Reading from Friday, December 24

Post #2 for the day.

Reading for December 24
Zechariah 6:1-7:14
Good stuff. It's strange how many similarities there are between this book and Revelation. Chapter 6 opens with another vision of four horsemen riding in chariots. One with white horses, one with black one with red and one with "dappled" or spotted horses. These are identified as the four spirits of God to go throughout the earth. One to the North, one to the East and so on...Interpreting that a bit, this would indicate that God's message is meant for everyone to hear and receive.

Chapter 7 is titled "Justice and Mercy, Not Fasting". We start to see this a lot toward the end of the Old Testament - God would rather a person who practices genuine compassion and who possess a pure heart than someone who obeys rituals without meaning. God calls people out for fasting for the wrong reasons and then tasks us all with this message:

⁹ “This is what the LORD Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. ¹⁰ Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’

It's kinda neat to think about God sort of "amending" the Ten Commandments. Sure you could derive this message from the original commandments, but you could also derive a completely opposite message. It almost feels like God is playing catch-up with his laws...what are your guys thoughts on this?

Regardless, this message is of clear importance to God, and how I am trying to live my life. 

Revelation 15:1-8
This is it. God's final wrath is being administered on the world. Seven angels hold seven bowls which contain seven plagues which will be inflicted on the world. As they prepare to dole it out, the angels sing a song comprised of sections of Psalm and Deuteronomy.

  “Great and marvelous are your deeds,
   Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
   King of the nations.^[a]
4 Who will not fear you, Lord,
   and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
   and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

Not to trivialize this, but singing this song of praise before killing billions feels almost psychotic. Like in the movies when the crazy religious guy is killing people for God. 

Psalm 143:1-12
This almost feels like a prayer that would be uttered in the last days mapped out in Revelation:

¹ LORD, hear my prayer,
   listen to my cry for mercy;
in your faithfulness and righteousness
   come to my relief.
² Do not bring your servant into judgment,
   for no one living is righteous before you.

Proverbs 30:24-28
 ²⁴ “Four things on earth are small,
   yet they are extremely wise:
²⁵ Ants are creatures of little strength,
   yet they store up their food in the summer;
²⁶ hyraxes are creatures of little power,
   yet they make their home in the crags;
²⁷ locusts have no king,
   yet they advance together in ranks;
²⁸ a lizard can be caught with the hand,
   yet it is found in kings’ palaces.

What is a hyrax?

Aww...