A meditation to
Zechariah 7:9 – 8:17.
YAHWEH’S affinity for
truth and peace is seen numerous times in Zechariah 7 and 8. If favour is to be
experienced extant of life we will enjoin ourselves to God’s will.
There is one way to experience God’s generous compassion
— do his will: love truth and peace. And in this chapter of Zechariah there is
a movement from judgment to compassion. God is compassionate in his covenant faithfulness,
but there is the obligation now for God’s forgiven people to be God’s people: to love truth and
peace.
As a people under the New Covenant
ushered in under Jesus we make not much ado about grace. Many Christians take
grace for granted. We all do from time to time.
If only we could hear the Words of
the Lord in Zechariah 8, from the Lord himself, and take them deep inside
us, embody them, and allow them to transform us. We would sense that God has
the power to judge us severely and bring about disaster. We would feel the
weight of God’s glory; the immensity of a life lived before God’s very
Presence. We would see nothing as insignificant in life. We might begin to
understand the depth of God’s immeasurable grace.
Ours would be a response…
The response of truth: to make the ability of our response — to be responsible for — living
a life devoted to the truth. Such a life is devoted to losing in order to gain.
To be so devoted to truth means there are times when life will definitely not
work out as we would like it. So be it. And to God be that glory. That is to
love the truth; to do it all ways.
The response of peace: to make the ability of our response — to be responsible for — living
life as a peacemaker, under all circumstances. Again, such a life is devoted to
the overall best even if that means a personal worst. This is about giving up what
we cannot keep in order to retain what we could not lose; fellowship with
friend and foe, alike.
Even when things don’t go our way
we have the responsibility to love truth and peace. Indeed, when things don’t
go our way, more is the privilege in this upside down gospel life.
Love truth and peace and peace will
abide within you and truth will honour you.
Love truth and peace and God will
honour you with strength and prosperity.
© 2015 Steve Wickham.
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