Listen to this devotion.
Verse 6 ended with the Lord promising to answer the people of the house of Joseph. This is the Lord answer prayer. Now, responding to the Lord’s gospel answers, the people are invited to respond, and the Lord gives them direction:
7 Let Ephraim be like a hero,
their hearts should be glad, as if from wine.
When their children see it, they should be glad,
and their hearts should rejoice in the LORD.
Following the Lord’s forgiveness, the people of Judah were described as being “like heroes in battle” (vs. 5). Now the remnant of Joseph is instructed and encouraged to act the same way. When the Lord brings you back into his flock, O Ephraim, stand up and be strong in your faith like a hero! Like one of David’s mighty men! Let your heart be as happy as when wine relaxes the muscles, relieves the stress, and brings joy back into the heart! For this joy is not the product of decaying and fermenting fruit-sugars, it’s the product of the decay and death of sin on your conscience, of the removal of the stress of guilt and shame. You are restored from banishment and are once again the people of the Lord God your King.
Teach these truths to your children, so that they will be glad, too. Don’t be like those parents who send their children to Catechism class but never bring them to church, so that they learn about Jesus once but never form a relationship with him through the means of grace. Don’t you want them to rejoice in the Lord’s house, with their feet under the Lord’s table, along with you in Paradise?
8 “I will whistle for them and gather them in
for I have redeemed them,
and there will be many of them,
as when there were many once before.
9 Though I scattered them among the nations,
yet in far countries they will remember me.
The call to gather people is not a war cry, like a trumpet call or a ram’s horn blast. In this case, it is just a whistle, like a man whistling for his horse or his dog (my cats run away at a whistle, but that’s another issue). The Lord says emphatically, “I have redeemed them.” This is in a past tense in the mind of the Lord, something that is already accomplished in his heart, even though the redemption would not take place physically on the cross for five more centuries. But following this redemption, “there will be many of them.” The church will swell to the numbers Israel itself once had, and many more, but now it would be made up of people from all around the world, “scattered from among the nations, in far countries.”
They will remain scattered among those nations, but where there are people who believe in God, who put their faith in God’s Christ, our Savior, the gospel will do its work and the church will grow. Even though the wicked seem to outnumber the righteous, the work of God is still being done. There are still souls to be saved. Your own place in God’s kingdom is assured: “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). The smallness of the kingdom that you see should not concern you. The humble state of your little church should not concern you. The glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ is what matters. “God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things– and the things that are not– to nullify the things that are” (1 Corinthians 1:28).
You might be a student far away from home for the first time, or a parent suddenly without any children at home. You might be a spouse separated from your love by war, work, wind, or waves; the Lord knows your sorrow and your struggle. Ask him for help and to strengthen your faith as he strengthened the faith of the people of Joseph. Chin up, chest out, eyes on the cross, and be heroic in your service to your Savior, simply out of thanks. This is the life of the Christian. We each have our crosses to carry, but you are not alone. Christ is there to ease your burden, both now and forevermore.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Additional archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Zechariah 10:7-9a Be like a hero