Zechariah 9:1-17 Introduction Two thousand five hundred forty-nine years ago, in the year 538 B.C., the Jewish exiles from Babylon made the long journey back to their homeland in Palestine. Zechariah was among those returning to the land that had been desolate and forsaken now for fifty years. Long gone were the glory days of the kings reigning in Jerusalem. The returned exiles were a ragtag and motley little group, still under the control of the Persian empire, and with apparently no importance or significance whatsoever in the world. After eighteen years back in the land with plenty of additional trials and frustrations (due at least in part to their own unfaithfulness), the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, and so Zechariah began to prophesy to his countrymen. Zechariah sought to remind his lowly and afflicted and insignificant people that God s purposes and plans for them still remained the same. As God s people, Israel would eventually triumph over all of God s enemies. The kingdom of the Messiah would still come. So Israel must remain faithful in true obedience. Israel must not despair. As a result of Zechariah s encouragement and exhortation (along with that of his colleague Haggai), the temple was eventually rebuilt. However, the city still lay in ruins, and the people, oppressed and scorned by their neighbors, still felt themselves to be of no account in the world. They were an insignificant speck on the vast map of the Persian Empire. It was in the midst of circumstances like these that the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah. I. Verses 1-6 God promises His downtrodden people that His judgment is coming and that He will destroy the pride and arrogance of their neighbors. Damascus, Hamath, Tyre, and Sidon in the north will all be stripped of their possessions and devoured by fire in spite of all their great wisdom, and strength, and riches. The proud cities of Philistia to the east and south of Jerusalem (Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and Ashdod) will also be destroyed, and 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 their hopes that Tyre and Sidon would be able to stem the tide of destruction coming from the north will have been confounded. At least 170 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 the conquest of 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 besiege the city of Tyre. After a seven-month siege, during which Alexander actually built a road out to Tyre s invincible island fortress in the Mediterranean Sea, Tyre was destroyed. With Tyre out of the way, the next point of resistance was Gaza, which held out for only two months. And so the great pride of Israel s oppressive and wicked neighbors was left in ruins, and Zechariah s prophecy was fulfilled. Now there were numerous other cities and nations that Alexander conquered according to the sovereign purposes of God. In fact, he eventually overran the entire Persian Empire, replacing it with the Greek Empire. 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 in Palestine for special mention because He wanted Israel to know that in spite of their 1
circumstances, He was still sovereign over all the nations, and His special care and providence was still reserved for His chosen people. The Lord has an eye on mankind and on all the tribes of Israel (verse 1a). So the very literal cities of Phonecia and Philistia are really representative of all the cities and nations that fell to Alexander according to the sovereign and just purposes of God. And ultimately, they 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 by oppressing and persecuting His people will always be the same as that of Tyre and Gaza. This certainly should have been an encouragement to that ragtag and motley group of Jews who found themselves surrounded by powerful neighbors and ruled by an even more powerful empire! In fact, this should be a strong encouragement and comfort to all of God s people throughout all of history including us here today. But after the message of judgment and destruction on the neighboring cities of Phoenicia and Philistia, Zechariah turns to a very different kind of message. II. Verse 7 God will turn the inhabitants of Philistia from their idolatrous practices (their sacrificial meals) so that they will actually become a remnant for Himself. This remnant of the Philistines will actually take their place as a clan and a family within the people of God much like the Jebusites. The Jebusites were the original inhabitants of Jerusalem, and they were never destroyed by the Israelites. Instead, they eventually adopted the worship of the Lord and actually became a part of the people of God. 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). And so just like the Jebusites, God s purpose for the remnant of the Philistia is that they should be included as an equal part of His own people. After the cities of Philistia lost their political identity, they eventually disappeared as separate tribes, 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. It is ultimately God s intent 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 and representation 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. One of the miracles of history is that Jerusalem was spared what appeared to be certain destruction as instead of besieging Jerusalem, Alexander actually offered sacrifice to Israel s God to the complete shock and astonishment of his captains. So God protected His people from experiencing the destruction that came to their neighbors. And yet in the end, this temporary deliverance was only meant to point to the final deliverance of God s people when He will cut off all of the oppressors and persecutors of His people once and for all (Rev. 7:15-17; 21:22-27). 2
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. With all these things in mind, the inspired prophet went on to proclaim to his countrymen these famous words: IV. Verses 9-10 One day the sovereign rule of God that was described in verses 1-8 will be visibly displayed in the coming of the Messiah. So certain is the promise of God s Word that right then and there, in the midst of their broken down, no-account city, Zechariah actually called his countrymen to rejoice greatly and to 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, they should envision a righteous Messiah who possesses and brings with him the very salvation of God. The Hebrew literally says: righteous and saved is he. In other words, the righteous Messiah will be anointed and empowered by the Spirit of God to bring salvation and deliverance to His people (cf. Keil-Delitzsch; Deut. 33:29; Ps. 33:16). Can you imagine how wonderful this would have sounded to Zechariah s audience 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 not wrong to think of these prophecies, but as they behold by faith the coming of their king, they must leave room for another part of the picture. Zechariah continues: 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 of a lowly status, 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: 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 3
