Zechariah 9-14 • Your King Comes
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Do you lament about every earthly political issue? Do you tend to forget who is truly King of planet Earth? The Jews to remember under the rule of the Persian emperors needed to remember that. And so do we today. In the last blog, looked at the pervasive power and persistent purpose of God revealed in Zechariah chapters 1-8. This is post #6 in the Ezra to Malachi blog series. In this post, we will look at Zechariah chapters 9-14 and see God’s promises to send us a king who will have power and purpose.
Listen to this post as a similar podcast from our Identity: Sticking to Your Faith in a Pull-Apart World Bible Study covering the last 7 written books of the Old Testament.
We learned from the last post that Zechariah was a priest living in Israel around twenty years after the first group of Jews returned from their Babylonian exile. As a priest, Zechariah represented the people before God in his priestly duties. God also designated him as a prophet to deliver the words God gave him to share with the Jews then and with everyone else who has lived since that time. That includes you and me today.
God’s first messages came in the form of visions that illustrated something recognizable in Jewish life and taught a truth for them to grasp and apply, very much like Jesus’ parables. God’s messages encouraged the Jews to be strong and build the temple. The people responded by doing that. Within four years, they finished the work, dedicated the new temple, installed the priests, celebrated the Passover, and welcomed Gentile converts into their community. Hooray!
But God had more for them to ponder. Through Zechariah, God revealed things about the distant future of the Jews living in Israel as well as those living in other lands. Knowing something about the future should give hope to those who trust God. God basically says this to them, “I have a plan. My power will work to fulfill that plan. It will be glorious. You will be blessed through my persistent purpose. Trust me.”
Today, we are going to continue looking at the pervasive power and the persistent purpose of God as seen in Zechariah chapters 9-14. First, we see that…
The King Presents Himself
Zechariah chapter 9 gives us a picture of God’s future plan for their future king. Verse 9 says this,
Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9)
When you read that, did you picture Jesus on the donkey amidst palm leaves and shouts of Hosanna? He fulfilled that verse on the day we call “Palm Sunday.” I remember how we celebrated Palm Sunday when I was young. The children marched into the church sanctuary singing and waving palm branches made out of green construction paper. It was a fun time.
The picture of the king riding on the donkey colt was significant. In the ancient Near East, rulers commonly rode donkeys if they came in peace. Jesus was coming in peace and to offer peace.
The Gospel writers believed Jesus was the coming King, but they wrote that He fulfilled only verse 9, not verse 10, during His past earthly ministry (Matt. 21:5; John 12:15; cf. Rev. 19:11-16). (Dr. Constable’s Notes on Zechariah 2023 Edition, p. 95)
But kings rode horses into war. That is represented in verse 10.
I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. (Zechariah 9:10)
As we know, Jesus was rejected as Israel’s king. We have to wait until He returns before we see verse 10 fulfilled. God’s persistent purpose is to have Jesus Christ as the Messiah to rule a kingdom on earth extending from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. God will make that happen because He promised it. To learn more about God’s kingdom, listen to this podcast, “Jesus and the Kingdom of God.”
Sparkling in God’s Land
After God spoke through Zechariah, the Jews would have to wait for 550 more years before seeing their king come to them on the donkey colt. After Nebuchadnezzar defeated Jerusalem and took Israel’s kings captive, there has not been a Davidic king on the throne of Israel since. Even though the Jews were under the control of other nations, God was working on their behalf. I love the promise God made in Zechariah 9:16,
The Lord their God will save his people on that day as a shepherd saves his flock. They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown. How attractive and beautiful they will be! (Zechariah 9:16-17)
Regardless of who controlled the Promised Land, it belonged to God and still does. History tells us that many conquerors set their sights on this small sliver of land in the years after Zechariah lived. That included Greece, Egypt, and Rome. The Jewish people would need to trust God to deliver them from their enemies. The LORD Almighty would defend Israel and would cause His people to be victorious over their enemies. When they did trust Him, they would recognize how God delivered them and then would sparkle in the LORD’s land, like jewels in a crown. Don’t you love that word picture?
The Jews were scattered. Although a large group headed back to Israel after the exile, many thousands more stayed in the other lands where they had been taken. Zechariah 10:9 says they could sparkle there too as they remember who they are as belonging to God. When we get to the New Testament, we see Jewish women who became Christians—Priscilla, Eunice, and Lois. They sparkled in the Roman territories where they lived.
Jesus is Lord of this planet. That means the place where you live belongs to Him. Believers should be attractive to the nonbelieving world, drawing others to want to know Christ because they see something sparkling in us. Paul described it using a different analogy in Philippians chapter 2:
Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. (Philippians 2:14-16)
When we trust God and choose to follow His way rather than the world’s way or our own way, we sparkle like stars in the sky. Others notice and are drawn to Him.
Do you want to sparkle for the Lord like jewels in a crown where you live? Do you want others to be drawn to Christ because of your influence? The answer to both questions should be “Yes.” Sparkle in God’s land for Him.
