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Scripture Reading: Zech. 9
Zechariah's burden was to help the returned people of Israel to see God's purpose. At that time God's purpose was to recover the temple as the center of His interest. Through Zechariah the Lord seemed to be saying to them, "I do not want your fasting and weeping. Forget about these things. I would even ask you to forget what I did in the past to deal with you. You need to know what I want you to do today. I want you to realize that My desire is that the temple would be built up by My people to be the center and reality of My interest on earth." Today God's intention, His desire, is that we would be one with Him. He has brought us back to the very site, to the ground, even to the foundation of the temple. God wants us to see that His interest, desire, and burden are to finish the building of this temple.
God has a burden. This burden is that He may gain a people in this age to know His heart, to realize His desire, and to be one with Him to build up the Body of Christ. This is what God wants. God's desire is related to His economy. God's economy is to have Christ as everything, to have Him as the center and the circumference, the centrality and the universality, of God's move on this earth. We all need to see this.
Throughout the book of Zechariah Christ is revealed. In chapter one we see Christ as the Man riding on a red horse to take care of God's suffering people; in chapter two, as the One who is measuring Jerusalem; in chapter three, as the One, the High Priest, typified by Joshua the high priest and signified by the stone with seven eyes; in chapter four, as the One, the real King, typified by Zerubbabel; and in chapter six, as the unique One who is qualified to bear the office of both the priesthood and the kingship for the consummation of the building up of God's temple. Now we must go on to see that this all-inclusive Christ is altogether wrapped up with human history. Human history from Adam to the last person of the human race is nothing without Christ. However, according to God's economy, Christ is intimately involved with human history. This means that Christ is wrapped up with every crucial aspect of the four empires signified by the great human image in Daniel 2. As we will see, the Christ revealed in Zechariah 9—14 is a Christ who is involved with human history in a fine, particular, and even intimate way.
The visions in chapters one through six of Zechariah were mainly for consolation to the children of Israel, whereas the prophecies in chapters nine through fourteen are mainly for their encouragement. Without Christ there is neither consolation nor encouragement. The consolation in Zechariah 1—6 is Christ, and the encouragement in Zechariah 9—14 is also Christ. In this message we will consider the first of the prophecies of encouragement.
The prophecy in Zechariah 9 concerns the nations around Judah in relation to Israel.
The prophecy in verses 1 through 7 concerns the destruction carried out on the nations around Judah by Alexander the Great, king of the Grecian Empire (336-323 B.C., with the influence of his four successors up to 44 B.C.), prophesied by Daniel in his book as the abdomen and the thighs of the great human image in 2:32c, as the third beast in 7:6, as the male goat in 8:5, and as a mighty king in 11:3.
Zechariah 9:8 says, "I will encamp around My house because of an army, / Because of him who passes by and returns; / And no oppressor will pass over them any more; / For now I see with My eyes." This reveals that during the attack of Alexander the Great, the Lord protected Jerusalem with its temple as His house. Although Alexander, a mighty king, caused damage to so many nations around Judah, he did not cause much damage to Judah and Jerusalem, and he did not damage the temple at all.
The two verses in chapter nine that are concerned with Christ, verses 9 and 10, are an insertion. This means that verse 11 is actually the continuation of verse 8. Verse 9 says, "Exult greatly, O daughter of Zion; / Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! / Now your King comes to you. / He is righteous and bears salvation; / Lowly and riding upon a donkey, / Even upon a colt, the foal of a donkey." This reveals that Christ would come in a righteous way with salvation for us and that He would ride upon a donkey, even a colt of a donkey. This verse was fulfilled in the four Gospels when Jesus Christ came into Jerusalem the last time. He came as a King, but as a lowly King, a humiliated King, riding not on a majestic horse but on a colt.
Verse 10 says, "I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim / And the horse from Jerusalem, / And the battle bow will be cut off; / And He will speak peace unto the nations, / And His dominion will be from sea to sea / And from the River unto the ends of the earth." This refers to the millennial kingdom, which will be a time of restoration. In the millennial kingdom God will stop all the fighting. This word concerning the kingdom surely must have been a comfort and an encouragement to the people of Israel.
