Our text today is in Zechariah 10:1-4.
I. God’s INVITATION is to Ask and Receive
We begin with the first word in that chapter: “Ask.”i God’s method of blessing His people begins there. He begins with an invitation to ask and receive. And that begins with our acknowledgement that every good gift comes from Him (James 1:17).
Our last message concluded with a scene full of delightful joy and prosperity. Zechariah 9:16-17 depict the blessed condition of Israel during the Millennium. But it is always God’s desire to bless His people with His joy and peace. “The Lord their God will save them in that day [that is a reference to the Millennium] As the flock of His people. For they shall be like the jewels of a crown, Lifted like a banner over His land — 17 For how great is its goodness And how great its beauty! [There is debate as to whether that refers to God’s goodness and beauty or the beauty He bestows on His people. Either interpretation fits the context.]. Grain shall make the young men thrive, And new wine the young women.”
Now Zechariah 10:1 informs us as to how God’s people live in that state of blessing. The instruction begins with this invitation: “Ask.” James 4:2 instructs believers: “. . . you do not have because you do not ask.” God’s way of blessing His people in every generation is through the principle of Ask and Receive. The mystery is how easily we forget this principle; how prone we are to try to work things out on our own while God stands with open arms ready to grant our requests.
This principle of asking and receiving is based on the core design of humanity. God created us for interaction with Him. He did not design us to be little wind-up robots with a self-contained battery, functioning independent of Him. Prior to the Fall Adam and Eve communed with God in the Garden. They lived in a state of blessed dependence upon Him. They lived out of relationship with Him. The temptation the Serpent offered Eve was to break out of that dependence and pursue knowledge that would enable her to live off her own wisdom and sufficiency. It was the fundamental issue behind the Fall. Will you live independent of God, or will you live in trustful, obedient dependence on Him?
So, the question we are faced with today is this: To what degree are you acknowledging your dependence on the Lord? Conversely, to what degree are you going about your daily affairs leaning on your own understanding and depending on your own resources to make life work?ii What is the gage that will tell us the answer to that question? Very simply, the issue of asking. Our prayer life is a revelation of our commitment to this principle. We pray because we know God is our source. We pray because we know that without Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5). We pray because we choose to live in continual dependence on Him. To the degree that we don’t really believe those things, to that degree, we neglect prayer and operate out of the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil. To that degree we decide, out of our own understanding, what to do next.
The kingdom principle is Ask and Receive.
“You do not have [James 4:2 says] because you do not ask.” Do you need a problem solved? “Is anyone among you in trouble?” What should that person do? The answer from James 5:12 is this: “Let them pray.”iii “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”iv The “prayer of faith” is the prayer that from the heart is directed toward the Lord. It is prayer that trust in the finished work of Christ in our behalf.
Whether it is people in Zechariah’s generation or people living in the Millennium or people like you and me, the kingdom always and forevermore operates on this principle: Ask and Receive. Jesus declared it in Luke 11:9-13:
“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
The thing we need most is to be filled with the Holy Spirit—not just the initial Baptism in the Spirit, as essential as that is, but the continual refreshing in the Spirit. The Greek present tense in Ephesians 5:18 confirms that: “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled [Greek present tense indicating continued action] with the Spirit.” Are you living in continued obedience to that commandment? Many Pentecostals have an initial Baptism in the Spirit, but then neglect the ongoing refreshing. The benefits of the Baptism in the Spirit are only realized as a practical matter when we live in the ongoing flow of the Spirit. That’s why Paul said in Colossians 4:2, “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving.” That’s why he adds to his instruction on the armor of God in Ephesians 6:18, “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.”
