Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] You guys can open to Zechariah, not to be confused with Zephaniah again, this is right after Haggai. It might be a little easier to find. It's a little longer than Haggai, but it's okay. If you need to look at the front of your Bibles to find out what page number that might be on in your Bible.
[00:00:24] Zechariah. This is another one of the minor prophets is what we commonly call them now.
[00:00:31] But, you know, it occurred to me, I think even Katie maybe brought this up to me. I never really explained what exactly is a minor prophet.
[00:00:40] So let me, let me explain briefly. I think this will help us understand what are these books? Why are we reading them? Why are they important? Why are they called this?
[00:00:50] So the Bible.
[00:00:52] And you know, we're thinking especially about the Old Testament. So that's before the New Testament, broken up into several categories. So we have the law, that's the first five books. We have what are called maybe historical writings. There is some poetry and wisdom after that. Then we have all these prophets that kind of take up the last chunk of the Old Testaments in your Bible. And really those are broken up now into major and minor prophets.
[00:01:22] And the only reason that they're minor is just because they're shorter. There's no secret to it. They're not like, you know, less important or anything that's kind of obvious, but they're just short. These are short prophets.
[00:01:34] And now there are other ways that you could divide the Old Testament, the law, the prophets, and the writings that might be a little simplified. And that's what I like to to think of it as. But all these categories were in the minor prophets. These are short prophetic books.
[00:01:50] But we also need to know what exactly is prophecy. Now, when I say prophecy, I want you to think, what is that?
[00:01:56] Are you thinking? Are you kind of, you know, thinking in your head what prophecy is?
[00:02:01] Well, I don't know if you said this, but, you know, I think at least when I was even your age, I would have said predicting the future. Right? You know, a prophecy predicts the future.
[00:02:11] But when we read the Bible, that's really only a part of what happens in the prophetic books. Prophecy is speaking the word of God to the people.
[00:02:23] So it's someone who is speaking directly God's word to the people, which did include future predictions, but it often included a whole lot more.
[00:02:31] So in these books, we have a prophet and a record of his ministry for Israel or for Judah. You know, sometimes we'll have Speeches or oracles, you might hear that word. It's just kind of like a speech. Sometimes we maybe just have a story. You read the Book of Jonah. It's mostly story. There's like one or two lines of a prophecy, and sometimes we kind of have both. We have mixtures of them.
[00:02:54] Haggai and Zechariah have a little bit of both, and so does Malachi. These prophets, the unique thing about them isn't just that they're shorter, that they're prophets, but that they occurred after Israel was coming back from the exile. So Zechariah is kind of in that same time, but in Zechariah we're actually going to encounter something a little unique. It's not just unique to this book, but a little different than what we have encountered so far, namely, prophetic visions.
[00:03:25] Prophetic visions.
[00:03:28] So these were just used and explained to make a point for God. It was a way of communicating visually to the people.
[00:03:38] So to help us remember where we are, I hope we remember from Haggai. It was a long two weeks, but I hope we remember that he prophesied to roughly 50,000 Jews who had returned from exile in Babylon. We called them the Remnant.
[00:03:53] They had halted construction on the temple, you might remember, but they were brought to repentance by the Word of the Lord through Haggai and Zechariah.
[00:04:02] And Zechariah prophesied at the same time as Haggai. So the Remnant had at least two prophets of God.
[00:04:08] Now, you might notice some similarities. In the very first section of Zechariah 1, you probably will, Will. But then he breaks into these visions. It might seem a little crazy, but I hope to bring some order and understanding to these visual messages.
[00:04:25] So Zechariah 1 and 2 will have three visions. There are eight in total that we'll cover the rest next time.
[00:04:33] And as we read them, I'm going to read all of them right now. I just encourage you to really try to think. What are some themes? What are maybe some phrases or words that may be carried over from one to the next? Are these connected in any way? Just try to think through that as we read.
[00:04:47] So look down, Zechariah. I'm going to start at the beginning. We read, in the eighth month in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Eduard, saying, the Lord was very angry with your fathers. Therefore say to them, thus declares the Lord of Hosts. Return to me, says the Lord of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Hosts, do not be like your fathers to whom the former prophets cried out. Thus says the Lord of Hosts, return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds. But they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. Your fathers, where are they?
[00:05:24] And the prophets, do they live forever?
[00:05:27] But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants, the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers?
[00:05:35] So they repented and said, as the Lord of Hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways, indeed so has he dealt with us.
