September 3, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Many peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come. The inhabitants of one city will go to another and say, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the Lord and seek the Lord Almighty. I myself am going.’  Many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord Almighty and to entreat Him.‘” (Zechariah 8.20-22)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

So, whom shall we believe? Shall we believe those who come to seek the easy way through life and pray that God will grant it? Shall we believe God who comes to us in the midst of the world’s confusion who promises truth and peace which the world cannot give? Shall we believe the word of human beings who say “God is the source of our trouble?” Shall we believe the word of God who alone is our salvation as the judge and discerner of all and the provider of true justice? These were the questions which were confronting the renewed leadership of Israel, the nation of two kingdoms being united in spirit and in truth. They are our questions today in a nation, and a world, divided against itself. There is a word from God on this which has been repeated many times in both the Old and the New Testaments. It says “A house [a kingdom] divided shall never stand and the fall of it will be great.” It has been used in the history of this nation as well by Daniel Webster and Abraham Lincoln. Jesus used it in speaking to those who accused His good works which were from God to instead of deceiving works of the Enemy of God, Satan- the fallen Lucifer. What Jesus offered was the truth of a peace which would surpass all understanding, all the understanding which the world as fallen as Satan himself would promote. The fomentous lie of Satan spewed in the Garden of Eden spills as easily across the lying tongues of today’s sin-fected leadership who dares not to repent. Instead, they hiss “God will not surely let you die, it is a lie; you can do whatever you desire without consequence because this is what God does?” Do we think for one moment God does not recognize the consequences of His decisions to be “truly loving”? His desire is to restore, reconcile and rebirth a people who have fallen into spiritual death. Such a death perverts the heart, mind, body and soul of every person beyond redemption of its own device. Only by the mercy and grace of an authentically loving God can save it from perdition’s grasp and deliver it into a kingdom whose end is good for all those who will confess their sins, repeat of the evil they have done and humbly call upon the name of the Lord.

This is the dire predicament and one which confronted Israel (and Judah) for centuries under weak and frail leadership seeking to please themselves in the world apart from God instead of pleasing God as witnesses to the world of its true means of salvation and prosperous living. This is what we can hear in this next word which came to Zechariah. It is not setting Jerusalem and Israel up as the “end all” authority for the world. Far from it! Instead, God is putting the city set on a hill in the limelight of opportunity to bear witness to the power of God to protect, preserve and prosper those people who will trust in Him alone. It is not about Israel being better than everyone else (and this Israel must now learn itself) but that God is the only God who loves better than the rest. His love endures. His love reigns. His love secures. His love saves. His love is perfect. His love is righteous. His love discerns the ways of all people and judges perfectly who trusts Him, believe in Him and are willing to follow Him all the days of their lives. The message delivered to and through Zechariah of the age yet to come which shall be the Messianic Kingdom is critical to the change of the history of the world. As the men from Bethel came to inquire of the Lord “what shall we do with this fast of mourning,” so the world will come to Israel and seek the truth of who they are, whose they are and what shall be done. Yes, there is only one authentic solution to the problems which the world has created and whose consequences are now being faced! There is a “one world” system and government which is being promoted; but it is not as the world sees it nor seizes it. It is not a system of treachery and lechery but of truth and love. It does not seek to boast of its own promise and ability to deliver. It speaks of the promise realized which God has made and that He is able to deliver. The entire history of Israel unfolds as this journey of God’s word revealed to the entire population via a nation of God’s choosing. That nations rise and fall, wax and wane, exile and freedom is legendary because where others have been relegated to the pages of past history, Israel remains as the testimony that endures. Shall it endure forever? Yes, it will but only in the reality of being a “new Israel and a new Jerusalem.” What is the true identity of “that” place? It is nothing less than the house of the Lord God Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, who so loves the world that He would sacrifice His own Son with the promise of redemption and resurrection for all who will believe and receive the truth.

Mighty ones of God, of whom shall we inquire and of what shall we boast? Is it not God? Is not Christ? Is it not faith in Him who has called us into being and now calls us into the newness of life to be built on the solid foundation of faith where hope and love abound? How shall the world hear if they do not ask? How shall the world know if it is not spoken? Faith comes by hearing and the hearing by the preaching of the Word of God which is Christ Himself crucified and raised from the grave in glory and honor of the One and Only True God! We dare not be divided on this! We must be unified in our faith in Christ alone and take up our crosses to follow Him all the days of our lives knowing we shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever!

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 in order that others 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 so we would know we are Your people and 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.