The Story of Two Conquerors, Part 2
Zechariah 9:9-17
If you were to ask me, “What’s wrong with the world?”, I would find the answer to be very simple. The King is absent. Once Jesus shows up, everything gets fixed in a hurry.
He came once and He promised to right the world. He said He was the Messiah of Israel. He said He was the Prince of Peace. He said He was the King of Kings. He said He was the Lord of Lords. And He was going to take back this world from the usurper who had had it for a long time whose name was Satan. And He offered His Kingdom to people but they rejected it. So He went away and He said, "I'll be absent a little longer, but I'll be back."
And so we say very often as Christians, the King is coming back. And when He comes back, war will end, injustice will end, anarchy will end, infusion will end, pain and disease and all the other things will be brought to a bare minimum. The world will be righted when Jesus comes again. He will seize the reins of the government of the world and He will rule with a compassionate rod.
That is the message of Zechariah 9. The conqueror is coming. It is told through a human picture that foreshadows the coming of the real King.
And there are two elements that we find in Zechariah's prophecy and in all the other prophetic books in the Bible that write about His return. One is positive and one is negative.
One says that He comes with great salvation and the other says that He comes in great judgment.
The last five chapters of Zechariah emphasizes
these two elements of the return of Christ. That which is positive in the salvation of Israel and the restoration of the earth and the Kingdom and all the glory that God deserves and His Son is finally going to attain, and comparing with that the terrible fearful eternal judgments that fall.
Chapter 9 introduces us to these two results of the coming of Jesus by telling us about a human conqueror who would come. And in regard to Isarel, he would bring judgment on her enemies and salvation to her. And all that was fulfilled through Alexander the Great.
And by the way, it was God’s way of saying “You can trust Me!” I’ll be true to My Word. If I can use a pagan human being to judge nations and to save My people, wait and see what I'll do with the God-Man, Jesus Christ in the end of the age."
And so after finishing off with Alexander, He turns to Christ in the middle of verse 8.
"And no oppressor shall pass through them anymore, for now have I seen with My eyes."
Now we are no longer talking about Alexander because he couldn’t puu this off. Now there’s a leap into the end of the age and when Christ comes, He says, there will never ever beyond that be an oppressor in the land of Israel.
And God says I have seen all I am going to see of oppression. I've seen all I'm going to allow. I've seen enough. And when Jesus comes, it will be over.
And that introduces us to the second part of the chapter, not the human conqueror, but part two, the divine conqueror, verse 9. Now watch this comparison.
Verse 9
Stop right there. He says, "Hey, people, get happy, the King is going to come." And, boy, you know, when Alexander came, he was hot stuff. You know, the white charger and the whole bit. But look at the comparison, this is incredible. "He is just and having salvation," notice those two things? Justice refers to what aspect of His coming? Judgment. Salvation refers to the saving aspect. He is just and He has salvation. The same two things.
But look, "Lowly, riding on an ass and upon a colt, the foal of an ass." Riding on a donkey and a baby donkey...some conqueror. Something wrong here. With that humble statement is the conqueror introduced. They would have reacted perhaps by saying, "I never saw a conqueror in my life riding around on a donkey's colt. Where's the white steed?" But this is a different conqueror.
Now I want to show you several things. First of all,
1. His Character
verse 9
It's amazing as you look at the text because against the background of the invincible marching army of Alexander comes one who doesn't inspire fear and He doesn't inspire dread and nobody's shaking and nobody's quaking.
But He still inspires praise and apparently, as we shall see, He inspires peace. This is a different conqueror. This is not a foreign tyrant, but Israel's own king. He is not cruel and oppressive, He is righteous. He is not slaying, He is saving. He is not rich and powerful, He is poor and meek and He doesn't ride a steed, He rides an ass's colt.
But Zechariah says, "Get ecstatic!" That's what the Hebrew says, ecstatic rejoicing...flip out, get happy, whoop it up. And he tells them why, there are four elements to His character:
First of all, He's a King. "Behold thy King cometh." The absolute monarch. I love this. "Thy King, Israel's King, Israel's redeemer, the promised seed of David, the Messiah, the One who is to reign, the One of whom Isaiah said, Unto us a child is born and the government shall be upon His shoulders...He's the King." And so it was announced at His birth, He's the King. And so it was announced at His death, placarded on the cross, Jesus of Nazareth, the King. And He was. Though they said it in jest, He was the King.
The King is coming. People, listen, it's going to be so good for this old world when the King gets back, don't you think? To make it all right, to fix it all up when He takes it back from that usurper Satan.
Second thing it says about Him, He's not only the King but He is just. He is just. His character is royal and His character is righteous. His character is royal and His character is righteous. That means He deals justly...He deals righteously. He will do what is right. No more will anybody say you can't get no justice...no more. He is righteous.