[00:05:44] On the 24th day of the 11th month, which is the month of Shabbat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying, here's the first vision I saw in the night, and behold a man riding on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind him were red sorrel and white horses. Then I said, what are these, my lord? The angel who talked with me said to me, I will show you what they are. So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, these are they whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth.
[00:06:22] And they answered the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees and said, we have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth remains at rest.
[00:06:30] Then the angel of the Lord said, o Lord of hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah against which you have been angry these 70 years?
[00:06:42] And the Lord answered gracious and comforting words to the angel who talked with me.
[00:06:48] So the angel who talked with me said to me, cry out. Thus says the Lord of I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion, and I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease. For while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster.
[00:07:04] Therefore, thus says the Lord, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy.
[00:07:08] My house shall be built in it, declares the Lord of Hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.
[00:07:17] Cry out again, thus says the Lord of Hosts, my city shall again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.
[00:07:28] And I lifted my eyes and saw vision number two, and behold four horns. I said to the angel who talked with me, what are these? And he said to me, these are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem.
[00:07:42] Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen, and I said, what are these coming to do? He said, these are the horns that Scattered Judah so that no one raised his head. And these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.
[00:08:02] Now vision three. And I lifted my eyes and saw and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand.
[00:08:09] Then I said, where are you going? And he said to me, to measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.
[00:08:17] And behold, the angel who talked with me came forward. And another angel came forward to meet him and said to him, run. Say to that young man, jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. And I will be to her a wall of fire around her, declares the Lord. And I will be the glory in her midst. And up, up, flee from the land of the north, declares the Lord, for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, declares the Lord. Up, escape to Zion, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon. For thus says the Lord of hosts, after his glory sent me to the nations who plundered you. For he who touches you touches the apple of his eye. Behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they shall become plunder for those who served them.
[00:09:03] Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me.
[00:09:07] Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion. For behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst. And you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. And the Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the Holy Land and will again choose Jerusalem.
[00:09:32] Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.
[00:09:39] Okay, good job, guys. You got. You read two whole chapters. See, you can do it. So these two chapters, they contain a call for the people to return to the Lord. And then Zechariah receives these visions. These are three of eight.
[00:09:57] So in vision one, we see that the world is at peace while Israel is in ruin. Vision 2.
[00:10:04] Justice and judgment are enacted on the world so that Israel may be at peace. And then Vision 3 depicts how Israel shall be ever expanding until the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.
[00:10:19] So here's the main idea of Zechariah 1 and 2.
[00:10:23] God saves his people through judgment on the wicked.
[00:10:27] God saves his people through judgment on the wicked.
[00:10:30] And those who return to him will inherit the whole earth.
[00:10:34] God saves his people through Judgment on the wicked and those who return to him will inherit the whole earth.
[00:10:40] So our first point tonight is Israel to return to the Lord. Israel to return to the Lord. Zechariah, he was living in Israel. Here's just some background. You know, he's living there after they returned from Babylon. And he prophesied alongside Haggai.
[00:10:56] You know, maybe we don't typically think of all these prophets living at the same time. Just think of them. Maybe it's kind of like a tag team.
[00:11:02] I thought of. I thought of Kobe and Shaq. I don't know. Who did you think of? Jordan and Pippin? Think of Joe Montana and Jerry Rice.
[00:11:10] Or did you think of the Undertaker and Kane?
[00:11:13] Who's the best tag team?
[00:11:15] Haggai and Zechariah, maybe.
[00:11:17] Now, also about Zechariah, we want to know. He was from a priestly family, interesting enough, but he served as a prophet rather than a priest, which, remember, means he spoke as a prophet. He spoke for God, to the people.
[00:11:32] So the Lord, through Zechariah now is in this first part, recounting the old days of Israel. He recounts how the Lord was angry with their fathers.
[00:11:42] Now, when we see the word fathers, a lot of times when you're seeing it like this, he's talking about their ancestors, not necessarily just their dads, but, you know, their grandfathers, great grandfathers, and so on and so forth.
[00:11:53] And he was angry with their fathers and ancestors because they sinned and disregarded the covenant that God had made with them and they had worshiped other gods.
[00:12:03] He mentions how there were prophets before, some former prophets, prophets before the exile that the people of Israel, they just ignored. They ignored them. They continued to do evil against God. And so God, to make a point, asks them three questions that you may have noticed, says, where are your fathers?
[00:12:22] Do the prophets live forever?
[00:12:24] And didn't my words and statutes overtake or catch up to your fathers?
[00:12:31] The answers to these questions are, our fathers are dead.
[00:12:34] Prophets dead do not live forever. But what does God say?
