June 30, 2023
Passage Read: Zechariah 3-6
Meditation Verse: 6:15
Thought
The people of Judah are building a temple right now, but Zechariah is prophesying about the Branch who will be a priest and king, like Melchizedek and in the same place as Melchizedek! When the Branch comes, He too will build a temple, but Zerubbabel will finish this current temple, so the Branch must build a different temple, another new temple. And people who are far away will help build that temple? Are the far away people foreigners or still (or again) exiled Jews? The scary thing is that this prophecy depends on the current people's diligent obedience. Did they obey? Did they diligently obey? They completed the temple, the Lord brought blessing on the land in response to their obedience. Jesus, the Branch, came, and declared His body to be a temple that would be and was destroyed and raised up again. Is that the temple in view here? Or is it another?
Application
Obedience was key to the fulfilling of this prophecy, as it was to God's promise to Joshua, the high priest. God cannot reward disobedience, but if He really depended on our obedience, He could never fulfill a single promise! He must change us from slaves to sin into slaves to righteousness, so that He can fulfill His promises without rewarding evil. That's the only hope we have of seeing God's promises fulfilled! So all of us who have believed in Christ are not free to go on living however we wish, but are obligated to walk in obedience to Christ. God made that possible so that He could fulfill His promises, which depend on our obedience! It is because of His salvation that I can and must walk in obedience to His Word, and because of that, I can and do have hope of seeing and enjoying His promises fulfilled.