13 Pentecost B - August 30-September 5, 2009
This is a Three-Year Lectionary based on the Lutheran Book of Worship 3-year Lectionary (for public worship), "Prayers of the Day..." (Propers), p. 13-41, Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, 1978. It is based, with only minor variations, on the Revised Common Lectionary, used by many denominations, including the Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches:
http://www.commontexts.org/
and:
http://www.commontexts.org/rcl/usage.html
The daily readings are the Propers (Lections) for the following Sunday, so that the daily devotions can prepare us for worship. Additional Lections are from Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church, "Scripture lessons for Matins and Vespers," United Lutheran Church of America, General Rubrics VIII. Scripture lessons for Matins and Vespers, p. 299 - 304, Philadelphia, 1918.
The previous 2- year Bible Study based on the Lutheran Book of Worship, Daily Lectionary for personal devotions p.179-192, Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, 1978, is available at:
http://shepboy.snow.prohosting.com
Journalspace.com, my former 'blog host is being reorganized under new ownership. I no longer publish there. I have also lost mypodcast.com, my podcast host. This 'blog is mirrored at:
http://shepboy.multiply.com/
.mp3 Podcasts via Linux Festival Text-to-speech are available at:
Daily Walk 2 Year B Weekly Lectionary
Please Note: I will post weekly by Saturday, noon, (God willing), Pacific time (UTC-8:00) for the week of the Church Season which begins on Sunday. Please scroll down for the desired day, or save the week to your desktop/hard drive.
Podcast: Week of 13 Pentecost B
13 Pentecost - Sunday B
First Posted August 30, 2009
Podcast: 13 Pentecost Sunday B
Proverbs 9:1-6 -- Invitation of wisdom
Psalm 34:9-14 -- Fear the Lord
Ephesians 5:15-20 -- Living in True Wisdom
John 6:51-58 -- Living Bread of Heaven
Wisdom is portrayed as the hostess of a great feast. She has made the preparations, and has sent the invitation to the surrounding people. She invites those who recognized that they lack wisdom and sense, and desire to leave simpleness and live and walk in insight, to come and receive the bread and wine of Wisdom’s feast.
The psalmist, David, the great shepherd-king of Israel, had personally experience the goodness, faithfulness and deliverance of the Lord. He praises the Lord and he invites the afflicted to hope and rejoice in the Lord, also. David offered his testimony: when David was in danger from his enemies and facing troubles, he called upon the Lord in faith, and the Lord heard and answered, and delivered David from his troubles.
David testified that the Lord encamps around those who fear (have respect and awe for the power and authority) of the Lord. David testified that the desires of the “young lions,” the worldly ambitious, are never satisfied, but that those who trust in the Lord lack no good thing. Those who desire a long life of good things should refrain from evil and deceit and pursue goodness and peace, (according to God’s word).
Paul (Saul of Tarsus), the first “modern,” “post-resurrection” “born-again” (John 3:3, 5-8) disciple and apostle of Jesus Christ, was “discipling” the Christians at Ephesus, in fulfillment of Jesus’ Great Commission” given to his disciples (Matthew 28:18-20). Paul was teaching the Christian disciples to live according to “wisdom” (which is only in Jesus Christ; see Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Christians, 1 Corinthians 1:17-29; 2:1-8), rather than according to the “folly” of worldly people. Paul urged them to understand God’s will, and to make the most of their time in this world for good, because the times are evil.
Paul taught Christians to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to share fellowship with other Christians in praise and worship with the Lord, glorifying the Lord, rather than indulging in the debauchery which worldly people consider “celebration.”
Jesus declared that he is the true, “living bread” which comes down from Heaven, and that those who partake of that bread will live forever. Jesus’ flesh, sacrificed on the Cross, has become that “living bread from Heaven.” The Jews took exception to Jesus’ words, questioning how Jesus could give his flesh to eat. Jesus replied that unless one receives Jesus’ flesh and blood, one has no (true, spiritual) life within them.
Jesus declared that his flesh and blood were more truly food and drink than physical bread and wine. Those who partake of Jesus’ flesh and blood abide in Jesus and he in them, in the same way that God the Father abides in Jesus and Jesus in God his Father. As the (eternally) living God the Father sent Jesus and Jesus has eternal life in God the Father, so those who partake of Jesus’ flesh and blood have eternal life in Jesus.
True wisdom is divine wisdom, by which the world was created and is sustained, not what the world falsely considers “wisdom.” Divine wisdom is available to all who recognize and acknowledge their need for true wisdom. It is accessible in God’s Word, the Bible, and fulfilled, embodied and illustrated in Jesus Christ (John 1:1-5, 14).
