The Future is Bright for God's People (Zechariah 8:18-23).
‘And the word of YHWH of Hosts came to me, saying, “Thus says YHWH of Hosts. The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace.” '
Many sad incidents of the past were remembered in periods of fasting as men mourned what they had lost, but as we have learned earlier, this was not a genuine mourning over sin but a mourning because of loss. They hoped to move God by their tears, but the problem was that their own hearts were not truly moved towards Him (see on Zechariah 7:5-6).
Here we learn of four periods of fasting which had been established and observed. But there is always the danger with such activity that it becomes a means in itself. Men begin to think that God should work because of what they do. They lose the heart of the matter which is the transformation of their own hearts, and thus they do not receive the blessing.
However, God in His grace has heard their cry. Now this fasting can be put to one side. These periods will now become periods of joy and gladness. Their fasts will become cheerful feasts. This is because God is again at work among them. But note the final warning. This will only be maintained if they love truth and peace. Honesty and harmony, truth and reconciliation, are at the heart of what God would achieve. Without this His work will come to a halt.
‘Thus says YHWH of Hosts. “It will yet be that there will come peoples and the inhabitants of many cities, and the inhabitants of one will go to another saying, “Let us go quickly to entreat YHWH's favour and to seek YHWH of Hosts. I will go also.” Yes many peoples and strong nations will come to seek YHWH of Hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat YHWH's favour. Thus says YHWH of Hosts, “In those days it will be that ten men will take hold, out of all the languages of the nations, will even take hold of the skirt of him who is a Jewish man, saying, “We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” '
This picture presents what was God's final purpose for His people, that they should be a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6), bringing men to God; that they should be His witnesses so that the nations respond to Him and seek His face. And He promises that one day such they will be. And the words are intended to be an encouragement to the returned exiles in their parlous situation. They may at present seem few and obscure, but through their efforts and the efforts of those who would follow God's vision for the world would finally come to fruition.
And the future would see its fulfilment. First in the many God fearers who would gather to Jerusalem because of their reverence for His Law, including men like the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:27), and then those who would come to the leaders of the Christian church centred in Jerusalem, that they may learn certainly of the truth of the things they had heard, and finally in those who would flock to the preaching of the Gospel as the men who were the true fulfilment of the Jewish hope went out from Jerusalem among them preaching Christ.
‘Ten men.' ‘Ten' signifies ‘many' (compare how Jacob said ‘you have changed my wages ten times' - Genesis 31:7). It is also stressed that they will be of many languages. The response will be widespread.
‘Take hold of the skirt.' Probably signifying the response of discipleship. We must never forget that it was among Jews that the Gospel was first proclaimed and those who first went out with the Gospel to the world were Jews such as the twelve apostles and Paul.
‘God is with you.' See Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 45:14. As men saw what had happened they would know that it was only because God was in it that it had happened.