#DailyDevotion Jesus is Zion Whom God’s Israel Gathers Around
January 31st
Read Zech 10:1—11:3
Zec 10:3-4 “My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the LORD of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like his majestic steed in battle. (4) From him shall come the cornerstone, from him the tent peg, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler–all of them together… 6 “I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the LORD their God and I will answer them. (7) Then Ephraim shall become like a mighty warrior, and their hearts shall be glad as with wine. Their children shall see it and be glad; their hearts shall rejoice in the LORD. (8) “I will whistle for them and gather them in, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as many as they were before. (9) Though I scattered them among the nations, yet in far countries they shall remember me, and with their children they shall live and return.
A constant theme throughout the Old Testament prophets and certainly misunderstood by Zionist, Jews and millennialist Christians, is the scattering of the Israelites and the Jews to the four corners of the earth and the ingathering of the people of Israel. And while there has been in the last century Jews returning to Canaan that is not the ingathering fulfilled in Jesus.
From Judah comes the cornerstone, the tent peg, the battle bow and every ruler. That cornerstone the scriptures testify is Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God. Mat 21:42-45 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? (43) Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. (44) And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” (45) When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them.
Peter and John testify, Act 4:11 “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. (12) And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Paul confirms it in his writings, Eph 2:19 “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, (20) built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, (21) in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. (22) In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
We see the gathering of Israel on the day of Pentecost. It is around and in the true Zion, Jesus Christ and his message of repentance and forgiveness. It is the gathering around Jesus the Messiah who forms them into his true temple not made with hands the prophets speak as told by Paul in Ephesians.
Lord Jesus Christ, gather your holy people into the New Jerusalem, the Church which is your body and through faith in you, make us living stones in that temple. Amen.