September 25, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“I will strengthen Judah and save the tribes of Joseph. I will restore them because I have compassion on them. They will be as though I had not rejected them, for I AM the Lord their God and I will answer them. ‘I will strengthen them in the Lord and in His name they will live securely,’ declares the Lord.” (Zechariah 10.6, 12)

“The LORD says to my lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’” (Psalm 110.1)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Perhaps the best way to understand who “they” are is to understand who “He” is. God reveals to Zechariah the same as what was revealed to David in Psalm 110 which David sang to the nation of Israel. There should be no doubt in the heart and mind of the believer, the mighty ones of God, that such revelations had occurred from the beginning of time. Such revelations, including the sacrificial lamb in Eden by which God redeemed and clothed in righteousness Adam and Eve, demonstrate the promise of God to show Himself as a loving God. When Jesus answers the Pharisees (and there were Sadducees there as well) who asked Him “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is He?“, He was declaring His own identity as being the Son of God. In doing so He refuted their own understanding of Messiah which they claimed in order to justify their own position as leaders of Israel. (See Matthew 22.43-46) None other than one who is the Son of God could do what was being done in Israel. Why? It could not happen because God said it could not except by Him. God’s demonstration of His love and His desire to redeem His people is irrefutable within the biblical witness. From beginning to end, the truth remains consistent: it is God who saves by His Son. Jesus never attempts to claim equality with God in this matter. Though He is fully God, His purpose is understood and obeyed as being the will of God His Father. It is Jesus’ hope to restore the right relationship between God and humanity. He is the expression of God’s love which formed the heavens and the earth. He is the expression of the image of God in which humanity was created in spirit and in truth. Do we not see this?

In Spirit, humanity was created by God’s command. We dare not lose sight of this truth. Within the revelation proposed by Genesis 1, humanity was created in the same manner as all other creation with one difference. Humanity was created out of the process of order, the ordering of chaos, by the very Word of God. We cannot escape the reality of “God said” and “It happened!” God spoke the Word. The Spirit manifested the Word into a tangible and physical reality. We are not given the privilege of knowing how God “did it” apart from knowing “God said it and it happened.” What is the difference then that separated humanity from all other creation? The difference is the image in which God created humanity. Hear the Word of God as it was revealed to Moses: “So God created humankind in His own image, in the image of God He [the Holy Spirit] created them; male and female He created [they] them.” (Genesis 1.27) Yes, in some translations we can read that awkward grammatical presentation “He created they them.” There it is. Who are “they” but the very manifestation of humanity itself in the very image of God. And we dare not understand their physical manifestation without the spiritual manifestation. They existed because the Spirit of God obeyed and conveyed the will of God into creation and drew from it “man and woman.” They were male and female just as all other creatures on earth for the purpose of re-creation. Such re-creation was to multiply the image of God into all the world. It is the singular truth that separates humanity from all the rest of creation. We are inspired and humbled by the creativity of God to create all things. We continue to discover more and more of the intricacies and details and multiplicities of this created “world.” But in all our discoveries there is nothing more definitive than the creation of humanity because it alone bears the very image of God. While we may be moved by a sunset, for example, in its seemingly infinite array of appearances day after day, it is in humanity alone that the very image of God is seen.

And Jesus taught, “This is the truth: if you have seen Me, then you have seen the Father and that is enough.” (John 14.9-11) Jesus urges the disciples to believe this truth. If they will not believe by the very fact He told them (having established a long-term relationship with them in their discipling season) then they should believe on the evidence of the works which He did. And not only the works which Jesus did should be evidentiary but the works which the disciples did themselves as Jesus imbued them with the gift of the Holy Spirit. The “works” themselves are the evidence and the image of God. Consider then the “works of God.” It is not only the actions but the results. The disciples themselves were the result of God’s action from the beginning of creation to their own creation to now their introduction to being truly recreated. They were becoming “new” people in Christ Jesus. It is by their faith and trust in Him, though not yet fully formed because they still doubted and did not understand completely what He was saying and doing, that they were being brought to the point of re-creation. That re-creation could not happen until there was the evidence of “death, resurrection and sanctification.”

It is this process of “death, resurrection and sanctification” which was revealed to Zechariah for the nation and the people of Israel. They were disciplined because of their faithlessness to believing in the One True God. There was the exile, the infiltration of nations and the destruction of the Temple which symbolized their death. There was the return of the exiles, the conquering of nations and the rebuilding of the Temple which symbolized their “resurrection.” But, without the Messiah and the Messianic community bound in their singular purpose there would be no sanctification. Sanctification is that which is set apart for holy and righteous purpose. Peter called it “the priesthood of all believers.” And what is the role of the priest but to lead the people in worship of God. Here is the identity of Jesus Christ as the “one true priest following the order of Melchizedek.” In Him is the full image of humanity as a people of worship in “spirit and truth.” Is that not what He said to the woman at the well? (John 4.23-24) It falls on Jesus Christ and those who will believe in Him that the full manifestation of the people of God will be known. “They” will become the evidence as His mighty work which is beyond good; it will be very good!

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.