The Davidic Covenant: We’re Here To Worship The King!

Read Matthew 2:1-12; 1 Samuel 2:35-36; Numbers 24:17; 2 Chronicles 31:15, 16; Micah 5:2

Upon the birth of Jesus, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem looking for the newborn king of the Jews (It made since to go to the capital to ask the current king where he was).  Naturally, having rich, foreign men who came dressed totally different from the population of Jerusalem would create a a major stir in the city with everyone asking one another who these men were and where did they come from.  Herod, who served as vassal king to Rome, was very bothered by the question that the Magi showed up to Jerusalem unannounced and asking to see the newborn King because it alerted him to the fact that the prophecies concerning the Messiah which he had heard were coming to pass.   To confirm his suspicions, he asked for the teachers of the law and the chief priests where the Messiah was to be born.  Reading from the book of Micah, they told Herod  that he would be born in the town of Bethlehem.

Calling the Magi, back to him in a private meeting, King Herod asked them when the star appeared to them exactly.  He then asked them to find the child after which he would come to worship him.  The Magi left and followed the star with joy until it stopped at the place where Mary and Joseph were staying.  They saw her holding Jesus and presented her with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  No doubt they had planned to return to Herod to report that they had found the future King of Israel but the Lord came to them in a dream warning them to not return to Herod so they took another route home.

What one has to ponder that isn’t talked about like it should is how did the Magi know when and where to find Jesus?  They had to have read the scriptures (i.e. Old Testament) to figure out what we did in an earlier post that the time the Messiah would appear would be deduced from reading the 70 prophetic week prophecy of Daniel 9:24, 25.  While they would find out when the Messiah would appear (AD 27), this prophecy alone would not be enough information because it says when Jesus would be anointed as the Messiah but not when he was born!  The Magi would need more information.  They looked to 1 Samuel and found out that the King would also be a priest.   Hebrew priests were anointed for service when they turned thirty years of age.  Now they counted back thirty years from the time the Messiah would appear and get the exact year the King would be born.  Reading Numbers they would know to look for the star that whole year to appear and when it did they knew it was time to head to Judah.  And thus their efforts were rewarded as the star led them right to where the Savior lived!

Food for thought:  When we retell and sing of the story of the Magi who came to see Jesus, we overlook how much these men risked by traveling so far to see Jesus (the song says there were three of them, but we really have no idea how many there were).  What cannot be missed is that these men traveled a long way and risked their LIVES and possessions to go see Jesus!  They could have easily fallen prey to robbers along the way.  Travel in those times was very dangerous.  But they had studied the prophecies for years and they knew they were blessed to be alive at the time of Jesus’ birth and they weren’t going to miss seeing him no matter what the cost!  That also shows something that is sad too.  The Jews had the same scriptures these men did and they had every opportunity to study as they did and show up at the house just as the Magi did.  There should have been a HUGE crowd of Jews along with the Magi to worship Jesus but they weren’t!  So foreigners showed a greater passion and adoration for the King of Israel while the whole nation who knew about His arrival for CENTURIES let the event go by without paying much attention to it!  There are those who in the last days of this world’s history who will come from out of nowhere to come worship at the feet of Jesus while many of the professed people of God are going about their own thing and not putting God first!  Christians today need to be seeking after God FERVENTLY with all our heart in mind so that we will be ready when He comes again!

 

Up next:  The King reveals characteristics of His Kingdom……

The Covenants of Abraham and David: The Priest Speaks

Read Luke 1:57-80; Psalm 89:15-18

As we found out previously, Mary went to her cousin Elizabeth’s house to celebrate with her being pregnant.  Not soon after Mary left and went back home Elizabeth gave birth to her son.  Her neighbors and cousins came over to celebrate with her how good God was in giving her a son.  The doctors came to circumcise the boy on the eighth day as was the Jewish custom that God initiated with Abraham.  They tried to name the child after his father but Elizabeth told them that the boy would be named John.  They thought it made no sense to name the baby John since no one in the family had that name, so they motioned to Zacharias as to what the boy’s name should be.   They were stunned when John, after asking for a writing table, wrote the name “John” on it.  Immediately, Zacharias was now longer mute and he began to speak as he was filled by the Holy Spirit.  Not only were their friends and neighbors amazed at what was happening but so was the whole country!

