Latest / Faith by annm2705 / 885. Bible Study: Zechariah 7 & 8 (God's instruction, "Av", Call to Repentance and Restoration)
Transcript
- 0:00Chapters 7 and 8 from Zechariah. I think we'll be able to do 2
- 0:04today. I missed yesterday, so let's get
- 0:08started first with a prayer. Dear Lord, please be with us as
- 0:11we read through these chapters. Please open our eyes, our
- 0:15hearts, our minds, our thoughts to what you have to say.
- 0:19We ask this in Jesus name, Amen. So in the fourth year of King
- 0:25Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the 4th day
- 0:29of the ninth month to the month or the month of Kislev.
- 0:34The month of Kislev, let's see, is in the Hebrew calendar.
- 0:39It corresponds to November or December.
- 0:42They're kind of like split in in the month.
- 0:44So anyway, if you want to look at this in more detail to figure
- 0:50out when certain dates are, I recommend Dead Sea Scroll
- 0:55calendar. It's DSS calendar.org and you
- 0:59can plug in any year and you can see different dates and the
- 1:04different celebrations. The annual celebrations are are
- 1:08documented on it, which is a nice calendar to reference when
- 1:10you're studying the Bible. So continuing on the people, I
- 1:15guess the other point is that the this makes a places a date
- 1:21and a time that this was written not a time, but a day and a
- 1:26period of when this was written. And it can be matched up to
- 1:30history too, which is helpful in in the Bible.
- 1:34I mean in in people believing something that has been written
- 1:37so many years ago. So verse 2, the people of Bethel
- 1:42had sent Shahrazar and Regim Malik together with their men to
- 1:50entreat the Lord by asking the priest of the House of the Lord
- 1:54Almighty and the prophets. Should I mourn and fast in the
- 1:585th month as I have done for so many years now?
- 2:03The 5th month is the month of AV and it's very interesting
- 2:08because I did not look this up before the podcast, but I
- 2:10remember there's like I think it's the the date.
- 2:14I don't know the month or days of AV AV is significant because
- 2:21I think some specific things have happened on those dates are
- 2:28in that month. And I believe it's something
- 2:31that Israel does pay attention to.
- 2:38Let's see the month of, of Tishbiyov that's there were
- 2:44certain tragedies that happened during that time, believe it or
- 2:48not. So I'm, I haven't read this in
- 2:51advance, but I do remember and I couldn't remember what dates
- 2:57they were, but the Hebrew month of AB is primarily known as the
- 3:019th of AB. That's the date the 9th of AB.
- 3:05And let's see, this was on the 4th day.
- 3:08So it wasn't the 9th of AB when the word of the Lord came to
- 3:12Zechariah. But the 9th of AB has had, I'm
- 3:17going to look this up, 9th of AB significance because I believe
- 3:21this might have been when the temple was destroyed.
- 3:27And sorry, I didn't. I didn't think I was going to
- 3:28have a lot to reference when I was doing this one.
- 3:33OK, so here's the 9th of of Artish Biav is the saddest day
- 3:38in the Jewish calendar, serving as a day of communal fasting and
- 3:43mourning for major historical catastrophes.
- 3:47It primarily commemorates the destruction of the 1st and 2nd
- 3:51Temples in Jerusalem, along with numerous other persecutions and
- 3:56tragedies, including expulsions and Holocaust.
- 4:01The destruction of the Temple, the First Temple 586 BCE and the
- 4:06Second Temple 70-CE were both destroyed, leading to Jewish
- 4:11exile. The spies report.
- 4:14The Israelite spies returned with a bad report leading to the
- 4:18generation wandering in the desert.
- 4:21This was at the time of Moses when they came out of slavery
- 4:25and God told them they were going to take over the land of
- 4:26Canaan and they sent people out. The only ones who were giving
- 4:31accurate report reports were Joshua and Caleb.
- 4:36The rest of them just they saw giants in the land.
