Zechariah 024 – Remembrance

Zechariah 024 – Remembrance

By Dr Andy Woods – 04/06/2022

Zechariah 10:4-8

Let’s go ahead this evening and open our Bibles to the book of Zechariah chapter 10 and verse 4 (Zech 10:4). I’ve entitled this session “Remembrance” because Zechariah’s name means… Anybody know? If you don’t know, look at the screen: God remembers. So keep that in mind when we get to verse 8, if we get to verse 8 tonight.

Structure

1. Introductory call to repentance (Zech 1:1-6)
2. Eight night visions (Zech 1:7–6:15)
3. Question and answers about fasting (Zech 7–8)
4. Two burdens (Zech 9–14)

We are continuing our verse by verse study through the book of Zechariah and we have out of the gate there, just by way of review, chapter 1, verses 1 through 6 (Zech 1:1-6), a call to repentance by Zachariah followed by eight-night visions, all revolving around, seeking to get the nation interested in rebuilding temple two and then the third part of it, chapter 7 and 8 was questions and answers about fasting and that’s where God through Zechariah rebukes the people for empty ritualism, you’ll recall and then we moved into that fourth and final part of it, the two burdens,

1. Two Burdens (Zech, 9‒14)

1. 1. Israel’s postponed deliverance due to her rejection of her Messiah (Zech, 9‒11)
   2. Israel’s future deliverance due to her acceptance of her Messiah (Zech, 12‒14)

chapters 9 through 11, is burden number one revolving around the first coming of Christ. So Zechariah is seeing the first coming of Christ about five hundred years in advance.

1. First Burden Outline (Zech, 9‒11)
2. 1. 1. Divine warrior hymn (Zech, 9)
      2. True shepherd (Zech, 10)
      3. False shepherd (Zech, 11)

So that first burden, you remember, has three parts to it: There’s the divine warrior hymn, which we finished.

Divine Warrior Hymn (Zech 9:1-17)

1. Judgment on the oppressing nations (Zech 9:1-8)
2. Messiah (Zech 9:9-10)
3. Covenant protection (Zech 9:11-17)

That’s a description of everything that was going right for Israel and would have continued to go right for Israel had she enthrone her king in the 1st century but she did not, she tripped right over him and Zechariah predicts that in chapter 9 and then from there, we started last time chapter 10, which is a description of the true shepherd.

First Burden Outline (Zech, 9‒11)

1. Divine warrior hymn (Zech, 9)
2. True shepherd (Zech, 10)
3. False shepherd (Zech, 11)

So these are all of the things that the true shepherd wanted to do for Israel at his first coming but they rejected him and so everything that he wanted to do described in chapter 10 is postponed till the second coming of Christ.

True Shepherd – (Zech 10:1-12)

1. Messianic prosperity (Zech 10:1-3)
2. Restoration of the Northern & Southern kingdoms (Zech 10:4-7)
3. Messianic regathering (Zech 10:8-12)

So he wanted to bring in prosperity verses 1 through 3 (Zech 10:1-3). He wanted to restore the northern and the southern kingdoms, verses 4 through 7 (Zech 10:4-7) and he wanted to re-gather them, verses 8 through 12 (Zech 10:8-12). 4:12

So we, last time just started their verses 1 through 3, the prosperity that Jesus wanted to bring to Israel had they only enthroned Him on His terms.

Messianic Prosperity – (Zech 10:1-3)

• Challenge (Zech 10:1)
• Idols inhibiting prosperity (Zech 10:2)
• True shepherd to judge the false shepherds (Zech 10:3)

So He challenges them, verse 1, chapter 10 (Zech 10:1), to ask for rain, cause rain was the same as prosperity and then verse 2 (Zech 10:2) is a description of the idols that they were wrapped up in, which was pushing God away. You know, Jesus was pretty clear you can’t serve two masters. So they were serving these idols, verse 2 and that’s what was inhibiting what the Lord wanted to do in and through them and then verse 3 (Zech 10:3), you see God’s intention to judge the false shepherds that were leading the nation astray.

True Shepherd – (Zech 10:1-12)

1. Messianic prosperity (Zech 10:1-3)
2. Restoration of the Northern & Southern kingdoms (Zech 10:4-7)
3. Messianic regathering (Zech 10:8-12)

So with all that being said, we now come to verses 4 through 7 where we have a description of the messianic kingdom and how the Lord wanted to take the northern and southern kingdoms and reunite them and he wanted to do that for them at His first coming, they wouldn’t have it, so that promise awaits the second coming.

