A New World
These people have been having a hard time for longer than most of them can remember, though many of them grew up with stories of a past that was either idolised or idealised, or both. Self-esteem is low. Hopes are meagre. Those who had never had anything had little to look forward to. Those who had, failed to find it satisfying. Life went on, in many respects, almost unchanged and unchanging, but there was not much heart in it for anyone. Each successive generation produced its theories and reasons but running through them all was a common thread. The Almighty was much displeased or (to put it differently) they were on the wrong track.
Europe went through a similar experience at the Reformation and immediately afterwards. Many, if not all, experienced something similar in the 20th century and especially in the 1990s. Then suddenly peace breaks out. (v 11).
The experience is universal, in empires, nations, churches, organisations, families or individuals. The cry is always the same: where did we go wrong? How can we make amends? What do we do to ensure we get it right next time? (v 12). Zechariah has no specific answers but at least points in the right direction.
First, he addresses the present and focuses on the positives. All the past had a part to play in the purposes of God. Many people at the time said as much. Some said it out loud. Perhaps they were right. Try to see the hand of God working through the whole gamut of history and painting on a broad canvas in a large timescale. Not everyone will want to express it as Zechariah did, but all need to remember that ‘there is some soul of goodness in things evil, would men observingly distil it out’. (Shakespeare)
Second, he recognises that what is right in one situation does not necessarily have to stand for all time. Not everyone will find it easy to accept Zechariah’s attribution of a change of heart and mind on the part of the deity (vv 15-16) but it ought not to be difficult to appreciate that circumstances change things, our perceptions of God change and he may reveal himself and work through different people and in different ways in different times and situations.