Contagious faith

Read Zechariah 8:20-23

20 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Many peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come,21 and the inhabitants of one city will go to another and say,’Let us go at once to entreat the LORD and seek the LORD Almighty. I myself am going.’ 22 And many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the LORD Almighty and to entreat him.”

23 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “In those days ten people from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say,’Let us go with you,because we have heard that God is with you.'” (NIV)

In an age when Christianity is ‘on the nose’,this is an appealing passage. It tells of people just itching to get in touch with God and thus eager to connect with those who have found this God. Historically,the text refers to the great promise that through one people God would reach all peoples. Jerusalem is seen here as the symbolic dwelling place of God.

What strikes us is an appetite for God and so a desire to be with his people. What is so common in our day is widespread rejection of God and disdain for his people. Some of this disdain is self-inflicted by our lack of integrity in witness. But it seems that even when God’s people are on their best behaviour,many merely shrug their shoulders and get on with their own life.

This text remains a rebuke to us: are we the sort of people who live such lives that others are attracted to such a life? It also remains a promise and a hope: there will be people who will see something of God in us and clutch ‘the hem of our robe’ and want what we have got. If this promise and hope is to be fulfilled,it will involve more than mere formal witness to a set of facts. It will involve an ongoing experience of the grace and power of the living God. Let’s pray we have it.

Blessings
David Reay