Restoration of the N & S Kingdoms (Zech 10:4-7)

• The king (Zech 10:4-5)
• The kingdoms (Zech 10:6-7)

So as we look at verses 4 through 7, we see a description of the king verses 4 and 5 and the two kingdoms that the Lord wanted to reunite. So notice first of all the king, take a look if you could at Zechariah chapter 10, verse 4 (Zech 10:4): From them will come the cornerstone, From them the tent peg, From them the bow of battle… Now, a kingdom isn’t worth much unless you have the right king. So what you have there in the first part of verse 4 is a description of the coming king, Jesus Christ; and there’s basically three metaphors that are used to describe Him. Number one, there in verse 4, He’s the cornerstone. So He’s the leader who would stabilize the nation. Number two, He’s the tent peg, He’s the Messiah that would hold the kingdom in place, just like a tent peg holds a tent in place and then number three, He’s the bow of battle. So He’s the one that in battle would destroy the enemies of the nation and as you continue on the second part of verse 4 into verse 5 (Zech 10:4-5), you keep getting a description here of the king, it says: From them every ruler, all of them together. They will be as mighty men, Treading down the enemy in the mire of the streets in battle… And look at this… And they will fight, for the LORD will be with them; And the riders on horses will be put to shame… So this is describing how the Lord would come as king and He would actually inspire Israel’s army too great bravery and exploits. Why? Because God was with them and he talks about the power of the opponents, how they would come and fight and yet, the Lord would overpower them. The Lord’s army would overpower them and actually put them to shame in spite of their strength. 8:20

So this of course is speaking because this didn’t happen in the 1st century, this is postponed for the second coming of Christ. Zechariah, 14, will pick up on this where we’ll talk about the Lord will fight for them on that day. So Merrill Unger there of verse 5, verses 4 and 5 (Zech 10:4-5) says:

Merrill F. Unger – Unger, Merrill F. Zechariah. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1963. p. 180.

“The scene is that of the strengthening of the Jews in Palestine [Israel] at the time of the invasion from the North under ‘the beast’ (Dan. 7:8) in conjunction with the events of Armageddon (Rev. 16:14; 19:17-20).”

So I think sometimes we have an image of Jesus that we focus so much on Him being meek and mild. You know, the Son of Man had no place to lay His head and all that kind of stuff. We’re so focused on Him as the Lamb, that we forget that He’s coming back as the Lion. So He is the ultimate warrior. In fact, when He comes back, Revelation, 19, verses 11 through 16 (Rev 19:11-16), indicates that from His mouth will come a sharp sword through which He will slay the nations. So when Jesus comes back, there’s going to be so many dead people all over that the vultures are going to come, this is all in Revelation, 19, and they’re going to start to gorge themselves on the corpses, because Jesus will just speak and people everywhere will die. Now, I have to be honest with you, we just don’t focus on that aspect of Jesus very much as the warrior, the one who comes to wage war. We’re so focused on Him as the meek and mild lamb, that we forget that He’s coming back as the Lion of the tribe of Judah and so this is the kind of thing that’s being described here. So people basically have a choice, they can meet Him now as their savior or if they reject that, they’re going to meet Him very soon as their judge. That’s why the book of Philippians says: Every tongue will confess Jesus is Lord… And I used to think, how could every tongue confess Jesus is Lord when most of the people in the world reject Jesus. Well, every tongue will confess Him as Lord because it will be coerced from them by Him. So you can either do it volitionally, this side of His coming or you can have it coerced from your lips when He comes back the second time because He is coming back as king, warrior and judge and that’s what is meant here when it describes Him with the bow of battle and they will fight etc., etc., etc.… and the riders on the horses will be put to shame. So all these very, very powerful generals and powerful armies, you know, they’re going to just be immediately put to shame when Jesus comes back. So it is a dangerous thing to get on the wrong side of Jesus Christ, Amen? And the world is about to find that out, very sadly, and then you go down to verses 6 and 7 and we have a description of the kingdoms that He’s going to put back together. 12:20

Restoration of the N & S Kingdoms (Zech 10:4-7)

• The king (Zech 10:4-5)
• The kingdoms (Zech 10:6-7)

So take a look at verse 6 (Zech 10:6), it says: I will strengthen the house of Judah… Now, what’s Judah? Judah is the southern kingdom. You remember that after the time of Solomon, because of Solomon’s idolatry at the end of his life, 1st Kings, 11 talks about this, the kingdom, Solomon was the last king of the United Kingdom and so God through divine discipline, because of Solomon’s idolatry, divided the kingdom between the ten northern tribes called Israel and the two southern tribes called Judah.