[00:12:38] He says the word of the Lord caught up to them. It did catch up to them. It's this natural escalation in speech. The fathers die. Even the prophets who speak on God's behalf die. But the word of the Lord remains forever. And God's word will accomplish its purpose.
[00:12:59] It will not fail.
[00:13:01] So here's something to remember.
[00:13:04] You cannot outrun the word of the Lord. That's what God's reminding them. You cannot outrun the word of the Lord. You either obey it or run until it tracks you down.
[00:13:16] You cannot outrun the word of the Lord.
[00:13:20] This prophecy then remembers what we saw in Haggai 1, how the people had repented and obeyed the word of the Lord. They said, yes, you have dealt with us how you will.
[00:13:30] And so you might wonder, why is God saying this? Why is he reminding them of this? Have they kind of stopped building the temple of Yen? No, that's not it.
[00:13:42] Well, I think this is an example of the Lord recognizing that sinful people are weak. And we have short memories.
[00:13:51] Repenting one time will not be enough.
[00:13:54] Remembering what had happened before is not enough to just do once. They constantly needed to remember. They constantly needed to repent of their sin and turn and run to the Lord.
[00:14:07] I think we can relate to that. If you're a Christian, then it's the same for you. Believers constantly must be turning from sin, finding more of it in their lives, killing it. Repenting and running to God, running to him over and over and over and over.
[00:14:24] You need to live a life that is basically all about repenting from sin.
[00:14:30] You know, single moments where we identify and do the right thing. Or a sinner's prayer that we pray when we're young. It's not something that we can just check off the box and go on our merry way. We want to live a life wholly pleasing to the Lord. We must return to the Lord when we drift and walk away.
[00:14:49] Point number two, the Lord is comforted.
[00:14:54] So here, the first vision, this vision, you know, you look, look at verse eight of chapter one. It zooms in on some men on horses among myrtle trees.
[00:15:03] That's exciting. Horses, myrtle trees.
[00:15:07] Also these myrtle trees, where are they?
[00:15:09] They're representing Israel, the myrtle trees. They are tiny little itty bitty trees.
[00:15:15] They never would grow above maybe 8ft, so not even the height of a basketball goal. They were not very big trees. Tiny little insignificant trees.
[00:15:25] That's representing Israel. And that makes sense because especially at this point, Israel is a small insignificant nation to the world, which is appropriate for a nation that was exiled and has only a small remnant living in their land now. And where are these tiny trees? I think you picked up on that. They're in a glen. You guys know what a glen is?
[00:15:49] What am I saying? You guys all know what a glen is? I didn't know what a glen is. It's like a valley. These tiny little trees are in a valley. So again, the little insignificant nation of Israel is in a low point.
[00:16:05] They are lowly, lowly status at this point. The nation of Israel is A hollow shell of the great kingdom that David and Solomon rul over.
[00:16:16] And so this, this fits with Israel.
[00:16:19] Now, to the horsemen. We don't know who are these horsemen.
[00:16:23] There's a red horse, three other groups. There's red or, you know, debatably in the Hebrew, could be like a reddish brown, if that matters to you. And sorrel, which is another type of brown, I believe, and white.
[00:16:35] Now, it's possible that the colors were significant indeed, we could probably say they probably were, but I'm not sure we can necessarily pinpoint why they're important. So I want us to focus on what we can know. What I believe is even more important is their function. What are these different colored horses doing with their riders? It seems that the angel of the Lord is the first one mentioned on the red horse. The other horsemen report to this one. The angel of the Lord is like the Superior. He is the mouthpiece of God in this vision.
[00:17:08] And then if you look at verse 11, we see they patrolled the earth. And what did they find?
[00:17:14] Well, they found that the nations were at peace. Sounds like world peace. Sounds pretty good, right? But that is actually a bad report.
[00:17:22] That is not good. Why?
[00:17:25] Because little, tiny, itty bitty Israel is in the depths of despair and ruin. As a nation, they are irrelevant to the world. The world has done evil against God's people. And yet they rest and are comfortable and happy, and that is unacceptable. So as a natural cry to this state of injustice, the lead horseman, the angel of the Lord, cries to the lord in verse 12, asking, how long?
[00:17:55] How long will God's people have to suffer this while the wicked rejoice and are merry and are restful and are at peace? How long will they be trampled and counted as worthless? How long, we can think even today? Will the church be killed and persecuted? How long must we deal with bodily and mental ailments? How long will sin dwell within us and plague us day to day?
[00:18:21] The answer of these cries, then and now, is this what verse 13 says.
