SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/10/2016 11:03 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Intro. To Zech. Four
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Zech. 4:1-3
Message of the verses: “1 Then the angel who was speaking with me
returned and roused me, as a man who is awakened from his sleep. 2 He said to
me, "What do you see?" And I said, "I see, and behold, a
lampstand all of gold with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps on it
with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps which are on the top of it; 3
also two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on
its left side."”
We have
been looking at the study of the OT prophets for a long time as we began
looking at the book of Isaiah, the very first OT prophet on July 2, 2013, and
we also began to look at the book of Daniel on that very same day, so it has
been a while we have been looking at these very wonderful OT prophets. If we go back to the book of Genesis we read
that God would come to the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve lived after God
created them and walk with them and although we don’t know what they spoke of
we have to believe that God was telling them about who He was and all of this
happened with the curse of sin as that came later on. After sin came in the third chapter of
Genesis all things changed and man could not talk freely with God as he did
before the fall. It is still God’s
purpose to speak to His creation although it was different after the fall. By the time we get to the 12th
chapter of Genesis the world was a lot different than it was when God first
created it as the flood had come to change many things on planet earth, but as
we have seen in our study of Genesis God began to talk to Abram, the man that
He would use to begin the nation of Israel along with other nations, but the
focus in the OT is on the nation of Israel, for God would use Israel to do
things which would cause man to better understand who He was. To Israel the Scriptures were given, to
Israel the promised Messiah would come through and when He came in the Person
of Jesus Christ man once again would be able to talk to God. As we begin this fourth chapter of Zechariah
we see that being a prophet in the OT times was a great burden on their physical
being as Zechariah had already seen three visions and before the fourth vision
is given to him in chapter the interpreting angel would have to awaken
him. When we studied the book of Daniel
we saw a very similar situation “8 So I
was left alone and saw this great vision; yet no strength was left in me, for
my natural color turned to a deathly pallor, and I retained no strength (Daniel
10:8).” “15 When he had spoken to me
according to these words, I turned my face toward the ground and became
speechless. 16 And behold, one who resembled a human being was touching my
lips; then I opened my mouth and spoke and said to him who was standing before me,
"O my lord, as a result of the vision anguish has come upon me, and I have
retained no strength. 17 “For how can such a servant of my lord talk with such
as my lord? As for me, there remains just now no strength in me, nor has any
breath been left in me." 18 Then this one with human appearance touched me
again and strengthened me. 19 He said, "O man of high esteem, do not be
afraid. Peace be with you; take courage and be courageous!" Now as soon as
he spoke to me, I received strength and said, "May my lord speak, for you
have strengthened me’ (Daniel 10:15-19).”
We get an idea of how difficult it was for the prophets as we read these
verses from both Zechariah and also from Daniel. When we read from the 11th chapter
of the book of Hebrews we also see how difficult it was on others, as it tells
of those who gave their lives to serve God.
Zechariah
was not given a fourth vision in this fourth chapter and we will begin to look
at it in our next SD, but first I want to quote from Dr. Wiersbe at the end of
his introductory comments for this fourth chapter of Zechariah. “The flippant jovial manner in which some of
God’s people speak of prophetic matters today makes us wonder if they have
really seen what the Word of God communicates about the future.” Eschatology, the study of the end times of
which Zechariah and Daniel have much to say about, was the vehicle that the
Lord used to bring me to Himself, and I have loved to study it and continue to
love to study it, but when I read about some of the things that these prophets
have gone through I have to remember what it cost them so that I can learn
about what will happen in the future, and that the return of Jesus Christ to
receive all believers of the church age in the Rapture takes on new meaning to
me when I think of the cost from these wonderful men. I never want to take that for granted.
5/10/2016 11:35 PM
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