The headquarters of the north was Samaria from that point on and the headquarters of the south was Jerusalem and so what is being predicted here is the Lord is going to take that division and put it back together in His kingdom, in the millennial kingdom. So verse 6 is a description of the south. I will strengthen the house of Judah, that’s a synonym for the south and then you continue on there in verse 6 and it says: I will save the house of Joseph… So Joseph is a synonym for the north and when it says save, we have a very narrow definition of save because, as evangelicals, whenever we use the word save, we’re talking about people that have trusted in Christ as their Savior and they’re going to heaven and so we say they’re saved and clearly the word saved can mean that and it probably does mean that here, the whole northern kingdom is going to be saved. I mean, there’s coming a scenario where every single Jew on planet earth at the end of the tribulation period will be a believer and I don’t know of any nation that that’s predicted of and so it’s speaking of a national conversion. But the word saved also means protected, physically. You see it used that way in the book Hebrews chapter 11, verse 7 (Heb 11:7) where it says: By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household… So we don’t believe that they got saved by getting on the ark. I mean, what saved someone in the Old Testament is believing God’s messianic promises. But the moment they got on the ark they were saved, they were protected from the coming water through the worldwide flood. So when it talks here about the northern kingdom being saved, it’s probably a twofold meaning that they’ll all be believers by the time you get to the end of the tribulation but they’re going to be protected also, physically, from the wrath of the antichrist and his armies. So verse 6 (Zech 10:6) says: I will strengthen the house of Judah… That’s the southern kingdom… I will save the house of Joseph… That’s the northern kingdom, and then the rest of verse 6 says: And I will bring them back, Because I have had compassion on them; And they will be as though I had not rejected them, For I am the LORD their God and I will answer them… 16:09

So God is not doing this for Israel because Israel was deserving. He’s doing this because He had compassion on them. That’s by the way why God chose Israel. He didn’t choose Israel because they were somehow better than everybody else. Deuteronomy 7:7, says: The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples… And so that’s why He’s acting on their behalf. It’s not that they deserve it, it’s God has compassion on His people and that’s, quite frankly, why God works with any of us, Amen? We shouldn’t think you know, that God is at work in our lives because somehow we deserve it. God works in our lives cause He has compassion on us. 2nd Timothy, 2, verse 13 (2 Tim 2:13) says: If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself… So basically what’s being predicted there in verse 6 is the stitching together of the northern and southern kingdoms.

Israel’s Judgments

• Division of the kingdom in 931 B.C. (1 Kgs. 12)
• Assyrian judgment in 722 B.C. (2 Kgs. 17)
• Babylonian captivity in 586 B.C. (2 Kgs. 25)
• Rome Diaspora in A.D. 70 (Luke 19:41-44)

