Post by lesbrewer on Jul 10, 2022 20:25:05 GMT
Watching Out for One Another By: Winn Collier
Click here for the Audio Message
Show mercy and compassion to one another.
Zechariah 7:9
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Zechariah 7:4–10
Jose, a seventy-seven-year-old substitute teacher, had been living out of his car for eight years. Every night, the elderly man bunked down in his 1997 Ford Thunderbird LX, carefully monitoring the car battery as it powered his computer for his evening’s work. Instead of using the money earmarked for rent, Jose sent it to numerous family members who needed it more. Early every morning, one of the teacher’s former students saw Jose rummaging through his car boot. “I just felt I needed to do something about it,” the man said. So, he launched a fundraiser and weeks later handed Jose a check to help him pay for a place to live.
Though Scripture repeatedly instructs us to watch out for one another, it’s sometimes difficult to see past our own concerns. The prophet Zechariah rebuked Israel who, rather than worshipping God or serving others, were “feasting for [them]selves” (Zechariah 7:6). Ignoring their shared communal life, they disregarded their neighbours’ need. Zechariah made God’s instructions clear: the people were to “administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another . . . [and] not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor” (vv. 9–10).
While it’s easy to be consumed with our own needs, faithfulness calls us to tend to the needs of others. In the divine economy, there’s plenty for all. And God, in His mercy, chooses to use us to give some of that plenty to others.
Reflect & Pray
Who are some of the people that you’re responsible to care for? Where do you find yourself consumed with your own concerns?
God, I want a wider vision, to see others and watch out for them. I want to care for my neighbours as You do.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Zechariah, whose name means “God remembers,” was both a prophet and a priest. He was among the first of the Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem. In Zechariah 7, a delegation from Bethel in the neighbouring tribe of Benjamin had come to seek his advice (vv. 2–3). Zechariah told them that God remembered their hypocrisy of the previous seventy years (vv. 4–7 ). They’d been going through the motions of worship, including fasting, but their hearts were far from God. So, they were far from meeting the needs of their neighbours, especially the oppressed (vv. 9–10). God also remembered His people and His covenant with them, however. He called them out precisely because they belonged to Him. It would run contrary to His nature to forget them. Thus, the entirety of chapter 8 outlines the ways God will again bless them.
Tim Gustafson
Zechariah 7:4-10
King James Version
4 Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying,
5 Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?
6 And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?
7 Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain?
8 And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying,
9 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother:
10 And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.
Click here for the Audio Message
Show mercy and compassion to one another.
Zechariah 7:9
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Zechariah 7:4–10
Jose, a seventy-seven-year-old substitute teacher, had been living out of his car for eight years. Every night, the elderly man bunked down in his 1997 Ford Thunderbird LX, carefully monitoring the car battery as it powered his computer for his evening’s work. Instead of using the money earmarked for rent, Jose sent it to numerous family members who needed it more. Early every morning, one of the teacher’s former students saw Jose rummaging through his car boot. “I just felt I needed to do something about it,” the man said. So, he launched a fundraiser and weeks later handed Jose a check to help him pay for a place to live.
Though Scripture repeatedly instructs us to watch out for one another, it’s sometimes difficult to see past our own concerns. The prophet Zechariah rebuked Israel who, rather than worshipping God or serving others, were “feasting for [them]selves” (Zechariah 7:6). Ignoring their shared communal life, they disregarded their neighbours’ need. Zechariah made God’s instructions clear: the people were to “administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another . . . [and] not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor” (vv. 9–10).
While it’s easy to be consumed with our own needs, faithfulness calls us to tend to the needs of others. In the divine economy, there’s plenty for all. And God, in His mercy, chooses to use us to give some of that plenty to others.
Reflect & Pray
Who are some of the people that you’re responsible to care for? Where do you find yourself consumed with your own concerns?
God, I want a wider vision, to see others and watch out for them. I want to care for my neighbours as You do.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Zechariah, whose name means “God remembers,” was both a prophet and a priest. He was among the first of the Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem. In Zechariah 7, a delegation from Bethel in the neighbouring tribe of Benjamin had come to seek his advice (vv. 2–3). Zechariah told them that God remembered their hypocrisy of the previous seventy years (vv. 4–7 ). They’d been going through the motions of worship, including fasting, but their hearts were far from God. So, they were far from meeting the needs of their neighbours, especially the oppressed (vv. 9–10). God also remembered His people and His covenant with them, however. He called them out precisely because they belonged to Him. It would run contrary to His nature to forget them. Thus, the entirety of chapter 8 outlines the ways God will again bless them.
Tim Gustafson
Zechariah 7:4-10
King James Version
4 Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying,
5 Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?
6 And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?
7 Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain?
8 And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying,
9 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother:
10 And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.