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, and not even on a full grown donkey, but rather on a colt, the foal of a donkey! Matthew gives us the sense 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. If Zechariah s countrymen wondered why their Messiah should come to them riding on a beast of burden, they did not have to wait long for an answer. 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. The manner of the coming of the King is meant to show the people the manner of the coming of the kingdom. Just as the Messiah comes to Israel in lowly estate and without any signs of earthly power and exaltation (cf. Keil-Delitzsch), so also the Messiah s kingdom will not be established with signs of earthly power and glory, but rather with small and lowly beginnings. Israel should look for the King to come to them lowly and riding on a donkey, and so they should also look for the promised kingdom to come to them in 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 kingdom will not spread through the force of war and conquest. In fact, 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 de-militarization is exactly what the donkey symbolizes. Ephraim and Jerusalem stand here for the whole covenant people of God. And so we learn from Zechariah s words that when Israel s king comes to them riding on the donkey, He will transform them from a political and earthly nation with standing armies and weapons of war into a nation that is spiritual and fit for 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 remant 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 spiritual power 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 the good news of Zion s peace will be published among all the nations (cf. Rom. 10:14-18) so that eventually the Messiah s rule will spread from sea to sea, and from the River to the very ends of the earth. This is what it means when Zechariah says that Israel should expect their king to come to them lowly and riding on a donkey. And yet what about 4
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)? V. Verses 11-13 In Zechariah s day, Greece was a far away nation of no real threat to Jerusalem. But as we have seen, Zechariah has already prophesied the conquest of Alexander the Great against the cities of Phonecia and Philistia in verses 1-6 (without actually naming him or his country). In verses 1-6, the Greeks were 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 eventually gaining their independence for the very first time since the Babylonian exile over four hundred years earlier. And yet this independence would be very short lived, lasting only until Jerusalem was conquered yet again this time by the Romans in 63 B.C. So once again, the partial fulfillment of Zechariah s prophecy in the days of Judas Maccabaeus was simply a small foretaste of the final fulfillment. Whereas before, the Greek empire was the instrument of God s judgment against Israel s neighbors, now it represents all the forces of 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. And so after the Lord has proclaimed His intention to stir up the sons of Zion against the sons of Greece, and wield them like a warrior s sword, Zechariah continues: VI. Verses 14-17 Here is the ultimate and final salvation of all God s people when there will no longer be any 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, and no-account 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, because through Zechariah s prophesy God has reminded you that even now, in the midst of these circumstances, He is still sovereign over the nations in judgment and in salvation, and He is always exercising His sovereign rule for the sake of His people regardless of how small and helpless and vulnerable they may be. And so you live joyfully by faith, waiting for and envisioning the day when your king will come, righteous and having salvation, lowly and mounted on a donkey. 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 5
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 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 king 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. John tells us: John 12:16 His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. After Palm Sunday, Christians commemorate the king s death and the new covenant that He made with His people, and then they celebrate His resurrection from the dead, and then His ascension into the heavenly Jerusalem to sit enthroned at the right hand of God, and then the promised gift of the Holy Spirit poured out on the Day of Pentecost. And just like the disciples, it is when we see the king glorified that we come to understand and rejoice in the meaning of Palm Sunday. Jesus is the promised king, but not of a political and earthly nation with carnal weapons of warfare. He 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. Revelation 5:9 And they sang a new song, saying, 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, 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. One day Christ will return to this earth and 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). Until then, may we be diligently working for the advance of His kingdom, always having as shoes for our feet the readiness of the gospel of peace (Eph. 6:15). Behold! The king has come to His people! And He came just as Zechariah said He would lowly and mounted on a donkey. Let us rejoice greatly and shout aloud! 6
Teaching our Children Read Zechariah chapter nine with your children in light of the historical circumstances of Zechariah s audience (the returned exiles), the initial fulfillments in the days of Alexander the Great and the Maccabees, and the ultimate fulfillments in the promised kingdom (starting with the King s arrival on a lowly beast of burden, including the spread of the kingdom by peaceful means, and culminating in the final triumph of God s people over all of their enemies when the King comes the second time). Make sure to communicate the true power and beauty and wonder of God s Word! 7