Zechariah 9:1-17 Introduction Two thousand five hundred fifty years ago, in the year 538 B.C., Jewish exiles from Babylon began making the long journey back to Jerusalem. Among these returning exiles was a man named Zechariah. Jerusalem had been lying in ruins now for forty-eight years. Long gone were the glory days of the kings. The returned exiles were a motley little group, still under the control of the Persian empire, and apparently with no real importance in the world. Eighteen years later, not much had changed just plenty of additional trials and frustrations (due mostly to their own unfaithfulness). It was then, in the year 520 B.C., the word of the Lord came to Zechariah. Zechariah reminded his down-trodden people that God s purposes and plans for them still remained the same. Israel would eventually triumph over all of God s enemies. The Messiah s kingdom would still come. So Israel must remain faithful in true obedience. Israel must not despair. As a result of Zechariah s encouragement (along with that of the prophet Haggai), the temple was eventually rebuilt. But the city walls were still in ruins, and the people were still oppressed and scorned by their neighbors. They were just an insignificant little speck in the vast Persian Empire. So it was in the midst of circumstances like these that the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah perhaps as many as forty years later. I. Verses 1-6 God is promising His people that judgment is coming, and that one day He will destroy all the pride and arrogance of their neighbors. Damascus, Hamath, Tyre, and Sidon were neighboring cities to the north. They would all be stripped of their possessions and devoured by fire in spite of all their great wisdom, and strength, and riches. To the east and south were the proud cities of Philistia (Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and Ashdod). They would also be destroyed left without king or citizen. When the cities of Philistia see that Tyre and Sidon have fallen in the north, they will be afraid and writhe in anguish because they had hoped that Tyre and Sidon would be able to stem the flood of destruction. Maybe as many as 150 years after Zechariah s prophecy (in 332 B.C.), Alexander the Great marched around the northeast tip of the Mediterranean Sea and turned south with his sights set on Egypt. On his way to Egypt, he sent one part of his army to conquer Damascus while he led the rest of his army to attack the city of Tyre. After a seven-month siege, Tyre was destroyed. The next point of resistance was Gaza, and that lasted for only two months. So the pride of Israel s neighbors was left in ruins, and Zechariah s prophecy was fulfilled. But there were also numerous other cities and nations that Alexander conquered according to God s sovereign purposes. Eventually, he overran the entire Persian Empire, replacing it with the Greek Empire. So Phoenicia and Philistia were conquered along with the whole known world of that day! Their destruction was not unique. And yet God singled out Israel s neighbors for special mention because He wanted Israel to know that in spite of their circumstances, He was still sovereign over the nations, and they were still the object of His special care ( The Lord has an eye on mankind and on all the tribes of Israel verse 1a). 1
So the very literal cities of Phonecia and Philistia are really representative of all the cities and nations that fell to Alexander according to God s purposes. In Zechariah 9, the cities of Phoenecia and Philistia ultimately represent all of the enemies of God and His people. No matter when or where they may be found, the fate of those who exalt themselves against God will always be the same as that of Tyre and Gaza. Can you imagine listening to this message from Zechariah the prophet if you were among the small group of Jews who returned to Jerusalem only to be surrounded by powerful enemies! Put yourself in their shoes. What an encouragement this would have been! And what an encouragement and comfort this should be to all of God s people throughout all of history including us here today. No matter how tiny and insignificant and vulnerable the Church may seem in the world, God is still sovereign over the nations and the church will always be the object of His special care. But then after the message of judgment and destruction on the cities of Phoenicia and Philistia, Zechariah turns to a very different kind of message. II. Verse 7 What does this mean? The blood in Philistia s mouth and the abominations between its teeth is a reference to their sacrificial meals. So God is saying that one day He will turn the inhabitants of Philistia from their false worship and idolatry and they will actually become a remnant for Himself. The remnant of the Philistines will be a clan and a family within Israel just like the Jebusites. The Jebusites were the original inhabitants of Jerusalem, and they were never destroyed by the Israelites. Instead, they eventually came to worship Israel s God as a part of God s people. It was a Jebusite named Araunah who offered to give David the site for the temple, and who also offered to give him his oxen and plow to use as a burnt offering (cf. 2 Sam. 24:16; 1 Chron. 