Grasping the Garment of God
Introduction: The Gravitational Pull of Grace
We live in an age of frantic, sweaty evangelism. Churches spend millions on marketing, on fog machines, on sermon series designed to be palatable to the unchurched Harry and Harriet. The prevailing wisdom is that we must go out and, through a combination of cleverness, cultural savvy, and sheer effort, somehow convince a skeptical world to come in. The model is one of exertion. We are told to push, to pull, to plead, to perform. But what if the biblical model is fundamentally different? What if the primary engine of gospel expansion is not our cleverness but God's manifest presence?
The prophet Zechariah, writing to a demoralized remnant of Jews who had returned from exile to a ruined city, gives them a vision of the future that is staggering in its scope and breathtaking in its confidence. It is a vision not of God's people desperately trying to get the attention of the world, but of the world desperately trying to get the attention of God's people. It is a picture of gravitational evangelism. When God is truly and powerfully with His people, they become a center of spiritual gravity. The nations do not need to be chased down; they are drawn in.
This passage is a potent dose of postmillennial optimism. It is a promise that the kingdom of God is not a failing enterprise, forever fighting a rear-guard action against a triumphant paganism. No, the kingdom of God is a mustard seed that becomes a great tree. It is leaven that leavens the whole lump. Zechariah prophesies a day when the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. This is not a description of the eternal state, but a promise for history, on this side of the final judgment. It is a vision of the success of the Great Commission.
Our problem is that we have so often tried to accomplish this mission with carnal means. We have tried to make the church attractive by making it like the world. We offer entertainment, therapy, and a vague spiritual uplift. But the world can get better entertainment and cheaper therapy elsewhere. The one thing the world cannot get anywhere else is the manifest presence of the living God. And according to Zechariah, that is the one thing they will eventually find irresistible.
The Text
"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, ‘It will yet be that peoples will come, even the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, “Let us go at once to entreat the favor of Yahweh and to seek Yahweh of hosts; I will also go.” So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek Yahweh of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of Yahweh.’ Thus says Yahweh of hosts, ‘In those days ten men from every tongue of the nations will take hold of the garment of a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” ’ ”
(Zechariah 8:20-23 LSB)
The Contagious Pilgrimage (vv. 20-21)
The prophecy begins with a picture of spontaneous, viral godliness spreading from city to city.
"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, ‘It will yet be that peoples will come, even the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, “Let us go at once to entreat the favor of Yahweh and to seek Yahweh of hosts; I will also go.”" (Zechariah 8:20-21)
Notice the source of this declaration: "Thus says Yahweh of hosts." This is the Lord of Armies, the commander of angelic legions. This is not a hopeful suggestion; it is a sovereign decree. This is going to happen because the God who commands all the powers of heaven and earth has ordained it.
The vision is of a mass movement. This is not just a few individuals here and there, but "peoples" and "inhabitants of many cities." The revival, the spiritual awakening, is a corporate phenomenon. And it spreads not through a centralized, top-down program, but through grassroots enthusiasm. The inhabitants of one city go to another. This is neighbor to neighbor, friend to friend, city to city. It is a holy contagion.
And what is their message? "Let us go at once to entreat the favor of Yahweh and to seek Yahweh of hosts." The word "entreat the favor" can be translated as "to soften the face." They are coming in humility, seeking grace. They are not coming to negotiate terms or to offer their own insights. They are coming as beggars, seeking the unmerited favor of the covenant God of Israel. They are coming to "seek Yahweh of hosts." They want God Himself. Not just His blessings, not just His moral principles, but Him.
The personal commitment is striking: "I will also go." This is not an abstract invitation. The one speaking has already been gripped by this desire and is going himself. This is the nature of true evangelism. It is not telling people where to go, but saying "come with me." It is the overflow of a heart that has already decided to seek the Lord and cannot help but invite others along for the glorious journey.
The Global Gathering (v. 22)
The scope of this movement expands from many cities to the entire world.
