CRITICAL NOTES.]
Zechariah 8:9.] Adversity followed neglect of duty, now blessings promised to create courage. Hands] With such bright prospects be energetic and active (2 Samuel 16:21). These words] of consolation and encouragement from Haggai and Zechariah.
Zechariah 8:10.] A reason for courage in work. No hire] The labour of man and beast little or nothing; agricultural results meagre (cf. Haggai 1:6; Haggai 1:9-11; Haggai 2:16-19). Neither peace] None free from the enemy in the ordinary pursuits of life; intestine broils and contentions prevailed everywhere.
Zechariah 8:11. Now] a vivid contrast, blessings for obedience in building the temple.
Zechariah 8:12. Seed] will be healthy and not fail to yield abundance (Hosea 2:21-22). Dew] beneficial, especially in hot climates, where rain is scarce. “Future abundance will compensate for the drought and scarcity of the past” [Jerome].
Zechariah 8:13.] All the blessings summed up in this verse. “The formula, to be a curse among the nations, is to be interpreted according to Jeremiah 24:9; Jeremiah 25:9; Jeremiah 42:18; 2 Kings 22:19, as equivalent to being the object of a curse, i.e. so smitten by God as to serve as the object of curses. In harmony with this, the phrase to “become a blessing” is equivalent to being so blessed as to be used as a benedictory formula (cf. Genesis 48:22; Jeremiah 29:22). “This promise is made to the remnant of Judah and Israel, and therefore of all the twelve tribes, who are to become partakers of the future salvationin undivided unity (cf. ch. Zechariah 9:10; Zechariah 9:13; Zechariah 10:6; Zechariah 11:14)” [Keil]. “The ground upon which this promise rests is given in Zechariah 8:14-15, and it is closed in Zechariah 8:16-17 by the addition of the condition upon which it is fulfilled.”
Zechariah 8:14. Repented not] Just as the threatening did not fail, neither shall the promise.
HOMILETICS
COURAGE IN DUTY.—Zechariah 8:9-15
The prophet now urges the people to be courageous in their work. Adversity formerly attended them for neglect of duty, but God will henceforth bestow blessings, which are but the earnest of greater ones which await those who return to God. The grounds for courage are distinctly given.
I. The words of the prophets. “Ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets.” Ever since they had commenced to build God had exhorted them in their work and assured them that it would be finished. Special messengers sent to stir us up and predict success ought to encourage. It is a privilege to hear the prophets, and a sure way to prosperity to believe them (2 Chronicles 20:20).
II. The prospect of better days. Before, they were hindered in their work; man and beast laboured in vain. But bright is the future if they will be strong.
1. Great rewards for labour. “There was no hire for man, nor hire for beast.” Produce was expected, waited for, but came not (Haggai 1:10). “Man must be disappointed with the lesser things of life before he can comprehend the full value of the greater” [Bulwer Lytton].
2. Abundant temporal prosperity. The seed will be healthy and the harvests fruitful. The earth will give its increase and the heaven its dew. No failure nor famine, no poverty nor distress. There will be seed to the sower and bread to the eater.
3. Entire security from foes. Neither discord within nor invasion without will disturb their peace and security. They will dwell together in unity and labour without fear. Their disposition will be peaceful and their country secure. “Peace is rarely denied to the peaceful” [Schiller].
4. Complete reversal of fortunes. “I will not be unto the residue of this people as in the former days.” If we return to duty God will visit us in favour. The curse shall be turned into a blessing, and we shall be saved from dispersion and dishonour. God will dwell with us without fear and reproach. “I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord; thoughts of peace, and not of evil.”
III. The pledge of God’s help. “Again have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem.” God had determined, purposed to help.
1. God’s word is explicit. “Fear not,” “let your hands he strong.” Fear makes the heart faint, and when the heart is feeble the hands can never be strong. When the spirit is timid and irresolute we have neither energy in body nor mind to work. Confidence will brace up the energies, and the joy of the Lord will be our strength.