As I said before, the northern and southern kingdoms came into existence through the divine discipline that God meted out on the nation because of Solomon’s idolatry at the end of his life and you can read about Solomon’s idolatry in 1st Kings, 11, it talks there about how his many wives… Well, there’s the problem right there, why does the king have a bunch of wives? Well, he had all these wives because he entered into all these treaties with surrounding pagan powers and when you entered into a treaty in the ancient Near East, you got the king’s daughter as part of the benefits package, I guess, you got the princess and so Solomon had seven hundred wives, I think and three hundred concubines and so think of all the treaties he entered into and by the way, the book of Deuteronomy specifically says, do not enter into treaties with pagan political powers. So Solomon is really an interesting guy. It’s almost like he woke up one day and read Deuteronomy, 17, about don’t multiply wives, the king is not supposed to multiply wives for himself, he’s not to multiply wealth for himself and he’s not to enter into treaties and he just went out at the end of his life and did the exact opposite of what he was supposed to do and as he, you know, got all of these princesses as part of the deal, with all of these princesses came the idols and the false Gods. You look at the marriage of Ahab and Jezebel, for example, I mean, why did Ahab go so astray? Well, you know, if you want to know where someone is in life, figure out who they sleep with and his wife was Jezebel. Jezebel was not Jewish, she was a Phoenician and that’s why when Ahab wanted Naboth’s vineyard, remember? And he says, sell me your vineyard and Naboth said, I’m not going to sell it to you and he kind of went home and started sulking, because under the Mosaic Law the king was supposed to respect the private property rights of other people and his wife who did not come from Israel but came from Phoenicia, she said, what kind of king are you? What are you sulking for? You’re the king, you just go take it by force, because she didn’t have the framework of the Mosaic Law. So he did that, he murdered Naboth, as you know, and that’s one of the reasons that God brought the northern kingdom into dispersion at the hands of the Assyrians and has to do with the fact that he was basically, Ahab was unequally yoked and so, you can imagine Solomon with seven hundred Jezebels and three hundred concubines on top of that. You could imagine the pagan forces with all of their idols and different ways of thinking, how easily his heart was turned away from God. So Solomon wasn’t like his father David, who had a heart after God. But his heart was turned away from God. So the moment he left the throne is the moment God divided the northern and southern kingdoms and you could read about that division in 1st Kings, 12. Solomon’s apostasy is in 1st Kings, 11 and of course, all of my reformed friends, Calvinistic friends, would say, well, Solomon wasn’t a believer, you know, he went to hell. Well, you got a problem there because if you turn Solomon into being a non-believer, that means you’ve got three books of the Bible written by an unbeliever, right? Because he wrote Songs of Solomon when he was young. He wrote Proverbs, middle age. He wrote Ecclesiastes as sort of a grumpy old man as I call him; and so, if you’re going to make Solomon an unsaved person, which a lot of people do, well, you got three books of the Bible written by someone that wasn’t saved. Well, of course Solomon was saved. But he was what Jim was expressing earlier during prayer, that 1st John 1:9 is there to restore broken fellowship with God and so Solomon was not in fellowship with God at the end of his life and that’s what caused the northern and southern division. 22:37

The prophet Ezekiel, if you’ve been tracking with us in our Middle East Meltdown study in Sunday school, predicts that the northern and southern kingdoms in the millennial kingdom are going to come back together as one,

Ezekiel 37

1. Vision: Valley of the Dry Bones (1-14)
   1. Vision (1-10)
   2. Interpretation (11-14)
2. Sign: Two Sticks (15-28) 
   1. Sign (15-17)
   2. Interpretation (18-28)

that’s the two sticks coming together and so you see a similar prediction, right here in the book of Zechariah, about how the King is going to put back together the northern and southern kingdoms. You have a greater description of the north there in verse 7 (Zech 10:7), it says: Ephraim… Now, this would be a synonym for the north… will be like a mighty man, And their heart will be glad as if from wine; Indeed, their children will see it and be glad, Their heart will rejoice in the LORD… So Assyria came and scattered the north and what this is predicting is God is going to re-gather the north and reunite them with the south and it’s going to be such a tremendous work of God that the weak will become strong when this happens and it says: Their children will rejoice… So this may not happen in your lifetime, northern and southern kingdoms, but I’ll tell you one thing, your children down the road will experience this and so everything that’s being spoken of here, whether it’s prosperity or the restoration of the northern and southern kingdoms, these are things Jesus, Yoshua, would have done had the nation embraced Him. But they did not and so all of this awaits the second coming of Christ. Other theological systems basically try to spiritualize all of this and make it sound like it’s happening now. We don’t embrace that thinking here; we believe in what’s called postponement theology. Where these things are yet future and God is doing something unique in the church age which is not a fulfillment of these prophecies. That’s why in your thinking you’ve got to have a millennial kingdom somewhere, cause there’s got to be a place where all of the stuff happens and if you don’t have that in your theology, what you’re going to do is rewrite the Bible and make it sound like it’s happening today. You know, people will say, well, you know, in the church age there is neither Jew nor Greek nor slave, so it’s being fulfilled today, Galatians, 3, verse 28 (Gal 3:28). Well, that’s not what the passage says. The passage is talking about the northern and southern kingdoms in Israel coming back together. 25:40

So part of this will involve a messianic re-gathering, which you see described in verses 8 through 12 (Zech 10:8-12).

