www.scatteredchristians.org
Adult / Kids Sunday
School Series
May
18, 2008
What's
In the Old Testament "FOR" Us?
Part LXXII
|
Now
all these things happened unto them for ensamples:
and
they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are
come.
I
Corinthians 10:11
For
whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning,
that
we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
Romans
15:4
Part II
More Rebuilding of the Temple
Visions of the Coming Messiah and His Universal Kingdom
We could do a deep study that would last for weeks; however, we will
just touch on things "FOR" us that we find in Zechariah.
And the LORD said unto me,
Take unto thee yet the instruments of a
foolish shepherd.
For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in
the land,
which shall not visit those that be cut
off, neither shall seek the young one,
nor heal that that is broken, nor feed
that that standeth still:
but he shall eat the flesh of the fat,
and tear their claws in pieces.
Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the
flock!
the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon
his right eye:
his arm shall be clean dried up,
and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.
11:15-17
Zechariah 5:5–10. The
Flying Ephah
-
Another representation of the removal of sin. An ephah, looking like a
small bushel basket (the basket holds one ephah, or three-fifths bushel)
and containing a woman, is taken away, out of the land, by two other women.
-
While sin is here represented by a woman, it is also by women that she
is removed (v. 9).
-
Might this possibly be a prophetic hint that the coming Branch, the Messiah
who would remove people's sin in one day (3:8–9),
would be brought into the world by a woman without the agency of man?
Zechariah 6:1–8.
The
Four Chariots and Four Spirits
-
The chariots are messengers of God's judgments, patrolling the earth, executing
the decrees of God on Israel's enemies.
-
This is an expansion of the thought in the vision of the horns and the
craftsmen (1:18–21).
Zechariah 6:9–15. The Coronation of Joshua
-
This is a prophetically symbolic act, expanding on the vision of the Branch
(3:8–9) and the vision about Zerubbabel
(4:6–9).
-
The Branch (6:12) is the name
of the coming Messiah in David's family (Isaiah
4:2; 11:1, 10; Jeremiah 23:5–6; 33:15–17; Revelation 5:5; 22:16).
-
Zerubbabel, the governor, was a grandson of King Jehoiachin, who had been
carried to Babylon, and thus was heir to David's throne.
-
What is said of Zerubbabel refers in part to himself personally and in
part to his family—that is, David's family—and more particularly to the
one great representative of David's family, the coming Messiah.
-
To David's family God had, among other things, assigned the task of building
God's house.
-
To David himself God gave, in His own handwriting, the plans and specifications
of the temple (1 Chronicles 28:11, 19),
and according to those specifications David's son Solomon built the temple
(2 Chronicles 2–7), the most magnificent
building in all the world at that time.
-
Zerubbabel, a descendant of David, was now (520–516 b.c.) engaged in rebuilding
the temple.
-
He was assured that he would bring it to completion (Zechariah
4:6–9), with mystic hints of yet another temple to be built
by the Branch, with help from “...they that
are far off” (6:12–15).
-
The Branch was to be of Zerubbabel's (David's) family, the kingly line
(from the tribe of Judah).
-
But here Joshua the priest (from the tribe of Levi) is crowned and is represented
as the Branch, sitting on the throne of David (6:12–13).
-
This would appear to represent a symbolic merging of the two offices of
king and priest in the coming Messiah.
Zechariah 7–8. Questions About Fasting
-
For 70 years the people had been fasting in the fourth, fifth, seventh,
and tenth months (8:19) to mourn the
destruction of the temple.
-
Now that it looked as if they were soon to have a temple again, the question
arose as to whether these fasts should be continued.
-
In reply, Zechariah reminds them that there had been good reason for their
fasts: penitence for past disobedience and the resulting suffering.
-
But now their fasts had become a mere outward pretense, a way to exhibit
their own holiness, and their religious feasts were for their own pleasure.
-
Then, following prophetic custom of alternating scenes of present distress
and future glory, Zechariah draws a picture of the age when fasts shall
be joyful feasts (8:19).
-
The Jews—once a mighty nation with ancient traditions that said they had
been designed by their God to be the leading people of all the world—were
now an insignificant and despised remnant who existed in their own land
only by permission of Persian kings.
-
Zechariah tried hard to encourage the people by repeating over and over
that it would not be forever thus: soon the mighty empire that then ruled
would be broken, and God's people would yet come into their own.
-
Zechariah's picture of a prosperous and peaceful Zion, its streets full
of happy boys and girls and old men and old women (8:3–5),
of a Zion that is the center of the world's civilization, where all the
nations of the earth come to learn of the God of the Jews (8:22–23),
is also found in other passages (1:17; 2:4, 11;
14:8, 16 ).
Zechariah 9–11. God's Judgments on Neighboring
Nations
Chapters 9–14 contain things that have
evident reference to the conquest by Alexander the Great and its aftermath,
which came 200 years after Zechariah.
Chapter 9 seems to be a forecast of
Judah's struggle with Greece.
-
Alexander the Great, when he invaded Palestine in 332 b.c., devastated
the cities named in vv. 1–7, in the
order in which they are named, and yet spared Jerusalem (v.
8).
-
Verses 13–17 seem to refer to the continuation
of Judah's struggle against the Greek Ptolemies and Seleucids into the
Maccabean period.
-
Throughout history and even today Judah (Israel) continues to struggle
with its neighbors.
