December 16, 2018 – Looking Backward and Forward from Zechariah – Snatched from the Fire

Snatched from the Fire

Deuteronomy 30:11-20 - New International Version (NIV)

¹¹ Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. ¹² It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” ¹³ Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” ¹⁴ No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

¹⁵ See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. ¹⁶ For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

¹⁷ But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, ¹⁸ I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

¹⁹ This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live ²⁰ and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

What is “not too difficult for you or beyond your reach” (verse 11)?

Why won’t the Israelite people need to ask “who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it” (verse 12)?

Why won’t the Israelite people need to ask “who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it” (verse 13)?

Where is the word they need to obey (verse 14)?

In your opinion, what does Moses mean when he says, “I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction” (verse 15)?

When will the people “live and increase” (verse 16)?

What does Moses warn the Israelite people will happen if “your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them” (verses 17 and 18)?

Who does Moses call to witness that he had set before the people “life and death, blessings and curses” (verse 19)?

In your opinion, what do the people have to do to “choose life” (verse 19)?

What is their life (verse 20)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

Zechariah 3:1-10 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. ² The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”

³ Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. ⁴ The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.”

Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”

⁵ Then I said, “Put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord stood by.

⁶ The angel of the Lord gave this charge to Joshua: ⁷ “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘If you will walk in obedience to me and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.

⁸ “‘Listen, High Priest Joshua, you and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. ⁹ See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.

¹⁰ “‘In that day each of you will invite your neighbor to sit under your vine and fig tree,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”

Who did Zechariah see standing at the right side of Joshua as Joshua stood before the angel of the Lord (verse 1)?

In your opinion, what does it mean that Joshua was “a burning stick shatched from the fire” (verse 2)?

How was Joshua dressed “as he stood before the angel” (verse 3)?

What did the angel tell “those who were standing before him” (verse 4)?

What had the angel taken away (verse 4)?

Who said “put a clean turban on his head” (verse 5)?

Who gave the charge to Joshua (verse 6)?

What does Joshua have to do to “govern my house and have charge of my courts” (verse 7)?

In your opinion, what does it mean that High Priest Joshua and his associates are “symbolic of things to come” (verse 8)?

Who is the Lord going to bring (verse 8)?

What will the Lord do in a “single day” (verse 9)?

Who will each one invite “to sit under your vine and fig tree” (verse 10)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does the fact that Joshua, the high priest, was standing before the Lord in filthy clothes in Zechariah 3:1-10 tell us about how the Israelite people responded to Moses commands issued in Deuteronomy 30:11-20?

John 5:19-27 – New International Version (NIV)

¹⁹ Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. ²¹ For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. ²² Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, ²³ that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

²⁴ “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. ²⁵ Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. ²⁶ For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. ²⁷ And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

What does Jesus say the Son can do (verse 19)?

Why will the Jewish leaders “be amazed” (verse 20)?

Who will “the Son” give life to (verse 21)?

Who has the Father “entrusted all judgment to” (verse 22)?

In your opinion, why does the person who “does not honor the Son” not honor the Father (verse 23)?

Who will not be judged (verse 24)?

What time “has now come” (verse 25)?

Who has granted the Son “also to have life in himself” (verse 26)?

Why was He given “authority to judge” (verse 27)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how is the choice that Moses gave the people in Deuteronomy 30:11-20 similar to the choice that Jesus gives to people in John 5:19-27?  How are the choices different?

In your opinion, how does the symbolism in Zechariah 3:1-10 help us understand what Jesus says in John 5:19-27?

Jude 1:17-23 – New International Version (NIV)

¹⁷ But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. ¹⁸ They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” ¹⁹ These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

²⁰ But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹ keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

²² Be merciful to those who doubt; ²³ save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

What does Jude want his friends to remember (verse 17)?

When will the scoffers who “follow their own ungodly desires” come (verse 18)?

What do the scoffers follow (verse 19)?

How are Jude’s friends to “keep yourself in God’s love” (verses 20 and 21)?

What are Jude’s friends to wait for (verse 21)?

In your opinion, what does it mean to “be merciful to those who doubt” (verse 22)?

In your opinion, what does it mean to “save others by snatching them from the fire” (verse 23)?

In your opinion, what does it mean to “show mercy, mixed with fear” (verse 23)?

What are Jude’s friends to hate (verse 23)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, why is Moses’s command “to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws” in Deuteronomy 31:11-20 different from Jude’s instruction in Jude 1:17-23 to “keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you eternal life”?

In your opinion, what does it mean that the Hebrew “Joshua”, which is “Jesus” in Greek and means “the Lord saves”, is called “a burning stick snatched from the fire” in Zechariah 3:1-10 and in Jude 1:17-23 we are instructed to “save others by snatching them from the fire”?

In your opinion, how does Jesus’s teaching in John 5:19-27 help us understand what people need so that they can be snatched from the fire as instructed in Jude 1:17-23?

In your opinion, what do these passages from Deuteronomy, Zechariah, John and Jude teach us about the decision we must make about God?

In your opinion, how can we who have been snatched from the fire in turn “be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh”?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)