The Divine Conqueror

Zechariah 9:9-17

Zechariah 9:9-17 Divine conqueror- Lord Jesus Christ!

Zechariah 9:9-17, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’ 11 “As for you also, Because of the blood of your covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. 12 Return to the stronghold, You prisoners of hope. Even today I declare That I will restore double to you. 13 For I have bent Judah, My bow, Fitted the bow with Ephraim, And raised up your sons, O Zion, Against your sons, O Greece, And made you like the sword of a mighty man.” 14 Then the Lord will be seen over them, And His arrow will go forth like lightning. The Lord God will blow the trumpet, And go with whirlwinds from the south. 15 The Lord of hosts will defend them; They shall devour and subdue with slingstones. They shall drink and roar as if with wine; They shall be filled with blood like basins, Like the corners of the altar. 16 The Lord their God will save them in that day, As the flock of His people. For they shall be

like the jewels of a crown, Lifted like a banner over His land— 17 For how great is its goodness And how great its beauty! Grain shall make the young men thrive, And new wine the young women.

Why is there all this injustice?

Why is there all this turmoil?

Why is there all this war? Why all the diseases and the pain and the agony? A simple answer. The King is absent and therein lies the chaos. The King came once and promised to right the world. He said He was the Messiah of Israel.

He said He was the Prince of Peace. He said He was the King of Kings. He said He was the Lord of Lords. He was going to take back this world from the usurper who had had it for a long time whose name was Satan. He offered His Kingdom to people, but they rejected it.

So, He went away. He said, “I will be absent a little longer, but I will be back.” We Christians say the King is coming back.

When He comes back, war will end, injustice will end, anarchy will end, infusion will end. Pain and disease and all the other things will be brought to a bare minimum. The world will be made right when Jesus comes again. He will seize the reins of the government of the world, and He will rule with a compassionate rod.

There are two elements that we find in Zechariah’s prophecy and in all the other prophetic books in the Bible that write about His return. One is positive and one is negative.

• One says that He comes with great salvation.
• Other says that He comes in great judgment.

These two elements of the coming of Jesus Christ were cause for the response of John in the tenth chapter of Revelation.

Revelation 10:1-2, I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow was on his head, his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. 2 He had a little book open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land,

The scroll was the title deed to the earth. He had the title deed to the earth. He is the King. He is absent but He has the right to reign. He is going to come back with that title deed. He is going to take over the earth.

As He unrolls the title deed that is mentioned in the book of Revelation, we have the unrolling of the seven seals. But He unrolls that title deed and takes back the earth. John’s reaction is interesting.

Revelation 10:8-10, Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.” 9 So I went to the angel and said to him, “Give me the little book.” And he said to me, “Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.” 10 Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter.

The little scroll is a title deed. John says when I saw this vision, in my vision the angel said eat this. In other words, John, take in the reality of the coming of Christ and His repossession of the earth. John says first he said it would be sweet.

Why? Because when Christ comes back, everything is made right and salvation reigns all over the earth and Israel is redeemed. An innumerable number of Gentiles are redeemed. The Kingdom has come. Christ receives His due honour.

But I hadn’t eaten it very long before it became bitter because I realized that when Jesus came, not only was all that good going to happen but there were going to be people eternally damned. There were going to be nations eternally destroyed.

Those are ever and always the two sides of the return of Jesus Christ. That is why Christians are sort of mixed when they think about it. We rejoice that He comes and yet, we are disheartened when we see the world that He comes to, and we know the judgment that awaits.

Zechariah is little different from John. Zechariah chapters 9 -14, the last five chapters, we find these same two elements of the return of Christ are emphasized. The positive is in the salvation of Israel and the restoration of the earth and the Kingdom and all the glory that God deserves, and His Son is finally going to attain.

The negative is the terrible fearful eternal judgments that fall. When Jesus comes the second time, the world will be arrayed against Him.

