It was, it seemed, “a day of small things” (Zechariah 4:10). Have you ever had days like that?
The setting was big enough – enormous, in fact. God himself was writing a Story – the broad and beautiful story of his mission across the entire world. The setting was purely stupendous. It was the players who made the day small, it seemed. Their role and their best efforts seemed to them so trivial. The day just felt small, somehow, however broad and exciting the Story may have been elsewhere in the world.
In the sixth century before Christ the people of Israel returned to Jerusalem from a long and dispiriting sojourn in Babylon. They were to rebuild the Temple from its ruins, and the city that surrounded it. This was their calling and mission – their unique role in the Story of God’s plan for all the nations of the world.
But the work did not go so well. We read in the book of Ezra that the people “wept with a loud voice” whenever they stepped back and had an objective look at the effort (3:12). They were rebuilding the Temple, all right. But it seemed, so far, a pretty measly endeavor. In the book of Zechariah we find that the people came to “despise the day of small things” (4:10). If God were writing them into the Story, shouldn’t the effort go better than this? Many of those sixth-century missionaries simply gave up.
Enter, once again, Zechariah.
As you know, we have been examining a series of eight powerful visions in the first six chapters of the book of the prophet Zechariah. This month we reach the end of the series. Strangely, the end comes at the middle – in chapters three and four. Zechariah organizes his visions in an ancient sort of way. They do not proceed in a simple linear order; they are organized instead in a kind of spiral. Vision eight follows vision one; vision two is next, then vision seven, and so on. Right at the climax – at the center of the spiral – we find visions four and five. The entire series leads to this central pair. They represent, in a sense, Zechariah’s basic message to his dispirited missionary people.
There at the center we find Joshua and Zerubbabel. Joshua is the High Priest serving in Jerusalem; Zerubbabel is the city’s Governor. They represented, in a sense, the collective potential of the entire people of Israel. But their potential seemed pretty small. Joshua, for his part, shows up dressed in rags (3:3). And for his part, Zerubbabel seems to be intimidated by the “great mountain” of rubble that stood where the Temple should now be raised (4:7).
Yet Zechariah sees better things for Joshua and Zerubbabel. Joshua is clothed in the rags of shame and condemnation; Zechariah sees that God will re-clothe him. “I have taken your guilt away from you,” says the angel of the Lord, “and I will clothe you with festal apparel” (3:4). God makes Joshua what he cannot become by his own merit or strength. And Zerubbabel should not be cowed by a meager mountain of rubble. Zechariah hears a word for him: “Not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (4:6). No pile of rubble is going to get in the way of this Story. God himself is the Author! Rubble, get out of the way!
The closing verses of these central visions have Joshua and Zerubbabel “stand[ing] by the Lord of the whole earth” (4:14). Rags and rubble, you see, cannot detour the wonderful Story of God’s mission in the world. Maybe rubble is all we see on some days; these are the “days of small things.” But God sees the bigger picture. And “small things”? Small things like you and me? God has a role for us, too. With Joshua and Zerubbabel, we “stand by the Lord of the whole earth.” As we surrender our lives to Him, the Author, he writes us into the Story, too. We are given a role to play. We are made a part – we are made ambassadors for Jesus – in the wonderful Story of God’s Enormous Love for all the nations of the world.