The Divine Plan for Jerusalem, Part 2
Zechariah 1:9-17
Take your Bible, if you will, and look with me at the book of Zechariah. We began our message last week and I really had only plans for this to be one message, and it got split into two, so we'll just give you the remainder of it tonight.
We've entitled it "The Divine Plan for Jerusalem" and it deals with Zechariah 1:7 through 17. I think it's most interesting that in the day in which we live, Jerusalem has again become the focal point in human history. The topic of the news and our eyes are focused upon that little country in the Middle East, and that one particular, beautiful city of Jerusalem.
This is not an accident. This is as God had planned it in history and in prophecy, and we're beginning to see the fulfillment. From the beginning of God's dealing with His people, Israel, that nation has had a very unique place in God's plan. God chose Israel, purely out of His own sovereign love. It wasn't anything that they were, they weren't any better, any more intelligent, any more holy, any more anything really. It's simply that God sovereignly chose them.
Now a lot of people wonder “why?” Why did God choose Israel, and why did He not choose another nation? I don’t know that there is a way to determine why He chose them and not another nation, but there is a way to determine why He chose them. And that is because He had to have a nation. He had to have a people. You say, "For what intention, for what reason?" Let me give you several.
God needed a nation of people in the world, in order no.1, to proclaim the existence of the true God.
There had to be somebody in human society who would declare the truth about God. And do you remember that Israel was told, "The Lord our God is one God." In Deuteronomy 6:4, and God said, "Talk about that when you lie down and when you rise up and when you stand and when you walk and when you sit. So talk about it all the time, and teach it to your children and to their children. Let it be known to the world that you proclaim the one true God." And so God needed a nation to do that. In Isaiah 43:21, God said, "This people have I chosen for myself. They will show forth my praise." The chosen people to declare the true God.
Secondly, He needed a nation through whom He could reveal the Messiah.
In Genesis chapter 12, verse 3, God said to Abram, "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." And it was truth. Through the loins of Abraham came the Messiah. That's what Jesus meant in John 4:22 when He said, "Salvation is of the Jews." He didn't mean salvation is for the Jews. He meant that the one who is the savior came through the seed of Israel. So God needed a nation to proclaim His existence and to reveal His Messiah.
Thirdly, God needed a nation to be a priest among men.
You know that a priest is one who speaks to God on the behalf of men, who intercedes for men, and who, on occasion, will speak to men about God.
He is an intermediary, and God needed a nation to be the intermediary between men and Himself. In Exodus 19:5 and 6, it says that "Israel was a kingdom of priests." The world could come to Israel and be introduced to God. That was God's plan, although, it didn't always work out like that. They were to represent God and the world. They were to be His priests.
Fourthly, God chose Israel to transmit and preserve Scripture.
God needed a people who would be a depository in which He could place the Word of God where it would be protected, where it would be cared for, where it would be preserved. And that's again, in Deuteronomy chapter 4 and chapter 6, why God says, "What I have commanded you, obey it, keep it, maintain it, preserve it, because it is essential to the life of all the earth." So God needed a nation to proclaim His existence, to reveal His Messiah, to be His priest in the world, to preserve and transmit Scripture.
And then fifthly, and I think this is important, God needed a nation that could show that world that He was a faithful God.
The one thing that God did not want the world to do was to lose their trust in Him, or that God did not want to lose His credibility in the face of the world. God did not want a bad reputation of being a God that you couldn't trust. He might say something and not carry it through. And so God had a nation, the nation Israel, and everything that God ever said to that nation, He brought to pass. When He said "Do this and I'll bless," they did it and He blessed.
When He said "Do that and I won't," they did it and He didn't. And it's always been that way.
Sixthly, I think the reason God needed a nation was to show man His grace in dealing with sin.
God wanted to show the world that He was gracious and there's no better proof of it than to see how He blessed Israel in spite of Israel's sin. No better way to prove it than to see that if Israel was simply obedient to carry out the acts of repentance and confession that were known as the sacrifices, God would forgive their sin no matter how heinous and how awful it was.
The whole system of Levitical offerings was to show that God was gracious and God was forgiving and as Micah said, "Who is a pardoning God like thee? Whoever forgives iniquity and passes by transgression the way that you do? Whoever removes sin as far as you? As far as the east is from the west, and forgets it?" And so, a nation was needed to show His grace.
And seventh, a nation was needed to show God's anger in dealing with sin and lack of repentance.