Are you enjoying the full provision of your covenant in Christ? Are you praying always? Are you taking every problem and need to the Lord in prayer? As the old hymn says, “Oh, what peace we often forfeit, Oh, what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer.”v
Zechariah 10:1 begins, “Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime; it is the Lord who sends the thunderstorms” (NIV). The rain in this text is literal rain, something essential for the Israelites in Zechariah's day, essential in our day, and essential during the Millennium.vi But the Bible makes a spiritual application of this as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 44:3 makes the connection clear. There God says, “For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, And floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, And My blessing on your offspring.” It is the outpouring of literal rain that makes the ground fruitful. In Zechariah 9:17 that condition is enjoyed: “Grain shall make the young men thrive, And new wine the young women.” In the natural, fruitfulness depends on God sending the thunderstorms of literal rain. In the spiritual, fruitfulness depends on God pouring out His Spirit on His people. Therefore, in both the temporal and spiritual, “Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime; it is the Lord who sends the thunderstorms” (NIV).
Our text in Zechariah 10:1 gives assurance that God will hear and answer: “Ask the Lord for rain In the time of the latter rain. The Lord will make flashing clouds [NIV says thunderstorms]; He will give them showers of rain [it will be more than enough, an abundant outpouring. The Hebrew literally says, ‘rain of a (heavy) shower’vii], Grass in the field for everyone.”
It is for everyone who will meet the conditions. God is no respecter of persons. He will give you showers of blessings as readily as He will give it to anyone else. The condition is that we pray to the Lord out of a sincere heart. James 4:3 warns, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” The NIV says, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”
So, James teaches two principles for receiving what we need:
(1) We must ask the Lord; we must pray.
(2) We must ask for the right reason, out of the right motives. If we are just living for our own pleasure, then we cannot be effective in prayer. But when we follow Jesus’s example of living to do the will of the Father (John 6:38), God will give us everything we need to do His will.viii
In contrast to the blessed results that come from seeking God for our needs and trusting Him as our source, Zechariah 10:2 warns of the consequences of seeking other sources for meeting our needs. “For the idols speak delusion; The diviners envision lies, And tell false dreams; They comfort in vain. Therefore the people wend their way like sheep; They are in trouble because there is no shepherd.” The problem here is not self-reliance but relying on the wrong thing—going to the wrong source for help.
An idol is anything that takes the place of God in our lives. Money can be an idol. That’s why Jesus said, “You cannot serve both God and money” (Matt. 6:25 NIV). For Judas, money was an idol. That’s why he betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.ix
The Hebrew word translated idols is teraphiym. The term probably refers to the small family statuettes like the one Rachael stole from her father in Genesis 31:19, 34.x It was used to get supernatural insight and direction.xi In Ezekiel 21:21 the king of Babylon used a teraphiym to get guidance for his next military move.xii Some scholars think teraphim “were probably symbolic representations of humans—of deceased ancestors—who may have held quasi-divine or godlike status. . . .”xiii The Catholic statuettes of saints comes uncomfortably close to functioning in a similar way.xiv
Diviners used various means to tell the future.xv The king of Babylon mentioned in Ezekiel 21:21 used a ritual of examining the liver of a dead animal for insight. Today’s fortune tellers use cards or examine the palms. Balaam is referred to as a diviner or soothsayer in Joshua 13:22. Deuteronomy 18:10 specifically forbids the use of divination as well as other occultic practices. Deuteronomy 18:9-12 commands, “When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you.”
Along with the rise in the use of drugs during the 1960s, came an increase in practices like this. The Greek word sorceries in Revelation 9:21 is pharmakeia. We get our English word pharmacy from it. It’s first meaning is “the use or administration of drugs.”xvi Sorcerers often use drugs in conjunction with their arts. During the Hippie Revolution, Timothy Leary and others used drugs in combination with other occultic practices. Then in the 1980s came the New Age Movement which popularized various occultic practices and incorporated concepts from Eastern religions. The internet has made all this deception available even to our children.
The point is this: our society has been so infiltrated with these pagan practices than some of it has even gotten into the church. Horoscopes, Ouija boards, and fortune telling are so common in movies that even some Christians think they are harmless. But if you believe our text, you know they are anything but harmless. Interaction with these practices can bring demonic oppression into the life of a Christian and provoke God’s judgment.
