THE CRAFTSMEN HAVE COME

"The craftsmen have come to terrify them

 and throw down these horns of the nations

who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah

to scatter its people."

Zechariah 1.21

Ephesians 2.1-3 describes our lives as being dead in transgressions and sins, following the ways to this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air.  Paul says all of us once lived to gratify the cravings of our selfish desires and thoughts, and that we were deserving of the wrath of God!"

But Paul also tells us of "weapons that have divine power to demolish strongholds...that demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and takes captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.  (2 Cor. 10.1-5)

This must what Zechariah pictures with his "horsemen" who survey the devastation of the people of God, destroyed by the "horns of the nations," (Zech 1.7-17), but delivered by "craftsmen" who know how to "throw down these horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter its people."  (Zech. 1.21)

Yes.  Zechariah's picture is "mysterious" if not outright "weird" to our imaginations today. 

But it's the same idea as Paul's "weapons that demolish the strongholds" of this world, strongholds that conform and enslave us to the ways of this world. 

Our God is always delivering His people from the powers of this world,

          from bondage and blindness,

              prisons and pits,

                  fear and darkness,

                      sin and death, 

                          devastation and dispair,

          from weakness and slavery,

              loneliness and affliction,

                  weariness and heavy burdens,

                      hopelessness and helplessness.

We have our work cut out for us if we want to offer grace to help these lost sheep for whom Jesus came to save, for whom Jesus died, and for whom He weeps still today.

If we want to become shepherds who "care for the lost, seek the young, heal the injured, and feed the healthy" (as Zechariah calls for in 11.16), I say we have much work to do, work that has been neglected for a very long time now.

We must begin immediately and urgently to "study...to be a workman...who correctly handles the word of truth." (2 Tim. 2.15)  We must learn to use "the sword of the Spirit...to divide souls and spirit, to penetrate the joints and marrow,  exposing the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." (Heb. 4.12) 

We must immediately and urgently "study," prayerfully reading Scripture more diligently to see  the "lost" as our Lord sees them.  We must learn to bring them to His  throne of grace.  We must be able to teach them how our Lord's mercy and grace saves and delivers them from destructiveness and death.  We must teach them how that same grace empowers us to obey the commands of Christ to love God and one another--Heb. 4.16.

All of the Prophets will help us.  Psalms will help.  The Gospels and Epistles are essential to see Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit enabling and empowering us to be disciples who are able to disciple, faithful people who will be able to teach others (2 Tim. 2.1-4).

We have work to do. 

But it is work that our Lord wants us to do and seeks those who will say with Isaiah, "Here am I, Lord.  Send me."