Daily Bible Reading, Week 49

Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches special Monday Morning Coffee podcast on this podcast, our preacher Mark Roberts will help you get your week started right. With look back at yesterday's sermon so that we can think through it further and better work the applications into our daily lives . Mark will then look forward into this week's Bible reading so that we can know what to expect and watch for. And, he may have some extra bonus thoughts from time to time. So grab a cup of coffee as we start the week together on Monday Morning Coffee with Mark.

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee podcast for Monday, December the fourth. And as you are listening to this, especially if you're listening to this Monday morning early, there's a pretty good chance that you are listening to this while I'm sitting in a tree with a bow in my lap, waiting for a big buck to walk by. I'm in Saratoga, Arkansas for a Sunday to Wednesday meeting. That means there's no sermon notes today because I wasn't home preaching yesterday. And this is prerecorded so that you would have notes for daily Bible reading in Zacharia . This would've been, whew , this would've been a week. I would gladly, I think, have skipped the podcast because Zechariah is so difficult. But I'll make a run at it if you'll make a run at it. Get your Bible, get your coffee. I'm drinking some Casa Nostra from from Bonjourno Coffee in Grapevine. A wonderful little pour over this morning. Let's get to working in the book of Zacharia . Zechariah 10 is where we are starting. Let's get started. He , here we go for Monday. We're reading Zechariah 10. We'll just be reading a chapter a day for this week. Zacharia 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 are our readings for this week. And we'll rejoin the reading in Ezra six on Friday in Zechariah 10. There doesn't seem to be any new promises here really, but an enlargement on the discussion in chapter nine from Friday. There is prosperity coming, verse 17, agricultural prosperity is the metaphor and the imagery that the people would understand. And now chapter 10 in verse one says, you need to ask for that. Ask God to bless you. The emphasis seems to be here on some spiritual renewal, not relying verse two, on household idols or the astrologers. That's vain, that's worthless, rejecting God has left them empty and without they need to turn to God. And in fact, verse three, we get that shepherd, shepherd less people theme. We saw a little bit of that in nine 16. God will be their shepherd now, 9, 10, 3 . They don't have real shepherds, they have lousy shepherds. And God is angry with those shepherds. These people really need spiritual leadership. And one writer said the physical victories described in the previous section must be accompanied by a deeper and more fundamental spiritual battle. We'll see more about that, but they need the Lord. And now we get some of that, the cornerstone verse four, the tent peg Peter cites some of this in one Peter two verses six and seven. And that cornerstone is certainly Jesus Christ. Ephesians two verse 20, and in fact, in Ezra nine, EZ , Israel will pray for a tent peg, something to hold onto . And of course, Jesus becomes that one that everything is built on or around or that holds everything together. The cornerstone imagery, the tent peg, the secure place. What's difficult then is what happens next in verses five, six and seven where there's a battle going on. How exactly to understand that in reference to Jesus the Messiah in verse four. That's kind of hard to figure. Maybe some of this is that double fulfillment. There's places where that happens in scripture. You get the idea of in the short range, this is gonna look like that. Maybe a physical leader, maybe a king from David's line, but in the long range it ultimately is fulfilled in the Messiah. And I can't remember who gave me this idea, maybe Homer Haley , maybe Melvin Curry. Kind of the idea of when David tried on Saul's armor , it just didn't fit him. It just was too big for him. It , it was clunky. He could wear it, but it would never really work. And I think sometimes in scripture we get some of these messianic prophecies where a human person is trying to wear that big armor and it's clunky and it doesn't work. You kind of put it on, but it doesn't really fulfill it. It doesn't fill it up. Maybe that's what's going on here. Jesus will be the ultimate one. There's gonna be some battles and some fighting, maybe some of this is the Maccabees and the battles that go on between Malachi and Matthew. But God is redeeming his people and God is protecting his people. You get that second Exodus language in verse 10. And in fact, it's gonna be so great that they can't even, they can't even fit in the land of Palestine. So they overflow into the Gilead, into the Lebanon , uh, the area of Lebanon. Those are the areas on the other