ZechariahLesson 6
ZECHARIAH
They Shall Be My People and I Shall Be Their God
Kay Arthur
APPLICATION. That is what we are going to do with Zechariah 9, 10 and 11. So the title of today’s message is: What is Your Shepherd Worth? At what price, at what magnificent price would you value Him, the Lord Jesus Christ?Would it be for thirty pieces of silver, the ransom you would pay for a slave that had been gored, a slave that had been wounded, a slave that was disfigured? (Exodus 21:32) Is it a price worthy of His favor? Is thirty shekels of silver the price of a gored slave? Is that worthy of His favor? Or, is there more to be paid? And if so, listen to me carefully, is it worth it? Is it worth it? What is it worth to have Jesus as your Shepherd? What is it worth? When I speak of the Shepherd and His worth, you know what I am talking about, don’t you. You know what I am talking about.You’re not in the dark because you have discovered truth for yourself. You’re not in the dark because you have studied Zechariah 9, 10 and 11, and it ain’t been easy, has it? It has not been easy. Of all the chapters in Zechariah, these are the most difficult chapters. You are beyond them. Next week is going to be a piece of cake; it is going to be a wonderful, luscious piece of cake. And it is going to be such dessert that you are going to be absolutely thrilled at what you learn and you don’t want to miss it. It is the capstone of Zechariah. Now as you studied Zechariah 9, 10 and 11, I’m sure that you have understood every last detail. I am sure that you know exactly what this means, and exactly what the first three verses of Zechariah 11means or Zechariah 10 or any of them. I am sure you know any portion of that in exact details. No. You don’t know and there are people who don’t know and so we say then to ourselves, “Why should I study it? Why should l look at it?”
WHAT IS THE SHEPHERD WORTH?Well, we have an example in 1 Peter. I love this verse. I have studied 1 Peter. I have taught 1 Peter. I have known this verse was in there but it just grabbed me in a way that I hadn’t been grabbed before. You know you can read Scripture and you can study it and you can study it and then all of a sudden it is like the light goes on. And you’ve discovered something glorious. In 1 Peter he is talking about salvation. He is talking about us:1 Peter 1:5 who are protected by the power of God through faith(You are protected by knowing God. You are protected by believing God. You are protectedby knowing His word and by clinging to it and embracing it. He says, who are protected by the power of God through faith, for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.When you study the next chapters of Zechariah and even these chapters, you are looking at a salvation that is ready to be revealed and is closer than ever before. Then he talks about:1 Peter 1:9obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.In other words, as you believe God, as you embrace God, what happens is there is a salvation of your souls, there is a salvation of your mind. There is a salvation of your body. There is a salvation of your time. In other words, it is a salvation that keeps taking you away from sin and causing you to live in righteousness and causing you to make the right decisions and causing you to respond in the right way. It is a salvation of your souls.10As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, I mean, if you think you have had a hard time with Zechariah 9, 10 and 11, how did Zechariah (the prophet) feel? How did Zechariah feel? Because you know in Zechariah 9 he is talking about a power that isn’t even on the scene at that time. You know that he is talking about things that Zechariah in a sense, is grappling with.10… the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, What have you been doing all this week? You have been making careful searches; you have been making inquiries. You have done your homework. And then you have gone to the commentaries and you try to see what do they say?What do they believe? And some of them I mean-- on one passage there were 40 different interpretations. 11seeking to know (in the prophesies)what person or time the Spirit of Christwithin them (the Spirit of Christ within them—if I were going to translate “Christ” into Hebrew—what would I say instead of “Christ”? Messiah. The Spirit of Messiah in them—within them—was indicating as He(The Spirit of Messiah) predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.Can you imagine? What were they looking for? What were they focusing on? They were focusing on the Person, they were focusing on Messiah, they were focusing on the time that Messiah would come. That was what they were focusing on. They had been looking for all those millennium, they were looking for the coming of the Messiah whom we know now is called the Lord Jesus Christ—Jesus—Joshua—Yeshua—God Our Savior. So this is what they were looking for. It says, 12It was revealed to them(as they were searching this out, as they were trying to figure it out in their minds) 12It was revealed to themthat they were not serving themselves, (Zechariah was not serving himself) but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look.It was revealed to the prophets. “Hey, I am not doing this for you. I am doing this for those who are to come. I am doing this for you—for me. And so when we study Zechariah 9, 10 and 11 and we don’t understand it all, are we to be discouraged? No. We are to take what we can see and we are to understand what we can understand and then order our lives accordingly. And that is why he says:13Therefore, prepare your minds for action, (you’ve got this truth. You understand about this salvation) 13Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at (what?)the revelation of Jesus Christ. Next week you are going to get details of the revelation of Jesus Christ, the revealing of Jesus Christ that no other book of the Bible tells you.Isaiah is the crown jewel. Zechariah is right there next to Isaiah. If you have studied Isaiah with us, you appreciate Zechariah even more and your mind keeps going back. So what is the Shepherd worth? This is the subject that I believe God wants us to search out after our study of Zechariah 9, 10, and 11. I believe He wants us to focus on what we can see, that He wants us to focus on what we can know.
