Whilst the first 6 chapters of Zechariah was essentially one big vision with clear date references, the following chapters are a collection of different visions and are harder to date.
Chapter 10 is one of those chunks, with a sense of the Lord saving and fighting for His people, and with that comes God's provision. Verses 1 and 2 give us a choice: look to God for provision or look elsewhere. It is a relevant recurring challenge to us: what do you base your life on? Like when you need a new job, a new car, or house as well as numerous smaller things. To look elsewhere is to wander off and become directionless.
We can do this as individuals, but also we can do that corporately as a people. To avoid that we need Godly leadership - sheep wander when there is no shepherd to direct. Often in the Old Testament God chastises the leaders for not doing their job. Faced with this scenario what might an overall boss do?
God's answer is to enter in and lead himself - bringing a caring leadership characterised by the four images of verse 4. The underlying motive is compassion, as seen in v6. God looks at people, has compassion on them, wants to minister to their needs, save, restore and set right. We see this in Jesus, who approaching a shore-line of people on the beach 'saw the crowd and had compassion on them'.
In fact compassion emerges time and time again in the prophets writings. Sometimes it can look like there is chapter after chapter of apparent doom and gloom. Yet in there, amongst all the mess and brokenness, there are these shining snippets breaking through of God's desire to get alongside and restore.
Hence our current key question:
[UP] How much do you appreciate that God is passionately for you?
Key Challenge: Receive Affirmation : Give Affirmation
Realising this passion that God has for us is a first step towards our own ability to be compassionate towards others. God is for us, and wants to reach others through us.
No comments:
Post a Comment