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Yes! There Is Good News!

Bill Rollins has been publishing each week a column in the local Elk Horn, Iowa paper for the past several years.
Note the original publication date on each blog post

Yes! There is Good News!                  8.6.2016

9/24/2020

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I was raised in a church organization that discouraged the lay people from reading the Bible. Having left that church some 46 years ago, I find it somewhat ironic that today I am striving to encourage people to pick up God’s word, read and study it, so as to be comforted, edified, and instructed by these words of life.

From Genesis to Revelation there is an abundant joy and amazing wisdom to be found. Would you please pick up God’s word and read it? And as you commit yourself to do this, may I suggest that we look at one particular scripture together?

Zechariah 3:10 “In that day each of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and fig tree, declares the Lord Almighty.” Let me invite you, my neighbor, to sit under your vine and fig tree with me! For perhaps we are in “that day” today - that day of “invitation.”

“But I don’t have a vine or fig tree,” you say? Oh! Let us see if we can locate them for you.
This symbol of the vine and fig tree can be reckoned as an idiomatic expression. In other words, these things stand as a type of something else - something the Israelites would have recognized and understood right away. Let’s ponder the question, “What was of utmost importance to these people who lived several thousand years ago?”

The answer is simple - food and water! One only has to look at the Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years - what did they worry and grumble about? “Where will we get water to drink and food to eat?” (See Exodus 16: 1 - 3 and 17: 1-3). These people were not so concerned about cable TV or Internet reception back then. Physical life itself was bound up in their concern for food and water.

God promised Moses that He would rescue the Israelites from their bondage to the Egyptians and take them to “a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” “Milk and honey was another expression to say that they would have an abundance of fertile land for the cattle and plenty of flowering fruit trees for the bees to make honey. Food was important.

Okay! So Let’s get back to the “vine and fig tree” of Zechariah. This expression is used to indicate what kind of life the people would have under the rule of King Solomon. “During Solomon’s lifetime, Judah and Israel, from Dan to Beersheba (i.e. from the northern border to the southern) lived in safety, each man under his own vine and fig tree.” Ah! So we have safety and everyone’s eating grapes and figs. Sounds like good news for the people under Solomon’s rule.

Don’t go away, folks - there’s still more to come!

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    Author

    Bill Rollins resides in Elk Horn, IA, with his wife, Sally, and has pastored the Church of God of Omaha, NE for more than 35 years.

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  • Home
    • Spring Feast 2022
    • FOT 2018 >
      • Feast Schedule
      • Feast messages
  • Essays
    • Psalms of Ascent >
      • Psalm 120
      • Psalm 121
      • Psalm 122
      • Psalm 123
      • Psalm 124
      • Psalm 125
      • Psalm 126
      • Psalm 127
      • Psalm 128
      • Psalm 129
      • Psalm 130
    • Yes, There Is Good News!
    • Timely Comments - Blog
    • Christian Walk
    • Holy Days >
      • Passover >
        • children's lessons
      • Days of Unleavened Bread >
        • children's lessons
      • Pentecost >
        • children's lessons
      • Trumpets >
        • children's lessons
      • Atonement >
        • children's lessons
      • Feast of Tabernacles >
        • children's lessons
      • Eighth Day >
        • children's lessons
    • Holidays
  • Current Sabbath School
    • Sabbath School 2023
    • Sabbath School 2022
    • Sabbath School 2021
    • Sabbath school 2020
    • Sabbath School 2019
    • Sabbath school 2018
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    • Sabbath School 2016
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    • Sabbath School 2014
    • Sabbath School: July-December 2013
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  • Hebron
    • Hebron - 2014 >
      • April 2014 - Michael Deering's visit >
        • Photos from Michael
      • May 2014 - Tom Benzen's visit >
        • Gardening photos
      • July 2014 - Apples >
        • More Apple Photos
      • August 2014 - New orphans
      • September 2014 - Education >
        • September photos
      • October 2014 - Cyclone
      • December 2014
    • Hebron - 2015 >
      • January 2015
      • March 2015
      • April 2015 - Passover
      • October 2015 >
        • Ice Cream photos
    • Hebron - 2016 >
      • January 2016 photos
      • Passover 2016 >
        • Passover photos
      • Pentecost photos 2016
      • July 2016 - Evening Prayers
      • Apples - July 2016
      • Aug 2016
    • Hebron Building Project >
      • photos of building project
    • Hebron 2017 >
      • Pentecost 2017 photos
      • July 2017 lunch photos
      • Nursing/regular students
      • Lunchtime - Oct 2017
      • Feast of Tabernacles photos
      • October Thank You
      • Nursing Students
      • December photos
    • Hebron 2018 >
      • Passover 2018
      • Baby boy!!
      • Feast of Tabernacles 2018 >
        • Feast photos
    • Hebron 2021 >
      • Photos January 2021
      • February photos
      • December photos
    • Hebron 2022
  • Career Direct