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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
“‘Listen, High Priest Joshua, you and your associates
seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring
my servant, the Branch. See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are
seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,’ says
the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.’”
“‘In that day each of you will invite your neighbor to
sit under your vine and fig tree,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”
Zechariah 3:8-10
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks
be to God.
Thus far, we have found a lot
of information within the fourth vision of Zechariah the prophet as we’ve
looked at the third chapter of this next to last book in the Old Testament.
We first learned that the Lord
was willing to cleanse His people from their sins, removing their filthy
clothes and exchanging them for clean ones.
Next, we found the Lord
telling His people how they could remain in His favor by revealing requirements
which, if followed, would keep the Israelites in good standing with their God.
Well, in today’s closing
verses from this chapter, we find the Lord God Almighty saving the best news
for last as He tells His people of a coming servant who would change
everything. Look again at these words:
“‘Listen, High
Priest Joshua, you and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic
of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. See, the stone I
have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will
engrave an inscription on it,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will remove the
sin of this land in a single day.’”
“‘In that day each
of you will invite your neighbor to sit under your vine and fig tree,’ declares
the Lord Almighty.” Zechariah 3:8-10
Note that the first command God gives His people is to
listen as He is about to share with them something that is to come. He then
goes into sharing that something, that God was about to send His servant to His
people, a servant who certainly wasn’t ordinary by any means. In fact, God gave
His coming servant a title, referring to Him as the Branch.
Now, maybe you might think that this use of terminology might
be a little odd and confusing to the Israelites but if you did think that, you
would be wrong. You see, the prophecies about a coming Branch were not
restricted to this vision of Zechariah. Rather, both Isaiah and Jeremiah spoke used
the same reference in their prophecies well before the Israelite exile. Look at
these three excerpts from those books:
“In that day, the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious,
and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in
Israel.” Isaiah 4:2
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up for
David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and
right in the land.” Jeremiah 23:5
“‘In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout
from David’s line; He will do what is just and right in the land.’” Jeremiah
33:15
A great King (capital “K”) was
coming, who would have a lineage both of heaven and earth, a Messiah named
Jesus who would be God’s only Son and yet a branch from the line of David, a
Servant who would be fully God and fully man at the same time. This beautiful,
glorious, righteous Servant King would usher in a day of great fruitfulness and
prosperity for the nation of Israel and its people, a day when He would reign
in wisdom and do what would be just in the land. Indeed, His coming would
restore pride and glory for all the survivors of Israel who would live to
return to their nation after the Babylonian captivity.
It was this group of Israelite
survivors that we find the Lord addressing in today’s scripture passage,
beckoning His people back to the words of Isaiah and Jeremiah while reminding
them that His promise of a coming Servant was still in play. In fact, look at
what God promised to do with this Servant King:
“I will remove the
sin of this land in a single day.’”
Indeed, as we are in our
Lenten season right now, we reflect on the day when Jesus hung on the cross of
Calvary, bearing the sins of all mankind as He died. Jesus, the promised coming
Servant mentioned in Zechariah 3, took sin with Him to the grave, defeating it in
a single day after drawing His last breath. He then took it one step further
when He defeated death as well, rising from the dead on the third day through
God’s resurrection power. Forty days later, He would ascend to the heavens to
sit at His Father’s right hand, given all authority over all creation.
Since that time, there has
never been another Servant like Jesus but the good news is that all those who
follow Him can commit themselves to live as He did, serving God and others through
every day of life until that day when Jesus, the Savior Servant, comes again
to save those who placed their belief in Him.
What a glorious day of
rejoicing that will be for all Christians!
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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