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Tag: zechariah

  • for it was not the season for figs – 2

    for it was not the season for figs – 2

    … and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.

    In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.” – Zechariah 3:9b-10 [circa 519 B.C.]

    Looking Back to the Prophets

    From Moses to the late Prophets at the time of Zechariah and Haggai, the LORD spoke to the faithful of Jacob. (Call them: Israel, Judah, Judea, Galilee, even Samaria at the time of Jesus.) 

    They were divided after David, captured after Solomon, conquered by foreign lands and driven into distant empires. Even after rebuilding Jerusalem and the Temple, Israel would never be the same.

    Prophets spoke judgment of evil nations, cities and leaders.

    Prophesy during the times of the first dispersion accomplished the Lord’s purpose. Jerusalem and the Temple were rebuilt, then rebuilt again by Herod and Rome. Between the time of these two Temples, no word from above – generations of silence. 

    Surely those hearing of the miracles of the great Prophet approaching Jerusalem for the Passover festival had high expectations of this greatest Prophet, Jesus.

    He is the Messiah of God!

    The crowds cover the road with palms and shout:

    “Son of David,”  

    as the King of the Jews (Jesus) rode victoriously up to the gates of Jerusalem.

    ‘Hosanna!’ ‘Blessed be the Lord.’ ‘Savior!’

    And what had the prophet Zechariah written?

    “and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day..

    .. In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.”

    The Sacrifice of the Lamb of God accomplished the removal of sin; yes, in a single day: Good Friday.

    What did Jerusalem expect?

    The Judeans, Galileans, Samaritans, even Jews on faithful pilgrimage to the Passover festival from other lands followed Jesus with different high expectations from nearly forgotten writings of  Zechariah and others.

    Zechariah 9:

    The oracle of the word of the Lord is against the land of Hadrach (Syria) and Damascus is its resting place.

    [Of course, Rome would control all of these Mediterranean lands 500 years later, not just Judah, Galilee and Samaria.]

    The Coming King of Zion

    9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
        Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
    Behold, your king is coming to you;
        righteous and having salvation is he,
    humble and mounted on a donkey,
        on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
    10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
        and the war horse from Jerusalem;
    and the battle bow shall be cut off,
        and he shall speak peace to the nations;
    his rule shall be from sea to sea,
        and from the River A Powerful Professed King

    The crowds, some who had followed Jesus for three years, knew the Son of Man riding victoriously into Jerusalem on a donkey had all power to defeat Rome in a day!

    But it was not the Lord’s will to save Jerusalem in a day, but sinners.

    “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

    Luke 5:32

    For it was not the season for figs and those who will not repent remain cursed and will wither to be burned.

    To be continued…

  • A Light of Revelation to the Gentiles

    A Light of Revelation to the Gentiles

    Birth of John the Baptist Foretold

    Luke 1:5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord…

    The Birth of John the Baptist

    57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. 58 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. 59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, 60 but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.”

    (a few months later in Jerusalem, which is near to Bethlehem)

    Jesus Presented at the Temple

    22 And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord…

    25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, 28 he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,

    29 “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
    according to your word;
    30 for my eyes have seen your salvation
    31     that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
    32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
    and for glory to your people Israel.”

    33 And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

    (Jesus was eight days old; then Joseph fled from the wrath of Herod to Egypt.)

    We have picked up the story of Jesus’ early ministry 30 years later.

    He is filled by the Holy Spirit, baptized by John, faced Satan for 40 days in the wilderness and returned to Nazareth and the surrounding towns to preach repentance.

    Jesus has been rejected by his own brothers and neighbors of Nazareth. The people of Nazareth try to stone Him!

    Jesus moves to Capernaum. He teaches and performs miracles on the Galilean hillsides. All the time, of course, Galilee is under the administration and watchful eye of Rome. A Roman army could occupy any town at any time if they perceived a threat from its people or a charismatic leader with thousands of followers listening to his teaching. Of course, watchful Roman ears would have the intelligence to hear what such a Galilean would be saying to his followers. Rome and the gentile solders certainly knew Jesus prior to His triumphal entry into Jerusalem which would occur just three short years from now.

    Christ Jesus is not only a teacher and friend of the Jews. Jesus IS a light and salvation to the gentile Romans.

    The Prophesy of Luke 1:

    30 …for my eyes have seen your salvation
    31     that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
    32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
    and for glory to your people Israel.”

    (Next we continue Jesus’ journey and witness to Capernaum and Nain in Galilee.)

  • Is Your Heart Pure?

    Is Your Heart Pure?

    You know the story of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount.  He preaches to the crowds on a mountainside near Capernaum, beside the Sea of Galilee.

    Jesus begins with nine compassionate proverbs – not the Proverbs of the Old Testament, but wisdom of His own.

    Matthew 5:8  Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

    Do you see God? (I don’t.)  What does that tell us?

    Many feel-good sermons have encouraged our hearts in these beatitudes – our hearts which are not even close to pure.  We hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but we do not receive it in our hearts which are not pure.  The heart is deceitful, because it is not pure.

     

    I once inadvertently poked myself in the eye.  I saw a great flash of light with intense distortion of my suddenly excruciating painful poke. I didn’t see God; but I couldn’t see anything else, either.

    Sometimes it takes a sudden poke to get my heart refocused. It takes a pouring off of the dross from my cold hardened heart to purify my soul nearer to the pureness of God.

    Jesus does NOT have fond and ‘happy’ memories of the crowds who sat on the Capernaum hillside.  The Son of God rebukes the “blessed” of Capernaum… those who did not accept his nice little Sermon on the Mount.

    He later delivers these same ‘blessed’ an unexpected poke in the eye.

    Matthew 11: 23 “And you people of Capernaum, will you be honored in heaven?  No, you will go down to the place of the dead.[a] For if the miracles I did for you had been done in wicked Sodom, it would still be here today. 24 I tell you, even Sodom will be better off on judgment day than you.”

    The nice people of Capernaum have not had ears to hear the nine nice proverbs of blessing by Jesus. Here He sounds more like the Prophets who warned of curse which would come on the land and God’s ‘blessed.’

    Zechariah 13:9  And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.

     “The choice is clear: BLESSING OR CURSE – Heaven OR Hell – Jesus OR a heart not quite pure enough for Heaven.

    It seems we have two choices: the eternal fire of Hell

    OR a refining fire of the Holy Spirit.

    Look at the picture of God refining the heart:

    Psalm 119:119 NKJV says:

    You put away all the wicked of the earth like dross;
    Therefore I love Your testimonies.

    The wisdom of Proverbs 25:4 tells us:

    Take away the dross from silver,
    And it will go to the silversmith for jewelry.

    “IF you want to see God, allow the Holy Spirit to take away the dross, the impurities of your heart and its cold deceptive hardness.

    Jesus gave us the fire of the Spirit to refine our souls to see God.  By the blood of Jesus and the fire of the Holy Spirit we will be 100% pure.

    John 14: 15 “If you love me, obey[d] my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,[e] who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.”

    How pure is your heart?

    Pray for the ‘blessed’ refining fire of the Spirit, before the ‘cursed’ punishing fire of Hell.

     

     

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