Faith rests yet also acts . . .

 

READ Zechariah 5–9

At times, I thought I could combine the practice of fasting and prayer with my desire to lose weight. It never worked and these verses from Zechariah tell me why:

Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me: “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? And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?

First lesson for this day: God does not honor mixed motives or using spiritual disciplines for personal gain.

Zechariah has more from the Lord: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”

The second lesson is that being God’s child is not a list of don’t's but more about doing! Sadly, Zechariah’s hearers “refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets.” Because of their refusal to listen, God was angry and said, “As I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear” and He “scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate.” (Zechariah 7:4–14)

I belong to the Lord and He is jealous that I trust Him, and not myself. He had that same attitude for His OT people and had wonderful plans for them:

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath . . . . I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. . . . Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets . . . . If it is marvelous in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in my sight?  . . . . Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country, and I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God in faithfulness and in righteousness.” (8:1–8)

He “purposed to bring disaster” when they provoked Him to wrath in the past, and He did not relent, but also purposed in those days to bring good to them. They must “Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace; do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the Lord.” (8:14–17)

His commands are not only for His people but to draw others into His forever family:

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities. The 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.’ Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord. Thus 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.’ ” (8:20–23)

Zechariah also speaks of the coming One: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! 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 . . . . and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea . . . .” (9:9-10) His promise displays His goodness: “On that day the Lord their God will save them, as the flock of his people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land. For how great is his goodness, and how great his beauty!” (9:16–17)

This is the God that I worship today, a day still filled with a personal threat of Covid to my husband’s health and the threat of larger conflicts reported in world news, yet a day when I know the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ and the peace of heart that He alone can give. Thank You, Jesus.

 

God is not green-eyed . . .

 

Jealousy is often depicted as that “green-eyed monster” that fills a person with envy or creates a horrible threat to their security. Yet God is called JEALOUS. How can that be? He is complete so needs nothing. He is all-powerful so nothing can threaten Him.

Understanding jealousy depends on how the word is used. When it speaks of a forbidden attitude in God’s people, it means the kind of jealous that envies what others have, wants it for themselves, and might even hate those who have it. It is an expression of dissatisfaction with one’s lot in life and with God’s providence. This kind of jealousy essentially says to God that He is not doing right by me, that I should have what others have.

But there is a jealousy that is appropriate. It is the jealousy of a woman protecting her marriage by warding off another woman who goes after her husband. It is the jealousy of a man who will guard his relationship with his wife. It is this kind of jealousy that reflects the jealousy of God. He guards His people from getting involved with false gods and with sin that pulls them away from loyalty to Him.

Exodus 34:14 says, “For you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” in explanation of a previous verse: Exodus 20:5: “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me . . . .”

Several OT verses add the same description of God being “fiercely protective and unaccepting of disloyalty” and of “desiring exclusivity” in His relationship with His people. Would I worship a god who didn’t care if I wandered off or worshiped idols? I don’t think so.

Jealousy is also related to being zealous. Elijah expressed it in 1 Kings 19:10.

He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”

The prophets express this characteristic of God in the same way. Joel 2:18 says, “Then the Lord became jealous for his land and had pity on his people.” Nahum 1:2 says, “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.”

In the NT, Paul wrote to the church at Corinth and used this term to tell them his desire for them, which is the same desire God has for me. They were not careful (to say the least) about what they believed or how they lived. Because of their lax attitude, he wrote:

2 Corinthians 11:2–4. “For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. I can understand God’s zeal for His people and the zeal Paul had and how he could call it “divine jealousy” because I understand the desire of a man wanting purity in his wife and a wife wanting total purity and loyalty from her husband. On a human level, this is rare. On a spiritual level concerning God, what a joy to know that He wants that from me — but not only that, I can expect it from Him. He is not wooing me and hiding another agenda. He is fiercely loyal and protective, and because of that, I am completely and totally secure. In that security, I can love Him the same way, even care for others — not that they are ‘mine’ but that they belong to God and I can do whatever He asks of me to encourage their relationship with Him.