Which of these statements is true?
The more we see the more we know, or the more we know the more we see.
OK. Trick question. Both are true.
I learned this again a few days ago when our plumber friend came to fix a dripping faucet. I thought I could solve the problem, that I could see the issue, but I soon realized that I didn’t know enough to diagnose what was actually causing the leak. When Tommy arrived, he showed me what I had not seen. Because he understood how the faucet worked, he could see the problem clearly.
This reminds me of the Israelites in Zechariah 7–8. When they thought they could see their problem clearly, God invited them to take a deeper look. And He does the same for us today.
After the eight fantastic visions from the Lord that Zechariah had in apparently just in one night, we now pick up the narrative two years later.
What the Israelites Saw and What God Knew
Zechariah 7 starts out something like a black-and-white movie. The people of Israel have returned to Jerusalem; they are no longer exiles. The pace has picked up in rebuilding the temple; their situation has changed.
The people who returned to Bethel decided to send some “deputies” to Jerusalem to ask the priests a question about worship after deliverance from exile:
“Should I mourn and fast ... as I have done for so many years?”
Were they being sincere or solicitous when they asked if they should keep mourning and fasting with the fasts they practiced during the 70 years of exile?
The answer to their black-and-white question comes in magnificent celestial HD color and surround digital sound.
The Lord goes to the heart of the matter…the matter of their hearts.
The Lord of Hosts, the Lord Almighty, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, Yahweh Sabaoth pretty much takes over for the rest of chapters 7–8. In 7:5, in response to the deputies from Bethel, the word of the Lord of Hosts came to Zechariah once again:
“When you fasted and mourned ... for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?”
God Calls People to Authentic Obedience
The Lord went to the heart of the matter—the matter of their hearts. God was helping them see something new: that religious activity without whole-hearted surrender to God had always been the problem.
Were they doing their religious remembrances as unto the Lord or for themselves? That’s a question for all of us.
In Zechariah 7:9-10, God calls His people to something deeper:
“This is what the LORD Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’”
Were they doing their religious remembrances as unto the Lord or for themselves? That’s a question for all of us.
The more we see and hear God, the more we understand.
The more we understand about God, the more we see and hear Him.
God Calls People to Authentic Relationship
In Zechariah 8:2, we also see that the Lord of Hosts is jealous! Ironically, this is good news.
“This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘I am very jealous for Zion; I am burning with jealousy for her.’” (See also Zechariah 1:14.)
On a human level, we basically think of jealousy as bad because we are usually jealous “of” people. We see in the Bible, however, that the Lord of Hosts is jealous “for” people—His people—then and now.
This is amazing! The Lord of Hosts is so jealous to be in an intimate eternal relationship with His people—then and now—that He will correct them (and us) when they disobey and protect them (and us) when they return to Him.
“‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the LORD Almighty” (Zechariah 1:3).
Nothing can or will stop the Lord of Hosts!
God Promises a Beautiful Future
Once the people understood the heart of the Lord of Hosts, they were finally able to see and hear promises that would have sounded impossible before.
Zechariah 8 is almost too fantastic to describe and too magnificent to believe.
It’s a reflection of the promise of God in Isaiah 64:4 before the exile and reinforced in 1 Corinthians 2:9 after the resurrection: “‘What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived’—the things God has prepared for those who love him.”
God uses His Word to sharpen our sight.
Zechariah 8 ends with a remarkable description of a world in the midst of a global revival. Verse 22 prophesies that many people and powerful nations will “seek the LORD Almighty” and “entreat him.”
This vision in chapter 8 ends with an incredible prophecy. Is this a hint of a millennium to come? Zechariah doesn’t elaborate, but whatever it describes, I long for it! So do you.
“This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘In those days ten people from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, “Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you”’” (Zechariah 8:23).
With a smile of gratitude, I often think this description reflects Bible Study Fellowship. Your family, friends, and colleagues come with you to a BSF class because they see your lives and understand that God is with you.
This is why studying Scripture together matters. God uses His Word to sharpen our sight. As our understanding grows, so does our ability to recognize when God is calling us back to authentic obedience and relationship.
The more we see the more we know.
The more we know the more we see.
That day is coming.
BSF helps us practice and get ready.