Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land. For everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and everyone who swears falsely shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side.
Zechariah is trying to motivate the Jews who returned to Jerusalem from captivity. They had come back in several waves of returnees and had fallen into a state of apathy. The prophet is a master motivator. God writes through him several motivational tools that will (or should) inspire those who have returned. In a posting back in 2020 I outlined nine motivational themes Zechariah uses. In the above passage with have #6 from that list. The motivational tool he uses in the above passage is:
6. He motivates them by reminding them that He will ultimately judge the sin of this world.
Judgment for sin will not motivate all those who want to sin, no matter what (see 2 Peter 2). But, for those who walk with God, the above message can be motivating in two ways:
1. It motivates because those who have become discouraged by the sin around them can rest assured that God is going to deal with it.
2. It motives because they know that God will address ALL sin, and that includes their own. This should motivate them to seek God and seek purity in their lives.
God is not absent in our lives. In these hard days for Israel God saw their hardship. He sent someone to encourage them. This motivator was meant for them to continue the work of rebuilding the Temple. That was the reason God sent them back. The sin they were facing was not always a sin of “commission” but one of “omission.” They were failing to do what God told them to do. Zechariah wants them to know that sins of “omission” are as equally before they eyes of the Lord. God was motivating them to obey.
No comments:
Post a Comment