“The fear (respect and awe for the power and authority) of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (Proverbs 9:10). Unless one knows enough to fear the Lord and seek to know him and his will personally, any other knowledge is worthless. One can even know a lot “about” God, and still not know God personally; and that personal knowledge and fellowship with God is only possible through Jesus Christ (John 14:6).
David testified that those who fear and seek the Lord will lack no good, necessary thing. David took refuge in the Lord and he experienced the Lord’s goodness, faithfulness and power to deliver David from all danger and harm. I add my personal experience and testimony to this truth. If you’d like to live a long, good life, how does eternity in heavenly paradise sound?
Paul was teaching the Ephesian Christians to live according to the wisdom of God. Christians are well-advised to make the most of their time in this temporal Creation reading and learning God Word, learning to trust and obey him, and seeking God’s will in order to please him. This lifetime is our only opportunity to seek and come to know and have fellowship with God (Acts 17:26-27), and Jesus Christ is the only way (Acts 4:12; John 14:6).
Those who learn to trust and obey Jesus receive the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, which only Jesus gives (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16). Unless we are re-born spiritually in this lifetime we won’t be able to spend eternity in the “Promised Land” of God’s eternal kingdom in Heaven.
God has always intended to create an eternal kingdom of his people who willingly trust and obey him. We have all been created as eternal beings (John 5:28-29) in a temporal Creation. In order for us to have the freedom to choose whether to trust and obey God or not, he designed Creation to allow the possibility of sin (disobedience of God’s word). We have been given the freedom to learn, by trial and error, that God’s will is good, acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2).
Jesus has been “built into” the very structure of this Creation (John 1:1-5, 14). God’s word declares that we have all sinned (disobeyed God’s Word; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10), and that the penalty for sin is (eternal) death (Romans 6:23). Jesus is God’s only provision for our forgiveness and eternal salvation (Acts 4:12; John 14:6; see God’s Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right).
Jesus came into this world in human flesh to become the only sacrifice acceptable to God for the forgiveness of our sins. In the Old Testament the patriarchs sacrificed animals for the forgiveness of sin, and the blood of the sacrifice cleansed God’s people from sin. The covenant with God was established and maintained by the sacrificial feast. The ultimate example was the Passover, in which the people of Israel sacrificed a perfect, unblemished lamb, and marked their doors with its blood to be “passed over” by the angel of death on the eve of their release from bondage to sin and death in Egypt.
Jesus is the New Lamb of Passover, sacrificed for us so that the angel of death will “pass over” our sins, and so we will be freed from bondage to sin and death in the “Egypt” of this world, and led through the spiritual wilderness into the eternal “Promised Land.” Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross became the “bread and wine” of the New Covenant meal. His flesh provides the “living bread” which gives us eternal life, and his blood marks us to be spared by the angel of eternal death.
In the Old Testament times, drinking the blood of the sacrifice was forbidden by God’s Word, because it was believed that drinking it conferred the spirit, the life-force, of the animal. On the night of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest, Jesus celebrated Passover with his disciples, and instituted a new, spiritual, feast, the Lord’s Supper; Holy Communion; the Eucharist. Jesus himself became the Lamb of Passover, and his flesh and blood became the bread and wine of the feast. The Lord wants us to partake of and be filled with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God; the Spirit of Jesus (Romans 8:9). Jesus has become the host of the feast of divine wisdom!
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
13 Pentecost - Monday B
First Posted August 31, 2009
Podcast: 13 Pentecost Monday B
Psalm 34:15-22 -- The Redeemer
The Lord looks with favor upon those who do what is right in his judgment according to his word. When they cry to the Lord he hears (and answers them; 1 John 5:15; see Conditions for Answered Prayer, sidebar top right). The Lord opposes evildoers and removes them even from remembrance. “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord delivers them out of all their troubles” (Psalm 34:17). The Lord is with those who are heartbroken and crushed in spirit, to save and restore them.
The righteous will have many troubles (in this world) but the Lord will deliver them from all. “He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken” (Psalm 34:20). “Evil shall slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned” (Psalm 34:21). “The Lord will redeem the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned” (Psalm 34:22)
The righteous are those who trust and obey God’s Word, in the Bible, and in Jesus Christ, the “living word,” fulfilled, embodied and demonstrated in Jesus Christ (John 1:1-3, 14). Jesus is the ultimate, perfect example of righteousness, who trusted and obeyed God’s word to the point of death on the Cross. God’s word prophesied by the Psalmist (David, the shepherd-king of Israel), that he would keep all the bones of the righteous unbroken, was fulfilled in Jesus on the Cross (Psalm 34:20; compare John 19:36).
