SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/30/2016 5:17 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-4 The Future Glory of Jerusalem
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Zechariah 2:6-9
Message of the verse: “6 "Ho there! Flee from the land of the
north," declares the LORD, "for I have dispersed you as the four
winds of the heavens," declares the LORD.”
This fourth
point is “The Delivered People” and we see that it if from verse six. Now the first thing that we need to see is
that the Lord is telling His people, those captives who are still in Babylon to
flee from there. MacArthur writes “And
God is saying look there’s a great day coming for Jerusalem. You’d better get out of the world’s system,
you’d better get away from Babylon before you’re totally engulfed in the system
itself and your’ better get back to the land.”
Even though when you look at a map you find that Babylon is East of
Jerusalem when you come into Jerusalem you have to come from the North, even in
70 AD when Titus came into Jerusalem he came from the North. Verse seven tells us that he is talking about
Babylon, “"Ho, Zion! Escape, you who are living with the daughter of
Babylon."” The problem with the
exiles who were still in Babylon is that they got comfortable living there and
it was easier for them to stay in Babylon, but even though it was the Persians
who now controlled Babylon as they defeated them, there would come a time when
the Greeks would conquer them according to Daniel, and according to history. We can see a picture of this when we look at
the NT book of 2 Corinthians “17 Therefore "Come out from among them And
be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive
you." 18 “I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the LORD Almighty’ (2 Cor. 6:17-18 NKJV).”
“I can't
resist a footnote here, I taste an element of the future in this too, because
there's going to come a day in the tribulation when God's going to give the
same message. He's going to say to people come out from Babylon, because if you
read Revelation 17, and Revelation 18, you will read that the final world
system is called what, Babylon. The final world system is Babylon the Great,
the mother of harlots. And as the world consummates it's final amalgamation,
its final world system, God's going to call Israel out of Babylon in the
future. Don't be a part of the world system, he's saying to these people. This
city has an eternal future and some day He's going to call His people from out
of Babylon yet to come in the time of the tribulation. Jerusalem will be
restored. Come back, identify with the city of God (MacArthur’s Sermon).”
Let us now
look at the fifth point “The Destroyed Powers.”
Zechariah 2:8-9 “8 For thus says the LORD of hosts, "After glory He
has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you,
touches the apple of His eye. 9 “For behold, I will wave My hand over them so
that they will be plunder for their slaves. Then you will know that the LORD of
hosts has sent Me.” I can’t resist than
to talk about the statement “the apple of His eye,” as seen at the end of this
verse. A long time ago I read the story
and actually saw the movie “The Hiding Place,” which is a true story of Corie
Ten Boom who lived in Holland during the German invasion of that country. She was in her fifties and she and her family
began to hide the Jewish people from the Germans. Her father and sister and she were eventually
sent to a prison camp because of this and her father was very old. The Germans told her father if he promised
not to hide anymore Jews he could go free, but he told them that his house was
open to anyone who wanted to come into it and so he died in prison. Before his death he stated that the Germans
were messing with the “apple of God’s eye” in that they were doing harm to the
Jewish people.
MacArthur
writes the following on these verses: “Now
I want you to watch this. Now watch. Very difficult, but interesting verse.
Look what it says in verse 8. This is terrific! "For thus says the Lord of
hosts. After the glory hath he sent me." Now the Lord of hosts says after
the glory hath He sent me. Who in the world send the Lord of hosts? That's what
I said. The answer is in verse 9. "For behold I will shake my hand on them
and they should be a spoil to their servants and you shall know that the Lord
of hosts hath sent me." Who
sends the Lord of hosts? The Lord of hosts sends the Lord of hosts. Say
now wait a minute, Jehovah sends Jehovah? If you reject the New Testament
you've got a problem with that. Right? If you accept the New Testament you
don't have a problem with that. The Lord of hosts, the Father sends the Lord of hosts the Son. Isn't
that great?
“And he is
the one who comes to deliver His people. He is the one who comes to conquer the
nations and he is after glory, he is after glory. Listen everything is done for glory for God. The
nations are judged that God may be glorified. Summing it up he says the second person of the Trinity,
the Savior, the Messiah, is sent by the first person of the Trinity, the Father
in order that He may judge the nations to bring glory to God because God too
long has been looked down on because His people have been downtrodden.
And God says in the end when I exalt My people then the world will know that I
am God.”
Now as we
think about this we may want to look once again at 1:15 “"But I am very
angry with the nations who are at ease; for while I was only a little angry,
they furthered the disaster."” God
has a perfect time table in which He will destroy those nations who have done
harm to the Jewish people. They think
that they are getting away with something, but they are not, for one day the
wrath of God will come upon them as we see in the Tribulation Period and also
in the 38th and 39th chapters of Ezekiel. Remember Genesis 12:3And I will bless those
who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the
families of the earth will be blessed."”
Don’t ever hate a Jewish person because he is a Jewish person or the
wrath of God will come upon you. John
MacArthur states that when we look at the 25th chapter of Matthew
which is a part of the Olivet Discourse, that Christ will judge the nations on
the way they treated Israel.
We will try
and finish the chapter in our next SD.
4/30/2016 5:53 PM
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