Minor No.13 Zechariah 1

of the minor prophets. I indicate to you in the notes that Zechariah means the one whom God remembers, the one whom Jehovah remembers. And that's probably the reason why the name is so popular amongst Jewish people.

To think of yourself in terms of always being in the recollection of God is not presumption if you are a believer. And it is a very wonderful thing if you have worked out the practical consequences of God holding you in His memory. So we're looking at a very spiritual man who was given a good title to carry through his life.

The prophet Zechariah is steeped in Old Testament scripture. You probably realized when we were reading the second chapter that he was quoting at the end of the second chapter from Habakkuk, telling the world to be quiet before the Lord. When you get through to the third chapter, you'll find that he quotes from the prophet Amos.

And indeed, as I shall seek to show you in a moment or two, he quotes in the opening chapter from Jeremiah. So he's a man who bears the name of God upon him, whose mind is steeped in Old Testament scriptures. And he's a man who combines the office of a prophet with that of an evangelist.

You never come across the word evangelist, to my knowledge, at any rate in the Old Testament. But the prophet invariably is such. The evangelist does not suggest, he dogmatizes.

And that's what you'll find Zechariah doing all the way through the prophecy. He will command the people what to do in the name of God. Look for an example at verse 2. Return to me, says the Lord.

And when you go into the second chapter, the sixth verse, come, come, flee from the land of the north, declares the Lord. And that final verse, quoting Habakkuk, be still before the Lord, all mankind. He's a man who is aware that behind his message there is the authority of God.

Now, when you consult all the 14 or so chapters that constitute this prophecy, you are presented with some of the most challenging stuff in the whole of the Old Testament. It is challenging because it bears within it the seed of the gospel. In fact, one of the things, and I've been working through chapters 4 and 5 during most of today, one of the things that really is quite remarkable about Zechariah is the way that he has a foreknowledge of the gospel message and the way that God is going to bless Jew and Gentile who respond to his message of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's also a tantalizing prophecy because it goes beyond the prediction of the first advent of the Lord Jesus to the second coming. And much has been the paper and gallons have been the ink that have been used in interpreting particularly the 13th and 14th verses, but the 13th and 14th chapters and especially the latter. However, all that is to come so you can relish some very interesting Bible study as far as examining what the commentators have said and trying to share with you my own understanding in the weeks that are yet to be.

The first few chapters, I've put in the notes the first five, actually the first six are taken up with visions. Visions which the prophet has of what is about to happen to Jerusalem and what will happen when the Lord Jesus Christ returns. The second part, the middle part of the prophecy is taken up with preaching and actually he deals with the subject of fasting.

So if you have any overweight problems then you come in for chapters 7 and 8 and you may get some physical as well as spiritual benefit from what the prophet has to teach us. And then the final verses, or rather the final chapters as I've indicated are to do with the intervention of God in the advent of his son on the earth on the first occasion and the second advent. Our study this evening, for which I'm not going to use the overhead projector apart from just bringing the headings to you as you have notes in front of you, our subject this evening will cover the first two chapters in which I argue we discover the prophet emphasizing the God who speaks from chapter 1, verse 1 to verse 6 and then we will see the prophet showing us God surveying the world and particularly surveying conditions amongst the Jews.

That's from verse 7 to the end or rather to the 17th verse of the first chapter. Then the God who is in control, in control of the world and then finally the God who protects, the God who has his eyes on his own children. You'll discover that in the second chapter.

So that's our outline for this evening but as I say you have that put down in your notes so you hardly need the overhead projector to remind you and those who are listening to my voice by way of tape you will be well advised to look at the notes that we've published along with this series which will remind you of those headings that I've just given. Well then we've said that the prophet's mind is steeped in Old Testament scripture and I think I brought out the fact that he's a young man. Young as indeed was Haggai who also prophesied about the same time as Zechariah.

That helps you to get the political and historical back cloth in your mind. The Jews have just returned from decades of captivity they were hauled off into Babylon as a result of their sin. They've returned to the promised land they've come to Jerusalem they've been there for some years the initial enthusiasm of the first returning people has waned and they need Haggai and Zechariah to remind them of the necessity to rebuild the temple.