Won't it be great to have a world where all decisions are made by one who is absolutely righteous and just? The Scripture talks so much about that. I wish we had time to go into all the thoughts that it has.
Third thing, He is not only royal, He is not only righteous, but it says He has salvation. He is a Savior. He is a King. He is righteous. He is the Savior. Or we could say it this way: He is royal. He is righteous. He is redeeming. He comes to save.
What did the angel say when He was born? Thou shalt call His name what? Jesus. Why? For He shall save His people from their sin. Alexander was no Savior. Alexander wasn't even righteous. He was a puny king compared to Christ.
And then it says lastly in discussing His character, He is not only a King and righteous and a Savior, but He is meek. And it simply says "lowlyLowly, humble, quite different from Alexander. The word in the Hebrew means "poor." And the same Hebrew word is used in an economic sense to speak of somebody with no money. That's sounds like Jesus, doesn't it?
When they crucified Him, they took all of His belongings. You know what they had? One robe, that was it. Foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, Matthew 8:20 says, but the Son of Man hath not any place to lay His head. You know where His home was? The Mount of Olives, that's where He went every night and communed with the Father and slept under the stars. If He stayed in a home, it was the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus or somebody else who kept Him there. He had nothing. The word means poor in the Hebrew language when it refers to economics.
When the same word is used to speak of somebody else other than economic, it has to do with them being sick or wounded or afflicted. But the whole idea is of a person who has nothing. Who is miserable, who suffers alone. That's Him. That's Him.
And Zechariah ties that meekness into a very explicit prophecy and he says, "When He does come as King, just, Savior, lowly, it will be riding on an ass on the colt, the foal of an ass."
Now early in Israel's history, very early, it was respectable to ride around on a donkey. But by Solomon's time, it wasn't. See, Solomon brought into Israel horses. He was really big on horses. In fact the stables of Solomon are still there overlooking the valley of Megiddo where Armageddon will be fought. That's where Solomon's stables were. He had literally...some say 30,000 horses in his private group of horses. He introduced the horse to the Holy Land. And from that time on, nobles and soldiers and important people rode horses and the donkey lost its dignity. You were really admitting your poverty by putting around on a donkey.
So that makes this prophecy a strange prophecy. The King is coming, but He is riding on a donkey's colt. Did it happen? You know it did. Look at Matthew 21...Matthew 21, "And when they drew near to Jerusalem and were come to Bethphage unto the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples and said to them, Go into the village opposite you and straightway you shall find an ass tied and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me."
How did He know that? Just like He knew everything. Just a part of the information that God has, total information.
"When you find this little donkey with a colt, bring it. And if anybody says, you shall say, The Lord has need of them. Straightway he will send them." In other words, He says I'll not only take care of the fact that the donkey's there, but I'll take care of the questions the man might have. Just tell him the Lord sent for them and we'll work on his heart and he'll let you go. "All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet," what prophet? Zechariah, we just read it. "Saying, Tell ye the daughter of Zion, behold, thy King comes unto thee meek and sitting on an ass and a colt, the foal of an ass." Just exactly as was prophesied.
And He got on, verse 7, they set Him on it. "And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way. They cut down branches from the trees, spread them in the way. The multitude that went before that followed Christ saying, Hosanna to the King of David, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest." Hosanna to the what? The King. He was a King riding on a donkey, prophecy explicitly fulfilled.
Now go back to Zechariah. So Zechariah presents His character. Now that is the first coming of Christ.
Then look at verse 10. We move from the first coming of Christ where we see His character, to the Second Coming of Christ where we see
2. His Conquest
Now understand something: We jump very quickly from the first coming of the King to the Second Coming of the King. What’s missing? The church age. The Old Testament writers didn't see the church age. They saw the King coming offering the Kingdom and setting it up. The church is a mystery. Paul says this is a mystery which has been revealed to me which was hidden in the past.
And so, the gap in here is two thousand years long now, the Old Testament prophets didn't see. And so, immediately the King comes and it moves to His Second Coming and it says,
Verse 10
From the deep humiliation and affliction of Messiah at His first coming, Zechariah moves to the glory and exaltation of His Second Coming.
Now the chariot here is a battle chariot. And the horse is an instrument of war. And what he's saying here is, "I will bring an end to war. I will remove the need for chariots and horses in Jerusalem." They won't have to fight anymore. "And the battle bow will be cut off." There's no need for these things. Why? "He shall speak peace to the nations, set up His dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth."
That's basically a quote from Psalm 72 verse 8. "From sea to sea" means worldwide. He will rule the world, rule the whole world. And the river here is the river Euphrates which was the eastern border of the land given originally to Abram.
And so, from Israel's land bordered on the east by the Euphrates, extending all around the world will be the place where Jesus reigns. And He will bring peace so that there will be no more need for battle. Now here we are in the salvation part. This is God's wonderful redemption of Israel. No more war. He will rule and He will reign.
