Zechariah 8:1-23

8:1-23 | In this chapter, the Lord both reflects on the Israelites’ past and reassures these disheartened people of His glorious intentions towards them (I am determined to do good. Do not fear.) Zechariah prophesies that while these promises will be fulfilled in part in their generation, nothing will compare to the glory of millennial Jerusalem. When God ultimately establishes His throne there, the city will regain the glory it displayed in the days of King David, only magnified beyond imagination. And its people will prosper in every way (Hosea 2:19-20).

8:6-13 | The remnant here were descendants of the community that had experienced God’s judgment. To people for whom God’s promises of prosperity seemed out of touch with their everyday realities, God’s word through Zechariah was appropriate and timely: Do not fear, let your hands be strong. God’s people are prone to walk by sight, forgetting His promises and His power to fulfill them. Human forgetfulness, however, never renders the Lord unfaithful (2 Tim. 2:13).

8:16-23 | When God’s people promoted justice and showed concern for one another, they would experience God’s favor to such a degree that even the watching Gentiles would be drawn to God (Micah 4:1-2).

8:19 | The coming era of God’s blessing would allow Israel to forget her past defeats, turning fasts into times of feasting. The fast of the fourth and fifth months recalled the breach of the wall of Jerusalem in Zedekiah’s day (Jer. 39:2; 52:6-7) and the fall of Jerusalem (Jer. 52:12-15) respectively (586 BC). The seventh month’s fast remembered the assassination of Gedaliah (2 Kgs. 25:25; Jer. 41:1-3), while the tenth month’s pertained to the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar’s siege fo Jerusalem in 588 BC (2 Kgs. 25:1-2; Ezek. 24:1-2).