You recall those of you who were present when we were preaching from Haggai that that is basically his main theme the Jews have got to get their priorities in order and Zechariah whose ministry overlaps that of Haggai by one month maintains and develops that notion the temple must be built and Zechariah will go on to show the people how God has great concerns for the Jews at this time in their history and if only they will learn from the past then they will be a much better equipped people in serving the living God in the century in which they find themselves. So let's look at these first six verses the God who speaks the God who speaks and he speaks through the prophet he speaks through the prophet if you want the date on the 27th of October 520 BC I could tell you how I worked that out but it would take a long time so do believe me and the commentators that that is the year the prophet is speaking he's designated prophet and I think I would like to qualify what I've said in my notes because there I've implied he uniquely brings that title to describe himself whereas really the title is given as with other prophets by the editor, assuming there was an editor who brought the preaching of Zechariah together and gave us an extract in the book that bears his name but that is really unimportant the most important thing is that when Zechariah is speaking he's speaking in the name of God and when any man speaks in the name of God then listen to what he has to say and test it and do that because if he is speaking in the name of God and you reject what is being spoken then you will suffer unfortunate consequences that was the position with the Jewish people centuries before Zechariah's ministry and the cause of them being hauled off to Babylon was because they had rejected what God had said through previous spokesman verse 2 the Lord was very angry with your forefathers and the reason for the anger was not just their sin but the fact that they retained the sinful condition verse 3 indicates what God is prepared to do for those who will respond to him if I were to preach the gospel to you in New Testament language I would say believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved and in Old Testament language that is put in the third verse return to me declares the Lord and I will return to you and in the very returning of God to the people their sins are forgiven and they are given a new start now that's what God through Jeremiah offered the people decades before Zechariah was born but they rejected what Zechariah what Jeremiah had to say will you drop down to the fourth verse and there you discover in the heart of the fourth verse this is what the Lord Almighty says and Zechariah is quoting Jeremiah chapter 35 and verse 15 turn from your evil ways and your evil practices but they would not listen or pay attention to me you see Zechariah's mind as I've indicated was saturated in the teaching of men who'd gone before and incidentally that's important it's important in this wise because it shows us that even in Old Testament days there were certain scriptures which were reckoned to be canonical you say what does that mean well it means that it has the authority of God behind it now we look back on the full Bible and we are very very privileged people in having the complete Word of God to quote from obviously in Zechariah's time there wasn't a full Old Testament let alone a New Testament but the scriptures were gradually being collected together and Zechariah can quote from Jeremiah and he can do so as though the prophet has the authority of God on his preaching as indeed he did so Zechariah tells us quoting from Jeremiah why the people were in such a disastrous condition go back to verse 2 they had sinned against God and as a result of their sin God was angry with them sometimes as I point out in the notes a distinction is made in evangelical preaching today between the sin and the sinner I'm not too sure that that falls short much of a flight of fancy God is angry with sinners He's angry with those who know His law and don't do it when God speaks He is to be obeyed and if you reject what He says individually and you reject it as a community then the phenomenon described in the sixth verse takes place then they repented and said the Lord Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve just as He determined to do in other words the word of God caught up with the people the word of God caught up with the people there are those who feel that somehow because God doesn't respond immediately to sinfulness then it means He turns a deaf ear but we Christian people know this that if God is slow in releasing judgment it's not because He will not keep His word but He allows a period of grace in which people can respond but ultimately God's word catches up with the people verse 6 makes it very clear at the beginning did not my words and my decrees which I commanded my servants the prophets overtake your forefathers it did when the armies encircled Jerusalem when the people suffered the horror of what to them was like the Nazi invasion of Europe the word of God caught up with the misdeeds of the people and they were hauled off into the ignominy and the disgrace of captivity as God speaks so He will perform the God who speaks that's what Zechariah reminds us of in the first 6 verses of the book that bears His name but let's move on and let's look at the God who not only speaks but the God who surveys and here we move into a series of 8 visions which the prophet experiences it seems during one night and these visions are extraordinary they're fascinating and I wish that I had several Bible studies for each vision instead of rapidly trying to deal with 2 or 3 together first of all, the God who surveys the 1st of February is the date the 1st of February, or rather the 15th of February 519 BC just a few months after the first word has reached the people from Zechariah so now He speaks again not so much Him speaking to the people but God speaking to Zechariah showing Him something during the night, verse 8 I had a vision Zechariah was standing somewhere down by the Brook Kidron by the Kidron Valley and under the shade of the trees he's looking out the landscape perhaps there's not much light from the moon but there's sufficient for him to see standing, verse 8, among the myrtle trees a man riding a red horse and behind him are 3 other horses you can read it as 4 horses altogether or 3 if you discover that the red horse referred to in the last part of the