And then he takes it a step further.
Verse 11
You know, there's a phenomenal thing here in the Hebrew and that is this, that this is spoken of as if it already happened. It's a perfect tense. In other words, it's just as good as done in that day. Because of the blood of the covenant, I have already set you prisoners free from the waterless pit.
What does that mean?" Well, He says first of all, because of the blood of the covenant. "Well, what blood is that?" Well, you remember back in Genesis 15 God made a promise to Abram. He said, "Abram, I'm going to make a great nation out of you and I'm going to promise to bless that nation. Now I want to seal that promise, so you get a goat and a ram and a heifer and a pigeon and a turtledove and you split the animals in half and then just kill the pigeon and the turtledove. And lay half of the animals on this side and half of the animals on this side, the dead pigeon on this side, and the dead turtledove on this side."
That's a messy bloody deal. You say, "What's God up to?" He got all done doing that and God just gave him a divine anesthetic...whish...put him to sleep. He's zonked.
And the Bible says that God, speaking of God as a smoking burning lamp and furnace, God passed between those pieces.
In the east, when people made a covenant, they made it in blood. And the way they did it was to cut an animal in half and walk between the bloody parts of the animal. That was the custom to seal a promise. And God was not making a promise with Abram with responsibilities on both sides. He put Abram asleep and said, "You're not involved in this; the fulfillment of this covenant has nothing to do with you."
God was making a promise with God. Nobody went through those pieces but Him. He vowed with Himself to bless his people. That's unconditional because God could never break a promise He made with Himself, both parties are incapable of violating it because both parties are one in the same God.
And so, He says it is because of My own covenant, the blood of that covenant, it may even also include the bloodshed in the Mosaic covenant. And certainly ultimately it is the covenant that is fulfilled most singularly in whose blood? The blood of Jesus Christ.
Because of the blood that I that I passed between then, because of the blood of the Mosaic covenant, because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the once for all offering, because of those things, some pass, some yet to come, I'll never violate My promise, it's sealed in blood.
Now watch this, He says, “I have already set free the prisoners from the waterless pit.”
You remember Joseph, Genesis 37? Where did they throw Joseph? Where did his brothers throw him? In a pit. That was a common place to put people you wanted to get rid of. You know what happened when they threw them in the pit? Nothing, they died. And you now what they used to use for pits? Empty cisterns and dry wells.
And that's exactly what you have here. A pit in which there is no water is a dry well. And God says Israel has been in a dry well a long time but because of the blood of the covenant and because I have made a vow to Israel, they're as good as out. And that's a great message to announce to the Jews.
You are as good as out of the pit some day. When the King comes, Israel will be freed from the pit of trouble, the pit of war, the pit of suffering to know the liberty of the Kingdom of peace and the reign of the Prince of Peace Himself.
And so, because of that he calls them prisoners of hope in verse 12.
You ever visit with someone in prision or even in the hospital? I thin k I’m getting out in . . ..days, weeks, years. That is hope talking.
And here is God saying, you may have been in a terrible position, You may have it really rough but I'll tell you one thing, you're prisoners of hope because one of these days you're as good as out of the pit. And when you get out, everything that's ever been withheld from you will be given back double.
Not just blessing, double blessing. After all, you've had double anxiety and double pain. I'll render double blessing.
And so, He says I'm going to save them. I'm going to take war from the earth, verse 10. I'm going to give them salvation and bring them out of the pit. And I'm going to double bless them, verse 12.
Now watch this one. Just so we don't lose our place in history, the Holy Spirit stops here and gives us another one of those historical pledges.
Verses 13-14
Now that seems pretty obscure. But it isn't. Let me show you the picture here, it's really clear if you just look a step at a time at it. The Lord says, "Just to let you know I'm on your side, even so you don't doubt Me, even after Alexander, I've got another little token along the path here that will show you I mean business. I will use Judah like a bow, and Ephraim is the arrow. In other words, I'm going to use you as My weapons, O Zion, against Greece.
Now there's only been one time in history when God ever used Israel to defeat Greece. And that was in the period of time between the Old and the New Testaments, that 400 year period in there.
In that period of time, Israel knew the domination of Greece. And only one time in those years did they ever break that domination. It was under the Maccabees. Judas Maccabaeus, a Jewish man and his sons started a rebellion against the yoke of Greece.
The Greek ruler Antiochus Epiphanes had been assigned to Israel, and he had so desecrated the temple, he stuffed pork down the throats of the priests and he sacrificed a pig on the altar. He was a terrible character. And they were so infuriated by this that God raised up a rebellious army and they literally fought against Greece and prevailed.
And so that's what you have here. God is saying some day I'm going to use you to defeat Greece and make you like the sword of a mighty man. And the Lord will be seen over them at that time and His arrows shall go forth like the lightning. And the Lord God will blow the trumpet and go with whirlwinds of the south.
