June 23, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Therefore, this is what the Lord says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there My house will be rebuilt. And the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem,’ declares the Lord Almighty. Proclaim further: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘My towns will again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.’” (Zechariah 1.16-17)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

The power of “choosing.” When we make a choice, good or bad, we have empowered it with our will to accept what the choice brings. Knowing that we should “choose wisely.” I remember that phrase from the movie “Indiana Jones and the Search for the Holy Grail.” Of course, the Nazi Commander who chose the ornate chalice believing it befitted a great worldly king soon was consumed by the fruit of that chalice which was death. Indiana Jones “choose wisely” when he picked the simple wooden chalice as that of a carpenter. His hope was not finding something for himself but for his father who had been shot by the Nazi commander as an incentive to Indiana to find the Holy Grail. That choice provided the healing of Indiana’s father. But there was another choice made after that, too, which showed the power and danger of “choosing wisely or not.” It came when the “line had been crossed” as Elsa took hold of the cup and wanted to leave with it back into the world. In the earthquake she dropped it and reaching for it instead of Indiana’s hand to be pulled to safety she fell herself and the chalice was lost forever.

In reading today’s passage from the beginning revelations from Zechariah, we hear the word of God for Israel and Jerusalem’s restoration. God has promised to bring justice upon those who abused God’s permission to discipline Israel. They had taken advantage of the opportunity to rule over Israel and Jerusalem. They exercised their own choice to play “God” with the lives of the captives in order to promote the welfare of their own nations. They did not consider that they, too, were under the authority of God. It is hard to consider this whole dynamic as we find it in the prophetic works of the Old Testament relating to the captivity of Israel. But their captivity happened as a consequence of their own “choosing unwisely” to ignore the Word of God and to forsake His “choosing faithfully” Israel as His own people. They were not chosen to be an exclusive nation or race to exist singularly and others to disappear totally. God never intended for all the people of the earth to be Jewish nor Israelites. One thing God is not is arrogant. Rather, God chose them to a shining example of those who hear, obey and benefit from the word of God. They were to be a “light to the nations” which would draw all people to see, accept and believe that God, Yahweh Elohim, was indeed the One True God of Heaven and earth. Those who would “choose wisely” would enter into a relationship so rich and complete in love that life would be an everlasting joy. To miss that opportunity and understanding would have disastrous consequences. Those consequences were experienced across hundreds of years for Israel and for an eternity for any who fail to “choose wisely.”

There are a number of words which align themselves with “choose” as we read it in scripture. God promises that he will “again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.” Jerusalem was first known as chosen in the days of Melchizedek. He was a priest and king of the city set on a hill bearing the name “Salem.” It meant “peace, rest and prosperity.” We do not know where Melchizedek came from nor how he happened upon that place. Did it exist as a city before him? Was he one in a line of people who had accepted the role of leadership in that place called by God. Did they choose to believe happening upon that place that “God” had done this just as Abram believed when the voice of God spoke to him in the Ur of the Chaldees while worshipping in the Babylonian temple? Or when Moses happened upon the burning bush that was not consumed? Or when Joshua declared before Israel as they faced crossing the Jordan River “…as for me and my house we will choose to serve the Lord our God; choose for yourselves what you will do”? For God to say that He would again choose Jerusalem it would be for the restoration of her purpose. He was promising reconciliation, the bringing back of what was lost to a place of “being found.” What God truly desired and desires is to be in right relationship with the people of the earth. His love and favor is intended for all people. Many did not know of it. Many, including generations of Jews, had forsaken it. Many have refused it because the presentation of this “good news” was built upon misrepresentations of God’s intention for “His people.” “His people” would be defined not by the Law but by the Spirit. That is, known not by the adherence to the strict guidelines which the Ten Commandments were seen as but by the Spirit of the Law which was promoted in the Shema. For those who have not read previous reflections or who do not know what the Shema is, let me review quickly. Jesus called them, and many Jews in His day knew them as, the “great commandments.” They were the divine proposals of living righteously at the foundation of human life. When Jesus was asked by the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and the Chief High Priest “What do you say the greatest commandment of all is?” it was with a personal and political agenda in mind. Jesus answered simply with the Shema and declared it as the fulfillment of all the Law and the Prophets. In truth, all the Law and the Commandments had their genesis in the Shema. It says “You should love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. With that, you should love your neighbor as you yourself are loved by God.”

The choice for “chosen-ness” should be clear and easy to understand. It is either choosing to live in relationship with God or to choose to live out of relationship with God. It has always been the only choice that really matters from the very beginning. If we will consider this as a defining truth then perhaps many, if not all, of our other questions will be answered and many, if not all, of our problems will be resolved. In terms of Israel and Jerusalem, when we come to this opening prophetic revelation to Zechariah, it was the reaffirmation of God believing that they could again take up the calling by which they had first been called. Another way of saying that would be this: God believed they could choose the calling by which they had first been called and carry it out faithfully. It was a foreshadowing of what was about to happen with a “choice” no one thought would be possible. That choice, we know as being followers of Christ, was God so loving us that He sent His only Son into the world that those who would choose to believe would have everlasting life. God wants us all to believe not just Jews and Christians to be Jews and Christians but that all people everywhere would choose to be called “sons and daughters of the Most High.” I am not sure we are truly getting the message however. Not any more now as the Church, or even as the Temple (and I continue to pray for the reconciling of Israel to God), as it was in the Restoration Age in the days of Zechariah and the minor prophets. Oh, how we must choose NOW whom we shall follow all the days of our lives. God has shown His choice is for life not death. Why aren’t we honored and motivated by that choice to then choose Him and His word which is best for us all? Don’t we want to hear “You have chosen wisely?“

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.