Festival of St. Luke, the Evangelist
Posted on October 18, 2021 by under
Scripture: Zechariah 1:1-16 (NKJV)
1:1 In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, 2 “The Lord has been very angry with your fathers. 3 Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Return to Me,” says the Lord of hosts, “and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts. 4 “Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets preached, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds.” ’ But they did not hear nor heed Me,” says the Lord.
5 “Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
6 Yet surely My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? “So they returned and said:
‘Just as the Lord of hosts determined to do to us, according to our ways and according to our deeds, so He has dealt with us.’”’”
7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet: 8 I saw by night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse, and it stood among the myrtle trees in the hollow; and behind him were horses: red, sorrel, and white. 9 Then I said, “My lord, what are these?” So the angel who talked with me said to me, “I will show you what they are.”
10 And the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, “These are the ones whom the Lord has sent to walk to and fro throughout the earth.”
11 So they answered the Angel of the Lord, who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, “We have walked to and fro throughout the earth, and behold, all the earth is resting quietly.”
12 Then the Angel of the Lord answered and said, “O Lord of hosts, how long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which You were angry these seventy years?”
13 And the Lord answered the angel who talked to me, with good and comforting words. 14 So the angel who spoke with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts:
“I am zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great zeal.
15 I am exceedingly angry with the nations at ease; For I was a little angry, and they helped—but with evil intent.”
16 ‘Therefore thus says the Lord:
“I am returning to Jerusalem with mercy; My house shall be built in it,” says the Lord of hosts, “And a surveyor’s line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.”’”
Devotion
Satan often tempts the saints of the Church to look back at the unfaithfulness of former generations, or at the wickedness of those presently around us, and think that we are better than they are because of our faith. We ought not think we are better or wiser. We are fortunate. The Lord has been calling and teaching people throughout all the ages, and we should simply give thanks for His mercy that has found us and made us able to believe and be saved from our unrighteousness.
Our Lord’s desire to save His people through the Words of Moses and the Prophets, as well as His sadness and anger when Jerusalem and the Jews rejected Christ, should give us humble pause, not a vain sense of superiority. All men are sinful and capable of such blindness. And Satan never stops attacking us through the world around us and by our own flesh. As our heart and mind are made faithful in Christ Jesus, our will should also be toward helping the unfaithful hear and repent. We pray that His will be done, which means we pray that He use us to carry out that gracious, benevolent will toward others through us as well!
Prayer: O almighty God, who hast built Thy Church upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the Head Cornerstone, grant us to be joined together in unity of spirit by their doctrine that we may be made a holy temple acceptable unto Thee; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