David was the man after God’s own heart, who would do all God’s will (Acts 13:22; Psalm 89:20), but David wasn’t perfectly obedient; he committed a terrible sin with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:1-12:23). David repented and confessed his sin, trusting in the Lord’s mercy.
David learned to live in trust and obedience to God’s word, and he experienced God’s power and faithfulness to deliver David from trouble, and to forgive him when David failed, as David sincerely repented and confessed his sin. David’s relationship with the Lord foreshadowed the relationship Jesus came to bring us through the gift of his indwelling Holy Spirit.
No human is able to keep all God’s word all the time. Sin is disobedience of God’s word, and all of us have sinned and fall short of God’s righteousness (Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10). If we trust and obey Jesus he will give us his indwelling Holy Spirit (John 1:31-34; John 14:15-17), who makes it possible for us to know, desire and do God’s word, and gives forgiveness and salvation from eternal condemnation, not because we are worthy, but for the sake of Jesus’ righteousness (see God’s Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right). The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16).
The Lord blesses those who trust and obey him, and opposes those who defy and oppose the Lord and his servants. Those who oppose God’s word and God’s people are condemning themselves to eternal destruction “Matthew 25:31-46; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10). This lifetime is our opportunity to learn that God’s will is good and our very best interest. All who trust and obey the Lord will come to experience and know the Lord’s power and faithfulness to deliver us from trouble, and to redeem our life even from physical death. I and all truly “born-again” (John 3:3, 5-8) Christian disciples testify to that truth.
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
13 Pentecost - Tuesday B
First Posted September 1, 2009
Podcast: 13 Pentecost Tuesday B
Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18 -- Renewing the Covenant
Israel had entered and taken hold of the Promised Land, subduing it and driving out the Canaanites according to God’s word. Now Joshua assembled Israel at Shechem to renew the covenant which their forefathers had ratified at Mt. Sinai. Joshua reviewed the history of God’s call to Abraham to possess the Promised Land and become a great nation of God’s people, reminding them how the Lord had delivered them from those who opposed them along the way.
Joshua told the people of Israel to fear (have proper awe and respect for the power and authority of) the Lord and commit themselves to serve sincerely and faithfully. They were to renounce and remove the idols which they had once served, and serve the Lord. Joshua asked them to choose decisively whether to serve the Lord or not, and Joshua declared that he and his household would serve the Lord.
We need to hear that call to recommitment today. We need to review the great things the Lord has done to bring us into this “Promised Land” as a Church and as a Nation. We need to decide whether to serve the Lord or to serve ourselves and the “idols” of wealth, power, status, career, home, family, and material possessions. Have we been serving the Lord with sincerity, faithfulness and single-mindedness of purpose, or have we been trying to serve God and Mammon (Matthew 6:24)?
The Lord gave Israel possession of the Promised Land on the condition that Israel would trust and obey the Lord. When Israel served the Lord the Lord blessed and prospered Israel; God drove the pagans out of the land so that Israel could occupy and possess it. But, repeatedly, when Israel turned from sincere, faithful obedience and trust in the Lord, the Lord lifted his favor and protection from them and Israel became prey to their enemies, and the Lord didn’t restore them until they sought God’s help and recommitted themselves to serve him.
This text should be a warning to us, particularly in America and in the Church. Do we think we retain God’s favor and blessing while ignoring and disobeying his word, and while serving “idols?” Do we think our present status, power and wealth are our own accomplishment, and perhaps even a sign of God’s approval? Has God’s presence and favor departed and we haven’t even noticed?
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
13 Pentecost - Wednesday B
First Posted September 2, 2009
Podcast: 13 Pentecost Wednesday B
Ephesians 5:21-31 -- Christian Households
Christians are to be submissive to one another in reverence for Jesus. Husbands are the spiritual head of their household as Christ is the Savior and head of the Church. Wives should submit to their husbands just as the members of the Church are to submit themselves to Christ. Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed his life for her, cleansing and sanctifying her by Christian baptism, the spiritual washing of water with God’s word. The Lord intends for the Church to be holy, without any blemish (at the Day of Judgment).
Husbands are to love their wives as they love themselves. As Christ nourishes and cares for the Church as members of his body, we nourish and protect our own flesh, and our wives are members of our own flesh, in accordance with God’s word (Genesis 2:24).
In the World, people rise to power and success by dominating others. Jesus set a different example. He is the rightful eternal king, but he submitted himself to God’s will and worldly authority even to human injustice and death on the Cross. When people join the Church they bring with them worldly attitudes and behavior. Is the Church making disciples of Jesus Christ, teaching them to submit to God’s Word in Scripture and in the teaching and example of Jesus Christ? Are Church members willing to be disciples of Jesus Christ?