- 4:38That's what they did. And they were, they were
- 4:40fearful. They didn't rely on trust in
- 4:42God, and so therefore they had to wander in the desert and
- 4:48we're not able to. Even Moses wasn't able to enter
- 4:51the Promised Land, he could only see it from a distance on the
- 4:54day of his passing. See Expulsions and persecutions,
- 4:58the 1200 and the 1290 expulsion of the Jews from England, the
- 5:031492 expulsion from Spain, and the 1942 start of mass
- 5:09deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto.
- 5:12Other calamities were the fall of Betar and 132-CE and the
- 5:16start of World War One. So observances and traditions.
- 5:22A fast day, a 25 hour fast, No food or water from sunset to
- 5:28nightfall. Prohibitions.
- 5:30Besides fasting, mourners and mourners avoided washing,
- 5:34bathing, wearing leather shoes, using perfume, perfumes or
- 5:38lotions and marital relations, mourning rituals, sitting on low
- 5:43stools, reciting the book of Lamentations and reading elegies
- 5:49with a deep sorrow. Tradition holds that the Messiah
- 5:53will be born on Tishbiab, transforming it into a day of
- 5:57future joy. I didn't even know that one.
- 6:00So in 2026, Tishbiyav is observed from sunset on July
- 6:0722nd to nightfall on July 23rd. So anyway, that was just a
- 6:14little bit of history on the month of of and and that it has
- 6:18been a significant time. It's interesting back in this
- 6:21time, in Zachariah's time, why they were fasting.
- 6:25And I don't know that part of history why they were supposed
- 6:30to fast on certain months. But anyway, here's what the the
- 6:35Lord says. Verse 4.
- 6:37Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me.
- 6:40Ask all the people of the land and the priest, when you fasted
- 6:44and mourned in the 5th and seven months for the past 70 years,
- 6:49was it really for me that you fasted?
- 6:53And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just
- 6:55feasting for yourselves? Are these not the words the Lord
- 7:00proclaimed through the earlier prophets, when Jerusalem and its
- 7:04surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev in
- 7:08the western footholds were settled, and the word of the
- 7:11Lord came again to Zechariah? This is what the Lord Almighty
- 7:14said. Administer true justice.
- 7:18Show mercy and compassion to one another.
- 7:22Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreign or the
- 7:27poor. Do not plot evil against each
- 7:30other. But they refused to pay
- 7:33attention. Stubbornly they turned their
- 7:35backs and covered their ears. They made their hearts as hard
- 7:38as Flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the
- 7:43Lord Almighty had sent by His Spirit through the earlier
- 7:47prophets. So look at God used the prophets
- 7:52by sending His Holy Spirit to speak to people.
- 7:58God worked through people and gave them warnings, but nobody
- 8:01listened. I feel like today we're in that
- 8:04kind of same time frame where there's lots of warnings going
- 8:08out to people, but a lot of people are not listening to the
- 8:11warnings. So the Lord would.
- 8:13The Lord Almighty was very angry when I called, they did not
- 8:18listen. So when they called, I would not
- 8:23listen, says the Lord Almighty. I scattered them with a
- 8:28whirlwind among all the nations where they were strangers.
- 8:32The land they left behind them was so desolate that no one
- 8:37traveled through it. This is how they made the
- 8:40pleasant land desolate. So that's the end of Chapter 7
- 8:45and I'm going to continue to chapter 8 and then I will read
- 8:49the questions and answers from the Study Bible.
- 8:52The word of the Lord came to me. This is what the Lord Almighty
- 8:55says. I am very jealous for Zion.
- 8:58I am burning with jealousy for her.
- 9:01So this is a righteous jealousy like Zion is Jerusalem and he,
- 9:11God does not like idolatry and that's what's happening there.
- 9:14And so he is burning. He doesn't want somebody else to
- 9:17be worshipped, something that is not God to be worshipped.
- 9:21And he claimed, he has claimed Zion.
- 9:25Zion will be his, Jerusalem will be his.
- 9:29And this has been a long standing, I guess long standing
- 9:36territorial war with God's enemies.
- 9:42So verse 3, this is what the Lord says I will return to Zion
- 9:47and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called
- 9:53the faithful city and the mountain of the Lord Almighty
- 9:58will be called the holy mountain.
