Posts filed under ‘Judaism’
Nadab’s Strange Fire
For Christians today, we are all fully under the blood of Jesus. Without it, we have zero protection from God’s wrath. With it, we are fully protected from it. However, the same temptation exists today for all Christians that existed for Nadab and Abihu. That is, the tendency to take God for granted or to allow our arrogance to move us away from how God expects us to live in this life.
It is a constant battle for the Christian, isn’t it? Thank God He does not deal with us as He dealt with the Israelites under the Law!
Zechariah 9: Israel’s Enemies Judged
In verses 11-17, God’s final deliverance and blessing of Israel will happen when Messiah returns. God will, with finality, save His people (the final Jewish remnant). Jesus will destroy all of Israel’s enemies upon His return through judgment and then He will also judge all nations (Matthew 24:31-46).
Tragedy of Hating Jews and Israel
I do not consider myself a diehard “Zionist.” However, I fully support what God is doing and will accomplish in the nation of Israel by taking a final remnant from that nation who will remain alive to the end of the Tribulation and be rewarded by being allowed to go into the Millennial Kingdom. Many Gentiles will also go into that same kingdom. There, that Jewish final remnant will finally understand what all the Abrahamic promises were all about. I also fully support what God is going to accomplish in many other nations throughout the world that will enter the Millennial Kingdom.
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’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.
Zechariah’s Second Vision
This vision of Zechariah 2 speaks of the day when God in Christ will restore both – during the Millennial Kingdom. The nation of Israel, and Jerusalem itself. This vision speaks to fact that Jerusalem would have a large population, and…
God Himself will physically protect Israel from all harm. Two great affirmations are in this third vision: Our Lord’s return will be glorious (2:1-9) and Our Lord’s future blessings will be glorious (2:10-13).
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.
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