Month: October 2020

429. Lord will Render Double

Zechariah 9:12 Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope; even to day do I declare that I will render double unto thee.

The Lord promises to pay back double to those who turn to the strong hold. The people of God have received double for all their sins in the judgment on Jerusalem, the King, the Temple, and the Exile. Now we hear that the Lord will also render double the salvation from their sins in the return from exile.

We don’t know what “double” might mean, because we have no quantifiable way of counting either the burden of sin or the power of the salvation. And double what? We will receive twice as much, but twice as much as what? Most likely the weight of forgiveness and restoration is twice as much as the weight of sin and rebellion. No matter how one counts we can rest assured that the forgiveness is much more than the sin.

It is also possible that “double” means twice as much goodness and prosperity as there was in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden. If so, we can believe the promise that the coming age described in Revelation is double the Paradise of God’s original Creation. Revelation 21-22 seem to hint that life in the New Paradise will be much greater than life in the Old Paradise at the beginning.

So it is either that the pleasure is twice as great as the pain, or it is that the New and future creation is twice as great as the first creation. Either way, this is an awesome promise: 1) whatever affliction you are undergoing now you will receive double the weight in glory later, or 2) as awesome as the First Creation in the Garden of Eden was, the next Creation in Eternity will be twice as great. So either way, we have a lot to look forward to.

And even better news is this: we are living in the double pleasure of the new creation right now by faith in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17: “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” We may not see it or feel it, but it is still true: we are a new creation. That creation is in our hearts, where God dwells. The Life we already have is twice as good as the best Life you can even imagine. Enjoy the Promise!

428. Prisoners out of the Pit

Zechariah 9:11 As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water.

We were in the pits. We were prisoners in the pit without water. We were sinking in the mire of the pit of sin, and without water death was staring us in the face. We are about to die a miserable death. But the Lord sent us out of the pit. He worked this marvelous rescue by the blood of our covenant. The blood is the blood of Jesus sprinkled upon the mercy seat where God lives and reigns. God is pleased with the innocent blood and keeps covenant with us on account of Christ. We are free from the pit of sin, death, and Satan. The blood of the covenant guarantees the promise.

“The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” This is the “blood of the covenant.” This blood of the new covenant is the blood that our Lord gives to us in the Lord’s Supper for the forgiveness of sins, eternal life and salvation. One image of this wonderful rescue: the Lord sends forth our prisoners out of the waterless pit.

The Lord promises to do this for us on a regular basis. The rescue is a daily, ongoing event. Our Lord is always there to forgive, save, and give the water of life and the blood of life. No one avoids the waterless pit. There are times when we will find ourselves in the pits without water, without a rope, without visible hope. During those times the Rescuer will come to save. Jesus comes to set the prisoner free. The chains of sin and death are broken; they will not hold when the blood of Jesus is poured out. Trust the Lord to keep His promise.

427. Peace and Dominion

Zechariah 9:10 And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.

The promise for the Church is that the Lord will speak peace to the unbelieving earth-dwellers and that the dominion of the Lord will cover the whole earth. The Lord says that God’s people will no longer have need of implements of war and fighting, like chariots and horses and battle bows. Instead of war and the need for weapons of war and defense there will be peace, for He will speak peace to the enemies. In peace the Lord will rule over the whole earth.

Both Isaiah and Micah prophesy that when the Messiah comes “they will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” Then prosperity will abound and all people will live under God. This has not yet taken place on earth in human history. Even Jesus says, “There will be wars and rumors of war.” Violence will always be a part of living in a cursed world.

The true fulfillment of the promise is in the spiritual world, in the hearts of believers to the ends of the earth. The cross of Christ disarmed the Enemies of their arms and might, and the innocent death of Christ made a public display of their defeat. The Prince of Peace, who brings peace on earth, has spoken peace to the Enemy and all those who oppose God and His Word. He says to the storm, “Peace, be still!” He says to the demons, and to Lazarus: “Come out!” The Lord has spoken authoritatively in His death and resurrection, and now Peace Rules. This peace is truly God’s peace that Jesus leaves with us, and not temporary truces as the world gives.

