Minor No.17 Zech 6-8

Well, we have a sizable task this evening. We're going to try to sketch through the picture, again, that Zechariah presents from the sixth chapter right through to the end of the eighth chapter. So I hope you're shaking your head and you've got all your little cogs in the brain working because we're moving reasonably quickly.

But let's start with a declaration. And that is that God is working through his purposes in the events of history. God is working his purposes out as year succeeds to year.

You remember that hymn. Now, there may be many an occasion in, did you get the lady to drink? There may be many an occasion in our life when we read newspapers and we think, you know, what is happening is really out of the control of anyone. I mean, look at the ridiculous business we've had over these last two or three days with Mr. Scargill and Mr. McGregor.

It really is quite disgusting, isn't it? I'm not passing comment as to the basic dispute that the miners have with the National Coal Board, but I am declaring that it is ridiculous that two men publicly call one another liars and they can't get together to arrange some sort of meeting. Just at that level, it really is quite absurd. It's utterly inexcusable.

It's akin to what I remember as a seven-year-old in the playground of my school. Acceptable behavior for children, not acceptable behavior for ordinary men. I don't blush to say this.

I'd say it to them publicly if I had the opportunity to sort of do. It really is disgusting. And when you think that there is such small-mindedness in the personalities of our leaders, not only in this country but internationally, you just wonder, well, what on earth is gonna happen? What on earth is going to happen? And the Bible will tell you through the book of Zechariah not to be over-concerned, not in the sense of going into a holy huddle and becoming a sort of evangelical monastic community, saying that the world has gone to hell, therefore we do nothing about it, but to be involved in the affairs of ordinary men and women, but to recognize this as the hymn says, the Lord has got the whole world in his hands and he'll work out his purposes.

The first vision of Zechariah in the first chapter brought to us a picture of horses moving around the world. No need to turn to that picture again because as I say, I want to move quite rapidly, but it's interesting that the last vision, the final dream that Zechariah had, that remarkable night, takes him to the opening picture once more. We're at the beginning of chapter six.

And Zechariah sees four chariots with horses coming out of heaven, stationed or seemingly to come onto the earth between the mountains around Jerusalem, or as some believe, the mountains there really stands for the two pillars of the temple. And if that is so, then that is a symbolic representation of the presence of God. So these horses and chariots, they move from the presence of God and they go around Mother Earth, some going to the north where the enemies of Israel were, the Babylonians, some going to the south or one going to the south, two went to the north incidentally, to Egypt where again the enemies of the Hebrews were, and then another going round the whole world.

And the import of that particular vision is just for Zechariah to realize that God does have the affairs of mankind in his control. Verse seven, when the powerful horses went out, they were straining to go throughout the earth. And he said, go throughout the earth.

So they went throughout the earth. No time to go into the details of that vision. But the point becomes very clear that God is presenting this fact with stark nakedness, that he is thoroughly involved and informed with all that is going on in our world, and ultimately his purposes shall come to fruition.

So Zechariah's final dream takes him back to where his first dream started off, the concept of the sovereignty of God, God working out his plan, history being his story. Right, let's go to the ninth verse. Sorry again for the haste.

Down to the 15th verse of chapter six. And we're taken back to the temple. And in the temple, there's a high priest.

Look at verse 11, he's named. His name is Joshua. We came across him in chapter three.

Joshua is the Hebrew word Yeshua, which is the equivalent to the Greek word Iesus and translated into English means savior. And you know that the high priest, as well as the kings in Old Testament days, really were pointing to the day when the Lord Jesus would come and he would fulfill the ministry of the prophet and the priest and the king. All right, bear that in mind.

What's happened? Well, verse nine tells us, and verse 10, that there have arrived from Babylon three returning Jews. And they have brought with them gold and silver. The gold and the silver, they're told, verse 11 and 12, or rather verse 10 and 11, to take into the temple and to make a crown.

And the crown is to be put on the high priest, on the high priest's head. And we're told of the high priest, verse 12, here is the man whose name is the branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord. It is he who will build the temple of the Lord and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne.

Let's stop there and ask ourselves, what's it all about? Well, you remember in chapter three, Joshua is the high priest and Zerubbabel is the governor. And also in chapter three, reference is made to a messianic term which will describe the future anointed one of God when he comes. Verse eight of chapter three, he's referred to as a branch.

I am going to bring my servant the branch. Do you remember what Isaiah said about the Lord Jesus when he was born on earth? He would be a root out of the stem of Jesse. Do you remember that comment? A root out of the stem of Jesse.

