| << | Contents | >> |
Articles 2021-2023
God had disciplined Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist for his lack of faith. But since this servant of the Lord seems to have recognized that Heaven’s discipline does not express rejection but God’s love for His people, he quickly humbled himself and embraced the Lord’s work in his life. And so, when John was born, Zacharias’ tongue was released, he was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he began to praise God and to prophesy. And what he said became part of holy Scripture and has sounded forth down through the centuries.
And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited (Greek, EPISKEPTOMAI – to go to see, to inspect) us and accomplished redemption for His people.
God had indeed broken into Israel’s everyday life. While John’s birth was certainly a miraculous event, the conception of Christ was even more so. And Zacharias knew that the Lord had come in visitation not only to touch his life but also to inspect it. And his faith had been found wanting.
Heaven’s method of evaluation is why outpourings/visitations of the Holy Spirit throughout Church history have been so messy. Visitation time means it is inspection time. God arises to inspect and to evaluate the inward parts of the house that He has been building. Suddenly, impure attitudes and priorities that have been hidden from view begin to bubble up causing a shaking of the status quo. Or to put it another way, Heaven’s fire causes dross to surface.
When God reveals impurities in our hearts, we always have a choice – repent and come into alignment with the One holding Heaven’s plumbline or justify ourselves and bring some measure of destruction/division to God’s work. Here is why being a true Christian disciple is predicated on each of us carrying daily the instrument of our own execution (Luke 14:27). Be prepared to die to the flesh. In faith. The One we follow is known for raising the dead.
And has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David His servant –
In prophetic language, a horn speaks of strength. By lowering their heads and charging forward, horned animals would fight whatever was threatening them. And in the realm of the Spirit, God Himself is the horn of His peoples’ salvation (Psalm 18:1 - 3). He is our Warrior, our strength, our defense. But Zacharias begins to prophesy that now from within the lineage of David, God was revealing a horn of salvation for Israel. How could this be? How could one be both the Lord God and also from the house of David? Ah, the greatest of all mysteries! And it is only by revelation that anyone understands. The Lord of heaven, the horn of our salvation, walked among us two thousand years ago in order to gain the greatest of all victories against all that held us in bondage.
As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old – Salvation FROM OUR ENEMIES, and FROM THE HAND OF ALL WHO HATE US;
While many may have thought that the Lord was referring to salvation from human enemies, yet He had something else in mind. What was Israel’s greatest oppressor? Rome? Or was it the forces of spiritual darkness that empowered the debilitating bondage of sin? And sin was simply everywhere – not only in the oppressive military Roman occupation but in all of Israel, including the religious structures that claimed to represent God. And Jesus came to proclaim freedom right in the midst of the overwhelming and seemingly dominant tyranny of spiritual darkness (Luke 4:18 - 19).
To show mercy toward our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to Abraham our father, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.
God had promised Abraham that He would bless him, make His servant a great nation, and through him bless all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:1 - 3). And because Abraham believed Him, the Lord declared His servant to be righteous. So, over many centuries God took it upon Himself to make clear that religious activity rooted in external laws, requirements, and practices could not achieve the liberation of the human heart needed to bring about joyful lifestyles of obedience not based on fear. After all, to fail in one aspect of the Law was to fail in it totally.
The question was obvious. How could the families of all the earth be blessed through people who themselves needed liberation from what held them in bondage? So, Zacharias began to prophesy over his son.
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go on BEFORE THE LORD TO PREPARE HIS WAYS; to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins,
While God was up to the task of bringing forth His people in a non-fear based holy joyful obedience, He would have to come Himself to accomplish His purpose. His first order of business was to send His servant John to prepare His way. Then as His people responded to His prophet and humbled themselves in repentance, God’s intent was to not only forgive them but to give them the knowledge of and the route to their salvation. In other words, through the death and resurrection of Christ He would deliver them from sin’s power and make them whole in the inner man. As a result, they would then be able to serve Him joyfully all their days in holiness.
The Lord would make His salvation known:
because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise (Greek, ANATOLE – a rising of light, a dawning) from on high will visit us,
God’s Sunrise for His people, Jesus Christ, was the beginning, the dawning of a whole new day. But Heaven’s penetrating light, in its exposing power would shake the whole nation. He would shine upon all who were residing in darkness and guide the ones who responded to Him into the way of peace (Luke 1:79).
Many years earlier, the Lord had warned His people of the coming fiery day in which He would consume the arrogant from among them (Malachi 4:1). And John himself had confirmed that word by prophesying that the Messiah would not only immerse people in the Holy Spirit but also in fire (Matthew 3:11).
First, the Lord disqualified from being His messenger the priesthood that He had called to teach the people from the Law (Malachi 1:6; 2:1 - 2). And in their place, He purposed to send His own messenger to introduce His anointed Messiah.
Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me.
And then the Lord Himself, the Messenger of the covenant would come.
And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the LORD of hosts.
But then the prophet asked a question.
But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.
The Messiah would bring a fiery inspection of His nation. His use of both fire and soap indicated that He would bring both internal and external change to His people. Internally, hearts would be confronted and then through repentance would change. Externally, the outward expression of those changed hearts would have differences many had not foreseen.
First, God sent His Son to die on the cross. There, He tore the veil in front of the Holy of Holies and broke out of the temple’s inward places. As a result, His priesthood, no longer confined to a temple system, and taken now not only from the family of Aaron, but from the families of all the earth – both Jew and Gentile, began to arise ministering to God with righteous offerings and worship. Starting in Jerusalem even among priests in the temple (Acts 6:7) and then spreading to cities across the Roman Empire, God’s holy international priesthood, often meeting in simple homes, began to offer up joyful sacrifices of praise, worship, and obedience.
The fiery visitation of Christ did indeed consume the arrogant leaving them neither root nor branch (Malachi 4:1). But notice God’s promise in the very next verse.
But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.
The Sunrise from on high had come. And those who loved Him broke free from the stall of a constraining religion and skipped about in a non-fear based joyful obedience. Is not our faithful God truly amazing?
Donald Rumble – April 2023
Search Comments
This page has been visited 0073 times.
| << | Contents | >> |
10 per page