"So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek Yahweh of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of Yahweh." (Zechariah 8:22 LSB)
This is not a trickle; it is a flood. "Many peoples and mighty nations." This includes not just the marginalized and the downtrodden, but the powerful, the influential, the "mighty." The gospel will penetrate the halls of power, the academies, the centers of culture. The kingdom of Christ will challenge and ultimately claim the allegiance of the strong nations of the earth. This is the fulfillment of Psalm 2, where the nations are given to the Son as His inheritance.
They are coming "to seek Yahweh of hosts in Jerusalem." Now, we must read this with New Covenant eyes. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that we have not come to a physical mountain, but to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God (Hebrews 12:22). Jerusalem is no longer a geographical location in the Middle East, but is shorthand for the Church of Jesus Christ, the dwelling place of God by His Spirit. The nations will flow to the Church. Why? Because that is where God has placed His name. That is where He is to be found.
This is a direct refutation of every form of dispensationalism that sees the Church as a parenthesis or a temporary detour in God's plan. No, the Church is the fulfillment of all God's promises to Israel. The Gentiles are not forming a separate entity; they are being grafted into the one olive tree, the one people of God (Romans 11). They are coming to the commonwealth of Israel to seek the God of Israel.
The Irresistible Presence (v. 23)
The final verse gives us the reason for this global pilgrimage, the central engine of this attractional movement.
"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, ‘In those days ten men from every tongue of the nations will take hold of the garment of a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” ’ ” (Zechariah 8:23 LSB)
Again, this is a divine promise from the Lord of Armies. "In those days," the era of gospel expansion, something remarkable will happen. "Ten men" is a representative number signifying completeness, a multitude. They come from "every tongue of the nations," a clear anticipation of the Pentecostal reality where the gospel breaks through all linguistic and ethnic barriers.
And what do they do? They "take hold of the garment of a Jew." This is an act of desperate, urgent entreaty. It is the action of the woman with the issue of blood, reaching out to touch the hem of Jesus' garment, believing that is where power resides (Mark 5:28). The nations will see the people of God as the locus of divine power and blessing.
Who is this "Jew"? Ultimately, it is the Lord Jesus Christ, the great Jew, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. All who are in Christ, whether ethnically Jewish or Gentile, are part of the "one new man" (Ephesians 2:15) and are identified with Him. We are the Israel of God (Galatians 6:16). So the nations will come to the Church, to the people of Christ, and cling to them.
And here is the reason, the central thesis of it all: "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you." This is the key. The attraction is not our programs. It is not our music. It is not our winsome personalities. It is the audible rumor, the undeniable report, that the living God dwells among His people. When the church is living in faithful obedience, when we are worshiping in spirit and in truth, when we are loving one another, and when we are applying God's word to every area of life, the presence of God becomes palpable. It becomes something that can be "heard" of by the nations. They see a people whose marriages work, whose children are respectful, whose business dealings are honest, whose community is joyful, and they conclude that this cannot be explained by mere human effort. God must be with them.
Conclusion: Becoming Graspable
This prophecy is both a promise and a profound challenge. The promise is that the gospel will triumph in history. The nations will come. The kingdom will grow. Christ did not die for a failing cause. He is reigning now, and He will continue to reign until all His enemies are made a footstool for His feet.
But the challenge is for us. Are we the kind of people whose garments others want to grasp? Is the presence of God so evident among us that it creates a spiritual rumor in our communities? Or have we quenched the Spirit? Have we become so much like the world that no one would ever suspect that the transcendent God of the universe dwells among us?
The world is not dying for a lack of religious options. It is dying for a lack of God. It is starving for reality. Our task is not to invent clever new ways to market a product. Our task is to be the people of God in such a way that His presence is undeniable. We must be so saturated with the Word, so committed to biblical obedience in every sphere of life, from our homes to our town councils, that the world looks at us and is forced to draw the same conclusion that the nations in Zechariah's prophecy did.
They must look at our lives, our families, our churches, and our communities and say, "We have to go with you. We don't understand it all, but we cannot deny what we see. We have heard that God is with you." When that happens, we will not need to worry about evangelistic strategies. We will simply have to manage the influx.