God's Word

Zechariah 1:6 - But did not my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, overtake your ancestors? "Then they repented and said, 'The Lord Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as he determined to do.'"

As usual, the words leapt off the page. All of the five verses previous to this were Zechariah receiving more of this word from the LORD directed to the people of Israel, God's chosen people.

These words, as I have often stated, are for us today too. Just because they are Old Testament scriptures for the Jewish people, they are for us too. The Old Testament, miraculously, by God!s hand, shows us from beginning to end who He is, what He desires and requires...and how to know the Word, who is Jesus. God's Word has been written for us to learn from. And what has happened all throughout the pages will happen again. The Bible is God's Word. His Word is truth.

This is why we need to know what is in there. It's why we need to have it in our hearts and before us at all times, like the frontlets the Jewish priests would wear: “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. (Deuteronomy 6:6-8) The priests literally wore little boxes (phylacteries) that held words of the Torah that His Word would forever be before them.

Oh, that more people today would do that. Not that we wear the words, but consume them, take them in, that they be understood, taken to heart, used as a tool for right living.  Taste and see that the LORD is good, Psalm 34 says.

These words above are saying: yet surely My words...the words spoken by the prophets (and included in the Bible)...God's words through these men...were spoken to admonish, prophecy and teach. They are forever words because the Word of God is timeless.

The people of Israel dismissed the words and as God had told them, the thing He had said happened, just as He said it would. Overtake here means to come upon suddenly. Don't you think if it happened then it will now? If we don't take His word seriously we could see what He has warned us about take place for us too.

I think we are seeing it all around us today. What will tomorrow hold? Just look at the Word to find out... It stands to reason that all God's words will some day be so clear. There are many today who see it happening. There are also many who don't.

It's by God's Spirit that these words are opened to us. This is truly one of the glorious mysteries of God. God's Spirit in someone isn't there to make one greater than another. It's a blessing...one which anyone can have...through a relationship with Christ. That's all it takes!

When we heed the Word of God we are in His protection and provision. Will we be perfectly obedient? I wish I could say yes. But we won't be. We are still human with human frailties. If we were perfect we wouldn't need a Savior. Only He is the perfect, spotless Lamb of God.

God's Word repeatedly pleaded: "Return to Me." Will we as a people, as a nation or world return to Him? Here's His promise: ...if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2Chronicles 7:14)

He will heal the land but He will heal the person too. He will heal the person first. That's the most important thing He'll do. He'll set your feet on solid ground that you will not sink in the time of trouble. He will be the Rock. He will set your future for you that no matter what transpires, you will be assured of a good end. God says He has good plans for us, to prosper us, not to harm us, to give us hope and a future, a future secure in the knowledge that we will live with Him forever in the peace we've always dreamed of, the only true hope for peace...that man cannot give.

Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.