Dreams can come from God as happened in Joseph’s case (Gen. 37). In Matthew 2 Mary’s husband, Joseph, was guided by God through divine dreams to protect Jesus. The problem is not with seeking the supernatural. God is supernatural and our relationship with Him is supernatural. The problem is with the counterfeits. The problem is with seeking supernatural sources other than the Lord. Sigmund Freud developed a system for interpreting dreams that excludes the Lord. His system of psychology is something Christians should avoid. The fundamental issue with all of this is simply will we seek God on His terms or will we look elsewhere for our help.
The consequences of following these pagan sources is recorded in Zechariah 10:2: (
1) Deception heads the list. “For the idols speak delusion; The diviners envision lies, And tell false dreams.” These counterfeit sources mislead people. There is often an element of flattery in the message. It often tickles the ears of the hearer. It does not condemn their sin like the Bible does. There is the lure that you can tap into the supernatural yet live anyway you want to—that you can get what you want without submitting yourself to God and His commandments.xvii Peter warns Christians about people who promise liberty but are themselves slaves of corruption (2 Pet. 2:19). And Paul warned Timothy that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13 KJV).
(2) False Comfort is another fruit of these activities. Our text says, “They comfort in vain.” Their flattery, their positive message brings a temporary comfort. But in the end, it proves to be a lie.
(3) “Therefore the people wend their way like sheep.” The NIV is better: “Therefore the people wander like sheep.” But the Hebrew word translated wander indicates “a deliberate departure
from one place to another as on a march or journey.”xviii So the deception leads to a deliberate departure from the Lord and His ways. These people go in the wrong direction.
(4) “They are in trouble because there is no shepherd.” Their journey leads to affliction, humiliation, and distress. The reason for all this is summed up in the statement, “because there is no shepherd.” The next verse expounds on this. There we find there were people leading them, but they were not true shepherds. They were leading for their own selfish motives and not for the wellbeing of those being led. We know from the previous prophets that corrupt leadership existed in Israel prior to the dispersion. Jeremiah 23 and Ezekiel 34 deal with that extensively. The foreign leaders over the Jews in exile were oppressors, not shepherds.xix The key issue is leadership.
II. God’s INTERVENTION for Israel in Zechariah 10:3-5 is a change in leadership.
It begins with judgment against the corrupt leadership. Zechariah 10:3a: “My anger is kindled against the shepherds, And I will punish the goatherds.”
The Hebrew word translated goatherds is ‘attuwd. It is a male goat. In this context it is a goat that is mixed into the flock to help guide the sheep, sometimes “with a bell on his neck.xx Jeremiah references this when he uses the phrase, “like the goats that lead the flock. (Jer. 50:8 NIV).
Ezekiel 34 begins by prophesying against the shepherds in Israel. This probably refers to the higher-level leadership in the land: the religious and civil leaders, especially the false prophets. The goats probably represent “the second tier of leadership.”xxi In Ezekiel 34:2 God says, “Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds: ‘Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?’(Ezek. 34:2). I wonder how many pastors God would say that to today.
Then in verses 17-22 the goats are addressed.
“'And as for you, O My flock,’ thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold, I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats. 18 Is it too little for you to have eaten up the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture — and to have drunk of the clear waters, that you must foul the residue with your feet? 19 And as for My flock, they eat what you have trampled with your feet, and they drink what you have fouled with your feet.’ 20 Therefore thus says the Lord God to them: ‘Behold, I Myself will judge between the fat and the lean sheep. 21 Because you have pushed with side and shoulder, butted all the weak ones with your horns, and scattered them abroad, 22 therefore I will save My flock, and they shall no longer be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.”
While judgment of these false leaders occurs throughout history, they will be completely removed at Christ’s Second Coming. There was a judgment in Jeremiah’s day when Israel went into exile. There was a judgment on Babylonians and Persians who oppressed Israel. There was a judgment of false leaders during the Maccabean Revolt. There was a judgment of false shepherds in 70 AD. But the final fulfillment of Zechariah 10:3 is a purging in preparation for the Millennium. God says in Zechariah 10:3, “My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will
punish the leaders; for the Lord Almighty will care for his flock, the people of Judah, and make them like a proud horse in battle.”