Messianic Regathering (Zech 10:8-12)

• The regathering (Zech 10:8-9)
• The geography (Zech 10:10-11)
• The strengthening (Zech 10:12)

So we have a re-gathering described verses 8, 9 and then you get a geography lesson and this is why you can’t allegorize it, because Zechariah starts to depict the specific places on the earth where Israel will be in their dispersion and their need to be re gathered from those places and then the chapter ends with the strengthening of the people in the millennial kingdom. So notice first of all the re-gathering and take a look at verse 8 (Zech 10:8). I will whistle… This is the reuniting… I will whistle for them to gather them together… Why is God going to whistle for them to re-gather them? Because it says: For I have redeemed them… So they belong to the Lord, they are His people and He’s going to work in history to re-gather them. Now whistle, is very interesting because that’s what a shepherd would do with sheep. A shepherd would give kind of a distinctive sound that all the sheep would recognize and the moment that the sheep heard this distinctive sound, they just gravitate towards the shepherd. So my wife, for example, is she in here by the way? There she is, she does this like, and I won’t to ask you to showcase it for us, but she does this like whistle or sound and only she can make that sound. So when I hear it, I know she’s calling for me in a crowd. I mean, it works, I’m not kidding, one hundred percent of the time. You want to demonstrate for us? And so that’s kind of like how it is in the ancient Near East, where the shepherd does this sound that all the sheep recognize and they just gather around the shepherd and this is what Jesus is talking about in John 10:27 when he says: My sheep… So He’s using the sheep shepherd imagery… My sheep hear my voice, I know them and they will follow me… So we were in, I think it was Bethlehem, wasn’t it? In 1998, when we got married, we went to Israel as part of our honeymoon and it was kind of the end of the day and I was kind of grumpy or more grumpy than normal, I guess, and I was wanting to get some rest and, so we’re just standing around and this wasn’t part of the tour or anything, but we saw a shepherd and we saw him do exactly that. He gave this little whistle and the sheep, that were scattered around in this particular field, all heard it and it was just amazing how they just gathered around the shepherd and you see something like that and you’re thinking, Wow! That’s what the Bible is talking about, when it says my sheep hear my voice and they follow me and so that’s why you need to go to Israel, because when you go to Israel you see things like this and the verses in your Bible just jump off the page and so I recommend you to travel to Israel at some point. I mean, you’re going to go there anyway, right? During the millennium, you’re going to be there for a thousand years so you might as well go over now and get the lay of the land as I like to say. But that’s the imagery here in verse 8, he says: I will whistle for them to gather them together. So this is talking about how the Lord is going to re-gather Israel in the last days ; and when God does this, it says: They will be as numerous as they were before… 30:14

So they’re going to be as numerous in the land of Israel as before, during the time of their greatest prosperity. So what was the time of their greatest prosperity? It was clearly the end of Solomon’s reign. That’s why Solomon’s apostasy was so tragic. The kingdom was more prosperous during the reign of Solomon than probably it’s ever been and the kingdom hadn’t been divided yet, because God hadn’t brought the divine discipline after Solomon’s death, separating the north and the south and the territorial expansion of the borders of Israel were increased more during Solomon’s reign than any other time and so God says, when he whistles and summons them, they’re going to be just as numerous as they were before… Before what? Before the division happened during the time of Solomon and you go down to verse 9 (Zech 10:9) and it says: When I scatter them among the peoples… Now when it talks about them being scattered among the peoples, this obviously is not referring to Babylon, because in the Babylonian captivity that they were just now coming out of, they weren’t scattered among the peoples they were taken to one location.

