its way, and his house would rise again.

In a long season that feels like God's silence, can I trust that his mercy is returning, and that his discipline has a limit set by his jealous love?

Sources