Zechariah is a prophetic book that I have grown to love only recently. It gives such a clear picture of the things that will happen when Jesus returns. But it also is a great encouragement for our lives as believers today. It was originally written to the exiles from Israel, or actually Judah, who moved back to the city of Jerusalem with the support of the Persian king Darius, to rebuild YHWH’s temple and to rebuild the city.
I love the commands God gives to his people who moved back to Jerusalem in Zechariah 7 and 8:
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”
(Zechariah 7:9-10 ESV)
“These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace; do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the Lord.”
(Zechariah 8:16-17 ESV)
Sadly enough, the revivals that happened in the history of post-exilic Judah were usually only short-lived. Maybe the will was there to live according to these words that were recorded here in Zechariah. But the reality was that the new covenant wasn’t a reality yet. The people didn’t yet experience the new hearts wanted to give to them by way of the Holy Spirit, new hearts upon which the words of Torah would be written. So they kept backsliding to idolatry and oppression, to the way life was before the exile.
So I believe the verses that I quoted are a great description of what life will be (and should be) like in the Millennium, when Jesus has returned and set up his throne and his government in Jerusalem. But we as believers in Messiah can live like this in the here and now. We can already live according to Kingdom values in this current age, which is still characterized by oppression and injustice. How? Because we, as loyal believers in Jesus, received an advance of the age to come: the Holy Spirit working in our hearts even today.
We serve Jesus the King and we should live as if he is already here, already seated on his throne in Jerusalem. The church, the ekklesia, is the group of people among which we can train to live out these Kingdom values. When we do that, the ekklesia becomes a little taste of the Kingdom of heaven here on earth.
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