So this is obviously speaking of something yet future when the nation of Israel will be scattered all over the world and we believe that happened post AD 70. They went into worldwide dispersion and so it’s speaking of them in worldwide dispersion when God sort of whistles and re-gathers them back to their land to the point where they’re more prosperous than they were before the discipline came during the days of Solomon. So he says there in verse 9 (Zech 10:9): I will scatter them among the peoples… Now look at verse 9, I think earlier I said remember is in verse 8, but it’s not in verse 8, it’s in verse 9 and this may be the most important verse in the whole book of Zechariah and the reason I say that is this is what Zechariah’s name means. His name means God remembers. So it says: When I scatter them among the peoples, They will remember Me in far countries… Plural. So this isn’t talking about the return from Babylon cause they weren’t in far countries plural they were in a singular place. Verse 9 (Zech 10:9): When I scatter them among the peoples, They will remember Me in far countries, And they with their children will live and come back… So God is going to remember them and if that weren’t enough, there’s going to be something inside of them where they’re going to remember God. Now, maybe it’s the shepherd’s whistle, maybe it’s the shepherd’s distinctive noise. I’m not exactly sure what it is, but something goes on in the hearts of the Jewish people where they just have a desire to go back to the homeland and when you look at the re-gathering of Israel today and you see that just sort of this longing in the hearts of the Jewish people to go back to where they came from, I would take that as they’re starting to remember God. Now, the blinders of course haven’t been completely pulled off them. But they’re remembering who they are, they’re remembering where they came from, they’re remembering the land of Israel and they just have this sort of desire to go back. They have a desire to participate in the Zionist movement, it’s like God has put something unique in the Jewish heart where they have this ambition, you know, to return. 34:39

So God says, I will remember them and they’re going to remember me and by the way, that’s what Zechariah’s name means. God remembers and this won’t happen in your generations, Zechariah says, but it talks about: They with their children, will live and come back. So down the road in your distant lineage, there’s going to be a group of people that will experience this. Now, where are they going to be recycled back from? And this is why you can’t allegorize this and make this into the church age, because it names the specific places of geography where the Jewish people will be in the diaspora when God will whistle and summon them. If you look at verse 10 (Zech 10:10), it says: I will bring them back from the land of Egypt… Where is the land of Egypt?

There is the land of Egypt there with a circle around it, down sort of south west of the nation of Israel. Now, what would you Jewish people in the end times be doing in Egypt? Well, Isaiah, 11, verse 11 (Isa 11:11) tells you that the Jews will be in Egypt in the end times, some of them. He says in Isaiah, 11, verse 11 (Isa 11:11): Then it will happen on that day that the Lord Will again recover the second time with His hand The remnant of His people, who will remain, From… And here’s the geography… From Assyria… More on Assyria in a second… From Egypt…. It’s right there, Isaiah, 11, verse 11… From Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, And from the islands of the sea… So Isaiah, 11, verse 11 specifically mentions Egypt as one of the places the Jewish people will be when God will whistle and summon them back into their land. Verse 10 (Zech 10:10): I will bring them back from the land of Egypt And gather them from Assyria… Where is Assyria?

It’s that circle above Babylon to the north. So there’s still going to be Jews in Assyria in the end times and they’re going to be summoned back to the land of Israel and it goes on and mentions more geography: I will bring them into the land of Gilead… Where is Gilead? It’s basically east of the Jordan in the land of Israel and then you keep reading here, verse 10 and it says: I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon… Where is Lebanon? That’s outside the borders of Israel. So west of the Jordan and then you keep reading there in verse 10 and it says: Until no room can be found for them… So he’s just going to keep recycling them and recycling them and recycling them from these distant places till the land of Israel becomes just as prosperous, just as numerous as it was before Solomon went off the rails to the point where they’re going to have trouble assimilating everybody, cause there’s not going to be enough room for them, it’s what the prophecy predicts. 38:25

