Teaching | Understanding Zechariah: Yahweh Remembers (Zechariah 1)

The book of Zechariah unsettles us with strange visions of seven-eyed stones, flying scrolls, and conquering horns. We prefer the safe and familiar pastures of the gospels with Jesus walking, talking, and relating to the world in ways we deem “normal”. But the gospels feature exorcisms, miraculous healings, and angelic visitations. The Apostle Paul speaks of the third heaven, dining with demons, judging angels, and deflecting the fiery darts of Satan. Visions in the Bible remind us that we live in God’s world where odd things happens. Children learn about friendship, love, and courage not by attending philosophical seminars, but by reading stories with talking animals in magical worlds. Truth grips children first through the imagination and then the intellect. God grips us in the same way by drawing upon the things of the earth: olive trees, horses, oil, and fire in order to point us to heavenly realities. Children’s books help kids imagine a world that does not exist, but God’s visions challenge us to imagine by faith a world that does not yet exist, but will. And it reframes our perspective on the world so that we might go, as C.S. Lewis writes, “further up, and further in” to God’s world, which of course, is our world. A world which one day will overflow with the glory of God as the waters fill the sea. This is Understanding Zechariah.

Check out the rest of the Understanding series here