A world at peace?

The four horseman of Zechariah 1, return from patroling the earth with the report that: "all the earth remains at rest." The Angel of YHWH does not think this is good news and responds by crying out to YHWH: "how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these seventy years?"

We can often think that the world is at peace when it is actually under judgment. We also forget that God bringing the sword of judgment can be the merciful thing to do.

Jesus (the Angel of YHWH) is depicted as interceding for God's chosen people. God is bound to listen to his prayer and does act. This action of showing mercy to Jerusalem is necessarily* his action of judgment on the world apart from him.

However, this is not bad news for the world as a whole. God will "terrify" and "cast down" the nations who plundered Judah (v.21), but at the same time Jerusalem will not shut itself in while the world goes to hell. It will have no walls and will grow as nations flow to it and also become God's people (2:4-11).

So lets pray the imprecatory psalms knowing that the Son of God is praying them with us. But at the same time lets urgently invite and call people to God's dwelling place, God's place of undeserved mercy.

* Zechariah 1-2 indicates why judgment and mercy 'necessarily' go together. These chapters are dominated by God coming again to dwell with humanity. He promises to rebuild his house (1:16) he will again be in Jerusalem's midst (2:5, 10-11). This is cause for rejoicing for those who have been sanctified by blood, but a reason to fear for those who do not obey. Judgment and mercy are not two seperate acts but bound up in the one act of God coming close to us.