The sentences that Zacharias speaks actually pertain to Mary’s unborn child, Jesus.  He praises God for bringing salvation to the people of Israel through David’s lineage through this child who will bring deliverance from Israel’s enemies.  He also praises God for remembering the keep His covenant promises that he made and foretold through the prophets where the people of God will be able to worship God as a result of their deliverance.  Zacharias proclaims upon his son that he will be a great prophet of God who will pave the way for the Lord by causing the people to confess and turn from their sins and lead from a place of spiritual darkness and death to a place of light and peace   John is raised with the power of the Holy Spirit in him and he spends his years growing up in the desert before he begins his ministry.

Food for thought:  No doubt it was difficult for Zacharias to live as a mute man for the whole time his wife was pregnant because he didn’t believe God in the beginning.  But God still used him profoundly as he preached about the fulfillment of prophecy through Mary’s child and proclaiming his own son to be a mighty prophet for God.  Sometimes we are told by God that he has a big plan for us and we think it is too good to be true.  We don’t believe that God can move in the way He says He will through us because we focus on our own limitations.  But all we need if faith in God to make it happen and when the time comes we will have a powerful testimony to tell others, no matter how long it takes for God’s promise to pass.

Up next:  Rich men from far away find the king they’ve been looking for….

The Davidic Covenant: The Song of Mary

Read Luke 1:1-55

Over four hundred years have passed since the days of Nehemiah and a lot has changed for the Hebrew people.  They are now under the foreign rule of Rome and are subject to Caesar.  Rome allowed countries under it’s control sometimes to live under vassal kinds and Herod was such a king who ruled over the people of Judah  Rome also allowed the Jews to practice their religion.   One of the priests who served in God’s temple at this time was Zacharias.  He was married to Elizabeth and they were righteous people who were loyal to God.  Unfortunately, they were elderly and the time for Elizabeth to have a child had long passed.  Zacharias one day doing is priestly duties, burning incense in the temple (this was a symbol of prayer and we can see that this was a time for prayer in the temple).  At this time, an angel of the Lord appeared to Zacharias and told him his wife would have a child who would bring joy to Zacharias’ life, would become a prophet who would have the same spirit of Elijah and turn people towards God and prepare them for the coming of the Lord.  Zachariah didn’t believe that this could happen because he and his wife were elderly people.  The angel, who is Gabriel, scolds him for not believing in a messenger who stands in the presence of the Lord. Therefore, Zacharias is stricken dumb by Gabriel, unable to speak for the entire pregnancy!    The people at the temple were wondering why Zacharias was in the temple so long and they marveled that when he came out he was unable to talk.  They figured he had seen a vision and he went home after his duties were done at the temple.  Soon after that Elizabeth became pregnant and she hid herself for five months, thanking God for ending her barren life.

Six months into Elizabeth’s pregnancy, Gabriel shows up to Mary and tells her she is highly favored she in the eyes of God.  She is confused not knowing the reason for Gabriel’s visit.  He then tells her again that she is favored in the eyes of God and that the son she will have will be named Jesus who will be the Son of God.  He will fulfill the prophecy God told to David centuries ago, reigning on David’s throne over all Israel in a kingdom that will never end.  Mary wonders how this can happen since she is a virgin.  Gabriel tells her basically that the Holy Spirit will be the one to get her pregnant!  He also tells her that her barren cousin is six months pregnant!  He reminds her that with God nothing is impossible.  An excited Mary hastily makes her way to Elizabeth’s home and when she gets there the baby in her cousin’s womb jumps in her womb and as she is filled with the Holy Spirit she speaks how blessed Mary is.   She tells Mary that her baby leaped in her womb when Mary near her.  She says Mary will be blessed because Mary believed in God’s word.  Mary goes into her own praise report.  She praises God for his thoughtfulness toward a woman of her lowly stature.  Mary professes about God’s power, His mercy, His justice, his care for His people Israel and His prophetic word that was spoken to Abraham.