21:18). So just like the Jebusites, God s purpose for the remnant of Philistia is that they should be included as part of His own people as one of the clans of Judah. After their cities were destroyed, the people of Philistia were absorbed into the surrounding cultures and there were many who converted to Judaism and became worshippers of the one true God. But once again, just like Ekron stands for all the cities of Philistia (v. 7f), so all the cities of Philistia ultimately stand for all the Gentile peoples of the whole earth. God s ultimate purpose is that He should have a people for Himself from all the tribes, tongues, peoples, and nations of the earth (Isaiah 19:23-25). God s purpose for the people of Philistia is a sign of His purpose for the whole earth. God is sovereign over the nations not simply in judgment, but also in salvation! This brings us, then, to verse eight. III. Verse 8 After Alexander the Great destroyed Gaza, and before marching south to conquer Egypt, he turned aside to Jerusalem. But instead of attacking Jerusalem, Alexander actually offered a sacrifice to Israel s God to the complete shock and astonishment of his own captains! So God miraculously protected His people from experiencing the same destruction that came to their neighbors. But this was just a temporary deliverance. So it couldn t be the final fulfillment of Zechariah s prophecy in verse eight! Instead, it was only a pointer to the everlasting deliverance 2
of God s people when He will cut off all of the oppressors of His people once and for all (Rev. 7:15-17; 21:22-27). So Zechariah reminds his downtrodden countrymen (and us!) that the whole history of the world is the history of God exercising His sovereignty over the nations both in judgment and in salvation, and that God is always exercising this sovereign rule for the sake of His people regardless of how small and helpless and vulnerable they may find themselves to be. Now then, with all of these things in mind, Zechariah went on to proclaim these famous words to his countrymen: IV. Verses 9-10 The sovereign rule of God that was described in verses 1-8 will one day be exercised by the Messiah! And this promise is so certain that right then and there Zechariah called on his oppressed countrymen to rejoice greatly and shout aloud! Behold, your king is coming to you! Of course, with their physical eyes, the people could not see any king coming to them. But Zechariah is calling them to see and to behold with the eyes of faith. So what will it look like when their King and Messiah arrives? Well, first of all, the people should think of a righteous Messiah who is anointed and empowered by the Spirit of God to bring God s salvation to His people (9b; cf. Keil-Delitzsch; Deut. 33:29; Ps. 33:16). Can you imagine how wonderful this would have sounded to Zechariah s countrymen all the way back in 500 B.C.? They would immediately have been reminded of the earlier prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah: Isaiah 11:1-4 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Jeremiah 23:5-6 Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: The LORD is our righteousness. The people were certainly not wrong to think of these prophecies, but as they behold the coming of their king, they must also leave room for another part of the picture. Righteous and having salvation is he humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Humble should really be translated lowly (ASV; NKJV; KJV; Youngs Literal). The point is that when Israel s Messiah comes he will be poor and lowly, even despised and oppressed by men. So after the grand visions of Isaiah 11 and Jeremiah 23, the people are forced to think more along the lines of Isaiah 53: 3
Isaiah 53:1-3 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. So lowly will the Messiah be that he will actually come to His people riding on a donkey! Matthew helps us to feel the meaning of this verse when he translates: mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. So God s people, the people of Israel, are to envision their King coming to them! Lowly and riding on a donkey. But why? Why should Israel s Messiah come to them riding on a beast of burden? I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. How the King comes is a sign of how His kingdom will come. If Israel s Messiah is to come in lowly estate and without any signs of earthly power and exaltation (cf. Keil-Delitzsch), then Israel must also expect the Messiah s kingdom to come in the same way the way of lowliness and peace. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off. The Messiah s kingdom will not spread by war and conquest. To the contrary! When the Messiah comes to his people riding on a donkey, He will actually cut off from Ephraim and from Jerusalem all the implements of war. This is the meaning of the donkey. Ephraim and Jerusalem stand here for all of God s covenant people. And so we learn from Zechariah that when the Messiah comes to His people riding on the donkey, He will transform them from a geopolitical nation with standing armies and weapons of war into a nation that is truly spiritual and fit for the Messiah s kingdom the kingdom of heaven (1 Pet. 2:9). And then the Messiah will actually speak peace to the nations so that they will willingly and gladly and joyfully abandon their idolatrous ways and embrace his righteous rule and salvation. Here is the ultimate fulfillment of verse