Once Jesus has bought peace, real, true, deep, inner spiritual peace, He can now reign with dominion, and be the King of kings from sea to sea. Sin, Death and the Devil cannot and will not win the battle for our souls. God says, “Stop it! My Son has the victory!” The Spirit wants to show us in His Word of Gospel that this happens to us every day. Let God say “Peace” to your heart. He promises to do so.

426. The King comes with Salvation

Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

This prophecy predicts the coming of Jesus the Messiah on Palm Sunday riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. It is quoted by the Gospel evangelists on that Palm Sunday. Jesus is coming unto His people, lowly, and riding upon an ass, while the Church (daughter of Zion and daughter of Jerusalem) rejoices and shouts praises to the Messiah.

The promise is that the King will come to the Church of believers. The irony of the event is that a King is coming riding on a donkey. This never happens, for a king could only come riding on a horse, high and lofty, victorious and conquering. Jesus did come to win a victory over sin and evil and to conquer our spiritual enemies. But, contrary to expectations, the King comes on a donkey, feet almost touching the ground; no king ever arrives in such a humble manner. But it is precisely the lowly and humble appearance that defeats the surprised enemy. For it is humility, love and service that always defeats pride, hostility and self-service.

The prophecy is fulfilled: Jesus came. God came into our world to be born humbly and give His life in service to humanity and love for us sinners. The prophecy of coming will be fulfilled in the future: Jesus will come a second time. But this time He will come riding on a great horse, as King of kings and Lord of lords, and as a great warrior to finally defeat the enemies of the soul finally and forever. Meanwhile, between the two comings, during our lifetime, Jesus promises to come again and again into our lives daily, and especially at every time of need, to forgive sins and overcome the evil enemies that war against us.

The clue to seeing His everyday coming is that He comes, as it were, on a donkey, lowly, humbly, almost unseen, and observable only to the eyes of faith. We don’t see works of love, acts of kindness, deeds of service, and events of salvation, because it looks like just humble humans doing them. But faith sees Jesus in them. Thus He comes. And when He comes He “has salvation.” Every time we hear a word of forgiveness and a message of gospel He comes with salvation for our salvation. It doesn’t look grand and glorious, triumphant and powerful, but it is. That’s the promise.

425. Many People will seek the Lord

Zechariah 8:22 Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord.

We wonder in what respect this promise is coming true. Do we see many people and strong nations coming to seek the Lord in the Church? Considering that Christianity has covered the globe, yes. But considering that Christianity is still not a majority on the earth, no. It depends on one’s perspective and what “many” means. Do we see a lot of people praying before the Lord? Does “a lot” mean a majority or a sizable minority?’’

This promise is given for our encouragement and hope. It may feel like we are in the minority, and it seems that there are not many people around us seeking the Lord and praying to Him. This is especially true in many parts of the world, but not everywhere. The Lord told Elijah when he was discouraged, “There are still “many” in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” Rather the numbers of people who are seeking the Lord in the Church and praying to Him throughout the world should encourage us. They are still there, and they are still coming. We don’t see from God’s perspective, and we don’t know what is “many” to the Lord.

Abraham was discouraged when not even ten faithful believers could be found in Sodom, but Elijah was encouraged when he learned there were seven thousand faithful left in Israel. Either way we look at it, we can still rejoice that the promise is being fulfilled: many will come. The Gospel still has the power to save. The power of the gospel has not been diminished because some people reject it. Rejection is expected, but because of God’s promise we can expect the acceptance of the Lord’s message also. The good news for us is that the power of the gospel is still in effect in our lives. By God’s grace we are still seeking the Lord and praying to Him. Thank God for that.

424. Joy and Gladness

Zechariah 8:19 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love the truth and peace.

God turns mourning to joy, sadness to gladness, weeping to rejoicing along with sickness to health, brokenness to wholeness, and death to life. This fundamental transformation is central to God’s character and activity. It is who He is and what He does. This promise of change from the worst to the best is what happens in life all the time under the ruling hand of the Lord God. This transformation is recorded in Zechariah with the image of fast to feast (as it happens, a change of one letter). 