Food for thought:  It had been for over four hundred years since the prophetic word had been manifested amongst the Jews.  For the Jews it would seem to them that God had been unusually silent.  He had always given them the presence of a prophet among them.  What seemed to be going on?  This concern would be magnified considering they were under the iron rule of Rome and desperately wanted to be free from their rule.  But God had His own time for when the Savior would be born and now it is going to happen.  But He also would first bring forth a prophet who in the same spirit of Elijah would conduct a powerful ministry that would pave the way for the Messiah by spiritually preparing the people of God.  Sometimes it seems to us that God is taking too long to act, like He is dragging his feet on fulfilling His promises.  I would gather it seems like that for Christians today regarding his second coming!  We want him to come soon and come now but he has seemingly delayed it.  We have to remember that God doesn’t operate as we do because He’s not constrained by time like we are.  But in His Word we read that God acts when He needs to for our best interest at the right time!  Praise God for that!

Up next:  The priest finally speaks again…..

The Covenant of Moses: Confession, Restoration, and Reformation

Read Nehemiah chapters 7:73-10; 12:27-13

Upon finishing the walls the people ask for Ezra to bring out the Book of the Law that Moses had written centuries ago.  With Ezra leading out, the people learned from the Levites what was said in the Book of the Law.  They wept at hearing the words of the Book, but Nehemiah urged them to not weep but celebrate with food and drink because they were celebrating a holy time and God’s goodness to them.  They found out during their reading that at this time in the seventh month of the year they were to build and live under temporary shelters for a week in order to celebrate God’s goodness.  They did so with great joy.  

Later in the month, the Jews dressed in clothes designed to convey humility in preparation to worship God.  They read from the Book of the Law for a good portion of the day then began to confess their sins.  With the Levites leading the way the people acknowledge God’s goodness in being the Creator of all and for delivering their ancestors from Egypt, giving them laws and commands and giving them the Promised Land.  They also recall that their ancestors had repeated occurrences of disobedience and rebellion against God starting in the wilderness and repeating again throughout their history, including their kings and rulers.

Despite being warned and counselled by the prophets God sent they refused to listen until they were sent into captivity. They thank God for listening to their cries for deliverance from slavery from Babylon.  They still realize they are still reeling from the effects of being under the rule of foreign powers since the days of the kings of Assyria so they ask God to remember their situation and to make it better.  The Jews then make an oath containing various responsibilities, from keeping the seventh day Sabbath and the land Sabbath holy, to providing proper supplies of food, wine and money to support the work of Lord at the temple.  Nehemiah, the Levites and various leaders among the Jews all sign the agreement.

Nehemiah later learns that some Jews had violated God’s law in marrying pagans from Moab, He delivered appropriate punishment upon those men, reminding them that they were guilty of committing the same sins as Solomon had done centuries earlier. He removes Sanballat’s son in-law from the city, and has the Levites and priests cleanse themselves so that can become leaders spiritually amongst the Jews again

 Food for thought:  Nehemiah shows us that leadership can such a huge difference in bringing about change in our lives on all levels.  Leading the way to restoration starts with repentance as we have found out in previous posts.  Then the task of making conscious decisions to make things better while God is leading us has to take place.  Being vigilant is vital as well. When Nehemiah sees his people slipping back into doing fhings that threaten to undo the hard work of reformation that has been done, he takes bold action and corrects mistakes.  Confession for past sins brings us back into agreement with God and then with Him on our side, we can do as Nehemiah and proceed with a plan that keeps us in line with God’s Laws.  We shouldn’t be shy about being vigilant about protecting what we have in God because the enemy is relentless in trying to get us to fall back into old habits that brought about pain and destruction in the first place.  With God’s help, our restoration will be complete!

 

Up next:  God’s promise to David comes true in the life of a young woman…

The Covenant of Moses: Overcoming Adversity (Part III)

Read Nehemiah chapters 4, 6, 7

We read last time how Nehemiah had began to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem.   Sanballat, who was one of the men who previously was rejected by Nehemiah when he requested to be allowed to take part in the rebuilding project, became incensed when he learned that the rebuilding of the wall had started.  He, along with Tobiah, quickly began to mock the efforts of Nehemiah and his people.  They in turn pray to God to silence them. Sanballat, Tobiah, along with the Arabs, Ammonites, and the people of Ashbod became angry as the gaps in the wall were being closed. They planned to attack the city, but Nehemiah posted armed guards at the sites of construction to protect the workers.  The amount of rubble seemed to be too much for the Jews to handle and the Jews’ enemies expressed confidence that they could catch the Jew off-guard and kill them while they worked.  

