Good and Loyal God
Today was a busy day. I headed to church for an early morning meeting and then helped with the “Grief Share” class. After the class, I went to Denver to pick up my mom to attend the 90th Birthday celebration for a cousin of my father’s.
Cortland Rybicka was one of my dad’s cousins who farmed for years in Stasburg. My father always enjoyed connecting with him and my father actually worked for Cortland’s father (my dad’s uncle) in the early years of my parent’s marriage. It was good to see some of my aunts and uncles and other more distant family members. “Corty” has always been supportive of my political service, even going back to my years on the Stasburg School Board.
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY… “I will save my people from countries in the east and west. I will bring them back, and they will live in Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be their good and loyal God.” Zechariah 8:7,8 NCV
As Zachariah prophesies about the the future of the Holy City, He promises to be to the people what they had not been to Him. The Lord says that His people will once again be identified with Him. They will no longer to the outcasts, aliens and slaves. God’s people had been anything but “good” and “loyal.”
Their evil actions impacted individual lives, families and a nation. They lived immoral lives, cheating each other fighting each other and following the ways and worship of evil nations. They were so disoriented in their actions they only fooled themselves.
“The Lord All-Powerful spoke his word to me, saying, “Tell the priests and the people in the land: ‘For seventy years you fasted and cried in the fifth and seventh months, but that was not really for me. And when you ate and drank, it was really for yourselves.” (Zechariah 7:4-6 NCV)
Even though they had their annual rituals and religious observances, they were more self-centered than God-centered. They were more to appease their own conscious than to please God. This challenges us in our own lives and worship. Do we live and worship and commit to spiritual disciplines to truly please the Lord and obey Him; or is it to make ourselves “feel good?”
The Lord challenged the people that periodic worship was not what He wanted, but a devotion that was reflected in the daily character and conduct of their lives. “This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: ‘Do what is right and true. Be kind and merciful to each other. Don’t hurt widows and orphans, foreigners or the poor; don’t even think of doing evil to somebody else.’ (Zechariah 7:9,10 NCV)
As the Lord promises to restore the land to people, He pictures people who would enjoy long and prosperous lives and a place where children freely laugh and play (Zech. 8:4,5), it is clear that it is due to the Lord’s goodness and loyalty to His people.
This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: “I have a very strong love for Jerusalem. My strong love for her is like a fire burning in me.” (Zechariah 8:2 NCV)
Just as fires of judgment cannot be quench, neither can the “fire” of God’s love for His people. This imagery is not what we normally relate to love, but it is significant because it shows how strong and encompassing is the love of the Lord. Perhaps this gives insight into the writer of Hebrews when he says, “…since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28,29 NIV) The “fire” of God’s love accomplishes its goal just as much the “fire” of judgment.
What seems impossible or difficult for us to image, is not outside the realm of God’s love in action. “Those who are left alive then may think it is too difficult to happen, but it is not too difficult for me,” says the Lord All-Powerful.“ (Zechariah 8:6 NCV)
We can be thankful in our lives today, that the Lord accomplishes His purposes for His people. We may not understand how it will happen and may doubt that it can happen; but what the Lord purposes will come to pass. He does so, not because of our goodness, but out of His goodness and His loyalty to His character and promise.