Divine Prosperity (Zech. 8:9-13)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/28/2016 10:14 PM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Divine Prosperity

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Zechariah 8:9-13

            Message of the verses:  “9 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, ’Let your hands be strong, you who are listening in these days to these words from the mouth of the prophets, those who spoke in the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD of hosts was laid, to the end that the temple might be built. 10 ’For before those days there was no wage for man or any wage for animal; and for him who went out or came in there was no peace because of his enemies, and I set all men one against another. 11 ’But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as in the former days,’ declares the LORD of hosts.  12 ’For there will be peace for the seed: the vine will yield its fruit, the land will yield its produce and the heavens will give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these things. 13  ’It will come about that just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you that you may become a blessing. Do not fear; let your hands be strong.’”

            Zechariah is talking about what happened to those Jews who came back from Babylon, those that built the foundation of the temple, and then remember when we studied the book of Haggai we saw that the building stopped.  It is also seen in the book of Nehemiah, in the historical portion of the Word of God.  The worked stopped and the people decided to build their own homes and it is believed that they used the wood that was supposed to be used for the building of the temple.  There were other problems that stopped the work as the Samaritans also tried to stop the work and even got the Persian government involved in it, but they found the letter that the former king of Persia wrote and they began to build again.

            Zechariah tells the remnant that there will be a time when the Lord will be blessing Israel with many blessings unlike what had happened with the remnant who came back from Babylon.  I believe that this encouraged the people and they began to get the job done that them came back to Jerusalem to do.

            Next in on our list of things to look at that is divine preference beginning with verse fourteen.  We will look at that in our next SD.

7/28/2016 10:29 PM