July 1, 2023
Passage Read: Zechariah 7-10
Meditation Verses: 10:2-3
Thought
Jesus says almost the exact same thing in His day, looking on the crowds after going through all their towns and villages. He in effect says they are leaderless, though they have very many leaders and teachers. As in this instance, the problem is with the priests and prophets, the leaders. They follow idols, even while they think they follow the Lord. They are confused, not united. They have all kinds of competing ideas and messages, so the people are lost and scattered and confused, like sheep without a shepherd. They people are oppressed by the confusion of authoritative voices. Every leader has his own version of truth, and the people have no way of knowing if it's right. No one truly cares what the Lord wants for His people, they just love to exercise power over the people.
Application
So He tells His disciples to pray for more laborers, new laborers sent from His Father. Then He sends them out, His personally trained disciples. The only ones truly qualified to lead people are those who have humbled themselves before the Lord and walked with Him and in His ways. Those who follow the Lord are qualified to lead His people. In truth, there is only one God and one Jesus and one Spirit and one Bible. There should not and cannot be multiple interpretations of truth, only different levels of acceptance of revelation, and different degrees of mixed-in ideas-from-men. The more any of us pursue the Lord and know Him, the more the extraneous ideas are exposed and shed, the wrong interpretations are corrected, and the pure truth of God becomes clear, bringing all true believers closer in unity of understanding. But only if men are committed to knowing the Lord above all things, rather than holding fast to their own ideas. If I'm not willing to admit when I'm wrong, if I'm not willing for God's Word to correct me, if I don't want to know Jesus above all else, then I'll just be another voice in the noise that confuses the people.