Friday, March 5 The land will wail, . . . the family of Nathan’s house by itself.​—Zech. 12:12.

[Áine]

Friday, March 5

The land will wail, . . . the family of Nathan’s house by itself.—Zech. 12:12.

 

Suppose that you are reading the 12th chapter of Zechariah’s prophecy, which foretells the death of the Messiah. (Zech. 12:10) When you come to verse 12, you read that “the family of Nathan’s house” would grieve bitterly at the Messiah’s death. Instead of quickly passing over that detail, you pause and ask yourself: ‘What is the connection between the house of Nathan and the Messiah?’ You do a little “detective” work. A marginal reference leads you to 2 Samuel 5:13, 14, where you learn that Nathan was one of King David’s sons. A second marginal reference, Luke 3:23, 31, reveals that Jesus was a direct descendant of Nathan through Mary. Suddenly, you are intrigued! You knew that Jesus was foretold to be a descendant of David. (Matt. 22:42) But David had more than 20 sons. Is it not amazing that Zechariah pinpoints the household of Nathan in particular as having a reason to mourn the death of Jesus? w19.05 30 ¶17

[Vinnie]

Just a little bit of digging can enrich our bible reading. As I read, i look for things that seem odd, or out of place or at first glance doesn't seem to fit.  When we share things that intrigue us,  we are more apt to give heart felt expressions that may cause others to say, " that's an interesting point , or I never thought about it that way". In this way we can enrich their bible reading as well.

 

[Sister Twister]

The cited article in the days text goes on to say the following:

 

'Let us remember that our ultimate goal in studying God’s Word and our Christian publications is to draw closer to Jehovah. We also want to see more clearly “what sort of person” we are and what changes we need to make in order to please God.'

 

so easy sometimes to fall into just covering material but remembering the above is a good reminder for me.

[Alexa]

Marginal references helps us to be familiar with bible scenes. It makes reading the Bible more lively.

[Jimi-L]

I don’t understand today’s text at all, I understand the teaching but I don’t understand what to do with Zechariah chapter 12 when its speaks about Nathan, son of David,. the Jews didnt mourn when jesus, Messiah died and the whole chapter doesn’t really even talk about it but the end times really.