Today the Old Testament passage was Zechariah 1. I remember about a month ago when we came to this passage in Sunday school and how thoroughly it confused us.
The details confused us, that is. Who is the man? Is there more than one man? Who are the ones "whom Yahweh has sent to patrol the earth"? What?!?
Then the New Testament section for today is almost as crazy -- Revelation 12. A woman standing on the moon, a dragon trying to eat her baby son -- what is going on?
Psalm 140 pulls me back to see the big picture, especially in passages such as these where I do not understand the details.
In Zechariah 1, God pronounces judgment upon those who have excessively hurt His people, and He promises His love to His people. "Thus says Yahweh of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion... Yahweh will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem." (Zech 1:13, 17)
In Revelation 12, there is war as the accuser is defeated by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of [the brothers'] testimony. God again preserves His people from their foes and His enemy is conquered.
More than conquerors we are. Let me love not my life even unto death.
Psalm 140 asks God for exactly these things -- that the enemies of the righteous (and thus, of God) perish (and the language is vivid and violent), and that God deliver His people, hearing their pleas for mercy so that they may dwell in His presence.
[12.21.08]
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