- 10:01Well, this is future obviously because Jerusalem is not called
- 10:05the faithful city. I don't know that it ever has
- 10:08been and the holy mountain. I don't think those things are
- 10:14are words that are used today for Jerusalem.
- 10:17So this is future. This is what the Lord Almighty
- 10:23says. Once again, men and women of
- 10:26ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each of
- 10:30them with cane in hand. Because of their age, the city
- 10:34streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.
- 10:39It's a pretty picture. This is what the Lord Almighty
- 10:43says. It may seem marvelous to the
- 10:45remnant of this people at that time.
- 10:50I'm going to pause in the mid sentence.
- 10:52It's there because the remnant. To me it sounds like he might be
- 10:57referring to the 140. Are the people that make it
- 11:02through the great tribulation make it through the wrath of
- 11:07God? Perhaps it it may seem marvelous
- 11:11to the remnant. God always has a remnant, just
- 11:13like Ezekiel in the days of Ezekiel, the days of Jeremiah.
- 11:17But Ezekiel kind of portrayed it in a almost like a play that he
- 11:22did for the people that would walk by where he would have a
- 11:25third that he would tuck into his coat and put into basically
- 11:28safekeeping while the others were burned or cut.
- 11:33You know, like that's symbolic of what was going to happen to
- 11:36the people. And we'll we see that also in
- 11:39the Book of Revelation that God spares 144,012 thousand from
- 11:45each tribe. That seems to me like that could
- 11:48be the remnant or it could be some people that are here that
- 11:52are left on earth that survive because in this book of
- 11:57Zechariah, we do see in the later chapters that there are
- 12:00survivors after God's wrath. So it may seem marvelous,
- 12:06marvelous to the remnant of the of this people.
- 12:09So he's talking to Israel at that time.
- 12:12So we can see that is a future time, but it will.
- 12:15But will it seem marvelous to me, declares the Lord Almighty,
- 12:20like God knows all this. He's he's told this like in the
- 12:23BC time frame. And here we are, thousands of
- 12:25years later, and this is still yet to come.
- 12:29This is what the Lord Almighty says.
- 12:31I will save my people from the countries of the East and the
- 12:35West. I will bring them back to live
- 12:38in Jerusalem. They will be my people and I
- 12:42will be faithful and righteous to them as their God.
- 12:47This is what the Lord Almighty says.
- 12:49Now hear these words. Let your hands be strong so that
- 12:53the temple may be built. This is also what the prophet
- 12:57said who were present when the foundation was laid for the
- 13:01House of the Lord Almighty. Before that time, there were no
- 13:05wages for people or hire for animals.
- 13:09No one could go about their business safely because of their
- 13:12enemies. Since I have I had turned
- 13:15everyone against their neighbor, but now I will not, I will not
- 13:20deal with the remnant of this people as I did in the past
- 13:24declares the Lord Almighty. So this is interesting.
- 13:27I don't this might be like one of those double fulfillment
- 13:31prophecies because this was before they built the second
- 13:35temple, because it was I think King Cyrus who of Persia who let
- 13:41them build the second temple. And this, like I said, may have
- 13:49a double fulfillment because there's still this other temple
- 13:57that's described in the book of Ezekiel that has not yet been
- 14:01built. If you match up architecturally,
- 14:04the size of it, it's way larger than the second temple and the
- 14:09third temple that's currently on in plans by the Temple Institute
- 14:16is more like the size of the Second Temple.
- 14:19So I just learned these things recently.
- 14:23So that's not going to be the final one of Ezekiel.
- 14:27And maybe that one won't ever get built.
- 14:29Maybe it will, I don't know. But there's there's still a
- 14:33temple that's described in Ezekiel that will be built
- 14:36someday. And we'll just have to watch and
- 14:38see when that happens. The seed will grow well, the
- 14:44vine will yield its fruit, the ground will produce its crops,
- 14:48and the heavens will drop their dew.
- 14:49I will give all these things as an inheritance to the remnant of
- 14:54these people. Just as you, Judah, and Israel
- 14:58have been a curse among the nations.
