Zechariah 4: So, big mountain, who do you think you are?
Zachariah’s well known vision and message continues with a wonderfully encouraging word to governor Zerubbabel. The task before him is a daunting one and there’s real opposition. Zerubbabel is tasked with following in the footsteps of one of the most famous kings of Israel, King Solomon, who built the first Temple. During Solomon’s reign, Israel was a powerful, respected nation. Now, Zerubbabel leads a relatively small number of returned exiles in a land that has hostile elements. In the language of this passage, he faces a “mountain” of obstacles to his completion of this, the greatest project of his life. However, even though there’s much to stop him, there is even more to assure his success. The “even more” is God. The Lord is pleased with his commitment to this task and the Lord’s going to see to it that he succeeds. My friend, once those words are said there’s nothing more to say and the only thing left to do is to do it. Through the centuries God’s people have discovered this passage, and many others like it, and have been both challenged and encouraged to do mighty deeds in the name of the Lord. Not only that, but ordinary, everyday people like me have applied this “big mountain, who do you think you are?” approach to dealing with the ordinary, everyday circumstances of life. As Paul writes to the Church at Rome, “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?”