There is a play on the Hebrew word paqad in this verse. The word means to attend to or visit.xxii With the adversative preposition ›al (against) the word carries a negative connotation and is translated “punish” in our text. When “the accusative marker ›et is substituted for the adversative preposition ›al,” then it takes on the positive connotation of care and is translated “care for.”xxiii So God is going to attend to the matter in two ways: (1) He will judge the false shepherds and he-goats. (2) He will take care of His people, Judah.
His care of Judah will transform them from victims to victors. It will “make them like a proud horse in battle.” They will become a strong and valiant people. How will this happen?
Instead of corrupt false shepherds, God will give them a Good Shepherd, Messiah. The Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. Central to all God’s plans for His people is the Son of God, Christ the Lord. He will come out of the tribe of Judah. Micah 5:2: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.”xxiv
Messiah will come as the cornerstone, as the tent peg, and as a battle bow. As a result of His coming, every false shepherd and goat will be vanquished. Zechariah 10:4: “From him [Judah named in the previous verse] comes the cornerstone, From him the tent peg, From him the battle bow, From him every ruler together.”
We saw in our study of Zechariah 3:8-9 that Christ is the chief cornerstone. Isaiah 28:16 predicted His coming. Paul recognized Jesus as the cornerstone when he said the church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone” (Eph. 2:20).xxv The cornerstone provides the foundational support and stability for the whole structure. Without Christ, all else would collapse. All God’s people depend on Him.
Tent pegs were used to anchor the tent to the ground.xxvi When used that way, it symbolizes a stabilizing influence, something like the cornerstone on a building. But the peg was also used within the tent or in the wall for hanging valuables.xxvii The symbolism is used that way in Isaiah 22:23 and is probably what Zechariah has in mind. Isaiah 22:22-23 says, “The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder; So he shall open, and no one shall shut; And he shall shut, and no one shall open. 23 I will fasten him as a peg in a secure place, And he will become a glorious throne to his father's house.”xxviii In the historical context, this is referring to a descendant of David named Eliakim. He is being installed in the place of authority over the house of David, replacing an unfaithful leader named Shebna. This prophetic act transcends this historical descendant of David and points to the greater son of David, Christ. Isaiah 22:24 continues, “'They will hang on him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the posterity, all vessels of small quantity, from the cups to all the pitchers.” All the glory of His Father’s house will hang on Him.xxix
Messiah is also represented as “the battle bow.” He will operate that way at the Second Coming (Rev. 19:11). The Messianic Psalm 45 prophecies in verses 5-6, “Let your sharp arrows pierce
the hearts of the king’s enemies; let the nations fall beneath your feet. 6 Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.”
The last statement in Zechariah 10:4 is the most difficult to translate. The NKJV translates it, “From him every ruler together.”xxx The Hebrew word translated ruler is nagas. It means “to press, drive, oppress, exact, exert demanding pressure.”xxxi That’s why the Authorized Version translates it “oppressor.” But Mark Boda uses the term in a positive sense. Therefore, he understands the phrase to mean, “God will replace the idolatrous leadership of the shepherds and male goats of Zechariah 10:3 with a new leadership caste for Judah, who will work together.”xxxii While that understanding is possible, Feindberg and Unger are probably right in keeping the usual sense of the word to mean oppressor.xxxiii In that case, the phrase would mean every oppressor would be driven from Judah. Feindberg writes, “We prefer to understand the cornerstone, the nail, and the battle bow of the Messiah, while the second clause presents the results of His activities. Because the Messiah intervenes in the manner to be noted, every oppressor will depart from Judah.”xxxiv
The result for Judah is further described in Zechariah 10:5: “They [Judah] shall be like mighty men, Who tread down their enemies In the mire of the streets in the battle. They shall fight because the Lord is with them, And the riders on horses shall be put to shame.” We will deal with that verse in our next message.xxxv
Conclusion
Our text began with the invitation to ask and receive. In verse 1 God’s people are told to: “Ask the Lord for rain.” Let’s conclude the service by doing that. Let’s the Lord to pour out His Spirit afresh on us and make us fruitful for His glory.
