God gave the remnant in Zechariah 9-14 TWO oracles (messages) revealing their future:
• In Zech 9-11 God foretells the COMING of their Messiah, the King.
• We know that Jesus did come, and He will come again. When He returns, He will establish Himself as King in Jerusalem and reign over the Millennial Kingdom.
• From Zech 12-14 – the SECOND ORACLE tells of the King’s REIGN over His Kingdom.
• Both oracles combine tell the remnant of God’s glorious future for His people.
We started on the FIRST oracle last week, seeing how God will judge the nations surrounding Israel, from the North HADRACH all the way down to the Philistine cities in the South by the coast.
• The order of the cities correspond generally with Alexander the Great’s conquest of the region, but we know that even so, he is an instrument in God’s hand.
• God, the divine warrior, brings about His judgement against the nations.
• The remnant, though feeling weak and small at this point in time, need not be afraid of these formidable nations, no matter how strong, successful or rich they are.
God is with them and He is watching over them. Historically, this turns out to be true.
• The army of Alexander the Great passes and re-pass this city of Jerusalem but without laying siege to it.
• The Lord says, “I will defend my house” (9:8). He will protect this city and “never again will an oppressor overrun my people.” That’s the promise of God.
Beyond just protection from external threats. God will come in the Person of Christ and dwell among them. Read Zech 9:9-17.
THE KING WILL COME!
Rejoice greatly and shout (for joy obviously). Your king comes to you!
• This is not the first time they are hearing this. Zechariah shared this a few times in his earlier messages:
• In the 3rd vision (a man with a measuring line), the angel says 2:4-5 “Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of men and livestock in it. 5“And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,” declares the Lord, “and I will be its glory within.”
• In the 4th vision where Joshua was given clean garments - 3:8 "Listen, O high priest Joshua and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring My servant, the Branch.” And the Lord says He will remove the sin of this land in a single day.
• In in the symbolic crowning of Joshua in Zech 6:12-13 “Tell him this is what the LORD Almighty says: `Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the LORD. 13It is he who will build the temple of the LORD, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.'”
Clearly this Branch, this high priest cum King, this Messiah Christ will come.
Isaiah spoke of this when he prophesied in Isaiah 9:6-7 (200 years before)
• “6For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, [that’s the first coming of Christ] and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.
[And then he went on to say…] He will reign on David's throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.”
Zechariah 9:9b “Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt (‘coat’), the foal (‘fold’) of a donkey.”
• He is the RIGHTEOUS/JUST King who comes bringing SALVATION (deliverance), not riding on a war-horse ready for battle but on a young donkey proclaiming peace.
• A reference was made to this by Matthew when he related Jesus’ final entry to Jerusalem (Matt 21:1-5).
Ultimately what will Christ achieved with His coming?
• 9:11-12 11As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. 12Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.
• He will set them free, from captivity (in the dungeon of a pit) and restore them, both physically (back to their land and Jerusalem) and ultimately spiritually, back to Himself. They will acknowledge Him as their King and submit to His reign.
On what basis? On the basis of the covenant He made with them, sealed by the blood of the sacrificial lamb, by the blood of Christ!
• Ultimately God will give them (and us) a new heart and a new spirit, in the words of prophet Ezekiel (Ezek 36:26).
• God will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.
Jeremiah prophesied this outcome more than 100 years, before the fall of Judah:
• Jer 31:33-34 33"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will a man teach his neighbour, or a man his brother, saying, `Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
HIS KINGDOM WILL BE ESTABLISHED
The Millennial Kingdom that Christ establishes will be characterised by peace.
• 9:10 “I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations;
his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.”
• There won’t be any need of warring weapons like chariots, war-horses or the battle bows. The Lord will reign.
9:13 talks about God bringing deliverance through Judah (bow) and Ephraim (arrow) coming together. They will overcome their enemies.
• They will be regathered and reunited as one people under Christ.
• 9:14-15 tells of the Lord appearing and bringing this final deliverance and Israel will celebrate (9:15b).
• It happens ‘on that day’ (9:16, the End Time) when the Lord will regather them like a Shepherd gathering His flock.
• 6:16 “The Lord their God will save them on that day as the flock of His people.”
• The Messiah will dwell among them and bless them. Israel will sparkle in His land like jewels in a crown. (9:16)
• And the description of Israel’s END under Christ’s reign continues into Zech 10.
CONCLUSION
We see God’s sovereign rule over His people, which ends with peace and blessings.
• The Word seeks to give the remnant and us, not just some information about the future, but to reveal the HEART of God for His people.
• We see the DESIRE of God to care for His people and BE WITH them.
God wants to redeem and save them, to forgive and restore them.
• He is not only the divine warrior that protects them from without, but the peacemaker who dwells with them from within.
• The Lord wants to be with His people. The Messiah comes into Jerusalem and dwells with His own.
That’s WHO God is. God wants to have a relationship with His people.
• The Lord will reign, not from the throne above but within Jerusalem. He wants to be with His people.
• Christmas ultimately is not just a visitation but a habitation, as someone puts it. Jesus wants to take residence in your heart and mine. He wants to be in our lives.
• A visitation is for the moment but a habitation is forever.
When Adam and Eve were in the Garden, they heard the sound of the Lord WALKING IN THE GARDEN in the cool of the day (Gen 3:8).
• This is the anthropo-morphic way of describing God’s fellowship with man – IN THE GARDEN, not from His throne – a walk with them in the cool of the day.
• That’s communion. That’s fellowship. That’s a relationship.
Until the fateful day when that fellowship was broken because Adam and Eve sinned. And they hid from God.
• Since then, God comes looking for men and seek to restore that relationships.
• It has always been that way. God coming for us, not man seeking God. Jesus: “I have come to seek and save the lost.” (cf. Luke 19:10)
• We see this condescension – God coming for us. Paul paints it in Phil 2:6-8
6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!
• So that that fellowship can be restored.
We see this movement beautifully in John 1.
• 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
• 1:4 “In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”
• 1:9 “The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.”
• 1:10 “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”
• 1:14 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
See the movement and appreciate the heart of God.
• The infinite God comes within reach of finite man. That’s the message of Christmas.
• We don’t have to go around seeking for some revival, or spiritual experience of God’s presence. He is already here.
• He dwells in our heart and promises never to leave us nor forsake us.
Honour Him and worship Him. Know His Word and obey Him. Acknowledge Him as King and submit to His Lordship.
Are you hiding from Him? Is Jesus the King, your King?
• Receive Him as your Saviour and Lord while you still can.