- 15:00So I will save you and you will be a blessing.
- 15:05So again, this is all by the Providence of God.
- 15:08God is the one who saves. And when he says Judah and
- 15:11Israel, I didn't understand that when I first started reading the
- 15:14Bible. I was like, why do you say it
- 15:16that way? But it's because they were two
- 15:20separated tribes. There were 10 tribes that went
- 15:24and called themselves Israel. And I believe their capital or
- 15:28their major city was Samaria and I think, but I'm could be wrong
- 15:33about that. And then there was Judah, which
- 15:35consisted of 2 tribes, Judah and Benjamin.
- 15:38And they were the southern tribes and they split after
- 15:41Solomon's reign ended because they couldn't agree on a king.
- 15:45So they had parallel kings running at the same time.
- 15:49And so this was the nation of Israel that was split into two
- 15:53and and God's saying, you know, just as just as you, Judah and
- 15:58Israel have been a curse among the nations, so I will save you
- 16:01and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid, but let your
- 16:05hands be strong. So that we're almost finished
- 16:10with chapter 8. This is what the Lord Almighty
- 16:12says. Just as I had determined to
- 16:16bring disaster on you and showed no pity when your ancestors
- 16:19angered me, says the Lord Almighty, so now I have
- 16:23determined to do good again to Jerusalem and Judah.
- 16:28Do not be. Now notice that this is to
- 16:30Jerusalem and Judah. He didn't mention Israel.
- 16:34And this is Judah is the one who went into exile in Babylon.
- 16:38And this is the group of people that Zechariah is talking to.
- 16:44I think Zechariah said in the beginning that he was able to,
- 16:48he, he was born in Babylon, but then he was able to return, not
- 16:54return but to go to Jerusalem. So this is who God is talking.
- 16:59So now I have determined to do good again to Jerusalem and
- 17:02Judah. Do not be afraid.
- 17:04These are the things you are to do.
- 17:07Speak the truth to each other and render true and sound
- 17:12judgement in your courts. Do not plot evil against each
- 17:17other and do not love to swear falsely.
- 17:21I hate all this, declares the Lord.
- 17:25It's kind of like here he is the father of two, two siblings are
- 17:30as children who are arguing with one another and doing things
- 17:34that he's just not happy with. I mean, you could see that as a
- 17:37parent, if you're a parent, you don't want your kids to go
- 17:40against one another. And this is what he's saying,
- 17:43you know, stop it. You know, you two stop doing
- 17:46this to one another. Be true.
- 17:48And, and he's talking about the judgement in the courts and do
- 17:52not plot evil against each other and don't swear falsely, you
- 17:55know, don't lie to one another. The word of the, of the Lord
- 17:59Almighty came to me. This is what the Lord Almighty
- 18:01says. The fast of the 4th, 5th, 7th
- 18:05and 10th months will become joyful and glad occasions and
- 18:11happy festivals for Judah. That's interesting.
- 18:15The 4th, 5th, 7th and 10th months, I'm sure there's
- 18:19significance there and I did not search that before this podcast.
- 18:23So that's something that you might want to look up is see
- 18:26what the significance of the fast of the 4th, 5th, 7th and
- 18:2910th months and what kind of festivals they were and if
- 18:34they're happy occasions today or if this is something future.
- 18:38Therefore love, truth and peace. This is what the Lord Almighty
- 18:42says. Many peoples and the inhabitants
- 18:45of many cities will yet come, and the inhabitants of one city
- 18:49will go to another and say let us go at once to entreat the
- 18:52Lord and to seek the Lord Almighty.
- 18:54I myself am going and many peoples and powerful nations
- 19:01will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord Almighty and to entreat
- 19:07Him. So again, I think this is
- 19:09something that's future, that they're going to seek God.
- 19:14Many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem.
- 19:18This is what the Lord Almighty says in those days, 10 people
- 19:22from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew
- 19:27by the hem of his robe and say, let us go with you because we
- 19:31have heard that God is with you. And that's the end of chapter 8.
