Zechariah Bible Study #1 1:1-6

Zechariah Chapter 1:1-6
A Call to Repentance

Introduction

This book is, like all the word of God, wonderful!  David Baron wrote the definitive study of this book in 1918, and I will be using it as the basis for this study.  Why study this book?  #1 It has a clear testimony of Jesus Christ.  #2 It throws very clear light on the events of the last times preceeding the great and terrible “Day of the Lord.”

Zechariah means, he whom Jehovah remembers.  He is a prophet/priest.  His grandfather is mentioned prominently, leaving one to think that his father died young.  He, himself is a youth, being described with the same word used for David when he was going out to fight Goliath.

Historically, Haggai was alongside in the early part of his ministry encouraging the people to get back to the outward task of rebuilding the Temple.  Zechariah’s call was to lead the people to a complete spiritual change, which would lead to the fruit of increased zeal in the building of the Temple.  He witnessed the completion of the Temple four years later.  The exiles had returned and worked to get the altar and the sacrifices going, but when it came to the Temple they suffered from carelessness and indifference.

The Prophet’s Introductory Address

Zech. 1:1 In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo saying, 2 “The Lord was very angry with your fathers. 3 Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Return to Me,” declares the Lord of hosts, “that I may return to you,” says the Lord of hosts. 4 “Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Return now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.”’ But they did not listen or give heed to Me,” declares the Lord. 5 “Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6 But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? Then they repented and said, ‘As the Lord of hosts purposed to do to us in accordance with our ways and our deeds, so He has dealt with us.’”’”  NASB


A Call to Return to the Lord
1 In November of the second year of King Darius’s reign, the Lord gave this message to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah and grandson of Iddo:
2 “I, the Lord, was very angry with your ancestors. 3 Therefore, say to the people, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.’ 4 Don’t be like your ancestors who would not listen or pay attention when the earlier prophets said to them, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Turn from your evil ways, and stop all your evil practices.’ 5 “Where are your ancestors now? They and the prophets are long dead. 6 But everything I said through my servants the prophets happened to your ancestors, just as I said. As a result, they repented and said, ‘We have received what we deserved from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. He has done what he said he would do.’”                    New Living Translation

Verse 2 - “The Lord was very angry with your fathers.”  That was an undeniable fact.  The desolations in the land, the 70 years of captivity, the proof was right there.
Verse 3 - “Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Return to Me,” declares the Lord of hosts, “that I may return to you,” says the Lord of hosts.”   Repeating His name the Lord emphasizes His divine authority and certainty of His offer.  He is waiting to be gracious to them.  He delights in mercy.
Verse 4 - “Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Return now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.”’ But they did not listen or give heed to Me,” declares the Lord.”  The gracious invitation is followed by a warning.  If you walk in the same disobedience as your fathers, you will incur the same displeasure of God and punishment.
“The mission of the prophets was comprehensive and many-sided; they spoke to all times, making known to the children of men the counsels of the Eternal.  They spoke from the mouth of the Omniscient God, foretelling things to come’ but to the current generations in which they lived they were chiefly preachers of righteousness, and their constant cry was , “repent.”   David Baron

This cry for repentance was the keynote in the preaching of all the prophets,  John the Baptist, Jesus and the apostles.  Why wander from the source of life and blessings?  But alas, both Israel and mankind have lent but a deaf ear, and so the lament of God, “but they did not listen .. to Me.”  Alongside of the call of the prophets to repent is the even louder cry of those who say, “Peace, Peace.”  We are the sons of Abraham, we are God’s favored nation, away with this disturber of the peace.  This is the theme of false prophets.

Man is radically wrong, his natural course leads to death.  True prophets and genuine friends of man cry, “Turn, repent.”  False prophets tell corrupt sinful men that they are themselves potentially Christs, who need only develop “the good that is in them, “ and who still cry “peace, peace.”  Man’s true condition is apostate from God, with his face turned away from the fountain of light and life.  Man’s greatest need is to forsake not only his outward ways, but also his thoughts and to return to the Lord.  At the cost of the sacrifice of His Son, God has devised a means for reconciliation.  He cries for us to return, and He makes the way for that return.

