5 November 2015

Scriptures:

• John 2
• Zechariah 9
• 2 Kings 5
• Psalm 96

Observations:

First, in the John passage, we see Jesus' first miracle, the turning of water to wine at a wedding in Cana. Shortly thereafter, as Passover, we see him becoming enraged at the various moneychangers and offering-sellers doing their work within the temple court. When asked the reason for doing this, he replied "Destroy this temple and I will raise it in three days," referring to himself, though the Jews thought he was referring to the building. If I remember my chronology correctly, this, then, places much of what happens in John during the later years of Christ's ministry. I may be wrong, though.

In Zechariah, the Lord prophesies the fall of Tyre and Sidon and the fall of the Philistine city-states, Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Ekron. He then proclaims how he will rule over his people and bring about peace before waging war on those not his people. (The passage states Ephraim & Judah vs Greece, but I'm interpreting this in an end-times context and see the correlation thereof to Revelation) Lastly, we see some kind of final paradise imagery for God's people.

In 2 Kings, we see the healing of Naaman, General of Syria, of his leprosy by Elisha. The manner by which the healing was conducted, though, left no doubt as to the reality of God and so, he went on his way proclaiming that the God of Israel is the one, true god. He had offered a reward or payment, but Elisha had refused. His servant, though, ran after Naaman and accepted the reward on Elisha's behalf and was struck down with Naaman's leprosy. If we ever doubted that God worked for his own glory, we need not look further than this passage.

The psalm today is another one of David. In this one, he is pleading with the Lord, asking for mercy, pleading for his death to be postponed for the sole reason that he may give praise to God a little while longer. He ends with confidence, speaking to his mockers, proclaiming that the Lord has indeed heard him.

Application:

I found it interesting to see a glimpse of end times prophecy in  what is not usually considered a major end times prophecy book, like Daniel or Revelation. What really stood out, though, is the healing of Naaman. The command given was something absurdly simple and, to Naaman, made no sense - after all, to his mind, there were prettier rivers back home. He was expecting some mumbo-jumbo and, presto, he would be healed. At the insistence of his servants, he followed Eelisha's direction and was healed. To him, this left no doubt as to the identity of God and through this story, I can see how God works to bring about faith in nonbelievers and glory to himself.

In this case, he started small, by the word of a servant girl that addressed his needs. He then acted through the seemingly absurd, something that would make no sense to the individual's reasoning. Thirdly, he followed through on this small direction that didn't make any practical sense - that couldn't be attributed to anything else.

God met a need in an absurd way. He still does this, though it's sometimes easier to rationalise what happened, especially in our areligious, aspiritual culture (though it is becoming more spiritual, but everything is so tangled, it's really easy to miss God for the chakra smoothie). 

Maybe this is still more observation, but the best way to apply this in my life is to take time to be more aware of God, to listen for the things he's telling me to do instead of just doing and hoping God will cover the rest. I know I'm very guilty of just doing Godly things and hoping that's what God had in mind for me to do instead of taking time to seek God and listen for his word.

Prayer:

Thank you, Lord, for this revelation and understanding.