verse also is a repetition of the red horse referred to in the first part however, it doesn't really matter here are a group of horsemen and Zechariah sees them and he wonders what's it all about, verse 9 what are these, my Lord? now remember, we're back in ancient history and in ancient history a horse, I might argue would be equivalent to a tank today what does a tank signify? well, in the last world war it signified strength maybe we'd have to say a nuclear bomb today though that might be putting it a bit too far but it indicates military strength and might what are these, my Lord? well, the angel, the interpreting angel who talks to Zechariah says I will show you what they are verse 10 then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained these are the ones the Lord has sent to go throughout the earth remember that Zechariah is preaching during the reign of the emperor Darius that's in the first verse of the first chapter Darius, if you like, is the Napoleon of his day he controls the world or so it would seem how did the ancients control the world? well, let's put it in modern terminology who are the two, or what are the two great powers in the world today? easy, America and the Soviet Union and those two world powers know what's going on throughout the globe in the most remarkable ways they have satellites up in the stratosphere they have abilities with their cameras to take photographs of what is going on down on the ground with such clarity with such perfection of detail it's absolutely remarkable we live in a world of communication and power demands, if it's going to be retained that you know what's going on well, how did the ancients know what was going on in the world? they did so by their horses, their horses patrolling going around, reporting what was happening in the provinces sending the messages back to Darius Darius is no fool he realizes he can't subdue Palestine or any of the other countries unless he's aware just what's going on and the possibility of any coup d'etat or rebellion but the thing becomes very clear to Zechariah as he looks into this vision that God too has got his emissaries because what he's seeing now pictured in a very metaphorical way, doubtless are the patrols of God that go around the world bringing information to the Lord so that he is fully aware of what is happening now it becomes clear from the 11th verse that the angel of the Lord who speaks to the prophet and incidentally is often referred to in the Old Testament has more than just ordinary ability you'll have to take this from me as read or you can check me through if you want if you're not too sure that the angel of the Lord is a title that is used of someone who I would suggest is a second person of the Trinity a manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ one who knows what is going on and is aware of the plight of his people one who will intercede on their behalf the Lord Almighty, verse 12 then the angel of the Lord said Lord Almighty, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and from the towns of Judah with which you have been angry for 70 years you see the contrast is this Jerusalem is not at peace in as much as the citizens there are filled with disquiet it's not that they're warring but there's no peace amongst the citizens at all they're without rest and around the world there's a false peace there's a false security amongst the nations that's what verse 11 says is it not we've gone throughout the earth and found the whole world at rest and in peace but God's children are not at peace and so the one who intercedes for God's children speaks up and the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ is the ministry of the intercessor further proof that this is referring to in the 12th verse more than just an ordinary angel and certainly someone who is above the power of an ordinary human being by the myrtle bush with its white starry flowers the prophet meets one who is always in touch with the affairs of his people and one who has an ability to declare to God the Father what is going on in the world and to intercede for his own isn't it wonderful that in our world today as in the world of yesteryear God not only speaks but he surveys he knows what is going on and when the triune God is informed fully of the affairs on planet earth we get his reaction to what he hears look at verse 14 I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion I am very jealous for my people verse 15 but I am very angry with the nations why? well because all the nations the Chaldeans were used that's another way of saying the Babylonians were used as discipling agencies for the Jewish nation they over reached what they should have done their cruelty it bordered on barbarity and you can't live as Gentile nations as the Chaldeans lived without the judgment of God falling upon them and so God says I'm angry with the nations I was only a little angry but they've added they've made things worse in the bestial way in which they've lived and behaved therefore says the Lord verse 16 I will return to Jerusalem with mercy I will do this I will do that verses 16 and 17 indicate once more the sovereign control of God upon his people his divine intervention in the affairs of men and women on planet earth so what have we discovered thus far? well from verses 1 through to verse 6 God speaks from verse 7 through to verse 17 God surveys now what follows from that is really quite logical and therefore obvious from verse 18 through to verse 20 you discover that God protects or rather that God controls here's the second vision we're no longer seeing horsemen in a glen just outside Jerusalem by the bottom of the valley Kidron no, it's somewhat different Zechariah looks up verse 15, verse 18 and there he sees in front of him four horns and around the horns standing out in greater relief are craftsmen now we scratch our heads and we say what in the name of reason does all this mean? well Bible study that's worthwhile takes effort I often feel that Bible study is like digging for gold in Johannesburg you don't get your gold on the surface you get your gold many, many feet down in the earth so let's dig in a little if you were to refer to an animal like an elephant you might say that his majesty is in his tusks if you were to talk in terms of another animal then you might say that his majesty his strength is in his horns and because animals bulls elephants and what have you had horns in the ancient world the horn became the symbol of strength