side of Jordan that, that they didn't really have a right to. But God graciously gave Israel, if you remember when they first came into the Promised Land, he gave them the east side of Jordan as well. And so this is gonna be a wonderful time, a time of the second Exodus, a time when God makes them strong. Verse 12. And they will walk in my name. This probably finally and fully speaks of the Messiah and Messianic deliverance and what's going to happen in the time of the Messiah. And that language of deliverance and agricultural prosperity. That's just the language that these people would understand. God has something good and great for us. We need to return to him. We need to renew our commitment to him. We need to build that temple. Remember, we have to hold zacharia in in that context of, of where he appears in biblical history. We need to serve the Lord with all of our hearts. God is not done with us. And while you and I may not understand all the applications that are being made in all the specific historical references that are here, particularly in six and seven and eight and nine, but what we need to see is God is continuing to work his plan and fulfill his promises through his people. Ultimately the cornerstone Zechariah 10, four, Jesus the Christ. See you tomorrow. We'll tackle Zechariah 11. Welcome to Tuesday. And today we read Zechariah chapter 11. This is just like the rest of this section of Zechariah difficult and lots of uncertainty. Even if in the middle of it verses 12 and 13, all of a sudden there's something that pertains to the Messiah. How does all of this work? Let's give Zechariah chapter 11 our attention. It begins with lots of discussion of desolation and destruction. And there's questions of course then about does this go with chapter 10? Maybe it's a taunt song over the nations that have been destroyed in chapter 10. Or is this descriptive of the devastation of Palestine and Judea that is to come? And it does seem to me that this fits forward, that this is part of the people rejecting the shepherd's work and judgment coming upon them. So maybe that would cause a little discontinuity here. Hey, wait a minute. God is blessing them. Chapter 10 gonna be so big, they can't even stay in the land of Canada . They have to get extra land. 10, 10. I'm gonna make them strong in the Lord, 10 12. The assumption is, oh, the people will gladly receive the work of God. Oh, God is so great. We're faithful to him now. We love the Lord. But chapter 11 says, no, they don't receive the work of God. They aren't interested in God. They don't want to follow after God. And so judgment and slaughter comes. Lebanon, of course, is where you get those great cedars that you build the temple with. And so this destruction language seems to be complete destruction. If the oaks of Bayan verse two are less than the cedars of Lebanon, what could possibly survive? And now here's the story. Doom is coming beginning in verse four. There's a, there's a flock and he's going, Zechariah is going to be the shepherd of this flock that is doomed for slaughter. This is a flock of sheep that's being raised to be taken to the slaughterhouse. And of course, when you're raising sheep for slaughter, you don't care for their coats and you don't care for them in the way that you would if this is a long-term project. We're breeding sheep for long-term use, gonna have lambs and all the things that go with all of that. Wow, I'm not a sheep farmer. I don't know anything about it. So my language and vocabulary here, probably you don't farm sheep, do you ? I guess not. Probably ranch sheep. Can you be a sheep cowboy? Does that make you a sheep Boy, I don't know. I don't know about sheep, but I know that Zechariah here is acting something out, and he is to buy this slaughtered flock that's going to be slaughtered and try to lead them, but they reject the shepherd. They don't want that leadership. And so verse seven, he takes these two staffs, one named favor and the other named union and tries to tend the sheep, but the sheep aren't interested in that. And this really comes out of Ezekiel 37 where Ezekiel has two sticks and he joins them together to show Judah and Israel coming back together. In a way, Zechariah undoes the Ezekiel 37 sign. He reverses that out because the people won't follow God, they won't follow the shepherd. And so he does everything he can to help them. Verse eight, I destroyed three shepherds. And there are a zillion options for who those three shepherds are more than 40 different ideas for who these three shepherds are have been advanced. For example, the leaders of the three Jewish factions during the Ad 70 War, Eliezer, John and Simon, three lucid kings, the uprooted horns from Daniel seven , Miriam, Aaron, and Moses, the Talmud pushes that forward. I'm going with Tampa, Baltimore, and Houston. The three teams at the Rangers defeated on the way to the World Series. You fill in here with what you