Posts filed under ‘israel’
Zechariah 8: Israel Restored
Zechariah 8 reveals God’s jealously for Zion (Jerusalem and all of Israel), while Zechariah 7 reveals that God wanted Israel to live righteously to avoid God’s punishment. Zechariah 8 reveals that God wanted Israel to live righteously to receive God’s favor. In Zechariah 8:2, God explains that His jealousy for His people created great wrath within Him! Essentially, God, the perfect Father was dealing with recalcitrant and wayward children! God wanted their obedience…from the heart! He asks and expects the very same from all Christians as well.
Continue Reading January 13, 2025 at 1:16 PM Leave a comment
Zechariah 7: Obedience Better Than Fasting
By Zechariah 7, the people had been captive in Babylon for roughly 68 years, just shy of the requisite 70 years. Because they had been forced out of their Land, they wept and fasted each year to remember the event. The trouble was that though they were remembering the event with weeping and fasting, God had not necessarily told them to do that. Beyond this, had they lived in obedience to Him, they would not have been removed from the Land forcibly and there would have been no need to fast and weep for their loss. They brought it on themselves by their refusal to live as God wanted them to live.
But instead of recognizing this fact, the people sent a couple of representatives to “inquire” of the priests and ultimately, of Zechariah the prophet regarding their weeping and fasting over that event.
Continue Reading January 6, 2025 at 12:41 PM Leave a comment
Zechariah 6: Crowning Joshua
Throughout Scripture, God gives us glimpses (sometimes more than just glimpses), into the future where He promises to right wrongs, to rework and recreate things and in general, make life very pleasant for those allowed into the Millennial Kingdom. Zechariah 6 is merely one case of many where the curtain is pulled back from the future and we are enabled to see a glimpse of what to expect then.
Zechariah 6 – Four Chariots
n interesting note here is that while verse 7 tells us that after the chariots went north, God’s spirit was quieted. What was/is north of Israel? Babylon, Assyria, Syria and ultimately Moscow, Russia. We know the Medes-Persians conquered and absorbed the Babylonian Empire so while the fact that God’s Spirit was quieted is important. Yet, at the same time, we know that even though Ancient Babylon was destroyed, the system that undergirded Babylon has remained to this day and it will once again rise in importance during the coming Tribulation period. This is clear in Revelation 18:2-3.
Zechariah’s Fifth Vision
Though Zechariah saw the visions he did not understand their full meaning. Zechariah asks, “What are these, my lord?” (v. 4; also 12-13). The two Olive trees represent Joshua and Zerubbabel, who are the prototype of the two witnesses of Rev. 11:3-12 and it is also important to understand that only as human beings, Joshua or Zerubbabel represent Jesus – the true Priest-King – that a person is able to fulfill this vision at all. Ultimately, in their fullest sense, the “two olive trees” represents Christ, the Lord’s Priest-King (cf. Ps. 110:4).
Continue Reading October 21, 2024 at 11:03 AM Leave a comment
Zechariah’s Fourth Vision
The filthiness of Joshua’s rags reference Israel’s stain of her national sin. Joshua stands in for Israel the way Jesus stands in for us now. Interestingly enough, God removed Joshua’s guilt and Satan is silenced. He has no rebuttal because he clearly understands that God fully pardons Joshua the way He will fully pardon Israel’s sin in the future as God pardons the sins of the unbeliever who comes to God in faith in the finished work of Jesus on Calvary’s cross. Satan cannot dispute this.
End is Not Yet
Things are globally escalating to the point where the world is going to need a “savior;” a voice of intelligent reason who can de-escalate things and lead the way to “peace and prosperity.” If Antichrist had come on the scene 10 or 20 years or more ago, the global situation was far different from what it looks like now. The world seems to be on a fast-track to severe global conflict (including wars and rumors of them, failures of the electric grid, debanking people, push toward climate change, out of control inflation that makes it very difficult for the average person to put food on the table, and a kinetic and growing cultural division throughout American society among other things. If the current global situations did not exist, few would be thinking about someone needed to save the world.
Continue Reading October 4, 2024 at 11:00 AM Leave a comment
Devising Iniquity
God will answer the prayers of His children in the way He sees fit; in the way that best fulfills His will. I’m not a prophet and I’ve never claimed to be. But simply basing things on God’s Word and the examples of how He has done things in the past, helps me understand that this appears to be His chosen method of directing human history to accomplish His will without it being obvious.
God’s Hidden Hand
What is fascinating about all of this – at least to me – is the fact that when these things occurred several thousand years ago, it all looked very human or naturally occurring to the outside observer, with one empire growing to the point of being able to conquer neighboring empires or cities and absorb them into that growing kingdom. It is the human way of life due to our sin nature and the curse on Creation. Someone must be top dog it seems.
Continue Reading September 20, 2024 at 12:59 PM Leave a comment
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