However, Nehemiah put many of his people at the most vulnerable places of the wall with weapons next to their families who worked on building..He encouraged them to keep their faith and God and to fight for their families.  He had half his men stand watch while the other half continued to build with everyone being armed.  Nehemiah stayed with the men who had the trumpets, which would be used as a warning to others in case anyone was attacked.  He reminded his people that God would fight for them as well.   Some men worked during the day while others worked at night.  They stayed armed all the time, even when they would get water to be refreshed.  

The enemies of the Jews asked Nehemiah to come meet them in the valley of Ono when they learned that the walls were completely built although the gates weren’t added yet.  Tobiah and Geshon asked to meet Nehemiah there four times but he realized they planned to hurt him.  So Nehemiah responded every time he didn’t have the time to do so because he was doing an important work.  The fifth time Sanballat’s message accused Nehemiah of planning a revolt and making himself a king; thus he would notify the king of Persia of this plan.  Nehemiah stated that this was a plan that his enemies were just making up.  He stayed in prayer the whole time.  Nehemiah was figured out that Shemaiah, (whom he was visiting in his home) was hired by Sanballat and Tobiah to convince Nehemiah to hide in the temple in order to stay safe.  But Nehemiah knew such an act would only cause him to sin, discredit his leadership and stall the efforts of rebuilding the wall.  He prayed to God to remember the wrong Sanballat and Tobiah had done as well as the false prophets led by Noadiah had done.  Nehemiah and the Jews finished the walls in only fifty-two days.

Once the walls were done, all the nations became afraid because they knew the re-construction of Jerusalem was done by God’s power.  Once the doors were put in place, Nehemiah had his brother Hanani and Hananiah put in charge as to when the doors should be opened and who would be guarding them.  The city was largely empty with no homes in it so Nehemiah assembled the nobles and officals in Judah to gather the records of all the exiles who had returned so he could prepare to bring in people eventually to repopulate the city.

Food for thought;  What Nehemiah demonstrates during the time of rebuilding Jerusalem is pure perseverance in the midst of not only dealing with the difficult task of putting the walls up in the midst of a lot of rubble, but in dealing with constant threats from enemies who wanted the whole operation to fail.  With amazing leadership and dedication, it took the Jews under Nehemiah’s leadership less than two months to build up and entire city’s walls!  That’s impressive!  Of course, Nehemiah stayed in tune with God, which made the re-building possible in the first place.  As God’s people today, we too can achieve such acts of restoration in our lives if we stay connected to God.  It is expected that the enemy will rise up and throw everything at us in an attempt to derail our efforts to achieve complete restoration but a child of God who continues to pray to the Lord and who sticks to a God-directed plan will overcome every plan of the devil to get us off track!

Up next:  A nation comes together to remember the past and to move foward…..

The Covenant of Moses: Overcoming Adversity (Part II)

Read Nehemiah chapters 1-3

The year is 444 BC, and the first Jews who returned from Jerusalem for over a hundred years.  They managed to survive so far and to have managed to rebuild many homes and the temple in Jerusalem.  Nehemiah is busy doing his job for the king as the cupbearer when his brother Hanani comes back with some men from Judah (The cupbearer was responsible for making sure no one could poison the king’s food or drink in order to kill him.  That showed what kind of man Nehemiah was). He asks his brother how things are going with the Jews and his brother has bad news for him:  the people are having a very difficult time living an existence where they are struggling to survive with no protection because the walls and gates of Jerusalem were still burned down and in shambles!

Nehemiah is distressed.  Ancient cities needed walls around them as a primary defense against foreign foe.  They were vital to a city’s survival.  If Jerusalem continued to exist without them, the people could easily be taken over by a foreign enemy and all the work that had been done up to that point would all be for naught!  Nehemiah mourns and fasts for several days.  Just as like his predecessors had done who prayed for the people of God, Nehemiah prays, acknowledging that the people sinned against God and deserved to be sent into captivity that was told in the Book of the Law which had all the details concerning the Covenant.  He confesses his sins and also confesses the sins of the nation as an intercessor.   He also draws on the fact that if someone prayed to God and repented of sin that God promised that he would allow his people to return to their land and be restored.  He prays that the same God who delivered His people will impress upon the king to allow him to return to Jerusalem.

