Zechariah 8:4-5 (CSB)
“The LORD of Armies says this: ‘Old men and women will again sit along the streets of Jerusalem, each with a staff in hand because of advanced age. The streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in them.'”
Notice who moves first. I will return to Zion and live in Jerusalem, God says (Zechariah 8:3). The people have not answered one of His questions yet. They have not repented, reformed, or promised anything. He simply announces that He is coming back.
Understand what makes God’s house God’s house. Not the stonework. His presence. You can rebuild the temple exactly to specification, and if He does not fill it, it is not His.
Then He paints what His presence does to a city. Old men and women sitting along the streets with a staff in hand. Boys and girls playing in them. Weigh that against the memory in the room. Seventy years earlier, when Nebuchadnezzar kicked in the door, the elderly were not sitting outside visiting. They were hiding. Some in that crowd had never once seen the city safe.
G. Campbell Morgan said that if a child is safe, everyone is safe. The urban planner Gil Penalosa tests a city’s design by asking how it serves an eight year old and an eighty year old. That is a fair test for a church. Watch how a congregation treats eight and eighty and you will learn quickly whether God is among them.
And notice what produces it. Not better resolve. Not a stronger policy. His presence. Law can restrain evil and promote safety, but it can never regenerate a heart.
It sounded impossible to them. Should it also seem impossible to Me, God answers (Zechariah 8:6). That is holy sarcasm, and it is aimed at your low expectations.
He has come. Christ dwells among His people by His Spirit, and where He dwells the weakest are safe. Is He evident among us?
Reflect
Look at your church and your household through the eyes of an eight year old and an eighty year old. Ask what they would say about how safe and how welcome they are among you. Do not hand that question off to a committee. Take one step this week to make the streets you occupy safer for the weakest person on them.