Verse 5 - “Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?”  What success did your fathers have in resisting Me?  Learn from them.  They spent their days in wretchedness and exile.  Then the people respond, “And the prophets, do they live forever?”  This is an impudent response, sort of like, ‘What good did it do them?’

Verse 6 - “But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? Then they repented and said, ‘As the Lord of hosts purposed to do to us in accordance with our ways and our deeds, so He has dealt with us.”
      “Oh that men would learn to distinguish between the frailty and weakness of the best of God’s messengers and the eternal character and unfailing veracity of His message!  The prophets are no more, but the words which those holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost are still with us, verifying themselves, and in spite of man’s unbelief accomplishing, whether in judgment or in mercy, that whereunto they were sent.
      Oh, that men would take warning from the past history of Israel, and note the faithfulness of God in carrying out His threatenings as well as His promises!
      Oh, that you would be wise and “give glory to Jehovah your God before He cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while ye look for light He turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness”  (Jer. 13:15-17)   David Baron
 
  As a way of “getting out of” God’s requirements people will focus on the faults of the messenger.  If the words were truly God’s words they will ‘overtake’ the people and they will suffer the consequences of disobedience.  In the end God’s word will stand, so it behooves us to study it.

Hineni Here I am

“Here I am”  are words spoken at least 3 times in the Bible in reply to God.  The first is Abraham.  God calls his name, and his response after a lifetime of getting to know God is, “Here I am.”  It conveys a total availability to the purpose and will of God.  God is about to ask Abraham to sacrifice the son of promise, Isaac.  Abraham’s reply of “Here I am” is a no-holds-barred reply, nothing held back.  This event in Abraham’s life is heavy with importance.  It is the first time in the Bible where the words, ‘love’ and ‘worship’ are mentioned.  It is a portrayal of
God’s own heart of love and willingness to offer up His own Son.  This kind of “all in” availability to God is priceless.  It allows the River of His life to flow powerfully, not just in that event but down through the ages.  I know that God has a greater purpose in all that has, is, and will happen to you.  One of the motivations for being able to say, “here I am” is trusting that it will have a benefit to others lives that can only be compared to an explosion.
The second name that is called is Moses as he turns aside to see the burning bush.  He replies “Here I am,” after 40 years in the back side of the desert taking care of his father-in-law’s sheep.  Far from the fame and glory that used to be his in Egypt.  Far from the fulfillment of the call on his life to lead the Hebrew people ‘out.’  This episode seems to have more to do with a willingness to stop and consider the call of God.  God very patiently ‘discusses’ with Moses the call, Moses reluctance, Moses looking inward for the means, Moses “what if-ing”.  God is very gentle with Moses.  He gave God, “Here I am” but then began to doubt, those doubts, do not sway God, they do not stop or hinder the call on Moses life.  Praise Him!
The third time is the answer of Isaiah to the call of God, “Whom shall I send and who will go for Us?”   “Here I am” replies Isaiah and with that reply becomes a prophet whose writings most clearly show the ‘suffering Servant,” Jesus in the Old Testament.
So my encouragement to you to is to reply to God, “Here I am.”  Through each moment of this journey, the lonely times, the hard times, the doubting times.  That will be my prayer for you.

Fear of the Lord

From a sermon by Roy Hession, this is the best definition of this term I have ever heard.

The Fear of the Lord, is the "willingness to justify God in all that He allows into your life."

Trials, temptations, tribulations, suffering... ALL that He allows into your life!

2 Timothy 2:13

Enjoyed the testimony of a radically saved brother yesterday, and in it was given new insight in to this verse.

^{2 Timothy 2:11} It is a trustworthy statement:For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him;12 If we endure, we will also reign with Him;If we deny Him, He also will deny us;13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.

This is truly amazing, sovereign love.  Often times we see sovereignty as a judgment thing, a hard thing, but here it is displayed as amazing love.

James said in his testimony, that God foreknew that God was going to bring James to a place of loving God.  So before James ever even thought about loving God, God was loving James.  God kept James alive, God had James reading the Bible and finding scriptures about God's love, before James ever gave his life to God.  I get it, as much as a human can, that God is outside of time, but this was a demonstration of that.  God is not confined to the barrier of time, so that, even if "we are faithless" stuck in time as we are, God sees beyond that, and God remains faithful to Himself who He knows will one day reside in us.  

