CRITICAL NOTES.]
Zechariah 8:18-19.] An answer to question (ch. Zechariah 7:3). Fasts] shall be turned into Feasts] of joy and gladness. Love] Live in harmony among yourselves as the result: others as the only condition of blessing.
FASTS TURNED INTO FESTIVE JOY.—Zechariah 8:18-19
These words are fresh grounds for encouragement.
I. Their mourning will be turned into gladness. Their seasons of sorrow and penitential confession should end in feasting and praise. They would be delivered from foreign yoke, and brought back to their own land; restored from spiritual desolation to the privileges of the temple. Personally and socially, joy and gladness would be great. Troublous times often end in joyous songs to the Church. After the night of weeping, the morning dawns in light and cheerfulness. “They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
II. This gladness will lead to sincerity of life. “Therefore, love the truth and peace.” God blesses his people, that they may love him. The greater his promises, the greater should be our obedience. Fasts and feasts are empty forms. God requires truth in our life, and peace in our hearts. “What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
“Truth is always straightforward” [Sophocles].
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Zechariah 8:19. Mark the practical improvement. “Therefore, love the truth and peace.” The words may be taken in two senses: First, as an appeal to gratitude, as if Jehovah had said, “You owe your deliverance to me.” You deserved it not. You never could have wrought it for yourselves. It is all my doing. If, therefore, you feel as you ought; thankful to your covenant God for my interposing on your behalf, think of my will, and henceforward attend to what you know will be pleasing in my sight: “love the truth and peace.” Secondly, as an appeal to self-love—an appeal grounded on a regard to their own interests: as if he had said, “You have been suffering for your own and your fathers’ sins. You have been delivered. If you would shun a repetition of the sufferings—if you would continue in possession of your now restored land and liberty, and temporal and spiritual blessings—‘love the truth and peace.’ Love them in heart: show love to them in practice. It is thus only that you can retain my favour and blessing; thus only that your days can be prolonged upon the land which the Lord your God has again given you” [Wardlaw].
Truth and peace, twin virtues. Observe—
1. Their connection. Truth should be sought, maintained, and diffused in a peaceful spirit.
2. Their order. Truth first, and then peace. Trust must not be compromised for the sake of peace. It is not peace on any terms. “If it be possible (it may not be so always), as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.”
“Truth hath a quiet breast” [Shakspeare].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 8
Zechariah 8:19. Joy. What is joy? A sunbeam between two clouds [Madame Deluzy]. Joy never feasts so high, as when the first course is of misery [Suckling].