Nehemiah goes to work one day and the king notices that Nehemiah looks sad, which had to have quite the opposite state from how the king saw him.  Naturally, the king asks him what is wrong and Nehemiah answers by asking out loud how can he be happy while the city of his people lies in ruins?  The king asks him for what he wants and as he prays in his head to God again, Nehemiah asks for permission, security and provisions be given him to make the trip back to Jerusalem to make.  The king grants him this request and Nehemiah then makes it back to Jerusalem.  He arrives in secret, with no one there knowing what he was planning to do and stays for three days.  He surveys the damage in the city at night.  Then he tells the leaders they are in great trouble with the city and its walls still being in ruins.  He tells them the king gave him permission to return and work on the city.  The leaders agree with him and they decide to start rebuilding the city.

Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem came around and ask what they are doing, insinuating that Nehemiah and the Jews are rebelling the king by starting to rebuild the city.  Nehemiah responds by telling these men that God will give them success and that their opinion doesn’t matter because they don’t have any historical claim to Jerusalem or say so regarding their rebuilding of the city.  Nehemiah then organizes a various men to build various gates and portions of the wall.

Food for thought:  The difficulty of restoring the city of Jerusalem back to where it was proved to be difficult for the Hebrews.  Thankfully, when word got to Nehemiah he sprang into action, first praying for God to convince to king to let him go then going back to the city and leading the repair efforts.  Certainly, there were good men who were leaders in their own right who were living there but prior to Nehemiah arriving they didn’t have the leadership or courage to finish the rebuilding effort themselves.  Nehemiah shows his skills by rebuffing the input of those he knew had no real desire to help, but rather, would hinder the rebuilding effort.   In our lives, we must have the courage to step out on faith making our requests known to God then acting out on a plan in order to finish the task of rebuilding anything in our lives that fell into disrepair or decay.  Nehemiah knew the success of his mission would depend upon God giving him grace to do it so he asked and God gave honored his request.  God will do the same for us if we ask!  Not only that we must enact our plan of action and not let others who try to persuade us to elicit their help when they truly don’t have our best interests at heart.

Up next:  The rebuilding continues…..

The Covenant of Moses: Deja vu!

Read Ezra chapters 9, 10

Ezra, who was a priest came back to Judah in 457 BC to help restore the nation by leading it in the right direction spiritually.   He came with the degree from Artaxerxes that gave the nation full authorization to not only re-establish the temple and its services, but to set up a provincial government.  As we studied before, things had finally progressed to where the temple was completed.  

Unfortunately, the other leaders came to him and said that many of the people, even the priests and Levites, married with people from the Canaanites, Moabites, Ammonites, Jebusites, Perizzites, Moabites, Egyptians, and the Hittites!  Not only that, but they were already engaged in practing tenets of these people’s religious beliefs!

Ezra is distraught.  He knows all to well that this is the exact thing that led the Hebrews into idolatry and as a result brought God’s judgment and wrath upon their ancestors, resulting in their captivity. At the time of the evening sacrifice, he humbles himself before God and prays.  He, like others we’ve read about before, has a specific structure to the prayer.  He acknowledges that his people’s sin from years past until now has brought them death and captivity.  Ezra acknowledges God’s goodness in preserving a remnant of the Jews and freeing them from captivity.  However, now they are back doing the same things that as their ancestors did in intermarrying among heathen nations and engaging in false religious practices which was contrary to the commands of God through the prophets.

Soon a group of Hebrews, including men, and children, joined in mourning with Ezra over the sins that have been committed.  Shekaniah admits too that the people have sinned against God.  He says that according to the law, they should send the foreign women and their kids away to have them go back to the countries where the women are from.  He says the people will do whatever Ezra wants them to do since it is in his hands.  A proclamation was made for all the exiles to appear in Jerusalem for the matter to be settled.  Ezra stands up among the men and tells them they have been unfaithful to God by marrying foreign women.  He tells them to separate themselves from their wives and the pagan nations in order to deal with their sin.

The men admit they had sinned.  They request time to make good on this decision and the nation goes through a systematic review to find out who the men are who were guilty of marrying foreign men.  Once they had found out who they were, those women and kids were sent back to their lands of origin.

