Tag: Zechariah

Links for today’s readings:

May 22  Read: Zechariah 4 Listen: (1:53) Read: Luke 13 Listen: (5:02)

Links for this ’s readings:

May 23  Read: Zechariah 5 Listen: (1:35) Read: Luke 14 Listen: (4:36)
May 24  Read: Zechariah 6 Listen: (2:08) Read: Luke 15 Listen: (4:19)
May 25  Read: Zechariah 7 Listen: (1:57) Read: Luke 16 Listen: (4:27)

Reflection: When a Lampstand is Not a Lampstand

By John Tillman

When is a lampstand not a lampstand?

Zechariah would have recognized the golden lampstands that had been made for the temple. Even if he had not seen them in person, he would have known them by description. Is that what he saw in his vision? If so, the vision lampstand was different enough to be confusing to him.

The gold lampstand In Zechariah’s vision stood between two olive trees. Normally, the priests and Levites supplied the temple’s lampstands with oil to ensure the lights in the temple never went out. But this lampstand was not normal.

Olive oil is not tapped from olive trees like maple syrup from maples. But these strange trees had branches and “gold pipes” pouring out golden oil to supply the lampstand. Perhaps this supernatural mechanism is why Zechariah was so curious that he asked three separate times what the lampstand and trees were. He never got a straight answer. He got a prophetic answer. What does this lampstand represent? Let’s look at its important qualities.

The lampstand functions not by might or power but by the Holy Spirit of God. The lampstand brings the light of truth and the warmth of God’s love to the entire world. The lampstand conquers mountainous obstacles, making straight and level paths. The lampstand is anointed to serve the Lord (Jesus) and those united to him. The lampstand is connected to the flowing fuel of God’s Holy Spirit that empowers all that it is and does.

What can you think of that should share the qualities of this lampstand?

Shouldn’t the worldwide church? Shouldn’t local faith communities? Shouldn’t families? Shouldn’t each individual believer?

Get plugged in like the lampstand! Be supernaturally supplied with the Holy Spirit to do the work God has called you to do, in the way he asks you to do it, sharing the light of his love to every person of every race, tribe, and tounge.

Function not by might or power but by the Holy Spirit of God. Bring the light of truth and the warmth of God’s love to the entire world. Conquer mountainous obstacles obstructing people from seeing Jesus. Make straight and level paths for them to approach our loving father. Serve Jesus and those united to him in the power of your annointing. Connect to the flowing fuel of God’s Holy Spirit, whose power supplies God’s purposes.

Be a supernaturally supplied lampstand.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught us, saying: “The lamp of the body is the eye. It follows that if your eye is clear, your whole body will be filled with light. But if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be darkness. If then, the light inside you is darkened, what darkness that will be! — Matthew 6.22-23

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Confused Along With the Prophets

Zechariah’s visions were of hope and restoration in the midst of suffering and doubt….restoration that seems insurmountable will find completion.

Confused Along with the Prophets

Read more: Suffering and Sin

We feel less responsible when we can believe that only the lazy are poor, only the promiscuous are in danger of sexual assault or disease, only hedonists become addicts, and only nihilists suffer depression.

Suffering and Sin

Links for today’s readings:

May 21  Read: Zechariah 3 Listen: (1:48) Read: Luke 12 Listen: (7:42)

Scripture Focus: Zechariah 3.1-8

1 Then he showed me Joshua  the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan  standing at his right side to accuse him. 2 The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?” 

3 Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4 The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” 

Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.” 

5 Then I said, “Put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord stood by. 

6 The angel of the Lord gave this charge to Joshua: 7 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘If you will walk in obedience to me and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here. 

8 “ ‘Listen, High Priest Joshua, you and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch.

Reflection: Fitting Garments of Grace

By John Tillman

Clothing is one of God’s first gifts to sinful humans. On shows like Naked and Afraid, survivalists endure harsh conditions without clothing, but even they aren’t completely naked. They wear a bag that doesn’t cover body parts but holds tools, food, and other items. Even without clothes, we need pockets.

Clothes give us more than pockets. They give us privacy, protection, comfort, and utility. Clothes express things about us, both intentional and unintentional. We want clothes to fit us and fit the situation.

Have you ever arrived with clothes that didn’t fit the setting or were improper for the activity? Swimsuits and business suits are not appropriate for the same events. Worn and dirt-stained gardening clothes work for tending a garden, but not attending a garden party. Even perfect outfits can be ruined by a catastrophe with your coffee or a slip in the mud.

It is awkward to be improperly clothed. It is distressing to wear filthy or damaged clothing in an important situation or in front of an important person. In Zechariah’s vision, the new high priest, Joshua, needed a change of clothes.

Joshua was not dressed properly to stand before God. Satan, the accuser, stood there, condemning Joshua for his sins, visualized as filthy clothing. Yet, in this court, Joshua found mercy.

