Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2020 17:12:03 GMT -5
Returning Home By: Winn Collier
Click on this link for the audio message
In distant lands they will remember me . . . and they will return.
Zechariah 10:9
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Zechariah 10:6–12
Walter Dixon had five days to honeymoon before he shipped off to the Korean War. Less than a year later, troops found Dixon’s jacket on the battlefield, with letters from his wife stuffed in the pockets. Military officials informed his young wife that her husband had been killed in action. Actually, Dixon was alive and spent the next 2.5 years as a POW. Every waking hour, he plotted to get home. Dixon escaped five times but was always recaptured. Finally, he was set free. You can imagine the shock when he returned home!
God’s people knew what it was to be captured, moved far away, and to long for home. Due to their rebellion against God, they were exiles. They woke each morning yearning to return, but they had no way to rescue themselves. Thankfully, God promised He’d not forgotten them. “I will restore them because I have compassion on them” (Zechariah 10:6). He would meet the people’s relentless ache for home, not because of their perseverance, but because of His mercy: “I will signal for them . . . and they will return” (vv. 8–9).
Our sense of exile may come because of our bad decisions or because of hardships beyond our control. Either way, God hasn’t forgotten us. He knows our desire and will call to us. And if we’ll answer, we’ll find ourselves returning to Him—returning home.
Reflect & Pray
Where do you sense exile in your life? How are you hearing God calling you, showing you how to return home?
God, I feel far away from You. I know You’re near, but I feel so distant. Would You help me to hear Your call? Would You bring me home?
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
For a relatively short Old Testament book, Zechariah is quoted extensively in the New Testament. There are at least seventy-one quotations, with thirty-one found in Revelation. Twenty-seven are found in the Gospels (fourteen in Matthew, seven in Mark, three each in Luke and John), with many occurring in the accounts of the last week of Jesus’ ministry. Zechariah 9-14 speaks of a human king (9:9-10) and a divine king (14:1-17). It also points to a figure whose suffering brings redemption (12:10-13). With the incarnation of Jesus these images are brought together into one person. As the son of David, Jesus could claim the human throne. As God in human form, Jesus fulfills the prophecies of the heavenly king who comes to earth, including suffering for the sins of the world and bringing forgiveness. When He comes again, He’ll bring His kingdom to earth. Con Campbell
Zechariah 10:6-12
King James Version
6 And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the Lord their God, and will hear them.
7 And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the Lord.
8 I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased.
9 And I will sow them among the people: and they shall remember me in far countries; and they shall live with their children, and turn again.
10 I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them.
11 And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away.
12 And I will strengthen them in the Lord; and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the Lord.
Click on this link for the audio message
In distant lands they will remember me . . . and they will return.
Zechariah 10:9
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Zechariah 10:6–12
Walter Dixon had five days to honeymoon before he shipped off to the Korean War. Less than a year later, troops found Dixon’s jacket on the battlefield, with letters from his wife stuffed in the pockets. Military officials informed his young wife that her husband had been killed in action. Actually, Dixon was alive and spent the next 2.5 years as a POW. Every waking hour, he plotted to get home. Dixon escaped five times but was always recaptured. Finally, he was set free. You can imagine the shock when he returned home!
God’s people knew what it was to be captured, moved far away, and to long for home. Due to their rebellion against God, they were exiles. They woke each morning yearning to return, but they had no way to rescue themselves. Thankfully, God promised He’d not forgotten them. “I will restore them because I have compassion on them” (Zechariah 10:6). He would meet the people’s relentless ache for home, not because of their perseverance, but because of His mercy: “I will signal for them . . . and they will return” (vv. 8–9).
Our sense of exile may come because of our bad decisions or because of hardships beyond our control. Either way, God hasn’t forgotten us. He knows our desire and will call to us. And if we’ll answer, we’ll find ourselves returning to Him—returning home.
Reflect & Pray
Where do you sense exile in your life? How are you hearing God calling you, showing you how to return home?
God, I feel far away from You. I know You’re near, but I feel so distant. Would You help me to hear Your call? Would You bring me home?
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
For a relatively short Old Testament book, Zechariah is quoted extensively in the New Testament. There are at least seventy-one quotations, with thirty-one found in Revelation. Twenty-seven are found in the Gospels (fourteen in Matthew, seven in Mark, three each in Luke and John), with many occurring in the accounts of the last week of Jesus’ ministry. Zechariah 9-14 speaks of a human king (9:9-10) and a divine king (14:1-17). It also points to a figure whose suffering brings redemption (12:10-13). With the incarnation of Jesus these images are brought together into one person. As the son of David, Jesus could claim the human throne. As God in human form, Jesus fulfills the prophecies of the heavenly king who comes to earth, including suffering for the sins of the world and bringing forgiveness. When He comes again, He’ll bring His kingdom to earth. Con Campbell
Zechariah 10:6-12
King James Version
6 And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the Lord their God, and will hear them.
7 And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the Lord.
8 I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased.
9 And I will sow them among the people: and they shall remember me in far countries; and they shall live with their children, and turn again.
10 I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them.
11 And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away.
12 And I will strengthen them in the Lord; and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the Lord.