-
A picture of Zion's coming King (9:9–10)
is here set amid scenes of Judah's fierce struggle with Greece.
-
Verse 9 is quoted in the New Testament as referring to the triumphal
entry of Christ into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:5;
John 12:15).
-
In the same breath (Zechariah 9:10),
the prophet sweeps forward to the day of final triumph—from a glimpse at
the beginning of Messiah's kingdom to a glimpse at the end.
Chapter 10 is a forecast of the
full restoration of God's scattered people.
-
In Zechariah's day only a small remnant had returned.
Chapter 11 is a parable of shepherds.
-
God's flock had been scattered and slaughtered because their shepherds
had been false.
-
In the arraignment of the false shepherds is a picture of their rejection
of the Good Shepherd (vv. 12–13).
-
Halley's Handbook false teachings:
-
Within the Halley's Handbook, of which I have used much of this historical
information, we once again see a false teaching leading people in a false
direction which takes the reader AWAY from reading about the Antichrist!
The following statements are not in tune with Paul's gospel today!
-
We might not, from the context, connect this passage with
the betrayal of Christ by Judas Iscariot, except that it is so quoted in
the New Testament (Matthew 26:15; 27:9–10).
-
The fact that it is so quoted is a key to God's meaning
in the passage.
-
The rejection of their true Shepherd was accompanied by
the breaking of the two staffs called Favor and Union—that is, the covenant
of God's protecting care and the postponement of their reunion in the land.
-
When we stray from our relationship with God, we withdraw
from God's protective care and fall short of our own land of promise and
blessing.
-
Then they are delivered into the hands of the worthless
shepherd (Zechariah 11:15–17).
-
This is thought to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem
by the Romans, shortly after the death of Christ, and the consequent scattering
of the Jews; or it may be the personification of the whole list of those
who persecute the Jews, from the Maccabean period to the time of the beast
of Revelation 13 .
-
We most definitely see the Antichrist in here - thus the exposing only
by a rightly divided King James Bible!
Zechariah 12–14. A Vision of Israel's
Future
-
Chapters 9–11 are called an “oracle”
(a message coming from God) concerning neighboring nations (9:1);
chapters
12–14 are called an “oracle” concerning Israel (12:1).
-
The two sections are quite similar.
-
Both are an expansion and continuation of ideas in the visions of the first
eight chapters, the same ideas recurring again and again in different dress.
-
Judah's coming struggle with all nations (12:1–6).
-
The description of this struggle is continued in 14:1–8.
-
Some consider the language to be a figurative representation of God's struggle
with the nations through the whole Christian era.
-
Others apply it more literally to the time of the end.
-
Mourning in the house of David (12:7–13:9).
-
The thoughts here are evidently centered around the house of David.
-
Though the language is difficult, yet it clearly depicts a tragedy of some
kind or other that takes place in the family of David, an occasion for
great sorrow, when some leading member of the family would be killed (13:7),
his hands would be pierced (12:10; 13:6),
and a fountain for sin would be opened (13:1).
-
It was to happen in the day when “the house
of David shall be as God” ( 12:8
).
-
Only one member of David's family was God: that one was Jesus.
-
This identifies the person here referred to as the “Branch” of 3:8
,
who would “remove the iniquity of that land
in one day” (3:9) and
who would “build the temple of the LORD”
(6:12) and rule from sea to sea.
-
It is an amazingly detailed forecast of Jesus' death that is not applicable
in any way to any other known person.
-
Thus the death of the Branch in David's family would be the source of God's
power against the nations (12:2–4),
and its effectiveness would be shown in the eventual removal of idols and
false prophets from the earth (13:2–5).
-
Judah's struggle with the nations (14:1–2).
(See on 12:1–6 .)
-
God's victory and universal reign (14:3–21).
-
This speaks of the grand consummation of the prophetic dreams, the day
of the Lord's return, and the inauguration of His everlasting kingdom.
-
Typical scholarship response:
-
Some biblical scholars think that verses 4–8 mean
that Jesus, when He returns, will literally make His throne on the Mount
of Olives, that the mountain will literally be cleft, that waters literally
will flow eastward and westward from Jerusalem, and that Jerusalem will
literally be the center of pilgrimages from nations outlined in verses
10–21 .
-
Others take the language to be a figurative representation of the new heavens
and the new earth, under the imagery of a benign, prosperous, and all-powerful
earthly kingdom, the way Revelation 21
describes heaven under the imagery of a magnificent earthly city.
Summary of Zechariah’s Prophecies Concerning
Christ
Here are plain statements that not only forecast, in specific language,
the great doctrines of the coming Messiah’s atoning death for human sin,
His deity, and His universal kingdom, but also mention detailed incidents
in His life, such as His entry into Jerusalem riding on a colt and His
betrayal for 30 pieces of silver.
-
His atoning death for the removal of sin (3:8–9;13:1)
-
As builder of the house of God (6:12)
-
His universal reign as King and Priest (6:13;
9:10)
-
Triumphal Entry (9:9, quoted in Matthew
21:5; John 12:15)
-
Betrayal for 30 pieces of silver (11:12,
quoted in Matthew 27:9–10)
-
His deity (12:8)
-
His hands pierced (12:10; 13:6, quoted
in John 19:37)
-
A stricken Shepherd (13:7, quoted in
Matthew
26:31; Mark 14:27)