As fierce in his anger, As true as his love

Today's reading comes to us from Zechariah 7-9.

In Zechariah 7 we find the people coming to God asking whether they should fast in the 5th month or not. God brings before them the very fact that when they fasted in the past, they did it just for themselves...not to worship God.

"Say to all the people of the land and the priests, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? 6And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?

And in the past, when God asked the people to

Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, 10do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart."

The people refused to listen and hardened their hearts against God so they wouldn't have to listen, so God was fierce in his anger toward them and made their land desolate.

BUT THEN in Chapter 8 we find these words

14For thus says the LORD of hosts: "As I purposed to bring disaster to you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, and I did not relent, says the LORD of hosts, 15so again have I purposed in these days to bring good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; fear not.

So God can go both ways, he can be purposefully fierce in his anger, as he can be purposefully true in his love and jealousy for the people. God is going to bring a time of peace and rejoicing to his people. For as we read

20"Thus says the LORD of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities. 21The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, 'Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD and to seek the LORD of hosts; I myself am going.' 22Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD. 23Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, 'Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.'"

Can you just see it? The people have gone from a time of exile and ruin to a time of peace....where children can play in the streets once again.

In Chapter Nine we find God bringing judgement on all of Israel's enemies. The Land of Hadrach and Damascus, Tyre and Sidon, Ashkelon, Gaza and Ekron, Ashdon, and Philistia, These will all be punished, and some will be made "remnant for our God; it shall be like a clan in Judah". And Ekron will be like the Jebusites.

The Jebusites were The Jebusites were a Canaanite people. They inhabited Jerusalem before the Israelites took it over. They were a conquered people in some ways, and yet they couldn't be driven out. David bought a threshing floor from for the full price. He didn't want to give something to God that wasn't right to give to God. I got this information from this Bible Study site.

The last part of Chapter 9 is filled with promises of a coming king of Zion! It is a fore-seeing of Jesus Christ the Messiah. It is a time of rejoicing!

Read these words of promise.

behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

It will be a time of peace and freedom. No more war, no more prisoners. Unity in all the land. It will indeed be a time of restoration.

God will protect his people. God will save his people.

And in that day, God's people will be like jewels in a crown, they will shine forth on his land.

Can you just see the glory of God shown?
That is what jewels do...they are set in a crown and show the importance of the one wearing it.

We are the jewels in God's crown and we show forth his glory and importance.
That is what we do!

Ah.... just praise the Lord for all he has done. For the salvation that he has given us.