Have you ever gone into your garden one day and suddenly discovered there was growth in an area where you didn't plant anything? At least you couldn't remember planting anything. There it was, it suddenly shot up. Nature had caused it to be planted.

Maybe a bird had dropped a seed or what have you, but there was growth there. Sometimes when you've chopped a tree down and you've just got the stump, if you come back years later, you may find that from that stump, something has begun to grow again. It looked absolutely dead, but there was life in it, though it wasn't apparent to the eye.

When our Lord was born, the descendants of David could hardly be traced. Far from being a kingly race, they'd almost got lost in obscurity and those who did recognize their historical identity were very, very poor. Now our Lord came from the stock of David.

That means to say, if he traced his ancestry back, then you go back through the lineage through the line of David. So in Bethlehem is born the greatest son of David. Now the house of David has almost been cut down in respect of anyone recognizing who his descendants are.

It's dead. And then suddenly a stem shoots from the trunk and from what seems to be dead comes the Lord Jesus, David's greatest son with all his power and with all his authority. And as he grows, he grows as a branch.

And the influence of the Lord Jesus's life in his earthly ministry, and as it's extended by the disciples who continue to preach the gospel when he's returned to heaven, is like the branch that starts to grow and grow and you get sub-branches and sub-sub-branches and so on and so forth. That's the effect of the gospel in the world. Remarkable effect immediately within the first couple of hundred years and an increasing effect, thank God, in some areas of the 20th century.

So here, I reckon, is the projection. Symbolically, as the crown is placed on Joshua, the high priest in Zechariah's day, here is a projection of the coming of the Messiah, the one who will build the temple of the Lord. Now, Zechariah can't just be referring to the literal temple in his day.

He's got that in mind, but he's got more in mind. You remember the literal temple, he's being rebuilt. It's now well underway.

But when you get to the 15th verse of Zechariah 6, reference is made to those who are far away who will come and help to build the temple of the Lord and you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you. This will happen if you diligently obey the Lord your God. You say, I don't understand that.

All right, here's an illustration. I went with Rowena exploring Sussex last Saturday. There were certain areas that we'd never been to before.

And I took my binoculars with me. Now, what happens when you put a pair of binoculars to your eyes? Well, what you could see in the distance is brought that much nearer. So you've got your immediate vision without your binoculars and then you get your binoculars and you put them to your eyes and it brings that which was afar near, all right? Now, what was near, so to speak, in Zechariah's day? Well, the temple, the literal building of the temple.

That was one of the things that he could see. That was one of the things that he wanted people to be involved in. But the temple is near completion.

And yet he's still speaking about those, verse 15, who are going to come from afar and help to build the temple of the Lord. And to add to the puzzle, or what seems to be a puzzle, he speaks about the priest, the high priest, in terms of the Messiah. Now, what's he got in mind? Well, you see, he's now putting his binoculars on and he's not just seeing the priest who was in ministry just then, but the Messiah who is yet to come, the branch who will achieve God's purposes throughout the world.

And when the Lord Jesus Christ comes into the world and he preaches the gospel and his disciples preach the gospel and you read about the latter in Ephesians chapter two, what do you discover that they are doing according to the apostle Paul? Well, I'll tell you. In fact, some of you will know Ephesians two almost by heart. They are involved in building.

In building what? Well, in building the temple of God. Listen, Ephesians two, verse 14. For he, the Lord Jesus himself, is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.

His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace. And in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away.

Exactly the same term in the Greek language as the Hebrew term translated here in Zechariah five of those who are far away. You who were far away, what will happen to you? Well, you will come to the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be made one with him by the infilling of the Holy Spirit, verse 19. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. Do you remember when I tried to give a lecture on how the Old Testament writers were interpreted or writings were interpreted by the New Testament writers? I said that you can't really begin to understand the Old Testament properly unless you pour it through the sieve of the New Testament.

The New Testament is God's commentary on the Old Testament. How do you begin to understand Zechariah? Sometimes he seems to confuse you. He talks about a priest and yet the priest becomes the Messiah.

He speaks about a temple, yet the temple's already built, yet he talks about it being built again. Well, you see, it's the telescope. The immediate picture is the priest Joshua.