- 19:36Is that kind of hard to believe? I mean, if you think about it,
- 19:39his have the Jewish people been loved by lots of nations?
- 19:45You can look at the United Nations decisions and you can
- 19:49see how sparse they're how how very few nations support Israel
- 19:55in UN decisions. So Israel has become a curse and
- 20:01a by word by many nations. And that was part of is part of
- 20:06prophecy like this book. The Bible explains that it's
- 20:11because of their disobedience that this is what's happened.
- 20:14But God has a promise to them. He's going to restore and he's
- 20:17going to make them a blessing. You know, this is the future
- 20:21when it says that people are going to be like grabbing hold
- 20:24of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say let us go with you
- 20:29because we heard that God is with you.
- 20:31Do you think people are doing that today?
- 20:34This is future. So anyway, this is something
- 20:38that God foretold and it will happen, and I know people
- 20:42probably can't imagine that today, but everything that the
- 20:45Bible says does happen if it hasn't already happened, and
- 20:49sometimes there's double fulfillments.
- 20:51So now I'm going to read what is in the questions and answers for
- 20:57this chapter. Let's see.
- 21:00So why fast year after year? Because the annual fast
- 21:04memorialized significant events in Israel's history, just as our
- 21:08national holidays do today. The 5th month recalled the
- 21:12burning of the temple. The 7th month?
- 21:15OK, now we get explanation. I should have read ahead.
- 21:18The 7th month marked the assassination of Gadalia, who
- 21:24refused to pay attention God's people.
- 21:27This has been a chronic problem throughout their history.
- 21:30Now, after the return from exile to Jerusalem, Zechariah reminded
- 21:35the people of their ancestors stubborn refusal to repent.
- 21:40Perhaps this time they would heed the warning and avoid
- 21:44repeating history. Well, that message probably
- 21:47holds true to all of us because even though God chose Israel, he
- 21:53does not show favoritism. And he also it says and we read
- 21:59something just about how he didn't show any favoritism on
- 22:05something to that effect. But so that means that that can
- 22:10apply to us today. And what is the message that I'm
- 22:14hearing many people say, people that I, I think are filled with
- 22:17the Holy Spirit, they're telling everybody repent, repent.
- 22:22I'm hearing that message over and over again.
- 22:23I didn't hear that, I don't know in 2019, maybe because I wasn't
- 22:29searching for it. But more and more I am hearing
- 22:33that message from people who seem to have the Holy Spirit
- 22:40within them from things that they say just, you know, I guess
- 22:46understanding that. And then those without the Holy
- 22:49Spirit are not talking about repentance and just talking, you
- 22:52know, they primarily just talk about love and you don't hear
- 22:56anything about repentance. And anyway, that's kind of,
- 23:02although love and repentance, they go together.
- 23:05I mean, we repent because actually we obey God out of love
- 23:10for him, not to earn anything from him because we can't.
- 23:14We're not. There's nothing God needs from
- 23:16us. He's done it all.
- 23:19He's provided for it all. But we have to come into
- 23:22agreement with God, come into a covenant with God and say, yes,
- 23:26we, we think the things that you think are bad are bad.
- 23:30And we know that we do those things that you think are bad
- 23:33and we don't want to do that anymore.
- 23:35We want you to guide us by the Holy Spirit and help us overcome
- 23:41our weakness. Just like God said.
- 23:44And you know, Paul said in Romans that you know, in, in
- 23:49your weakness is my power or my I am strong or you are weak.
- 23:54That's in scripture. I'm paraphrasing, but the point
- 23:58is when we are weak, when we don't think we can overcome
- 24:02something like sin, like repetitive sin, yes, we can.
- 24:06When we rely on the Holy Spirit, not on ourselves, but when we
- 24:13are in a moment of weakness, that's something that I think
- 24:16people are missing like nobody, not nobody.
- 24:19But there's few people who are relying on the power of the Holy
- 24:24Spirit like God gives us the power of the Holy Spirit to
- 24:28transform us, to make us into the image of Jesus, to change
- 24:35our lives. We don't have to clean up our
- 24:37lives before we come to Christ. We come as we are.