need. I think these are just the shepherds of this doomed flock. They're bad shepherds and they're destroyed. Verse eight or deposed, destroyed may be too strong a word in the ESV , they're taken out of the way. But still these people, they detest the shepherd. They don't want his leading. So verse nine, Zechariah says, alright , I'm gonna let you die. You don't wanna respond to me. You were to be slaughtered. I'm going to let you be slaughtered. Here's an important, important text for us as we try to draw near to the Lord. And as we're drawing out of this text, something that helps us in our relationship with God, if you don't respond to God, what does God do? God makes you respond to him. He just grabs you by the front of the shirt and shakes you and says, now listen, here you , you're gonna do what's right. And then if you still won't do what's right, he just over will overrules your free will. And says, yes you are. You're doing what's right. No, no, nobody, Nope , nope. With a side of absolutely not. God does not make people do right? And when people reject him, the Lord says, alright , I'm gonna let you die. Verse nine, if you don't want my shepherding, I'm gonna let you die. And then Zechariah breaks the stabs , a null, the covenant not gonna protect you, not gonna be there for you. In fact, then verse 12, Zechariah says, why don't you pay me what you think I'm worth? Why don't you just show me my value in my wages? And what they pay him is 30 pieces of silver, which is the price of a slave gored by an ox . And it's just a pitiful amount. It's a pitiful amount. It's like when you've had terrible service at a restaurant. And so you leave a tip of one penny, one penny, instead of tipping maybe a measly amount like a buck, and then the waitress thinks, wow, these people are just cheap. No, you're tipping a penny to show, didn't forget to tip you . And I'm not cheap. I'm tipping you a specific amount here to let you know your service was terrible. 30 pieces of silver is an insult. That's what this is. And I know this is about the Messiah gonna talk about that in just a minute. But we want to do more than just match the details out of Jesus' life. What we need to do is make sure we know what this means. It means God's work is not appreciated. God's shepherding is valued as nothing. It is counted as workless. Throw it to the potter. That means it's just worthless. It's not good for anything. So Zechariah breaks the second staff and knowing the brotherhood between Judah and Israel, verse 14. And then the Lord says, why don't you take the equipment of a foolish shepherd? That's the kind of shepherding they want. They want foolish shepherds. Why don't you act like a foolish shepherd? And in fact, in verse 16, if you remove the word not, you can get a really fine description of what shepherds ought to do and what the spiritual leadership of Judah is not doing. Now let me close this then by making some comments about the use of this in the life of Jesus. Of course, Jesus is sold for 30 pieces of silver, and ultimately Judas, the scar throws that money away and is uh , buried in the PO used to purchase the potter's field . So there's just remarkable correspondences here. What is this about? How do we make sense of all of that? Is Zacharia talking about Jesus here? Well, in some ways, certainly he is, and Matthew makes that very clear. However, this is kind of like what we saw yesterday where there's a fulfillment and then there is a greater fulfillment. And I think in many ways what Jesus is saying and what Matthew is making a point of is are you watching what's happening in the life of Jesus? Doesn't this sound familiar? Doesn't this sound like a story God has told us before? Surely you can get the point of what is going on here. So my good friend, ed Crozier did some work in Zechariah and was willing to share some of that with me and working from some of that today. That's very, very helpful to me. So here's a quotation from some of his writing. Jesus is not saying there's a passage in Zechariah , and I can check that off in my list of prediction Fulfillments, neither was he saying Those passages were predicting a moment in history, and this is that moment He's saying, do you remember everything you read about sheep and shepherds and shepherding and flocks in the law and the prophets and the writings? Do you recall over and over again that you saw contrasts between good shepherds and bad shepherds? All of that was a thread leading to me. I am the good shepherd. I fit everything those passages tell you about being the good shepherd. Further, if you wanna know more about me, go look at those passages and what they say about being a good shepherd. That's what I do. That's who I am. And I think that's an excellent understanding of what Zechariah's pointing to here. There's a reference here to bad leadership, maybe even in Zechariah's day and certainly the rotten leadership in Jesus's