Take the time to learn from what’s gone before

Thanks for joining me on this journey into the Book of Zechariah and this journey into ourselves. For every time we read about God’s interactions with other humans, we can draw out significance and truth to inform our own interaction and connection with the divine, that which is simultaneously outside and within.

First, we need a little context, a framework in which to place these prophecies and visions. Zechariah’s name is a common one. It means ‘The Lord remembers’. Not much is known about this guy, other than that he was around at the same time as Haggai (the prophet we covered last month if you fancy going back and taking a look). ‘The prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo’ – that’s all we told. It’s a very specific context we’re given though – ‘in the eighth month of the second year of Darius’. This happened at a specific point in history. This actually happened.

The Jewish people to whom Haggai and Zechariah are speaking have returned from years of exile in Babylon and are rebuilding their lives. They’re giving all their time and attention and resources to rebuilding their homes, their families, their livelihood – all of which of course are important, but they’ve neglected to rebuild the temple, the centre of worship, the symbol of their faith.

Zechariah speaks into this situation with prophecies and visions that he has received from God for the people. He’s speaking out to re-establish connection with the divine. Some of his words contain echoes of the prophets before him…other are completely fresh and will be resonating right up into the final book of the whole Bible, Revelation. For none of us are in a vacuum – we’re each a part of what was, what is and what is to come.

The first part of this collection of messages from God to His people is a varied selection of weird and wonderful night visions. Some of which are pretty obscure and jumbled. Zechariah may not have understood them all himself! His job was to receive and deliver them – and leave it to humanity over the rest of time to work out what’s really going on! Part of me struggles with that – why can’t God make everything clear enough for us to grasp and take hold of….if I knew exactly what the right path for my life was, of course, I would choose to walk that way. But it’s never that simple, is it? But conversely, God is the divine mystery, the great unknown, the perplexing secret of the universe, hidden within all living beings ever created and being revealed little by little as we seek connection with the divine that is all around. Never to be contained within words and human understanding: for then, how would He be God?

Having said that, the intention of the whole book is set out in the opening verses.

“Return to me,” declares the Lord Almighty, “and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. Zechariah 1:3

It’s very simple. A clear transaction. A promise of reciprocation. The same promise that God has been extending to His people from the moment He delivered them from slavery in Egypt all those generations before.

Zechariah urges the people to look back and remember. To study the history of their people and learn from the mistakes of their ancestors. The past needs to inform the present.

Where are all those people and prophets of previous generations now? All those dramas and traumas and joys and good times and bad times and times when the divine burst into history in glory and power. All gone. To be remembered and never forgotten. But gone. And what remains? All that remains is God – the divine energy of the universe who was and is and is to come. His words remain. His promises remain. His presence remains.

Take the time to look back.

To look back over your own life and beyond.

To remember and reflect and evaluate.

Shine a light on those times when you felt that connection to God, the divine in you and all around you. When you were living life to the full, living the life you were created to live. You’ve had glimpses of it before. You can have it again.

Take the time this month to sit with yourself.

After the craziness of the summer and the craziness to come of Christmas, find some space and stillness to be with yourself.

Be still and know that I am God.  Psalm 46:10

Listen to yourself. Listen to the divine at work within you. Listen to the call. Feel the draw.

Come to me and I will come to you.

Return to me and I will return to you.

Have the courage to reveal yourself to me and I will reveal myself to you.

Search for me and I will manifest myself to you.