DAWN
Daily Arts Web Nucleus
Discover the Arts! Each day a different image from the Literary, Performing, or Visual Arts representing a portion of Scripture plus an explanation with links and a discussion forum 2013 June 4
Abraham (1408-1410)
Lorenzo Monaco (c. 1370 - c. 1425)
International Gothic Style
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, USA
Image Source: Web Gallery of Art
Explanation: In the painting above, Abraham holds a firebrand and a sword, symbols of God's blessings and of the attendant power which God conveys to him and his descendants. In an act of passing on those blessings and that power to the first of his successors, Abraham places his hand upon the head of his son, Isaac. Likewise, in accord with those Abrahamic blessings and power, the LORD, in Zechariah 12, speaks of the power he will pass on to his people over the nations. Through God's people, the nations will experience trembling, astonishment, madness, burdens, and destruction comparable to being cut in pieces by a sword (1-5). Moreover, the LORD's people will be like a torch or a firebrand; and their opponents will be like wood and straw (6). Their enemies will be destroyed; and his people will look, with repentance, on the one (Christ) "whom they have pierced" (7-10 and 11-14 with Psalms 22:16-17; John 19:34-37; Revelation 1:7; Matthew 24:30; Acts 2:37).
Zechariah 12
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
4 In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.
6 In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.
7 The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.
8 In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
12 And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan [son of David] apart, and their wives apart;
13 The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei [grandson of Levi] apart, and their wives apart;
14 All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.
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