As we submit in obedient trust to Jesus Christ, Jesus gives us the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 14:15-17), who gives us spiritual eternal life and guides and empowers us to do Christ’s mission Christ’s way. The Lord does not give his Holy Spirit to those who don’t submit to him. We cannot accomplish his mission in our own human ability and strength. When the Church is working the way the Lord intends, each member is cooperating with each other through the bond of the Holy Spirit, so that we are working as one body guided and empowered by Christ, not as groups of individual empires we’ve laid claim to for ourselves.
Israel and Judaism at the time of Jesus’ first coming had become dominated by leaders who were pursuing their own interests, rather than the will of God. They regarded their position as a career, not as a ministry of service to God. They weren’t submissive to God’s word or God’s Son. They weren’t really concerned about the spiritual condition of their members (Matthew 27:3-5). All they cared about was the approval of men; the public perception that they were righteous; their status as leaders in the community (Matthew 23:1-36).
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
13 Pentecost - Thursday B
First Posted September 3, 2009
Podcast: 13 Pentecost Thursday B
John 6:60-69 -- Words of Eternal Life
Jesus had just told the crowd that Jesus’ flesh and blood was the true bread from heaven, and that those who partook of that flesh and blood would live forever. Many of his disciples found this teaching hard to accept. Jesus knew their unwillingness to accept his word, and said that if they found this concept hard to accept, how would they accept his ascension into heaven? Jesus told them that it is the Spirit who gives (eternal) life; the flesh is not eternal. Jesus had told them spiritual truth needed for spiritual, eternal life. Jesus knew that some of his disciples would not accept his teaching in faith. Jesus had known from the beginning those who would not believe and those who would betray him. Jesus declared that no one can come to faith in Jesus unless God the Father makes it possible.
Many of his followers stopped following Jesus because of this. Jesus asked his disciples if they would also fall away. Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One (Messiah) of God.”
Jesus’ teachings are sometimes hard to listen to, usually because they show us our own shortcomings. But Jesus tells us the hard truths so that we can make the changes we need in order to find true eternal life. We either respond by not following and listening any more, or we accept Jesus’ correction and make the changes we need to make in order to receive and experience real life.
Jesus’ flesh and blood offered to the world as the bread of heaven and eternal life suggested the context of a sacrificial meal, which would have been very familiar to his hearers. Jesus’ disciples didn’t want to think about Jesus being sacrificed (Mark 8:31-33). It wasn’t pleasant for them to hear, but it was God’s plan, from the very beginning of Creation (John 1:1-5, 14). It was necessary to accomplish God’s eternal purpose.
Paul, the first “modern,” “post-resurrection,” “born-again” (John 3:3, 5-8) disciple and apostle (messenger; of the Gospel) of Jesus Christ told Timothy, whom Paul “discipled,” in fulfillment of the Great Commission which Jesus gave to his disciples (Matthew 28:18-20), to preach Jesus’ words, “in season and out of season” (i.e. whether popular or not; 2 Timothy 4:2). Paul warned that the time was coming when people would not tolerate sound teaching, but would get teachers who would teach them what was pleasant to hear (2 Timothy 4:3-4). That time has come!
The Lord wants us to trust and obey him so that he can show us that he is teaching truth and so that we can grow in obedient faith. Those who follow Jesus in obedient trust come to know with certainty that Jesus is the Christ, God’s anointed Savior and eternal king. It’s not true that we can’t know the truth about eternity until we die. Only those who are perishing eternally don’t know where they will spend eternity, because they haven’t believed Jesus’ words.
Those who are being saved from eternal destruction have the assurance of eternal life and fellowship with the Lord within themselves, by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, which only Jesus gives, (John 1:31-34) only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16).
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
13 Pentecost - Friday B
First Posted September 4, 2009
Podcast: 13 Pentecost Friday B
Galatians 3:16-22 -- The Purpose of the Law
Paul was asserting that salvation (from God’s eternal condemnation and our destruction) is by faith (obedient trust) rather than by works (keeping) of the Law. He pointed out that the promises God gave to Abraham (“Abram;” Genesis 12:1-8; 17:1-21) came four hundred and thirty years before the giving of the Law (to Moses at Mt. Sinai; Exodus 19:1-20:20). The giving of the Law did not annul the covenant of God with Abraham. If the promise to Abraham were by law, then it would not be a promise (which Abraham received by faith in God’s word).
