SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/21/2016 9:19 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
2nd Introduction to Zech. 8
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Zechariah 8
Message of the verses: Those who have read my Spiritual Diaries have
seen that I have a great problem with what is known as Covenant Theology, and I
am not trying to say that every part of Covenant Theology is wrong, but what I
have a problem with is how they deal with the nation of Israel. If one takes the time to look at the Old
Testament they will find that most all of it has to do with the nation of
Israel, and if one looks at parts of the New Testament they will find that much
of it has to do with the nation of Israel.
I site Romans 9-11 as a great example of the apostle Paul writing to the
Romans about the future of the nation of Israel. Covenant Theology says that all of the
promises of Israel are now given to the Church, taken away from Israel. Nothing in the Word of God would lead you to
believe this. Some Covent Theologists
even say that the church began in the Garden of Eden. The reason that I have such problems with
this is because I believe that Satan is and was the one who started these lies,
and I believe that he has done this because he wants the church to be against
Israel, something in past centuries they were.
As I was listening to the sermon that goes along with this eight chapter
of Zechariah by John MacArthur, he stated that Zechariah chapter eight is a
chapter that totally goes against Covenant Theology, and I guess that is why I
am son ready to begin looking at it with the help of John MacArthur. He entitles his sermon on this chapter “Turning
the Fast into a Feast.”
As he begins his sermon he speaks of God’s love for the nation of Israel, and so we will quote some things from that sermon at this point in our Spiritual Diary: “We really don't question His love for the church, we who are Christians, we who study the New Testament, but perhaps we're not as clear about His love for Israel. In Deuteronomy 7:6 it says, "For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God has chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself above all people who are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love upon you nor choose you because ye were more in number than any people for ye were the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn to your fathers hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt."
“So here you have a couple of mentions of the love
that God had for Israel and the consequence of that love, the calling of
Israel, and the deliverance of Israel from out of bondage in Egypt. In
individualizing that love we could note 2 Samuel 12:24 and I'll just read this
to you. It says, "And David comforted Bathsheba, his wife, and went in
under her and lay with her and she bore a son and he called his name Solomon
and the Lord loved him." Here then is the individual love that God has for
the individual child, the individual person who is in His family.
“In the Psalms there is a great expression of God's
love for His people in many places. And we could look at many, many verses, but
if we just would remind ourselves, say for example, of Psalm 91, it would be
sufficient to assure us of the tremendous love of God. And it talks about what
God is going to do to preserve the object of His love. "The one who dwells
in the secret place of the most high." Then over in Isaiah Chapter 49, I
told you we were going to go in a hurry. Isaiah 49, verse 14, one of the most
beautiful passages in the Bible speaking of God's love. "But Zion
said," and Zion refers to the children of Israel, "the Lord hath
forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me." And then God answers, "Can
a woman forget her nursing child that she should not have compassion on the son
of her womb? Ye, they may forget yet will I not forget thee. Behold I have
engraved thee upon the palms of my hands."”
He goes on to site other passages in the OT about
how the Lord love the nation of Israel, passages from the book of Malachi chapter
three and verses 16-17: “16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one
another, and the LORD gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance
was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who esteem His name. 17 “They
will be Mine," says the LORD of hosts, "on the day that I prepare My
own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves
him."”
We will now look at another quote from this sermon
about the history of why the Jews were in Babylon. “Now remember in Zechariah's day and we'll
run this by you quickly and then we'll just look at these principles as we go
through the chapter, but remember in Zechariah's day the Jews had been in
Babylon in captivity for 70 years. They were taken there when Nebuchadnezzar
came and destroyed the city and flattened the temple and wiped out everything.
They were taken to Babylon for a 70 year period. This was to purge them once
and for all from idolatry. They had come back to the land and under Haggai and
Zechariah, they are beginning to finish the building of the temple and the wall
and the city.