day. And so Jesus fulfills that, or maybe in a better way, uses that to help people understand what's going on. Have you read Zechariah about people rejecting the shepherding that God wanted to provide them, choosing foolish shepherds instead? Look, look, look, that's happening right now. Go read John 10. Jesus says, I'm the good shepherd. As he points very decisively at the Pharisees and the Sadducees and says, they are not good shepherds. They're hirelings, they're thieves. They come only to destroy. I have come to give life and to give it more abundantly. John 10 10, will you accept my shepherding or do you value it as a penny left on the table for a bad waitress? Do you only give it 30, so 30 pieces of silver , or do you accept me as the good shepherd? That's where Zechariah 11 is going, and that's the use of it in the New Testament tomorrow. Zechariah chapter 12, see you on Wednesday. It is Wednesday, my last day here in Saratoga. I love being with these people. I've been here a bunch of times, always enjoy being in this beautiful part of Arkansas southwest corner here, not far from Texarkana. Love hunting here, love preaching here. But of course am ready to be home, ready to be back in the pulpit where I belong at West Side . Today we are reading in Zacharia the 12th chapter and notice it begins with the oracle of the Word of the Lord concerning Israel. So this is a change. We've had some material that went together, nine, 10, and 11 seems to fit together to have some unifying ideas. Now, this is a second oracle, an additional word from God, chapter 12 and chapter 13, those chapters fit together and have some ideas. And in fact, chapter 14 as well seems to flow along with all of this. So we'll try to treat this as a unit as much as we can, even as we're reading just one chapter each day, this material breaks basically into two scenes, a great siege of Jerusalem, and then the Messiah returns and defeats the enemies of Israel. And the expression on that day occurs 16 times in this material. So you wanna underline that in your Bible. I use colored pencils so that something like that will stand out. Then when I'm doing my Bible reading, that just jumps off the page like, oh, there's a repeated theme here on that day, on that day, on that day, all the way through going even into, as I said, chapter 14, chapter 14 eight, chapter 14 nine, chapter 1413, chapter 14, verse 21 ends the book on that day. And I think that day is established in chapter 13 in verse one. On that day, there shall be a fountain open for the house of David to cleanse them from sin and uncleanliness. This is about the Messiah. It is the work of the Messiah. And I think this is a really, the chapter 12 is really about the indestructible character of the church, God's people, the Messiah, what the Messiah is doing. So all the heathen powers gather against Jerusalem. Verse three, they're gonna destroy it. They're gonna try to tear it down. I think this is spiritual Jerusalem, not physical Jerusalem. And so then in verses four to nine , there is divine deliverance. And notice, there's no discrimination, all are delivered. Verse eight, everybody is going to be delivered. All are equal before God. And the angel of the Lord goes and destroys those who would dare to come up against the people of God. Then there is a turn in the language and in the metaphors beginning in verse 10, away from physical deliverance to spiritual deliverance. And of course this is directly quoted and applied to Jesus in John 19 verse 37. As Jesus dies on the cross, they will look on him whom they have pierce . Zechariah 12 verse 10 is quoted there and applied to Jesus and there will be mourning verse 11, like the mourning at Maketto. That's a reference to when Josiah was killed at Maketto and there was great mourning two Chronicles 35 in verse 20, terrible mourning this great king Josiah who had done so many good things as killed in battle and the nation mourn for him. There's gonna be mourning like that verses 12, 13, and 14. And that sounds, some of this even sounds like the day of atonement, but on that day, we need 13 one to be part of this reading. In Zechariah 12 on that day, there's going to be a fountain opened to cleanse them from sin. The mourning leads to repentance. Watch this new covenant terminology here. This is about the forgiveness of sins. And these events in chapter 13 are set up this idea of salvation coming because of the piercing of the Lord. Chapter 12 and verse 10, the opening of the fountain for sin, chapter 13 and verse one. And yes, tomorrow we'll read about the smiting of the shepherd in chapter 13 and verse seven. This is about God doing something great, establishing his people. And I , again, we need to set this in the context of Zechariah's time. If you're listening to Zechariah preach, what are you thinking? What ? How is this helping you? And I think what this is saying is God is at work. God is not done with the