Dec 24, 2022
ZECHARIAH 6-7:
There were so many correspondences to
Revelation in the three chapters we read yesterday in Zechariah
that I cannot even take time to list them. I single out this one
from chapter 3 as especially interesting:
Zec.
3:8 NLT “Listen to me, O [Joshua//Jeshua] the high priest, and all
you other priests. You are symbols of things to come. Soon I am
going to bring my servant, the
Branch.
9 Now look at the jewel I have set
before Jeshua, a single stone with seven
facets. I will
engrave an inscription on it, says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, and
I will remove the sins of this land in a single day.
Joshua was called the ‘Branch’, or ‘Rod’, or ‘Shoot’— and in this age we can clearly see that both he and Zerubbabel are pictures of the Messiah. The Branch is also referred to in Jeremiah and Isaiah.
Secondly, it is interesting that the stone has seven ‘facets’. The word for facets in Hebrew is literally ‘eyes’. And the Lamb in Revelation has seven eyes.
This insight given to Zerubbabel in chapter 4 is a principle for all of us to lay hold of:
Zec. 4:6 NLT It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.
This is one of Gale’s favorite verses. We have claimed this repeatedly in our lives:
Zec. 4:10 NLT Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin…”
ISAIAH 61:
Yesterday in chapter 60, we heard many
wonderful promises about the New Jerusalem— especially verses 1-3
and 19-21.
REVELATION 15:
Note
that in chapter 14 the victory over Babylon is proclaimed as
already won. God’s holy people are again warned against receiving
the mark of the beast. At the end of the chapter are the two
harvests, the wheat harvest of the righteous, and the grape harvest
of those who will enter into eternal punishment. These are visions
that give an overview, in a similar vein as the vision in chapter
12.