Wednesday, March 22, 2017

RETURNING MERCY



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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo.

During the night I had a vision, and there before me was a man mounted on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were red, brown and white horses.

I asked, “What are these, my lord?”

The angel who was talking with me answered, “I will show you what they are.”

Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones the Lord has sent to go throughout the earth.”

And they reported to the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have gone throughout the earth and found the whole world at rest and in peace.”

Then the angel of the Lord said, “Lord Almighty, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and from the towns of Judah, which you have been angry with these seventy years?” So the Lord spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who talked with me.

Then the angel who was speaking to me said, “Proclaim this word: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, and I am very angry with the nations that feel secure. I was only a little angry, but they went too far with the punishment.’”

“Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there My house will be rebuilt. And the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”

“Proclaim further: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘My towns will again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.’”

Zechariah 1:7-17

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As the first chapter of Zechariah opens, we find the Lord presenting His restored people with a three step process to get back to good standing with Him. You’ll recall they first had to turn away from sin and turn back to the Lord after which they were expected to repent and then obligate themselves to fulfilling the Lord’s purposes.

As we continue to look at chapter one, we find the prophet Zechariah experience the first of eight visions contained in this book of the Bible. Look at the particulars of the vision here:

On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo.

During the night I had a vision, and there before me was a man mounted on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were red, brown and white horses.

I asked, “What are these, my lord?”

The angel who was talking with me answered, “I will show you what they are.”

Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones the Lord has sent to go throughout the earth.”

And they reported to the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have gone throughout the earth and found the whole world at rest and in peace.”

Then the angel of the Lord said, “Lord Almighty, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and from the towns of Judah, which you have been angry with these seventy years?” So the Lord spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who talked with me.

Then the angel who was speaking to me said, “Proclaim this word: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, and I am very angry with the nations that feel secure. I was only a little angry, but they went too far with the punishment.’”

“Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there My house will be rebuilt. And the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”

“Proclaim further: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘My towns will again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.’”  Zechariah 1:7-17

If we look at verse one of this chapter, we can see that Zechariah’s first vision happens a little more than three months after he shared the word of the Lord regarding how the Israelites could return to His favor. The vision, which on the surface appears to be more like a dream someone might have, was centered on “a man mounted on a red horse” who was “among the myrtle trees in a ravine”. In the background were other horses of various colors (red, brown, and white).

Unsure of what it all meant, we read where Zechariah asks for an interpretation, a request that the angel of the Lord honors by having the man on the horse explain that the prophet was seeing “the ones the Lord has sent to go throughout the earth” who then made a report to the angel of the Lord that they had discovered “the whole world at rest and peace”.

Well, almost the whole world anyways.

This is because the Israelites were definitely not “at rest and peace” as they had been terribly oppressed by the Assyrians and Babylonians who took liberties with destroying Israel and Judah respectively before taking all the Israelites away into exile. This truth prompted the angel of the Lord to cry out to the Lord in intercession for the Israelites, asking God how long He intended to “withhold mercy from Jerusalem” and the “towns of Judah” who He had been angry with, angry enough to impose a seventy year penalty of captivity in a foreign land.

Well, as we look at the scriptures, we find God providing an answer to the question at hand, one that contained “kind and comforting words”.

What made the Lord’s words kind and comforting?

It was a matter of mercy, a mercy that was returning to the Israelites underscored by God allowing them to leave exile and return home. Look at the Lord’s proclamation here, a proclamation Zechariah was to pass onto the Israelite remnant:

“I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, and I am very angry with the nations that feel secure. I was only a little angry, but they went too far with the punishment.”

“Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there My house will be rebuilt. And the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem.’”

“Proclaim further: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘My towns will again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.’”

Despite the punishment God imposed on His people, He still loved and cherished them, like a father will still love his child even though he needs to discipline to make sure they grow up right. God’s judgment bore the intent to get His people back on the right path, the path of righteousness He wants all to travel. He chose Assyria and Babylon to carry out His sentence on the Israelites but note here that both selected empires had gone too far. In fact, there was a point when Assyria and Babylon had both wished for the eradication of the Jews. And so now, God was angry with those nations, those who felt secure. They would now be in the crosshairs of His judgment.

As for the Israelites, they would be blessed as God returned to Jerusalem with mercy for His people as they rebuilt His holy temple as well as their homes, their lives, and their relationships with Him. God vowed that prosperity would be restored to His people through their rebuilding process and that they could expect peace and comfort to again found because He was with them.

Once again, they would be His people and He their God. ‘

Friends, do we not see this happen over and over again on our lives and the lives of others?

We sin in life and draw the ire of the Lord who will discipline us as needed to get us back where He wants us to be. But like the Israelite people in Zechariah’s day, what we find is that the Lord is always ready to restore us to His favor, allowing His mercy to return and be upon us. Truly, it is amazing grace.

So let’s all allow these words of the Lord and the message of this devotion take us to a place of higher praise unto the Lord who is willing to forgive us out of love and show us a compassion that defies understanding, a compassion that is born out of the deep mercy we only find in the Lord our God.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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