This promise to gather Israel is repeated throughout Scripture: Deuteronomy 30:1-6, Jeremiah 23:1-8, Jeremiah 32:37-41, Ezekiel 11:16-20, Ezekiel 36:16-28, etc. Though Israel (Jews) have been scattered throughout the nations, they will remember God and come back to Israel. This is happening today and has been for a number of decades since 1948 (in unbelief). Hence, this is only partial fulfillment of these prophecies and the final fulfillment will be in belief!

In verses 11-17, God's final deliverance and blessing of Israel will happen when Messiah returns. God will, with finality, save His people (the final Jewish remnant). Jesus will destroy all of Israel's enemies upon His return through judgment and then He will also judge all nations (Matthew 24:31-46).

Ultimately, salvation is saving us from death on the negative side, but it is also bringing us back to the intended creation of God originally, Human 1.0. We will eventually get there but it is our job to assist God by submitting to Him and His will on a daily basis so that the characteristics of godly love will be shed abroad in our hearts (Romans 5:5).

Zechariah 8 reveals God's jealously for Zion (Jerusalem and all of Israel), while Zechariah 7 reveals that God wanted Israel to live righteously to avoid God's punishment. Zechariah 8 reveals that God wanted Israel to live righteously to receive God's favor. In Zechariah 8:2, God explains that His jealousy for His people created great wrath within Him! Essentially, God, the perfect Father was dealing with recalcitrant and wayward children! God wanted their obedience…from the heart! He asks and expects the very same from all Christians as well.

Please notice specifically verse 15 where the Lord tells Jacob that He is "...with you and will keep you wherever you go...I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you." So, we see God promising to be with Jacob and to not leave him. That's an important fact in understanding what happened when Jacob wrestled the angel/God, so please keep that in mind.

Globalists don't take kindly to defeat and I believe with Satan's empowering (and God allowing), globalists will move the world much closer to the start of the coming Tribulation. I'm not going to discuss dates or timing because no one knows. I simply think, based on what I see coming (using the phrase figuratively, not literally), that 2025 won't be a great year. Of course, had Harris won the election, 2025 would be an absolutely appalling year, so we dodged a bullet of sorts.

By Zechariah 7, the people had been captive in Babylon for roughly 68 years, just shy of the requisite 70 years. Because they had been forced out of their Land, they wept and fasted each year to remember the event. The trouble was that though they were remembering the event with weeping and fasting, God had not necessarily told them to do that. Beyond this, had they lived in obedience to Him, they would not have been removed from the Land forcibly and there would have been no need to fast and weep for their loss. They brought it on themselves by their refusal to live as God wanted them to live. But instead of recognizing this fact, the people sent a couple of representatives to "inquire" of the priests and ultimately, of Zechariah the prophet regarding their weeping and fasting over that event.

If you help people who need help, simply because you are in the position to be able to help them, they will begin to question within themselves why you are helping them. They may not understand at first, because maybe no one has helped them before. It feels weird to them, though at the same time, it is uplifting to them as well.

Today's Christian need to stop and consider how difficult life was for the average Christian during the first and second centuries. We Christians in America have no real understanding of that because we are simply not physically persecuted like they were then. We might be politically persecuted (oh, woe is us!), but Christians are not accosted on the street for being Christians, neither are we gathered, lined up and executed for our faith as Christians are today in Nigeria and now in Syria by Islamic jihadists who are attempting to bring in the final Islamic Caliphate.

God in Christ is absolutely worthy of our praise. In fact, as the song says, He is worthy of all our praise. He controls all that we can and cannot see and He does so for His glory. I still have difficulty appreciating what life will be like when I am there with Him. It is difficult for my mind to see because I'm not there yet. There is so much in this life that seeks our attention and desires to be enthroned in our hearts. This is the difficulty of living in sin-laden bodies in a world that is cursed. In spite of our salvation, we remain destined to die because of the corruption of our flesh. Yet, that is also a blessing in disguise because death will free us from everything that seeks to destroy us.