The daily Scripture reading for Cokesbury’s Adult Bible Studies for Monday was from Zechariah, chapter 9, verses 9-12 —
Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war-horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall command peace to the nations;
his dominion shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
today I declare that I will restore to you double.
Zechariah 9:9-12 NRSV
We’re most familiar with the second part of verse nine. Here it is in the New International Version, “See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” But what attracted my attention was verse twelve. Here it is from the Lexham English Bible translation:
Return to the fortress,
O prisoners of hope;
today I am declaring that I will repay you double.
Prisoners of 2020
“Prisoners of hope” — that resonated with me in this season of pandemic and social turmoil.
When Zechariah wrote about “prisoners” in verses eleven and twelve, he wasn’t referring to prisoners in the context of people being punished as in penalties for the commission of crimes, but of the people of Israel held in exile. When he speaks of returning to “your stronghold” or “the fortress” he’s using the Hebrew word “bissaron’ which plays on the Hebrew word for Zion — “siyyon.” So, he’s urging these “prisoners of hope” to return to Jerusalem (Zechariah was a contemporary of those Jews who were allowed to return to Jerusalem by the Persian King Cyrus).
With the fabric of our society being stretched to the breaking point by movements like “Wokeness” on the left and “QAnon” on the right, the folks in the middle may feel as if they’re in something like Zechariah’s “waterless pit.” With lockdowns in some places, social distancing, masking (and never-ending arguments about masking), many of us have certainly felt as if we were prisoners of a sort in 2020. We’d like to move past the pandemic and beyond the election to the other side of creek, but the bridge, it seems, is out . . .
So what does Zechariah mean by “prisoners of hope?” The New Jerusalem Bible offers this translation of the phrase — “Come back to the fortress, you prisoners waiting in hope.” The New American Standard Bible translates it as — “Return to the stronghold, O prisoners who have the hope.” (Emphases added).
But these (and other) translations beg the question . . .
What Hope?
According to the commentaries I’ve looked up, the hope Zechariah is referring to is the hope of returning to Jerusalem: the hope of release from the “waterless pit” of exile in Babylon. That hope was founded upon the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, prophesies that promised that God would redeem God’s people and that sustained the believers in exile. When the first people were allowed to leave Babylon and journey back to Jerusalem these prophetic promises were seen to come true.
Okay, but what about us “prisoners of hope” in 2020? What is the hope we’re looking for in the waterless pit of this crazy year?
That brings to mind a passage from the book of Hebrews, the eleventh chapter, verse one. The NRSV translates it this way, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
But again, what is it that we are supposed to be hoping for?
One answer that we often hear is that we’re hoping to be “saved”. Saved from this pandemic is a worthy thing to hope for. But we know that we’re talking higher stakes than that. Saved for all eternity is the real goal, the genuine thing hoped for here, isn’t it?
Eternity is the kicker though. Eternity is another word for “things not seen.” Because we’re incapable of seeing eternity from our time-bound space. That’s what trips us up isn’t it? That’s what makes the left and right pull against each other so hard that people are hurt . . . even killed. Not being able to grasp the concept of “was, is and will be” has always been a stumbling block for us mortals. The very name of the ultimate Creator, Ha Shem, “the Name,” is beyond past, present and future tenses.
So what are we to do, marooned here in 2020, this waterless pit of the present?
The answer to that question is the same now as it was when it was posed, after a fashion, to the one who had just entered the city, humble and mounted on a donkey —
It’s difficult if not impossible to wrap our heads around the concept of eternity.
But just understand that for us humans salvation is a “now” thing and act accordingly.
Love God . . . Love Neighbor
Shalom
