When Facebook became Faithbook…many people posted the following verse on their page:

If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.  2 Chronicles 7:14 AMPC

The apparent remedy was quarantine, a self-imposed fast from all outside activity and connection… for under what other condition would we truly come to be still, seek, and require His presence but in solitude.

As we see the days lengthen, and our understanding, and consensus on how to defeat this foe called death seems more elusive, and healing evades us, we must humbly admit our doing –our sacrifice of time and connection, was never the remedy but the opportunity to turn to the One who already made a Way, defeating Death, with His sacrifice for us.

In reverence, of our most Holy God,

“[Hush!] Be silent before the Lord God, for the day [of the vengeance] of the Lord is near; for the Lord has prepared a sacrifice…”

AND, He has set apart [for His use] those who have accepted His invitation. [Hab. 2:20.]  Zephaniah 1:7 AMPC

God has defeated death.

For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.  John 3:16 AMPC

Truly, all that was and continues to be required of us is to not neglect The Word.

So get rid of all uncleanness and the rampant outgrowth of wickedness, and in a humble (gentle, modest) spirit Receive and Welcome the Word which implanted and rooted [in your hearts] contains the power to save your souls.  James 1:21 AMPC

For,

This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success.  Joshua 1:8 AMPC

Eagerly,

… invite each man his neighbor under his own vine and his own fig tree. [Mic. 4:1-4.]  Zechariah 3:10 AMPC

For as we seek God in His Word and are obedient we see the,

…[addition of the bowl to the candlestick, causing it to yield a ceaseless supply of oil from the olive trees] ..the Word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit [of Whom the oil is a symbol], says the Lord of hosts.  Zechariah 4:6 AMPC

As the oil flows, we find Rest, and are filled with the joy and gladness, knowing the full measure of God’s love for us and His protection.

“Then I said to the angel who talked with me, What are these, my Lord? And the angel answered me, These are the four winds or spirits of the heavens, which go forth from presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth. [Ps. 104:4; Matt. 24:31.] And [the chariots with] the strong [horses] went forth and sought to go that they might patrol the earth. And [the Lord] said to them, Go, walk to and fro through the earth and patrol it. So they walked about through the earth [watching and protecting it]. Then He summoned me and said to me, Behold, these that go toward the north country have quieted My Spirit [of wrath] and have caused it to Rest in the north country. And say to him, Thus says the Lord of hosts: [You, Joshua] behold (look at, keep in sight, watch),”

Yes!  keep in sight,

” the Man [the Messiah] whose name is the Branch, for He shall grow up in His place and He shall build the [true] temple of the Lord.” [Isa. 4:2; Jer. 23:5; 33:15; Zech. 3:8.]  Zechariah 6:4-5, 7-8, 12 AMPC

John the Baptist, confessed to his disciples, and henceforth to us through the scriptures that this Jesus, the Branch

“He (Jesus) must become greater and greater, and I (John) must become less and less.  31 He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but he has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else.[b] 32 He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them! 33 Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true. 34 For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit. 35 The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands. 36 And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”

The question Today is, as we consider how and to what degree to resume life,  will we stay in and with The Word, requiring Him as a necessity?

As we “fasted” did we truly turn from worthless things and Receive and Welcome the Word, the Savior of our souls?

.. When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months, even those seventy years you were in exile, was it for Me that you fasted, for Me? Thus has the Lord of hosts spoken:

Execute true judgment and show mercy and kindness and tender compassion, every man to his brother; And oppress not the widow or the fatherless, the temporary resident or the poor, and let none of you devise or imagine or think evil against his brother in your heart.”  Zechariah 7 5, 9-10

If He has been our true heart’s desire then we will show Him our love thru our obedience to His Ways.  We will not forget the Rest, provided in these days, and all its lessons.

AND I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then said I, Where are you going? And he said to me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its breadth and what is its length. Be still, all flesh, before the Lord, for He is aroused and risen from His holy habitation. [Hab. 2:20; Zeph. 1:7.]  Zechariah 2:1-2, 13

Jesus is the measuring line by whom all things will are measured and weighed.  Without receiving and welcoming His righteousness on our behalf then there is no question we will not receive eternal life.

Sadly, in the days of Zechariah,

“…they refused to listen and turned a rebellious and stubborn shoulder and made heavy and dull their ears that they might not hear.”  Zechariah 7:11 AMPC

No good comes for those that ignore the provided Rest,

And to whom did He swear that they should not enter His rest, but to those who disobeyed [who had not listened to His word and who refused to be compliant or be persuaded]? So we see that they were not able to enter [into His rest], because of their unwillingness to adhere to and trust in and rely on God [unbelief had shut them out]. [Num. 14:1-35.] Hebrews 3:18-19 AMPC

Woe to him who says to the wooden image, Awake! and to the dumb stone, Arise, teach! [Yet, it cannot, for] behold, it is laid over with gold and silver and there is no breath at all inside it! But the Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth hush and keep silence before Him. [Zeph. 1:7; Zech. 2:13.].   Habakkuk 2:19-20 AMPC

For His,

“…arrows are sharp; the peoples fall under You; Your darts pierce the hearts of the King’s enemies.”  Psalm 45:5 AMPC

So it came to pass that as He cried and they would not hear [He said], So they shall cry and I will not answer, says the Lord of hosts, But I will scatter them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they know not and who know not them. Thus the land was desolate after they had gone, so that no man passed through or returned, for they [the Jews by their sins] had [caused to be] laid waste and forsaken the pleasant land (the land of desire).  Zechariah 7:13-14 AMPC

The promise to those that seek after, crave, and require the presence of His Word remains:

THEREFORE, WHILE the promise of entering His rest still holds and is offered [today], let us be afraid [to distrust it], lest any of you should think he has come too late and has come short of [reaching] it. Seeing then that the promise remains over [from past times] for some to enter that rest, and that those who formerly were given the good news about it and the opportunity, failed to appropriate it and did not enter because of disobedience, Again He sets a definite day, [a new] Today, [and gives another opportunity of securing that rest] saying through David after so long a time in the words already quoted, Today, if you would hear His voice and when you hear it, do not harden your hearts. [Ps. 95:7, 8.] Hebrews 4:1, 6-7 AMPC

….Sing and rejoice, O Daughter of Zion; for behold, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you, says the Lord. And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day and shall be My people. And I will dwell in the midst of you, and you shall know (recognize and understand) that the Lord of hosts has sent me [His messenger] to you. [Isa. 2:3; Mic. 4:2.] Be still, all flesh, before the Lord, for He is aroused and risen from His holy habitation. [Hab. 2:20; Zeph. 1:7.]  Zechariah 2:8, 10-11, 13 AMPC