Zechariah 1:3: “Therefore say thou until them; Thus, saith the Lord of hosts, turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of Host, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of Host.

Is it just me or do you get the impression that it is the Lord of Host who is speaking?  So why is it so important to repeat the Lord of Host so many times?  This is a common phrase used by Haggai and Malachi.  The Lord here is the word Jehovah.  The word host is tsaba’.  It could mean angels and mankind, it could also mean armies.  As a verb it means to go forth or carry on war.  In the Aramaic the word means determination, resolution, will, please choose.  Perhaps we can say that the Lord of Host means the Lord who does what He pleases or what brings him pleasure.

So if we turn to the God who does what He pleases, then we are a part of that pleasure of God. So just what does it mean to turn to God?   First, let me point out the obvious.  It is we who must first do the turning before God will turn to us.  So we have to push the button, turn the crank, flip the switch before the lights of God turn on in us.

So let us take a closer look at this all important word turn to. In Hebrew the word used is shavab.  In reference to us it is found in an imperative form or a command. In reference to God turning to us it is in a Qal imperfect form or in a future tense.   Simply put we would render this as Turn to me and I will turn to you. Now other uses of shavab are to return or restore, all which fit nicely into this verse.

However, can we really be sure the root word is Shavab? It does fits nicely into the context of the verse so why question it?  Well for one thing, the root word could very well be yashav which means to dwell or take up residence.  Translators would tend to avoid this rendering, although it would be perfectly correct to use this root word, because it would make our relationship with God a little too personal.  It is acceptable to most of Christianity to allow God to turn to us, but to have Him inhabit us, well that is a little too much to swallow.  After all we are talking about the Lord of host here, the God of everything, who does just as He pleases.  Why would He want to inhabit a poor old slob of a sinner like me?

So here again we have an example of multiple possible renderings and whatever rendering a translator choses will reflect his point of view about God.  If your view of God is one who is just too big, too powerful to actually inhabit us personally, you will use the root word shavab (turn to).  However, if you believe God is so loving, so personal that he wants to personally indwell you, then you can go with yashav (to dwell, take up residence). From my own personal experience I would chose the root word yashav and thus I would render this verse as: “Return to the Lord of Host and He will dwell within you.”  Since He declares Himself to be the Lord of host, then by letting Him dwell within us, we will literally be driven to do whatever pleases Him.

This is really important to me personally, because about seven years ago I was pretty mad at God over the events in my life, but one evening after getting a good dutch uncle (aunt) talk from one of my students I sat alone in my car and I experienced God holding out an olive branch to me and asking if I could stop being mad at Him and if we could be friends again. I agreed and ever since that time, I have become obsessed with the study of His Word.  I mean every waking hour that I have free; I am digging into His word.  I carry my I Pad with my Hebrew Bible downloaded everywhere I go and in every free moment I am looking up some passage of Scripture.  Now I have only two explanations for this.  Perhaps about seven years ago I suffered some sort of stroke which made me hallucinate that I heard God speak to me and left me with a compulsive obsessive behavior or The Lord of Host has actually taken up residence in me and as the Lord of Host He is doing whatever he pleases or brings Him pleasure and as His friend, I am more than happy to do whatever it is that will bring Him pleasure. In my case that happens to be a driving passion to study His Word which, I suspect,  pleases Him.

Of course there is an upside to all this.  If the Lord of Host, whom I invited to dwell within me, is happy and taking pleasure in my studies, then I am happy and taking pleasure in my studies.  So, I guess you can say this is a win win situation for me.

Now if you will excuse, I just  happen to be on my two week vacation and I don’t want to waste one minute with my Lord of Host, so I need to grab my favorite book (Bible) and spend some time in the Son.