you might talk about what would be a symbol of strength say in the book of Revelation well the lion the lion of the tribe of Judah what is a symbol of strength in the jungle? the lion and that's probably the reason why sometimes in scripture and sometimes in modern use we refer to the lion in terms of denoting strength supremacy let me give it to you by way of example in the last world war who was the man who seemed to epitomise the strength of England wasn't it Churchill? the strength of Britain I should more accurately say he was a man who seemed to inspire the people a man who spoke and when they heard Churchill speak it seemed as though well we knew where we were going and we'd got some hidden strength on our side now the horns used in the Old Testament symbolise the strength of the nations and so before Zechariah are these four horns which represent the international strength of the world at that time and the strength is directed against Jerusalem look at verse 19 in the latter part these are the horns that scatter Judah, Israel and Jerusalem what's going to happen? well these horns which have been lifted up against God's purposes are going to be put down in other words every hostile force that is raged against the purposes of God is bound ultimately to be vanquished it will come to absolutely nothing therefore verse 20 in the latter part or verse 21 in the latter part he answered these are the horns that scatter Judah so that no one could raise his head but the craftsmen have come to terrify them and throw down these horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter its people the point is that full power is always within the control of God and be it in the ancient world or amongst Christian people in the first century or in the 20th century when there are those who try to frustrate God having his way when they lift up their horns so to speak God puts them down the horn of Rome was lifted against the gospel of Christ but three centuries elapsed and ere long you discover that Christianity rides triumphantly over the power of Rome the Roman eagle bows to the cross of Christ the Jewish opposition as you find in Jerusalem endeavouring to snuff out the early Christians as they imprisoned them and endeavoured to silence them that opposition is put down you see it's another indication of a religious horn so to speak trying to stop the purposes of God now Paul takes this and he works it through in the New Testament he speaks about the spiritual warfare that Christian people are engaged in but he makes it very clear in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 12 that when the devil exerts his strength the Christian is equally prepared to meet the onslaughts of the devil as he puts on the whole of the armour of God or if you want in terms of Peter let's go to the lion I use the lion as a symbol of strength the devil goes around as a roaring lion seeking whom he might devour but the strength of God's people is greater than the strength of the opposing forces and the principle locked up in the first chapter of Zechariah is spread out throughout the whole of the pages of the New Testament God's people are empowered to a much greater degree than those who are against them there is a God who is utterly in control and however formidable opposition to God's people may be there's another force who will prove more than a match for it don't you see that incidentally on the cross here is our Lord defeated that's what Satan thought defeated on the cross but there on the cross the horn of Satan is crushed and Jesus spoils principalities and powers and becomes the final victor over them the God who speaks the God who surveys the God who controls let's close up with the final vision for us this evening the third one in numerical order the God who protects we're going into the second chapter once more it's more vivid than television isn't it I mean we've had four horsemen and a man in the in the darkness of the night and conversation ensuing between the rider on the horse and the man, the prophet who's in at the scene and then we've had these four horns and the four craftsmen the smithers who perhaps fashion horns and certainly fashion fashion shoes for horses and now we've got we've moved over to another channel and we've got a different picture I looked up incidentally if you ever feel that you're colorful in your dreams when you go to bed at night you can't match Zechariah can you he looks up now and what does he discover well the craftsmen have gone the horses have gone but there's somebody else there's a man actually a young man and what is he doing well he's going to measure Jerusalem verse 1 he answered to measure Jerusalem to find out how wide and how long it is well why would he need to measure Jerusalem well what's happening at the moment literally what's happening in Jerusalem during the ministry of Zechariah they're rebuilding the walls and they're rebuilding the temple well what do you need if you engage in a rebuilding program you need measurements you need a plumb line reference will be made to that ultimately so here is someone who's going to measure Jerusalem a task necessary for rebuilding the walls and making them very secure verse 3 then the angel who was speaking to me left and another angel came to meet him and said to him run tell that young man Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of men and livestock in it what's happening now well Zechariah has been giving a glimpse of the future Jerusalem at present is in a very sorry condition they haven't got the walls they haven't got security at least they haven't got the walls properly up and they haven't got a temple but that's only now ultimately within the purposes of God Jerusalem Zion will be so strong it won't require walls it won't require any man made security because God is going to work out his purposes and he will be present amongst his people when did this happen when did Jerusalem become so secure that it didn't need walls or if it had walls the people were so thickly populated in that area they spilt out from the city walls and had to build their homes outside those fortifications well I guess the answer is it never really happened the time of Nehemiah the people had to be compelled to live within the city because they wanted to live outside they were agricultural people they didn't want to live in the city the only time as far as I can recall historically that Jerusalem was ever so packed in biblical days is during the time of our Lord and that