Israel is a perfect illustration of that. You look at their history, and whenever there was unrepentant sin, whenever there was unconfessed sin, whenever there was prolonged and protracted evil, without any conscience about it, there was war and there was death, and there was plague, and there was judgment.
It is precisely at that juncture in the life of Israel that we enter the book of Zechariah. This nation had been in sin, and they had not repented of that sin. They had failed to acknowledge that sin to God. And as a result God said, "You're going to get scattered again." And they did and they were taken captive into Babylon and that Babylonian captivity.
As we saw last time, it lasted for a period of 70 years. Then after 70 years, you remember what happened, God said "That's enough. That's enough chastening." And there was the decree of Cyrus that sent the people who wanted to go back to the land.
As we come to Zechariah, they have come back. They have returned to the land. They've been there now for quite a few years. They've had a difficult time getting the building going because they've been hassled and harassed by their enemies. And they are rather indefensible since there isn't any wall to their city. It's very difficult, and so they have kind of lapsed into invalids and lethargy.
And it's at that point that God raises up two prophets. The first one was Haggai, and Haggai stirred them to start the work. Two months later came Zechariah, and Zechariah comforted them and encouraged them to keep the work going. And Zechariah's message was this: "Keep it up folks; God's on your side. Keep it up folks; God is going to bless you. God's got great plans for you. You can be confident in God. You can believe in God. He's going to take care of you." And he just kept comforting them and comforting them and comforting them. And he was a catalyst to keep them moving in the building.
Now, in his prophecy, the major theme of the first six chapters is the comfort that God wants to give to Israel. And it comes in a series of eight visions. Remember, they are designed to comfort Israel as they prepare and endeavor to rebuild their city.
And the first one is in verses 7-17. Let's remind ourselves of the vision by looking at verse 8 again.
Last week we looked at
1. The Picture Seen
Verse 8
Zechariah sees this vision. Now, let me remind you of what it is that he sees. The man riding the red horse was whom? Christ, known also in the Old Testament by what title? The angel of the Lord. Riding a red horse is a symbol of what? War and battle. So he's mounted for battle. Behind him were other riders on red horses and white horses and some that were mixed reddish and white, sorrel. The white we see in prophecy has to do with victory or triumph. So there is a war coming and the idea is there will be blood but there will be victory.
And as the angel of the Lord and all these hosts behind him, we called it the God Squad last time. All the angelic hosts that are assigned to this particular thing, they are all in a hollow. And we suggested that it most likely would be where the valley of Kidron and the valley of Henum on the south part of Jerusalem meet together.
And it shows them in this place, amidst a whole group of myrtle trees. And we said that the myrtle trees represented whom? The Jews, Israel. And here is Israel in a low place, in a despairing place, outside their city, not really possessing their kingdom and wondering why they haven't, and all of the sudden Zechariah says, "You may be outside wanting to possess, and you may want to restore that beautiful city and that marvelous worship and all that God has given you in the past, and you may be wondering why you're in the valley, in the hollow, but look again because right in the midst of you is a rider on a red horse who's about to start a war, and it's going to be a victory for you, and He's going to reinstate you in the place of God's divine blessing."
So it's a fantastic picture. The Picture Seen
Second point,
2. The Perplexity Solved
Now, Zechariah sees a thing like that and naturally it arouses his curiosity.
verse 9
Not who are these, but “what” are these.
I think he probably knew who was represented. But he was saying, "What is the significance of this? And the angel who talked with me (verse 9) said to me, 'I'll show you what the significance is'."
Now, here we meet "the angel who talked with me."
After a lot of thinking and reading this, I'm convinced that "the angel that talked with me" is not the same as the angel of the Lord. He's different. He's another angel. Let's call him "Interpreter Angel" because that's his function. He's a special angel, and his job is to explain things to Zechariah.
So Zechariah's having this vision and in order to understand them, God sends along an interpreter angel who helps him to get things clear. This angel is mentioned 11 times in the book so he's important. "What are these? And the angel that talked with me said 'I'll show thee what these are.'" This says the angel is gonna help him to understand.
verse 10,
Somehow this interpreter angel directs his attention to the rider on the horse, and he says in verse 10, "And the man that stood among the myrtle trees," and who is that? That's the rider on the horse. "Answered and said, 'These are they,'" and he's looking out at the troops behind him, "'these are they that the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth.'"
