Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 105 · April 15
A City of Truth
“These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates:”
Before the instructions in Zechariah 8, God gives a promise, and the promise is a picture of old people sitting outside and children playing in the road.
"There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof." That is God describing what He means a rebuilt city to look like. The oldest and the youngest are out of doors, in no hurry and not afraid.
Then the instructions come, and they are small: "These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates." Tell the truth to the person next to you, and give honest rulings where cases are heard.
So the peace of that street is built out of honest words. Think of one place this week where a true word from you could make your own street a little safer. And God's own promise stands behind it: "they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness."
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 105 is Like a Tree (Psalm 1:1-3).