“Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here.
God motivates us by a promise of his presence. The first six chapters of the book of Zechariah are traditional, deep, prophetic utterances. But, once you cut through the mystery of prophetic utterances, you see that the prophet (and God using the prophet as His mouthpiece) is really simply motivating the people to not just rebuild the temple (something they had returned from captivity to do) but to also rebuild their spiritual lives. Zechariah is a motivational speaker. He is trying to get them to transform their lives to holiness before the Lord. His message is simple: If Israel remained in a cleansed, priestly state, God was promising her the privilege of service in the Temple before Him, guarding it from idolatry and other religious defilement, and access to the very presence of God like the angels standing around Him.
The motivational theory Zechariah employs: The promise of the presence of God! Coming to God in holiness was not something the people really thought about, as a group of people. Coming into the presence of God was the duty of the High Priest and ONLY the High Priest. And, the High Priest was only allowed to do that once per year, at the Day of Atonement. What Zechariah is promising here is quite profound for those in the nation of Israel. They would never imagine coming into God’s presence. But, this is exactly what Christ will provide them (something they had not considered but that Zechariah has in his mind):
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
God tells us we can come into His presence. That is motivation for our holiness.
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