- 24:41We come all messed up, sinful, and God through his Holy Spirit
- 24:46begins to transform us. But there's something about this
- 24:49coming into agreement with God that we have to do that.
- 24:54We have to. We can't reject him.
- 24:56I mean, we certainly have to understand and comprehend what
- 25:01Jesus's death on the cross meant for us.
- 25:03And because that's the only way, that that's what the only way
- 25:07that we could get, we could be enter into the Kingdom of God is
- 25:11first by how what Jesus did on the cross.
- 25:15But Jesus, Jesus himself, he knew when he came here, he was
- 25:19going to die on the cross. He knew that in that process he
- 25:22would defeat death. He would be able to offer
- 25:25eternal life to all nations, all humanity.
- 25:30But there is one thing that Jesus himself said we must be
- 25:37born again, become a new creation.
- 25:41Becoming a new creation means we no longer are comfortable in our
- 25:48sinful state and we are in agreement with God that we want
- 25:53to change and be transformed into the way Christ showed us as
- 26:01an example. Apparently this will not be
- 26:05complete according to the Bible until Jesus returns and then we
- 26:10will be changed into immortal bodies.
- 26:14We will be perfected. And it's probably because God
- 26:17couldn't let us be in His presence in our sinful state,
- 26:23because holiness cannot be in the presence.
- 26:27I mean, sin cannot be in the presence of holiness or it burns
- 26:30up. We see examples of that.
- 26:33And so it's for our protection like God.
- 26:35Again, God does the work. God does the transformation, but
- 26:40that we have to agree with. We don't want what you don't
- 26:46want like we want your will. We have to come into agreement
- 26:49with God. Or if we're resisting God, we're
- 26:52not going to be changed, and then do we really have the Holy
- 26:57Spirit working in US? Or are we resisting the Holy
- 27:01Spirit if we have not asked? I mean, well, God does it when
- 27:08He knows our heart is sincere about getting close to Him.
- 27:12So anyway, going back to the questions and answers, at what
- 27:15point does God stop listening? There there comes a point when
- 27:20God allows those who refuse to obey Him to be handed over to
- 27:25the consequences of their own actions.
- 27:28If they repent of their ways and are ready to listen to God, He
- 27:34will listen to them. If they stubbornly persist in
- 27:37their disobedience, however, judgment may become irrevocable.
- 27:44So that's when I was reading the Bible for the first time.
- 27:48I, you know, reflecting on my own life and looking at the way
- 27:52I was not intentionally going against God really.
- 28:00I mean, like, it wasn't like I wasn't trying to be mean to God
- 28:05or be offensive to God. I was just, I didn't have my
- 28:10priorities straight. I was just, you know, being
- 28:15selfish. And that's the opposite.
- 28:18God is selfless. And so when we begin to change,
- 28:22we start to become less and less self focused and more and more
- 28:28focused on other people. And that's something that
- 28:31changes. But if so, anyway, what I was
- 28:36saying when I was reading the Bible is is just refusing to
- 28:40obey. Like the obedience part was just
- 28:42kind of like that. That kind of hit me and I
- 28:45realized that I was not being obedient to God.
- 28:48And then I was also suffering the consequences of disobedience
- 28:53by what was going on in my life. And then I saw that at a certain
- 28:59point God can harden a person's heart when you just like reject
- 29:04God over and over and over again.
- 29:06He can. And I don't know when that point
- 29:08is, but I didn't want to test God anymore.
- 29:11I realized that I had plenty of little times along the way that
- 29:16I could have turned to God and I didn't fully, maybe partially
- 29:21kind of like, you know, a solve thing where you do part of what
- 29:24God wants, but not everything. And so I was holding on to some
- 29:28things and and I had to get rid of those or suffer the
- 29:33consequences. And that's what happened.
- 29:36I got to suffer the consequences and it's not fun.