The sequence in this chapter is very meaningful. Verses 1 through 7 speak concerning the damage and devastation Alexander the Great caused to the nations surrounding Judah. Then verse 8 continues to say that the Lord Himself encamped around His temple within the holy city. This saved Judah with Jerusalem and the temple from the devastation of Alexander. Jerusalem and the temple were spared and saved from the devastation of the enemy. That was a good deliverance and a sign of the coming restoration. However, the coming restoration needs the coming of Christ. For this reason, after the word in verse 8 concerning the deliverance of Jerusalem and the temple, verse 9 says that Christ is coming, being righteous and bearing salvation. Eventually, the situation was right and fitting for Christ's coming, and He came in humility, and also in an intimate manner, riding upon a donkey.
What should be the issue of Christ's coming? As verse 10 indicates, after His coming peace and restoration should be here, and God's dominion should also be here. In the restoration the first item is peace: "He will speak peace unto the nations." The second item is dominion: "His dominion will be from sea to sea."
However, when Christ came the first time, He was only welcomed a little and was ultimately rejected, detested to the uttermost, and put to death by being crucified. Regarding His rejection by the children of Israel, the Lord Jesus said, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I desired to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left to you desolate" (Matt. 23:37-38). The word house denotes the house of God, which was the temple. It was the house of God, but here it is called "your house." The house of God had become their house, and it would be utterly destroyed by Titus in A.D. 70 (Matt. 24:2).
Because the children of Israel rejected Christ the King, the restoration was somewhat suspended, and a time of judgment over the children of Israel entered in, which has lasted about twenty centuries. Therefore, Christ needs to come a second time, this time not riding a donkey but coming as lightning (Matt. 24:27). Then peace and the eternal kingdom, as God's dominion, will be on the earth from sea to sea. This is the sequence according to the spiritual significance.
The prophecy in verses 11 through 17 of Zechariah 9 concerns the victory of the Jewish Maccabean heroes over Antiochus Epiphanes, the king of Syria (175-163 B.C.), the kingdom of the north, prophesied by Daniel in his book in 8:9-14, 23-25 and 11:28-35. Antiochus Epiphanes was the first type of the coming Antichrist, who will do the evil things prophesied in Daniel 8:10-13, 23-25; 11:30-32a.
God raised up the Maccabean heroes to encounter Antiochus and to defeat him. Daniel 11:32b says, "The people who know their God will show strength and take action." I believe that Maccabeus and his followers knew that this word applied to themselves and that they were encouraged by it. They showed strength and took action against Antiochus Epiphanes.
Zechariah 9:13 says, "I will bend Judah for Myself, / And I will fill a bow with Ephraim; / And I will stir up your sons, O Zion, / Against your sons, O Javan; / And I will make you like a warrior's sword." The word Javan here refers to Greece and is the key to understanding verses 11 through 17. The sons of Greece are Antiochus and those with him, and the sons of Zion are the Maccabeans. Thus, verse 13 is saying that at the time of Antiochus Epiphanes God would stir up His sons, the sons of Zion, against the sons of Greece.
Verses 14 and 15 go on to say, "And Jehovah will appear above them, / And His arrow will go forth like lightning; / And the Lord Jehovah will blow the trumpet, / And He will go in the whirlwinds of the south. / Jehovah of hosts will defend them; / And they will devour and trample the sling stones. / And they will drink; they will be noisy as if with wine; / And they will be filled like a sacrificial basin, / Like the corners of the altar." In these verses them and they refer to the Maccabeans, who were to be defended by God.
Verse 16 continues, "Jehovah their God will save them in that day as the flock of His people, / For they will be like the stones of a crown, sparkling in His land." "That day" refers to December 25, 161 B.C.
Verse 17 concludes, "For how great is their goodness, and how great their beauty! / Grain will make the young men flourish, / And new wine, the virgins." This is a word spoken in congratulations to the Maccabeans for their victory.
The first part of this chapter is concerned with Alexander the Great, and the last part, with Antiochus Epiphanes. A word concerning Christ, who is wrapped up with human history, is inserted in verses 9 and 10. Christ, of course, did not come during the time of the Grecian Empire but during the time of the Roman Empire. As we will see in a later message, Zechariah also prophesied concerning the Roman Empire.
