A New Democracy
A new world, a new policy, a donkey instead of a warhorse, and a more caring and peace-loving God. Time now for a different kind of leadership.
Inevitably, this often gets through to the people before it is recognised by the leaders who in any case always want to hang on to power. Their day is doomed. Trusted sources of information (‘intelligence’) and power (advice) have failed to deliver. The teraphim (or household gods) represent ancient traditional religion no longer relevant in a modern age. Those who claim to know what is going to happen based on an analysis of past experience (diviners) and those who seek to inspire the people with plans, programmes and theories (dreams and visions) are only too often misreading or distorting the facts and raising false hopes. Spin and salesmanship did not arrive at the end of the 20th century and we may be left to guess who Zechariah might have had in mind were he with us today.
A different kind of leadership is not the same thing as a different set of leaders. It might mean a recognition of leaders who have been there all the time but were overlooked because our idea of leadership goes back to a different kind of God. Zechariah’s understanding of God is not so much powerful, male-dominated, and macho but more of a good shepherd. He will still have his cohorts but his cohorts are going to be the sheep (the people) who must no longer see themselves as sheep (ie followers). They are to become a trusty horse. They are to take the power and the responsibility into their hands. They are to be the source of God’s power not simply recipients of what their leaders offer. They are still to be the warriors but warriors of a different kind with a different set of objectives and therefore a different range of enemies.
So what will they do? Mainly, hold things together, like the cornerstone that holds two walls together, stick to their task with the firmness of a tent peg, and fight to build something new rather than creating havoc and lining their pockets.
Once we have identified the people in our community who are desperate for the spring rains (vv 1-2) where do we find the sort of people Zechariah has in mind in vv 3-4 and what qualities are we looking for?