SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/15/2016 8:55 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The
Divine Plan for Jerusalem PT-4
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Zechariah 1:9-17
Message of the verses: “9 “And I will punish on that day all who
leap on the temple threshold, Who fill the house of their lord with violence
and deceit. 10 “On that day," declares the LORD, "There will be the
sound of a cry from the Fish Gate, A wail from the Second Quarter, And a loud
crash from the hills. 11 “Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar, For all the people
of Canaan will be silenced; All who weigh out silver will be cut off. 12 "It will come about at that time That I
will search Jerusalem with lamps, And I will punish the men Who are stagnant in
spirit, Who say in their hearts, ’The LORD will not do good or evil!’ 13 “Moreover,
their wealth will become plunder And their houses desolate; Yes, they will
build houses but not inhabit them, And plant vineyards but not drink their
wine." 14 Near is the great day of
the LORD, Near and coming very quickly; Listen, the day of the LORD! In it the
warrior cries out bitterly. 15 A day of
wrath is that day, A day of trouble and distress, A day of destruction and
desolation, A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness, 16
A day of trumpet and battle cry Against the fortified cities And the high
corner towers. 17 I will bring distress on men So that they will walk like the
blind, Because they have sinned against the LORD; And their blood will be
poured out like dust And their flesh like dung.”
As we begin
this fourth section on what is entitled “The Divine Plan for Jerusalem” we
might have a question as to why God chose Israel, and then chose Jerusalem to
be a place where He chose to put His temple, and chose the people to be His
own. It is important for us to
understand why God did this, but we cannot answer the question why God did not
chose another nation to fulfill His plans, but we can understand why chose a
nation and we will give you a number of reasons as to why God did this.
The first
reason is that God needed a nation of people in the world, in order to proclaim
the existence of the true God. After sin
entered the world and the people began to move around to different parts of the
world, God, because of His love for them desired to show the people about His
love, but people did not want to hear about God and His love for them and so
they ended up seeing His wrath as He drowned every person on the earth with the
exception of eight, Noah and his family.
After the flood people still did not want to know about God and so
sometime after that God called Abram who later named him Abraham to begin a
nation where God could accomplish the things that we are going over.
The second
reason needed a nation of people in the world was that He needed that nation to
reveal the Messiah. Jesus said in John
4:22 “Salvation is of the Jews,” notice that He did not say that salvation is
for the Jews, although many Jews will receive God’s salvation.
The third
reason God needed a nation was He needed a nation to be a priest among
men. Understand that a priest is one who
speaks to God on the behalf of men as he intercedes for men, and on occasions
will speak to men about God. Let us look
at Exodus 19:5-6a “5 ’Now then, if you
will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own
possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests
and a holy nation.’”
Next God
chose Israel to transmit and preserve Scripture. I believe that almost every book in the Bible
was written by a Jew and not only did they write what God told them to write,
but they also persevered what God told them to write. We have today many copies of the Word of God,
more copies of these ancient manuscripts than any other ancient book and when
you compare them they are virtually the same.
Fifthly God
needed a nation that could show to the world that He is faithful. God kept or will keep in the future all the
promises that He has made to the nation of Israel and so as people look at
these promises and see that God fulfilled them then they will know that God is
faithful and a covenant keeping God.
John MacArthur writes “Israel stands for all time as proof that God is a
covenant keeping God, He always keeps
His promise, and the world needs only to look at the history of Israel to see
that that is proven.”
The seventh
reason God needed a nation was to show the world that He is a gracious God who
can forgive sin. Micah writes in Mic. 7:18
“Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act
of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because
He delights in unchanging love.
Our next
reason is that God needed a nation to show His anger, so we go from being
gracious to being anger and both of these qualities are attributes of God, both
are who God is.
The last
reason that John MacArthur gives in his sermon is going to be seen in a quote,
a rather long quote from that sermon.
“ This last point I want to mention in some detail for a minute. God chose Israel in order to show the world His reaction against an unrepentant heart. Back in Leviticus 26:14 God said to them, "If you will not hearken to me and will not do all these commandments, and if you shall despise my statues, if your soul abhor my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, I will also do this unto you. I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, the burning fever that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart. You shall sow your seed in vain for your enemy shall eat it." That means your enemies will kill your children. "I will set my face against you, you will be slain before your enemies, and they that hate you shall reign over you and you shall flee when nobody is pursuing you. And if you will not for all of that hearken to me, I will punish you seven times more than that for your sins, and I will break the pride of your power." That's pretty clear language. God says, "You're going to be judged." In verse 32, "I will even bring you into the land which is desolation. Your enemies who dwell therein will be astonished at you. I will scatter you among the nations. I will draw out a sword after you and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste." You know something? That happened in Israel's history, and it's happened again and again, recurrently in their history, whenever they have been unrepentant, whenever they have been denying sin, whenever they have failed to bow to a holy God, they have found that that has come to pass again and again and again, even in modern times.
