The God Who Does Not Abandon

"If someone asks him, 'What are these wounds on your body?' he will answer'The wounds I was given at the house of my friends'."  Zech. 13:6

These words were prophetic at the time they were penned by Zechariah.  They pointed into the future and to the ministry of the Messiah. The Old Testament is a history of the people of God.  Beginning with the call of Abram from Ur of the Chaldees to the ascension of Joseph in Egypt the divine purpose held fast.  And when a leader arose in Egypt who did not know Joseph and therefore enslaved the people of God, God did not abandon his people.  God does not abandon his own although they may abandon Him.

When Pharaoh (probably Seti) founder of the 19th dynasty 1305-1290 B.C. enslaved the people of God and enacted state sponsored genocide of them by destroying the male children God had his plan in place too.       God defeated the plans of pharaoh through a male child named Moses.  Moses was a common name in Egypt much like Ahmose or Thutmose.  The plans of man do not succeed where they are in opposition to the divine will.

When God's people were grieving under two oppressive regimes of Ramese, 1290-1224 B.C. God had an answer for their dire distress in the presence of Moses and his powerful ministry.  Their release form Egypt was hard fought and hard won.  They achieved the Exodus or 'Way Out' by the power of God.  In the Old Testament we are informed that Yahweh identifies with the suffering of his own.  God does not experience 'compassion fatigue' with his own.  We must come to know and believe that God is our necessary portion in this life.  He is the vital part of our lives.

God does not only identify with the suffering of his own he takes action on their behalf.  He does something about their condition and he does it because it is the pleasure of the divine will to bring and comfort to us.  To those of us who have experienced tragedy, or physical, and psychic injury God's presence gives solace.

When God's people rebelled against Him in the wilderness on their way to receive the inheritance that he had prepared for them he did not abandon his own.  They slandered his character and grumbled about the leadership of Moses and wanted to stone him.  God still did not abandon his own.  They rejected God's best for them because they lacked the eyes of faith.  They had incredible empirical evidence but the evidence did not convince them of the veracity of the divine character.  Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

Faith sees beyond the realm of the empirical and knows that it is at best finite.  Faith believes in the word of God.  God's people did enter the land of promise, but they assimilated into the cultural patterns of the people embedded in the land.  They grew increasingly weak through cultural assimilation.  Finally, they failed to worship Yahweh, and their nations were swept away.

Zechariah was a prophet of the post exile period who spoke to his people about their condition.  He was intimately aware of their condition.  They needed more than change of their outer circumstances.  They needed more than the clever words of mere political messiahs.  They needed God's redemptive work in their lives.

Therefore the God who does not abandon provided the answer to the needs of his people.  God gave them his Son.  The Son of God, the Iesous, was crucified by his own in the text called 'my friends.'  And think about us...we too participated in this historic event.  The wounds that the Iesous received were because of me too.  We have gone beyond the the words of man we are in divine territory at this point.  The Iesous was wounded on behalf of us all.

Blessings to You.

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