MOURN AND GRIEVE

Today’s Reading: Zechariah 11-12

Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).

The Altar area inside Saint Anne’s Church, next to the ruins of the Pool of Bethesda, Jerusalem. The message is that God’s altar is the Cross of Christ. Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:14,15).

GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.

Key Verse: Zechariah 12:10

And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.

God is speaking through Zechariah. The words, “I WILL” make it clear that God is committed to the time when the people of Jerusalem will look on Him (GOD) “whom they have pierced.” This was written 500 years before Jesus was crucified, and while the people looked on Him as He hung on the Cross, it refers to a yet future time when Jesus will come again. They will see Jesus in His resurrected Body, in which the wounds of His crucifixion are visible. Other prophets wrote of the One Who was “wounded for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5-6), and “They pierced My hands and feet” (only in crucifixion, and written centuries before any historical record of this method of execution). Read King David’s prophecy found in Psalm 22:16-18. To read one of the records of the crucifixion of Jesus, read John 19:34-37 and then read John 20:26-31 (prophesied in Zechariah 12:10 and 13:6). Make no mistake about it! Nobody other than Jesus fulfills these prophesies. Dr. Mark Hitchcock, a former attorney and now a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, appeared on the 100 Huntley Street telecast with a message called, “The Shadow of the Cross.” He documents the impossibility of the words of the prophets, including Zechariah, coming to pass as they did by accident (click here for Dr. Hitchcock).

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord God, my heart is so very sad as I think of how You must have grieved “as One mourns for His only Son.” As Jesus is there, one with You at Your throne, You can see the marks on His hands, His feet, and His side. You gave Your “only begotten Son, that whosoever [me included] believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). I pray that the scenes of Your Cross would continuously be before me. I believe “In Him” because You have shown me the One Who is “The Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6a) through the words of the prophets, the Apostles, and Your Holy Spirit’s revelation to me. Thank You! Thank You! Thank You, Jesus!!! Amen!!!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

I first saw the gruesome picture (below) when Dr. Paul Maier was my guest on the 100 Huntley Street telecast. Dr. Maier has a Ph.D. in semitic languages from Harvard and is professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University. The photo shows a nail which was embedded in the ankle bone of a crucified man, according to the archeologists. There must have been a knot in the wood into which it was driven that bent the point of the nail. Of course, the Romans crucified others, including the two thieves who died on the crosses on either side of Jesus. Dr. Maier’s book, Skeleton in God’s Closet, is based on the facts of Jesus’ crucifixion, and then a fictional story evolves when it is claimed that the bones of Jesus have been discovered. This book, in my opinion, is most captivating, stimulating, and well researched. I guarantee that readers will find it very difficult to put it down having begun to read (click here to purchase Skeleton in God’s Closet).

Yours to focus on the most important event in human history, prophesied by the Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and fulfilled by Jesus only!!! (read with me 1 Peter 1:18-25),

David

In the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, this heel bone with a nail pierced through it is on display, giving evidence for the ancient Roman practice of execution on a cross. Oh Jesus, how I grieve over my sins. You suffered crucifixion so that I, and all who believe in You, could be forgiven, saved from eternal death, and given as a free gift, eternal life. The Cross of Jesus was God’s altar where His sacrificial Lamb was sacrificed in human time, but in reality was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8).