Tag: Zechariah

Scripture Focus: Zechariah 11.4-5, 7-8
4 This is what the Lord my God says: “Shepherd the flock marked for slaughter. 5 Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Praise the Lord, I am rich!’ Their own shepherds do not spare them

7 So I shepherded the flock marked for slaughter, particularly the oppressed of the flock. Then I took two staffs and called one Favor and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock. 8 In one month I got rid of the three shepherds. The flock detested me, and I grew weary of them.

Reflection: God’s Performance Artists
By John Tillman

When Christians think of God as an artist, we often think of pretty sunsets. But God’s artistic portfolio reveals edgier, darker, and grittier work beyond sunsets or rainbows. God often directed his prophets in shocking forms of performance art.

Few people understand performance art, which, like any art form, can be shocking, disgusting, or absurd. In 2014, Shia LaBeouf participated in performance art called “I Am Sorry.” LaBeouf attended events wearing a paper bag over his head that read, “I am not famous anymore.” Then, he wore the bag in the gallery while visitors sat across from him. Most verbally abused him.

“I Am Sorry” was mild compared to God’s performance art exhibits.
Isaiah prophesied naked.
Jeremiah wore an oxen’s yoke.
Ezekiel ate food cooked over feces.
Hosea married a prostitute.

Zechariah’s performance art was taking over a herd of sheep marked for slaughter. These sheep were neglected and ill-treated by former shepherds. Zechariah paid special attention to the oppressed of the flock, yet even with his tender treatment, they detested him. Zechariah turned them over to a far worse shepherd than the ones before.

God explains this as a condemnation of the shepherds and the flock. God sent a good shepherd to replace the bad, but the flock rejected him. They paid Zechariah thirty pieces of silver as an insult. It was the same price paid for the death of a servant gored by a bull.

Zechariah’s performance art previewed Jesus’ ministry. Jesus was the good shepherd sent to the abused flock. He directed his attention to the outcasts, abused, and oppressed. Israel rejected him and sold his life for thirty pieces of silver. (Matthew 27.9-10) We can trust this good shepherd.

Not all art we encounter is holy in meaning or execution. But art expresses part of the image of God in us. Understanding anyone’s art helps us better understand God’s art, which reveals God’s heart.

God is an artistically expressive creator, a verbally gifted communicator, and a passionate storyteller. Like most great artists, God puts his blood, sweat, and tears into his work. We communicate with God through art inspired by and interpreted by his Holy Spirit.

God’s art, including the Bible, is complex and multifaceted but not inscrutable or absurd. Even at its darkest, there is hope. Even at its most confusing, we can trust the heart of Jesus, the ultimate artist and good shepherd.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
On the last day, the great day of the festival, Jesus stood and cried out: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me! Let anyone who believes in me come and drink! As scripture says, ‘From his heart shall flow streams of living water.’” He was speaking of the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive; for there was no Spirit as yet because Jesus had not yet been glorified. — John 7.37-39

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

​Today’s Readings
Zechariah 11 (Listen 2:40)
Luke 20 (Listen 5:07)

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Scripture Focus: Zechariah 5.3-4
3 And he said to me, “This is the curse that is going out over the whole land; for according to what it says on one side, every thief will be banished, and according to what it says on the other, everyone who swears falsely will be banished. 4 The Lord Almighty declares, ‘I will send it out, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of anyone who swears falsely by my name. It will remain in that house and destroy it completely, both its timbers and its stones.’”

From John: This past Monday evening, I wrapped up volunteering in my eighth Alpha course with our church. In it we speak with and listen to those with no faith, lost faith, and injured faith and try to help them pick up the pieces. It seems appropriate to return to this post about deconstruction and reconstruction from 2022. When injury or damage happens, we often must take things apart before we can put them back together.

Reflection: Defilement, Deconstruction, and Reconstruction
By John Tillman

Many of Zechariah’s visions are about cleansing and rebuilding afresh. Those returning from exile face a destroyed and defiled landscape.

It isn’t so hard for us to imagine something similar today. Millions of people have fled the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the cities and towns left behind have been bombed to rubble in ways not seen since World War II. Not only bombed buildings but mass graves await those who hope to one day return. Destruction and defilement.

