Wednesday, July 13, 2016

The Gentiles will be Redeemed (Zech. 8:20-23)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/13/2016 9:29 PM

My Worship Time                                                              Focus:  The Gentiles will be Redeemed

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Zechariah 8:20-23

            Message of the verses:  “20 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ’It will yet be that peoples will come, even the inhabitants of many cities. 21 ’The inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, "Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts; I will also go." 22 ’So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD.’ 23 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, ’In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."’"”

            We begin this Spiritual Diary with the beginning verses that speak of God forming the nation of Israel, verses we have looked at earlier:  Genesis 12:1-3 “1 Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2  And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3  And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."”  We can see from these very famous verses that one of the purposes of God calling Abraham was to begin a nation with him so that that nation would be a blessing to those around them.  Now as we have been looking at our study of the Old Testament and even parts of the New Testament we see that this just did not happen, but as we look at the prophecies in this 7th and 8th chapters of Zechariah we see that this will finally happen during the Millennial kingdom.  One thing that I also want to point out is that there has been many times when the Church has not done their job is spreading God’s love and salvation around the world either so we cannot put all of the blame on Israel for dropping the ball.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “When Messiah restores His people and establishes His kingdom, the Gentiles will trust the true and living God and come to Jerusalem to worship Him.  Isaiah saw a river of Gentiles ‘flowing’ into the city (Isa. 2:1-5) and Micah used the same figure (Micah 4:1-5).  Zechariah describes a scene in which ten men (A Hebrew expression for ‘many men’) will take hold of one Jew and beg to go with him to the temple!”

            It would be nice if the people in our world today would have this same kind of zeal when they went into our churches so that God’s blessings would flow all around the world like they are going to during the Millennial kingdom, but sadly to say this is not happening and perhaps one of the reasons that it does not is because we as believers do not have the respect for the Word of God that we should.  “5 Hear the word of the LORD, you who tremble at His word (Isaiah 66:5).”

            For those who are involved in what is called “Covenant Theology” this chapter is a must read for our God is immutable, he cannot change His mind and so the promises that were given to Israel are for Israel as this chapter tells us what God is going to do with Israel.

            As we have been doing we will begin these two previous chapters, 7-8 and look at them again through the sermons that John MacArthur gave on them.  I realize that this takes longer to do it this way, but it is the best way for me to do this to ensure that we can get many truths from this wonderful book of Zechariah.

7/13/2016 10:23 PM

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