Post by Cindy on Aug 18, 2015 13:03:44 GMT -5
In Zechariah 13 God tells us of the coming day when God will rid the land of all idolatry which is a wonderful picture of life during the Millennium. But then He goes on to say that there will still be some that will promote idolatry, but that they'll do it secretly, afraid of being found out - instead of the way they do it now trying to make it look normal and right.
God tells us that when Jesus comes again, He's going to save the remnant of Israel and make them totally His. All thoughts of idolatry and sin will be cleansed from them and they will live to serve Him and only Him for the next 1000 years and on into eternity. Everyone who enters the Millennial Kingdom will be saved, but they will have children and some of those children will not choose Jesus, even with all the evidence right in front of their eyes. Instead, they'll choose Satan; they'll become idolators and will go into hiding for fear of being found out. It's hard to imagine them being fearful as they're so prevalent today and wallow in their sin before everyone, but because Jesus will rule with a "rod of iron" during those years, they will indeed be afraid to be found out!
Often when we see or hear the word "idolatry" we think of someone bowing down to some kind of statue, but that's not what it means at all. When we read Ephesians 5:5 as well as other scriptures, we see that all sin is really idolatry, because in order to sin, we must put something or someone before God. God also calls it spiritual adultery. He wants us to understand how very abhorrent it is to Him and should be to us. It's rejecting Him, the God who created us, gives and sustains our every breath, died for us and offers us eternal life with Him. It's rejecting Him because we cannot love or serve two different masters. Eventually, one or the other will win out and because of our sin nature, we normally don't choose God.
In Zechariah God shows us just how strong He wants our relationship with Him to be, and just what He means by being first in our life, before anyone or anything else. It's a passage that most of us don't care for, and generally just skim over thinking it doesn't concern us since it won't happen for a long time from now, but that's not at all true! It's how God wants us to be right now and how He's always wanted us to be. Let me show you what it says in context from the ESV as you can see the NIV by hovering over the link: “And on that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more. And also I will remove from the land the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness. And if anyone again prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, ‘You shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the LORD.’ And his father and mother who bore him shall pierce him through when he prophesies.” (Zechariah 13:2–3)
Usually, we read that with horror, thinking we could and would never do such a thing! We often feel that this is something "new" that the Lord has thrown in at the last minute, but it's not. He's been saying the same thing since the beginning of time and will continue to, right to the end. It immediately brought to my mind what Jesus warned us about: “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;” (Matthew 10:37) and “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26)
Even putting aside the part about actually killing your own adult child if they become idolatrous and begin to tell lies in God's Name, it's very, very rare in our day to see anyone put God before their spouse, or children, or before themselves. Once again this is another area that the Church has neglected to preach about for a very long time. They probably don't preach it because if they did, more then half of the people in the congregation wouldn't return the next Sunday. What's even more rare these days are people who will discipline their children when they're telling or believing lies about God.
One of the big issues in today's world is about homosexuality. Many adult children have fallen for the lies that say that God doesn't condemn it. Every single person who is allowed to continue to believe that lie, also spreads that lie to many others. That's why in the Old Testament, God told the Israelites that they had to kill those people who did things like this, so that the contamination of the sin wouldn't continue to spread among them. God didn't tell them to kill the adulterers and homosexuals because He hated them, but told them to do so because He loved the Israelites and didn't want to see anymore of them believe those lies about Him. It's because God loves us that He tells us to make Him first in our life, not because He's trying to make our life harder. He knows what's best for us, and while we generally think we know what's best for us, our knowledge is corrupted and usually wrong.
When we look at Zechariah 13:2–3, Matthew 10:37, and Luke 14:26, it should also remind us of Deut 6:5 which tells us “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deut 6:5) Jesus repeats this a number of times too. Note that I underlined the word "all" in that verse. God has never found it acceptable for us to love Him with some of our heart, but wants all of it! I realize that in the Zechariah passage, the part about killing your child comes suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, but God always gives us a chance to repent. His goal is not to condemn us but to save us. The reason it seems to come out of nowhere in Zechariah is simply because his prophecies concern the times from their Babylonian exile through the Millennial Kingdom. God is NOT telling a parent that has just discovered their child speaking lies about God to kill them. No, that parent would have first told their adult child the truth about God and His Word and would have been praying for them to repent. It's only when it becomes obvious that the adult child has hardened their heart against the Lord and won't repent, that the Lord says that the parents in righteous anger, carry out the death sentence passed by God, killing the adult child.
