Zechariah 6:15 And they that are far off shall come and build in the temple of the LORD, and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you. And this shall come to pass, if ye will diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God.
What is the craziest dream you can recall ever having? If you can recall at all, it is probably because it was very crazy or because it was last night. We feel as though our dreams make no sense, although there is a rationale behind dreams and the mind is working all the time. God intended that. When you read the Bible though, whether it is the book of Revelation or the book of Zechariah, sometimes there are visions or dreams that seem beyond reason, wildly crazy.
This is a good opportunity to remind ourselves that there are things in the Bible that perhaps we do not understand or fully grasp. But, there is more that God intends us to understand than we think, and even these visions in Zechariah are among those things that God would have us in some measure understand. Knowing the culture of the day, the words that God used, the author that God chose, and when and for whom the Scripture was written, are all things that help us to figure out the meaning of the visions or dreams that we read of in the Bible.
Having said all that, there is an overall takeaway from Zechariah 5 and 6. The first five verses of chapter 5 talk about God’s destruction and the last verse of chapter 6 talks about God’s building. Zechariah 5:1 says, “Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll.” So, here was a flying book, or a flying roll as it was then spoken of. It was massive, thirty feet by fifteen feet. Verse 3 says, “Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth.” What you have here is God’s truth and judgment upon those who are doing wrong and, specifically, God’s people who were doing what was wrong.
He goes on to say, “For every one that stealeth shall be cut off as by this side according to it.” That is, on one side of this scroll you have judgment against those who steal.” Then the Bible goes on, “And every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.” On the other side you have God’s judgment, God’s curse against those that curse. Much could be said, but the bottom line is that this is a vision, a curse, that seems to haunt these people like maybe a dream haunts you.
Verse 4 says, “I will bring it forth, saith the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.”
So, here is destruction, a curse against those who blaspheme God, those who could know God but are dishonoring Him. It is a picture of destruction, but the last verse of the next chapter is the exact opposite. It says, “And they that are far off shall come and build in the temple of the LORD, and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you. And this shall come to pass, if ye will diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God.” So, here is the Lord of hosts, the Lord of might and of armies, who is sending people back to build His temple “if they will diligently obey.”
You have a picture of one house being destroyed and another house being built. You have a picture of destruction and a picture of building, and God is behind both. There is a lot that could be said and learned from both of these, but the bottom line, in a careful but brief reading, is that each of us is to be a person with whom God wishes to build. These two homes were incompatible, the home of the wicked and the home which God wished to build. They do not coexist.
Recently, I was with some friends for a lovely meal at a beautiful lakefront home. Between the road and the home was an old barn in disrepair that my friend told us he was going to take down. In addition to this old barn, there had been a couple of trailers that had been on the property too. So, it had not been a beautiful lot before they had built their home on it. Now there is a beautiful home there, but before they built the beautiful home they had to get rid of the ugly trailers.
What is it in your life that needs to be taken out, and what is it that needs to be built up? What does God want to build with you and in you? The New Testament says that you are God’s husbandry, God wants to grow something in you, and you are God’s building. Be a person with whom God wishes to build! If God is going to build in you what He wishes to build then it requires us to take a hard look at God’s truth and our lives, and by His grace do away with those things that will prevent the good that God wishes to build in us.