A Vision of a Horseman

 

August 12, 2020

 

Zechariah 1:7-17

 

A Vision of a Horseman

On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying,  “I saw in the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind him were red sorrel and white horses.  Then I said, ‘What are these, my lord?’ The angel who talked with me said to me, ‘I will show you what they are.’  So, the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, ‘These are they whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth.’  And they answered the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, and said, ‘We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth remains at rest.’  Then the angel of the Lord said, ‘O Lord of hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these seventy years?’  And the Lord answered gracious and comforting words to the angel who talked with me.   So, the angel who talked with me said to me, ‘Cry out, Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion.   And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster.  Therefore, thus says the Lord, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be built in it, declares the Lord of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. ⁷ Cry out again, Thus says the Lord of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.’”

A wise man learns that appearances and the way things seem are not always what is true.  If you were living in the time of Zechariah one might think God hates Jerusalem and the Jewish people, how wrong they would have been.  Perception, or maybe a better word is “Observation” does not make it a reality.  We must recall these words of God found in Isaiah 55:8,9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,  neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.  “As the heavens are higher than the earth,  so are my ways higher than your ways   and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  “A wise man knows he doesn't know everything. A fool thinks he knows everything.” (author unknown)  

 

God has spoken in Deuteronomy 14:2, “For you are  a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession, out of all the people who are on the face of the earth.”  Also read God’s promise to Abram, in Genesis chapter 17.  As one that is a follower of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, must read and understand they also have been grafted into Abraham by faith and grace, and the blood of Jesus Christ, was given to cover your sins and mine on the Cross.

Look with me at 1 Peter 2: 9,10,”But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

 

Note: The article is from google and may or may not be true.  But this you can believe the Scripture is true.  I google I put no faith, but in God, I know He is True to His Word.

 

“Most Jews hold that being the "Chosen People" means that they have been placed on earth to fulfill a certain purpose. Traditional proof for Jewish "closeness" is found in the Torah, the Jewish bible, in the Book of Deuteronomy (chapter 14) where it says: "For you are a holy people to Hashem your God, and God has chosen you to be his treasured people from all the nations that are on the face of the earth."  (Taken from the Jewish Virtual Library) 

 

If you were born in early 1940 as I was you have been a witness to God’s blessing on Israel, and once more they have become a nation, but they are still a stiff neck people, many do not believe God can or did part the Red Sea.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice