2001-04-21 - Messiah: His Final Call to Israel

Messiah: His Final Call to Israel Series, Part 28

Zechariah 13:1 In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.

Imagine a world with no idolatry or spiritism, no false prophets, no false teaching. In the Scriptures we read of just such a place where justice is truly justice and where peace will flow like a river throughout all the earth. Israel will not be the tail nation but will be the head nation at that time and one can only imagine a world where no locks and keys are needed. Believers hope for this place where crime and drug use, sorcery, wars, famines, pestilence and disease are a thing of the past. This is in store for all who have come to the fountain of life found only in the Greatest Jew of all time and eternity, the Holy One of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth. Israel, as we have been studying in the Final Call Series, will one day come to recognize Him. And only in Him will her eternal peace and national security be found.

In the revelation made by Moses, animal sacrifices played a prominent part. The blood of these sacrifices was to make an annual atonement for the sins of the worshipers. On the great Day of Atonement, the blood of the sacrificial animal was sprinkled on the Mercy Seat in order to atone for the sins of the nation. But these animal sacrifices could never make atonement for sin. Only ceremonially and temporarily did they have any significance, typifying and looking forward to the real sacrifice that could cleanse from all sin. These facts are clearly stated in the following passage:

Hebrews 10:1-9 For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect them that draw nigh. Else would they not have ceased to be offered? Because the worshippers, having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, "sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body didst thou prepare for me. In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure:" Then said I, "lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God." Saying above, "sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein" (the which are offered according to the law). Then hath he said, "lo, I am come to do thy will." He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.

In the Great Servant passage, Isaiah 52:13-53:12, the Prophet foresees the Servant of Jehovah, the God-man, offering Himself for the sins of the world.

Concerning the Atonement made by Jesus of Nazareth, the God-man, consider what the inspired Apostle Paul said in the following passage:

Colossians 1:19-20 For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fullness dwell, and through him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross -- through him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens.

The fountain for sin and uncleanness was opened nineteen-hundred years ago in the death, the burial, the resurrection, and the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. Millions of people have come to this fountain and drunk of the water of life freely. No sincere believing person, who has come to this fountain, has been turned away. The call has gone forth to the entire world.

Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, "come." And he that heareth, let him say, "come." And he that is athirst, let him come: He that will, let him take the water of life freely.

Though vast throngs have drunk of this water of life to the satisfying of their souls, countless hosts of people have never heard of this fountain. Yet great hosts have heard of it, but through indifference and unbelief have turned a deaf ear. For them it is the same as if there were no fountain. This situation reminds one of Hagar and Ishmael, who were perishing for water in the desert. Finally the angel of the Lord spoke to Hagar and showed her a fountain of water within a stone's throw. The water was there all the time, but her eyes were not open to see it. Thus it is with myriads who have never drunk of the fountain of living waters.

Jeremiah 2:13 For my people have committed two evils: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

Jeremiah 17:13 O Jehovah, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be put to shame. They that depart from me shall be written in the Earth, because they have forsaken Jehovah, the fountain of living waters.

Psalm 36:9 For with thee is the fountain of life: In thy light shall we see light.

When the people of Israel accept Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah and Savior, the fountain for sin and uncleanness will become clearly visible to their opened eyes. Converted Israel will purge the land of spiritism and idolatry.

Zechariah 13:1 In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.

As has been shown above in Jeremiah 2:13, Jeremiah thinks of God as a fountain, to which the thirsty soul may come and satisfy his thirst. Zechariah, on the other hand, thinks of this fountain for sin and uncleanness, not as a place of drinking of the water of life but as a place of bathing and cleansing. The imagery used by Zechariah is based originally upon the water of purification (Numbers, Chapter 19 ). King David, likewise, speaks of the purification of the soul in terms of ceremonial cleansing:

Psalm 51:7 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Ezekiel doubtless had the water of purification in mind in the following passage:

Ezekiel 36:25 And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: From all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

Israel, converted and cleansed, seeing reality as it is, will be moved by a spirit of revulsion against all things that are false and of Satanic origin. The people will, therefore, rise up against anyone who dabbles in the occult or has any part with those who profess to be prophets but are not. The sentiment for right will be very strong. Peace will come and evil will cease. The world will be under an entirely different economy. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; pray for the peace of the world.

Zechariah 13: 2-6 "And it shall come to pass in that day," saith Jehovah of hosts, "that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered. And also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. And it shall come to pass that, when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, 'Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of Jehovah.' And his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he prophesieth. Neither shall they wear a hairy mantle to deceive: But he shall say, 'I am no prophet; I am a tiller of the ground, for I have been made a bondman from my youth.' And one shall say unto him, "what are these wounds between thine arms?" Then he shall answer, "Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends."

In His Service,
Rick & Sandy

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