SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/25/2016 11:33 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Purpose of the Vision PT-1
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Zechariah 4:4-5
Message of the verses: “4 Then I said to the angel who was speaking
with me saying, "What are these, my lord?" 5 So the angel who was
speaking with me answered and said to me, "Do you not know what these
are?" And I said, "No, my lord."
Now as we
look at these verses what we see here as interrupted by both Jewish scholars
and Christians scholars is “that the lamp stand represents the combined
testimony of Israel as a nation under God.
That the lamp stand is Israel lit again to be the light of the world
that God had intended originally for her to be.
Now that’s basically the simple interpretation.” (John MacArthur)
Now I have
to say that in my preparation of my study in the gospel of John, chapter eight
starting at verse 12 which states “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying,
"I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the
darkness, but will have the Light of life."” I have mentioned that my study of John in the
7th and 8th chapters has a lot in common with a number of
things that I have been studying, including our Sunday school class which we
will be looking at the 49th chapter of Isaiah and then as mentioned
the 7th and 8th chapters of John. In those chapters from John’s gospel the
scene is the Feast of Tabernacles and in both of these chapters Jesus takes
some things that come out of that feast which point to the Messiah and at the
right time of this feast Jesus begins to talk about living water, something He
also spoke to the woman at the well.
During that feast the priests would go and bring water from a pool in
the city of Jerusalem, and on the last day they would bring the water into the
temple and pour it out and this is when Jesus began to teach them. Now in the eight chapter we see the things
that happened in it were also related to this feast for the Jews had a bright
light that they would use to shine the entire night of this feast which represented
what the Lord did in the wilderness when we see that the Jews traveled under a cloud
during the day time and at night a great light would keep them warm and so as
we see in our verse from John 12 at the right time Jesus would say that He is
the light of the world, something we also see in chapter one. In the 49th chapter of Isaiah we
also see a prophecy of the Messiah being the Light “Isa 49:6 He says, "It
is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of
Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light
of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth."” So we see from John, Zechariah, and Isaiah
are all talking about the light. Now I
believe that what Zechariah is talking about as far as the timing of this
vision will come in the millennial kingdom when Israel will truly be the light.
I want to
quote from John MacArthur as he talks about John 8:12 in his sermon on
Zechariah chapter four, a sermon he entitles “Israel: The Light of the World.”
“So the
ultimate light, the ultimate one who diffuses the glow and glory of God is the
Messiah. In fact in John 8:12, when Jesus stood up in the court of the women,
in the temple treasury and said, "I am the light of the world," it
was a dramatic moment because right into the middle of that was this huge
candelabra, that was used during the feast time and they lit it every night to
sparkle its light out the open top of that place and be like a diamond in the
sky. They were celebrating the glory of God in the wilderness and they lit that
thing every night and now the feast was past and the candle was out but the big
thing was still sitting there and Jesus walks up and says you may have your
candle, but I am the light of the world. And he turns the moment and the scene
to Himself, and He is the ultimate light.
“So the
lamp stand then pictures Israel in full fellowship with the Messiah. The
blessing of God is on the nation, they are restored to the place of usefulness,
and they are the testimony to the world. And this is going to happen, beloved,
in the future. You say, "Well since their light is out now does God have a
light?" Yes, in Revelation 1:20, we find this: verse 19, "Write the
things, which thou hath seen, and the things which are and the things which
shall be here after, that's the outline of the book of Revelation incidentally.
The mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand and the seven
golden lamp stands, now listen the seven stars are the ministers of the seven
churches and the seven lamp stands, which you saw are the seven churches. The
lamp stand in this day is what, the church.
“But
there's coming a day when the church will be removed. The true church will be
raptured out of the world and the only thing left will be babble and the hoar,
the prostitute, the false church and God will not use that church, and so He
will restore Israel. The church is gone, He has no witness in the world and
Israel will be reborn and regenerated and redeemed and placed in the position
of being the light that God intended them to be all along.”
5/26/2016 12:04 AM
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