“Salvation and blessing”
Turn ye unto me. —Zechariah 1:3
Read Zechariah 1:1-6
The title of our meditation is actually God’s well-meant desire to us: salvation and blessing. The Lord uses His mouthpiece, Zechariah, who lived after the captivity, to pass on this beautiful mes-sage. The prophet had identified for the nation the cause of their captivity: God’s punishment for their sin. But was it God’s intention to destroy the people of Israel? Not at all. He punished them for their good. Through their captivity, some of the people began to realize that God’s promises are true. Using this remnant, God fulfilled His purposes. Those that returned were exhorted to turn to the Lord and to expect everything from Him alone. Doesn’t history teach us that otherwise it will not go well with mankind? “Be not as your fathers…they did not hear,” said the Lord. As a result, they experienced repeated calamities, and had to continue on in life without God’s blessing. “Turn ye unto me…and I will turn unto you.” Do you think that you have no need of the Lord? Don’t you desire His blessings? Israel thought she had no need of them, and the children of Israel had to learn by bitter experience that the Lord will not be mocked. He still calls you to repent so that you might experience His blessings.
What do the blessings of salvation consist of?