Just like a devastating whirlwind, just like lightning cracking out of the sky, just like a sharp arrow and a piercing sword, God says I'm going to use Israel against Greece. And the war lasted from 175 to 163 B.C. They fought Antiochus Epiphanes and they won their independence.
For them it was a holy war. And here Zechariah says God will be your captain. Jehovah will blow the trumpet. He'll call you to battle. He'll send you out to victory.
But that's only a touch. That's only a token. That's only a pledge on the path to the final victory that awaits in the great and glorious future when Jesus comes. What you see here is just a token or a pledge. It's just a historical picture of the ultimate great victory God will win over the nations using Israel even as His instrument.
Now, let's go on to the final triumph.
verse 15
The "Lord of hosts" is a great term. In the Hebrew it literally translates the "Lord of armies." The Lord of armies is on their side. He is going to defend them like a lion. He will devour. You see, it's the Lord and Israel, one and the same. And Israel like the lion of God takes their enemies and devours them.
When you devour something, you take its strengths and make it your own. Whatever you eat, you take the strength of that which you eat and you make it your own and turn it into your own energy. And that's why this is so often used. Israel would literally take the strength of its enemies and turn it into its own strength. To conquer a certain country was to take all its resources, all of its attributes, all of its strengths and make them your own. And that is precisely what they would do.
The sling stones, it says, you'll subdue them. The enemies in those days used to hurl stones, sometimes with little slingshots, sometimes with great big catapults. And he's saying whether they're the little shots or the big stones thrown by the enemy, they're just going to bounce off, fall to the ground, you're going to walk along.
And I like this one. "They shall drink and roar like wine." You know what happens to people when they drink too much wine? They get loud. Have you ever noticed that? And they get boisterous. And you're going to be like that. You're going to know victory and the joy and the excitement and the boisterous kind of things that go with it.
And remember, the battle he's discussing here is Armageddon. And the armies of the world may amass themselves against Israel, but Israel's going to wind up just walking over the stones, shouting with joy.
And then an interesting thing. He likens them to bowls or basins. He says, "And you shall be filled like bowls and like the corners of the altar." What are the bowls here?
These are the bowls used to catch the sacrificial blood splashed against the altar. When they offered sacrifices, the blood was very meaningful to them and so when it would splash on the altar, they would catch it in these bowls. And then they would take the bowls and splash the remaining blood against the corner of the altar so that it would splatter on this side and splatter on that side. And they would do that to all the corners so that the whole altar was splattered with blood. You can't imagine how ugly an altar finally became.
But they were literally, he says, you will be like bowls that are used to splatter blood all over the altar. And what he's really saying here is that Israel is going to see the splattering of the bloodshed of the godless.
There's going to be so much blood, you'll think you're the bowls. Read Revelation 14:20, the blood will be to what depth? The horses' bridles for 200 miles.
So, you have the salvation on the one hand, and the peace and the Kingdom and this terrible judgment of the godless on the other hand.
So we see the character of the coming King...a King righteous, a Savior, lowly. We see His conquest in judgment.
And lastly, I love this, we see
3. His Care
verse 16
And here we turn from judgment to salvation again.
He says the Lord their God shall save them in that day as the flock of His people. Now all of a sudden He's a shepherd. A Shepherd King, saving His flock. I'm not going to take the time to show you but we'll see it as we finish the book of Zechariah, that Shepherd-King concept is repeated in Zechariah. Salvation is going to come. Salvation is going to come.
The saved remnant, he says further, will be like the jewels in a crown, lifted up like a banner.
"Lifted up" means sparkling in Hebrew. The saved people are going to be like sparkling jewels in the crown of the Messiah. Beautiful thought. All the rebels will be purged out. And there will be godly people left and they will become like jewels in the crown of the Messiah.
God's people will be like the crown on His head in the Kingdom.
So, we see a great future for Israel. Great, great reality of the coming King based on the blood of the covenant.
And what is the response? There can only be one response in the heart of Zechariah, there can only be one response in your heart and mine and that's
4. His Coronation
verse 17
In other words, look at the Kingdom, all supplies will be there. We'll have all we need for happiness. O how great is His goodness...how great is His beauty. In that day, beloved, there will be prosperity and there will be joy like the world has never conceived.
There is coming a King. I hope you'll be a part of His Kingdom. Who is that King? I'll tell you who it is. Who was it that rode on the colt, the foal of a donkey?
The Lord Jesus Christ. Who will it be that comes back? The Lord Jesus Christ. He came once in humility, He returns in honor. He came in meekness, He returns in might. He came in poverty, He returns in power. He came in shame, and He returns in sovereignty. And Zechariah says, "Be comforted, Israel, some day your trouble will be over and salvation will come and you'll reign with the King."
Let's pray together.