- 29:39So if, and maybe that's just the we, the way that we have to go
- 29:44through the process is, you know, we suffer hardships when
- 29:48we're disobedient because God disciplines the ones he his
- 29:52children, and he does that out of love so that we turn to him
- 29:56and we repent, we change, we, we come into agreement with God and
- 30:00say, yes, OK, God, I agree. The stuff that you talk about in
- 30:05here that's bad is bad. And yes, I've been participating
- 30:09in some of it or all of it. I don't know.
- 30:12And, and I don't want to do that anymore.
- 30:14And that's what God is looking for our response, You know, he
- 30:21loved us first, He created us. He had a purpose for us.
- 30:25He had a plan for us. But then when we get all
- 30:28selfish, we can't, we can't necessarily accomplish what God
- 30:31intended, what he planned for us.
- 30:33I mean, he plans blessings for his children, but when we're in
- 30:36disobedience, we're not receiving the blessings that God
- 30:40had originally planned for us. So it's very interesting.
- 30:43The more you get into Scripture and you see these things, and
- 30:46then you wonder back about your life.
- 30:48You know, if I had been more loyal to God and more obedient
- 30:53to him, there probably would have been more blessings in my
- 30:56life. But because you do see others
- 30:59who have been more obedient throughout their life and they
- 31:02have had blessings, not that they never have any hardships,
- 31:07because hardships come. We can't help that.
- 31:09I mean God says in this or Jesus says in this world you will have
- 31:13troubles, but I've overcome that.
- 31:17OK, back to questions and answers.
- 31:19Why couldn't anyone travel through their land?
- 31:21Their land had become so devastated that the necessities
- 31:25needed for travel were missing. There was no place to stay and
- 31:29no food to eat. Everywhere.
- 31:31People were vulnerable to the elements and to robbers.
- 31:34No one traveled through the land because their civilization had
- 31:39had disintegrated. Why was God burning with
- 31:42jealousy? When we are jealous, we are
- 31:45usually envious. When God is jealous, He is
- 31:50zealous. That is, he feels deeply and
- 31:53intensely about something. In this instance, He was
- 31:58zealously committed to Israel. He would allow nothing to
- 32:03interfere with His plans for His people, whatever it took to get
- 32:07them where He wanted them to be. Has God returned to dwell in
- 32:11Jerusalem? Some believe this happened when
- 32:14the temple was rebuilt. Others point out that Jerusalem
- 32:17could hardly have been called the faithful city at that time.
- 32:22They anticipate a future millennial age when yet another
- 32:26temple will be built and these descriptions of Jerusalem will
- 32:31be literally fulfilled. Still others see a figurative
- 32:35fulfillment in Paul's analogy of the church.
- 32:39God is present in his temple because his Spirit dwells in the
- 32:43church. Does God's presence with us
- 32:47depend on our faithfulness? No Israel may return to God
- 32:54because God keeps returning to Israel.
- 32:57That is the unanimous testimony of prophets like Zechariah.
- 33:04If God returns and forgives Israel, and Israel fails to
- 33:09respond, then the relationship continues to be broken.
- 33:15God's presence is never dependent on our faithfulness,
- 33:19But our faithfulness or unfaithfulness to God can affect
- 33:25our awareness of His presence. The problem is never with God,
- 33:29only with us who are the countries of the East and the
- 33:34West. Since Babylon is represented in
- 33:36this prophecy as quote, the North Country, well, that's what
- 33:42somebody assumes. This probably refers to a
- 33:45worldwide gathering, something other than the return from exile
- 33:50in Babylon. And that is true.
- 33:53I mean, this is another reason why this is a future prophecy,
- 33:56because you think about the East and the West when at this time
- 34:01they had just been exiled to Babylon, which was east of them,
- 34:04but they came down through the north.
- 34:06So it wasn't like those who were West of them.
- 34:09So this, you know, shows that there's going to be enemies on
- 34:14both sides of Israel. So when does worship become
- 34:20insincere? Ritual traditions have great
- 34:23value because they preserve the values and teachings of the
- 34:26past. They remind us of things we
- 34:28might otherwise forget. While living in a foreign land,
- 34:31surrounded by foreign culture and language, the Jews could
- 34:34have easily forgotten the importance of the events of
- 34:36their history. Future generations could have
- 34:39missed out on how significantly God had dealt with their
- 34:42ancestors. But the Jews used rituals and
- 34:45traditions to avoid historical ignorance.