[00:18:28] The Lord answered gracious and comforting words to the angel.
[00:18:33] The Lord is gracious to his people who are suffering. I want you to remember that the Lord is gracious to his people who are suffering.
[00:18:41] He has redeemed them through His Son.
[00:18:44] No better or greater display of grace is there than that he is gracious to his suffering people. Also remember, the Lord is comforting to his people.
[00:18:54] He comforts them. His arms are open for those suffering to run to him for the first time, or for those that have believed in him. Already to lean on him, look at his word, pray to him, and cry out to him.
[00:19:08] Here are his words to suffering Christians, the same words said to the suffering Israelites. Remnez looking at verse 14 I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion, and I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease. For while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster.
[00:19:27] Therefore I return to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. Cry out again. My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.
[00:19:43] I think these words match up well. Was something Jesus was famous to have said in Matthew 11:28, 30. He said, Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
[00:19:58] Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
[00:20:11] Now, through Christ, if you believe in him, you can have rest for your soul. You can have rest from all troubles.
[00:20:21] Now you might feel, look at yourself. Might feel, I'm pretty good. My soul's pretty fine. But if you lack faith in Jesus, then you are deceived. You will not have such rest.
[00:20:33] But Jesus arms are open to all who would come to him in faith.
[00:20:38] Every single one. So are you troubled?
[00:20:40] You know, do you deal with unwanted temptations? Do you deal with depression issues with your body? Do you have a low view of yourself? Have you lost a loved one recently? Is your home life chaotic and scary? Are you troubled in any of these ways? Christ will give you rest eternally if you turn to Him.
[00:21:00] He will comfort you even now through his spirit. Spirit, the Lord is comforting.
[00:21:09] Point number three.
[00:21:10] The Lord is just.
[00:21:14] So now we can turn to vision Number two.
[00:21:18] It involves four horns and four craftsmen. A horn typically symbolizes some sort of military power, a threat.
[00:21:26] And we see that reflected when angel explains to Zechariah that the four horns represent those that have scattered Judah, Israel, Jerusalem. This all three of those are talking about the Jews. Jerusalem was in Judah. Judah and Israel were once one nation.
[00:21:40] That's in verse 19. He's saying these are the people that scattered you, put you into exile. These horns, what are these for?
[00:21:49] Well, obviously, Donald Trump Elon, I'm just kidding.
[00:21:52] We don't know who they are. We don't know who they are. There might be some really, really great guesses, but I don't think that's what we should get bogged down doing. I actually think the number of these is significant.
[00:22:04] We see this number frequently. We see four of them, and we understand that there are four sides to the nation of Israel. There's a north, a south and east, and a west. I think what is being communicated here, I believe, is that they are surrounded by these threats. The whole world around them is hostile and wicked to them and are ready to persecute them more. They're surrounded. So what's God's solution to these horns that have scattered and acted wickedly against the people?
[00:22:36] There are four craftsmen. That's right. If you're a handy guy, you might feel really good about yourself. You can defeat all these nations if you can be handy.
[00:22:46] Now, I don't know exactly what the craftsmen are.
[00:22:49] It could be people that are just handy in a lot of ways.
[00:22:53] I think there are a lot of reasons to think that this is referring to people that made things with their hands, like smiths, or maybe even in particular, blacksmiths. There's a lot of kind of ambiguity in the Hebrew term, so it's difficult to translate. But I do think we have good reason to think these are people that maybe made weapons of sorts that would defeat these horns, you know. But whatever the case, I think if, you know, if I'm saying these horns are symbolic, I think also these corporations, craftsman, craft, craftsmen, are trying to symbolize something greater. They represent how God intends to destroy the enemies of his people.
[00:23:35] And how will he do that? Well, I think they point us to the Lord Jesus Christ, who will defeat the enemies of him with his wonderful, mighty, godly power. You might be familiar with how Jesus wants sin. Said that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. When Christ returns, he will never allow a single hair on the head of any of his beloved children to be harmed by sinful and wicked men.
[00:24:01] His might will terrify the devil. His power will cast down the arrogant.
[00:24:08] Because God is just what we're seeing in this vision. This means he always does what is right because he's just. He always does what is right. Those who are wicked will be judged. That's what we're seeing here. Those who are righteous, and they're only righteous through faith in Christ, will be blessed and held together in the arms of Jesus forever.
[00:24:31] The Lord is just.
[00:24:35] Point number four.
[00:24:36] The world to return to the Lord. The whole world to return to the Lord.