So he looks back and he sees the riders on the red, the white, and the sorrel horses, and he says, "These are the ones that God has sent to walk to and fro through the earth." This is God's reconnaissance crew. This is the divine patrol, if you will. The word occurs in a military sense. And so God has His squad, His patrol, moving through the earth, just to get the up to date information on what's going on among the enemy.
And they give the report, verse 11. Here's our report, they're reporting in now to the commander in chief, the angel of the Lord, none other than Christ, and they answered the angel of the Lord that stood among the myrtle trees, and they said, here's their report, "We have walked to and fro through the earth and behold, all the earth sitteth still and is at rest. We've checked it all out, and everybody's at rest."
Now, I just want to give you footnotes. Verse 11 calls the rider, for the first time, the angel of the Lord. And the angel of the Lord is none other than Jesus Christ, none other than the second person of the Trinity. But every Jew knew the angel of the Lord was his protector and defender. Every Jew who knew anything about his Old Testament, every Jew who knew anything about the history of his people, knew that there was one special angel, one super angel, who was set for the defense of Israel, and it was the angel of the Lord.
What is so wonderful is that the angel of the Lord had not appeared for 200 years in the history of Israel. And now all of the sudden the angel of the Lord is back, and all of those 200 years while Israel was in wretchedness, and Israel was in sinfulness, their protector and advocate and defender was not around. But when their chastening was done and repentance had taken place, He was back, ready to defend His people.
Can you imagine how excited those people got when they heard Zechariah describe his vision as incorporating the angel of the Lord and they must have whispered to each other, "But He hasn't been around for 200 years and now He's back." Victory is imminent. What a joyous vision.
There's a great truth here people. The Lord Jesus Christ, the angel of the Lord, is our defender and protector. Isn't He the one who takes up our cause? Isn't He the one in Romans 8 who says, "Who shall lay any charge to God's elect?" Isn't He the one who says He has justified us? Isn't He the defender and the protector and the advocate? Yes He is, but I'll tell you something. He will not make Himself known in that fashion, when we are living in a state of unrepentant, unconfessed sin. In a sense, we forfeit His protection. And He turns us over to the consequence of our sinfulness. And the moment we repentant and the moment we confess, He's back, to defend.
And now He's back among His repentant people to take up their cause and He always will take up the cause of the people who are rightly related to Him, always. And here's their report, "Everything is still in the earth."
Well that sounds terrific. But what does the word mean when it says "The earth sits still and is at rest?" The term literally means "relaxed, peaceful, tranquil, free from war." Now this is generally speaking. There were some little squirmishes going on, we know, in the second year of Darius, but they were pretty well squelched. And the Persians had managed to pull off pretty much what amounted to a world wide peace in their world.
And that is what is reported.
But that word also means something else. When it says "The earth is at rest," that word is used several times in the Old Testament to refer to selfish inactivity...selfish inactivity. Such is its use in the case of Moab, in Jeremiah 48:11. Such is its use in the case of Samaria in Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 49.
And in both of those Scriptures, the term means not a positive thing, but a negative. It means these people, Moab, and these people, Samaria, are selfishly indifferent to the plight of somebody that has a need. In other words, some people's peace isn't really peace, it's indifference. If you're in a society plagued by poverty and pain, and you're totally blissful, that's not really peace, that's indifference.
Incidentally this is a peace that isn't long to last. It is a peace that is doomed. In fact, Haggai, the other prophet of this time, said in Haggai 2:7, "'I will shake the nations and the desire of all nations and I'll fill this house with glory' saith the Lord of Hosts."
And over in verse 21, He says essentially the same thing, "I'll overthrow the throne of kingdoms, I'll destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, I'll overthrow the chariots and the people who ride them, and the horses and the riders, etc., etc.," And Haggai kept saying, "There's coming a day when these so called peaceful nations aren't going to be at peace anymore, when God begins to shake the nations."
So the nations were at peace, but it was the peace of indifference. It was the peace of smugness.
Here is the question, a question that's really in the mind of the Jews, the myrtle trees and the hollow, is this: "Why do the unrighteous prosper? And why is all the world at peace and so indifferent while we suffer humiliation and we are the people of God?" So you see the contrast of the earth's indifferent peace makes the state of Israel all the more distressing.