Like post-war Europe, much of Jerusalem in Zechariah’s day would have to be reconstructed from the ground up. However, God isn’t only concerned with physical reconstruction. He wants to reconstruct the people’s faith, starting with their hearts.

God is and always has sought to deal with the corruption and defilement of human hearts. The mental, social, and physical damage we cause one another flows from inner corruption. When our cities are wicked, our hearts are the source. When our countryside is corrupt, our hearts are the cause. When Jerusalem and its walls and Temple were destroyed and burned with fire, it was because of their hearts.

As the new community of Jerusalem rebuilt the Temple, their homes, and eventually the wall, God was concerned that no spiritual defilement would be present. Zechariah sees a vision of a flying scroll that represents a curse. This curse will target those whose hearts seek wicked ways of prospering and will destroy their homes.

Zechariah’s “timbers and stones” language echoes some passages about physical molds in Leviticus. (Leviticus 14.35-45) Priests inspected homes with mold. If the mold spread, the first step was to remove only the affected stones. But if the mold returned, the entire house had to be deconstructed, “stones, timbers, and all the plaster,” and removed from the community. 

May we never allow ourselves to think we, or our culture, are immune to the rot of sin. In our individual lives, our churches, and the structures of our denominations and nations, we all face defiling influences from our cultures.

Defiling influences have to be fully removed to save existing structures. If small steps do not stop the seeping spread of defilement, more extreme measures are required. Defiled structures must be completely deconstructed and rebuilt.

Cutting out corruption is salvific. Destruction is not God’s goal. Reconstruction is. Take care to deconstruct and destroy only when corruption persists.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
He looks at the earth and it trembles; he touches the mountains and they smoke. — Psalm 104.33

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


​Today’s Readings
Zechariah 5 (Listen 1:35)
Luke 14 (Listen 4:36)

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Read more about Invitation to Re-creation
Zephaniah is predicting God will dominate and destroy every evil thing in creation…He will wipe the floor with them.

Scripture Focus: Zechariah 4.5
5 He answered, “Do you not know what these are?”
“No, my lord,” I replied.

Reflection: Confused Along with the Prophets
By Erin Newton

Zechariah is one of the more difficult texts of the Old Testament. Like the prophet, I read these passages and think, “I have no idea what he’s talking about.” Thankfully, Zechariah was equally confused.

The setting for Zechariah is after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Solomon’s Temple was a pile of rubble (perhaps even the mountain mentioned in verse 7). Zechariah’s visions were of hope and restoration in the midst of suffering and doubt.

The imagery is somewhat mysterious—golden lampstands with branches and channels. The lampstand is representative of God, whose eyes are on the work of the people.

A message was also given to Zerubbabel. These additional statements interrupt Zechariah’s vision and the conversation he was having with the angel. Despite the erratic conversation bouncing from one topic to the next, the interruptions add to the overall message. There are answers within the chaos. Zerubbabel will finish the temple. The work of restoration that seems insurmountable will indeed find completion.

I tried to look through various commentaries, hoping to find scholars far more skilled and familiar with Zechariah to help explain exactly what these images mean. You know what? Everyone is a little bit perplexed. Part of me gets frustrated when I read passages that make me scratch my head. Looking for clarity here, I find whole crowds of biblically trained headscratchers.

Nevertheless, this head-scratching scene is one of hope—and the hope part of the vision is clear. The temple will be completed. God is present. God is watching over them. The presence of God with his people in this restored temple is prophesied as a certain future.  

Isn’t this the beauty of Scripture sometimes? The vision that is vague in some places and clear in others coincides with the complexity and confusion of our lives.

Zechariah looks out on the piles of stones that once formed the magnificent temple. Zerubbabel was stirred by the Holy Spirit to work on rebuilding the temple (Haggai 1.14), but the work is fraught with difficulties. Zechariah declares, however, it is by God’s power that the work gets done.

In a strange way, I am thankful for these complicated and confusing passages. The vision of our future is always filled with questions. What we see as a mess, God sees as a future of hope. What we fear is up to us, God knows he can empower.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him. Amen. 

