Are you a servant? "My servants the prophets"
Are you a servant? "My servants the prophets"
https://www.esv.org/Zech1:5—6
Week 11: 08/03/2023. Wed
Are you a servant? The LORD had sent His servants and prophets to minister to their ancestors, their "fathers".
Zechariah 1:5–6 Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? [6] But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? So they repented and said, ‘As the LORD of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.’” (ESV)
While no one lives on this earth forever in our present bodily form, "do they live forever?" is rhetorical—it states a point rather than asking for an anwers. The phrase points to the finiteness of humans. The point of Zechariah is that it would be futile for those who "do not live forever" to challenge the LORD of hosts (who is as mighty as hosts of armies).
The title "servant" was reserved for a past spiritual giant of theirs, Moses. Moses' eyes were "undimmed, and his vigor unabated" even at 120 years old (Deut 34:7). As a servant, Moses obeyed the LORD in doing God's will, in proclaiming God's message, obeying instructions.
1:5 ancestors. This is a reference to the people of Israel (2 Kgs 17:13–14) and Judah (2 Chr 36:15–16) who were swept into exile because they were stubborn and refused to believe the word of the Lord. The same expression is found in King Hezekiah’s “Passover Letter” calling the people of Israel and Judah to return to the Lord (2 Chr 30:7).
1:6 servants the prophets. The word “servant” (ʿebed [5650, 6269]) was a title for Moses, the archetype of the OT prophet (Deut 34:5; cf. Deut 18:15; Mal 4:4). The true servant obeys the instructions of the overlord. A key trait of the OT prophets was their obedience to God’s word (a fact that makes the story of Jonah all the more unusual; cf. Jonah 3:3). Jesus Christ, the ultimate Prophet, demonstrated this same obedient relationship to his Father (John 5:19–20; 12:49–50).
happened to your ancestors, just as I said. The term behind this expression (hissigu [5381, 5952], “overtake”) alludes to the covenant curses of the Mosaic law pursuing and overtaking those who refuse to obey God’s commands (Deut 28:15, 45).
Richard D. Patterson and Andrew E. Hill, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Vol 10: Minor Prophets, Hosea–Malachi (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2008), 532.
