June 10, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“But did not My words and My decrees, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your ancestors? It was then they repented and said, ‘The Lord Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as he determined to do.’” (Zechariah 1.6)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Now let’s take a moment before moving ahead with Zechariah and the prophecies concerning the “Last Days.” In this moment, I want to reflect on the transitional phrase from verse 6a to 6b. It would say this, “Did not the words I spoke through the prophets overtake your ancestors and then they repented?” You may be familiar with the phrase “There are no atheists in foxholes.” I suppose it might be a poignant phrase to call to mind just days after remembering the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion at Normandy against Hitler’s Nazi military. The loss of life among the Allied Forces was tremendous but the effort was more so to overtake the enemy. Each country represented among the Allied forces fought that day as if they were fending off the enemy from their own shores back home. They had to belief in something greater than themselves knowing that without the grace of God they had no chance of survival. And because many died we should not then assume that God was not with them nor they without God. God is no stranger of death. Even His own Son died on the cross to defend against the enemy and defeat his terroristic threat against the people of God. When the heat is turned up and the conflict raised to seemingly overwhelming odds, each found a faith in self, others and God. Some received the reward of life after death that day. Others received the reward of living to fight another day. As for us, the battle continues.

So, in Zechariah, when did the “ancestors” finally repent? When the majority of the nation’s leaders and families were taken into captivity? When the walls of Jerusalem were destroyed and the city was unable to defend itself in the safety of them? When the Temple was destroyed? When the people scattered to the hills and mountains near and far with the hope of escaping the wrath of the enemy? When they saw the prophecies presented to them coming true. In other words, they repented when “seeing was believing.” They repented after the fact. They repented after the watchman on the wall declared the threat was more than imminent but present. They repented but did they truly declare it in their hearts, in the mind and in the soul? Now the word of the Lord was given to Zechariah to draw attention to the survivors who were left with the stories passed on by the veterans and their ancestors no more than two generations past. Would this recollection draw to mind the veracity of God’s warning? The meaning of a prophecy is truth telling bound in the real time experiences of the people. It was just not a fantasy telling of what might happen “in a galaxy far far away.” Most prophecies had no intention to exist beyond a hundred years; but not all. Some persist to this day with warning markers revealed along the way of the coming of “that Day.”

The question was for them and is for us: will we pay attention to it? And that is the rest of the story of Zechariah that we will review and perceive with “eyes that can see and ears than can listen.”

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.