Zechariah 9:1 (ESV)

[1] The oracle of the word of the LORD is against the land of Hadrach

and Damascus is its resting place.

For the LORD has an eye on mankind

and on all the tribes of Israel,

This chapter goes on to talk about the obscene wealth of Tyre and Sidon, and how God will bring them down. There is not a nation anywhere that God does not see. There is not a people that will not answer to him. There is not a leader who escapes his eye.

Neither are his people ever away from his view. With severe persecution of Christians in some parts of the world, general opposition to Christianity in others, and growing mistrust toward the Christian church in the United States, we need to remind ourselves that God has not forgotten us. In Zechariah’s day, God’s people were rebuilding, but their numbers had been decimated. They had spent years in a foreign land. They were still under foreign control. Their temple was unfinished, and there were surrounded by powerful enemies. They needed to be reminded that God had not abandoned them.

I’ve known too many believers that lose sleep over which party will be elected, or which individual will sit in office. Too many believers live in fear or in envy of the unbelieving world. Too many believers live in fear of our changing culture, and the impact of immigration on our country. We act as though all of this is outside of God’s control. We give lip service to faith, and then live as though there is no God. Zechariah ends with the assurance that God will indeed establish his kingdom and accomplish his purposes.

We need to stop living by sight. The enemies look great. Wickedness and violence seems to have taken over. If we walk by sight, we live in a scary world. But God. . .  Like the People of God in Zechariah’s day, we need to stop looking at the power of the enemy, and set our eyes on the God of all creation who will ultimately accomplish his purpose, and he will use us in the process. We can trust him. God has not abandoned us despite what we see. Sight is not always reality. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1).