October 21, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“’On that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘I will remove both the [false] prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land. If anyone still prophesies [falsely], their father and mother, to whom they were born, will say to them, ‘You must die, because you have told lies in the Lord’s name.’ Then their own parents will stab the one who prophesies.‘” (Zechariah 13.2-3)

“But He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on Him and by His wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53.5)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Following up from yesterday’s reflection concerning “the water of life” connection between Zechariah 13.1 and John 4.13-14, I began with the incredible tapestry of story finely woven from the Old Testament to the New. It is a continuing faith journey which defies mathematical odds. I heard a talk about the possibility that all 31 prophecies found in the Old Testament concerning the Messiah being fulfilled by one individual were 1 out of 2.54 times 10 to the 28th power. To say they are astronomical would be an understatement, so let’s say that Jesus of Nazareth being the Messiah is a “universal” truth. It is a polar star, as Alexander Campbell would use the term, of belief for the Church. That in the course of one’s everyday life, in this case in the ministry of Jesus throughout Israel for three years, the number of applications of God’s prophetic word to individual lives by Jesus, is extraordinary. It is itself evidence of the power of faith in God’s Word effecting the transformation promised to believers. Sadly, however, it is the evidence of those who choose to be contrary to the Word of God instead of contrite.

We can see this evidenced in the verses presented today (including the following verses of 4-6) which speak of those “prophets” who were stabbed by their parents (or family, if the parents were not alive). The stabbing was not for the purposes of killing them. Remember, murder was not the action of a righteous person in Israel who lived by the Law. Such a violation of the Code of Righteousness would leave that person marked for life and death. If any of you have been in the woods and come across trees around which ribbons were tied, then you would have a sense of this “mark.” Yellow ribbons and red ribbons were used to tell the harvesters which trees would be spared for life and which trees were chosen to be cut down. Generally, it would be the hardwood trees that were spared in most cases because they provided most of the habitat for birds and squirrels vital to the ongoing cycle of life in the forests. The word translated as “stab” by many scholars is probably better represented by the word “pierced.” We hear this in Isaiah’s prophecy where it said “He was pierced for our transgressions.” It could most easily be translated “He was stabbed for our transgressions.” At that reading, some may think of the “Ides of March” scenario where Caesar was stabbed to death. The term “Ides” was a Roman concept of dating which was thought to coincide with the full moon. On that date, debts, rent and other such payments were to be made. Notice that April 15th is when taxes are paid in this country and associated in ancient history as an Ides of April. Those familiar with the Jewish festival of Passover would immediately grasp the fullness of such an “ides” with the full moon marking the day of Passover as the first full moon of Spring. Christians seize upon the significance in relation to “all debts [of sin] are cancelled being paid by the blood of the Lamb.” The practice of Jubilee as described in Deuteronomy was such an event of cancelling all debts in a great ‘do over.” Slaves were set free or offered the opportunity to remain with their masters to live as workers. Those so choosing had their left ear “pierced” and a sign representing their master who had freed them was “attached.” Such a symbol declared them “freemen.”

Though His ear was not pierced, Jesus bore the marks of the cross as well as the piercing of the Roman Centurion. In the remembrance of this day in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, we are caused to focus on the intertwining of these scriptures from the Old and New Testament witness of “prophet.” For the Jewish leaders, and the Roman government in fear of those same leaders, Jesus was “pierced” and/or stabbed to mark Him as a false prophet. It certainly was not done by His mother because she knew He was the Christ. But more ominously, Jesus was symbolically pierced in proxy by the Jewish leadership who may have believed they were acting on behalf of the “heavenly Father.” We might remember the prophecy of Simeon in the court of the Temple when Jesus was brought to be circumcised. Upon seeing Mary and the baby, Simeon praised God that he had been allowed to live long enough to see the consolation of Israel. But to Mary he added “…and a sword will pierce [or stab] your heart, too.” (Luke 2.35) Of course, Jesus was not a false prophet. He was not pierced according to the prophetic word by Mary or Joseph, His mother and step-father, and especially not by His Heavenly Father. He was, in fulfillment of the prophecies of the “suffering servant,” wounded and pierced for our salvation to be freed from our debt of sin and thus spiritual healed by the stripes which marked Him as “guilty in the eyes of the law” though He was innocent. In that we are led to Paul’s writing to the faith in Christ congregation of Corinth “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5.21)

Consider then, mighty ones of God, as we live in the Age of the Church, it follows after God had “cleared the Temple” of false idols. Was the destruction of the Temple under Roman authority in 70 A.D. then a confirmation of God’s judgment as much as it was in the days of the prophets when the first temple was destroyed? Do we see how Satan the accuser works to “mark” those who proclaim the gospel as false prophets and heretics? We ought to be overwhelmed by the contradistinction of “evil being called good and good being called evil by those who exchange the truth with a lie.” (Isaiah 5.20) Are we living in those days again? How we must abide in the word of God to know what is the truth and what is the lie. Who is the true God of life or are we bowing down to those who believe themselves to be gods. What are the consequences which then serve as evidence of such accusations? But know the day is coming when the truth will be revealed and the idols will become nameless, powerless and images of the emptiness they have always been. By this we will know who is the “Way, Truth and Life” which overcomes the world. His name is Jesus!

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.