“In Deuteronomy again, the same thing indicated in
chapter 28 and verse 37. It says, "And thou shalt become an astonishment,
a proverb, a byword among all nations to which the Lord shall lead thee."
In other words, there might even be a proverb like this: "He's as homeless
as an Israelite. He's as chastened as an Israelite, because you will be the
very byword for chastening, the very byword for homelessness, for
wandering." In verse 64 of Deuteronomy 28, says "And the Lord shall
scatter thee among all people, from one end of the earth to the other, and
there thou shalt serve other gods which neither thou nor thy fathers have known,
even wood and stone, and among these nations shalt thy find no rest, neither
shall the sole of thy foot have rest, but the Lord shall give thee there a
trembling heart and failing eyes, and sorrow of mind and thy life shall hang in
doubt before thee and thou shalt fear day and night and thou shalt have no
assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say 'Would God it were
evening' and at evening thou shalt say 'Would God it were morning,' for the
fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes
which thou shalt see." God says, "It's going to be awful, it's going
to be terrible, it's going to be fearful, when you're scattered among the
nations because of your sin and your failure to repent and turn to me."
“It is precisely at that juncture in the life of
Israel that we enter the book of Zechariah. This nation had been in sin, and
they had not repented of that sin. They had failed to acknowledge that sin to
God. And as a result God said, "You're going to get scattered again."
And they did and they were taken captive into Babylon and that Babylonian
captivity, as we saw last time, lasted for a period of 70 years. Look in your
Bible at 2Chronicles chapter 36, that's the last chapter in the book, 2 Chronicles
chapter 36, verse 14, and here's the historical setting for what had happened
in the Babylonian captivity. And by the way, the principle of judgment upon sin
has not changed at all. God still reacts violently against sin. But notice 2
Chronicles 36:14, "Moreover all of the chief of the priests and the people
transgressed very much after all the abominations of the nations and polluted
the house of the Lord which He had hallowed in Jerusalem." Now it's gotten
pretty debauched at this point in the history of Israel. They have polluted
everything possible. Verse 15, "And the Lord God of their Fathers sent to
them by His messengers, rising up early and sending, because He had compassion
on His people and on His dwelling place." He sent messengers because He
cared and the messengers were the prophets and God sent them in love but verse
16 says, "They mocked the messengers of God. They despised His words,
misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people till
there was no remedy. Therefore He brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans
who slew their young men with the sword in the house of the sanctuary and had
no compassion upon young men or maiden, old men or him that stooped for age. He
gave all into his hand, and all the vessels of the house of God, great and
small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the King
and of the Princes. All these he brought to Babylon. And they burned the house
of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with
fire and destroyed all its precious vessels." Pretty sad to see that
great, magnificent temple into shambles. And those who had escaped from the
sword, those who happened to live through the terrible siege, and the terrible
killing that occurred, He carried away to Babylon. And you notice the
"He" in all of these verses is God really. It's God doing it, using
the Babylonians as His agents.
“Well, they were servants to him and his sons until
the reign of the King of Persia. The King of the Chaldeans, of course, is the
primary "he," but behind the scenes it's God. Why? To fulfill the
word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her
Sabbaths. For as long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath to fulfill three
score and seven years. 70 years, the land would be desolate, they would be
carried away into captivity. And God was chastening their unrepentant hearts.
“Then after 70 years, you remember what happened,
God said "That's enough. That's enough chastening." And then verse 22
picks up the story from there. 2 Chronicles 36:22, "In the first year of
Cyrus, King of Persia, the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah
might be accomplished." You remember Jeremiah 29:10 prophesied that it
would only be 70 years. So in order to fulfill that prophecy, the Lord stirred
up the spirit of Cyrus, King of Persia, and he made a proclamation throughout
all his kingdom and putting it in writing saying, "Thus saith Cyrus, Kind
of Persia, all the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord, God of heaven, given
me. He hath charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Who is there among you of all His people, the Lord is God be with him, and let
him go up." And there was the decree of Cyrus that sent the people who
wanted to go back to the land.”
4/15/2016 9:59 PM
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