The long-term picture which comes clear in his prophetic vision is the coming of the Lord Jesus and the building of the greatest temple of all time, a temple not of bricks and mortar, but a temple of living stones to which you and I belong if we've trusted Jesus Christ as our savior. That, I submit to you, is what Zechariah is predicting in the latter part of chapter six. All right, there may be a little time if there's a miracle coming today for a few questions at the end.

Let's move into chapter seven. Here we've got a delegation of people and they're coming to Zechariah, the fourth year of King Darius. Some time has passed between chapter six and chapter seven and they've got a problem on their minds.

Verse two tells us the names of these people and where they come from. Actually, it's not very clear in the Hebrew. If you checked it in some versions of the Bible, you'll get a different translation of verse two.

However, let that one pass. These people come along and they put a question to Zechariah via the priests and the question is this. Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month as I have done for so many years? What's it all about? Well, you remember I told you that two significant dates were 598 and 536.

Straddling or in between those two dates, sorry, you can't see that, can you? Didn't realize I turned it up. In between those two dates, the 60, 70-odd years of the exile. Now, during that time, what did the people do? Well, there were four occasions, which we'll see later on when we move into chapter eight.

There were four times in the year when they fasted, commemorating certain terrible things that had happened to the Jewish nation, one being the fall of Jerusalem. But now they're back, you see? They're back in Jerusalem. They're back in their own land.

And so they put the question, when we were in exile, we fasted. Should we still fast now? Now, Zechariah does what I was doing at the beginning of my study this evening. He doesn't answer the question.

He puts the question back to the people, only he puts it slightly differently to the way that he received it. So let's go to the fifth verse. Ask all the people of the land and the priests, when you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past 70 years, was it really for me that you fasted? And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? Have you ever thought this, my friend, that sometimes you can engage in acts of piety which really are a bit of a fraud? He did this at the time.

I'm suggesting that you do it. I'm suggesting, confessing that I do it sometimes as well. I'm as guilty as anyone.

You go through the mechanics, but you're not really plugged into your mind. You're not really sincere in what you're doing. Hymn number nine, the God of Abraham prays, or whatever it is, praise my soul, the king of heaven.

You start to sing it on a Sunday morning. And you're just going through it, but you're not really meaning what you're saying. I'm not suggesting that that's always the case.

I'm suggesting that sometimes it's the case, or maybe in the very act of coming around the Lord's table. You take the bread and wine and you do it in an unthinking fashion. In other words, sincerity is not in the act.

Sincerity is not in the act. And of course, when we're not consciously doing something, even though what we're doing may be right, when we're not consciously doing it with the right motive in mind, then that is improper piety. It's not accepted by the Lord.

And Zechariah is saying to these people, and he's speaking to us today, because God's word is always up to date, look, when you say you're fasting, when you say you're feasting, when you say that you're doing religious acts, ensure that your mind is really in control of what you're engaged in, and that you're doing it as unto the Lord, and not just to fob him off. You know, sometimes the Old Testament uses very strong language when the Lord is speaking to his ancient people, and at times he says, in effect, you make me sick. With your sacrifices and the animals that you bring, you bring in the animal carcasses into the temple almost by the cartload, he says in the Minor Prophets, and I'm sick of them.

They're just a stench in my nostrils. Why does he say that? After all, the Lord put down, didn't he, that the Israelites in Old Testament times ought to bring these sacrifices. Yes, he did, but he never expected this to be done in a sort of perfunctory fashion.

Sincerity is necessary. Now, Jesus is teaching exactly the same as Zechariah is teaching in the rest of the Minor Prophets, because if you go to our blessed Lord on the Sermon on the Mount, he says, when you fast, don't do it like the hypocrites do, who want others to see that they're engaged in some pious act. When you give, don't blow a blast on the trumpet and let everyone see your generosity.

Do things quietly, do them privately, but basic to all of the teaching of our Lord is ensure that you're sincere and you're doing what you're doing in a thinking fashion for the honor of God. And that's where the Jews went wrong so many, many times, and we go wrong too. What's the heart of real religion? Look at verse nine, and Zechariah will tell you, and he'll anticipate James in so doing.

This is what the Lord Almighty says. Administer true justice, show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widows or the fatherless, the alien or the poor.

In your hearts, do not think evil of each other. Now, that's New Testament stuff, isn't it? But you see, the New Testament doesn't contradict the Old. It never did.

The Old is pointing to the New Testament, and if the Old Testament teaches us anything, it teaches us that God is very much concerned about our relationships to Him and to one another. Everything else is really cosmetic. That's not to say that animal sacrifices weren't important, but you can have all the animal sacrifices in the world.