At the very end of verse 10 it says: Until no room can be found for them… I will bring them back from Egypt, I will bring them back from Assyria, I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon until no room can be found for them… And the places of geography keep getting described in verse 11 (Zech 10:11): And they will pass through the sea of distress And He will strike the waves in the sea, So that all the depths of the Nile will dry up… So as they’re coming back from Egypt, there’s something in the way called the Nile and then you see up towards the left hand side of the map, towards the top, where the Nile kind of breaks into different smaller rivers flowing into the Mediterranean, that’s called the Nile delta. So as they’re coming back from the opposite side of the Nile towards Israel, the Nile is sort of in their way and so God is just going to dry the Nile up. So God is pretty good at that. Isn’t that what he did with the Red Sea? Exodus, 14? And He closed the Red Sea behind the pursuing Egyptians and then Israel has a great worship service in Exodus, 15, describing how God saved them. Save there, Exodus, 15, is talking about physical protection from water again. So there’s a broader understanding of the word “saved” and then what’s God going to do to all these political powers that have persecuted Israel? It says, verse 11 (Zech 10:11): They will pass through the sea of distress And He will strike the waves in the sea… Isn’t that what Jesus did by the way on the sea of Galilee? When He is sound asleep and a storm arises on the sea of Galilee? And by the way, when you go to Israel, there’s a boat ride you can take across the sea of Galilee and then when you figure out how much they charge you for the boat ride, you figure out why Jesus decided to walk across the sea. But as you’re going across this boat ride, across the sea of Galilee, it’s fascinating how a storm can come up just like that and it has to do with the position of the mountains and all of these kinds of things. It’s just an area where a storm can just take place almost instantaneously and so the Bible, when it talks about a storm breaking out on the sea of Galilee, when you’re on the sea of Galilee, you can see how the Bible is, you know, geographically credible. So one of the privileges I’ve had is actually preaching and teaching on the sea of Galilee on this boat ride. In fact, I was there with my friend Bill Perkins of “Steeling the Mind” ministries, Compass Ministries and of course, with no warning at all, you know, he’s at the microphone talking and then he says, Andy what do you have to say? And it’s like, Lord, I’m going to open my mouth, give your servant wisdom. So I talked about, you know, the story of the storm and Jesus being asleep in the boat. Mark says He was sleeping on a cushion. None of the other gospel writers tell us about the cushion, but the cushion was interesting to Mark so he throws in the fact that His head was against a cushion and all of the disciples are just panic palace, because of the storm and they say things like, don’t you care about us? We’re drowning and then Jesus gets up, He rebukes the wind and the waves. That’s rebuke number one. Then He rebukes them for the storm happening in their hearts. He says, oh ye of little faith! That’s rebuke number two and then it says, now they were really afraid. I mean, they thought they were afraid of the storm, now they’re in a boat with a guy that speaks and the storm on the sea of Galilee stops being a storm and everything is placid just with the word of His mouth. So what’s more fearful? The storm? Or being in a boat with the Son of God? And so, I think it’s Mark, 4,  right in there, it’s just a tremendous teaching and so, when it talks here about how the Lord is going to strike the waves in the sea. In other words, the Nile will be a non-factor when this re-gathering takes place, that fits with our understanding of Jesus because that’s what he did roughly five hundred years after this was written on the Sea of Galilee and what about the political powers that have persecuted Israel? Second part of verse 11 (Zech 10:11): And the pride of Assyria will be brought down… Where is Assyria? You look at Babylon and you go straight up north and you run into Assyria. The major city of Assyria was Nineveh, the city that Jonah didn’t want to preach to, because he didn’t want the grace of God to go to those people, right? And so Assyria is a major political power. Assyria is the one that took the northern kingdom and scattered it. So Assyria is a major troublemaker and when you study how the Assyrians killed people, I have some ancient Near Eastern texts I should come in and read to you some time about how the Assyrians kill people. It’s just disgusting and grisly. In fact, it was the Assyrians that invented the crucifixion. Everybody thinks Rome invented the crucifixion, that historically is not true. It’s the Assyrians that came up with the idea of killing people through crucifixion. All the Romans did is reach back into history and say, Hey! That looks like a great way for capital punishment, that’ll keep people in line, because we’ll crucify people in a public place and as you’re going about your business you see people dying on a cross and boy! I don’t want to step out of line because look at what Rome might do to me. So it’s actually the Assyrians that came up with this diabolical form of capital punishment and this is why Jonah, when you start to understand this, you understand why Jonah when he was told to preach grace to Assyrians, went the opposite direction. He did not want the love of God to go to them cause he hated them. He was a strong, nationalistic patriot and even when he was swallowed up into the belly of the fish and vomited out on dry land, at the end of the book of Jonah, he’s upset because they repented. So you have the running prophet chapter 1, the praying prophet chapter 2, the preaching prophet chapter 3 and then Jonah, the book of Jonah ends with the pouting prophet chapter 4. Jonah is the only prophet that we know of in the Old Testament that was successful. 46:37

