GOD WILL STRIKE HIS REMNANT PEOPLE
Zec 8:2 So says Jehovah of Hosts: I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury.
Zion lies at the very heart of Jerusalem. One could say that Zion is the heart beat of Jerusalem. There is Israel, and then there is Judah, then Jerusalem and finally, at the heart of it all, Zion. I would like to argue that Zion represents God’s Remnant people. One could say that Israel is all of Christendom, everything and everyone that goes by the name of Christ. This could be countries or large denominations like Catholicism or the Orthodox Church, or just the man in the street, who, if asked , would reply that he is a “Christian,” despite his lifestyle. Judah would represent the majority of Evangelicalism. Jerusalem would represent God’s Remnant people.
Zec 8:6 So says Jehovah of Hosts: If it is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, will it also be marvelous in My eyes, says Jehovah of Hosts?
God has begun to pour out His Spirit on His Remnant people. The rhetorical question asked in Zec 8:6 is saying, ” Is there anything too difficult for me?” Even although His people have come through a serious drought and famine, God promises His people that…….”I have returned to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a City of Truth, and the mountain of Jehovah of Hosts, the Holy Mountain. (Zec 8:4) This will result in God’s people coming together for surely His remnant people are His temple? So God will be in Zion and His gathered people, His Remnant people will be as one, will be His Temple and God will dwell in the midst of them.At that time the Lord says….
Zec 10:1 “Ask rain from Jehovah in the time of the latter rain. Jehovah shall make storm clouds, and He gives them showers of rain, grass to everyone in the field.” The Remnant people will be drenched in the Presence of God. God Himself will be their “exceeding great reward.” (Gen 15:1) This is the people that hunger and thirst for His presence. Who know Him. Who know that a relationship with Him is the pearl of great price. Who, although there may be secondary blessings, are only interested in the Giver not the gift. Who genuinely seek first “The Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Who know from experience that “A day in your courts is better than a thousand.” Who would “rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God,” than to “dwell in the tents of the wicked.” This Remnant people know “How lovely is your tabernacle, oh Lord of Hosts.” Their ” soul longs , yes even faints for the courts,” of their Lord. Their hearts and all that they are as a people ” cry out for the living God.”
As the Lord pours our His Spirit on the remnant, then the religious institutions and the world in general will begin to turn on them. Directly proportionate to God’s Spirit in His people will be the level of hatred and animosity towards them. The majority of the hatred will come from what passes as the church and evangelicalism. The remnant’s relationship with God, which is their very life, will highlight to the religious people that they are just that, religious. The religious people will have a better relationship with the world because they can relate to the people of the world. The world’s goals, humanism, materialism, capitalism, socialism and any other ism’s are all shared by the religious people and what passes for the “Church.” That is why is very difficult to tell today’s church apart from the world, whether it is materialism or divorce or any other marker, they are basically the same. The remnant wont even have to say anything, just their very presence will be an irritant to the religious people. The religious people know that they do not “know,” Jesus in the way that the remnant speak about and it makes them angry. At some point in the relatively near future, when humanism and tolerance and political correctness threaten the established church, then they will “give up,” the remnant in order to preserve themselves. Along with giving up the remnant, they will give up essential truths of Scripture in order to preserve themselves. At the very end, they will turn the remnant over to the authorities, because they know them better than anyone. This will be reminiscent of the Pharisees turning Jesus over to the Romans. Yet, we, the remnant, must not fear for Scripture tells us that the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Zec 2:5 And I, says Jehovah, will be to her a wall of fire all around, and will be the glory in her midst.
Zec 12:8 In that day Jehovah shall defend around the people of Jerusalem. And it will be, he who is feeble among them at that day shall be like David; and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of Jehovah before them.
Zec 12:10 And I will pour on the house of David, and on the people of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of prayers.
This Spirit of Grace will lead to conviction and repentance and the Spirit of supplication will lead to an attitude of repentance and prayer for God’s mercy. We are all ready seeing this Spirit on God’s remnant people from all over the world. It stands in stark contrast to a blind “Church,’ who have no idea of their own true state or the state of the world or the lateness of the hour. So we begin to see identifying characteristics of the remnant people and the religious people. We see in Eze 9:4 that when God’s judgement begins, the remnant are identified in this way “And Jehovah said to him, Go through in the midst of the city, in the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men who are groaning and are mourning because of all the abominations that are done in her midst. “
It is interesting that when the Spirit of grace and supplication is poured out on the remnant people and this leads to repentance and a cry for God’s mercy, the Scriptures then say …”And they shall look on Me whom they have pierced.” This is truly the mark of the remnant people. They look to Calvary, they look to Jesus. They celebrate the victory of light over darkness. They know that when “the one who was pierced,” says “It is finished,” that the power of darkness , sin, hell and death was shattered forever. The remnant know that just as the world hated their Lord and crucified Him, they too will be hated and killed all the day long for His names sake. And just as He arose, they know that they too will arise. As they draw nearer to “the one who was pierced,” and He pours out His Spirit on them and they become more like Him, then the same forces that came against their Jesus, hell and all its fury, will come against them. They know that “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it abides alone, but if it dies it brings forth much fruit.