ZECHARIAH 9.Now inZechariah 9(and I just want to overview real quickly these three chapters), Zechariah 9remember fast forwards to the third kingdom that is to rule over Israel – the third major kingdom of the earth. We know the first one was Babylon. The second one was (what?) the Medes and the Persians and that’s during the time of Zechariah. We know the one that would follow that is kingdom of Greece. God make it clear in Daniel 2, in Daniel 7, in Daniel 8 all the way to the end of Daniel 12. He unfolds it so beautifully. It comes more alive when you know the history of the times and because we are sitting over here where all of this history has happened, we can look back and pick up our history books and study about Alexander the Great, go to the back of the Inductive Study Bible and read the history there, the history of Israel. We see everything just unfold. We can appreciate it if we have the Word of God in one hand and a history book in another. And what we realize is, because the Word of God tells ahead of time what is going to happen, we realize that history is His story—it’s God’s story. He lays out the history before it is going to happen. And yet in the midst of this chapter, which is not easy to wrestle with, in the midst of this chapter we have verses 9 and 10. We have tucked in here, the prophecy (now watch) of the ultimate King. After I studied all this, I have National Geographic (on TV), I have Alexander the Great, so I watched it. I watched his journey and I watched how he came down through Tyre and Sidon and then to Gaza. It doesn’t tell though in that about his trip to Israel. But it shows that he wants to be the ultimate king. He is fighting a battle against the history of his father, Philip. We visited Philip’s tomb in Greece. We’ve seen that—it’s incredible—just unbelievable to see those golden crowns made of 24 carat gold and all these treasures they unearthed in the tomb of Philip –and to see his bust and to see his statue – to see what a short man he was. What a small man compared to men today and I’m not talking about in girth—I’m talking about in height. To see all of that and to know that Alexander wanted to be greater than his father. Alexander thought of himself as a god. He believed a lie that his mother perpetuated that she had been impregnated by a god so therefore her son, Alexander, was a god.But we see GOD in Zechariah 9:9–10 is we see God—we see God incarnate. We see a King that is far greater. We see the ultimate King.9Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, If you come on a horse, it is a symbol that you’re coming to conquer. And when you read the history or study the history about Alexander the Great, he was absolutely brutal—absolutely brutal! He was just cruel to the core with his enemies. And yet here is our King. He is just; He’s endowed with salvation (the salvation that the prophets wanted to look into as we read in 1 Peter) He’s humble, He’s mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.And so we are reading along and while we may not understand all the details, and all of a sudden you and I read that and because we are on the other side of the cross the light goes on. The light breaks forth. And all of a sudden we are seeing and remembering, “Hey, that’s what is recorded for us in all four of the gospels. It is Jesus coming into Jerusalem.” But He says, Zechariah 9:10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem; And the bow of war will be cut off. And He will speak peace to the nations; And His dominion will be from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth. In other words, there is not one place on the face of this earth that He will not be ruling. So this is tucked in the midst of this prophesy. And we go from the first coming in verse 9 to the second coming in verse 11. As we read on, we see one of the four horns that comes up after Alexander the Great gives birth to Antiochus Epiphanes. We study that history and we see who the sons of Zion rebel against in victory. Look at Zechariah 9:13For I will bend Judah as My bow, I will fill the bow with Ephraim. And I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece; And I will make you like a warrior’s sword. And as we go through Israel and as we go into Jerusalem and see the sign to Modem I think about the Maccabean Uprising. I think about the soldier from the army of Antiochus Epiphanes and how he comes and takes this priest and tells him he is to offer this sacrifice on the altar. This priest steps back and says, “No I won’t.” and this young Jewish boy comes up and he says, “I will.” Irate that this young Jewish boy would betray his God, that he would turn and worship a false god, the father of Judas Maccabeus (the Maccabean boys) he pulls out his sword and jabs it into the Jewish boy. And he puts it into the belly of the soldier from Antiochus Epiphanes. And his four sons come forward and you have the Maccabean Revolt of men that stand. They go into the temple and they tear down the statue of Zeus that has been erected there. And they worship God because God is worthy of their worship. He is worthy of their allegiance to Him. So you think about all that. And then the salvation that takes your mind beyond that day to the ultimate triumph of the Lord in that day. Watch this: Zechariah 9:1616And the Lord their God will save them (the salvation of Israel)the Lord their God will save themin that day(that’s going to be akey phrase—you’re going to see it and mark it over and over again in this coming week.) in that day As the flock of His people …and He’s calling them a flock. Once again he is giving Him the designation of the Shepherd.
