Look and Live

Today’s Passage –Zechariah 10 – 14 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – click here to view the text from the Blue Letter Bible website)

(Second Milers also read – Psalms 11 – 15; Proverbs 3)

Scripture Memory for July – Matthew 5:1 – 16

Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – Proverbs 27:15

Read – “Touchdown!” from Zechariah 14

“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” – (Zechariah 12:10)

“In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.” – (Zechariah 13:1)

“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:” – (Romans 11:25-26)

“And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.” – (Numbers 21:8)

The Bible makes it very clear in the Book of Romans that Israel, as a nation, is right now blind to the Truth of the gospel. They just can’t see that Jesus was and is their Messiah. This does not mean that there will not be individual Jews that will trust Christ as Saviour, but as a whole they have been blinded because they rejected Christ when He first came to them:

“He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” – (John 1:11)

There is coming a day, however, when the blindness of Israel will be taken away, and they will be able to recognize “me whom they have pieced”.  The verse goes on to say that they will mourn, “as one mourneth for his only son”. In chapter Zechariah 13:1, the Scripture goes on to say, “in that day there shall be a fountain opened … for sin and for uncleanness”. The day referred to in this verse is the same day that Israel looks upon and mourns for the One whom they pierced. Cleansing for sin only comes after we recognize our sin, and our rejection of the Saviour.

This is the exact same process that God uses to cleanse us from our sins today. God opens our eyes so that we can see the one whom we have pierced, because it is our sin that put Him on that cross. When we see our sinful condition, and realize that Jesus took all of that sin upon Him on the cross, our eyes begin to open; and when our eyes open, so does that fountain of cleansing that removes the stain of our sin from us. What an awesome God we serve!

“There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins; and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.”