God is not asking us to go out and kill the people who are telling lies about Him in this scripture. What He is doing is showing us what it looks like to truly put Him before everyone and everything in our life, by showing us what it will look like during the Millennial Kingdom. (Rev 2:27 and Rev 19:15) Sadly, today, most parents of adult children, or even of children who aren't yet adults, allow their child to continue in their sin, just hoping and perhaps praying that someone else will somehow, some day, get the truth across to them. Most have no idea they're sinning against God by doing so in numerous ways including idolatry, or that their child is not only sinning by believing in and repeating lies about God, but is also an idolator.
We tend to fool our self by thinking that our child said they knew God and were baptized etc. so they'll go to heaven no matter how badly they mess up. We purposely do not think about the fact that the bible links salvation with obedience and both with knowing His Word well so we can be obedient to Him. In other words, we do the same exact things that the Jew's did and still do. We put our self before God, our children and/or adult children before God, our parents, spouse, friends and many others before God. We put money and our jobs before God and most of all we put our life and wanting things to happen or turn out the way we want them to before Him. We are more terrified of our spouse or child rejecting us for this life, then we are of not having them in Heaven with us for eternity, or knowing they will burn in Hell for eternity. I guess then that it boils down to not having the fear of the Lord, for that is the beginning of knowledge, wisdom and understanding, even though Jesus Himself told us in Luke 12:5 to fear Him. “But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.” (Luke 12:5) Instead of ignoring it, instead of avoiding anyone who might remind us of it, we should be speaking to that adult child and telling them what God says and what He expects. We should love them enough to tell them the Truth, even if it means having them reject us for this life. Why? Because if we obey God and do this, there's a very good hope that He in turn will save that adult child and bring them to repentance so that ultimately, we can enjoy their company for eternity. Instead of refusing to look at this, we should therefore reflect on it and ask the Lord to help us learn from it and to obey Him. Ask Him to give us a heart that fears and loves Him above all. Then we can read the following scriptures without any fear, knowing that both we and our loved ones have been cleansed and are no longer idolaters.
“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9–10)
“For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.” (Ephesians 5:5–6)
“But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”” (Revelation 21:8)
God tells us that when Jesus comes again, He's going to save the remnant of Israel and make them totally His. All thoughts of idolatry and sin will be cleansed from them and they will live to serve Him and only Him for the next 1000 years and on into eternity. Everyone who enters the Millennial Kingdom will be saved, but they will have children and some of those children will not choose Jesus, even with all the evidence right in front of their eyes. Instead, they'll choose Satan; they'll become idolators and will go into hiding for fear of being found out. It's hard to imagine them being fearful as they're so prevalent today and wallow in their sin before everyone, but because Jesus will rule with a "rod of iron" during those years, they will indeed be afraid to be found out!
Often when we see or hear the word "idolatry" we think of someone bowing down to some kind of statue, but that's not what it means at all. When we read Ephesians 5:5 as well as other scriptures, we see that all sin is really idolatry, because in order to sin, we must put something or someone before God. God also calls it spiritual adultery. He wants us to understand how very abhorrent it is to Him and should be to us. It's rejecting Him, the God who created us, gives and sustains our every breath, died for us and offers us eternal life with Him. It's rejecting Him because we cannot love or serve two different masters. Eventually, one or the other will win out and because of our sin nature, we normally don't choose God.
In Zechariah God shows us just how strong He wants our relationship with Him to be, and just what He means by being first in our life, before anyone or anything else. It's a passage that most of us don't care for, and generally just skim over thinking it doesn't concern us since it won't happen for a long time from now, but that's not at all true! It's how God wants us to be right now and how He's always wanted us to be. Let me show you what it says in context from the ESV as you can see the NIV by hovering over the link: “And on that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more. And also I will remove from the land the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness. And if anyone again prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, ‘You shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the LORD.’ And his father and mother who bore him shall pierce him through when he prophesies.” (Zechariah 13:2–3)
Usually, we read that with horror, thinking we could and would never do such a thing! We often feel that this is something "new" that the Lord has thrown in at the last minute, but it's not. He's been saying the same thing since the beginning of time and will continue to, right to the end. It immediately brought to my mind what Jesus warned us about: “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;” (Matthew 10:37) and “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26)
Even putting aside the part about actually killing your own adult child if they become idolatrous and begin to tell lies in God's Name, it's very, very rare in our day to see anyone put God before their spouse, or children, or before themselves. Once again this is another area that the Church has neglected to preach about for a very long time. They probably don't preach it because if they did, more then half of the people in the congregation wouldn't return the next Sunday. What's even more rare these days are people who will discipline their children when they're telling or believing lies about God.