“Many years have gone by and they are now really at
the work, finally. And God had promised them through the words of Haggai and
the words of Zechariah that the city will be rebuilt. That the temple will be
restored. That the wall will be complete. That they will be restored to their
land. But God has said all through the prophecy of Zechariah that that is only
like a token or a preliminary to what God is going to do ultimately in the
restoration of the nation in the millennial kingdom. For some of you who may
not know what I mean by that, there is coming a time in human history according
to the Bible when God is going to send Jesus Christ back to earth to reign on
the earth for a thousand year period in a kingdom, a literal kingdom. And that
kingdom will find its concentration and its center in the nation Israel. And
there will be a throne set up in the city of Jerusalem and the throne will be
occupied by none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in His resurrection
body.
“And in that thousand year period every promise
ever given to the nation will be fulfilled. And so here all that Zechariah has
been saying about the rebuilding of the restoration temple and the restoration
city is only a preliminary or a token or only a down payment as it were on the
ultimate inheritance that will come in the millennial kingdom. And so we see
God's love here manifest in this marvelous thing that God is going to do for
Israel. His love was seen in bringing them back from Babylon and His love is
seen in its most magnanimous manner by seeing what he will do in the millennial
kingdom.”
We will now remember the question asked in chapter
seven and once again quote from this sermon on this point: “Now Chapter 8 also is a continuation of
Chapter 7. Now you'll remember in Chapter 7 that there was a question asked and
the question asked was is it necessary for us to keep having these ceremonial
fasts that we've been having, because ever since the city had been destroyed
and ever since the Babylonians had come in and wiped them out the Jews had
established a whole series of fasts, which were times of mourning and times of
sorrow and times of bitterness and in each of those fasts, they would go
without food and they would weep and they would wail and they would go through
certain things like that. Well, now that the city was being rebuilt, now that
the temple was being restored, now that there was a new revival of life and
everything looked great, a group of people came from the town of Bethel to the
priest and the prophets and they said is it necessary to keep on having these
fasts now that everything seems to be so rosy.
“And so there is an answer to that question that comes
in Chapter 7 and Chapter 8. The answer in Chapter 7 is negative and the answer
in Chapter 8 is positive. Now if you were here last time you'll understand what
I mean. Because in Chapter 7 there is a negative response insofar as God says
to these people who are asking the questions, look I never started the fast to
begin with. Secondly, you've never observed the fasts as unto me anyway. It's
just been pure ritual. Remember that? And the very fact that the way they
stated the question at the end of verse 3 of Chapter 7, "Do we have to
keep doing this as we have done so many years?" It's getting to be a real
drag.”
Now we will look at his introduction “There are two
basic divisions to the Chapter and I'll just call them to your attention. Here
are a few little notes. Verse 1 gives us the key phrase. "And again the
word of the Lord of hosts came to me saying." Now look at verse 18,
"And the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me saying." Now you have
two words of the Lord here and divide...this divides the Chapter into its two
parts. In the first one, verses 1-17, God gives them the promises of the
kingdom. From verses 18-23, God tells them the results of that kingdom or the
results of that fulfillment of the promise. So really you have two times here
when the word of the Lord of hosts comes to the prophet Zechariah. Once to
describe the kingdom and the second time to describe the results of such a
thing.”
“So what you have here is God presenting the
fullness of His program in the millennium for Israel. It's the complete picture
and incidentally the name Jehovah appears 22 times in the 8thChapter.
Boy you say what are you making all this stuff about? Why are you making such
an issue? Because I want you to know this is God's message, no question. All right, let me go through the
ten promises. We're not going to spend much time on them. I just want to
draw them across your thinking. Here are the ten elements to God's program for
Israel and the kingdom. And I want you to listen carefully folks, because
you're going to be there if you're a Christian and you need really to know what
to do when you get there.”
The highlighted part is what we will begin to look
at in our next SD, the ten promises that we will find in this eight chapter of
Zechariah.
7/21/2016 9:56 PM
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