You can go through all the ritual, and all that you do is obnoxious to the Lord, and there is a counterpart in the 20th century to that, my friend. If you don't love your fellow and your brother, your sister, and show your concern for them, then you can listen to a cartload of sermons. You can sing your head off when you come into the church, and if you're not working your Christianity through at a practical level, then it's unacceptable to God.

It really is, and Zechariah makes this very clear. What annoyed God in those 70 years and in times gone by? Well, verse 11 and verse 12. The very inspired word which was given to the prophets, they rejected.

Verse seven speaks also of the infallibility of Scripture, the words the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets. Verse 11, they refused to pay attention. Stubbornly, they turned their backs and stopped at their hearts.

They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets and so forth. I've just been given a book to review by one of the leading theologians of Oxford University. He's a man who wrote a book on fundamentalism some while ago and tried to blow apart the notion of being fundamentalists and still being reasonably logical in the 20th century.

And this book that he's written attacking the viewpoint that I would espouse on the inspiration of Scripture seems to suggest that the Bible never makes the claim that it's inspired by God. What it says is that now and again, you get a few God words sort of filtering through and what is necessary for people to do is to work out where the God words are and put on one side those that are not God words. And you know, I was reading his argument.

It's quite brilliant. I don't want to in any way insult a man's intelligence. The way that he puts it together is quite brilliant.

And then I think to myself, well, he must never have read this. The Bible never makes any claim to its own inspiration. Well, what on earth does the latter part of verse 12 mean? The words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his spirit through the earlier prophets.

A claim that what we've got here, the essence of the prophetical teaching has the imprimatur, has the stamp of God, of God's authority upon it. But I digress as so often is my wont. So the reason for the exile was because they didn't offer the Lord true religious piety.

What they offered him were purely cosmetics and he doesn't like to be fobbed off. Verse 14, the terrible consequence, they rejected God's word, God rejects them. I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations where they were strangers.

The land was left so desolate behind them that no one could come or go. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate. Well, it's a fearful chapter, isn't it? Chapter seven in many ways, and yet it's got principles that we would do well to look at and to live our lives by.

Let's go to the sunshine from the darkness out of the tunnel and into the light. For in chapter eight, we have got the Lord now predicting for his people on the basis of them living in a way that is in accordance with his word, we've got a prediction of great blessing. Chapter eight, again the word of the Lord Almighty came to me, this is what the Lord Almighty says, I'm very jealous for Zion.

The idea of God being jealous provides some people with problems, but it shouldn't really, not if you understand that word classically and not in a more popular sense. If you're jealous of something, you're jealous for its honor, aren't you? You're jealous for, well, you could be jealous for your family, for your family name. I wouldn't want you to have any reason to think that the Sargent family are a load of crooks.

I don't think that you could substantiate the charge and I wouldn't like it to be put to me. I would be very jealous for our family name. And even more so, God is very jealous for his people.

He's very jealous for Zion. I am burning with jealousy for her. And this is what the Lord says.

Jerusalem will become a city of truth. Now, that's very different from what it had been, far from a city of truth. When Isaiah was ministering, he tells us in the prophecy that bore his name, let me find the reference, in Isaiah chapter one and verse 21, that Isaiah was a faithless city.

The sarcasm. See how the faithful city has become a harlot. She once was full of justice, righteousness used to dwell in her, but now murderers and so on.

How terrible, the city of God being prostituted like that. Well, things are gonna change in God's economy as he works out his purposes. Jerusalem, he burns with jealousy for her.

And ultimately, the city of lies and sin will become, verse three, a city of truth. And the mountain of the Lord Almighty will be called the holy mountain. Now, I don't know what is your interpretation of chapter eight but one thing is for sure.

During the Old Testament period of the history of the Old Testament, what is contained in chapter eight was never fulfilled. Literally, the Jews never attained to this. Literally, Jerusalem never became this.

In fact, by AD 70, after the death and resurrection of our Lord, Jerusalem was under siege by the Romans and by the year 120, there wasn't one stone left upon another in Jerusalem. And the Jewish people, as you know, were scattered around the face of the world. Now, there are two ways in which you can interpret Zechariah eight.

They're not necessarily incompatible. And one is to believe that God has still got a purpose for his ancient people, Israel, and he will ultimately, toward the end of time, before the second advent of Christ, gather all his people back together in Jerusalem or Jerusalem and the country of Palestine, presumably not interpreting eight, verse eight, too literalistically. Or else you might be of the inclination to which I would identify myself, this viewpoint, that here is predicted something of what God will do through his church, through his church.

