However, God will always takes us down the path of truth!
My thoughtful considerations regarding today's Scripture readings in Zechariah, Psalms, Proverbs, and Revelation. Key phrases and passages that stood out for me are as follows:
"Did you really fast for Me--for Me?" (Zechariah 1:5). God poses this question to Zechariah in response to his original question--"Should I weep in the fifth month and fast as I have done for so many years?" (v. 3). The divine response cuts to the heart of ceremony and worship practices and God suggests that perhaps obedience during prosperous times ought to have been a consideration (v. 7).
These are the words of God to Zechariah. Through them the heart of God is revealed and the heart of the believer is challenged:
"Execute true justice,
Show mercy and compassion everyone to his brother.
Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor.
Let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother" (v. 9).
Israel's response to God's directive was to shrug their shoulders and stop their ears so they could not hear (v. 11). Their response went beyond complacency--"they made their hearts like flint", refusing to hear God's words. God dealt with them in the same manner they responded to Him--"so they called out and I would not listen" (v. 13). They were scattered "among all the nations which they had not known" (v. 14).
"Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth" (Zechariah 8:3). Up until recently it may have been easy to just read over this verse. However, what hope and what a welcome contrast in light of the culture of lies and deceit that is continually unfolding in the world today. Another reason to pray, "Thy kingdom come"! And to live in such a time of simplicity when "The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets!" (v. 5). God promises to bring His people back from captivity, "and they shall be My people and I will be their God, in truth and righteousness" (v. 8). Whatever our captivity, God holds out hope for us in a relationship with Him.
God says He is "determined to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Israel" (v. 15). In order to be able to accomplish this toward them God says this, "Do not fear (solutions to our problems today may seem impossible!). These are the things you shall do:
Speak each man the truth to his neighbor;
give judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and peace;
let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor;
and do not love a false oath.
For all these are things that I hate, says the Lord" (v. 15, 16, 17).
And in verse 21, the inhabitants of the cities will say to one another, "Let us continue to go and pray before the Lord, and seek the Lord of hosts". Reading through the Bible, we have discovered the truth about other gods and the fact that the God of Israel is the only true God. This understanding helps put the following verse in perspective. "In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, 'Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.'" (v. 23).
"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! . . .Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. . .He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be from sea to sea. And from the River to the ends of the earth." (Zechariah 9:9,10). Verse 12, "Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope". Verse 14, "Then the Lord will be seen over them. . .the Lord of hosts will defend them" (v. 15). "The Lord their God will save them in that day, as the flock of His people, for they shall be like the jewels of a crown, lifted like a banner over His land--for how great is its goodness and how great its beauty" (v. 16, 17). Beautiful words! A beautiful hope and future! The truth of God!
Psalm 148:7-14, is tremendously fitting here and ends with this, "And He has exalted the horn of His people, the praise of all His saints--of the children of Israel, a people near to Him. Praise the Lord!" King Solomon continues with his contemplation of God's creation and creatures in Proverbs 30:29-31, considering three things that are "majestic in pace" and "four which are stately in walk". In this passage he focuses attention on the lion, a greyhound, a male goat, and "a king whose troops are with him". Taking time to think and consider was something the wisest man who ever lived engaged in. (There is certainly a lesson here for us readers.)
In Revelation 18, we read of the fall of Babylon--"the evil world system" (Dr. Charles Stanley). Her sins are listed and God warns His people in verse 4, "Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities". Verse 23, "For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth".
God's word is sobering, yet God never leaves us without hope! God always tells us the truth!
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