Cross to Crown Blog

  • God at Rest; His People at Work?

    “Then he cried to me, ‘Behold, those who go toward the north country have set my Spirit at rest in the north country.’” (Zech 6:8)

    This seventh and final vision of Zechariah closes the loop for the first section of the book. The search for rest is over; the mission is complete. Where the other visions looked back into history, and around at the present, this vision sets our eyes toward the future. God saw the plight of His people, executed a plan of salvation, and now sits in perfect victory. After the days of His work, He rests. 

    We have a weekly memorial of this; that is, if you have eyes to see and ears to hear. One day in seven we also rest, and remember that God has brought salvation through His Son and has secured for His own an eternal rest. This is what it means that Jesus is our Sabbath rest. He is the one through whom we have been reconciled to God, by faith, no longer enemies of God because of the law.

    After Jesus’ work on the cross, He sat down; and now sits in the victor’s seat. Christian, be at rest this day because God is at rest. The victory has been won for you; He who began a work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of His return and your resurrection!

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  • Zechariah: Don’t Wear the Lord’s Name Vainly!

    Zechariah 5:1-11 — 

    “Then he said to me, ‘This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land. For everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and everyone who swears falsely shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side.’” (Zechariah 5:3)

    Something we hear very little of these modern days is judgment. Even at church, few among us take the words very seriously. A sermon on judgment is forgotten just as easily as a sermon on missions; and just as missions is for missionaries, judgment is for those jogging around outside the doors of the church.

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  • Zechariah: On Life Support

    “Then he said to me, ‘This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.’” (Zech 4:6)

    Fuel is the most important ingredient to the world. Without fuel nothing can run because nothing on this planet is self-sufficient.

    This fifth vision of Zechariah contains perhaps the most enigmatic of objects: two trees, a lampstand, a bowl, and (to top it all off) pipes between the objects. How could these possibly bring any message of worth, much less a note of encouragement, for 21st century life?

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  • Zechariah: You're Invited!

     "I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree." (Zech 3:9b-10)

    The great promise and dream of a salvation city too numerous for walls, yet too safe to be breached by evil, cannot be realized until her foes are vanquished. And, oh, what a foe there is! The Accuser, Satan, stands in the middle of today's reading ready to play the foil. "Why grant such a city to these pathetic, rebellious people?" he accuses. He does not speak utter nonsense. There stands Joshua, the representative of the covenant people, and he is filthy. Tensions rise in the Lord's courts as the Accuser's sly reasoning based on fairness seems to make a lot of sense. Maybe the great promise was just a pipe dream after all.

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  • Heaven is Better than Eden

    There is perhaps nothing more joyful and integral to the Gospel than that the promise extends to the whole world. Anyone, regardless of status, descent, or history can be reconciled to King Jesus through the paid-penalty and resurrection. In this third of Zechariah's night visions, we find another glorious stone laid in the monument of Christ's work. Not only does King Yahweh see the plight of His people and act on their behalf to bring rescue, He furthermore reveals that each step has been part of His master plan to bring life and salvation to all people—even the nations who have worked so hard against Him!

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  • Zechariah: The King Arrays for Battle

    This second of Zechariah's visions is short and at the heels of the first. This is not by mere chance, but rather communicates to us the quickness of God's action on behalf of his children. The King not only sees, but acts. He not only knows what is going on, but has full control and can at any time bring full resolution. The problem of evil may be the Gordian knot of human philosophy, but it is certainly not so to the Creator.

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  • Zechariah: God Does Not Desire World Peace At Any Cost

    "‘We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth remains at rest.' ... Thus says the LORD of hosts: ... I am exceedingly angry." (Zech 1:11, 14-15)

    We live in a world and society that will do anything for world peace. Never before achieved, the world continues under the age-old, prideful delusion that the world can be united around one tower. The nations at rest means victory (however temporary), and no one wants to rock the boat. But not so with God. He will not rest while His people are held hostage by the nations. He will not sit idle while His children are beset by their enemies. The anger of a father toward a kidnapper is the best news for a child. The anger of a president against slave drivers is the deepest request of those in bondage. So, too, the anger of Yahweh against those who oppress His people means inevitable salvation, for no one can stand against the one, true, sovereign King.

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  • Zechariah: The Rest of the Christians

    All of us seek rest continually. It's human—part of our fabric—to seek rest either for ourselves or for those we really care about (which is perhaps the same as the former). The search for our dream mattress is simply a parable of the search for rest before God. It was Augustine who so astutely (and thus famously) said, "Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee."

    Implicit in today's passage, we see the generous persistence of God in providing that rest. The sheer grammar of Zechariah's introduction—quotation, inside quotation, inside quotation—stands as a herald to us that God is both patient and kind. He has spoken the same message again and again and again, despite the often ambivalent response. Zechariah is commanded to tell the people that which the prophets before reported from the prophets before them: "Return to the life which comes through the worship of Yahweh, the one true God!" The message has been the same from the beginning. From the first chapter of creation to the present day, the message has been this: there is one King and Creator of all things, and all things are created for Him and through Him—let us therefore no longer live for ourselves, but for Him.

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  • An Introduction to Zechariah

    "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn." (Zech 12:10)

    The Book of Zechariah is among the most quoted Old Testament books in the New Testament—spurring some 54 citations across 67 New Testament passages—for one main reason: the Book of Zechariah is about Jesus, God's sent Son. Zechariah details for us a coming prophet, priest, and king of apocalyptic proportion. This is the kind of stuff that must have made prophets dream. But, now, mystery revealed! We see Jesus, sent for us, and we worship.

    Prophet. We worship Jesus: the prophet greater than Moses, Elijah, and John the Baptist. Zechariah's opening visions have much to say about the prophet who would come as a sword dividing wheat from chaff (5:1-4). Jesus was the final prophet who would come to Israel, and the entire world, with the same message: "Return to me, and I will return to you" (1:1-6).

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  • What Is My Time For?

    I really liked what Waltz wrote earlier regarding faith and works as a parallel with redemption and consummation in God's over-arching plan for salvation. As we think this week about using our time well, I think these same ideas form the lines along which we need to be thinking: "What is my time for?" You cannot waste something that means nothing.

    So, I'm not just talking about Twitter, blogging, rolling endlessly through your Google Reader feeds, flipping the channels, reading fiction, napping or (the now infamous) shell-collecting. I'm talking about using all of these things for the right purpose because you understand what the time they require means. You realize you were bought with a price, therefore you are freed to glorify God with your body. You realize that time is not your own, therefore you are enabled to redeem the time in evil days.

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