Our daily reflections follow the M'Cheyne Bible reading plan, designed for those who want to read the whole Bible in one year. Each reflection focuses on one of the chapters from that day's readings. Darllenwch rhain yn Gymraeg.
Lord, open my ears to hear what you have to say to me; open my heart to love your word, and open my mind to understand your truth.
Zechariah is a book of visions, like parts of Daniel and Ezekiel and the whole of Revelation. Like them, it's not always easy to follow. But there are clues to help us, and God still speaks through the prophet's words.
In the first chapter, God is shown as stirring up the world after a period of quietness in which his people are exiled and oppressed. Chapter 2 is a clarion call to the exiles in Babylon: they are going home, and God will bless them very richly: 'Sing for joy, people of Jerusalem! I am coming to live among you!' (verse 10).
The first few verses are a vision of a man with a measuring line; he is going to plan the rebuilding of Jerusalem, in which Zechariah himself was involved (Ezra 5.1). The prophet's vision, though, soars above the rock, dust and hard labour of a building site. Jerusalem will be too big to have walls: God 'has promised that he himself will be a wall of fire around the city to protect it and that he will live there in all his glory' (verse 5).
Doing anything useful for God is probably hard. It's easy to get bogged down in the detail, tired and bruised by the labour. But that's when we need a prophet's vision: what we're doing with our hands and brains is only a shadow and pale reflection of what God is doing. Our walls of stone are God's walls of fire. Let's be encouraged, and build on.
God, lift up my eyes from work that's hard or discouraging, and help me see visions of glory.
This reflection was written by Mark Woods, Bible Society's Editor
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