5.16.2011

The Feast (at least).

Then everyone who survives, of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem, will go up year after year to worship the King, the L-RD of hosts, and to celebrate Sukkot. Any of the families of earth that will not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the L-RD of hosts, will have no rain fall on their land. And if a family of Egypt does not go up to present themselves, on them no rain will fall and the L-RD will afflict them (and all the nations that do not go up to keep the festival) with a plague. This will be the punishment to Egypt, and all the nations which do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.  Zechariah 14:16-19

What explanation will be given, and what else, if anything, will it take for the nations to finally understand that they are to obey G-d's instructions? Here, they've just finished (and failed at) their attempt to annihilate Israel, and now find themselves journeying to the New Jerusalem to present themselves before their newly (at last, visibly) enthroned King - the most astonishing, most ironic event of all time.

Will the lesson learned in their disastrous defeat suffice? Could something like that transform the nations into beings of humility, reverence and obedience to G-d? Is anything besides demonstrated to them? As G-d opens His mouth to address them, do they cry out collectively that they thought, and had been told by the generations proceeding them, that His Torah no longer applied to His creation? The passage seems to indicate that some could possibly rebel against this command. Is that really possible? Would any nation dare defy G-d directly to His face? Scripture is largely silent concerning these questions, but the scene is certainly an interesting one to imagine. What a awesome sight this will be to behold - year after year.

With all we see in the media concerning attitudes, allegations and outright attacks against Israel, imagining the time when Messiah Yeshua comes to her rescue, sets everything right and rules the nations, may be the only thing that can bring us any comfort... for now, but not for long.

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