Or perhaps you could combine both and say he'll do this through his church and he will ultimately have a purpose for his ancient people before the return of our Lord Jesus. I refuse to be dogmatic. I share with you my inclinations.

But I would not be too dogmatic in areas where scripture does not seem to me to be too clear in the conclusions that it compels us to draw. So what can we say about chapter eight and those opening verses? Well, basically this. Once more, we're back to what I suggested 20 minutes or so ago.

God has got the world in his hand and he will bring about his perfect plan. Verse four gives us a graphic picture of a peaceful Jerusalem or a peaceful church, a peaceful people of God. Once again, men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with cane in hand because of his age.

The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there. You know the church where I used to preach in Enfield? Had halfway down one of the walls a memorial plaque with a list of folks who died in the first and second World War, in the first and second World Wars. And I often used to look at that plaque and there were many, many names.

It was a relatively small church, even in those days. There were many names, nonetheless, on that plaque of the 1914-18 war. I would think perhaps about 40 or 50 names of men.

Now that first World War was a carnage, wasn't it? Some of you remember it, a real bloodbath. So many men gave their lives in France in particular. And the net result of that, of course, was that many young ladies lost their sweethearts and never married.

And of course, men who lived in, who were teenagers in 1914, 1918, never got to be old men. They never got to draw their pension. They were felled with the acts of war long before they should naturally have died.

Now that always happens with war, doesn't it? The enemies come in, whether it's ancient war in Zechariah's day or modern warfare, what it really means is that, well, they're not gonna be so many pensioners. And during a time of war, they're not going to be many boys and girls around. You remember in the Second World War in particular, we moved the children out of London and sent them into the villages, sent them to the north.

So here is a picture by way of contrast of old men and women. It's an idyllic picture. You can see them sitting down on some stone or on some form in Jerusalem, and they're enjoying retirement.

This is a typical Jewish scene of prosperity in old age with the noise of children in the streets indicating that all is well. Now they'd never known that in Zechariah's day. They'd known a lot of carnage, and there were a lot of men dead, and there weren't many old people around at all.

But the situation was gonna change in the purposes of God. Ultimately, that's what he has to say. Verse six, but this seems absolutely incredible.

It may seem marvelous, however, says the Lord. It may seem incredible to the remnant of this people at that time, but will it seem marvelous to me? In other words, it doesn't astonish me because I know what I can do. Our God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever ask or think.

Amazing how God can surprise us. Amazing how he can bring the third world to himself. Who would think that China would open to the gospel? Yet it is, and who would think when China has opened to the gospel as it is much more open now that we discover such a virile church? It's amazing what God can do.

Verse nine, this is what the Lord Almighty says. You who now hear these words spoken by the prophets who were there when the foundation was laid for the house of the Lord Almighty let your hands be strong so that the temple may be built. He's now back dealing with his immediate situation.

And he's referring to the difficulties that the Jews have experienced in times gone by. But that's not got to interfere with their faith. It is no secret what God can do.

That's basically what he's saying to the Jews. No secret, ultimately he'll bring about this period of prosperity and peace. And what's more, they'll get this temple finished because it's within the purposes of God.

And the poverty, verse 10, of previous generations will be a thing of the past. Verse 11, I will not deal with the remnant of this people as I did in the past, declares the Lord Almighty. And verse 12 indicates the harvests that are going to come and the great blessing.

And verse 13, the Jews who had become proverbially synonymous with the name of a curse amongst the nations because of the way that they had been treated will now be a blessing. As you have been an object of cursing among the nations, O Judah and Israel, so will I save you and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid, but let your hands be strong.

So it's amazing how God puts out these promises to his people, how these promises remain today valid for the people of God when they're persecuted and despised. What is the most important group of people in the Soviet Union? The Communist Party? No, not a bit. The most powerful group of people in the Soviet Union are the members of God's Zion, the Christian Church.

God has got his eyes upon these people, Jew and Gentile who've confessed the Lord as Savior. He will work out his purposes through these people. We have no need to have any doubts about that whatsoever.

How do we know? Well, he's done it before. I mean, when I say he's done it before, he's kept his promises before. I mean, you take those horsemen, the picture of which we fleetingly got at the beginning of chapter six.