BECAUSE, God is not stuck in time, so that "one day" is today in His always present existence... Wow.  I can only pray that by the revelation of the Holy Spirit people who read this will "get it." 

 And so I do pray for that LORD God in Jesus Name, bring the revelation of Your Holy Spirit to these words and let us rest in Your amazing love.

1260, 1290, 1335 days

God gives mysteries with the intention that one day through revelation they will be unveiled.
Revelation 11:3 tells about a period of 1,260 days, which is equal to 3 and 1/2 years of 30 day months. Daniel 12:11 mentions 1,290 days.  12:12 speaks of 1,335 days.  Each of them have to do with the end times, the final things, but why the "extension of days."
Here is one possible explanation from scripture.
An angel gave Daniel amazing detail about the end times in response to his prayer.  This is a key verse.
Daniel 9:24  “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place."  

At the cross Jesus made "atonement for iniquity" ending the first 69 weeks with the Messiah being 'cut off.'  

The last 'week' starts with the confirming of the covenant, 

Daniel 9:27 And he will make (confirm) a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.” (Note: this is the anti-Christ who was spoken of in 9:26 and 8:11)  

Go here for more on this.

http://the.mysteryofisrael.org/2010/08/28/will-jews-be-expelled-again-from-their-land/

Consider this possibility, using 9:24, the atonement is done, now use 1,260 to "bring in everlasting righteousness"  (the kingdom of our Lord), use 1,290 to "seal up vision and prophecy"  the return of the Jew to the Land, as a 'saved' nation of priests (Isaiah 27:12,13 and Zechariah 3:20) and the 1,335 to "anoint the most holy place"  A forty-five day period of fasting, repentance and physical cleansing, (40=testing 5=grace)

So these are just thoughts, May God reveal the truth in His time and may we be the broken and poured out vessels that He can use for His glory in these last days.

This has taken me a very long time to finish... wonder who does not want it posted?

Zechariah 13:1 In That Day!

“In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity."  Zechariah 13:1
You know you have a good book in your hands when the author and your Spirit both rise up in praise to God at the reading of a paragraph.  This morning as I read this paragraph in David Baron's study of Zechariah, I could sense the amazing sovereignty of God, turning a curse into a blessing by the sheer force of His Love-driven will!   Enjoy it with me....
"Yes, Israel 'in that day' shall experience the wonderful and everlasting efficacy of the blood of Jesus their Messiah, God's Son, which cleanseth from all sin.  In quite another and blessed sense shall that fearful prayer once uttered in ignorance, "His blood be on us and our children," which has haunted the Jewish conscience through all the centuries since, and has, like the blood of Abel, brought down the curse of Cain on the whole nation, be fulfilled 'in that day.'  It shall be upon them for life and not for death, for cleansing and not for defilement."

I think the happiest moments in God's life are when His grace overwhelms our sin like the tide picking up something that was drifting out to sea and pushing it back, with an unbelievable force of will, that completely lifts up the object and turns it in the exact opposite direction, all for the glory of His Name!

To life, To life L'chaim, l'chaim

veritas et virtus truth and virtue and me

Oldest son accepted to Pittsburgh University, whose latin slogan and translation is the title of this blog post.
Truth and virtue.  Truth is, about the only thing I feel good at right now, is letting the dog out when he wants to go to the bathroom.  This 'dad' thing is hard and incomprehensible to me most days.  Drawing a line and holding to it, and being flexible and seeing the others point of view.  Finding a balance.  And then I read that the God of Love, "loathed" the generation of Israel that was stuck in the wilderness for 40 years.   I don't really know what to do with that information but it is right there for all to read in Psalm 95:10.  Psalm 96 is a good argument against those who say, if the rapture does not happen till the end of the tribulation, it does not make sense to them that people would be looking forward to it.  Psalm 96 gives voice to a people who are "glad" when God is coming in judgment.  And I want to post this before I forget, a quote from Jim Cymbala, Christianity is about "trusting not trying."     Okay, so I don't really have a "solution" to the question, "How can I ever be a good dad?"   I have more questions than answers when it comes to 'real life.'  This life is a journey, by the grace of God I will focus on truth and by the grace of God virtue will follow... at least that is my hope.