Millennial Period - My Comments.

When we started studying Ezekiel and Zechariah, we noticed that this period was going to be a combining of two facets of God's people, on the one hand the remnant (believing Jews who stayed loyal to God and refused to worship idols) and Christians who are part of God's people through adoption; made available through Jesus' death and resurrection. Throughout our history, Christians and Jews have been at odds with each other. I don't know why this is; If we read the Bible for all its worth like Gordon Fee says in his book, this idea becomes clear. Ezekiel and Zechariah talk about this combined group, but you won't find this idea in their commentaries. They don't remember what Paul said in Romans about Christians being grafted into the Jewish roots. In fact when they talk about what Paul says, they forget Paul was a Jew and knew the Old Testament very well. Everything Paul said is based on the Old Testament; how can they say that what Paul said in Thessalonians is a mystery. Jesus said a student is never greater than His master. Jesus being God, can not be less than Paul. Why do we give Paul's words more weight than Jesus?? The Bible is God's Word, and one of God's attributes is that He can not lie, how come so many different schools of thought for end times?? The problem is, scholars are reading the Bible and cutting it up; as they would any other book. The Bible is not an ordinary book, and as such, it must be handled carefully and with respect. We call God the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. If God can not lie and can not contradict Himself; then how can we change so drastically what He told the prophets in the Old Testament, with what He says in the New Testament?? The core verses on the right hand side of this blog, are there to keep me grounded. Jesus said "I did not come to do away with but to fulfill." Why is it I seem to be the only one who reads God's Word in this fashion??

24th Meeting - Millennial Discussion Zech. Chapter 4

This chapter opens with a vision of a Lampstand with two Olive Trees, one on either side of the Lampstand, with both trees supplying the Lampstand with oil. Why are there two olive trees supplying the one Lampstand. There are several ideas on this one. If you have study Bibles they will tell you what they think, read what I have to say and my explaination and then decide for yourself which one makes more sense. My post of last week dealt with Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus said that salvation starts with the Jews. Keep that in mind. The fact that these trees are in the same close area of eachother means that this also will take place during the Millennium. In Romans Paul says that we are grafted into the roots of the Jews and this is how our adoption into the family of God came into existance. Romans 11:11. The one Olive tree represents the believing Jews who remained true to God through all the mistakes the rest of the Jews made. These are called the Remnant. The other Olive Tree represents the Gentile believers that are also called Christians. The Old Testament believers were chosen by God through their Father Abraham, the New Testament believers are joined together into this family through adoption. We were chosen by God through our belief in the redemption of Jesus Christ through His death and ressurection. The two Olive Trees represent the whole family of God. This is why Paul gave his message to the Jew first and then to the Gentile (non-Jew). We as Christians can never forget that Jesus was and still is a Jew. John 3:16 says that "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son for whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life." This is God's promise to us. The Olive Trees supply oil to the Lampstand, in this way the trees are working for the Lampstand by providing this service. Like the trees, we by doing the works of God to provide a service and by doing so we produce light. Jesus called us to be salt and light. We need to remember that the Jews are the chosen ones of God; but that He also chose us through His adoption, so we could have all the same benefits given to the Jews.

24th Meeting - Millennium Discussion - Zech. 3-5

Chapter 3 opens with a High Priest named Joshua standing before an angel of the Lord and Satan is there to accuse him. This is a great story and reminds us that as Joshua is standing here, we are in a similar situation before God with Satan accusing us of not being clean enough. Joshua is the High Priest and he is wearing dirty garments, that should be clean, and it is his uncleanness that makes him unfit. We are unclean by sin before God and our God demands perfection. We by ourselves are not clean enough to stand before God, no one is. We plus Jesus makes us 100 percent clean in God's eyes. This is why everyone needs Jesus, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God". Joshua had a friend in the angel of the Lord. Listen to the authority used by this angel. If he was an ordinary angel he would have said by God's power I will change your clothing. This angel did not talk in this manner. When ever an Angel of the Lord talks with this authority, He is the preincarnate Christ. Or Jesus before he came to live in the Gospels. This is how Jesus could say to the Pharisees, that before Abraham was "I AM". Jesus is God (He was there at creation of the world) and man, this is how He can intercede for us. Then the angel of the Lord told Joshua that he had to walk in God's Statutes and keep my words than you will be restored. This is the same command Jesus gives to us today. If you follow Jesus, your walk must match your talk and it must match what Jesus says. If not you are not keeping the Words of God. After you make a decision to live for Christ, you have to start taking off your old self and putting on the attributes of God. When you die you will be the closest you can be to the life of Christ and Christ will complete that work when He comes again.
I see I am again at the end of my allotted time and will have to post again. We will pick it up on chapter 4 of Zechariah.

