The seed will grow well, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will produce its crops, and the heavens will drop their dew. I will give all these things as an inheritance to the remnant of this people. – Zechariah 8:12

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 23, 2014): Zechariah 8

Sometimes all we need is a promise. It is the courage that allows an explorer to go where no one has ever gone before. It is the hope that drove the British and American soldiers toward a series of beaches in Normandy. It is the confidence that drives a man to into a box and allow a series of explosive events to drive him into space. It is the anticipation that gives us excitement every time a child is born because we somehow believe that this world can be different that it really is. All of these things revolve on a promise.

Without a promise nothing seems to make sense. Marriages end because all expectation of good is lost. Organizations become jaded and critical because they can no longer sense the promise. In the experimental world, animals give up in their battle against painful events if hopefulness is removed. Without the existence of the promise, it is absolutely impossible for any of us to move forward.

I have to admit that sometimes as I read through the Hebrew Bible prophets, it is hard to maintain that sense of hope. Sometimes it seems that the negative is overwhelming and that there is no need to even try because the promise is totally absent. And it is not a mystery as to the reason why. We have failed. We have not even come close to the potential that we have inside of us. Too often we can be described as petty and selfish and bitter – and we have no defense against the charges because that is exactly what we are. We do not deserve the best that God has to offer. What we deserve is the chastisement that we receive repeatedly from a number of the prophets.

But every once in a while a ray of light shines through. And this verse is one of those rays of light. In spite of everything that has been said, God assures those that read the prophecy that good things are still ahead – that hope still exists. God gives the promise that the seed would continue to grow, that the vine would give its fruit and that the field would still give its grain. That the life giving dew would still be seen in the early morning light giving life a growth to all of the nature that God has created. The world would continue as it always had – and this was the promise that God gives to his people – his promise to the remnant who would return home again.

And it is still the promise that exists for each of us today. When things seem to be going against us, God reminds us that the simple things remain. And that they always will (that is as long as we are willing to care for creation.) We can count on the simple consistency of life.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Zechariah 9