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The Spirit Who Groans With Us and the God Who Works All Things for Good

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A Meditation on Romans 8:26–28 There are seasons in the Christian life when words fail us. Not merely the polished words of public prayer, not even the quiet words we once offered so easily in private. There comes a deeper silence—an aching, wordless place where the heart is so pressed that language itself seems to abandon us. We sit, or we kneel, or we simply lie still, and the only sound that rises is a sigh too heavy for syllables. In those moments the believer often feels most alone, most inadequate, most afraid that heaven itself has grown distant. Yet it is precisely into that silence that the Apostle Paul speaks one of the most comforting and profound truths in all of Scripture. “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the ...
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Day 7: They Shall Look upon Me Whom They Have Pierced – The Day of the Lord

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  Zechariah 12–14 The final oracle of Zechariah lifts our eyes to the climactic Day of the Lord. Chapter 12 opens with the nations gathered against Jerusalem. The Lord makes Jerusalem a cup of trembling and a burdensome stone (12:2–3). In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them (12:8). Then comes one of the most profound Messianic prophecies in all of Scripture: “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” (12:10). The One who is pierced is the Lord Himself speaking in the first person. The New Testament applies this directly to the crucified Christ (John 19:37; Revelation 1:7). A fountain will be opened to the house of David for sin and for uncleanness (13:1). The shepherd will be smitten and th...
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Location: Plymouth, IN 46563, USA
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Day 6: The Crowning of the Priest-King and the Coming Humble King

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Zechariah 6:9–15 & 9:9–10 After the eight visions, the Lord gives Zechariah a symbolic act. He is to take silver and gold from certain returned exiles, make crowns, and set them on the head of Joshua the high priest (6:11). Then the prophetic word is spoken: “Behold the man whose name is The Branch; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord: Even he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both” (6:12–13). Here the two offices that had been carefully separated in Israel—king and priest—are united in one Person, the Branch. Only Jesus Christ fulfills this prophecy. He is the King who sits on David’s throne, and He is the great High Priest who ever lives to make intercession. The counsel of peace is between the two offices because they meet perfectly in Him. Later, in the first major oracle of t...
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Location: Plymouth, IN 46563, USA
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Day 5: The Flying Scroll and the Woman in the Ephah – Judgment on Sin

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  Zechariah 5 The sixth and seventh visions shift the tone from comfort to cleansing judgment. Zechariah first sees a flying scroll, twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide—the exact dimensions of the holy place in the tabernacle and the porch of Solomon’s temple (5:1–2). This is the curse that goes forth over the face of the whole earth. On one side it is written against every thief; on the other against every one who swears falsely by the Lord’s name. The scroll enters the house of the sinner and consumes it, with the timber and the stones (5:3–4). God’s Word is not only a word of comfort; it is a word of judgment. The same holy standard that once rested in the sanctuary now flies forth as a curse against unrepentant sin. Theft and false swearing—sins against both neighbor and God—are singled out, yet they represent the whole of covenant-breaking wickedness. The seventh vision is even more vivid. An ephah (a large measuring basket) appears, and a woman sits in the midst of it. The...
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Location: Plymouth, IN 46563, USA
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Day 4: Not by Might, nor by Power, but by My Spirit

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Zechariah 4 The fifth vision is among the most familiar and most needed in the entire book. Zechariah sees a golden candlestick (lampstand) with a bowl on top and seven lamps, and beside it two olive trees pouring oil into the bowl (4:2–3). When the prophet asks the meaning, the angel answers with the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (4:6). The great mountain of opposition before Zerubbabel will become a plain. He will bring forth the headstone of the temple with shoutings of “Grace, grace unto it” (4:7). The hands of Zerubbabel that laid the foundation will also finish it (4:9). The two olive trees are “the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth” (4:14)—almost certainly representing the dual offices of king (Zerubbabel) and priest (Joshua), both ultimately fulfilled in the one Person of Jesus Christ, who is both King and Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. This vision is pure gold f...
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Location: Plymouth, IN 46563, USA
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