- 34:48They commemorated the past so they would not forget the
- 34:51lessons learned. Unfortunately, the rituals quote
- 34:55fossilized over time. People drifted into celebrating
- 34:58the form but forgetting the reality behind it.
- 35:02You know, I think that holds true today with the holidays
- 35:04that we have the, the, the holidays actually of like
- 35:09Christmas and Easter. If you're a Christian, it, it's
- 35:12turned to Christmas is turned into gifts and not the
- 35:15celebration of the arrival of Christ.
- 35:19And then Easter is about the Easter Bunny instead of the
- 35:24resurrection of Christ, which is so meaningful to all nations.
- 35:29But again, this is, you know, something that gets celebrated,
- 35:32but it's become very secular. And it started out with a
- 35:36purpose, but that purpose is so overshadowed by human things,
- 35:42sinful things, that Pagan things, that it's, it kind of
- 35:48gets forgotten in the mess, which is, you know, there may be
- 35:52a consequence coming for people because of that.
- 35:56They're OK. Back to what it says.
- 35:58Their fasting appeared meaningful but had no inner
- 36:01substance. When this or something similar
- 36:03happens, a worship activity becomes an empty ritual, or even
- 36:06worse, a ritual with the wrong meaning attached to it.
- 36:09Often this can occur as a slow erosion of values, a process
- 36:14that eventually destroys the good others intended.
- 36:19How long had it been since the foundation was laid?
- 36:22The work on any temple began in the second month of the second
- 36:26year after their arrival, according to Ezra chapter 3,
- 36:30verse 8, around 536 BC. Opposition and various
- 36:35discouragements caused the work on the temple to cease around
- 36:40530 BC six years later. The work restarted in the second
- 36:45year of Darius, around 520 BC, then ten years later.
- 36:51Why schedule so many fast? Each fast commemorated days of
- 36:55national mourning. There were many fast because the
- 36:58people of Israel had much to mourn in their history.
- 37:01The 4th month lamented breaching of the walls of Jerusalem by the
- 37:06Babylonians and you can find that in in Second Kings chapter
- 37:1025 verses 3 through 4. The 5th month recalled the
- 37:15burning of the temple and and that's found in Second Kings
- 37:18chapter 25 verses 8 through 10. The 7th month marked the
- 37:22assassination of Gediah, which is also in that same chapter,
- 37:25verses 22 through 25. The 10th month commemorated the
- 37:30start of the Babylon, the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem.
- 37:34And you can also find that in Second Kings chapter 25 verses
- 37:39one through 2. So I didn't even have to look it
- 37:41up. The study Bible had that
- 37:42information. So these were all about bad
- 37:46things that happened to Israel. How could fast be turned into
- 37:51festivals? Amos, another prophet, had
- 37:54predicted that festivals would be turned into fast because of
- 37:57the nation's sin, but God's judgement would be replaced by
- 38:02His mercy. Fast would become festivals by
- 38:06His divine power. Likewise, Isaiah had promised
- 38:09the oil of joy instead of mourning and a garment of praise
- 38:15instead of a spirit of despair. In Isaiah chapter 61, verse 3,
- 38:21when would people turn to the Jews for spiritual blessings?
- 38:26The picture painted here describes the excitement of the
- 38:29Gentile nations regarding the God of Israel.
- 38:32God's covenant with Israel had a missional dimension to it, and
- 38:37here the nations are described as coming to the people of God
- 38:41because of their great desire to know Israel's God.
- 38:44This anticipates a fulfillment of Gentile blessing in the
- 38:48Abrahamic covenant found in Genesis chapter 12 verse 3,
- 38:54Galatians chapter 3, verse 8 and 26 through 29, and that is the
- 39:01end of chapters 7 and 8. So hopefully this was beneficial
- 39:06for you. If you found it beneficial,
- 39:11please share it with others and please subscribe if you haven't.
- 39:14Thank you.