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The Handsome Price (Zechariah 11:13)

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  Thursday, November 21, 2024 Psalm 50 Zechariah 11:4-17 Revelation 9:1-12 The Handsome Price (Zechariah 11:13) If you read this passage from Zechariah and felt like a spiritual wave swept through you as you did, then I would like to confirm for you: yes, this is an explicit prophecy of the betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ. St Matthew, in his gospel, says that the betrayal was a fulfilment of the prophet Jeremiah: it is alluded to in more detail there (and over several chapters), but here in Zechariah it is more plain and in fewer words. Christ is the Good Shepherd; and if you do your morning prayers out of the old prayer book like me, then you might be singing Psalm 100: “Be ye sure that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” Zechariah’s prophecy concerns this imagery of sheep in the pasture; of good shepherds and of worthless. And there is a special condemnation for the wort
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In Distant Lands (Zechariah 10:9)

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  Wednesday, November 20, 2024 Psalm 48 Zechariah 10:6-11:3 Revelation 8 In Distant Lands (Zechariah 10:9) Going through all these Old Testament prophets as closely as we have been runs the risk of us falling into a couple of traps. One of these is that, since so much of God’s eternal message is wrapped up in local imagery, us Christians out in the boonies might not see how it applies to us. Another is that we start thinking that, since the concepts are so high and mysterious, then it must apply to some time far away, and have little to no relevance to us. Yet we must remember that God’s thoughts are so far removed from ours (Isaiah 55:8-9) that he has, in his generosity to us, “dumbed down” his message so that we can have a chance of understanding just what exactly he is getting at. As much as we might think otherwise, we humans don’t do so well with dry facts; we do much better with narrative and story. This story God is telling us has some wonderful t
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And First… (Mark 13:10)

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  Sunday, November 17, 2024 Mark 13:10 And First… At the turn of the 21 st century, a great many exciting things happened. One of the most exciting was one that affected Brisbane pubs: the short-lived era of the cheap pub steak. If you were able to scrape together five dollars, you could go to one of any number of pubs and get a relatively decent steak. There was one pub in particular that had not only the cheap decent steak, but was also just a really nice old building. One day, that building’s owner changed hands, and the new owner apparently wasn’t too interested on owning a pub. Soon afterwards, the pub was closed, having been irreparably destroyed by a mysterious fire the night before. The shock and tragedy has long since passed, but the ruined building still stands there, a stark reminder that if you want to knock down every stone and build something new, there is a process that has to be followed. The entire created universe is more exciting than a pub sell
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Like Jewels In A Crown (Zechariah 9:16)

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  Tuesday, November 19, 2024 Psalm 48 Zechariah 9:11-10:5 Revelation 7:9-17 Observance: Elizabeth of Hungary, princess and philanthropist (d. 1231) Like Jewels In A Crown (Zechariah 9:16) Today’s prophetic word from Zechariah does a really good job of showing us how we fit into this universe in an enchanted way. Yes, one does have to acknowledge that Zechariah is alluding to what happened during the inter-testamental period, when Alexander the Great came along and conquered Israel, and the Maccabees later led a successful revolt against them. But the prophet is doing what prophets do: talking about future history in a way that tells us what the grand pattern of God’s story is. The grand pattern of God’s story is one of redemption; of evil tyrants getting their comeuppance, and a great king coming to free his people. While the Maccabees might have successfully removed the Greeks from power, it wasn’t long until the Romans came and took over. After that, i
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The Return Of The King (Zechariah 9:9)

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  Monday, November 18, 2024 Psalms 41; 44:1-9 Zechariah 9:1-10 Revelation 6:12-7:8 The Return Of The King (Zechariah 9:9) Now that we have covered the history of the return of the exiles from the memoirs of Ezra and Nehemiah, we return to the prophets who were preaching at the time. Zechariah was, as we hopefully remember, one of the two loudest prophets during the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Haggai was the old man of wisdom and patience, while Zechariah was the young man of zeal and energy. We have picked up where we left off – Zechariah had a wild night of vision, of flying scrolls, horses, angels and so forth. Now he is being given some, shall we say, more traditional prophetic words to speak. To quickly cover some Bible-reading basics, if you are getting confused about Revelation and the horses and scrolls in there, it might be worth going back to the start of Zechariah. God’s word is uniform across the whole Bible, and if we read about the same thing in differ
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How Long, Sovereign Lord? (Revelation 6:10)

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  Saturday, November 16, 2024 Psalm 38 Susannah 34-64 Revelation 6:1-11 How Long, Sovereign Lord? (Revelation 6:10) A great result of reading through our scriptures with an eye to Christ’s victory that happens not just in the future but here and now is that it excites us. And so we should! Future history isn’t a downward spiral into the big crash; it is an ever-upwards rise from glory to glory, and God has placed each of us into a pre-determined, specifically intended section of this ascent. But this isn’t to say we are without problems. Jesus promised his followers that, should we leave everything for the sake of the gospel, we would receive a hundred-fold of what we left behind – with persecutions. The last remnants of Satan’s rebellion still remain to folded up, and he really doesn’t want what is coming to him. Yet in spite of the best efforts of the opponents of the gospel, our Lord is sovereign. The martyrs cry out for justice, and they cry out to th
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They Will Reign On The Earth (Revelation 5:10)

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  Friday, November 15, 2024 Psalm 37:1-17 Susannah 1-33 Revelation 5 They Will Reign On The Earth (Revelation 5:10) One of our intentions with the theme “The Sword And The Trowel” is to encourage ourselves in our kingdom work. There have always been opponents of Christ and his gospel, and if we allow ourselves to fall into their claims, then we risk losing heart and the courage of our convictions. Yet, just as the printing press drove the Reformation to take root and flourish, the internet has given us plenty of examples and resources to take on the opponents of the gospel in our day. Every Christian with an internet connection should be, at the very least, an amateur student of most schools of apologetics (apologetics being the art of explaining Christianity). And, if we can get a handle on defending the faith, then the door is opened to easier evangelism, which is the end goal of apologetics. There is no better resource, however, than the Bible. When we
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