Zechariah · chapter 8 of 14
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Zechariah 8 gathers ten messages from the Lord of hosts that answer the question about fasting. God says he returns to Zion and will dwell in Jerusalem, that old men and children will fill her squares, that he will gather his people from east and west, and that the fasts will become feasts of joy. He asks them to speak truth and judge justly, and announces that people of many nations will come to seek the Lord.
Chapter 7 ended with the memory of the exile as a warning. Chapter 8 completes the answer with a series of promises, each introduced by the formula thus says the Lord of hosts. The tone shifts from rebuke to hope: God restores Jerusalem, and his people live in peace, with justice and with joy.
The Lord of hosts says he is jealous for Zion with great jealousy and burns with great wrath for her. He returns to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, which will be called the faithful city and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. Old men and old women will again sit in the squares of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age, and the streets will be full of boys and girls playing. If this seems impossible to the remnant of the people in those days, will it also seem impossible to the Lord?
The Lord will save his people from the east and from the west and bring them to dwell in Jerusalem; they will be his people and he will be their God, in truth and in righteousness. He tells those who hear these words from the prophets, since the day the foundation of the temple was laid, to let their hands be strong. Now it will not be so with the remnant: there will be a sowing of peace, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground its produce and the heavens their dew. As they were a curse among the nations, they will be a blessing; fear not, let your hands be strong.
Just as the Lord purposed to bring disaster when their fathers provoked him, so now he has purposed to bring good: fear not. What they are to do is speak the truth to one another, render in their gates judgments that are true and make for peace, plan no evil against one another and love no false oath.
The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become to Judah seasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts; love truth and peace. Peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will come and say to one another, let us go to entreat the favor of the Lord. In those days ten men from nations of every language will take hold of the robe of a Jew and say, let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Lord declares that he returns to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, which will be called the faithful city. The central promise is God's presence: the city will be holy not because of its walls but because of the One who lives in it.
The city's streets will be full of boys and girls playing. It is a picture of peace and safety: a city where the elderly live with dignity and children play without fear is a restored city.
The Lord asks them to speak the truth to one another and to judge in their gates with judgments that make for peace. The promise of restoration is joined to the honest and just life of those who receive it.
Ten men from the nations will take hold of the robe of a Jew to go with him, because they have heard that God is with you. God's presence with his people draws the nations and shows the universal purpose of the promise.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: He will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. — Zechariah 8:3
Answer: Old men and women sitting in the squares, and boys and girls playing. — Zechariah 8:4-5
Answer: From the east and from the west. — Zechariah 8:7
Answer: A blessing among the nations, with a sowing of peace and the fruit of the land. — Zechariah 8:12-13
Answer: To speak the truth to one another. — Zechariah 8:16
Answer: Seasons of joy, gladness and cheerful feasts. — Zechariah 8:19
Zechariah 8 encourages us to dream of God's work without ceasing to act. The picture of old people sitting and children playing describes what God desires for a community: peace, care and joy. In a class or small group you can ask how to help the church and the neighborhood resemble that city a little more.
It also reminds us that restoration is lived out with truth and justice. And the last verse challenges us: is it noticeable in our lives that God is with us, in such a way that others want to draw near?
Zechariah 8 closes the first part of the book with a vision full of hope: Jerusalem restored, the fasts turned into feasts and the nations drawn to the Lord. From chapter 9 the second part begins, with oracles about the king who comes in humility, the shepherd and the future of God's people.
They were fasts that remembered the fall of Jerusalem and the events around it: the fourth month (the breach in the wall), the fifth (the burning of the temple), the seventh (probably the murder of Gedaliah) and the tenth (the start of the siege). The Lord promises to turn them into feasts.
It is a picture of people from many nations who want to join God's people because they have seen that God is with them. Ten is a number of fullness. Christians see in this an announcement that people of all nations would draw near to the God of Israel.
Because those who came back from exile saw a small city in ruins. The Lord answers that what is impossible for them is not impossible for him. The question whether it would also be marvelous to the Lord invites us to trust his power.