The contrast of hunger and fullness is often used in Scripture, as well as poverty and riches, humility and greatness, sin and righteousness, death and life. Jesus has effected this Great Exchange by His death and resurrection. Joy, gladness and cheer are some of the results of believing in Jesus Christ. The Lord promises joy and gladness for the church. Joy and gladness is a promised spiritual reality. We are full of joy and gladness, whether we feel joyful or not. The Christian lives by faith, not by feelings. When we are not feeling joyful we can remember that we are full of joy and gladness. The truth and the fact of joy never go away, it does not change, and the Lord never takes it away. 

We can, and we do, go back to and look to the Lord Jesus Christ and His cross and empty tomb, and the Spirit fills us with joy. That inner joy gets covered over and obscured by sin and evil surrounding us all the time. We are able to peel away the sadness caused by sin and uncover the joy caused by grace. We do this by repentance and faith in the gospel. Joy and gladness and cheerful feasts are always available and ready at hand. The Holy Spirit will help us take our faith in the promise and apply it to the heart. When we are reminded we remember.

423. Curse turned to Blessing

Zechariah 8:13 And it shall come to pass, that as ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be strong.

God says that He wounds and heals, He kills and makes alive: He also curses and blesses. God cursed the first man and all his descendants; He also blessed Adam and Eve with the promise of a seed who would crush Satan. God then promised that He would bless the nations through Abraham and his seed. In this Zechariah passage the Lord cursed His people by sending them into exile among the heathen. The Lord promises that the same God who cursed them will also save them and make them a blessing. Therefore, because of God’s blessing we will not fear but we shall be strong.

All of us as human beings live under the curse on account of sin. The Curse makes itself felt every day in every way. It is so pervasive that we do not even have much of a clue what life could be like if there were no curse. The Curse destroys life on every level and at every turn. We need a wild imagination to see a glimpse of what life could be like without the curse.

But Jesus took the curse upon Him and took it away. Those who have faith in Jesus are not under the curse any longer, although they live with the curse around them and in them all the time. The Good News is that those who were under God’s Curse will be saved and shall be a blessing. God said Abraham would be a blessing, and all those with the faith of Abraham will be a blessing. Not only are Christians blessed, and abundantly so, but they are also a blessing to others. Just as we receive blessing from God so we also give it away to the rest of the world around us. Christ is a “blessing to the nations” and all those with Christ in them are blessings to the nations.

We need to believe this promise for we cannot see all the blessings we have received, and we do not see how we are a blessing to the nations. For just like we cannot know what life would be like without the Curse, so also we cannot know what life would be like without the Blessing. In other words, it makes a difference when believers in Christ live their lives according to their faith. Believe the promise: “I am a blessing.”

422. Possess Prosperity and Fruitfulness

Zechariah 8:12 For the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things.

Material prosperity from the seed, the vine, the ground and the heavens is promised for the remnant of the people. And the people will possess prosperity, fruit, increase and dew. This promise of material, earthly prosperity was never fulfilled on earth, and it will not be fulfilled until the new heaven and new earth replace the present universe. Then, in eternity, believers will own and control the material prosperity and abundance. The prosperity promised refers to farming and the growing of crops of various kinds. To grow abundant crops the farmer needs seed, plants, ground and water. God gives all these. 

Adam was given all this freely, and all he had to do was obey one commandment. He could enjoy the fruits of material blessing without hard labor. He was a steward of God’s gifts and he was expected to guard the Garden and the Tree of Life. But he failed, and so do we fail, and now under the curse everything is very difficult and troublesome. Material abundance is not universally guaranteed.