2. God’s faithfulness is unchangeable. His word was true to the fathers. He “repented not.” If faithful to his threatenings, will he not be to his promises? Punishment long suspended came at length. Those who would not hear were made to feel that God’s denunciations were not empty words. So “all that God is, and all that God has, are alike pledged in the promises of his covenant,” says Wardlaw, “to do good to his confiding and obedient people.” “Hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”
PAST AND PRESENT, OR ONCE A CURSE AND NOW A BLESSING.—Zechariah 8:13
These words apply to all the tribes of Israel—have been partially fulfilled. For generations Jews have been cursed by all people, but a more glorious accomplishment will be in the future. They might be taken literally, but apply them in another sense.
I. God’s people have once been a curse.
1. When unconverted. many were a curse in their influence and example. Their lives, if not openly wicked, were a hindrance to everything good. “One sinner destroyeth much good.”
2. When chastised by God they were in a sense cursed. From the first a curse and a blessing were set before Israel, and the result was according to their choice (Deuteronomy 11:26; Deuteronomy 30:1). But God’s people disobey, and are corrected by sufferings.
3. When persecuted they are cursed. They are ridiculed for their profession, and often become a by-word and a proverb (Jeremiah 24:9). They are thought to be “stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” “Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us” (Psalms 44:13-14).
II. God’s people are now a blessing. “Ye shall be a blessing.”
1. They are blessed in their own experience. They are renewed and forgiven. They enjoy the presence and the favour of God. “And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
2. They are the means of blessing others. In their influence and example, prayers and efforts, good men are a blessing. As the Jew was a source of blessing to the Gentile, so is the Christian to the world. “I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
1. The privilege. Hearing the words of the prophets.
2. The duty. “Let your hands be strong.” “Those only who are employed for God may expect to be encouraged by him; those who lay their hands to the plough of duty shall have them strengthened with the promises of mercy.”
1. Those who neglect God’s work will not always succeed in their own. “There was no hire for man.” Neither can they always expect peace and prosperity. “There was no peace to him that went out.”
2. Outward troubles and civil discord may be judgments from God, in which his hand should be specially recognized. “I set all men,” &c. God’s holy hand hath a special stroke in the Church’s afflictions, whosoever be the instrument. Herein is all-disposing Providence not only permissive, but active. “I make peace and create evil,” that is, war and contention (Isaiah 45:7), which is called evil by a speciality, as including all evils. This God doth—
1. By letting loose Satan upon them (that great kindle-coal and make-bate of the world) to raise jealousies, heart-burnings, and discontents between them.
2. By giving them up to the lusts and corruptions of their own wicked hearts.
3. By giving occasions of enraging them more and more one against another [Trapp].
Zechariah 8:11. I will cause. Whereas people are apt to attribute too much to means and second causes of plenty and prosperity, God assumes the honour of all to himself. Rain and fruitful seasons are his gift (Acts 14:17). He resolveth the genealogy of corn and wine unto himself (Hosea 2:22); and both here and elsewhere he giveth us to know that the reward of religion is abundance of outward blessings, which yet are not always entailed to godliness, to the end that it may be admired for itself, and not for these transitory trappings [Trapp].
Zechariah 8:14-15. Past sorrows pledges of future good. How?
1. Because past sorrows inflicted to prevent future evil.
2. Because past sorrows prove God’s unchangeable purpose and love. “So have I turned and purposed,” &c. “The illustrations of God’s severity will be surpassed by those of his goodness” [Lange]. His chastisements were the earnest of his mercies, for they too were an austere form of his love [Pusey].
Fear not.
1. Grounds of apprehension.
2. Grounds of confidence.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 8
Zechariah 8:9. Strong.
“Fear is the virtue of slaves: but the heart that loveth is willing” [Longfellow].
Zechariah 8:10-12. Fruit. Interesting and lovely as the green fields in their luxuriant riches must ever be, to the eye of faith and devotion they are even more so. Did we accustom ourselves to associate with their beauty the superintending providence of God, as well as the subordinate art and labour of man, they would possess an interest and a loveliness which the mere lover of nature never knew. The sweetest landscape is improved by the presence of animated objects, which impart a liveliness, an interest, as it were, an existence, to the whole. What increased force and interest are added to it by the presence, so to speak, of the living God [Palin].
Zechariah 8:13. Curse.
“A curse is like a cloud,—it passes” [Bailey].
Zechariah 8:14-15. Do well. God is goodness itself; and whatsoever is good is of him [Sir P. Sidney]. God has been pleased to prescribe limits to his own power, and to work his ends within these limits [Paley].