Charles Spurgeon Commentary Zechariah 8

Because they worshipped idols instead of the living God, Jehovah of hosts, who is a jealous God, was very angry with his ancient people and allowed them to be carried away into captivity; and it is well for us, in these days, to remember that we serve a jealous God, and that, if our hearts are not true to him, he will soon send us sharp afflictions and make us feel the weight of his rod. It was Paul's anxious desire that he might be able to present the church at Corinth as a chaste virgin to Christ; and, certainly, our Lord Jesus Christ will not accept the professing church of these days on any other terms.

Let your heart be loyal and true to him, or else you will stir up the holy jealousy of your God. Yet the same jealousy which makes God punish his people for their unfaithfulness, prompts him to return to them in love as soon as he sees that he can justly do so. When their enemies have sorely vexed and oppressed them, then is the Lord jealous, not against them, but against their enemies, and he swiftly returns to his own people in love.

The first coming or the return of God to a church, or to an individual heart, always promotes holiness; so, unless your piety is daily growing, do not imagine that God is in the midst of you; for, wherever the Lord comes, he comes as a refiner and purifier. You will never find Jesus come except as John the Baptist pictured him to the Pharisees and Sadducees of his day: whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor. The coming of Christ into any soul, or into any church, is the death of sin and the birth of holiness.

It is an indication that there is peace in the city when the children can play in the streets without fear. We may apply these verses spiritually thus: when God greatly blesses a Christian church, there are sure to be many aged persons in it, those who, by their long experience and their matured wisdom, are able to teach others the lessons which they have themselves learned at the feet of Jesus.

Happy is the church that has in it many fathers and mothers in Israel. At the same time, a church that is largely blessed by God will also have in it many young converts, who will be as full of life and joy as children playing in the streets of a city in time of peace.

There is a text which is true both in its literal and its spiritual sense: Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord... Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. There is no glory so great to a Christian minister, and a Christian church, as that of having an abundance of spiritual children, and multitudes of converts brought to Christ. So it will be with any church when God is in the midst of her.

This is a very remarkable passage, warning us not to judge God by ourselves. Though something may be difficult for us, there are no difficulties with God. Indeed, even if we imagine anything to be impossible for humans, the word 'impossibility' has no relation to the Deity, for with God all things are possible. Are you in trouble today? Do you say that it is impossible for you to be delivered? It is an easy thing for God to deliver you, though the task seems so hard to you.

Do you feel the weight of your sin, and do you imagine that it is impossible for your sin to be pardoned? Would you look upon it as a miracle; and because it seems so marvelous to you, do you think it is marvelous in God's eyes? Remember what He said by the mouth of Isaiah: My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. Consider the infinite difference between God and humans, and look no longer at God through the misleading glasses of your own feebleness.

Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country; and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness (Zechariah 8:7–8).

Mark God's emphatic language, how full it is of "shalls" and "wills." "I will," and "they shall," He says, again and again; and if God says, "I will," who shall dare to say that it shall not be? What God declares shall certainly come to pass. Surely this is golden language of comfort to those who are bowed down; then, how great must be the sinfulness of that unbelief which dares to despair when God says "shall" and "will"!

That one sentence in the eighth verse contains the whole gospel in two short sentences: They shall be my people, and I will be their God. This is the tenor of the covenant of grace. There is no "if," nor "but," nor "perhaps" in it; God does not say, "I will be their God if they will be my people," nor, "I will love them if they will keep my laws." That is the old covenant of works, which has been broken forever; but the covenant of grace runs as follows: They shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.