Zechariah 14- Refreshed

 ”On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea, in summer and winter alike. On that day the Lord will become King over the whole earth  — the Lord alone, and his name alone.“

‭‭Zechariah‬ ‭14‬:‭8‬-‭9‬ ‭CSB‬‬

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This is imagery of the future when the Lord returns and establishes His kingdom.  He will reign from Jerusalem and the water here depicts life giving quality of His rule.  He is the sustainer of life to humanity, just like water is to plants.  

We all know what plants do if they don’t get enough water, they wilt, then get flimsy and later start to dry out and become fragile…then finally are broken to pieces and die.  Our souls are the same way with God…we start to feel weak and without strength to do normal activities. Then we dry out and feel numb to even remember His presence. Finally we are fragile and broken, so that even a strong wind of trial will shatter us.

Lord, thank you for dwelling inside me, and giving me your Word to drink in daily.  Thank You for sharing Your presence with me and helping me to see Your guiding!  Allow me to feel the refreshment of Your delight as I follow You in obedience.

Zechariah 13- Simplicity of Salvation

 ”“On that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the residents of Jerusalem, to wash away sin and impurity.“

‭‭Zechariah‬ ‭13‬:‭1‬ ‭CSB‬‬

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What an image… sin washed away as easily as washing your hands.  The picture is more surprising to the original audience than it is to us, because they were still required to slaughter an animal for their sin.  That was a never ending process for God people before Jesus came!

For us it is more familiar because we only have to confess our sin to the Lord and trust that His work on the Cross will take care of it.  That washes us clean, even faster than washing your hands.  When we truly believe Jesus removes all sin that we have done in the past, nothing that we will do all at once…that is mind blowing and by the Spirit's power we should begin to sin less and less.  The sin that we chose to commit should be less and less…and our intentional obedience should be increasing.  We will also find ourselves delighted to say NO to previously attractive sin and choosing to obey happily.  This is what it looks like to follow Jesus.

God, help me to trust You at every turn.  Even when the path forward seems hard, help me to be confident that You actually want what is best for me.

Zechariah 12- Eternal Life Today

 ”“Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the house of David and the residents of Jerusalem, and they will look at me whom they pierced. They will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and weep bitterly for him as one weeps for a firstborn.“

‭‭Zechariah‬ ‭12‬:‭10‬ ‭CSB‬‬

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More than 500 years before Jesus was born Zachariah prophesied about Jesus death.  He told where He would be crucified and that they would pierce his body (hands, feed and side).  This is not the only time Jesus death is portrayed before it happened…in fact there are more than 300 times!  (Here is a quick article https://www.gotquestions.org/prophecies-of-Jesus.html)

Gods plan was put into effect from the beginning of time.  He knew what would happen and what He would to to resolve the problem of sin.  We are still in the middle of Gods plan for redemption and I am so thankful that one day, we will be with Him and He will make all things new.  Nothing will be stained by sin and destruction!  There will be no more pain and suffering or even death.

Lord, you have a perfect plan, help me to walk into Your plan every day.  Correct my thinking when I go my own way and help me to trust You every step!  I need You because my own plans are stubborn and “make sense”…but they don’t lead to life.  That is where I want to live today…the life abiding with You.

Zechariah 11- Sweet Salvation

 ”I am about to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are perishing, and he will not seek the lost or heal the broken. He will not sustain the healthy, but he will devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hooves.“

‭‭Zechariah‬ ‭11‬:‭16‬ ‭CSB‬‬

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This horrifying description is the exact opposite of how God cares for his people.  He uses this statement to magnify His own character… in fact these are all of the worst possible ways to care for sheep.  This shepherd is described as lazy, uncaring and selfish.  He won’t spend any time or effort to help or restore his sheep.

God on the other hand showed Himself, over and over to be loving, caring and has stoped at nothing to prove this.  In fact He has held nothing back from redeeming us, He sent us Jesus… and sacrificed Him so that we could have life.

God help me to be in awe of this every moment of every day!

