Zech. 2:10 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. 11 And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. 12 And the Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.”
13 Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.
I read some Zechariah this morning. I really like this passage here for a couple of reasons.
1 - I love that the Lord tells us to Sing and rejoice! I don't know why, but there's something so exciting to me that God wants us to sing and rejoice. It is a natural reaction when a sinner and dead man is forgiven and granted new life. You can't help but to be happy! But - just in case, God tells us to react to his presence with singing and rejoicing.
I just keep picturing a little kid full of excitement after getting something really great from someone who is really prim and proper and old. It's like the kid's automatic response is to get big-eyed, and smile, and jump up and down. But, then immediately sort of restrain those reactions for the sake of being proper in the presence of the gift giver. That's us sometimes right? It is me.
But here - God says, "No, don't restrain that reaction!" "Jump for joy! Sing, dance!" It's just awesome.
2 - I also, for whatever reason, really enjoy knowing that the promise made here in this passage is a promise of something to come in the future - and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. BUT it's our present day reality! God DID come! God does dwell in our midst! Jesus broke into our reality and ushered in the Kingdom of God thus fulfilling this great eschatological hope! And we have the awesome awesome awesome experience of God in our midst - Thank you God!!!!
3 - I love that we are told to be silent before the Lord who has roused himself!
See, we are told to do singing and rejoicing AND silence! And that's cool to me. It means that there are times for us to be exuberant before the Lord with singing and rejoicing AND there are time for us to be silent and reverent before the Almighty God! There absolutely are times when all you can do before the Lord is to be still and in awe of who He is. Silence, tears, outstretched arms, bowing, etc...
Encountering the God of the Universe means more than one thing.
It's not JUST singing and rejoicing. And it's not JUST quiet reverence.
Some Christians act that way though, don't they?
"If you're not dancing and clapping and smiling, then there's something wrong. You must not really be connecting with God here!"
And then there are Christians on the other end of the spectrum. - "If you're doing all that whooping and hollering, you're just being a distraction and a fanatical crazy person!"
Anyhow, God is so good!
And - just in case it needs to be said - so is His church. We sure can get things mixed up sometimes, but Jesus really really loves us! So I'm not church bashing. I'm simply pointing out a passage that I read this morning that really caught my attention.
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