ENDNOTES:
i All Scripture quotes are from the New King James Version unless indicated otherwise.
ii Cf. Prov. 3:5-6; Heb. 2:3.
iii New International Version. All quotes from the NIV are from the 2020 edition.
iv James 5:14-16.
v Joseph Scriven, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” in Hymns of Glorious Praise (Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1969), 403.
vi Cf. Zech. 14:16-17.
vii Unger, Zechariah, 173.
viii Cf. Richard W. Tow, Authentic Christianity: Studies in 1 John (Bloomington. IN: WestBow Press, 2019), 367-380.
ix Matt. 26:14-16; John 12:4-6.
x See also Judges 17:5-18:31; 1 Sam. 19:13-16.
xi “Gesenius traces ‘teraphim’ to the unused root ‘taraph,’ which in the Syriac has the significance, ‘to inquire.’” Baron, Zechariah, 341.
xii Three methods of divination were used in this text. See “Ezekiel 21:21,” Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright © 1996, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.
xiii Building on research by von der Toorn, Myers concludes, “rather than denoting small statues meant to represent either Yahweh or some other deity, the term ‘teraphim’ more likely desingnates ancestor statuettes or figurines.” Meyers and Meyers, Zechariah 9-24, 186. Cf. Boda, Haggai and Zechariah, The NIV Application Commentary, 438.
xiv Feinberg says Keil and others thought the teraphiym were “similar to the lares and the penates of the Romans” (emphasis Feinberg’s). Feinberg, God Remembers, 139.
xv Cf. Hill, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, 219. The New Living Translation is “fortune-teller.”
xvi Strong’s Concordance, NT:5331.
xvii It is currently popular in America for people to claim being a spiritual while rejecting traditional Christianity. This often amounts to projecting oneself as spiritually sensitive while distancing oneself from the moral restraints and accountability in Orthodox Christianity. The dangers in doing this are obvious from our text.
xviii Hinkley G. Mitchell, John M. P. Smith, and Julius A. Bewer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Haggai, Zachariah, Malachi, and Jonah (New York, Scribner and Son, 1912), 299.
xix Cf. Unger, 176.
xx Unger, 176. Cf. Boda, Haggai and Zechariah, The NIV Application Commentary, 440.
xxi Meyers and Meyers, Zechariah 9-14, 196.
xxii Strong’s Concordance, OT:6485.
xxiii Meyers and Meyers, Zechariah 9-14, 198.
xxiv See Matthew 2:4-6 where this is applied to Jesus.
xxv Cf. Rom. 9:32-33; 1 Cor. 1:23).
xxvi Cf. Ex. 27:19; 35:18; 39:40.
xxvii Baron, 351. See Ezek. 15:3.
xxviii John may have had this in mind when he wrote Revelation 3:7.
xxix Isaiah 22:25 predicts faithful Eliakim’s inability to carry that responsibility permanently because at some point he would die (be “cut down”). But the resurrected Christ will live forever.
xxx The NIV moves the adverb translated “together” from the end of verse 4 to the beginning of verse 5.
xxxi Strong’s Concordance, OT:5065).
xxxii Boda, Haggai and Zechariah, The NIV Application Commentary, 442.
xxxiii Cf. Ex. 3:7; Isa. 3:12; 14:2; 60:17, Dan. 11:20; Zech. 9:8 where the term is used in other passages.
xxxiv Feinberg, God Remembers, 144; Unger, Zechariah, 179.
xxxv Verse 5 continues the subject of God’s work with Judah, introduced in verse 3. Verse 6 introduces His work with the northern kingdom, the house of Joseph. Therefore, the logical break is between verses 5 and 6, not between verses 4 and 5. However, to keep this message from becoming too long, verse 5 will be dealt with in the next message.
