An Advent Journey - 17th December

Advent Journey – Day 19

Read: Zechariah 4 vs 6, 9 vs 9

Encouragement. The exiles who had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon needed encouragement. Life had been tough for them and faced with the realities of a devasted city and the struggles of trying to hold on to a faith that was weak they needed to find courage to complete the rebuilding of the temple, the work that God was giving them to do.

It’s at this moment that Zechariah, another one of the so called ‘minor prophets’ enters the story. Zechariah himself had been born in Babylon and had returned to Jerusalem about 18 years before he started to speak God’s word to the people.

When we are feeling weak, when the future is daunting, or when the uncertainties of life overwhelm us, where we do we look for strength, where do we find our help. Zechariah encouraged the people to find their strength in God and to realise that He specialises in working through people who in themselves are weak. Listen to these words that he spoke to the people: ‘This is the word of the LORD … ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD Almighty.’

Zechariah encourages the people to look forward, and he resets their expectations to focus on a God who doesn’t often work through the big and powerful but who more often works through the ordinary, the weak, the unspectacular.

Later in his book Zechariah speaks of a King who would one day come to save and lead the people. But again he resets expectations, this will not be a mighty spectacular King, this will be a King who is ‘lowly and riding in a donkey’ (9:9).

Page upon page the Old Testament gets us ready for Christmas, an arrival not in power or in might, but a coming to earth amidst the weakness of a borrowed stable. This is where God worked and it is in these ordinary places, and in our weakness, that God continues to work today.

Prayer: Father give me eyes to see how you work in this world. Help me to be useful to you today. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.