Week 3 day 1
Zechariah 8:4 “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Once again old men and women will walk Jerusalem’s streets with their canes and will sit together in the city squares.
This “telling forth” from the prophet Zechariah occurred during the time after the “captivity” This post exilic statement in full spoke of God’s returning to Jerusalem and the temple. (See Vs. 3)
I was rather captivated by the peaceful imagery here. Certainly it stands out in stark contrast to what’s going on in our cities today. It would behoove us all, no matter what we feel about Racism, the Police, the state of the economy in the wake of this “pandemic” sweeping the world to be on our faces in prayer. We must always remember the words of Paul to the Corinthian church 3 Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards;[ 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human] but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments 5 and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10:35)
As the elders of the Church we need to become once again the example for the younger folk. We do not only need to pray, we need to testify to the effectiveness of prayer, and the constant call in all of scripture to be a praying people. When people have no place to take their anger and frustration we can certainly know that somewhere along the line we have failed to love, teach, admonish, and hold accountable those entrusted to our care. Worse, we have failed to expose younger people in every way possible to the true Word of God.
As they say, “You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube.” We can, however resolve to “return to the Lord with all our hearts”, and to take up the mantle of true servants of the Lord.
Larry M Lawrence- Mysteries 