A GREAT CLEANSING

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.”

“On that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more,” declares the Lord Almighty. “I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land. And if anyone still prophesies, their father and mother, to whom they were born, will say to them, ‘You must die, because you have told lies in the Lord’s name.’ Then their own parents will stab the one who prophesies.”

Zechariah 13:1-3

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

Starting in Zechariah, chapter 11, we find the prophet Zechariah sharing messages from God about things that were yet to come, things that would happen on a time undetermined. And although the time was not specified, one thing is known for sure and that is that the events would happen because God’s word always comes to be. His word is always truth.

With this as the backdrop, let’s look at today’s opening verses from the next to the last chapter in this book, verses that tell of yet another future occurrence:

“On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.”

“On that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more,” declares the Lord Almighty. “I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land. And if anyone still prophesies, their father and mother, to whom they were born, will say to them, ‘You must die, because you have told lies in the Lord’s name.’ Then their own parents will stab the one who prophesies.”  Zechariah 13:1-3

As we study the scriptures, we often find water synonymous with purification and this passage is in that category as we find Zechariah foretelling a day to come where a great cleansing would happen. Note here that this cleansing would come from a fountain opened up by God which would wash over the Israelites and wash them of their sins and impurities.

Part of this cleansing was the elimination of instruments of sin and iniquity, instruments which included the idols of the land, which the Lord promised to banish to the place where they would be “remembered no more”. The prophets who spread false messages would also be swept away, a part of the “spirit of iniquity” that had plagued the land. Any prophets who chose to spread falsehoods in the name of the Lord afterwards would find themselves executed by their own parents.

Indeed, the Lord was serious about the coming great cleansing.

So how does this apply to us today?

I believe we can relate to this message in a couple ways.

First, think about the matter of water and purification as it applies to Christian life here in the 21st century. Do we not still follow the guidance of Jesus and baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Do we not see people going under the water as a sign of dying to their former sinful self, emerging to a new self and new life, cleansed into being the new creation Paul writes about in 2 Corinthians 5:17?

We do, right? The fountain waters of God’s cleansing are still at work all over the world every day as people commit themselves to Jesus and symbolically demonstrate their commitment of faith in Him and His ways.

Great cleansings are still happening in a big way and the good news is that they will never go out of style until Jesus returns for His faithful ones.

The second important application point for today is that cleansing is not simply restricted to the Lord’s fountain waters. For as mentioned earlier, the blood of Jesus cleanses the sinner today as it has since He shed it for all mankind, washing them white as snow, justifying the Christian before God the Father at judgment. The cleansing that the blood of Jesus provides presents us before God as if we had never sinned, the price for our transgressions already paid by our Savior, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. It was the final sacrifice required for the atonement of sins ever needed.

So with this, anyone who is in Christ becomes cleansed and saved, pardoned from iniquity and assured to live with Jesus and God forever.

Won’t you give thanks today and every day for the great cleansing God has given us through Jesus?

And won’t you do everything you can daily to help others find their own great cleansing and salvation, as Jesus commanded us to do?

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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