Every other prophet was not successful in terms of preaching repentance and getting a result. Jonah was the only one that was successful and the book of Jonah ends with him being mad about his success. Why? Because of who the Assyrians were. So when Zechariah says Assyria will be brought down, it’s talking about a major evil wicked empire that will be brought down in the last days. Notice what’s going to be brought down, not just Assyria but their pride, because we know from 1st Peter, 5, I think it’s around verse 8, verse 7, verses 8 verse 9, that the Lord resists the proud but gives grace to the who? To the humble. So if you want God to resist you, be a proud person cause God actually resists people. If you want God’s assistance, be a humble person. So the pride of Assyria will be brought down and then at the very end of verse 11(Zech 10:11) it says: the scepter of Egypt will depart…. Where is Egypt again? There it is in the southwest, that was a major political power too. So the scepter is speaking of the authority of Egypt. I mean, that’s where the nation of Israel went during the days of Moses, right? That’s where they were for four hundred years and God is going to take that political power and He’s going to bring that down. So the verse you want to be thinking of is talking about all of these political powers that will be brought down is Genesis, 12, verse 3 (Gen 12:3) which says: I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse… God has made to Abraham certain promises and one of the promises He made to Abraham and his descendants is He would curse those who curse Israel.

1. 8 New Promises Genesis 12:1-3

1. 1. 1. Land (Gen. 12:1b)
      2. Great nation (Gen. 12:2a)
      3. Personal blessing (Gen. 12:2b)
      4. Great name (Gen. 12:2c)
      5. Blessing to others (Gen. 12:2d)
      6. Blessing to blessers (Gen. 12:3a)
      7. Cursing to cursers (Gen. 12:3b)
      8. Blessing to the world (Gen. 12:3c)

So  Assyria cursed Israel and so their pride will be brought down. Egypt cursed Israel and so their scepter will depart from them.

Messianic Regathering (Zech 10:8-12)

• The regathering (Zech 10:8-9)
• The geography (Zech 10:10-11)
• The strengthening (Zech 10:12)

So we have the re-gathering verses 8, 9. The geography that they’re coming from verses 10, 11 and then it sort of ends with their strengthening. Verse 12 (Zech 10:12) it says: And I will strengthen them in the LORD, And in His name they will walk, declares the LORD… So notice that Israel will become strong in the Lord. How important that is to understand. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. We’re not strong in ourselves. We’re strong in the Lord and Israel, their problem is they think they’re strong because of their intelligence, their military and they’re going to have to be put through this experience to learn that their strength only comes from the Lord and once they understand that their strength comes from the Lord, it says, in His name they will walk, declares the Lord. They will walk when they honor My name again.

First Burden Outline (Zech, 9‒11)

1. Divine warrior hymn (Zech, 9)
2. True shepherd (Zech, 10)
3. False shepherd (Zech, 11)

So that’s the end of chapter 10, where you have a description of the true shepherd and everything that God wanted to do in and through Israel, had they embraced Him in the first coming, all of these promises are not being fulfilled now, they’re in a state of postponement. They’re not being fulfilled in the church age. But they’re yet future awaiting for Israel’s response to her Messiah. Messianic prosperity, verses 1 through 3, the restoration of the northern and southern kingdoms, verses 4 through 7 and then, the messianic re-gathering verses 11 through 17.

So next week, we will get into chapter 11. You might want to read that for next week, because there you have a description of the false shepherd that they would embrace in lieu of the true Christ and in chapter 11, it even predicts the number of pieces of silver, five hundred years in advance, that the true Messiah would be betrayed for. So the Bible says, the love of money is the root of all evil, right? And there’s no greater example of it than what Judas did by selling out Christ for a few measly pieces of silver and yet that whole thing is predicted five hundred years before it happens, just like chapter 9, verse 9 predicts, Jesus riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. By the way, isn’t Palm Sunday coming up on our calendar? Five hundred years before it happened. So Zechariah is an amazing book in terms of messianic prophecy and so you’ll get a description of that happening in chapter 11 and you’ll also get a description of the antichrist, because they’re going to accept for a season the antichrist in lieu of the true Christ. So keep that in mind and try to read through chapter 11 for next time and once we finish chapter 11, we’ll be finished with the first of two burdens.

Let’s get out early tonight, shall we? 5 minutes early. I think someone wants us to get out early because usually the air conditioner comes on and I keep saying, surely it’s going to come on in the next thirty seconds and I’ve been thinking that for the last 45 minutes. So somebody didn’t turn the air on, meaning they wanted me to stop early so they can go home early. So you got your wish. Alright, let’s pray! Father, we’re grateful for your truth, grateful for your word and help us to grow in our understanding of the book of Zechariah and help us to be a blessing to many people. We’ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and God’s people said, Amen.