The world will be determined to blast Him out of heaven. The book of Revelation says that as Jesus comes out of heaven, the armies of the world who are already gathered on the field in the plain of Megiddo. When Jesus came the first time, He was met by the threat of slaughter by Herod, he slaughtered every baby to try to destroy Him.

When Jesus comes the second time, there will be a similar challenge, only this time, it won’t just be Herod set against Him. It will be the armies of the world that are amassed to destroy Him. In contrast to His first coming, when men succeeded in killing Him, at His Second Coming, He will destroy His enemies all over the face of the earth.

Then only after that judgment, He will begin to minister healing to a sick world and the wonders of His salvation will come to pass. These are the two emphases of chapter 9. The same two that flow all throughout the Bible.

The judgment work of Christ is not an easy work.

Isaiah 28:21, For the Lord will rise up as at Mount Perazim, He will be angry as in the Valley of Gibeon— That He may do His work, His awesome work, And bring to pass His act, His unusual act. Judgement seems to be so contrary to the greatest attribute of God, which is His love, the supreme quality of His nature. But

God must be a God of judgment because He loves. God loves so much that the day is coming when He is going to protect those who are the objects of His love from evil forever. The only way God can do it is to destroy evil. Even that is an act of love. To protect and preserve the full manifestation of His love to His people forever.

Jesus will come in judgment to destroy sinners and sin. But the other side of it is that He will come to save. Much of the Bible talks about the judgment part of it. We can’t deny it. It’s all over the Bible. The major prophets, the minor prophets, they all talk about it.

Joel 3:12-16, “Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. 13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; For the winepress is full, The vats overflow— For their wickedness is great.” 14 Multitudes, multitudes in the

valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. 15 The sun and moon will grow dark, And the stars will diminish their brightness. 16 The Lord also will roar from Zion, And utter His voice from Jerusalem; The heavens and earth will shake; But the Lord will be a shelter for His people, And the strength of the children of Israel.

We see the two sides. The great judgment, but the Lord also is the hope of His people. There are times in the New Testament that this judgment is presented. Matthew 24, Matthew 25, Revelation 14:14 to 20, many places. But the other side of it is salvation and that’s presented, too.

When Jesus comes, it won’t all be judgment, it will be salvation for His people and the fullness of that salvation.

Luke 21:27-28, Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”

It isn’t just judgment. It’s judgment on the ungodly and on sin, but it’s redemption for those who are God’s own.

Romans 11:26-27, And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; 27 For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.” Jeremiah talks about this day and what’s going to happen when the children of Israel enter into the covenant of God.

Jeremiah 31:3-4, The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. 4 Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! You shall again be adorned with your tambourines, And shall go forth in the dances of those who rejoice.

There is a day coming when salvation returns. All throughout the Old Testament God promised the patriarchs and God promised the prophets that what was most dear to them would come to pass. The salvation of their nation, the wholeness of their nation, the healing of their nation, the eternal place in God’s program was never forfeited.

A hundred and forty-four thousand out of every tribe in Israel shall be missionaries to reach their nation and the world.

God will not go back on His Word, but that God will do what He has promised. Zechariah 9 we see these two sides in this chapter.

• The side of judgment and
• The side of salvation.

We see them in chapters 9-14. Normally when the prophets of the Old Testament gave a prophecy that was a long time away related to the end of the age. They would usually give another prophecy that would come to pass somewhere along the line of history before that time, as a kind of a pledge to keep people confident that the ultimate fulfillment would take place.

Rather than say something to those people then and have nothing between them and the end of the age. The Lord would drop in a historical thing that would come to pass to keep future generations on the track that God really meant what He said.

The same thing we see here. The chapter is trying to tell us that Jesus is going to come. Jesus is going to judge the ungodly. Jesus is going to save the righteous and draw them to His Kingdom.

A long time from when this happened. God gives the human conqueror in Zechariah 9:1-8. Alexander the Great came just a couple of hundred years after this was written. But it kept the succeeding generations aware of the fact that if the first part of Zechariah came to pass so the last part as well.

Zechariah 9:1-8, point out to us the campaign of Alexander the Great as he swept through Syria, Phoenicia, Philistia and Israel.