Just as the Lord came to die so that He may bring forth life in the resurrection, so to with God’s remnant people. The people of the last day will be a martyred people, a genuine witness in the earth. Yet God will never abandon His people, especially at a time of extreme persecution, a time so severe that we have not seen the like before, a time that God Himself shortens for the elects sake. In that time we will be immersed in a fountain of grace. Zec 13:1 In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the people of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. This is the power of Calvary realized. A fountain was opened that day, sin was defeated and our place before the throne of Grace was established. This is the power of the remnant people. At Calvary, the Shepherd was stuck, and just as the Father struck the Shepherd, Jesus, He will also strike His remnant.
Zec 13:7 Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man who is My companion, says Jehovah of Hosts; strike the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. And I will turn My hand on the little ones.
Zec 13:8 And it shall be in all the land, says Jehovah, two parts in it shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left in it.
Zec 13:9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried. They shall call on My name, and I will answer them; I will say, It is My people; and they shall say, Jehovah is my God.
Beloved, we are His “little ones.” There is a fire coming, such as has not been seen before. We shall be tried and tested in the furnace of affliction and persecution as all of Hell’s fury is unleashed in these, the last days. Yet, we must not be afraid, this is a glorious vision of God’s purpose for us here on this earth and He will never leave us nor forsake us. Despite the greatest trials ever known, the Spirit of the Lord will lay so heavy upon His people, so drenched will they be in the dew of His presence that if they were to burn us, it would be hard to light that fire. The glories of heaven opened up for past saints even as flames licked around them they sang praises to the Almighty God. Stephen, as cruel stones pummeled him was caught up in a heavenly vision and full of love for the stone throwers. We are indeed safe in the arms of our God who told us that His grace is sufficient. He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us and in the darkest of trials comes the greatest light. Yes, come what may, we belong to a God who is well able to hold us tight in the palm of His hand. For the time is coming brothers and sisters for us to “gird up our loins,” and stand in boldness and confidence in the God that we serve. If we have to pass through the fire, then the same God that was with the Hebrew children will be with us. We shall find that in the lowest valley the highest mountain top can be experienced because the mountains bow down at His presence. Even in the darkest night, that darkness will be light to our God and oh how bright that light appears to them who depend upon their God
Spurgeon writes………..
Divine love is rendered conspicuous when it shines in the midst of judgments. Fair is that lone star which smiles through the rifts of the thunder clouds; bright is the oasis which blooms in the wilderness of sand; so fair and so bright is love in the midst of wrath. When the Israelites provoked the Most High by their continued idolatry, he punished them by withholding both dew and rain, so that their land was visited by a sore famine; but while he did this, he took care that his own chosen ones should be secure. If all other brooks are dry, yet shall there be one reserved for Elijah; and when that fails, God shall still preserve for him a place of sustenance; nay, not only so, the Lord had not simply one “Elijah,” but he had a remnant according to the election of grace, who were hidden by fifties in a cave, and though the whole land was subject to famine, yet these fifties in the cave were fed, and fed from Ahab’s table too by His faithful, God-fearing steward, Obadiah. Let us from this draw the inference, that come what may, God’s people are safe. Let convulsions shake the solid earth, let the skies themselves be rent in twain, yet amid the wreck of worlds the believer shall be as secure as in the calmest hour of rest. If God cannot save his people under heaven, he will save them in heaven. If the world becomes too hot to hold them, then heaven shall be the place of their reception and their safety. Be ye then confident, when ye hear of wars, and rumours of wars. Let no agitation distress you, but be quiet from fear of evil. Whatsoever cometh upon the earth, you, beneath the broad wings of Jehovah, shall be secure. Stay yourself upon his promise; rest in his faithfulness, and bid defiance to the blackest future, for there is nothing in it direful for you. Your sole concern should be to show forth to the world the blessedness of hearkening to the voice of wisdom.