seven: I will take away [Philistia s] blood from its mouth, and its abominations from between its teeth; it too shall be a remnant for our God; it shall be like a clan in Judah, and Ekron shall be like the Jebusites! The Messiah will not command peace by force of arms. Instead, he will speak peace to the nations so that His kingdom will spread simply through the proclamation of his word. Isaiah 52:7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, Your God reigns. Zechariah shows us that this good news of Zion s peace will be published among all the nations (cf. Rom. 10:14-18; Eph. 6:15) so that eventually the Messiah s rule will spread from sea to sea, and from the River to the very ends of the earth. But now what about those who stubbornly refuse to submit themselves to God s rule and embrace the Messiah s salvation? What about those who continue to persecute and oppress the people of God (cf. verse 8)? 4
V. Verses 11-13 We have seen in verses 1-6 that the Greeks would be the instrument God used to judge Israel s neighbors. But now Zechariah actually pits the sons of Zion (God s people) against the sons of Greece (the enemies of God s people). God will rescue Zion by bending Judah as His bow and making Ephraim His arrow. He will stir up the sons of Zion against the sons of Greece and wield them like a warrior s sword. This was partially fulfilled a little over three hundred years later when Judas Maccabaeus and his successors led the Jewish people against the occupying Greek forces resulting in their independence for the very first time since the Babylonian exile over four hundred years earlier. And yet this independence would last only until Jerusalem was conquered yet again this time by the Romans in 63 B.C. So once again, we need to see that there was a partial fulfillment of Zechariah s prophecy in the days of Judas Maccabaeus, but this was just a small foretaste of the final fulfillment. In verse 13, the Greek empire represents all the powers in the world that are arrayed against God and against His people. And one day, all that the Greek empire stands for will fall into ruins. And the people of God will rise victorious over all of God s enemies and reign in everlasting triumph and joy. VI. Verses 14-17 Here is the final salvation of all God s people when there will no longer be any powers or enemies to threaten them, and they will live forever in perfect peace and joyful prosperity as the flock that God has saved. What an amazing finale! What a beautiful ending to the story! Behold! Your king is coming to you! And then you wake up, and look around and see the city walls still in ruins, and remember that the Persians are still the ruling world empire, and you are a small, helpless, ragtag collection of returned exiles, and you still live next door to the neighborhood bullies of Phoenicia and Philistia. But you are not discouraged or overwhelmed. God has reminded you through His prophet Zechariah that even now, in the midst of these circumstances, He is still sovereign over the nations in judgment and in salvation. He never ceases to exercise His sovereign rule for the sake of His people regardless of how small and helpless and vulnerable they may be. And so you live by faith, waiting for the day when your king will come, righteous and having salvation, lowly and mounted on a donkey. Now perhaps we can understand the meaning of Palm Sunday. Conclusion Matthew 21:1-9 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, The Lord needs them, and he will send them at once. This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he 5
sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! Two thousand years ago, the Messiah came to His people and He came to them just as Zechariah said he would mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. This Friday the Messiah will die, so that through a new and better covenant He might create a new and spiritual Israel the assembly of the Messiah, the Church. And then next Sunday we ll celebrate the Messiah s resurrection from the dead And then His ascension into the heavenly Jerusalem to sit enthroned at the right hand of God And then the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out on the Day of Pentecost. The Messiah has cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem. The battle bow has been cut off from the people of God, and now He is speaking peace to the nations. And He has spoken peace to us! 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. The Messiah has taken away the blood from our mouth, and the abominations from between our teeth; He has made us a remnant for Himself, like one of the clans in Judah. Revelation 7:9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. Revelation 5:9 Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. One day Jesus, the Messiah, will return to this earth, and then He will destroy all those who refused to submit to His rule. On that day the Lord our God will save us, as the flock of his people; for like the jewels of a crown we shall shine on his land. What comeliness and beauty will be ours! Grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the young women (cf. Zech. 9:16-17; ESV & NASB). Behold! The king has come to His people! And He came just as Zechariah said He would lowly and mounted on a donkey speaking peace to the nations! 6