God "Remembers
God "Remembers"
https://www.esv.org/Zech9:11–13
Week 17: 20/04/2023. Thu
Zechariah encouraged readers to hope rather and despair.
Zechariah 9:11–13 As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. [12] Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double. [13] For I have bent Judah as my bow; I have made Ephraim its arrow. I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior’s sword. (ESV)
This was because the LORD remembered His covenant that was sealed with blood at Mount Sinai (Exod. 24:8). He now regathers His people, those living away from the Promised Land, scattered abroad.
Social and political conflict fill much of the news then, and even nowadays. God's people were in exile due to their own sins, yet at the same time, the politics of those days were played out right before the eyes of God's people.
Yet because the LORD was lord over history, Zechariah could even predict the rise of a future empire (the Greeks, 9:13). But the LORD was not without strategy to deal with political powers.
The LORD could also "bent Judah as my bow" and make "Ephraim its arrow" (9:13). The difference being that the conflicts and wars of the world entail using force and accumulation of strength to impose one's authority and dominance on others.
On the other end, the Messiah's mode would be the use of the donkey/foal rather than the war horse (9:9-10). Instead of imposing force on others to accomplish national dreams, the Messiah's mode was the reverse–the receipt of cruelty and violence imposed by Roman authorities when the Messiah was nailed to the cross.
REFLECTION: The best "warrior's sword" might be those who can take unjust punishment for the sake of others, following the pattern of Zechariah's Messiah. Only then can "prisoners" be truly "free" (9:11). God remembers His covenant. Do you remember His method of "war" and "peace"?