It absolutely chronicles what he did. We have history to support it, his own records. Amazingly enough, after destroying the nations, he saved Israel. V 8, “I will encamp about Mine house because of the army, because of him that passes by and because of him that returns.”

God says I will encamp around My city. Alexander will pass by on his way to Egypt, he will return back again, and he won’t harm you. Then he turns to the future in a sweeping jump in the middle of the verse and says, “And no oppressor shall pass through them anymore, for now have I seen with My eyes.”

A leap into the end of the age. When Christ comes there will never ever beyond that be an oppressor in the land of Israel. We know that it couldn’t be fulfilled by Alexander because there were plenty since then. Some even now.

God says there is coming a time when the divine conqueror comes there will never be an oppressor again “for now have I seen with My eyes.” God says I have seen all I am going to see of oppression. I have seen all I am going to allow. When Jesus comes, it will be over.

This introduces us to the second part of the chapter, the divine conqueror. V 9, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.

But look at the comparison. “He is just and having salvation.”

Two things

Justice refers to the judgement aspect of His coming.

Salvation refers to the saving aspect. He is just and He has salvation. The same two things. Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey. Riding on a donkey and a baby donkey. Something is wrong here. With that humble statement is the conqueror introduced. They would have reacted perhaps by saying, “I never saw a conqueror in my life riding around on a donkey’s colt. Where is the white steed?”

But this is a different conqueror. 1. His character. The character of this conqueror. Against the background of the invincible marching army of Alexander comes one who doesn’t inspire fear and dread. Nobody’s shaking and quaking.

But He inspires praise and apparently inspires peace. This is a different conqueror. This is not a foreign tyrant, but Israel’s own king.

He is not cruel and oppressive. He is righteous. He is not slaying. He is saving. He is not rich and powerful. He is poor and meek. He doesn’t ride a steed. He rides an ass’s colt. Rejoice! Flip out, get happy he tells them why. There are four elements to His character.

• a) He is a King.

Behold, your King is coming to you The absolute monarch. Israel’s King, Israel’s redeemer, the promised seed of David, the Messiah, the One who is to reign. The One of whom Isaiah prophesied.

Isaiah 9:6, For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

It was announced at His birth. He is the King.

It was announced at His death, placarded on the cross, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King.” He was the King. The King is coming.

• b) He is just.

His character is royal, and His character is righteous. Means He deals justly, He deals righteously. He will do what is right. No more will anybody say you can’t get no justice, no more. He is righteous. The Scripture talks so much about that.

• c) He has salvation.

He is a Saviour. He is a King. He is righteous. He is the Savior. He is royal. He is righteous. He is redeeming. He comes to save. When He was born the angel say you shall call His name Jesus.

Why? For He shall save His people from their sin. He is the Saviour.

We need Savior. Somebody to save us from our sins. Alexander was no Saviour. Alexander wasn’t even righteous. He was a puny king compared to Christ.

• d) He is meek.

“Lowly.” Lowly, humble, quite different from Alexander. The word in the Hebrew means “poor.” The same Hebrew word is used in an economic sense to speak of somebody with no money. When they crucified Him, they took all His belongings.

Do you know what they had? One robe!

Matthew 8:20, And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

Do you know where His home was? The Mount of Olives, that’s where He went every night and communed with the Father and slept under the stars.

If He stayed in a home, it was the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus or somebody else who kept Him there. He had nothing. The word means poor in the Hebrew language when it refers to economics. When the same word is used to speak of somebody else other than economic, it has to do with them being sick or wounded or afflicted.

But the whole idea is of a person who has nothing. Who is miserable, who suffers alone. That’s Him. Zechariah ties that meekness into a very explicit prophecy, and he says, “When He does come as King, just, Savior, lowly, it will be riding on an ass on the colt, the foal of an ass.”

Early in Israel’s history it was respectable to ride around on a donkey. But by Solomon’s time, it wasn’t. Solomon brought into Israel horses. He was big on horses. They were massive stables. From that time on, nobles and soldiers and important people rode horses, and the donkey lost its dignity. You were really admitting your poverty by putting around on a donkey.

