September 30, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“’I will strengthen them in the Lord and in His name they will live securely,’ declares the Lord. Listen to the wail of the shepherds;
their rich pastures are destroyed! Listen to the roar of the lions;
the lush thicket of the Jordan is ruined!” (Zechariah 10.12; 11.3)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

It does us well to read the whole of chapter 11 to gain the sense of the tragedy which awaits Israel. It would seem that regardless of the warning given by God’s messengers, it just isn’t enough to be convincing to those who refuse to think beyond themselves. Isn’t this the way to understand the reality of sin? Sin is the existence of a life (before, during, after or throughout) ravaged by the inability to think beyond one’s self. To be self-absorbed, self-infused and self-serving is to ignore God’s sovereign claim over you, God’s promise to you and God’s presence with you. Regardless, God remains. God remains in power, in truth and in existence. God never fades away, goes away or is far away. This is the reality of Immanuel, God with us. It was true in the beginning of creation, in the beginning of the new creation and in the beginning of the age to come: Immanuel, God with us. Throughout all of this, God was and is and will always be focused on Israel. God’s purpose is to demonstrate His love for the world through them. In chapter ten, we see God’s desire to redeem, reconcile and restore Israel to the place in life and in history where He hoped they would be. He allowed the enemy (mostly of Israel’s own choosing to forsake the promise and presence of God as it was for a presence of God as they preferred) to become justice in the case of Israel. As we remember from the beginning of Zechariah, God has promised to discipline the discipliners because they disobeyed God’s will to humble Israel. Instead, the enemy humiliated Israel and thus brought judgment upon themselves. “Do not be deceived: God will not be mocked. A person reaps what is sown. Whoever sows to please the flesh, from the flesh there will be reaped destruction. Whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit there will be reaped eternal life. Let us not become weary, therefore, in doing good. At the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” (Galatians 6.-7-10)

But it seems that God anticipated Israel would not wait. They would grow weary of getting what they desired. [Notice that the word “wait” as it is used in scripture carries a double meaning: to be patient and endure by keeping steadfast as well as to serve and practice the true worship of God.] We saw it in the Garden of Eden and the failure of both Adam and Eve to “wait” upon the Lord. Instead, the served themselves and suffered the consequences. Or what about Sarah, Abraham’s wife, who after hearing God’s messenger promised she would bear a son, laughed and fell impatient. She succumbed to the “law of the land” and surrendered her husband to her handmaid in order to bring Abraham a child. She did not “wait” on the Lord in any sense. Her impatience gave birth to jealousy and broke the heart of Abraham who himself did not wait on the Lord but surrendered himself to Sarah’s wishes instead of God’s promise. Can we not say something similar for Judas of Kerioth? His desire for Jesus to be the warrior Messiah many had hoped for as the means of establishing Israel as ruler of all the world in order to keep the world from ruling over her was evidence of his failure to “wait.” He did serve the will of God, and of Satan, to fulfill the prophecy of the Messiah’s arrest, conviction and execution. Someone had to, I suppose, but it was in evidence of Judas’s self-concern that he became the one.

In chapter eleven, we are introduced to the movement from God’s promise to provide for Israel in the name of “the Lord” whom we know to be Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, to their rejection of “that Lord” bringing severe judgment to the nation of Israel politically, spiritually and in the image of such with the destruction of the Temple again. Verses 11.1-3 speak of other nations: Lebanon and Bashan but the image is of the resources used to construct the Temple. There is also the word against the shepherds and rulers who are to serve the Temple but have served it for their own purposes. Following the reflection above, they failed to “wait upon the Lord.” And it happened in short order from the institution of the Messianic reign of righteousness to their end of it. Yet, God’s will for the people of the earth will be evidenced either because of Israel’s faithfulness or faithlessness. This demonstrates the continuing sovereignty of God. This also should speak volumes to the modern Church which now stands on the precipice of a similar act of God’s justice and judgment for being faithful or faithless to the call which has been placed upon it “in the name of the Lord.”

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.