Today, I am reading and commenting on  Zechariah 1-6.

There is a line early in this passage that I think is worth thinking about.  God says the following, “I am very angry with the nations that feel secure. I was only a little angry, but they went too far with the punishment.” The context suggests that God sent nations to punish Israel and Judah. but that those nations went above and beyond in bringing suffering upon those people.  Zechariah’s vision goes on to show him craftsmen coming from God to throw down and terrify the four nations which scattered the people of Israel and Judah.  Which is interesting because I am not sure to what four nations the prophecy is referring.  I would think that two of them would be Assyria and Babylon, perhaps Egypt would be a third, but I have no ideas for a fourth.  I did come across someone who suggested that it was four nations against whom Ezekiel prophesied who were destroyed by the Persians.  Those four would be: Ammon (Ezekiel 25:1-7), Moab (Ezekiel 25:8-11), Edom (Ezekiel 25:12-14), and Philistia (Ezekiel 25:15-17).  I find this suggestion fascinating, but I am not sure about it.

However, I want to combine Zechariah’s visions about the high priest Joshua and the governor Zerubbabel to look at the message I see in them today.  The vision concerning Joshua begins with the Accuser, Satan, accusing him before God, but God rebukes the Accuser.  God takes away Joshua’s sin and dresses him in righteousness.  God does the same for us before all who will accuse us, the most important of those accusers being ourselves.  God rebukes those who accuse us of sin, not because we do not sin, but because He has taken that sin from us.  All He asks of us is that we walk in obedience to Him going forward.  Which brings me to the vision concerning Zerubbabel.  In that vision, God tells Zerubbabel that it is not by might or power that Zerubbabel will do God’s will, but by God’s Spirit.  In the same way, we will not do God’s will by might or power, but by God’s Spirit.  So, God has taken our sins from us and dressed us in His righteousness, let us not start relying on might and power to overcome sin.  Instead, let us rely on God’s Spirit.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.