The Lord described Joshua as a burning stick, snatched from the fire. He ordered the filthy garments removed and new, clean garments put on him. These garments were not his by right and he didn’t earn them—they were a gift. These garments of grace were not only clean but appropriate to the ministry and work Joshua was called before God to be commissioned in.

Zechariah’s visions (like most prophetic writings) blend our reality with heavenly reality. The vision of Joshua is a sign of things to come, including for us.

How are you clothed before God? Are you trying to clean or dress up your filthy clothes? Are you ashamed of nakedness and need? Do you hear the accuser’s voice and the scorn of those who see you as improper, damaged, burned, and broken? There is more than just grace for you in Jesus. There are garments fitted for you, fitted for your calling, to bring you honor and gift you for service.

Put on fitting garments of grace from Jesus. Raise your head. Raise your arms. And raise your voice. Get to work.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous, and give thanks to his holy Name. — Psalm 97.12

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Friendly Neighborhood Christians

You don’t need to be a “hero” influencer or leader. Don’t underestimate the power of being a “friendly neighborhood Christian.”

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Read more: Christ, the True Hero

“With great power comes great responsibility” rephrases Luke 12:48.
The deeper truth of Spider-man’s proverb is that the powerful are seldom responsible.

Christ, the True Hero

Links for today’s readings:

May 20  Read: Zechariah 2 Listen: (1:41) Read: Luke 11 Listen: (7:33)

Scripture Focus: Zechariah 2.2-5, 10-11

2 I asked, “Where are you going?” 
He answered me, “To measure Jerusalem, to find out how wide and how long it is.” 
3 While the angel who was speaking to me was leaving, another angel came to meet him 4 and said to him: “Run, tell that young man, ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of people and animals in it. 5 And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will be its glory within.’

10 “Shout and be glad, Daughter Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,” declares the Lord. 11 “Many nations will be joined with the Lord in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you.

Reflection: Welcoming Walls

By John Tillman

One generation’s trauma affects the next. I didn’t see the Berlin Wall built, but I saw it fall. It was a day of joy and tears.

The Berlin Wall stood for less than thirty years. Only ninety-six miles long, it divided a city, a nation, and the entire world. It was one of many generational traumas of the Cold War. When the wall was torn down, there was joy and celebration. But there were also tears for the years of separation and mourning for those who did not live to see the day or had died trying to cross.

Returning from exile must have been a similar emotional rollercoaster. No wall was demolished in their escape, but when they arrived at Jerusalem, there was a wall to repair.

Jerusalem was an abandoned rubble pile, defenseless, vulnerable, and marked by tragedy. The rubble was a physical representation of the emotional scars from their seventy-year exile. Zephaniah encouraged the people that it was time to rebuild.

“Measure twice, cut once,” goes the truism.

Measuring is important to rebuilding. To rebuild Jerusalem, the walls and many other things would need to be measured. These measurements were vital to gather sufficient material and organize and complete the work. However, when a young man in Zechariah’s vision set off to measure the width and length of Jerusalem, an angel ran after him to say, “Don’t bother.”

New Jerusalem will be measureless. Innumerable people from every nation and ethnicity will live inside it. The city’s only limit will be the presence of God, envisioned as a wall of protective and purifying fire.

The Brandenburg Gate’s original name meant “Peace Gate.” But the Berlin Wall enclosed it in the “death zone” where those attempting to escape would be shot by East German guards. The wall around New Jerusalem has no “death zone” but it does have a Peace Gate. Jesus Christ is the gate through whom all may enter to find peace with God in his city.

Like the exiles, we are called to escape the empires that claim us or that we claim. We are called to return to, rebuild, and repair, not a worldly city or political entity, but the city of God. We don’t need to measure (or even build) walls to divide. The walls of the heavenly city are welcoming to all who will pass through Jesus, the Peace Gate.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

How sweet are your words to my taste! They are sweeter than honey to my mouth. — Psalm 119.103

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Cultivating Daily Bread

Daily bread refers to a daily need for God and purposely highlights the need for spiritual disciplines that are required for us to grow in faith

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Read more: The Urban Sprawl of the City of God

God is writing an Exodus narrative for us today…“Escape!”, he cries. “Escape from Babylon!”

The Urban Sprawl of the City of God—Readers’ Choice

Links for today’s readings:

May 19  Read: Zechariah 1 Listen: (3:37) Read: Luke 10 Listen: (5:40)

Scripture Focus: Zechariah 1.12-16

12 Then the angel of the Lord said, “Lord Almighty, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and from the towns of Judah, which you have been angry with these seventy years?” 13 So the Lord spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who talked with me. 

14 Then the angel who was speaking to me said, “Proclaim this word: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, 15 and I am very angry with the nations that feel secure. I was only a little angry, but they went too far with the punishment.’ 