Zechariah 10- Patience

”I will strengthen the house of Judah and deliver the house of Joseph. I will restore them because I have compassion on them, and they will be as though I had never rejected them. For I am the Lord their God, and I will answer them.“ ‭‭

Zechariah‬ ‭10‬:‭6‬ ‭CSB‬‬ 

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This theme comes up so often because I think we need lots of reminders that God redeems us because of who He is, not because of what we do.  The second part of this is even more valuable to be reminded- God will answer when we call to Him.

Lord help me to wait patiently when I pray. Of course, I want things to change instantly or to be resolved in an instant, but You know the best timing so help me to wait on you.  You are a good Father, who gives good things to us…and I want to leant what You have for me and be in the center of your will.

Zechariah 9- Always Good

”Tyre has built herself a fortress; she has heaped up silver like dust and gold like the dirt of the streets. Listen! The Lord will impoverish her and cast her wealth into the sea; she herself will be consumed by fire. The Lord their God will save them on that day as the flock of his people; for they are like jewels in a crown, sparkling over his land.“ ‭‭

Zechariah‬ ‭9‬:‭3‬-‭4‬, ‭16‬ ‭CSB‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/1713/zec.9.CSB

Once again there is an example of people who are trusting in their own ability, their own wealth, their ability to prevent catastrophe.  They feel safe and like they don’t need God.

I am pretty good at figuring things out, making a plan and executing it.  Many time I am successful at doing the thing, but there are often casualties… sadly, I don’t always notice them.

Lord, help me to trust you rather than my own abilities.  I want to accomplish what is in your plan, without sacrificing those I care most about or inflicting a poor reputation on You.  Help me to trust that You are always good and don’t hold good things away from me!

Zechariah 8- God With Us

 ”Many peoples and strong nations will come to seek the Lord of Armies in Jerusalem and to plead for the Lord’s favor.” The Lord of Armies says this: “In those days, ten men from nations of every language will grab the robe of a Jewish man tightly, urging: Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”“

‭‭Zechariah‬ ‭8‬:‭22‬-‭23‬ ‭CSB‬‬

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In this chapter God is telling His people what the end will be like.  He is giving them a view of the far future where all the people of the world are blessed by His rule and reign.  Everyone sees clearly that God is blessing His people and wants to participate in receiving that blessing.

There should be some of this going on today.  We have been blessed by God through Salvation and it is available to the whole world.  Salvation from the penalty of sin is wonderful, but along with that God the Holy Spirit lives with us.  The people around us should see something different about how we live, the joy we experience and even the way we endure trials…it should look significantly different than the way of the lost.

Lord, help me to live in a way that helps the lost long for peace with God!  I pray that my life openly, both good and bad, highlights your goodness and grace.  Give me opportunities to demonstrate Your love and boldness to walk confidently into them.  Help the blinded to see their own need and the solution in You!

Zechariah 7- Eternal Life Today!

 ”But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they closed their ears so they could not hear. They made their hearts like a rock so as not to obey the law or the words that the Lord of Armies had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore intense anger came from the Lord of Armies.“

‭‭Zechariah‬ ‭7‬:‭11‬-‭12‬ ‭CSB‬‬

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Gods people were feeling far off from Him and went to the temple to ask why He was not near.  Zechariah hears an answer to their question: “for years you have technically accomplished what I told you, but it was for the wrong reason, with wrong motivations.  You were fasting so your neighbors noticed, and you were feasting because you like to eat…none of it was for Me”

Then the consequences are in the verses we are looking at…”you stiff armed me, refused to listen and never obeyed Me, now I will give you what you want: I will leave you alone and ignore you!” Then God released His anger…

What a scary place to be!  I never want to experience Gods anger! Thankfully, the antidote is straightforward: obey Gods Word and seek to know Him…Although it is simple it is not easy because it requires a minute by minute sacrifice: my selfish desires.

Lord help me live in a way that demonstrates the joy I experience following you!  I want others to see my delight and pleasure in You and see that the sacrifice is worth it!  That you bless beyond measure when we live for You and get to experience eternal life today!!!

