What’s going on with God in Zechariah?
One minute He is making the most marvelous promises to His people. “Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth . . . Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with cane in hand because of his age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there . . . The seed will grow well, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will produce its crops, and the heavens will drop their dew” (from chapter 8).
The next minute, He says “I will hand everyone over to his neighbor and his king. They will oppress the land and I will not rescue them from their hands” (from chapter 11).
It’s as if God has become bi-polar.
But no. There is a simple explanation.
The promises of God are what the Lord wants for His people. But it cannot come to pass as long as the people live outside God’s will. How can Jerusalem ever be called the “City of Truth” when its inhabitants plot evil against their neighbor and “love to swear falsely?”
It can’t. And so the prophet speaks of two worlds: the one that is, and the one that could be.
We too live between two worlds, and our eternal destiny is bound up with the one we cling to in this life.