The Completeness of God's Judgment (Zechariah 5:3)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/17/2016 12:59 AM

My Worship Time                                                          Focus:  Completeness of God’s Judgment

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Zechariah 5:3

            Message of the verse:  “Then he said to me, "This is the curse that is going forth over the face of the whole land; surely everyone who steals will be purged away according to the writing on one side, and everyone who swears will be purged away according to the writing on the other side.”

            Now one of the reasons that I write more than one SD on the different chapters as we go through this book of Zechariah is because I have respect for both of the commentators that I am reading, both Dr. Warren Wiersbe, and also John MacArthur.  We have mentioned when looking at the commentary of Dr. Wiersbe is that he believes that the word “land” which is used in this third verse speaks to the land of Israel.  I have mentioned this in our last SD and also when we looked at this verse while looking at Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary.  John MacArthur writes “Now some would want to translate that land and refer it only to Israel and other scholars broaden it to incorporate the whole earth and I think that is the best rendering.  The breadth of the statement over the face of the whole earth, and even though the word can be translated land, it can also be translated earth, and the statement seems to be grandiose enough to make it earth and the facts here of the finality and totality of judgment seem to be overwhelming in making it apply not only to the Jew, but to the Gentile who also will be brought into judgment, divine judgment.”

            He also points out that the Hebrew word for “curse” is alah, and that means “the punishment or the retribution, which falls on those who deny God’s word, or deny His infinite holiness by defying His law.”  So what we have in this section is that the scroll is the judgment.  Now when we were studying the books of Ezekiel and also Revelation we also saw scrolls involved in judgment.  While studying the book of Revelation we saw that Jesus came and took the scroll out of the hand of the Father in order to bring about the judgments that were written on it, and some have called that scroll the title deed to the earth.  In Revelation chapter ten we see a little book that an angel tells John to eat, and tells him it will be sweet in his mouth, but bitter in his stomach.  We believe that this little book or scroll was the remaining judgments that were to come on planet earth.  Talking about prophecy can be sweet, but when these prophecies come about they certainly will be bitter.

            MacArthur gives more evidence that this judgment is for the whole earth:  “Now here's another reason we believe it's broader than just Israel, for every one that steal, for every one that swears falsely, shall be cut off. God is going to judge every one, every one, and here you can see the judgment that occurs at the beginning of the kingdom, the rule of the rod of iron during the kingdom, and the great white throne at the end, and in all of that judgment is total. Messiah will never tolerate wickedness when He comes. If there is any wickedness He will crush it instantaneously. If men violate His law during His kingdom they will feel His rod immediately. There will no longer be God's silence, there will be no longer be God's long suffering, there will no longer be this period of patience, there will be instantaneous judgment.

            “And so we find that by taking one command from each side of the Mosaic Law, the middle command, He is representing the whole Law and He is simply saying that if a man defiles God's law on one side or God's law on another side, he'll be cut off.

“Now who would fall into that condemnation? Would you? I would. Did you ever lie? I did. Did you ever covet? I did, do. So you see we all fall into that. But you see some of us have been saved by God's grace through the shed blood of Jesus Christ because we received Him by faith and His blood is applied to our sin and we're no longer condemned. But if a person doesn't have the salvation of Jesus Christ, he must stand condemned by those acts of violating God's law. And it says he will be cut off. You say, "What does that mean?" Naqah, that is a word that it means just that, to be wiped out. It is used in Isaiah 3:26 of a city that was totally destroyed. He will be destroyed. Notice the totality and the completeness of judgment. The criterion is the word of God, the completeness means everyone who sins will be totally wiped out of any possible blessing.”

Next we will look at “the certainty of Judgment” from verse four.

6/17/2016 1:23 AM