And when you look at verse 15, "I'm very much displeased with the nations that are at ease," that proves the point. It isn't the kind of ease that honors God. It isn't the right kind of peace, it's the wrong kind of peace. It's the peace of injustice, the peace of inhumanity, the peace of indifference that characterizes,
You see, the Jews had never assumed that they could have the financial wherewithal to build the whole city themselves. They were counting very strongly on loans from the Persian government. That's indicated in Ezra 6:4. They were counting on some wealth made available to them by other nations, to help them to rebuild.
But Persian wealth had been distributed in other ways and they weren't interested. And the rest of the world powers were concerned with their own interests and they were unlikely to even bother with this insignificant group of patriots.
So all was well in the world for everybody but Israel. Isn't that amazingly like today? They do it on their own pretty much. Little aid from here and there, mostly America, a few other countries. But they have a kind of an independence. They kind of do it on their own.
And so even though they were back in the land, and everything was alright, it wasn’t yet what it should be. The rest that they had been promised by God when they came back from the Babylonian captivity hadn't come to pass yet. They were still under the yoke of Gentile power. Darius was their king and he was a Gentile. They were constantly hassled by the enemy nations and the building. They were defenseless because they had no walls, no army. The promise of God for the shaking of the nations hadn't happened. Their peaceful security was unrealized and they were shaking in that hollow, in that glen, waiting for God to do something.
And so when the angelic squadron came back and said, "The world is at peace," that just made them feel worse. Why should the pagan world rest and the covenant people of God be in unrest? Is God gonna make things right? Is God gonna balance the scale for His people?
So the picture seen, the perplexity solved,
3. The Plea Stated.
Watch what happens:
Verse 12
Who is always before the Father pleading the cause of His people? Who is the faithful high priest? Christ. There He is. "Oh Lord of Armies", what hosts means. He's calling on the troops now. "Oh Lord of Armies, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah against which thou has had indignation these 70 years. How long?"
What a fantastic scene! Here is Christ the intercessor. Here is Christ the advocate, Christ the defender, Christ the protector, Christ taking up the cause of His people.
It's exciting for me to know that when I get myself into a problem and the Lord has to chasten me and the chastening goes on a little while, that the great protector, defender, who knows all things and knows the plan and the mind of God, can cry out on my behalf to God saying, "How long are you going to withhold your mercy from him?" He takes my case. He is my Advocate. He is my Intercessor.
Now the reason He asks this isn't because He's ignorant. He's simply crying out to reveal Himself as the defender of His people, and it is the cry of expectation. It is the cry of sympathy, not the cry of doubt. It isn't the cry of questioning. It isn't begging. It isn't doubting. It is believing, expectation, coupled with sympathy. And so the intercession is made on the basis of God's promise. And the angel is praying in conformity to the will of God on the behalf of the people. So the picture is seen, the perplexity is solved as the interpreter helps him to see the picture better, the plea is stated.
4. The Punishment is Set
I like this, verse 13
"And the Lord," what's the next word? "Answered." You see, the second person of the Trinity always knows when it's the right time to ask the first person of the Trinity, so that when the second person asks, the first person answers.
And look at the response, "And the Lord answered the angel that talked with me," and now again it's coming through interpreter angel, "He answered," listen, "with good words," - and what - "comforting words." Draw a little line under those, "good words and comforting words." That is the essence of the whole book. It's a book about good words and comforting words. The key to the book.
But specifically the good words and the comforting words come from verses 14-17 and what they say is God will keep His promise about His city.
Look at verse 14
Now this interpreter angel says to Zechariah, he says, "Zech, this is no private message, fellow. Yell." That's why cry means. "Yell, Thus saith the Lord of armies, I am jealous for Jerusalem and Zion with a great jealousy. This is a message everybody is to hear, to be proclaimed to all the people, that they all may be comforted, that they all may be encouraged. And what is it? God is jealous for Jerusalem and Zion with a great jealousy. God is on your side and He's had it up to here."
The Hebrew root for jealousy means "zeal, fury, jealousy" and it is a two sided word. Zeal means love and hatred together. God loves His people so much that He hates anything that hurts His people. And so it's that mixture that becomes zeal.
The Aramaic word for this indicates a turning of red, indicating the color a face turns when somebody becomes furious. God is really getting upset. The Greek equivalent means "to boil." God is boiling mad. Intense zeal.
Listen, God has a special place in His heart for Jerusalem. He has a special place in His heart for the people, and that isn't changing. In 2 Chronicles 6:6, God says, "But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there." Did you know that? And some day yet again in the future His name will be there.
