The secret of a flourishing life (Psalm 1)
Ps 1:1-6 Part of the year that I worked for a mission reaching out to international students in the UK, I was hosted by an elderly couple who had several grandfather clocks in their house. These cheerfully chimed every fifteen…
What Zechariah 14:9-21 teaches about God and His ways
Zech 14:9-21 This next part of Zechariah 14 has a jarring note for those of us who have grown up with ideas of tolerance and freedom of religion on the one hand and Christian love and forgiveness on the other.…
What Zechariah 14:1-8 teaches about God and His ways
Zech 14:1-8 Few passages baffled commentators quite as much as Zechariah 14 but, as I explained in my previous post, our best approach is to remember that prophecy is not primarily prediction but a form of preaching which may have…
How to read future-related prophecy (Zechariah 14)
Zech 14:1-21 When reading Zechariah 14, Luther famously wrote, ‘Here, in this chapter, I give up. For I am not sure what the prophet is talking about.’[1] Most of us, I suspect, would agree! In fact, commentators differ over how…
Gaining an insight into God’s sovereign plan (Zech 13:7-9)
Zech 13:7-9 The pastor of a large and successful church was invited by a smallish congregation to preach. Wanting to emulate the incredible growth of the invited preacher’s church, his listeners kept asking him for the secret of revival. The…
What choice do we make between loyalties? (Zech 13:2-6)
Zech 13:2-6 I remember reading the testimony of a Jewish man who, on reading the New Testament, came to believe that Jesus was indeed God’s Messiah. Yet for a long time, he struggled with conflicting loyalties. He had relatives who…
The mystery of the pierced one (Zech 12:10-13:1)
Zech 12:10-14; 13:1 The church I grew up in emphasised right doctrine and serious study of God’s Word but was suspicious of emotions. Solid instruction in the Bible is essential, but as my church tried to ensure correct teaching, even…
What image of God do we carry in our heart? (Zech 12:1-9)
Zech 12:1-9 The old Sunday school song, ‘My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing that He cannot do’ is a triumphant little tune and when things are going well, it is easy to confess to…
How does Jesus fulfil Zechariah 11:12-13?
Zech 11:12-13; Matt 27:3-10 Matthew’s Gospel relates how Zechariah’s prophecy was fulfilled in Judas’ betrayal of Jesus when the former was paid thirty shekels of silver (Matt 26;14-15; 27:3-10). However, the episode is confusing for several reasons. Matthew identifies the…
How God teaches us (Zechariah 11)
Zech 11:4-17 Few stories from the Bible are as much loved as the parable of the prodigal son. We tend to focus on the father running to embrace his long-lost son at the end, but the beginning is thought-provoking, too.…