Do this while looking forward to…
The King’s Return with Power and Purpose
Jerusalem, the target
Zechariah chapter 12 starts out with these three verses:
The Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares: “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. (Zechariah 12:1-3)
The Lord Almighty who is also Creator God and Life-Giver to every human has a plan that sounds crazy. All nations will lose their minds and fight against Jerusalem—a small city compared to the rest of the world’s cities. That is no surprise, really. Jerusalem represents God’s presence on the earth and His authority over all humans. Only a persistent God could make such an insignificant piece of land a target for all the nations of the earth. We see it today. Nations are either for Israel or against Israel. There is no explanation other than the persistent purpose of God.
What is funny to me is that God likens Jerusalem to a huge boulder. When anyone tries to kick it, they only injure themselves.
The Jews believe
While that is happening, God will use His power to help His people return to Him. Remember the appeal from God in Zechariah 1:3?
‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty. (Zechariah 1:3)
The Jews are His people and will one day return to Him.
God made this promise in Zechariah 12:10:
And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. (Zechariah 12:10)
Many unbelieving Jews will recognize Jesus as their Messiah and trust in Him. Paul wrote about this glorious event in Romans chapter 11:
I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” (Romans 11:25-27)
God promised it. He will use His pervasive power to fulfill it.
The Lord fights
And the Lord Almighty will fight for His people against those nations that target Jerusalem. We read about that in Zechariah chapter 14:
Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. (Zechariah 14:3-5)
The Lord as Christ Jesus will come down from heaven Himself and stand on the Mount of Olives. It will split in half from east to west.
Did you know there is a fault in the middle of the Mount of Olives? Being a geologist, I had to look it up. Sure enough, in 1964 during excavations for a new hotel being built on the Mount of Olives, an east-west geological fault-line was discovered.
They moved the hotel location away from the fault line. This fault is an offset from the boundary between the African and Arabian Plates and is being strained as the Arabian Plate (east of the Dead Sea rift zone) moves north at an estimated rate of about 4.5 millimeters per year. Eventually, an earthquake will cause the north side to move northward away from the south side. The prophetic detail of splitting “from east to west” is likely how it will happen. The Lord will use the resulting valley as an escape route for His people and later as a river for spring-fed water. That is in Zechariah chapter 14 verse 8.
We as believers in Christ will come with our Lord on this day. The phrase “holy ones” is used to refer to God’s saints in many New Testament passages. Those are every believer in Christ who have been caught up in the Rapture described in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4:14-17 and received their resurrection bodies. We will be coming back with Him. Paul reinforced this truth in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3.
May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones. (1 Thessalonians 3:13)
The battle will be short and decisive. Jesus will defeat His enemies by His pervasive power.
Jesus will be king
When it is over, He will be King of planet Earth. Zechariah 14:9 says this:
The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name. (Zechariah 14:9)
When you read that, did you want to start singing the Hallelujah Chorus? I did! Or did you want to sing Joy to the World? That Christmas hymn refers to this time when Christ comes as our King. Both of those beautiful songs were in my heart and mind after doing this study. What hope we have for our future!
How Can It Be?
Like Daniel, Zechariah gives a lot of detail about Israel’s future—what God will make happen. How could He know in advance? Skeptics denounce these Old Testament prophecies saying they were not written until after many of the events already happened. There is absolutely no reason to say or believe that.
I like this quote by Martin Luther:
God grasps everything in a moment, the beginning, the middle, and the end of the entire human race and of all time. And what we consider and measure according to the sequence of time as a very long, extended tapeline, He sees in its entirety, as though wound together in a ball. (Martin Luther, What Luther Says: An Anthology)
If you believe in the pervasive power of God and the persistent purpose of God, you can be confident that whatever God wants to happen will happen. God can always find a rebellious heart to do that which causes pain to others. God’s Spirit can woo anyone with a tender heart toward Him to serve Him in human history. He has a plan that fulfills His purpose. He sees what He wants to accomplish in human history. He allows humans the freedom to make the choices for Him or against Him and work accordingly. That includes influencing parents to name their sons to match what He has already promised about that person with that name.
God will accomplish His purpose according to His power and in His time. We just wish that His time to return and set up the kingdom would be now!
Why wait for that? You and I need to receive the Lord as our King now. Instead of overly lamenting about any earthly political issue, we need to recognize who is truly King. That was important for the Jews to remember under the rule of the Persian emperors, and it is important for you to remember in your country today. Each and every day, you and I need to receive the Lord Jesus as King of our lives—now!
What Is Your Response?
How do you respond to what you learned in this study of Zechariah?
For me, I wrote this:
Father, I know what You have planned. You promised a Savior and sent your Son to be Him. You will return to claim Your creation back under Your acknowledged rule. What a day of rejoicing that will be!
In the next blog, we will look at the book of Esther and see why we can trust God to work in the background of life.
Let Jesus satisfy your heart with complete trust in Him so that you will follow His way of living life instead of the world’s way or your own way.
All of the above information is covered in the Identity: Sticking to Your Faith in a Pull-Apart World Bible Study covering the last 7 written books of the Old Testament.
Related Resources:
- Identity: Sticking to Your Faith in a Pull-Apart World Bible Study
- Satisfied Series 18 Podcasts (Ezra-Malachi)
- Remember Your Identity in a Pull-Apart World
AI was not used to generate this post.