Zechariah 13:7 Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.
8 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.
9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.
The Bible teaches us that the true God is a God of order. He made a perfect world about 6,000 years ago. It was not millions of years ago. It was about 6,000 years ago. He made a beautiful garden and He created a man named Adam and gave him a wife whom he called Eve. God designed that Garden to the place where mankind could live for ever. In that Garden was a tree called the Tree of Life. Man had free access to that tree. God also placed another particular tree in the midst of that Garden. That tree was called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God placed that tree in that Garden to give man the opportunity to think and to reason. God gave Adam clear instructions as to how he could live eternally in that Garden. God also gave man work to do. It is not good for man to have nothing to do. He needs to use his God-given abilities for good.
In Genesis 3 we read that another aspect to this world came into focus. God created the angels and they were good angels. Angels have the ability to think and reason as well. Angels do not have the ability to be forgiven if they choose wrong. Man can be forgiven, but angels cannot.
Genesis 3 introduces a new character who embodied a serpent. That serpent is also called Satan in the Bible. He is a fallen angel. He was not content with the beautiful life he could have as a heavenly servant of God. He wanted to be God. He fell and chose to be the chief enemy of God.
In Genesis 3 we learn that Satan understood human nature. He understood that the man is to be the protector and provider for his wife. The serpent chose to undermine God’s design and he went after the weaker vessel, the woman. He deceived Eve into thinking evil of God. Eve chose to listen to the deception rather than to God and her husband. After she chose wrong, she enticed her husband to accept the lie she had believed. The Bible tells us that Adam knew better and he chose to accept a lie, knowing full well it was the wrong choice. The Bible tells us that sin came into the world by “one man”. That one man was Adam, not Eve. Eve would be judged as well, but Adam received the brunt of God’s judgment. Adam was the physical head of his home, and he chose to disobey God.
From Genesis 3 and on, God shows us the effects of sin and His love and mercy in providing the only way for man to be forgiven and to know His peace in the midst of a sin-cursed world. Since the spiritual death of man, man also began to die physically. In the early history of man, he lived for several hundred years. The oldest man to ever live, lived to be nine hundred and sixty-nine years old.
Over time, men’s lifespan was shortened. God decides the time we have on this earth. During the time we have, He gives us all the information we need to choose to turn to Him and be forgiven and saved. The Bible shows us that man generally chooses to avoid or reject God’s way of living. The majority of people choose death over life and end up in Hell.
As we look at the situation in Canada right now, we have an extremely foolish government because the people in government have chosen to reject God and thus they are seeking to make policies that defy God and deify man. In that process we currently have a situation where our closest neighbour and our human defender, the U.S. is very upset with us. Our current government is much more ignorant than the current U.S. government. We have legalized the use of marijuana and we have protections for people who use harder drugs as well. We welcome illegal immigrants into the country who come here not for a better life, but to turn this country into the same thing they came from. There is a tug of war between Islam and Hinduism and its offshoots as to who will own Canada. There are other smaller factions involved, but those are the two of the main players.
Canada is a mess, and no one, including the opposition parties knows how to fix the mess. God has always designed it that it is to be people who truly know Him that are to show the rest of the people the only way to fix the mess we are in. Sadly, too many of those who claim to know the Lord, are of no help in showing people how to fix the mess in their own lives and in other people’s lives.
In the New Testament era, it is the true, Bible-believing, local church that is THE PLACE WHERE TRUTH IS TO BE PROCLAIMED. That is God’s design. Soon this phase of God’s plan will be over. The Bible warns us that as this “church age” comes to a close, there will be fewer and fewer true believers and fewer and fewer true churches around.
In the book of Zechariah, God dealt with things happening in the time of Zechariah, but also of things far beyond the time of Zechariah. In chapters 12-14 God is showing of a time that is coming, when His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ will take much greater control of world affairs than He has done in the past. Man will still need to choose life over death, but the Lord Jesus Christ will be in charge and evil will not have the free reign that it currently has. Satan will be bound for one thousand years. The heart of man is still evil from his youth. He still needs to choose to listen to the truth, rather than remain in his sin.
In the verses we have before us today, there is debate as to who the shepherd is. Some believe he is the Lord Jesus Christ. Others believe he is a type of the many false shepherds that have been around and will be around until the end of the Tribulation.
In verse 7 God used the term: “my shepherd”. The fact that the sheep would be scattered suggests that the shepherd is the Lord Jesus Christ. Due to the fact that Israel rejected the Shepherd, they have been scattered. Persecution became a constant in Bible times. It has also been around throughout church history. There have been times of greater persecution and times of lesser persecution. It has always been that during times of greater persecution that God’s glory shone the brightest. When we become too comfortable, we become careless.
Verses 8-9 seem to refer to the last half of the Tribulation period. The Bible tells us that the antichrist will declared himself to be God at the mid point of the Tribulation. When he does that, he will turn his attention to seeking to wipe out the Jews. He will manage to destroy two thirds of the Jews that are living during the last three and a half years of his reign. One third will survive. They will survive because the Lord will protect them.
In verse 9 we read that that one third will come through the fire. Life will not be easy for them. In Matthew 24, Jesus warned of the need for them to flee to the mountains, to escape the ruthlessness of the antichrist. God will protect them, but life will be hard. The reason it will be hard is because of the choice that the Jews have made. God is willing to forgive, but there are consequences to wrong choices. The thief on the cross was forgiven, but he still died a cruel death. He still suffered greatly prior to his death. His legs were broken just like the unrepentant thief and he still suffocated to death. It was a hard death. However, he had the comfort of heaven and entered into eternal rest.
In our text, God warns that the Jews that survive to the end of the Tribulation will be tried and they will fully embrace the gift of salvation that God offers. We have already read of how they will acknowledge Him Whom they had pierced. They were not alive when Jesus was crucified, but they had been guilty of taking a hard position against God and Jesus Christ just like their forefathers had.
They will repent and be saved. God will accept them as His people. They will also publicly acknowledge that the “LORD is my God”. They will suffer for that, but that suffering will be short lived in contrast to the peace and joy they will be given and will know for all eternity.
Life in this sin-cursed world can be hard. However, our time here is very short in comparison to eternity. It is far better to know the Lord and live for Him now, in anticipation of that promise of heaven, than to reject the Lord and try to get along with the wicked and spend eternity in hell. The choice is really a no-brainer, and yet most people choose to remain in sin and find out too late that they made the wrong choice.
It is my prayer that no one reading these devotionals will make the wrong choice. God is merciful and gracious. He provides salvation through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is important to accept His provision for salvation, and not try to invent something that is humanistic, and destructive.
Isaiah 49:23 And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.
There are many verses that promise that those who trust in the true God will not be ashamed. He does not lie. He promises eternal life for all those who put their trust in Him. Those who put their trust in Him, demonstrate the fact of that by living for God.
Pastor Bartel