I Shall Know Fully

At the beginning of the year I gave some guidelines on how we were to read.  One of them was this:  Don’t agonize over the things you don’t understand; treasure the things you do.

Can I just say that the readings in Zechariah haven’t left me with a whole lot of things to treasure?  These visions are so difficult to understand that when you pile them on top of each other it becomes a bit overwhelming. (No wonder the readings are so short–somebody knew we couldn’t handle too much of it at one time!)

Here is the amazing thing:  one day, every bit of God’s truth written about in His Word will make perfect sense.  It will all fit together like a puzzle.  That doesn’t mean that we can’t know it now…it only means that one day we will know it completely.  And then we’ll say, Ohhhhh, so that’s what the flying scroll symbolized, or Ohhhhh, so that’s the meaning of the woman in the basket, or Ohhhhh, so that’s the significance of the four horses, or Ohhhhh, now I see what it meant when he said “pasture the flock for slaughter”.  It will be perfectly clear, and we will be in absolute awe at the marvel, the masterpiece that the Word of God is.

I hope we’re already in awe.  But think how much more earth-shakingly astounding it will be when the fog clears, and every trace of confusion disappears!

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.  Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.  I Cor. 13:9

The Loser Accuser

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”

Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.”

Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.”  (3:1-4)

Satan stood at Joshua’s right side to accuse him.

I never noticed before that it was Joshua’s RIGHT side where Satan stood.  I couldn’t find any other references to the “right side” in the Bible, but there are plenty of references to the “right hand”.  The right hand is a place of strength and righteousness and power.

“Your right hand, O LORD, was majestic in power. Your right hand, O LORD, shattered the enemy.

You stretched out your right hand and the earth swallowed them.

I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great.

Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed; he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand.

My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.

Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.

The right hand is the place where kings seat their honored guests, where God seats his Son.

So Satan is now standing at Joshua’s right side, the place of strength and power and deliverance, and honor.  It is a place he has no business being,  and he is there to accuse.  It is his goal to make us feel shame over things that God has already forgiven us for.  It is his goal to make us feel unworthy and inadequate and downright rotten, even though God says Christ’s blood has satisfied the penalty for every sin we’ve ever committed (or ever will).  He shouts over us , Hypocrite!  Failure!  Worthless!  Liar!  Ugly!  Rejected!  Loser!

What a precious picture God gives us here in Zechariah’s vision.  What He does for Joshua is the same thing He does for us.

“Take off your filthy clothes”, he says.  Take off all the stain of your sin.  Take off all the unrighteousness.  Take off  all the mistakes, the failures, the shortcomings.

“I will put rich garments on you”.  I will clothe you with the clothing of royalty.  I will make you clean.  I will declare you pure.  And I will delight over you with singing.

You are mine, and I love you.

One of our jobs as we walk with Jesus is to be sure we are listening  to the right voice.  To reject the messages of the accuser.  To embrace the truth of the Blesser.  And to walk as the person God says we are.

 

Week 39: Zechariah 1-14

If you’re still on track with our daily Bible readings, this week will be a fairly easy week for you; most of the readings are either 2 or 3 chapters, and some of the chapters are short.

I am still stuck on yesterday’s reading in Haggai chapter 2.  I’ve been mulling those last couple of verses (15-19) over and over, feeling like the underlying truth or present application is just out of my grasp, but knowing there’s something there that I’m not yet understanding.  Those words, “Is there yet any seed left in the barn?” keep bugging me. I’m trying to give it “careful thought”.   Any ideas what he’s getting at?

I often experience this as I read God’s Word–like this morning in Sunday School when we were discussing sin and the law from Romans 5.  I know I’m not getting it.  I read it and read it and read it, but I still can’t quite put it together in my head.  But this is the beauty of scripture:  one day I might read it and the light will dawn.  What I’ve never comprehended may become crystal clear.  LOVE THOSE MOMENTS!  They are part of what keeps me reading.

Sword Thrill:  –for whoever touches you touches the apple of my eye– (Zech. 2:8)

Observation:

*Doesn’t it seem like there’s an awful lot of measuring going on in the Bible?  We’ve read about all the measurements for the tabernacle, and then Solomon’s  temple, and then the temple Ezekiel saw in a vision, and now an angel is measuring Jerusalem, and in Revelation, we’ll find again an angel measuring the New Jerusalem.  What’s the significance of that?