One of the big issues in today's world is about homosexuality. Many adult children have fallen for the lies that say that God doesn't condemn it. Every single person who is allowed to continue to believe that lie, also spreads that lie to many others. That's why in the Old Testament, God told the Israelites that they had to kill those people who did things like this, so that the contamination of the sin wouldn't continue to spread among them. God didn't tell them to kill the adulterers and homosexuals because He hated them, but told them to do so because He loved the Israelites and didn't want to see anymore of them believe those lies about Him. It's because God loves us that He tells us to make Him first in our life, not because He's trying to make our life harder. He knows what's best for us, and while we generally think we know what's best for us, our knowledge is corrupted and usually wrong.
When we look at Zechariah 13:2–3, Matthew 10:37, and Luke 14:26, it should also remind us of Deut 6:5 which tells us “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deut 6:5) Jesus repeats this a number of times too. Note that I underlined the word "all" in that verse. God has never found it acceptable for us to love Him with some of our heart, but wants all of it! I realize that in the Zechariah passage, the part about killing your child comes suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, but God always gives us a chance to repent. His goal is not to condemn us but to save us. The reason it seems to come out of nowhere in Zechariah is simply because his prophecies concern the times from their Babylonian exile through the Millennial Kingdom. God is NOT telling a parent that has just discovered their child speaking lies about God to kill them. No, that parent would have first told their adult child the truth about God and His Word and would have been praying for them to repent. It's only when it becomes obvious that the adult child has hardened their heart against the Lord and won't repent, that the Lord says that the parents in righteous anger, carry out the death sentence passed by God, killing the adult child.
God is not asking us to go out and kill the people who are telling lies about Him in this scripture. What He is doing is showing us what it looks like to truly put Him before everyone and everything in our life, by showing us what it will look like during the Millennial Kingdom. (Rev 2:27 and Rev 19:15) Sadly, today, most parents of adult children, or even of children who aren't yet adults, allow their child to continue in their sin, just hoping and perhaps praying that someone else will somehow, some day, get the truth across to them. Most have no idea they're sinning against God by doing so in numerous ways including idolatry, or that their child is not only sinning by believing in and repeating lies about God, but is also an idolator.
We tend to fool our self by thinking that our child said they knew God and were baptized etc. so they'll go to heaven no matter how badly they mess up. We purposely do not think about the fact that the bible links salvation with obedience and both with knowing His Word well so we can be obedient to Him. In other words, we do the same exact things that the Jew's did and still do. We put our self before God, our children and/or adult children before God, our parents, spouse, friends and many others before God. We put money and our jobs before God and most of all we put our life and wanting things to happen or turn out the way we want them to before Him. We are more terrified of our spouse or child rejecting us for this life, then we are of not having them in Heaven with us for eternity, or knowing they will burn in Hell for eternity. I guess then that it boils down to not having the fear of the Lord, for that is the beginning of knowledge, wisdom and understanding, even though Jesus Himself told us in Luke 12:5 to fear Him. “But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.” (Luke 12:5) Instead of ignoring it, instead of avoiding anyone who might remind us of it, we should be speaking to that adult child and telling them what God says and what He expects. We should love them enough to tell them the Truth, even if it means having them reject us for this life. Why? Because if we obey God and do this, there's a very good hope that He in turn will save that adult child and bring them to repentance so that ultimately, we can enjoy their company for eternity. Instead of refusing to look at this, we should therefore reflect on it and ask the Lord to help us learn from it and to obey Him. Ask Him to give us a heart that fears and loves Him above all. Then we can read the following scriptures without any fear, knowing that both we and our loved ones have been cleansed and are no longer idolaters.
“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9–10)
“For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.” (Ephesians 5:5–6)
“But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”” (Revelation 21:8)
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