It will come about that just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you that you may become a blessing.
Zechariah 8:13
You read correctly. The Jews will be a blessing. To all the mankind. This seems strange since throughout their history they’ve received the enmity of virtually everyone, from the Egyptian oppression by the Hyskos Kings and later, to the nations of Canaan that Israel was to dispossess, to the Babylonians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians that exiled them from their land. Throughout history, to the Holocaust, this century, the Jews have had a less than stellar reputation and many have looked at their race negatively. Today such kooks as The Iranian president make such remarks about “the Zionists” (a term used as a pejorative) right to exist as a nation and wants it wiped off the map.
But to be honest, it has been the promise of God that before He brought them into the Promised Land He would give them blessings so tremendous they could hardly imagine (Deuteronomy 28) if they only obeyed Him. However, if they failed to obey, the curses they would endure would be most unendurable (also enumerated in Deuteronomy 28), but of particular import is the curse “You shall become a horror, a proverb, and a taunt among all the people where the LORD drives you.” Deut. 28:37. This is the ugly curse that has followed them through the ages, through all their teats and turmoils and heartache.
But in this chapter of Zechariah the Lord announces a bold new thing. “For thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Just as I purposed to do harm to you when your fathers provoked Me to wrath,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘and I have not relented, so I have again purposed in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Do not fear!'” Zech. 8:14, 15
Do not fear indeed! You don’t have to fear those kooks and imbeciles who want to exterminate you. Because the Lord God promises to do good to Jerusalem. The city will prosper. It citizens will live in righteousness an truth. It will be such a wonderful place that people will come from near and far to experience its blessing. “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘It will yet be that peoples will come, even the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, “Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts; I will also go.”‘ Zech. 8:19, 20
The Jews will be such a popular people, the curse that had settled on them for so many centuries will have so completely disappeared as to be completely forgotten that they will be sought out. “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”‘” Zech. 8:23 Ten men no less, will approach one Jew in wonder and delight anticipating that he will be kind enough to lead them in his favor to go up to the City of God to be blessed in his presence. Isn’t that a grand thing?
No that will be a remarkable sight indeed. When will this happen? The book of Zechariah reads kind of like an Old Testament book of Revelation with its visions and lampstands and scrolls and horses and crowns, and chariots. But for certain this can’t happen until the Messiah is revealed and blesses His people and city. So it isn’t going to happen this month. Rats!
But still it is comforting to see the promise that appears in Revelation, that the Lord will restore His people, His city. “And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one.” Zech. 14:9 Amen and Amen.
[Scriptures taken from the New American Standard Bible © 1995]