Jews. God's promises are not void. Keep trusting in God, keep serving God. God is doing something great and the Messiah is coming more of this as we read Zechariah 13 tomorrow, it is Thursday and we're reading a short chapter, Zechariah 13, but a chapter full of meaning. We saw yesterday in 13, one that this is the time of the Messiah fountain open to cleanse you from sin. This is Jesus and what Jesus is bringing, and these great events are all coming together to cut off idolatry from the land. Verse two, and remove the spirit of UNC cleanliness. Maybe in some ways that's a reference to Jesus's work as he cast out demons. Some have seen that to say that that's gonna come to an end, all of this evil doing and the things that that are trying to overthrow the work of the Messiah, all of that's being removed and false prophecy, that's not gonna be done anymore. There won't be any of that anymore. There won't be people trying to put on special garments to say, look at me. I'm a prophet. I'm , I'm wearing a hairy cloak. I look like a prophet. No, there won't be any of that. People will not be engaged in false prophecy anymore. And if someone says, Hey, don't you have some wounds that may be verse six, a reference to the wounds idol worshipers received in the service of false gods. Remember at the contest of Mount Carmel, the priest and prophets of Baal cut themselves to try to get baals attention. But then there's a sharp turn here in verse seven, the oracle moves back to Israel's scattering for smiting the shepherd. They don't want the shepherding, the good shepherd. And so there's a turn here away from good things. Chapter seven , uh, verse seven, strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. Of course, Jesus quotes that in Matthew 26 and verse 31 says to his disciples, says to the apostles, as they leave and go to the garden of Gethsemane, you are all gonna be scattered. I'm going down. They're gonna arrest me and everybody's gonna give up. And he cites Zacharia 13 in verse seven in that way. And then there is the idea in verse eight of a major portion of the people forsake God. But there will be a remnant verse nine that holds on, and Peter May have this verse in mind in first Peter one verses six and seven, and the quotation of Hosea two is also picked up in one Peter chapter two verses nine and 10, the refining and the people who aren't the people of God will be the people of God. That moves us in then to chapter 14, as we finish the week and we finish the book of Zechariah , I'll see you on Friday. It is Friday and we made it through the Book of Zechariah . How about that? We're reading Zechariah 14 today, and then we're gonna go read Ezra the sixth chapter and note how all of this comes together in the book of Ezra. Let's work through Zechariah 14 to start with again. Behold, a day is coming. It's that on that day language. And the idea is more refining being pictured here. This is the time of God. This is the time when God is gonna act and do. There's gonna be an attack made against Jerusalem. Verse two, something that could be the Romans attacking Jerusalem in 80 70. Others argue that this is spiritual. Jerusalem, which is attacked by the world, have to work with that and think about some of that and what is consistent with what Zechariah has been presenting here. But the idea of verse three is that Jehovah fights for his people. We have that very famous verse. Then verse four, on that day, he stands on the Mount of olives and splits. It splits it. It makes a very wide valley. And the idea here, of course, is that the Messiah opens away when there hasn't been away . If you need to escape, you can't get outta Jerusalem easily go down into the valley of Kidron and then way up on the Mount of Olives, which is really very tall and rather steep. It's quite a barrier. Been preaching through Second Samuel, and of course David flees from Absalom and has to cross over the amount of olives. Very difficult to do that. No , the Messiah just cuts it apart, makes a way. And yes, this is made so literal by pre millennialist who are trying to derive some kind of in time scenario here. Is anybody really ready to make all of this literal real water, for example, flowing out of Jerusalem in verse eight, this is apocalyptic language. This is a vision. This is an oracle from God. Big picture ideas, big broad brush strokes, painting this giant battle scene where the Messiah saves his people, fights for his people on that day, all things are going to be good living water. Verse eight, symbolizing salvation. And so the idea is that the world attacks the people of God, but God provides the way of escape. He provides salvation in the Messiah. Then beginning verse nine, the Lord rules over all the earth Jehovah rules in the Messiah. Verse nine, these kinds of statements are about the Lord being king over all the earth stand really at the center of the Bible story. This is what the Bible is