When Zechariah spoke to the people of his day (520 B.C.) he spoke to a disillusioned people who had once hoped for so much more, but now were abandoning the dream for cold, hard reality. They felt that what God had promised was not going to happen – at least not in a way that had any impact on them.
Almost 70 years earlier God’s temple had been destroyed and after a recent, brief flurry of activity it now lay unfinished. The project was too ambitious. The dreams were too big. What was promised was completely unrealistic. It was time for them to face the facts …
It’s into this context that God gives his view of the facts. Through a series of dreams God speaks to the prophet Zechariah and gives his people a fresh view of what he’s doing in the world. God calls them yet again to let his vision of the coming kingdom fire their hearts.
Like the people of Zechariah’s day we too can feel as if disillusionment stalks us. We can feel like maybe it’s time to let go of God’s promises.
Maybe we dreamed too big? Maybe what we hoped for was unrealistic?
Into our context God still speaks the words of Zechariah calling us yet again to let his vision of the coming kingdom fire our hearts, our worship and our service of him.