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Sunday,
February 14, 2021
Is there really a God?
I’m a Christian, a pastor, and if you’re listening, you probably know I
am giving a Sunday morning sermon. My
belief that there really is a God should be assumed, right? But, how can I convince the skeptic that God
is real? I can’t. The very nature of God and of belief is
faith. While evidence and convincing
arguments might bolster one’s faith, at the heart of the matter, one chooses to
believe, or not. What’s the tipping
point on belief or unbelief?
I suggest that there is no
more convincing testimony that God is real and involved in human affairs than
the very existence of Christianity and of Judaism. How many people today practice the religion
of the ancient Romans or Greeks, or the Persians or Egyptians? These were mighty empires, and yet moderns
regard their religious practices as superstitions that don’t hold up in the
scientific age.
Judaism, on the other hand, is faithfully practiced by millions
today, and Christianity has 2 billion adherents worldwide. With
inauspicious beginnings where the original believers were ruthlessly persecuted,
these faiths thrived as other religious practices have been relegated to the
dustbins of history. How?
“Not by might, nor by
power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). It’s got to be the most quoted verse in
Zechariah. It’s the core message. Christians are not smarter than everyone
else, nor are we richer, stronger, better positioned, better looking, or more
connected. Our success comes not by
might nor by power but we thrive when we rely on the Spirit.
Zechariah 4:6, again and
again finds its way into Christian devotionals, as a slogan on Christian coffee
mugs, t-shirts, and stationary, and as a lyric in Christian songs. Yet though we often quote this verse, we
Christians just as often forget the source, chapter 4 of the brilliant
post-exile prophet, Zechariah. When we
pay closer attention to what God was saying through the prophet in the original
setting as well as the way later prophets lived out Zechariah’s vision, the
message will move from slogan to deep truth that forms us as disciples.
Zechariah prophesied from
about 520-505 BC. The people of God had
returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon and were tasked by the prophets
Haggai and Zechariah with rebuilding the temple. In the fourth of his seven night visions,
recorded in chapter 4, Zechariah sees a golden lampstand with seven lamps on
it. This would have evoked memories of
the menorahs, the seven-stemmed lamp from the tabernacle that we read about in
Exodus and the golden menorahs Solomon set in the original temple.
As is often the case in
the Bible, the number seven has significance.
In the Anchor Bible Scholars Carol and Eric Meyers render verse
2, “I see a lampstand all of gold with its bowl on top! There are seven lamps on it, each of the
seven with the seven spouts, for the lamps which are on top of it” (p.227). Most translations don’t repeat the number ‘7’
three times, but it is repeated that way in the original language. Seven stems, each with seven wicks: that’s 49
points of light. The Meyers believe this
is important.
The most logical
connection in Old Testament literature is the seven cycles of seven years: 49
years leading to the Jubilee year, reported in Deuteronomy 15. During Jubilee, all debts are forgiven, all
slaves freed, and everyone gets to begin again.
The Meyers believed Zechariah wanted to evoke this idea of forgiveness,
renewal, and a fresh start when he shared his vision with the community that
had to do the work of rebuilding.
Jubilee was about
restoration, rest, and liberation. When
Zechariah wrote his prophecy, the land and the city had rested for 70 years,
the period of exile. But when Persian
Emperor Cyrus sent the people home, they were liberated. The were free to once again live as God’s
people and their first work, signaling their faithfulness to God, would be the
restoration of the temple: liberation, rest, and restoration.
Zechariah also indicated
who would lead with his image of two olive trees in verse 3 and picked up again
in verse 11. The olive trees each stand
beside the lampstand. They are servants
of the Lord standing by to enact His will.
The Meyers believe the trees are roles.
In Zechariahs day, the governor Zerubbabel and the priest Joshua would
fill these roles, and later on an ultimate fulfillment would come.