about, the rulership, the kingship of God Almighty, that we would see him as king, and that we would rejoice in his rulership and want to be in his kingdom and want to be his servant and to glorify and honor him. So the land around Jerusalem is leveled and the city is elevated. All things are great attackers. Come verse 12, and they are annihilated and the people of God are united. Verse 14, and the enemies go down in defeat. Verse 15, this plague just stops them. And then everybody who's left turns to the Lord verses 16 to 19 under the Messiah. Even Gentiles then are converted and they become one with the Jews. Verse 16, the remnants convert everybody who's left, they all want to serve the king. Verse 16, they go up year after year to worship the king, the Lord of host. And if you don't go up, then you're gonna be outside. You're, you're gonna miss the blessings. And Egypt is singled out here because for a long time, of course, the Egyptians are the enemies of the people of God. So all things wind up being holy unto the Lord. Verse 20. And it's not just the bowls that are being used in the temple being holy to the Lord. No , everything is holy to the Lord. Even the bells on the horse harnesses are holy to the Lord. This is a holy kingdom. All things are about holiness. Nothing unclean will be allowed in and there won't be a merchant anymore in the house of the Lord. Remember, Jesus cleanses the temple of those who are doing business there and making it into this big open bizarre where everything is being sold and money's being exchanged. Jesus cleanses the temple of merchants. That's a very Zechariah kind of sign. Fulfillment, all things holy to the Lord. Now with that thought in mind, then let's just go get Ezra chapter six here and add that into our reading today. I'll just comment very briefly on our reading from Ezra six verses 13 to 22. This reading tells us that the preaching of Zechariah and the preaching of Haggai Ezra six 14 was effective. It worked. The people got busy, they rebuilt the house of the Lord. It was finished on the third day of the month of ar in the sixth year of the reign of dairies , the king, verse 15. And then they celebrated that and they dedicated the house, which then enabled them to have a Passover. Verse 19 talks about a Passover, and particularly notice verse 21, this Passover was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned from exile and by everyone who had joined them and separated himself from the uncles of the peoples of the land to worship the Lord, the God of Israel. And the Lord made them joyful. Verse 22. And because he had turned the heart of the king to them, so he aided them in the work of the House of God, the God of Israel. The section began in Ezra chapter one in verse one, talking about the Lord stirring up the spirit of Cyrus. And now that section closes 6 22 by saying this is the what God has done. God accomplished this. The people responded to the work of God through the preaching of Haggai and Zacharia . They rebuilt the temple. They separated themselves from the uncleanness of the land just like Zechariah had been talking about. They respond to God and they serve God in a better way. That's where Ezra six puts us and that takes us then to the work of Nehemiah and the last book of the Bible, Malachi, which we'll read in weeks 50 and 51, as we continue drawing closer to the Lord through the prophets in some ways, just gotta say this, it's great to see that somebody finally listened to the prophets, isn't it? Haggai and Zechariah preached and their, that their work was successful, people did what God wanted them to do. That is certainly an anomaly in the history of God's people in the Old Testament, isn't it? But it worked, preaching worked. It moved their hearts, it moved their hands, and they serve God. We praise God for that, and we want to be receptive and responsive to the word of God in our lives today. That's how you draw near to the Lord, and that's where our reading today puts us and helps us see what we need to do, what we need to be if we're gonna be pleasing to God. Well, that's the podcast for the week. Whew , what a week this has been, especially since I'm not even in town. I'm looking forward to being with you on Sunday. Get the opportunity to preach, and I know God's people at West Side are gonna be responsive to the word of God. That's the kind of people that we are at West Side . I hope this podcast is helping you respond to the work of God through His word, hope you're subscribed and followed and all of that kind of stuff. Hope you're telling people about the podcast, and I hope it's helping you as you serve the Lord. So until next week, may your coffee be delightful and your Friday be wonderful. I pray the Lord will be with you today all day. I'm Mark Roberts and I want to go to heaven, and I want you to come to see you on Monday with a cup of coffee.

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