There have always been people who question — not only the reality of futuristic prophecy — but the usefulness of it. Why would God give a word to a people in 519 B.C. regarding something that God still hasn’t done in 2025 A.D.? What value would that have for the people of Zechariah’s day. What people miss when they think that way and speak that way is the fact that every comfort, every strength, every confidence, every ounce of peace that belongs to the people of God DEPENDS ON THE CHARACTER OF GOD. If God’s character is what He has declared it to be. If God’s Word is as sure as what He has declared it to be. If God’s sovereignty, and power, and authority, and EXISTENCE are what He has declared them to be. THEN GOD’S PEOPLE HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR — EVER. And so, it is not uncommon to find our God exhorting His people to believe Him in the PRESENT, even as He encourages them and comforts them with KNOWLEDGE OF THE FUTURE. God connects present obedience to everlasting hope. It is as if our God is saying, “I am going to give you a taste in this time, of something that I will give you in a far greater way in the time to come.” “NOW, WILL YOU BELIEVE ME AND OBEY ME RIGHT NOW AND WATCH AS I EXECUTE MY WORD AND DEMONSTRATE MY GLORY? As you prove me now, it will fuel your hope regarding the future.” That is what we find in these eight visions given to the prophet Zechariah. God is exhorting Zechariah’s generation to finish the 2nd temple. He has already worked in an amazing way to take them back to their homeland, and He has taken them back to rebuild the temple and rebuild the city. This rebuilding project had to do with God’s loyal love and never ending purpose regarding a nation that He Himself chose on an unconditional basis. Deuteronomy 7:7–11 (ESV) 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10 and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. 11 You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today. John MacArthur, in his work on Zechariah, listed 7 reasons for God’s choice of the nation of Israel, and the city of Jerusalem. 1. To proclaim God’s true existence and excellencies 2. To be the nation through which the Messiah would come 3. To represent God as a kingdom of priests — to serve as an intermediary 4. To preserve and transmit the Scriptures 5. To demonstrate God’s faithfulness — the irrevocable nature of His loyal love (Romans 11:26-29) 6. To demonstrate His grace to those who repent of their sins (Exodus 34:6-7) 7. To demonstrate His wrath and justice toward those who refuse to repent of their sin MacArthur — “As these purposes illustrate, God raised up the nation of Israel to be a platform from which He would magnify His character, reveal His Word, and introduce His Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Within these purposes, God not only has a specific function for the nation, but also for its capital city: Jerusalem. Located fourteen miles west of the Dead Sea and 33 miles east of the Mediterranean, Jerusalem sits atop a rocky plateau about 2,500 feet above sea level. But its physical features are not what make the city unique. Like the nation surrounding it, Jerusalem enjoys special status because the Lord sovereignly set His love upon it (cf. Isa 62:1-4). As a result, the whole of redemptive history from Genesis to Revelation features Jerusalem.” What God was doing in Zechariah’s day demonstrated God’s undying commitment to His purposes, and therefore to this people. He is exhorting them in the light of His own faithfulness and loyal love for them.