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Anger

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Then the angel of the Lord said, “Lord Almighty, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and from the towns of Judah, which you have been angry with these seventy years?” (1:12) It is an odd image for our time: the Lord withholding mercy. Surely, we are told innumerably, that God is a God of love and compassion, showing mercy to thousands. To have him withhold mercy goes against every modern instinct. And yet, here he is doing just that. God is not just angry, he is angry for 70 years. Now hold for a moment the problem of time - how can an eternal God be angry for a limited time? - and rest on the problem of character - how can a God of love be angry at all? Now I am not sure this is such a problem. If we compare God to us then that does cause difficulties, but that's only because our anger is intemperate, a product of our untamed emotions. We get angry becasue we are slighted or hurt or proud, or often all three at once. No one is accusing God of that kind of motivation. G...
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War

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And they reported to the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, ‘We have gone throughout the earth and found the whole world at rest and in peace.’ (1:11) Now that's odd. I can't imagine that there has been a time in history when the world was all at rest and in peace. Even Jesus, the prince of peace, promises 'wars and rumours of wars'. So what's going on? Honestly, I've no idea. Is the whole earth the whole known earth maybe? The flood story feels that way so why not this one. Or is it a time of much smaller population when the whole earth could be at peace? That seems a little more likely. A wave of conquest by a great power is followed by a time of calm before the next wave.  In either case it is yet another example of how absurd is the idea that religion causes wars (I mean - the most deadly wars in history had nothing religious about them at all). Human beings in greed or pride or fear or folly cause wars. They may blame religion or use...
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Throughout

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‘They are the ones the Lord has sent to go throughout the earth.’ (1:10) Well, they'd have a hard time these days. Just about every border would be closed to them in the wealthier parts of the world. The poor would see God's agents but the rich would miss out. Ironic really. But that's the problem with shutting borders. All too often someone misses out, or far, far worse. I don't know if you've picked up the Gary Lineker controversy. Apparently he compared Suella Braverman to the Nazis. This is hardly helpful but I'm wondering if he may have been trying to remind us that the international laws on asylum seekers were put into place as a response to the failure of so many nations - including our own - to welcome those seeking asylum from the Nazis. To remove those laws is not to commit genocide but it does remove one protection from those under terrible risk.  I don't know if you've spotted it but these days no one can legally flee to Britain unless they a...
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Timeless

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The angel who was talking with me answered, “I will show you what they are.” Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained (Zechariah 1:9-10) An odd little exchange here: the angel speaks, promising to 'show' him, but it is the man in the vision that explains. The whole event is interactive, with the agents in the vision responding to Zechariah's question in real time. This is not just a meaningful dream, like Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar, but something much more - more like John's vision in revelation - more like a waking dream, but one in which God (through his messengers) is the agent. God breaks the normal boundaries of time and space to reveal truth to his prophet. One of the questions that keeps returning about prophecy is whether it is forth-telling (to the people at the time) or fore-telling (about the future). The traditional view was that it is both, but some scholars are rather uncomfortable with that idea and wish to nail the words back into their own ...
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Ask

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He was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were red, brown and white horses. I asked, “What are these, my lord?” (Zechariah 1:8-9) Well that would be my reaction too - or would it? I wonder how often we don't ask the Lord to explain. We hear a sermon that makes us think and instead of going, 'What are you saying Lord?' we sit inside our own heads hoping that we are clever enough to make sense of it. Or we have an encounter that unsettles us in some way - hear something on the news, meet someone unexpected - and instead of going, 'What are you doing Lord?' we try to calm our nerves in another way, with a cup of tea or a glass of wine. And, of course, there are dreams, or visions, or pictures, or verses - the bits of our encounter with God that seem more obviously to need explanation - how often even then do we put it down to a bad curry, or a late night or an coincidence and not ask, 'What are these, my Lord?' So, next time, ask. That'...
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Humble

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And there before me was a man mounted on a red horse. (Zechariah 1:8) I am sure I am not alone in being reminded of the four horsemen of the apocalypse in Revelation. This is not surprising as the two appear to be connected for Revelation contains much of the imagery of the great OT prophets. Maybe John was reading Zechariah when he had his visions. Red then means something, for I've not seen many red horses. My thoughts are inevitably drawn to war, in Revelation civil war, or wars of persecution, genocide even, but this is not obvious in Zechariah. In Zechariah they appear to be agents of God, inspectors of the state of the land, and have nothing to do with war at all.  So, I guess when reading the Bible, don't jump to conclusions, don't read in what you want or expect to see, or all you will see is what you want to see. Reject all 'feminist' or 'colonial' or even 'anglican' or 'evangelical' readings and start with what the author understood...
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Dream

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During the night I had a vision (Zechariah 1:8) Well, oddly, so did I. The difference is that mine was a waking dream. I know it doesn't really count but it did involve some weird and uncomfortable images: a very steep narrow stairwell, a child made out of sticks, and a life-threatening fall. I reckon the stairwell came from our Istanbul trip, but the others were more likely related to sending my eldest lad off to far flung countries today.  I wonder where Zechariah's arose. The local trees coming into bloom maybe, the warriors going out to battle and the horrors of exile in a foreign land. Wherever they came from, it seems clear that God was using them to speak both to the people at the time and to us.  And mine? Well I suspect it's more reminder than warning. 'Know that saying goodbye really does stretch your faith, even if you don't feel it on the surface - put your son in my hands for I am ready to save, not just now but each day. And the stick boy? No idea - I...
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