Zechariah 2:8 - "For thus says the LORD of hosts, "After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who
touches you, touches the apple of His eye.""
In this passage God is talking about His people Israel and He refers to them as "the apple of His eye." This phrase is used only a few times in the Bible and in fact the exact Hebrew phrase used here is used nowhere else in the Bible. The Hebrew word for apple, used here is only found in this verse and it literally means the pupil of the eye. He says a similar thing in Deuteronomy 32:9-10 where we read - "For the LORD’S portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of a wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for him, He guarded him as the pupil of His eye." Think of what that means. God guards His people like the pupil of His eye. In our interaction with other people we think nothing of a handshake or a pat on the back, but if someone starts to get their finger even remotely close to my eyeball I'm ready to defend it because it's vulnerable. We protect our eyes, and God protects His people even better than we protect our eyes. God tells His people that whoever seeks to harm them, whoever touches Gods people is touching Gods eyeball. As Christians, when people mess with us, when they persecute us they are actually poking God in the eye.
In Acts chapter nine we read of a man by the name of Saul who was persecuting the church. In this chapter He is on the road to Damascus with a mission to imprison the believers there, but on the road something happened that he did not expect. He was knocked to the ground and surrounded with a blinding light. We read this in verse 4 - "And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”" Saul, later known as the Apostle Paul, was persecuting God's people, and Jesus said to Him "why are you persecuting Me?" God takes our persecution very personally and we can trust Him to deal justly with those who persecute us.
Romans 12:19 says - "Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord." Since those who mess with us mess with the apple of God's eye we don't need to defend ourselves. We don't need to worry about making sure that others get what they deserve, we can completely trust God to deal out judgment in His timing. He is far more capable of defending us than we are, and He will defend us as the pupil of His eye.
In 2 Thessalonians Paul is writing to the Christians concerning their sufferings for Christ sake, and in regard to their persecution he says this in 2 Thessalonians 1:5-8 - "This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. For after all it is just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus."
Zechariah 2:8 - "For thus says the LORD of hosts, “After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye."
In this passage God is talking about His people Israel and He refers to them as "the apple of His eye." This phrase is used only a few times in the Bible and in fact the exact Hebrew phrase used here is used nowhere else in the Bible. The Hebrew word for apple, used here is only found in this verse and it literally means the pupil of the eye. He says a similar thing in Deuteronomy 32:9-10 where we read - "For the LORD’S portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of a wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for him, He guarded him as the pupil of His eye." Think of what that means. God guards His people like the pupil of His eye. In our interaction with other people we think nothing of a handshake or a pat on the back, but if someone starts to get their finger even remotely close to my eyeball I'm ready to defend it because it's vulnerable. We protect our eyes, and God protects His people even better than we protect our eyes. God tells His people that whoever seeks to harm them, whoever touches Gods people is touching Gods eyeball. As Christians, when people mess with us, when they persecute us they are actually poking God in the eye.
In Acts chapter nine we read of a man by the name of Saul who was persecuting the church. In this chapter He is on the road to Damascus with a mission to imprison the believers there, but on the road something happened that he did not expect. He was knocked to the ground and surrounded with a blinding light. We read this in verse 4 - "And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”" Saul, later known as the Apostle Paul, was persecuting God's people, and Jesus said to Him "why are you persecuting Me?" God takes our persecution very personally and we can trust Him to deal justly with those who persecute us.
Romans 12:19 says - "Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord." Since those who mess with us mess with the apple of God's eye we don't need to defend ourselves. We don't need to worry about making sure that others get what they deserve, we can completely trust God to deal out judgment in His timing. He is far more capable of defending us than we are, and He will defend us as the pupil of His eye.
In 2 Thessalonians Paul is writing to the Christians concerning their sufferings for Christ sake, and in regard to their persecution he says this in 2 Thessalonians 1:5-8 - "This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. For after all it is just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus."
Zechariah 2:8 - "For thus says the LORD of hosts, “After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye."
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