16 “Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there my house will be rebuilt. And the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem,’ declares the Lord Almighty.

Reflection: Who Stands Among Us?

By John Tillman

Zechariah records a strange nighttime vision. A man on a red horse waits among a stand of myrtle trees.

The mysterious figure of the man among the myrtles is also called “the angel of the Lord.” The angel of the Lord is a hard character to pin down in scripture.

Sometimes, as with the man among the myrtles, the angel of the Lord speaks for God, in the third person: “This is what the Lord says…” Is he just one of many angels who speak for God, like Gabriel or others? 

At other times, the angel of the Lord speaks as God, in the first person: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob…” (Exodus 3.6) Is he a Theophany, an embodied presence of God or a Christophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ?

One of the unique characteristics of this particular appearance of the angel of the Lord is that he speaks to God on behalf of humans. “Lord Almighty, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem…?” (Zechariah 1.12) This rarely happens with other angels and is the strongest indicator in the text that the mysterious figure might be Jesus, our mediator, the third person of the Trinity. But it is still inconclusive.

We needn’t be too concerned that we can’t quite identify this Jesus-like figure in the myrtle trees when the disciples couldn’t identify Jesus on the Emmaus road. Just keep walking and listen…

Jesus is the perfect representation of God and the Holy Spirit is among us to show him to us. We have a more complete picture of what God is like than even prophets, like Zechariah, who saw dreams and visions of him.

To Zechariah, the man in the myrtles was a powerful and mysterious presence who announced a time of mercy and rebuilding. We too are connected to a powerful and mysterious presence. Today, mercy and rebuilding are announced not by a mysterious horseman but by the Holy Spirit who stands not among myrtles but among us. The Holy Spirit speaks as God, for God, and to God on our behalf.

Let us proclaim the message the Spirit will pass on through us. When we are in step with the Spirit, we too will announce mercy to those who seek God and rebuilding of all that sin has broken.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

You are my God, and I will thank you; you are my God, and I will exalt you. — Psalm 119.113

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: A Prayer of Harvesters — Guided Prayer 

“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few…”
There is much work to be done, Lord.
Send us to the field—into our cities.

A Prayer of Harvesters — Guided Prayer

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Scripture Focus: Zechariah 13.4-6
4 “On that day every prophet will be ashamed of their prophetic vision. They will not put on a prophet’s garment of hair in order to deceive. 5 Each will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I am a farmer; the land has been my livelihood since my youth.’ 6 If someone asks, ‘What are these wounds on your body?’ they will answer, ‘The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.’”

Reflection: Prophetic Forgery
By Erin Newton

Zechariah foresees a time when prophets who speak in the name of God—but not in the Spirit of God—would openly admit their fraudulent ways and renounce their forged positions as prophets.

So many times, we see messages about the end of false prophets: “A sword will flash in their cities; it will devour their false prophets and put an end to their plans” (Hosea 11.6). “In vain I punished your people; they did not respond to correction. Your sword has devoured your prophets like a ravenous lion” (Jeremiah 2.30).

Rarely do we see the regeneration of a false prophet. It is easier to wish for their demise than for their redemption.

The false prophets in Zechariah’s vision have changed careers—from a position of power wielded to hurt others to a life-giving position of a farmer who sows seeds that bear real fruit. The self-inflicted wounds from the ecstatic rituals (like what we saw on Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18.28) are admitted to be the wounds of “friends”—false prophets like themselves.

We have false prophets in our midst today. They speak of God, but the deity is not like the God of the Bible. Self-proclaimed pastors or theologians warp the message of the Bible for their gain—financial, political, or spiritual power, or even some form of self-preservation. True prophets speak the message of God and call out abuses, corruption, and unabashed sin. False prophets deny wrong-doing, cover up sins, and call evil “good.” They are idolaters without realizing it.

We like to think of idols as representing a completely different god than our God. Truth is these false prophets aren’t merely speaking about other gods—they are preaching false words in the forged name of our God. As M. Daniel Carroll R. points out in The Lion Roars, “Israel and Judah were supremely active religious nations, but the quantity of rituals did not qualify the worship as acceptable…. These activities were directed at another god constructed according to the worshipers’ tastes and needs.” Carroll defines false prophecy in the ancient world and points toward the false prophets of our own day.

Prophetic forgery is claiming to speak on God’s behalf when the words sound nothing like the God of the Bible.

The greatest hope we have for the false prophets is that people would see the deceit, name it for what it is, and denounce that behavior once and for all.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
You are the Lord, most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods. — Psalm 97.9

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


​Today’s Readings
Zechariah 13.2-9 (Listen 1:40)
Luke 22 (Listen 7:58)

​This Weekend’s Readings
Zechariah 14 (Listen 3:52), Luke 23 (Listen 6:39)
Malachi 1 (Listen 2:47), Luke 24 (Listen 6:16)

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What is a False Prophet?

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