REJUVENATED AND STRENGTHENED

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“I will strengthen Judah and save the tribes of Joseph. I will restore them because I have compassion on them. They will be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the Lord their God and I will answer them.”

“The Ephraimites will become like warriors, and their hearts will be glad as with wine. Their children will see it and be joyful; their hearts will rejoice in the Lord. I will signal for them and gather them in. Surely I will redeem them; they will be as numerous as before. Though I scatter them among the peoples, yet in distant lands they will remember me. They and their children will survive, and they will return. I will bring them back from Egypt and gather them from Assyria. I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon, and there will not be room enough for them. They will pass through the sea of trouble; the surging sea will be subdued and all the depths of the Nile will dry up. Assyria’s pride will be brought down and Egypt’s scepter will pass away. I will strengthen them in the Lord and in His name they will live securely,”
declares the Lord.

Zechariah 10:6-12

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The Israelites had sinned against God badly, disrespecting and disregarding Him by disobediently worshiping false gods and idols. God had tried and tried to get His people’s attention by way of warnings sent through prophets but the people just ignored those warnings. It was as if they were daring God to take action, challenging Him to do what He threatened to do.

And so God had no other choice. He sent harsh judgment on His people, rejecting them before evicting them from the land He had given and sending them into seventy years of harsh captivity in a foreign land. If the Israelites wanted to abandon God, then they would find out how abandonment felt, living in exile without Him.

Thank goodness it didn’t last forever.

For if you recall, this Book of Zechariah, the next to the last book in the Old Testament, is set in the time after the exile, the time when things got better for the Israelites as God put events in motion that resulted in them being restored back to their homeland.

The Persians defeated the Babylonians and assumed their empire.

God placed it on the heart of the Persian’s ruler, King Cyrus, to allow a remnant of Israelites to return home to rebuild their nation, their homes, God’s temple, and their relationship with Him (2 Chronicles 36:22-23).

The Israelites returned in three distinct waves, the first of which we find covered in Zechariah. This remnant returned under the leadership of Zerubbabel, who became the new governor of Judah. The second and third waves would come under Ezra and Nehemiah respectively, and as you probably know, each of them has books of the Bible named after them as well. I highly recommend reading them to get a good feel for how the Israelites changed after their captivity once they returned home.

Well, as we turn to our scripture passage from the closing verses of Chapter 10, we find the Lord vowing to help His people now that they had returned, having paid the penalty for their transgressions. Look again at these words here:

“I will strengthen Judah and save the tribes of Joseph. I will restore them because I have compassion on them. They will be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the Lord their God and I will answer them.”

“The Ephraimites will become like warriors, and their hearts will be glad as with wine. Their children will see it and be joyful; their hearts will rejoice in the Lord. I will signal for them and gather them in. Surely I will redeem them; they will be as numerous as before. Though I scatter them among the peoples, yet in distant lands they will remember me. They and their children will survive, and they will return. I will bring them back from Egypt and gather them from Assyria. I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon, and there will not be room enough for them. They will pass through the sea of trouble; the surging sea will be subdued and all the depths of the Nile will dry up. Assyria’s pride will be brought down and Egypt’s scepter will pass away. I will strengthen them in the Lord and in His name they will live securely,”
declares the Lord.  Zechariah 10:6-12

Note here that the Lord did not intend to beat His people down forever. They sinned against Him. He sent consequences in response. But now He was ready to restore them out of His deep compassion, rejuvenating and strengthening them as they pieced their lives back together.

Indeed, the Lord promised He would bring His people back to the place they were before He rejected them. After all, He had shown over and over again across the history of the Israelites that He was a God of redemption and mercy. The post-Babylonian captivity Israelites were simply the latest exhibit of that truth.

So what would this renewal and empowerment look like?

God painted this picture with a focus on the people of the northern kingdom:

1. The Ephraimites would become like warriors, their hearts full of gladness. This gladness would spill over to their children who would be joyful, their hearts rejoicing in the Lord.

2. These Ephraimites were gathered in from all the places God had scattered them after the northern kingdom fell at the hands of the Assyrians, a fall that preceded the fall of Judah to Babylon.

Where were the Ephraimites scattered?

The scriptures tell us they were dispersed to Egypt and Assyria but now they would inhabit Gilead and Lebanon where they would flourish and multiply while living in the strength and security of God. As for their captors, they would end up experiencing God’s judgment as the Lord vowed to bring down Assyria’s pride and cause Egypt’s scepter to pass away.

Friends, what we see here is a snapshot of how God operates, how He operated in the days of Zechariah and how He still operates today.

For our Lord is a Lord of correction, a Lord who will never tolerate the sins of His people and will send discipline whenever it’s warranted.

But conversely, our Lord is not a Lord who condemns us forever. He is a Lord who forgives and restores out of compassion for His people, a Lord who redeems, rejuvenates, and strengthens those who He returns to His good graces and favor.

It’s a great balance God strikes but we would be well served to not test His judgment side and instead always seek to be obedient to His word, will, and way. For it’s far better to revel in the bounty of His blessings than to languish in the throes of His consequences.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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