July 2, 2023
Passage Read: Zechariah 11-14
Meditation Verse: 13:9
Thought
Two-thirds of the people will be destroyed, but a third will survive. Yet this third will be tested by fire to be refined, ultimately proving faithful to the Lord and saved by Him. The Lord has been betrayed again and again by faithless worshipers. Generation after generation have declared their loyalty only to wander after other gods or abandon all gods and go their own way. Of course God desires to test all who claim to believe and trust Him. Will they believe and obey or only claim faith but live for themselves? If they cling to the Lord, will they continue to do so when things get rough, when things get hard, when things get ugly because of Him? Or will they look somewhere else for a truth to cling to? Will they be so bold as to alter the meaning of His commands so that following Him is not so hard, not so costly, so that the fires die down?
Application
God has been betrayed too often by people who claim to love and honor Him. So now all who set themselves to love and honor Him must be tested by fire. It makes sense. God will sort before our very eyes those who claim faith and those who truly believe. It will not be so hard to discern for anyone who has eyes to see. Unbelievers looking in at us probably see more clearly than we on the inside do. We're surrounded by so many lies, so many distortions that we can't see clearly. But those whom God loves, those whom He accepts as sons will be tested, will be tried, and will come forth as pure gold. The rest? They'll be cast out, destroyed. So it is a backward kind of comfort to be tested and tried by fire, to see what God calls His people to, to see the impossibility, and yet to strive to obey and honor the Lord and His Word, even when all those around us, people who claim to believe, cast off all restraint and justify themselves over God. It is a backward kind of assurance to hold fast to the Word of the Lord, when all the world celebrates complete depravity, total rebellion against God's Word. Only let me welcome the testing and prove faithful.