Join the Crowd! Shout! And Rejoice!

The Minor Prophets Speak to Today

Be Silent Before The Lord

For He Is Springing Into Action

Zechariah 2:10-13 NLT

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The two headings on this post pose a striking contrast yet scholars view them as part of the same paragraph.

Shout & Rejoice!

At sports matches, especially football and basketball, we demonstrate that we know how to shout. And when our team wins we know how to rejoice. These two actions pump the old adrenaline and create more shouting and rejoicing. In international football (known as soccer in the U.S.), the shouting and rejoicing can send people into rioting, and other dangerous extremes. Yes, in professional American football the same phenomenon beaks out as well.

Hands in the air wave from side to side like a gigantic ocean. Gesticulating. Pumping fists. Jumping into the air. Even a little powwow dance. These things are not uncommon. The surge and pull of the crowd's roar becomes so deafening people have to shout till hoarse to carry on any semblance of a conversation.

Shout and rejoice!

I'm not very good at that. At a sports event, I might well be the quietest guy there.

But ---

Shout and Rejoice, O People of God!

For the Lord has already come to live among you! Many nations (Here we in English might say people of many nationalities though nations has often been the case across the years, even if discounting forced "conversions".) have already joined themselves to the Lord!

Notice here it says, "to the Lord" not to the support of Israel.

And, to the chagrin of the Jewish nation, we too are called God's people! In fact we are even called the New Israel, such is the nature of God's love for us his adopted children.

All of this, according to God speaking through Zechariah, proves that the Lord is with us and that God himself sent the Lord Jesus to Israel. How sad that the old Israel rejects this sign and rejects the nations that have joined themselves to God. How sad that the geopolitical nation of Israel stands against the idea that these adopted believers have a right to citizenship, privilege, and status as brothers and sisters.

The Holy Land

We like to call the land of ancient Israel the Holy Land.

But according to this passage, the land will be called that only after the Lord comes to live among the people and the nations join themselves to the Lord (not the land).

This is future not present because the modern Israelites have not yet accepted Christ Jesus and have not yet returned to the Lord. He has not, and will not until that time, again choose Jerusalem as his city. God does not, and for centuries has not, called the present Jerusalem his.

Be Silent Before The Lord, All Humanity

Why?!

Because the Lord God in Heaven is springing into action from his holy dwelling!

Christian, do you believe this? Then, if you comprehend what it means for God himself to spring into action from heaven to intervene in the earth, the breaking out of his power will silence you. In fact the very announcement that God is imminently springing into action should grab our undivided attention and silence us.

(And when his action breaks out and makes Judah again a Holy Land and home of the New Jerusalem, ALL HUMANITY, believers and those who oppose God, will for a season fall into silence before him.)

So Be It! 

Photo Credits:

and the crowd goes wild by Al Case, some rights reserved @flickr.com 
Storm Clouds Gathering by Zooey, some rights reserved @flickr.com