Food for thought.  The situation that Ezra and his people faced was a very difficult one.  It is very easy to see how the men of Judah could interact with the women of the surrounding nations and fall in love and have families with them.  It would seem to be not a big deal, especially if they were “good” women.  But as we found out in many previous posts, the road to rejecting God and following other gods often is paved with making decisions that seem at first to not be a problem.  The enemy is so relentless that he tries to derail our spiritual restoration by getting us back into the same things that caused us to wander from God in the first place.  For the Hebrews, it was marrying themselves to non-believers.  As a consequence, they had to deal with the painful decision to break up families that had been created in order to preserve the spiritual revival that had begun to occur years earlier.  Ezra no doubt felt horrible in demanding that his fellow countrymen make those difficult choices but he was determined to make sure that nothing, not even wives and children, would come between his people and God.  We have to make the same choices, because even people we may deem to be friends and acquaintances can interfere with our spiritual growth.  Let’s keep our focus on God alone during our time of restoration to avoid making painful decisions in the future.

Up next:  A man responds to a desperate need….

The Covenant of Moses: Overcoming Adversity (Part I)

Read Ezra chapters 4-6

We learned in our last post that Satan presents himself to God and acts in opposition to the restoration of God’s people back into relationship with Him by having them cleansed from their sin.  Not only does he do that but he uses other people to aid in his task of trying to keep God’s people from experiencing the restoration that they need.  It was bad enough that the Hebrews had the huge task of trying to rebuild the ruins of Jerusalem.  To make matters worst, the locals who lived in the area and were from other surrounding towns became involved in the situation.  These pagans came to Zerubbabel and offered them help in rebuilding the temple.  Zerubbabel and his people rejected their assistance because he knew they weren’t sincere and they wanted no one who didn’t worship the true God of heaven to be involved in such a sacred task. The angry pagan locals only made life miserable for the Jews.  They put the work of the temple being rebuilt for by frustrating the rebuilding efforts.  They wrote a letter to king Ahasuerus stating that the city should not be rebuilt because the Jews living in Jerusalem had a history of not rebelling against previous kings and rulers but also of ruling over them.  They made the logical argument that if the Jews were allowed to rebuild the city, they would rebel against the authority of the king once again!  The king agreed with this logic, and ordered that construction on the temple be halted.  That is what happened until Darius became king. Years later, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah prophesy and the people respond and being the process of rebuilding of the temple.  The ruling governor and his companions ask why the people of Judah are they are doing something they believe they are not authorized to do.  In the response, the rulers, the elders of Judah remind them of that they were the servants of the living God and that the temple was built by a great king.  But because of the rebellion of their ancestors, they provoked God to wrath and the city and temple were destroyed.  They recounted that Cyrus issued his decree to have the temple rebuilt and the vessels used in its service were to be returned.  The Jews recall that the foundation of the temple was laid before construction was halted.  They ask that king Darius look into the royal archives so that he knows that Cyrus did in fact authorize the rebuilding of the temple.  The governors record this information and discussion and send it to the king for him to read it and make a decision. King Darius does just that and finds Cyrus’ original decree in the the palace a Achmetha.  He then instructs the local governors to not interfere in the rebuilding of the temple.  Not only that he commands that resources be given to make sure the project is completed.  If anyone dares to interrupt it, the king would have that person executed and his home destroyed.  The Jews with the assistance of the prophets continue the work and they finish it!  The people then dedicate the temple and celebrate the passover, recalling that just as God had delivered them from captivity from Egypt, He had done so again from Babylon. Food for thought:  In continuing our study of this time of trouble and restoration for God’s people during this time in their history, we are reminded that when we being the process of trying to reconcile ourselves back to God, obstacles arise that attempt to derail that process.  We know that Satan is the one behind it all, and he doesn’t hesitate to use other people to achieve his goal.  In this example, the past misdeeds of the Jews were used as a means by which the rebuilding of their temple was delayed for many years prior to its completion.  That happens today as well!  The sad truth is, it not only can come from society or non-believers, but believers who go to church can make it difficult for us to come back to God!  Many people who have drifted from God will hesitate to go back to church because they feel they will be ridiculed or ostracized.  If you are one of those people, take heart that God wants you back more than anyone.   Just as the prophets of old encouraged the people to rebuild their temple, God will send empower you to keep making your way back because He wants you saved!  If you are a person who isn’t a “backslider”, consider this: are you being like the prophets and encouraging once-active members of your church to come back into the fold or are you like those others who will bring up the past of someone else in questioning the legitimacy of their repentance?  As fellow believers, we must always have an outstretched had to welcome back those who’ve been away from God because we never know if we will need the same support and encouragement in the future. Up next:  What?  Not again?!