Why then did God give Moses the Law? The Law was given because of human sinfulness, to restrain sin until the one should come to whom the promise had been made. God’s promise was to be fulfilled through a particular descendant (Jesus Christ). The promise was to Abraham through his descendant (singular; literally “seed;” not “seeds).
The Law is not contrary to the promises of God. But the Law cannot give (spiritual) life, and righteousness cannot be achieved by keeping the Law. “But the Scripture consigned all things to sin, that what was promised to faith (obedient trust) in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe” (trust and obey; Galatians 3:22).
God has intentionally designed this Creation from the very beginning with the purpose of creating an eternal kingdom of his people who willingly trust and obey him. This Creation has designed to allow us the freedom to choose whether to trust and obey God or not, and to allow us to learn by trial and error.
God’s word declares that sin is disobedience of God’s word (Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10; Ephesians 5:6), and the penalty for sin is eternal death (Romans 6:23). God’s word has intentionally consigned all to sin “so that what was promised to faith in Jesus Christ might be given (as a free gift) to those who believe” (who trust and obey Jesus; Galatians 3:22; Ephesians 2:8-9).
Jesus Christ has always been God’s one and only eternal plan for our forgiveness and salvation (Acts 4:12; John 14:6; see God’s Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right) from the beginning of Creation (John 1:1-5, 14).
The Law does not give spiritual life; it condemns us to spiritual death, because we are unable to keep the Law perfectly. Sacrifices were constantly required for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law; the fulfillment of God’s promises in his Word.
Jesus is the exemplification of human life lived in perfect obedience to God’s Word. Jesus is the only sacrifice acceptable to God, once for all time and all people, for the forgiveness of our sins, and Jesus is the only one who gives the gift of the Holy Spirit (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17).
It is the indwelling Holy Spirit which frees us from the Law, provided that we live in obedient trust in the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:1-11). It is by the indwelling Holy Spirit that we have the righteousness of Christ through faith (obedient trust) in Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16).
This lifetime is our only opportunity to seek and come to know God (Acts 17:26-27), which is only possible through Jesus Christ (John 14:6), and to learn to live in obedient trust in Jesus Christ through the gift of his indwelling Holy Spirit.
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
13 Pentecost - Saturday B
First Posted September 5, 2009
Podcast: 13 Pentecost Saturday B
Zechariah 7:4-10 -- What God Requires
At the end of the seventy-year exile of Judah, the remnant of Israel, in Babylon (from 587-517; Jeremiah 25:11), the Judeans had been allowed to return to the Promised Land and were rebuilding the Temple. In the month of Chislev (mid-November to mid-December) of 518 B.C.,* the people of Bethel had sent delegates to the priests and prophets of the house of the Lord (at Jerusalem) asking whether they should continue to keep the fasts mourning the burning of the Temple and the assassination of Gedaliah, events of the fall of Jerusalem and Judah to the Chaldeans (Babylonians). The word of the Lord came to Zechariah, and he replied, asking the people if it had been for the Lord that they had kept these fasts for seventy years? When the people feast it is they who enjoy and benefit. When Jerusalem and Judah were prosperous didn’t the prophets of the Lord proclaim the same word (for example Micah 6:8)?
The Lord declared through Zechariah that the Lord is not interested in religious ritual; the Lord desires his people to uphold justice and to practice kindness and mercy. We are not to oppress the widow, the fatherless, aliens or the poor, and are not to plan evil against others.
Fasting and other religious rituals have the appearance of piety, but that is not what the Lord desires. Fasting has the appearance of self-sacrifice, but the self-sacrifice God desires from us is obedient trust in his word. Those who truly want to serve the Lord should learn and apply God’s word in their daily lives.
The reason that Judah fell and was exiled to Babylon was that the people had not heeded the words of the prophets of the Lord, calling them to repent and return to obedient trust in God’s word. Because of Judah’s disobedience, the Lord lifted his favor and protection from them and allowed them to experience defeat and exile.
We need to examine ourselves honestly and consider whether we are truly serving the Lord, or substituting religious ritual for obedient trust in God’s word. Are we seeking the truth of God’s word, or are we trying to manipulate God’s favor for our benefit? Do we think our present prosperity is our own accomplishment and not God’s providence and blessing? Do we acknowledge that God is our provider and protector or do we believe and rely on our government for that? Do we think we can continue to disobey God’s word and ignore his prophets, and not experience the withdrawal of God’s favor and protection?
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
*The Oxford Annotated Bible, Revised Standard Version, Ed. by Herbert G. May and Bruce M. Metzger, Zechariah 7:1n, p. 1152, New York, Oxford University Press, 1962.
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