And His Son will be there, reigning in the Kingdom. He says, "I have chosen Jerusalem, and the gifts and calling of God says, 'All are without repentance.'" That city is still His city. This is the city of God.
God's going to take care of His town. It's His.
God’s got plans for the city. And so He says, "I'm jealous for my people. And I'm going to act in judgment on those who have offended them."
You remember back in Genesis 12, when God first gave the covenant to Abram, and He said, "Whoever blesses Israel will be blessed, and whoever curses
So His jealousy turns to anger in verse 15
He says, "I am angry with a great anger." That's the literal Hebrew. "With the nations." What nations? The ones He was talking about, Edom, Assyria, Babylon particularly who had offended His people. Because they are at ease.
God says, "I was a little displeased and I wanted the nations to chasten Israel a little bit, but you have pushed it all out of shape," at the end of verse 15. "You helped forward the affliction. You went too far."
You see the nations kind of reveled in Israel's suffering. They delighted in it, they prolonged it, they intensified it. They were back in the land, the 70 years was over. God's prophets had said it, "It was for 70 years and no more, and then you are to assist Israel, but you have prolonged the agony and because of that, I am much displeased with you and you sit in your smug indifference against Israel."
You see the nations didn't grasp that God's intention was to punish for a moment, and then show great compassion. That's always the word. So the punishment of the nations is set. It's gonna come. And it came. They rebuilt their city. They rebuilt their walls. And there's yet even a future coming as well. So we see the picture seen, the perplexity solved, the plea stated, the punishment set, and last,
5. The Promise Secured.
Can you imagine how encouraged those Jews are after they've heard this first message from Zechariah? It's gonna get exciting folks. We're gonna see a victory. God will bring justice on the behalf of His people.
verse 16-17
And that's the end of the first vision. The promise is secure.
Four things there, did you see them?
No. 1, return
. Verse 16
"I am returned to Jerusalem with mercy or tender affection, or love, bowels," literally, "deep feelings of emotion. I'm back and I'm ready to occupy my temple again." This is God saying, "I have returned to my city." And you can just feel Jews getting excited. God's back, the temple's going to go up, the shekinah's gonna come back, no more ichibod. Return.
Second word that I see here is restoration. Verse 16, right in the middle, "My house shall be built in it." You want to know something? Four years after that prophecy, the temple was finished. It was done, four years later, and God occupied it.
And then I see reconstruction, a third word. "And a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem." What does it mean a line shall be stretched forth on Jerusalem? They're gonna lay out the city to rebuild it. God says, "I am going to return, temple worship is going to be restored, the city is gonna be reconstructed" and do you realize that 80 years later, Nehemiah finished the wall and the thing was done?
And verse 17 says, "That my cities, through prosperity, shall be spread abroad." The place is gonna gush with prosperity, overflowing. And they rebuild it, and they had some wonderful years of prosperity.
And the last word I see is reassurance. The end of 17, "And the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and so yet choose Jerusalem." Comfort's coming. What a wonderful message for the troubled little remnant.
God's gonna keep His promise to His people, no matter what the world is doing, no matter how indifferent they are, no matter how it looks. What a great hope.
Beloved it's a great hope for us, I think, from two angles. God is still dealing with Israel. God's gonna deal with His people. He's going to comfort Israel in the future, gonna bring His Messiah and redeem them.
But I see this same characteristic of God in relation to the church, don't you? Isn't it great to know that Christ is in the midst of His church? In many ways, we're in the valley in the world, aren't we? We don't reign in this world, Satan does. We're the outcasts. We're the ones in the hollow outside the kingdoms of the world looking in. We're the ones that the world looks down on. We're the ones who exist in a kind of humiliation, but right in the midst of us is the living Christ. And He's saying, "It won't be long until we're gonna ride in and take over this world, and I'm gonna reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords."
There's history here that already happened. There's prophecy here that's yet to happen. Both of those are related specifically to Israel. In addition to that, there is the overall character of Jesus Christ that is manifest and He is in His character, manifests toward His church, the very same spirit, the same attitude and the same power that He manifest toward Israel. So the sum of all of this is that it's a tremendous, profound word for all of us. And we glory and rejoice in it.
Keep your eyes on Israel. The myrtle bushes are in the hollow, and I think the rider on the red horse is there with them. And He may be pleading to God to take back the land and judge the nations, very soon.
They're back in their land, the scene is set, and what a scene it is.
Well, let's pray.