Zechariah 6- Love is Obedience

 ”People who are far off will come and build the Lord’s temple, and you will know that the Lord of Armies has sent me to you. This will happen when you fully obey the Lord your God.”“

‭‭Zechariah‬ ‭6‬:‭15‬ ‭CSB‬‬

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Gods people are just coming back from being exiled and are seeing the destruction of their homeland.  As God is laying out the future He points to the future coming of Jesus, the long awaited priest-king.  They all know that prior to the promised messiah coming they must have a Temple up and working…Gods answer is supernatural!  They will watch God bring people from far away to rebuild the temple, once again so that it is not done by their own strength, but by God. 

Just like today, God wants to use us to carry out His plan, but He doesn’t want for us to think it is our ability that does the work.  That is what I Corinthians 2:27-29 says,

27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chosen the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.

God really doesn’t want us to get confused about which one of us (me or Him) is doing the work…spoiler alert…it is NOT me!  He wants us to be fully dependent on Him and resting in His ability to fix the situation.  AND at the same time, He wants us to obey Him in every detail.

Lord remove my blindness so that I see what You are calling me to obey.  Expose my sin, help me see where I take my own advice and ignore Your guidance.  I need You in my life at every turn, for every moment…love is obedience, so strengthen me to follow You alone!

Zechariah 5- Worshiping Sin?

 ”So I asked, “What is it?” He responded, “It’s a measuring basket that is approaching.” And he continued, “This is their iniquity in all the land.” So I asked the angel who was speaking with me, “Where are they taking the basket?” “To build a shrine for it in the land of Shinar,” he told me. “When that is ready, the basket will be placed there on its pedestal.”“

‭‭Zechariah‬ ‭5‬:‭6‬, ‭10‬-‭11‬ ‭CSB‬‬

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Zechariah continues to see visions and this one is shocking!  A basket, which is normally used to measure out their produce and see how profitable their harvest is, is flying toward them.  A strange sight indeed…but even more interesting is that the Angel (who is explaining the vision) tells him it represents all of their sin.  The work of their hands (what they work at producing, what they toil to make) is literally sin!

Then it gets worse!  They are working diligently to sin, intentionally doing more against God, and then worshiping the sin itself!!!  This is horrifying and tragic…

But the question I must ask is, how are we like this?  How do I behave in a similar way?  

I know that I have worshiped my work.  What I mean is that the work that I did seemed more important than family commitments.  I spent years traveling away from family.  I spent seasons dragging my kids and wife to event after event weather it was good for them or not…that sounds a lot like worshiping sin.  

What made this tricky, is that those things seemed like they were good.  I was able to convince myself and others that these were the right choices.

I look around and see the same thing in society, we desire something. so we convince ourselves and everyone around us that what we want is actually good!  Then we are willing to do the sinful things that we want and get angry if anyone does not join us in admiring the “goodness” of our sin.  How tragic!!!

Lord open my eyes to see where I still do this today.  I am so weak that I can fall into this trap again…but I desperately want to avoid it!  I want to worship You only and recognize my sin for what it is, repent and run away from it!  I want my life, my words, my actions and motives to bring You glory.  I want to hate sin and love Your ways.  That is the opposite of natural for me, I need You to empower me! Give me the strength to hate evil and surrender my desires to You!!!

Zechariah 4- Impossible Accomplished

 ”So he answered me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by strength or by might, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord of Armies.“

‘“What are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain. And he will bring out the capstone accompanied by shouts of: Grace, grace to it! ’”

‭‭Zechariah‬ ‭4‬:‭6-7 CSB‬‬

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What an amazing scene, Zechariah is having a simple vision looking at a golden lamp.  It is decorated with various images and he is trying to understand what they represent.  The Lord answers him with something that seems unrelated: this impossible thing will be accomplished, but don’t get confused, I will do it, not you!  And even more incredible, the result will cause everyone to recognize the salvation comes from God only and it is not even deserved.

