September 15, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Then the Lord will appear over them. His arrow will flash like lightning. The Sovereign Lord will sound the trumpet. He will march in the storms of the south. The Lord Almighty will shield them. They will destroy and overcome with slingstones. They will drink and roar as with wine. They will be full like a bowl used for sprinkling the corners of the altar.” (Zechariah 9.14-15)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

I reflected upon my marvel of how in my desire to pursue God in His Word, I find myself at the intersections of ancient texts and contemporary scenarios. The most recent example was, of course, 9.11 on 9/11. It doesn’t surprise me as if I don’t expect His Word to be relevant day after day. It does surprise me as to the journey I find myself on thinking I have charted the course then discover God at work behind, before and in the midst of the scenes. The omniscience and omnipotence of God is most relevant in His omnipresence. He is always here with us. In truth, God has always been here with us in Spirit according to His promise of creation to love us in His image. I listened to a pastor the other day declare we should pray for God to come and meet us where we are. Not only should we pray for God to come and meet with us but bring with Him His resources to meet our needs. It struck me, not as if I had never considered it, that I need to be more purposeful in recognizing my prayer ought to be “God, open my eyes intended for seeing so they will see; open my ears intended for hearing so they will hear; open my mind intended for contemplation and decision-making so it will focus, comprehend and respond in ways of purpose to do good and to be good; open my heart intended for loving so it will absorb the reality of being loved. God help me to acknowledge that I need to come to You who is always here for me.”

The prophet Ezekiel, along with the exiles camped along the River Chebar whom he led in spirit and true worship, probably prayed more the first prayer than the second. It was only reasonable that he would because the Israel he grew up in and the Jerusalem he longed for all the days of his life were a thousand miles away as the crow flies. He had been raised only knowing the God of Israel, Judah and Jerusalem in His rightful place. His heart, his mind, his body and his soul were “at home” in those places. It was easy to be convinced that God existed only there because that was the only place he ever had been. Now, he was displaced with thousands of others who longed for the same thing he did: Immanuel, God with us. And then it happened. Let me express this in light of the second prayer as a response of the God with us wherever we are. Just as David had declared God to be omnipresent, so God was. If God wasn’t near to Abraham, Moses, David, Ezekiel and a host of others, then it would be a denial of His omniscience (knowing all things) and of His omnipotence (possession of unlimited power.) So, hearing Ezekiel’s prayer in southern Babylonia as easily as standing right next to him as standing on Mount Zion a thousand miles away, God responded in like kind. It was a “theophany,” an act of nature expressing the nature of God’s presence, power and will. Most of us have grown up with the song based on scripture “Ezekiel Saw the Wheel…Way Up In the Middle Of The Air.” It came from the north in the form of a mighty storm with wind, lightning and thunder. Ezekiel knew it had to be God coming in answer to his prayer and the prayers of the people. It would have meant, in Ezekiel’s understanding, that the storm had come from Jerusalem heading north across the lands of Israel’s captors and enemies up the Fertile Crescent. Then it would have headed east across the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers where Abraham’s family had been in Haran and maybe even as far as Ararat where Noah’s Ark had come to rest. Then it would have made a turn to the south and again be present to the captors and enemies of Israel in Babylon and Persia. Finally, unstoppable in its journey of will and intent the storm came to rest restlessly where Ezekiel had been resting. Later we would hear how the Spirit of God would carry Ezekiel back and forth in the Spirit from captivity in Babylonia to Jerusalem. There the fate and the future of Israel, Judah and Jerusalem were revealed to him. Hope was restored as the truth was declared. God’s love is purposeful, merciful and exacting. In other words, God’s love was perfect and perfectly poured out on the just and the unjust alike.

In a journey of some similarity, Zechariah experiences a theophany but from the opposite direction. It follows the path of those who had been in exile and now were coming home. They did not come all at once. Some were reticent to leave a land which had become the only land they had known. Some were weary of journeying to a place which was destroyed and did not resemble their “good old days.” Even if they understood the life lived in “those” days was what had brought judgment and justice on them and it, their memory of what had been and never would be was a heavy burden. God had no intention of replicating what was. God was promising a new thing, a new way, a new experience, a new hope and a new way of life. It was a life that had always been God’s desire but it was a life the people had never experienced even on their best of days. Even the mention of “the storms of the south” became reminders of how God had made His appearance in the days of the past exiles and deliverances. Storms filled lightning like arrows shot across the sky. Storms filled with thunderous responses as the shofars which sounded the special days which God had ordained and the charges of Israel’s armies as God commanded. Storms like banners of every tribe, and now tribes from every nation would wave over them and cover them with the promise of protection. They would be bound together to protect, honor and stand for God’s name as David did against Goliath. They would have their swords, bows and chariots as did Saul in that day which were of new use against Goliath. It was with slings and river stones which would humble the enemy. They no longer fought for themselves but for Immanuel. They would humble themselves for the honor of taking their own blood to anoint the altar committing themselves to God, God’s presence and God’s will. They were a people renewed, reborn and reinstated. They were given a purpose, a name and a promise. The promise was Messiah. The name of the promise was Yeshua. The purpose of promise was to bring the light of truth and the spirit of life back to the forefront of the world. God was setting in place again, as He said He would to Ezekiel and the other prophets, the center of attention for all eyes to see, all ears to hear, all minds to comprehend and all hearts to be filled with what they longed for and though had been lost: authentic love. Let’s “pick that up” in tomorrow’s reflection on God’s Word from Zechariah 9. Shalom, y’all, from where we have been to where we are now to where we should always be: Immanuel.

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.