Today's Readings and Stuff --- Friday, 28 December 2018

Quiet day here.  Wife is still in the recovery mode from "peopling" the other day.  She hardly slept last night, went to bed, couldn't sleep, finally relocated to the living room around 11:30.  I went to bed and died:  was really tired.  She came back to bed around 05:30 and slept until around 09:15.  She's not been real energetic since, so it's just as well that we're dining on all the leftovers from the run-up to the family gathering.  I don't mind and do not want to waste what's in there.  She took about a 2-hour nap earlier, so we'll see if she can get to sleep when we crash in a short while.

My sister and her husband are in the area on their annual visit from Virginia.  They're staying at my younger brother's place where my parents lived.  His wife hates us (and most of the family, actually) so we are not welcome.  But sis & husband, along with middle brother, are coming through here in the morning and I have a date to meet them at the Dunkin shop.  Get to spend a whole hour.  That'll be it for the year I guess.   Could be worse:  my dad's dad moved from far eastern PA around 1900 or so, came to this area, and so far as I know never went back.  Communication was sporadic via letters, and probably not real frequent.  This is a bit better.  Wife thinks it's odd: her Italian ancestors, and both the Austrian and English ones as well, came from circumstances in which the whole extended family lived next to each other on the same street and saw each other every day.  Not sure I could handle that, but whatever.   What it does is to trigger a whole lot of old memories, not all of them good.  I once had a pastor tell me that I remind him of Job.  I told him that I sometimes feel like Abraham, going from one place to another, at home in none, and never knowing where the next stop will be, or why.   Even with e-mail, cell phones, social media, etc. available, we rarely use them.  Very rarely.

This is Friday, and getting into Friday night during a holiday week.  I shudder to think what news the morning will bring us. 

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Zechariah 11

1Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.

2Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down.

3There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.

4Thus saith the Lord my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;

5Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not.

6For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour's hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.

7And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.

8Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul lothed them, and their soul also abhorred me.

9Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another.

10And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people.

11And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the Lord.

12And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.

13And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord.

14Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15And the Lord said unto me, Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd.

16For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces.

17Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.

Zechariah 12

1The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.

2Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.

3And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

4In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.

5And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts their God.

6In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.

7The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.

8In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lordbefore them.

9And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

10And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

11In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo.

12And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;

13The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart;

14All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.

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Today, the final chapter in the Revelation.  This, even more than the other prophecy books, is some matters that I haven't resolved, and apparently, I'm not alone in that:  the amount of often contradictory commentary on the Revelation is enormous.  I am content to know that it represents the Lord's promise that He is not done yet, that things are working out as He has foreknown, and that nothing is taking Him by surprise. He's not done yet.  Like many other things, when stuff happens, we'll look over and say , "Oh yeah!  NOW I see!".    So just hang on. 

Revelation 22

1And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

2In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

3And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:

4And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.

5And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

6And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.

7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

8And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.

9Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.

10And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

11He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

14Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

15For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

17And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

18For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

19And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

20He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly.Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

21The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.