Olive trees could live as
long as 1000 years; they produced fruit even in drought. Their weakness was a condition by which they
hollowed out and were made susceptible to fires, but as it hollows, its roots
produces young shoots, which eventually grow up to replace the tree.
The olive tree for the
exile community called to mind durability, endurance, righteousness, beauty,
and continuity. There would not be a
time when God did not have faithful witnesses standing by in service to
Him. From Abraham to Moses to Samuel to
Zerubbabel and Joshua to future generations, the community of faith stood to
serve the Lord and bear witness to His goodness and holiness in the world. So, in the face of the great empires –
Babylon, Persia, and others that would come after, Zechariah states, “not by
might, nor by power, but by God’s spirit do we carry on.”
How did the God-worshipers
understand Zechariah’s visions in their own time? John, a disciple of Jesus, who served the
Lord in Ephesus around 95 AD, was sentenced by the Romans to exile. Because of his refusal to bow before the
deity of Caesar and his insistence that Jesus and only Jesus is Lord, he was
banished to the island of Patmos where he received a vision from the Lord.
In portions of his
description of that vision, he reached back to Zechariah and used the prophet’s
imagery to paint his own word pictures.
Specifically, just as Zechariah had, John refers to olive trees. God tells John, “I will grant my two
witnesses authority to prophesy. … These [witnesses] are two olive trees and
the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth” (11:3, 4).
Both in Zechariah’s
restoration community and in John’s revelation community, olive trees represent
the witnesses who stand by the Lord, ready to do his will and speak his
word. In the case of Revelation, the
witnesses were killed for their testimony (11:7), then resurrected (11:11-12),
and then avenged by God (11:13).
How do these images of
faithful witness inform us of God’s intent in the world? Understanding what God is doing, how can we
look to Zechariah and Revelation and ourselves be equipped to serve our Lord in
our time and place?
In Revelation, God clearly
says the authority the olive tress possessed was given to them, and when they
resurrected, God breathed the breath of life into them. In Zechariah, the olive trees stay right
beside the lampstand. They remain
connected to the Lord.
Not by might, nor by
power, but by my spirit says the Lord; for this beautiful word to form faith, Zechariah
could not trust in God and appeal to Persia.
John could not follow Jesus and appease the authorities of Rome. There had to come a point when the prophets
said, ‘God is Lord,’ and ‘you, empire, emperor, Caesar, are not.’ We heard last week in our reading of
Zechariah 1:14, God is jealous for his people.
God demanded a relationship so exclusive, his true followers would
embrace execution rather than deny their faith in him or put their faith in
anything else. When you’re willing to
die for saying ‘Jesus is Lord,’ not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit
contains a lot more meaning than when it’s written in pretty letters on a
colorful t-shirt.
The only way to rebuild a
temple or accept persecution is if we absolutely believe God is real and can be
trusted. In our world, in our time, what
threatens to reduce God in our mind’s eye.
I think our society is fine with you or me saying we think God is real
and few people really care if call God ‘Savior,’ ‘Master,’ ‘Lord,’ or anything
else. We can say anything as long as we
keep God in his place.
We are olive trees
standing by the Lord when we insist that the value of Jesus – forgiveness,
grace, mercy, love, hope, generosity, gentleness, kindness – define us. These values have to be ultimate for us,
dictating our choices about money, relationships, and how we spend our time and
what we think about what we watch, read, hear, and say. When we bring our full-bodied faith in God
into the most secular and profane places, we are standing by the Lord. Furthermore, oriented toward God, we are
insisting that God is real, God is here, and we belong to Him.
This intense witness will
turn some people off and they’ll think we’re “Jesus-freaks” or overly
zealous. Fine. Others, people who see their own need and
recognize how lost they are without God will experience our kindness,
generosity, and welcome, and they’ll want some of that. They’ll see us standing by the Lord and
they’ll want to stand by Him too. That’s
when we smile and tell them they can.
And we tell all about how to receive Jesus and walk with Him.
AMEN
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