ZECHARIAH 10.In Zechariah 10 – it is a chapter that directs you to the Lord for answers, for fulfillment of His promises, so that they don’t wander as sheep afflicted for a lack of a shepherd.Watch how Zechariah 10 opens up:1Ask rain from the Lord at the time of the spring rain— The Lord who makes the storm clouds; And He will give them showers of rain, vegetation in the field to each man. 2For the teraphim speak iniquity, (He says, “What are you, My people, doing running to these diviners, running to these people that are going to take their household gods that they have made with their own hands, images that are against the Word of God and the commandment of God when God says (in Exodus 20:4–5)“You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make any likeness of anything in the heaven above or on the earth beneath…you shall not worship them or bow down to them.” He has told them they are not to inquire of them. And they are inquiring of them instead of inquiring of God.I want to ask you a question. Who do you inquire of first? When you have a question, a problem, a decision to make, where do you run to first?Is it to your knees, so to speak? Is it humbling yourself before God and crying out to God? Or, are you going to these people who tell false dreams that comfort in vain? 2….Therefore the people wander like sheep, They are afflicted, because there is no shepherd.What is it worth to you to have Jesus as your Shepherd? Does He become the One that you seek? Does He become the One that you ask counsel of?Does He become the One that you seek direction from? Or do you try to figure it out by yourself?
This is a chapter that tells what God’s will is for Judah and Joseph. Look at Zechariah 10:6 “I will strengthen the house of Judah, And I will save the house of Joseph(It’s like saying the northern and southern kingdom), And I will bring them back, Because I have had compassion on them; And they will be (now listen) And they will be as though I had not rejected them… In other words, their sin is going to become so obliterated—obliterated—that they will not recall that at one time He rejected them. He will not treat them differently because they rejected Him because they have come back to Him. … they will be as though I had not rejected them …this is grace upon grace.6… For I am the Lord their God and I will answer them. Ask for Me for the rain! 1Ask rain from the Lord at the time of the spring rain. Yes, it is the season of rain, and yes, it typically rained but you are to walk in such dependence on Me that you are to ask Me for rain. He says, 6 For I am the Lord their God and I will answer them. Zechariah 10:9, 11-12He promises that although He scatters them again, they will remember and return to Him. Now can you imagine if you were a Jew? And remember, the only Bible the Jews had in 70 AD when they were scattered again and the temple was destroyed a second time, the only Bible they had was Genesis through the Old Testament. That is all they had. They had no other Bible. So in the midst of all that, in the midst of hearing Jesus talk about when you see Jerusalem surrounded by enemies, then flee. Luke 21. What would they do? What if they knew the word? What if they understood that when He says in verse 9:Zechariah 10:9 “When I scatter them among the peoples”, and they know they have been scattered once - “Oh, here is another scattering.” Zechariah 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. Here is a promise! Here’s a promise! I am being scattered. I am being taken into captivity. I’m being shipped (and I show that in my novel: Israel My Beloved) I’m being shipped to these foreign countries and I show that in all the dispersions and the Diaspora of the Jews.)I am being shipped away, but I will return. We will return. It is not over. Think of 1948 when Israel became a nation – what a day when again it was declared a nation.