I love what God is doing here because it is unmistakably Him doing it!  The people are not getting what they want because they were so good at planning, or they had a great army, or such wonderful strategy…it was God doing it even though they didn’t deserve it!  I want my life to be like this…far too much of my life is accomplished because of me pushing, grinding, manipulating or just outright effort.  God is gracious and it often turns out Ok, but not amazing…I want God to be stringing my life together, confident in His leading and in the center of His will.  Doing challenging things as if they were easy because of You!

Lord, I am probably more than half way through with life, help me to walk into the works that can only be accomplished by You…the things I can produce are not fulfilling and I want to spend the rest of my life content in You.  Help me to see Your way and walk confidently into it!

Zechariah 3- Helpless Transformed

 ”So the angel of the Lord spoke to those standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes!” Then he said to him, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with festive robes.”“

‭‭Zechariah‬ ‭3‬:‭4‬ ‭CSB‬‬

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Zechariah continues to bring good news to Gods people telling them of how completely He transforms them.  In this scene he looks into heaven and sees the High Priest (most religious person in their people) wearing clothes covered in feces…with Satan at his side accusing him of all of the sin he has ever committed!  From the outside the High Priest is hopeless, and helpless…there is nothing he can do to fix this situation.

Then God steps in, removes his disgusting clothes and gives him perfect clothes fit for a celebration and a new head covering, so now he looks OK.  Then the miraculous, God tells him not only is he clean on the outside, but all the sin he has ever committed is now gone forever!  

This is a picture of what God does for us at salvation!  I love how God chose to use the most perfect person as the example and he was still disgusting!  Sometimes we look at a pastor, or someone we think has really got it all together…but they still have the same problem as us in Gods presence.  Thankfully the solution is the same as well, go to Jesus for transformation!

Lord, I am so thankful that you saved me…you have done all the work to clean me inside and out.  You did it all…my only part is recognizing You are the solution and that I am helpless on my own.  Help me to love You and follow You every moment today, because I don’t deserve all that You have done for me!

Zechariah 2- Immeasurable Blessing

 ”“Daughter Zion, shout for joy and be glad, for I am coming to dwell among you” — this is the Lord’s declaration. “Many nations will join themselves to the Lord on that day and become my people. I will dwell among you, and you will know that the Lord of Armies has sent me to you.“

‭‭Zechariah‬ ‭2‬:‭10‬-‭11‬ ‭CSB‬‬

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Chapter two continues with a hopeful message from God to His people.  God is going to gather His people together into one city (Zion) and He is personally going to protect them.  These verses would have been mind blowing for them because He is doing something new!  He is going to live with them, not hidden inside the temple, but among them.  Then he drops a bomb: many other nations will join us and also become His people!

This would be shocking to the Israelites because they have spent thousands of years separating themselves from other nations.  This is a new concept, that God would draw in other peoples and live with them all!  To us, this is all we know…anyone can have personal relationship with God, and He lives with us!

Lord, help me not to get over this incredible reality.  Allow my mind to be captivated by You and the work that you are doing around me.  It can be so easy to slip into thinking about myself and how I wish things would turn out, but that is such a small minded way to approach this life. Help me love you more every moment because You have blessed me beyond measure!

Zechariah 1- Peace and Contentment

 ”“Proclaim further: This is what the Lord of Armies says: My cities will again overflow with prosperity; the Lord will once more comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.”“

‭‭Zechariah‬ ‭1‬:‭17‬ ‭CSB‬‬

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The prophet Zechariah is having multiple short visions and being compelled to share them with Gods people.  He tells them of Gods frustration that His people will not turn and how their choices directly correlate to the destruction they are experiencing.

But then God reminds them of His true hope and their destination: comfort and blessing!  God has not changed and does want us to experience blessing, but we can only do that while fully surrendered to Him!

Lord help me to stay soft to your leading, help me to follow you at every step.  Being near you brings great joy and contentment regardless of the circumstances I am in, so help me to draw near!