was at the time of the feasts but it was only a sort of temporary overspill during the days of the great religious festivals what I'm suggesting is that when you read deeply into the second chapter of Zechariah you are looking for fulfillment not just in terms of a literal fulfillment but a spiritual fulfillment because as you will find later on in the third and fourth and ongoing chapters Zechariah often is peering into the day when the Lord Jesus Christ shall have revealed the glorious gospel and the consequences of the revelation of the gospel is that Jew and Gentile become part of the children of God and where do they live? well, they don't literally live in Jerusalem, do they? Worthing is not Jerusalem and we're children of God we're not living in Israel where do the children of God live? they live in Zion where is Zion? well, Zion is where the children of God are it's not a location a fixed location, one spot in the world wherever the church is there is Zion and there has happened to the church of God over the centuries that which is absolutely extraordinary people have come from the north and from the south into Zion they've escaped from the Babylonian bondage of sin they have recognized themselves to be as the eighth verse indicates the apple of God's eye God has been with them in ways that were remarkable ways that they never expected and as a result, verse 10 the people of God have been filled with joy they have reason to shout they have reason to be glad they are the daughter of Zion and who has come to the daughter of Zion? who has come for the people of God? who has made the people of God into the people of God? well, none other than our Lord Jesus Christ there he was meeting with Zechariah outside the city didn't come into the temple the temple wasn't complete and when the temple was completed in Herod's day he suddenly came but they didn't want him not in the literal temple where did Jesus Christ find a lodging? well, not amongst the religious buildings of the world he found his lodging within the hearts of men and women Peter and Paul and then you go on from the Jews to the Gentiles where the twos or the threes were gathered together there he would come and he would live among the people and as he lived amongst the people what did the people become? well, not just the people of God the city of God but the temple of God did they not? so Paul refers to the temple of God in Ephesians chapter 2 Peter refers to the temple of God in the first letter that bears his name and the first and the second and particularly the second chapter remarkable things I argue have happened as the Lord himself has caused Zion and its temple to be built verse 11 many nations will be joined with the Lord in that day and will become my people and I will live among you and you will know that the Lord has sent me to you now I argue that little, if anything in chapter 2 has ever been literally politically fulfilled but if I was writing what I shared with you last week that you have to pour Old Testament prophecy through New Testament scriptures and see how these scriptures are handled in the New Testament then it becomes patently clear that a new temple has emerged that Gentile and Jew have been drawn together within Zion the city of God and God has done remarkable things for people who have put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and whatever happens to the people of God in these days though all hell be let loose against the church she will conquer she will remain for the church is the people of God the Lord's inheritance the apple of his eye I'm not suggesting that Zechariah understood all the implications of what he was saying but when the Old New Testament writers looked back to the prophecy of Zechariah then it becomes very clear in the way they handle scripture here and in other books of the Old Testament that they see the fulfillment of these predictions amongst God's elect people Jew and Gentile who belong to the Lord Zechariah concludes and dare one add rightly so by suggesting that all mankind should be still before God as they begin to realize something of the wonders of what he has done because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling and the day is coming incidentally Habakkuk is being quoted there I think I told you that and also Zephaniah the day is coming when the world will be silent before God when men and women will recognize that God has spoken and on the basis of what he said people will be judged God has surveyed and on the basis of what he has seen the eternal destiny of people shall be allocated God surveys and God controls bringing about his purpose in history for history is within the providential care of the Lord and God will protect he'll protect his church in the Muslim countries in the communist countries in the capitalist countries until the great day when the Lord Jesus shall suddenly return and bring in his judgment and usher in the eternal age now a great deal of what I've shared this evening I think will become that much more clear when we look into the visions in the third and the fourth chapters we'll do that next week for within these visions are an incredible anticipation of the way of salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit the manner in which God will save people and eliminate sin from their lives and the way in which he will keep people by infilling them with the Holy Ghost and so I'm going to argue that some of my tentative conclusions from the second chapter will be more than supported and buttressed by our findings in the third and the fourth chapters but if you've forgotten everything else this evening go out with this thought that if you wanted to exchange your name from Smith or Brown why should I pick these popular ones or Sergeant or Lan you could call yourself Zechariah the people around you might not appreciate it but if you know that you're one who comes within the remembrance of God then how blessed is your state Jesus never forgets you the Father never forgets you the Spirit never forgets you and you have the security of his word and his promises belonging to you so let all the Zechariahs bow their heads and let's just pray for one another Father we commit our little study to you this evening what was of yourself and right conclusions retain within our mind what was merely the empty conclusions of a mere man then may they be forgotten we praise you then for the abiding principles here and ask your blessings to be upon us in the name of the Saviour Amen