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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.
“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s
Armies says: People from nations and cities around the world will travel to
Jerusalem. The people of one city will say to the people of another, ‘Come with
us to Jerusalem to ask the Lord to bless us. Let’s worship the Lord of Heaven’s
Armies. I’m determined to go.’ Many peoples and powerful nations will come to
Jerusalem to seek the Lord of Heaven’s Armies and to ask for His blessing.”
“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: In those
days ten men from different nations and languages of the world will clutch at
the sleeve of one Jew. And they will say, ‘Please let us walk with you, for we
have heard that God is with you.’”
Zechariah 8:20-23
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks
be to God.
Israel’s enemies had tried
over and over again to defeat the nation, shrugging off the assertion that
their efforts would always be fruitless because Israel was protected by the
Lord God Almighty, a God they chose to neither acknowledge nor worship. As we
know, every attempt that was initiated by a sinful, wicked nation against
Israel failed and failed badly. The only real victory any enemy of Israel had
came only because God allowed it to happen, using Assyria and Babylon as
instruments of His judgment, a judgment we know wasn’t intended to last
forever. God promised it Himself and as we have seen in the Book of Zechariah
as well as other post-exilic books such as Ezra and Nehemiah, a remnant of
Israelites did indeed return to the Promised Land, permitted by God to come
home and rebuild their homes, lives relationships with Him, and, of course, His
Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
Israel’s enemies had to look
on with fascination and even a sense of trepidation as God once again showed
that the Israelites were His people and He their God. And with that kind of
arrangement, how could any opponent of Israel every triumph? It had to be a
question that adversaries had asked and perhaps one of the answers to the
question might be found in a saying very familiar to us today:
If you can’t beat them, join
them.
We get a sense that this would
indeed be the approach other nations would use because the Lord tells us
Himself in today’s scripture passage drawn from the closing verses of Zechariah
8. Look again at these words here:
“This is what the Lord
of Heaven’s Armies says: People from nations and cities around the world will
travel to Jerusalem. The people of one city will say to the people of another,
‘Come with us to Jerusalem to ask the Lord to bless us. Let’s worship the Lord
of Heaven’s Armies. I’m determined to go.’ Many peoples and powerful nations
will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord of Heaven’s Armies and to ask for His
blessing.”
“This is what the Lord
of Heaven’s Armies says: In those days ten men from different nations and
languages of the world will clutch at the sleeve of one Jew. And they will say,
‘Please let us walk with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’” Zechariah 8:20-23
Note the battle describer God
uses to name Himself:
“The Lord of Heaven’s Armies”
The title conjures up imagery
of a military commander leading his troops into war; in this case, the Lord
leading the armies of the heavens which were of such power that no fighting
force on earth stood a chance against them. And so given this, the scriptures
tell of what was to come, that “people from nations and cities around the world”
would travel to Jerusalem to worship the Lord and seek His Lord’s blessings.
These people, knowing they could not beat the Lord, made the wise choice to
join Him instead, clutching at the sleeves of the Jews while asking permission
to walk along with God as they were.
In other words, all the
nations of the world who had once rejected God were now ready to accept Him,
giving Him their devotion.
Friends, wouldn’t it be
wonderful if we saw this scene play out again here in the 21st century?
Wouldn’t it be great if every
nation in the world would dedicate themselves to the God of Israel who is
actually the God of all people, Him being their Maker and Master?
And wouldn’t it be a total
game changer if all nations would just choose to join God instead of trying to
beat Him, pledging their full dedication and worship to Him and Him alone?
I know it sounds improbable
but it’s definitely something we all should be praying for.
After all, God has worked
greater miracles.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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