July 12, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Listen, High Priest Joshua, you and your associates seated before you who are men symbolic of things to come: I AM going to bring My servant, the Branch.” (Zechariah 3.8)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

How shall we have peace? Reconciliation? Comfort? Joy? Hope? Resurrection? Restoration? Fulfillment? These were the issues and the questions of the people in exile both foreign and domestic. We are experiencing those same kinds of issues and questions in the world today. As we are facing a national election, these are the bedrock issues which every candidate is seeking to resolve and the questions they are attempting to answer. Yes, we may call them by other names: immigration, abortion, economy, healthcare, global peace, global warming, school shootings and others. But at the end of each day the true issues are spiritual issues which mean there is only one resolution and one answer. That answer was given to Joshua, the reanointed and reappointed Chief High Priest. It was also given to those in his council who were experiencing the reconciliation of Israel to itself and to God. The answer was not complex. The answer was not visible to only a few. The answer was clear, singular and definitive. The answer was:

Listen to the Branch.

We know the “Branch” is the Messiah, the Son of God and the Son of Man. The title is revealed to the Prophet Isaiah and the expansion of the identity was revealed to the Prophet Ezekiel. Now it is given to Zechariah as God speaks it plainly to those whom He calls into leadership of the restored Jerusalem. What does “the Branch” refer to:

First, it speaks to the Davidic lineage for the true king of Israel. The promise was understood by David that “his Lord would speak to the Lord.” David was pointing to the day when the Messiah would take the throne and rule with justice and righteousness. The “branch” illustration was an “offshoot” from the rod of Jesse meaning an offspring from the one who was faithful in the beginning. That faithfulness was recognized by God beginning with the marriage between Boaz, a righteous Jew, and Ruth, a Moabitess who forsook her family ties in Moab to follow her mother-in-law back to Bethlehem. She gave up her old religion for that of following God. The model of Boaz’s action toward Ruth is the beginning of the legacy of “ministering to the foreign nations.” Jesse was born out of that line and in that legacy. Because of his continued faithfulness to God and God’s people, his son David was chosen by God to become the true king of Israel. (1 Samuel) Then in Isaiah, chapter 11, we are introduced to the Messiah and the Messianic community which He would lead as the reformation of Israel to be God’s people as priests, shepherds and those who would disciple the nations to the glory of God.

Second, “the Branch” speaks to the grafting in of the kingdom of humankind into the kingdom of God. In John’s gospel, Jesus says “I AM the vine and you are the branches.” His declaration was twofold. First in that as the Son of Man, born of woman in the line of David, God was grafted into humanity in an incarnation of the word made flesh. Second in that humanity is grafted into the incarnation of the Word through sacrifice which pays the debt of sin which is death. The extension of the term “the Branch” speaks to the fruitfulness of being one in God and with God. Jesus teaches that we will bear much fruit when we are grafted into “the Vine.” Of course, it makes sense since He is one with and of God being very God and very man. The is what we can read in John’s gospel introduction “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life and that life was the light of all humankind. The light shines in the darkness. The darkness has not nor ever will overcome it.” (John 1.1-5)

Mighty ones of God, we who are in Christ (Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female) are such branches who by the mercy and grace of God are grafted into the true Vine of life and living. Jesus affirmed the disciples’ questions and issues with this teaching “I AM the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except that they come through Me [as the sheep door, for example, or being grafted in, as another example.] If you really know Me, you will know My Father as well. From this point forward you do know Him and have seen Him.” (John 14.6-7) If that is the answer to their questions, then it is also the answer to ours: listen to the Branch! He points out the way we should live and the things in our lives that need to change. He is the truth about our creation, our identity, our future and our hope in times of trouble; no other “truth” can come against it nor overcome it. He is the life which we truly desire which is free from sin in Heaven and free from the threat of sin which is death on earth. If we will listen, then we shall accomplish the purpose for which we are made and receive the blessings which are promised by the One who believes in us.

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.