The Covenant of Moses: Out Of The Fire!

Read Zechariah 3; Gen 19;24; Exodus 9:23, 24; 13:21, 22; 14:24; 19:18; 24:17; Leviticus 10:1, 2; Numbers 11:1, 2; Duet. 4:24; 5:4, 5, 23-25; Isa. 30:27, 30; Isa. 65:15, 16; Jer 4:4; Eze. 8:1, 2; Nahum 1:1-6; Mal 3:1-2; 2 Thess 1:7, 8; Heb 12:29; 2 Pet 3:7, 12; Rev. 20:9, 15; 21:8

When we open our Bibles, we are giving ourselves the opportunity to learn more about who God is and connect with Him.  While the Bible isn’t an exhaustive description of God (God is too big and grand to be fully explained in any book). it tells us everything we need to know about God in order to be saved.  And one of the things about God that is made abundantly clear in scripture that we need to know and accept is that He has an incredible intolerance and disdain for sin.  Not only that, but the Bible makes it clear that God will one day rid the entire universe of sin.

God implemented his plan of salvation to deal with the problem of sin.  Ever since man fell into sin, God has continually called humans to repentance.  He will do it with repeatedly, hoping that all will do so.  But eventually, God will exact judgement on everyone, both those who accept Him and those who reject him.  The Bible gives us multiple instances in which God pronounces a final judgement on a group unrepentant and wicked people and extinguishes them.  The first time God judged the whole world and destroyed a planet of people who denied him was the Great Flood.

After that, we see other examples of how God executed such final judgements on other people.  Sometimes, it was done when God would work through one group of people on another.  A couple of examples include tribes in Canaan being conquered while Israel was under Joshua’s command or when Babylon was conquered by Medo-Persia.   When we study the texts listed above (and there are more),  we find out that when God destroys directly unrepentant or wicked people without the aid of any humans, he uses fire.  Fire will be the means by which He ultimately will eradicate anything corrupted by sin, those who are responsible for bringing sin about or anyone who remains in sin and hasn’t accepted the grace of God.  In fact, God Himself is fire!  The prophets had dreams and visions where the fiery nature of God was revealed to them.  Wherever the presence of God manifests itself, particularly where sin exists, God’s fiery presence manifests itself.

That takes us to our key text in Zechariah.  As we’ve learned already, God’s people are in the midst of trying to restore their relationship with God, and that started with the rebuilding of the temple.  That also includes restoring the temple services which were meant to demonstrate God’s plan of salvation for the human race.  The role of the priests were critical, particularly of the high priest who once a year was to come before God and intercede on behalf of the whole nation.  In order to be fit to do this on the Day of Atonement, the high priest had to be completely free of sin.  In Zechariah’s vision, Joshua, who represents his people,  appears before the Lord in dirty clothes!  That is a huge problem.  Satan is present because he knows what is at stake.  He wants to stop the people of God from being restored.  If he can, he will be able to thwart God’s plan of salvation from coming to fruition!

Joshua’s dirty clothing is symbolic of the fact his people have committed a multitude of sins before God.  One of many things Satan does is to constantly accuse humans as being unworthy to approach God and be in his presence.  According to him, they deserve destruction and to be consumed by the fiery nature of God’s presence.  And the truth is, he’s right!  But Satan is rebuffed because God puts him in check by letting Satan know that God’s grace provides for Him to prevent destruction of a repentant sinner or people at His will!  The forgiveness God grants His people is symbolized in God changing Zechariah’s from the filthy ones that symbolized sinfulness to pure ones that symbolize righteousness.  God implores Zechariah (and the whole nation), to keep his laws and statues, which is what He has been telling them to do from the beginning.  God alludes to the coming of the Messiah in verse nine.  God’s grace has saved his people from the wrath of His fire!