24th Meeting - Millennium Discussion - Zech 2-5

Its going to take a long time to get through this I'm afraid, 2 previous posts to finish chapter 1 and we have four more chapters to go.
Chapter 2 Zechariah opens with a man with a measuring line in his hand. He is measuring Jerusalem to make sure it can accommodate the increase in population of people and animals. Then he goes on to talk about a city without walls. This is very interesting, Jerusalem now has a 40 foot wall that surrounds most of the city and all of the old city. Even our cities are starting to have gated communities in order to keep the people safe. This clearly mentions no walls, this is still future to us and will happen during the Millennium period. If you remember when the children of Israel were wandering in the desert out of Egypt, God went before them as a pillar of fire at night and a swirling cloud during the day. This is the Shekinah glory of God, during the Millennium, Jesus Christ will reign in Jerusalem for 1,000 years. The Shekinah will be the protection, so no need of gated or walled communities. In verse 6, he tells the people to flee the north, and to come back to your homes. This would be the kingdoms of Babylon and Assryia, and would be the kingdoms that deported the Jews in the Old Testament. If Zechariah was speaking of lands known to him, if he is talking of future times than all lands north of Israel that house Jews would be part of this statement. Notice who brings these countries down, the slaves of these kingdoms. What do you know about slaves? They are kept in a constant state of humility to make sure they are afraid to rise up. Only God can give hope to the hopeless. If you don't believe that, look at yourself before you became a believer. You were on the slippery slope that leads to damnation, and you knew you deserved to be there. Then Jesus came into your life and gave you a reason for living, only Jesus can change your misrable situation. That is why God named Him Jesus (He saves us from our sins). That is what the name Jesus means. I see I am again at the end of the post limit and have to stop, I will pick up Chapter 3 of Zechariah on the next post.

24th Meeting - Millennium Discussion con't Zech 1 -5

We are trying to end the first chapter of Zechariah, I left you hanging concerning the craftsmen or blacksmiths that are going to come to destroy the four horns. If you look back at the book of Daniel, his prophecy deals with the rise of each horn or kingdom. It seems that each horn was destroyed by the next horn. Zechariah talks about craftsmen or blacksmiths that will destroy these horns. The horns were anti-God, but the craftsmen and blacksmiths seem to be God-fearing men that God has chosen to destroy the horns. These smiths will rise much the same way as the horns did but unlike the horns, they will be concerned with fulfilling God's plan for them, the way God intended. Not like what we have seen in the past where God's will seems to have come about by dumb luck. With God there is no sense of luck. Everything God does is for a reason and never by chance. Since we can not point out these smiths, means that this also seems to be future to us. We still have the horns even though they are broken, but they are still strong enough to cause God's people pain. This also is mentioned in Daniel chapter 2, the rock is supposed to slide down the mountain and hit the statue at the base and cause the whole statue to be ground to dust. If you are remembering where we are now according to that statue, we are in the period of feet of clay and of iron, but without knowledge of the ten toes. See Daniel chapter 2 is still relevant and we need to remember this. I see I am again at the end of the allotted post and am not done. I am beginning to feel like the old radio dramas when they used to say stay tuned for our next adventure, but in our case the next post.

24th Meeting - Millennial Discussion Con't -Zechariah

I have to get some business out of the way before we start. The Bible that helped me to understand the Old Testament better is "The Reese Chronological Bible" ISBN 0-87123-115-8.
In our study of Millennium Bible references we went from Old to New Testament Bible Verses, and some in my class have found that better knowledge and understanding of the Old Testament will help in understanding the New Testament. This as a teacher has been fun for me to watch. If I can make Bible Readers out of my students, then I feel I have been successful. After studying the passages in Matthew and John, they felt they needed to look at some of the Minor Prophets, I tried to get them to focus on earlier Zechariah is the first Minor Prophet they wanted to study further. We will pick this up now.

Zechariah Chapters one through 5.
Zechariah opens with "In the eighth month of Darius..." I asked them when this was, they looked at me blankly, I showed them my copy of my handout of the Statue mentioned in Daniel Chapter 2, then we looked at the time line and found that two Darius' had ruled the Kingdom of Medo-Persia. We had to figure out which it was, the class came to the conclusion that it had to be during the time of Darius the Meade, because he was ruler of Babylon during the time of the Temple being rebuilt in Jerusalem.
In verse 8, Zechariah had a vision, it was similar to the one John had in Revelation (Rev. 6.), but at the same time different. The angel asked the man standing in the myrtle trees and on a red horse. The visions of heaven that we have does not mention any trees. I believe this to be in Babylon, since this is where Zechariah is at the time of Darius the Meade. Zechariah is different from Revelation chapter 6 the horsemen come out of Heaven and the horses have riders and they are going out into the world. In Zechariah only one horse has a rider and the person says that the horsemen have returned and found the world at peace. In Revelation the horsemen are taking vials with them because of the conflicts in the world. The fact that the world is now at peace should tell us that Zechariah's vision can not be at the same time as Revelation chapter 6.
The whole world is at peace, the world is still waiting for this to take place, so this is still future to Revelation Chapter 6. This will not take place until the Prince of Peace Comes back to dwell on the earth. This points to the Millennial period. Chapter 1 closes with the mention of four horns, that destroyed Israel. These four horns seem to be the four kingdoms Daniel foretold in chapter 2 of his book of prophecy. Some Bible versions talk about craftsmen, or blacksmiths that will come to tear down the four horns. Who are these craftsmen or blacksmiths? I see I am close to the end of my allotted time for each post so I will take this up on the next post; coming shortly, hopefully yet today.