ILLUMINATION
When you walk into a dark room, what’s the first thing you do? You feel for the light switch. You want to illuminate the room.
When Wile E. Coyote thinks of another way to catch the Roadrunner, what appears above his head? He has an illuminating thought.
God has illuminated His Word so we will have a place to find the hope we need, the power to love, and a faith that is deeper than we can imagine.
This past Sunday, Pastor Lawrence delved into the Prophecy genre of the Bible, featuring the Book of Zecharia, which has the characteristics of an apocalypse. The visions resemble those in the Books of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation. Daniel and Ezekiel were born in Israel but wrote their books outside of it while Zecharia was born outside of Israel in Babylon but was in Israel when he wrote his book. In the dark days of discouragement which blanketed the remnant, he saw the glory in all of the rapture and a vision of hope. His book has more messianic prophecies than any of the other minor prophets.
Zecharia illuminated his book with the ten visions he received all within the same night. Pastor Lawrence made reference to one of these visions in chapter 3, which is undoubtedly the greatest single chapter regarding salvation in all of the Old Testament, where he saw Joshua, the high priest, dressed in filthy clothing and standing before God in heaven, being accused by Satan because of his soiled clothing. Christ, however, rebuked Satan, removed Joshua’s dirty clothing, dressing him in clean apparel. Joshua was then challenged to serve God with his whole heart.
In this chapter, we are illuminated with three facts of salvation through this vision: (1) we see the enemy of salvation in Satan (2) we see the person of salvation in our Savior and (3) we see the purpose of salvation.
God illuminates His Word for us to see and understand. While His purposes for us aren’t nefarious like Wile E. Coyote trying to catch the Roadrunner, we should be as tenacious as him in our pursuit of the illumination of God’s Word.