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


​Today’s Readings
Zechariah 4 (Listen 1:53)
Luke 13 (Listen 5:02)

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Readers’ Choice Bonus:
Today’s post was originally published, on May 20, 2022, based on Zechariah 2.3-11

It was selected by reader, Brian Bakke, Washington DC: 
“Thank you for this reflection. Thanks for sharing about the City of God. Thanks for the gift of sharing about the eternal City where all of us who are called by name will celebrate, worship, and live with our Lord and Savior forever and ever.

My father was a gifted teacher, author, and professor. He will forever be known for calling the Church back into the city. He was co-editor of the Word in Life Study Bible, which has thousands of notes that speak of God’s love for the city and the people who live there. He was an unknown pastor laboring in a small church in Chicago. Someone told someone, who told someone, who told someone, and my father was on the stage at Urbana in 1984. He wrote The Urban Christian, and Theology As Big as the City, and A Biblical Word for an Urban World.”

From John: After corresponding with Brian following the original publication of this devotional, I read Theology As Big as the City and found it to be inspirational and very much still relevant to ministry and the church today—perhaps even more relevant now than when it was first published. I recommend adding it to your reading list. 

Thank you for sending your selections of meaningful and helpful devotionals from the past 12 months. This is a bonus Readers’ Choice post for this week. Remember that you don’t have to wait to send a Readers’ Choice. You can submit them all year long simply by replying back to our emails or filling out the form found at this link.

Scripture Focus: Zechariah 2.3-11
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.’ 

6 “Come! Come! Flee from the land of the north,” declares the Lord, “for I have scattered you to the four winds of heaven,” declares the Lord. 

7 “Come, Zion! Escape, you who live in Daughter Babylon!” 8 For this is what the Lord Almighty says: “After the Glorious One has sent me against the nations that have plundered you—for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye—9 I will surely raise my hand against them so that their slaves will plunder them. g Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me. 

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: The Urban Sprawl of the City of God—Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

The angel who has been talking to Zechariah leaves him. However, at some distance away, a second angel intercepts the first with an urgent message, sending him back. “Run, tell that young man…” the second angel says.

Zechariah is told that the new Jerusalem will have no walls. This may not seem unusual to us. Most of today’s cities have no walls. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, where I live, covers an area larger than the combined areas of Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island. It is over 9,000 square miles of cities grown right into each other…and sprawling more every month out into the surrounding countryside.

In Zechariah’s day, however, cities without walls were defenseless. However, the angel of the Lord says that he, himself, will be a wall of fire around the city and its glory within. This image links to at least two things. 

On Mount Sinai, God appeared in a fiery cloud of glory. The people were too afraid to go near the mountain, but Moses entered this fire and experienced the glory of God.

In John’s Revelation, the City of God, the New Jerusalem, comes down from Heaven and has no need of sun or lamps because the Lord himself will be its light. His glory will fill the city. (Revelation 22.5; Zechariah 14.7; Isaiah 60.19)

The angel tells Zechariah that God will send him to us in this fire-walled, glorious city. He will come and live among us and many nations will become God’s people.

God has sent Jesus to us in this manner and for this purpose. Jesus is the entrance into all that God has for us. He is the gate and the wall and when we enter, he shows us God’s glory closer than Moses ever got to see. This is an “already and not yet” promise. We can experience it now in part, as through a veil like Moses wore, but then we will experience it more fully.

God is writing an Exodus narrative for us today. Jesus calls to us to escape the cities, systems, and empires we now serve. “Escape!”, he cries. “Escape from Babylon!” Jesus calls us to live within the borderless, wall-less, ever-sprawling city of New Jerusalem. As we anticipate the ultimate fulfillment of this promise, may we participate in work God calls us to which fulfills it in part.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
The same stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. — Psalm 118.22

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

Today’s Readings*
Ezekiel 6(Listen 3:28)
Romans 9(Listen 5:15)

*We have diverted into 1 Kings and Ephesians for this week. Devotionals on our daily readings will continue next week.

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