Jeremiah 17:25, then shall enter the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, accompanied by the men of

Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever. Kings and princes rode horses, not donkeys. This would be a strange prophecy. The King is coming riding on a donkey’s colt. An amazing prophecy.

Did it happen?

Matthew 21:1-6, Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. 3 And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.” 4 All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: 5 “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ” 6 So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.

This was prophesied by Prophet Zechariah. Just exactly as was prophesied.

Matthew 21:7-9, They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. 8 And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Hosanna in the highest!”

The King was riding on a donkey, prophecy explicitly fulfilled. Zechariah presents His character. Of course, if the first coming of Christ. We move from the first coming of Christ where we see His character, to the Second Coming of Christ where we see His conquest.

The Old Testament writers didn’t see the church age. They saw the King coming. offering the Kingdom and setting it up. The church is a mystery. The gap here is two thousand years long now, the Old Testament prophets didn’t see.

Immediately the King comes, and it moves to His Second Coming. V 10, I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak

peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’ From the deep humiliation and affliction of Messiah at His first coming, Zechariah moves to the glory and exaltation of His Second Coming.

The chariot here is a battle chariot. The horse is an instrument of war.

Psalm 72:8, He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth. From sea to sea means worldwide. He will rule the whole world. The river here is the river Euphrates which was the eastern border of the land given originally to Abram. From Israel’s land bordered on the east by the Euphrates, extending from that center point. From that point, all around the world will be the place where Jesus reigns. He will bring peace so that there will be no more need for battle. Now, here we are in the salvation part. This is God’s wonderful redemption of Israel. No more war. He will rule and He will reign.

V 11, “As for you also, Because of the blood of your covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit This is spoken as if it already happened. It is just as good as done on that day. Because of the blood of the covenant.

What does that mean? He says it is because of the blood of the covenant.

What blood is that? Genesis 15 God made a promise to Abram. He said “I am going to make a great nation out of you and I am going to promise to bless that nation. Now I want to seal that promise, so you get a goat and a ram and a heifer and a pigeon and a turtledove and you split the animals in half and then just kill the pigeon and the turtledove. And lay half of the animals on this side and half of the animals on this side, the dead pigeon on this side, and the dead turtledove on this side.

What’s God up to? He got all doing that and God just gave him a divine anesthetic, put him to sleep. The Bible says that God, speaking of God as a smoking burning lamp and furnace, God passed between those pieces.

In the east, when people made a covenant, they made it in blood. The way they did it was to cut an animal in half and walk between the bloody parts of the animal. That was the custom of sealing a promise. God was not making a promise with Abram, so He just put Abram asleep and said, “You are not involved in this.”

God was making a promise with God. Nobody went through those pieces but Him. He vowed with Himself to bless his people. Unconditional because God could never break a promise, He made with Himself. Both parties are incapable of violating it because both parties are one in the same God.

God says it is because of My own covenant, the blood of that covenant, it may even also include the bloodshed in the Mosaic covenant. Ultimately it is the covenant that is fulfilled most singularly in the blood of Jesus Christ. Because of the blood that I that I passed between then, because of the blood of the Mosaic covenant, because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the once for all offering. I will never violate My promise. It’s sealed in blood.

Some may say that Israel isn’t worthy to be redeemed. Israel isn’t worthy to be brought back. Israel forfeited their right.

God says that I am going to bring you back because I made a promise with Myself, and I sealed that promise in blood. When I do that, I keep My promise. V 11, Because of the blood of your covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit Genesis 37 where did they throw Joseph?

In a pit. That was a common place to put people you wanted to get rid of. We know what happened when they threw them in the pit. They died. Do you know what they used to use for pits? Empty cisterns and dry wells. Same we have here. A pit in which there is no water is a dry well.