Food for thought:   The God we serve is both a God of justice and mercy.    It is sobering to realize that He is a consuming fire that will destroy anything in His presence that is sinful.  And eventually, that is exactly what will happen to everything we see and experience on this planet.  So why have we and this whole world not been consumed?  Because God is merciful and is extending time on His timetable and giving all of humanity the opportunity to accept his grace and salvation!  We have an enemy who doesn’t want that to happen and he works tirelessly to see that our end will be as his will be in the lake of fire when God’s judgment upon this world is fully executed.  Not only does he argue for our destruction to God collectively, he does it for each of us individually!  Satan tells God each one of us should be consumed and destroyed by the fire!  Based upon who we are and what we have done, he is right.   But he never learns: God continues to rebuke him because the Lord has the power through his grace to rescue us from that fate and to make us righteous and holy!  In fact, we get grace from Him every day we are alive, so let’s keep close to God as we repent from sin and take the righteousness of Christ that he offers us freely!

Up next:  What do you do when others bring up your past?

The Covenant of Moses: The Greater Glory!

Read Ezra 3:7-13; Haggai 2:1-9

Last time, we found out that the Jews initially failed to put first things first in building the temple and instead focused on settling in other towns and establishing their own homes.  God cursed them and prevented them from prospering in their own endeavors.  Fortunately, they listened to the words of the prophet Haggai and put forth the work towards rebuilding the temple.  Within a month, they had laid the foundation of the temple and as would be expected, had a ceremony commemorating  the event.  The generation who had been born in captivity was very happy and celebrated their accomplishment, but the older generation who had been taken as captives from Jerusalem and managed to live long enough to be able to return, were stricken with a tremendous amount of sadness and cried when they saw the results of their work.

Why the mixed reaction?  Well, the older generation knew what Solomon’s Temple looked like before it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar’s army.  It was the most glorious structure that had ever been created and it’s magnificence was in accordance to the One Whose presence occupied the Most Holy Place.  But the Hebrews sinned and violated the temple in every way imaginable, thus God allowed it to be destroyed with the rest of the city.   Now, the older generation is looking upon a foundation of a temple that would be far inferior in splendor to Solomon’s Temple and all they can do is grieve over what their past sins had caused to happen.  No doubt, they saw what little in their eyes they had accomplished as a sign that their relationship with God could never be the same again.

God doesn’t leave his people to remain in despair.  He sends Haggai again, this time not to reprimand a people who earlier failed to put their focus on their work to rebuild the temple, but to encourage them that all is not hopeless.  God reminds them that he is still faithful and still with them as He has been since He led their ancestors out of Egypt according to the covenant He made with at Sinai!  God doesn’t end there. In fact, He says the glory of this house under construction will exceed the glory of Solomon’s Temple!  Whoa!  How is that possible?  The glory of the Lord that entered into that temple was so bright and awesome it forced the priests to leave the building during the dedication ceremony.  Plus so many structures around that temple was constructed with gold and this one wasn’t!  What did God mean when He said that?

God’s plan always was to reveal Himself fully to the world and the Hebrew nation at this time was the vehicle through which He was working through.  As we learned a couple of posts ago,  it was through this nation that the Messiah would appear!  But that couldn’t happen with  a city and a temple in ruins.  The tabernacle in the wilderness was erected because God WANTED to dwell amongst people!  The temple Solomon built to house the tabernacle was built for the same purpose. The brightness of God’s glory inhabited the Most Holy Place in both instances.  While God was ever-present amongst His people, access to him was restricted because the glory of God’s presence would only destroy His people if it came upon them unveiled.  Now God plans to do the same thing but this time the temple will be graced by the presence of God who will take on humanity, Jesus Christ!  That is how Haggai’s prophecy would be fulfilled.  The arrival of the greater glory would shake the nations and people in need would find the peace they had been seeking from God!

Food for thought:  Restoring a relationship to the Lord isn’t easy.  When we attempt to rebuild that relationship and recover from the mess we brought upon ourselves because of our pas sins, it can seem that we can never get back to where we were before in our relationships with God and others.  But the words of the prophet still resonate today.  Don’t give up!  It isn’t easy but the Lord is always ready to restore His people in many ways when we come back to Him in full repentance.  While we may lament what we lost in the past, He can not only heal us but bless in ways in the future that will exceed what we had in the past!

Up next:  Now Satan decides to show up…