Skip to main content

Haggai 2:20-23 The signet ring - Day 347

Good evening friends,

Seems that God is always asking if we will be encouraged today by things that are far in the future.  The exiles were trying to rebuild Jerusalem and were looking for hope "right now".  If they put all their trust in immediate restoration of kingdom, they would be disappointed.

Blessings,

Jeff

Zerubbabel - "sown or born in Babylon".  The Messianic line of David continues through Zerubbabel.  He is in Matthew's genealogy of Joseph.  But the line from Zerubbabel is only there.  The 400 year inter-testament period is silent.  So the record of the line of David was apparently documented but was not recorded in Scripture until Matthew.

Certainly seems that God's promise is imminent. I am about to shake... I am about to destroy... and specific to him I will take you Zerubbabel.  The intent seems to be to encourage the exiles.  The fact that the signs and the Messiah were still centuries in the future would not be a comfort to those who walk by sight.  But to those who walk by faith, it would be very encouraging.  This same challenge faces the Church.  We all look to the second advent.  But to some it is a rescue from facing tribulation, what is good for me.  to others who see a Church present during tribulation, it is a better resurrection.  

The fact that the strength of the kingdom and nations was not destroyed at Messiah's first advent is troubling to those who were looking for a political savior of the nation.  But again, this is walking by sight and not by faith.  Any expectation that the Messiah will make Israel or the Church a political power seems to be off base.  Messiah's first advent is to deal with sin, not social and political.  The second advent if for judgment of those who refuse to accept the spiritual solution that He offers.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Leviticus 18:21 - Partial restoration of creation order

Dear Friends, Some times we forget that Moses wrote Genesis.  Obviously, he did not have first hand knowledge of the events of creation.  But God did and revealed them to Moses.  The "story arc" is clear to Moses despite the millenia of history between Genesis and Leviticus.  The plan for ultimate restoration is hazy, but God is at work repairing some of the damage. Blessings, Jeff What is the prohibition on child sacrifice doing in the list of prohibited sexual relations? Be fruitful and multiply - First commandment in Genesis.  God made the world to be inhabited.   Having children is how this  was to happen.  So child sacrifice was a direct violation of this first command to Adam and Eve. Marriage is one man and one woman is the creation order. Seems simple enough.  I can imagine men thinking, Yeah but God didn't say which woman.  I will do the one woman thing if she is my sister, or aunt or …..  So God gives all these examples of unlawful unions.  To this day, man stil
Post a Comment
Read more

1 Chronicles 24:1-6 How about those Levites! Day 332

Good morning friends, Good foundations are important.  Our author turns to the religious life of the returning exiles. Blessings, Jeff We have seen the emphasis on the Davidic line in the  political life of Israel.  The other area of emphasis is the Aaronic priesthood and Levitical workers. In this passage we have a quick review of the somewhat sanitized picture of the start of Aaron's line.  The returning exiles would have known that Nadab and Abihu did not just "die before their father without children".  They rebelled against God by offering unauthorized fire and were themselves consumed by fire from the Lord. Leviticus 10.  The case of Abiathar  son of Ahitub son of Ahimelech, who was faithful to David, but later rebelled with Adonijah is also not mentioned. But the passage points to the importance of the Aaronic line to the rebuilding of the temple by the exiles.  The history of the northern kingdom which was without the Levites from the beginning could not be repeat
Post a Comment
Read more

Revelation 22:3-5 Final and eternal restoration - Day 365

Dear saints in the Lord, Congratulations!  You made it.  We have been through much turmoil in the last year ('20-'21).  But God is faithful to His promises.  I trust that you have been blessed in your reading and have drawn closer to God.   Since we didn't get the blog up and running at the beginning of the challenge, I am going to go back and post entries to cover that first month or so.   Blessings, Jeff Nothing accursed in the city of God, the new Jerusalem.  The presence of sin will be gone.  I am working on memorizing Westminster Shorter Catechism and currently on question 82.  Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God? No mere man since the fall is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God but does daily break them in thought, word and deed. I think our passage today points to the truth of this question.  Do you notice how this answer is not exactly the same as the question. "Any man" becomes "no mere man since the fall
Post a Comment
Read more