SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/27/2016 7:10 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 Divine Conqueror
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Zechariah 9:11-12
Message of the verse: “11 As for you also, because of the blood of
My covenant with you, I have set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. 12
Return to the stronghold, O prisoners who have the hope; This very day I am
declaring that I will restore double to you.”
We have
been looking at the Messiah’s conquest in our last SD and that is what we
continue to look at in this SD as we look at verse eleven. John MacArthur states that when you look at
this verse in the Hebrew it is seen as already happened. The reason for that is that is in the “perfect
tense.” Now I believe that there is
another way that this can be explained as I have heard in earlier studies that
what we have here is this is written in what is called the “prophetic tense,”
in other words even though what is being talked about here is in the future it
is seen as it has already happened because God is the One who is saying that it
will happen. We may say things like “I
will see you tomorrow,” and then something happens and you don’t see that person
tomorrow because of some unforeseen thing that comes up that you did not know
would come up. God is not like that for
when He says something is going to happen it will happen for not only is God
sovereign, but He is also omnipotent, having the power to make it happen.
John
MacArthur explains what this verse means, as when one looks at it we can see
that it is hard to figure out. “You say,
"Well, what does that mean?" Well, He says first of all, because of
the blood of the covenant. "Well, what blood is that?" Well, you
remember back in Genesis 15? God made a promise to Abram. He said,
"Abram," before he was Abraham, He said, "I'm going to make a
great nation out of you and I'm going to promise to bless that nation. Now I
want to seal that promise, so you get a goat and a ram and a heifer and a
pigeon and a turtledove and you split the animals in half and then just kill
the pigeon and the turtledove. And lay half of the animals on this side and
half of the animals on this side, the dead pigeon on this side, and the dead
turtledove on this side.’”
“That's a
messy bloody deal. You say, "What's God up to?" He got all done doing
that and God just gave him a divine anesthetic...whish...put him to sleep. He's
zonked. And the Bible says that God, speaking of God as a smoking burning lamp
and furnace, God passed between those pieces, Genesis 15. You say, "What in
the world is that?" In the east, when people made a covenant, they made it
in blood. And the way they did it was to cut an animal in half and walk between
the bloody parts of the animal. That was the custom to seal a promise. And
God...watch this...God was not making a promise with Abram, so He just put
Abram asleep and said, "You're not involved in this, kid." God was
making a promise with God. Nobody went through those pieces but Him. He vowed
with Himself to bless his people. That's unconditional because God could never
break a promise He made with Himself, both parties are incapable of violating
it because both parties are one in the same God.”
“And so, He says it is because of My own covenant, the blood of that covenant, it may even also include the bloodshed in the Mosaic covenant. And certainly ultimately it is the covenant that is fulfilled most singularly in whose blood? The blood of Jesus Christ. Because of the blood that I that I passed between then, because of the blood of the Mosaic covenant, because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the once for all offering, because of those things, some pass, some yet to come, I'll never violate My promise, it's sealed in blood.
“You say, "Well,"... people
always...amillennialists always say this, the people who don't believe Israel
has a place, they say, "Well, you see, Israel blew it. You see, Israel
isn't worthy to be redeemed. Israel isn't worthy to be brought back. Israel
forfeited their right." Listen, it doesn't say, "But I'm going to
bring you back because you're so wonderful." Or, "I'm going to bring
you back because you've just now and then been pretty good." Or, "I'm
going to bring you back because I feel sort of sorry for you." It says,
"I"m going to bring you back because I made a promise with Myself and
I sealed that promise in blood. And when I do that, I keep My promise."
“And so, God says because of the blood of the
covenant, now watch this, I have already sent forth the prisoners out of the
pit in which is no water. You remember Joseph, Genesis 37? Where did they throw
Joseph? Where did his brothers throw him? In a pit. That was a common place to
put people you wanted to get rid of. You know what happened when they threw
them in the pit? Nothing, they died. And you now what they used to use for
pits? Empty cisterns and dry wells. And that's exactly what you have here. A
pit in which there is no water is a dry well. And God says Israel has been in a
dry well a long time but because of the blood of the covenant and because I have
made a vow to Israel, they're as good as out. And that's a great message to
announce to the Jews, you know that? That your people are as good as out of the
pit some day. When the King comes, Israel will be freed from the pit of
trouble, the pit of war, the pit of suffering to know the liberty of the
Kingdom of peace and the reign of the Prince of Peace Himself.
“And so, because of that he calls them prisoners of
hope in verse 12. "Turn to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope."
Turn to Me, is what He's saying. It's all going to come to pass, trust Me, lean
on Me, ye prisoners of hope.
“I spoke at a prison this week. And after I was
done preaching, a couple of men received Christ and I walked out into the
chapel to talk with some of the prisoners. And every prisoner I talked to,
except for one, said to me, "I'm getting out in 12 months....I'm getting
out in six months...I think I'm going to get out in October...I think
I..." You know why? Because they had to have hope, to be there and think
they would never get out.
“Ah, we say to Israel, "Israel, you may be
prisoners in a terrible situation with a PLO. You may be in a terrible
situation with the Arab pressure. You may have it really rough but I'll tell
you one thing, you're prisoners of hope because one of these days you're as
good as out of the pit. And when you get out, everything that's ever been
withheld from you will be given back double measure." Is that in the
Bible? It's in the Bible, verse 12, "Even today do I declare, I will render...what?...double
unto you." Not just blessing, double blessing. After all, you've had
double anxiety and double pain. I'll render double blessing.
“And they have had terrible pain, double pain. Isaiah 61:7, I just thought of it, says, "For your shame, you shall have double. And for confusion, they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion." In other words, you had double pain, I'll give you double portion. That's God's promise. And so, He says I'm going to save them. I'm going to take war from the earth, verse 10. I'm going to give them salvation and bring them out of the pit. And I'm going to double bless them, verse 12.”
I, for one am glad that I can get info on these verses from John MacArthur as I am not sure exactly how I could figure out what is being said in these difficult verses. I actually believe that the book of Zechariah is the most difficult book that I have ever studied. The other day I looked at when we began our study in Zechariah and it was all the way back in the latter part of April, and when I looked at that I was completely surprised, thinking that it was much later than that, but even through this is a difficult book to understand what we are learning certainly makes it easier to understand.
8/27/2016 7:35 PM
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