God says Israel has been in a dry well a long time but because of the blood of the covenant and because I have made a vow to Israel, they are as good as out. A great message to announce to the Jews. You people are as good as out of the pit someday. When the King comes, Israel will be freed from the pit of trouble and war. To the liberty of the Kingdom of peace and the reign of the Prince of Peace Himself.

V 12, Return to the stronghold, You prisoners of hope. Even today I declare That I will restore double to you. Turn to Me all this is going to come to pass. Trust Me, lean on Me, ye prisoners of hope. Israel, you may be prisoners in a terrible situation with your enemies.

But you are prisoners of hope because one of these days you are as good as out of the pit. When you get out, everything that’s ever been withheld from you will be given back double measure. Not just blessing, but a double blessing.

After all, you have had double anxiety and double pain. I will give you a double blessing.

Isaiah 61:7, Instead of your shame you shall have double honour, And instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; Everlasting joy shall be theirs. You had double pain. I will give you double portion. God’s promise.

God says I am going to save them. I am going to take war from the earth, verse 10. I am going to give them salvation and bring them out of the pit. I am going to double bless them, verse 12. The Holy Spirit stops here and gives us another one of those historical pledges.

V 13-14, For I have bent Judah, My bow, Fitted the bow with Ephraim, And raised up your sons, O Zion, Against your sons, O Greece, And made you like the sword of a mighty man.” 14 Then the Lord will be seen over them, And His arrow will go forth like lightning. The Lord God will blow the trumpet, And go with whirlwinds from the south.

The Lord says to them that I am on your side, even so you don’t doubt Me, even after Alexander. I have got another little token along the path here that will show you I mean business. I will use Judah like a bow. You bend that bow. Judah is the bow and Ephraim is the arrow. I am going to use you as My weapons, Oh Zion, against Greece.

There has only been one time in history when God ever used Israel to defeat Greece. That was in the period of time known as the intertestamental period, the period of time between the Old and the New Testament, that 400-year period.

In that time Israel knew the domination of Greece. Only one time in those years did they ever break that domination. It was under the Maccabees. Judas Maccabaeus, a Jewish man and his sons started a rebellion against the yoke of Greece. Because that rotten Greek ruler that had been assigned to Israel by the name of Antiochus Epiphanes had so desecrated the temple, he stuffed pork down the throats of the priests, and he sacrificed a pig on the altar. He was a terrible character.

They were so infuriated by this that God raised up a rebellious army and they literally fought against Greece and prevailed. This is what we have here. God is saying someday I am going to use you to defeat Greece and make you like the sword of a mighty man.

The Lord will be seen over them at that time and His arrows shall go forth like lightning. The Lord God will blow the trumpet and go with whirlwinds of the south. If you ever lived in that part of the world, they say you watch for whirlwinds coming from the south because they are devastating deadly whirlwinds.

Just like a devastating whirlwind, lightning cracking out of the sky, a sharp arrow and a piercing sword, God says I am going to use Israel against Greece.

The war lasted from 175 to 163 B.C. They fought Antiochus Epiphanes, and they won their independence. For them it was a holy war. Here Zechariah says God will be your captain. Jehovah will blow the trumpet. He will call you to battle. He will send you out to victory. But that’s only a token.

That is only a pledge on the path to the final victory that awaits in the great and glorious future when Jesus comes. The defeat of Antiochus Epiphanes and his successors at the hands of comparative handfuls of despised Jews to which this passage may refer primarily, foreshadows the final conflict with world power and the judgments to be inflicted on the confederated armies who shall be gathered against Jerusalem.

Not only directly by the hand of God but also by the hand of Israel who shall then be made strong in Jehovah so that the feeble among them shall be as David and the house of David shall be as God as the angel of Jehovah before them.

What we see here is just a token or a pledge. It’s just a historical picture of the ultimate great victory God will win over the nations using Israel even as His instrument. The final triumph.

V 15, The Lord of hosts will defend them; They shall devour and subdue with slingstones. They shall drink and roar as if with wine; They shall be filled with blood like basins, Like the corners of the altar. The “Lord of hosts” is a great term. In the Hebrew, it literally translates the “Lord of armies.” The Lord of armies is on their side.

