For today, One Year Bible Online links here. Christmas is coming soon. Let us remember what it is truly about, the birth of Jesus Christ. Let us strive to not be caught up in the commercialism which is what this season is about for many in our society today.
A young person who mocks the advice given by his parents, rather than listen to it, will find themselves in a world of hurt. You know the people I am referring to, those who think their parents are completely clueless and boring. As a result they never pay attention to their parents’ warnings. While some parents are overprotective and restrictive of their children’s behaviors, they all have more experience about the dangers in this world than their children.
The psalmist cries out to God for rescue from the wicked and the violent. We cannot expect God to rescue us from the wicked and protect us from the violent if we are also wicked and/or violent. We know that God will help the poor and those whom the wicked and violent persecute. Let us choose to be among the persecuted, not the persecutors.
This passage is more metaphorical than many and understanding it relies on properly identifying the elements of the metaphor. I will be perfectly honest, my experience is that doing that is beyond most people. However, there are a few that are obvious. The woman described in this passage is the Jewish people. The baby she gives birth to is Jesus. The dragon, at least, is easy. The dragon is Satan, or “The Adversary”.
One of the points we learn from this passage is that the enemies of Jews are advancing Satan’s agenda. This passage tells us that those who seek to weaken or destroy Israel are serving Satan. This does not mean that we are called to support Israel, merely that we should not work for her destruction. This passage is a good starting point to sort out many evil organizations long before the rest of their evil becomes apparent. If an organization, or ideology, spreads the idea that Jews are inherently evil, it is a tool of Satan and will, sooner or later, be revealed to be evil in many other ways.
Zechariah starts off by reminding us that if we return to God, He will return to us. It is we who left God, not the other way around. If we accept that our suffering is a result of our sin, God will show us how to move on and leave it behind. We cannot expect God to relieve our suffering if we do not turn from our sins.
The rest of this passage fits in well with today’s passage from Revelation. The prophet describes how God is angry with the nations which He used to punish the sins of the Jewish people. He tells us that when God chose to punish the people of Israel these nations went beyond God’s intentions in bringing harm to them. To me this says that while we may suffer as a result of our actions/sins, that does not excuse those who bring about this suffering. Just because someone deserves to suffer does not mean that we are not sinning when we inflict that suffering on them.