He sends two horsemen up to the north to Babylon and four years after Zechariah's prophecy, Babylon's crumbled, it's no more. That's a historical fact, you can't deny it. And the major cities of Egypt within years of Zechariah's prophecy crumble only to be looked on by the spectators of the pyramids just in the dust as God brings about his purposes.

Now, he did it in history yesteryear and therefore we can believe that he's going to achieve his purposes in contemporary times. Verse 16, these are the things you are to do. The people of God have got to live in a way that befits recipients of the blessings of the Lord.

Speak the truth to each other and render true and sound judgment in your courts. You see, the fact that you're saved doesn't give you any right to live as you want to. You've got to live as the people of God.

There's a terrible indictment against some Jewish people in the Sunday Times a couple of weeks ago, a report of gas being used in Israel amongst Arabs who were in prison. Now, it created a furor in Jerusalem and thank God for the Jews who said you just cannot do this sort of thing. You cannot resort to that practice.

Any people should be reluctant to use gas on others. It should be the Jews. See, they have a moral responsibility in their land.

As we, the people of Zion, spiritually speaking, have a moral responsibility, we may be saved, but we cannot live how we want to live. At the Adamic level, there are certain ethical restrictions placed upon us. We've got to live to honor the Lord or else we are in trouble.

And what does God do in terms of these fast days? Well, look at verse 18. The four fasts that the children of Israel, the Hebrews in exile, used to keep were denoting great tragedies. Fast in the fourth month, the fifth month, the seventh month, and the 10th month.

Well, these fasting days will be turned to feasting days. When the sunshine of God's love is upon you, he dries up the tears of unhappiness. The fasts will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah.

As Christian people are basically happy people. C.S. Lewis said that laughter is the language of heaven, not misery. Peter speaks of joy unspeakable, full of glory being the badge of those who trust Jesus as Lord.

But we're not happy, again, in a sense that makes us detached from our world and uninvolved with trying to improve society, even though that we live amongst a bunch of sinners. So the tail end of verse 18, therefore, love, truth, and mercy. Verse 20, this is what the Lord Almighty says.

Many peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will come, and the inhabitants of one city will go to another and say, let us at once go to entreat the Lord and seek the Lord Almighty. So here is the idea of a national, no, an international return to God. And it will be the people of God who will lead others to God, of course.

Who else can lead people to God but the ones who know the Lord? And so here is the idea of a great desire that comes to the nations to seek the living God. Last part of verse 20. Let us go up at once to entreat the Lord and seek the Lord Almighty.

I myself am going. Verse 23, this is what the Lord Almighty says. In those days, 10 men from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the edge of his robe and say, let us go with you because we have heard that God is with you.

Has that been fulfilled? I think in a very real sense, it has been fulfilled, that particular verse. Listen to this. But at length the time arrived and there came to Jerusalem men out of every nation under heaven, Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia and in Judea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, all came up to Jerusalem to seek the face of Jehovah and from the lips of a Jew, they heard words that caused them to cry out, men and brethren, what shall I do? They scattered to their own homes again and carried with them the strange words that had so deeply moved their souls and being followed by these wonder-working men, there soon began to work a new life among the nations of the earth and this life took hold in its origin and efficacy upon a Jew.

Greece with her polished dialectics, Rome with her mailed mightiness, Asia with her soft voluptuousness, all submitted to the authority of a savior who was a Jew, all rested their hopes for eternity upon a Jew and soon received as divinely inspired the words and writings of men who were Jews and for nearly 2,000 years, the mightiest intellects and largest hearts of the race have breathed the spirit and studied the words of men who were Jews and have sought as the most precious boon of existence the privilege of being covered with a robe of righteousness that was wrought by the divinely incarnated hands of one who is of the seed of Abraham after the flesh though as to his higher nature, God over all blessed forever and at this day there are literally men of all nations and kindreds and tribes and people who are laying hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew and casting in their lots with those whom God chose to be a people for himself and resting their hopes on that crucified Jew who is the savior of the world. So wrote the Puritan commentator T.B. Moore a hundred or a couple of hundred years or so ago. Well, it's gone beyond half past eight.

What have I endeavored to show you this evening? Well, that God has got the world in his control and ultimately he will bring about his purposes but the pivot on which the purposes of God swing is that one man Jesus Christ, Yeshua, the branch the Jew and we today thank God have touched the hem of his garment and as a result we're members of the heavenly Zion moving on in our pilgrimage through this world until the day dawns when Jesus returns and establishes his government and when the heavenly Jerusalem comes down to earth.