The promise of possessing prosperity and abundant fruitfulness has all come true and real for us if we regard the promise as spiritual. Spiritually, in the kingdom of God, which we enter by faith, prosperity is abundant and it is free for the believing. The riches of God are all ours by grace through faith in Christ, And that spiritual kingdom with its abundance is within us. All spiritual blessings are given to us by the Holy Spirit upon the hearing of the Gospel. Jesus has earned it for us, given it to us, and now we possess it. We do not know of these riches naturally, so it must be revealed; we do not see them so they must be believed; we do not use them for our good and the good of others as often as we might. The reason we do not exercise and employ the spiritual blessings that are ours is mostly because we do not believe it; we think we get what we earn and deserve instead of freely receiving what Jesus earned and deserved for us. Therefore, we need to hear the word of Christ. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. [Romans 10:17].”

421. God will be our God

Zechariah 8:8 And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.

One oft-repeated refrain of the Covenant promise in the OT is:“You shall be my people and I will be your God.” And so it is repeated here. The Lord will bring His people and they will live in the midst of the Church. The Church, made up of all believers in Christ, is the People of God. The OT people of God, called Israel, become the NT people of God, called the Church. To be the people of God means that they are redeemed and cared for by the Lord. We belong to the Lord. We are His children. We are the sheep of the Good Shepherd. He is responsible for our life and wellbeing. There is nothing more secure than being the people of God. God promises to take care of His people, His sheep, and His family in every way that is good.

The promise implies also that we will be the people of God, that we will live according to God’s Laws, that we will be faithful to the Lord alone. However, we will fail in these demands and therefore we will forfeit the covenant by refusing to be God’s people. We broke the covenant and thus God is not obligated to keep His part. But the Lord is so faithful that He sent His only Son to live according to the Covenant Law in our place and to die for us as the penalty for sin, thereby freeing us from the judgments and punishments for breaking the covenant. With Jesus taking our place as “My People,” we have perfectly kept our part, thus binding God to keep His part.

Therefore, God will be our God, and we can count on this guaranteed promise as long as we live, and we will live a very long time, even forever. The Lord will always and forever be our God. He will be God to us and for us and with us and in us. This is good, because He is a good God. We can rest comfortably and safely under the umbrella of His love and behind the walls of His protection.

He will be our God in truth and righteousness. Everything God says is truth, absolute, guaranteed, without doubt or shadow of turning. Everything God does is righteousness, always perfectly just and good and right, and, believe it or not, fair. All people complain about God not being fair, but contrary to human opinion, the Lord God is always fair without fail. The promise says: Let God be true and every man a liar; God is right and I am wrong; God will be fair while I will be wrong in my accusations of unfairness. This is God’s promise: I will be your God.

420. Lord will dwell in the Church

Zechariah 8:3 Thus saith the Lord; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the Lord of Hosts the holy mountain.

The Lord will dwell in the midst of the Church. The Lord will dwell in the midst of the individual believer. The Lord will dwell among His people. The Lord will dwell among us as a group and with us separately. The Lord will make a home with us and live in us. There are many promises and many ways of saying the same thing: God is with us.

This is a simple truth we take for granted. It is not easy for us to imagine the Awesome, Almighty Creator of the universe living so close to us and dwelling in us. But God can be far off and distant and at the same time be close and intimate. This is the miracle of the Incarnation of Jesus, the Resurrection of Christ, and the Pouring Out of the Spirit. “I will be with you always.”

Jerusalem is the NT Church made up of all the believers in Christ. It is invisible to the human physical eye, but visible to God in the spirit. By faith we are living in two worlds, physical and spiritual. Jerusalem, the Church, is just as real and present to us as a physical church building of brick and mortar, for the Lord God is living in each of the believers assembled. Faith in the Word and Promise of God makes it real and alive. We know that where the gospel is preached there will be genuine born again believers present there. There, in Zion, in Jerusalem, in the city of truth, on the mountain of the Lord, the holy mountain, God is dwelling. 

We go to meet with God every time we gather together in Jesus’ name. Because of this promise we may also go to meet with God alone in a quiet time of prayer and Bible study. In addition, He is still dwelling in us when we work or when we play or when we do whatever. The Lord is always there, here, dwelling in our midst, even though most of the time we are not conscious of His living presence. The more conscious and aware of this promise coming true in our daily lives the better our lives will be. So we pray: “Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come.” We ask for His Name to be holy among us. We ask for His Kingdom to come to us also.