He is going to defend them like a lion. He will devour. the Lord and Israel, one and the same. Israel like the lion of God takes their enemies and devours them. The reason this symbolism is used so often in the Bible is because when you devour something, you take its strengths, and you make it your own.

Whatever you eat, you take the strength of that which you eat, and you make it your own and turn it into your own energy. That is why this is so often used. Israel would literally take the strength of its enemies and turn it into its own strength. To conquer a certain country was to take all its resources, all its attributes, strengths, and make them your own. Precisely what they would do.

The sling stones you will walk on them. The enemies in those days used to hurl stones, sometimes with little slingshots, sometimes with great big catapults. Whether they are the little shots, or the big stones thrown by the enemy, you are just going to walk on them. They are just going to bounce off, fall to the ground. You are going to walk along.

They shall be filled with blood like basins, Like the corners of the altar. Do you know what happens to people when they drink too much wine? They get loud. They get boisterous. You are going to be like that. You are going to know victory, joy, excitement, and the boisterous kind of things that go with it. The battle discussed here is Armageddon.

The armies of the world may amass themselves against Israel, but Israel’s going to wind up just walking over the stones, shouting with joy.

What are the bowls here? This is a type of bowl used to catch sacrificial blood splashed against the altar.

When they offered sacrifices, the blood was very meaningful to them. When it splashes on the altar, they would catch it in these bowls. Then they would take the bowls, and they would splash the remaining blood against the corner of the altar so that it would splatter on the sides. They would do that to all the corners so that the whole altar was splattered with blood.

Imagine how ugly an altar finally became. But they literally will be like bowls that are used to splatter blood all over the altar. What he is saying is that Israel is going to see the splattering of the bloodshed of the godless.

There’s going to be so much blood, you will think you are the bowls.

Revelation 14:20, And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses’ bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs.

The depth of blood will be 200 miles. We have salvation on the one hand. This terrible judgment of the godless on the other hand.

The character of the coming King, a King righteous, a Saviour, lowly. We see His conquest in judgment. 2. His care. V 16, The Lord their God will save them in that day, As the flock of His people. For they shall be like the jewels of a crown, Lifted like a banner over His land— Suddenly He is a shepherd.

A Shepherd King, saving His flock. We will see it as we finish the book of Zechariah. That Shepherd-King concept is repeated in Zechariah. Salvation is going to come.

Zechariah 13:1, “In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.

There is going to be a purging. The theme song of the Kingdom could be Psalms 23. The saved remnant will be like the stones in a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon His land.

The people saved are going to be like sparkling jewels in the crown of the Messiah. Beautiful thought. All the rebels will be purged out, Ezekiel says. There will be godly people left and they will become like jewels in the crown of the Messiah.

Malachi 3:17, “They shall be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them As a man spares his own son who serves him.” God’s people will be like the crown on His head in the Kingdom. So, we see a great future for Israel. Great reality of the coming King based on the blood of the covenant.

What is the response? There can only be one response in the heart of Zechariah. There can only be one response in your heart and mine. V 17, For how great is its goodness And how great its beauty! Grain shall make the young men thrive, And new wine the young women.

Look at the Kingdom. All supplies will be there. We will have all we need for happiness.

There will be prosperity and there will be joy like the world has never conceived. A King is coming. I hope you will be a part of His Kingdom.

Who is that King? Who was it that rode on the colt, the foal of an ass? The Lord Jesus Christ.

Who will it be that comes back? The Lord Jesus Christ. He came once in humility. He returns in honour. He came in meekness. He returns in might. He came in poverty. He returns in power. He came ashamed. He returns in sovereignty.

Zechariah says, “Be comforted, Israel, someday your trouble will be over and salvation will come and you will reign with the King.”

We also ought to go to those people around us and call them to be a part of the Kingdom that is going to be brought up by the King. The only reason you and I will ever enter that Kingdom we are not Jews, but God’s going to let us be there if we love Jesus Christ.