[00:24:43] Finally, this third vision covers all of chapter two. Zechariah sees a man with a measuring line.
[00:24:51] You can think of measuring tape Or a ruler.
[00:24:56] He's going to measure the width and the length of the city of Jerusalem. But his job is going to be very hard.
[00:25:04] Why?
[00:25:05] There will be a multitude of people there, so many that there will not be walls, which is common. It will be like an ever expanding city. This made me think of Atlanta or Houston. They just keep growing, going out and out and out and out forever. But it's even greater than those.
[00:25:21] So to measure this massive expanding city, he's going to need a very big ruler if he wants to measure the dwelling place of God's people from all nations.
[00:25:34] And if this is true about God's people, then that means a few things for us.
[00:25:38] It means for one, that there is room for anyone.
[00:25:43] Your personality, your popularity, your beauty, your ethnicity, none of those things forbid you from coming to Christ and entering the church.
[00:25:53] His people will be made up of people from all over the earth.
[00:25:58] It also means that we can be confident in sharing the Gospel. There will be people, many people that convert to Christ. You could be confident that that is now. If we don't know who will or when they will turn to Christ. But God does know. And there will be people that come to the Lord.
[00:26:20] But look what else this vision reveals.
[00:26:22] Look at verse five. We're in chapter two, verse five. We see the Lord is going to protect this Jerusalem.
[00:26:28] And I think this Jerusalem is pointing us to heaven with a wall of fire.
[00:26:35] No one who doesn't belong can sneak in and nobody within it can be lost.
[00:26:42] He protects against Satan and the demons. He protects against our own sin clawing at us. And specifically in heaven, those sinful natures have been washed away by the blood of Jesus. You can be confident in your faith if your faith is truly in Christ.
[00:26:58] And God himself we see will be in that city with his people.
[00:27:04] What better protection is there than the Lord of Hosts?
[00:27:09] You guys may not understand Lord of hosts. Maybe you guys have a translation that says the Lord of Armies.
[00:27:15] That maybe is a little bit more clear.
[00:27:18] It's a title that designates the Lord over the army of angels.
[00:27:23] This is a we see. I don't know if you noticed, it's repeated a whole lot in what I just read. I didn't count, but it was a lot. I should have counted.
[00:27:32] I think that's reminding us of this great power and protection that the Lord has.
[00:27:38] And we will be blessed by his presence. We will be blessed by his presence. It is going to be a restoration of God's presence. Perfect creation. When he walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before they sinned once again. His glory will be with those who are in Christ.
[00:27:57] He expands to explain that God's people in verse six will be spread to the four winds of the heavens.
[00:28:06] This is yet another way to explain how large the heavenly Jerusalem will be.
[00:28:13] So imagine looking at a map. You know, you're looking at a map and they're from edge to edge, from corner to corner will be the dwelling place of God and His people.
[00:28:24] So again, he'll need a very big ruler to measure this. This is the whole earth renewed and remade by God, dwelling as the dwelling place for his people.
[00:28:37] And so we see that this great size makes sense because, you know, heaven is not just one little, you know, mansion on a cloud. It is, in fact the whole earth. The whole earth renewed by God is heaven.
[00:28:52] And it will all be filled with God's chosen people that have put their faith in Christ.
[00:28:59] This vision we see also God will guard his people by judging and eternally condemning the wicked to hell. For verse 8, touching the apple of his eye, his special possession, his people.
[00:29:14] And this is what makes the salvation of those in Christ so unexplainable, awe striking.
[00:29:21] There is no salvation if there is no judgment to be saved from. There is no. There is judgment, but God saves his people through judgment.
[00:29:31] And this is his glory.
[00:29:33] We stand and look at a just God who punishes evil, but also was pleased to save Christians through the work and sacrifice and resurrection of His Son. He is merciful and happy to do that, and he is just. We see both of these realities in our wonderful, magnificent God. And so you must turn to Christ. Trust the Savior. Trust him with your sins.
[00:30:04] And if you have, then what?
[00:30:08] Well, this vision, it turns into another oracle or a speech in verse 10.
[00:30:14] And what do we see in verse 10?
[00:30:17] Sing.
[00:30:19] Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion.
[00:30:22] You know, that's why we sing so often. That's why we really wanted to start singing on Wednesday nights. It's not that we need a band or that bands are really cool. It's not, you know, that we need. In fact, no band is technically needed. If you're alone on a desert island and you still have your voice, you can and must sing wonderful melodies to God in praise of his grace.
[00:30:47] So I want you to think for a moment about singing about this natural reaction that God's expecting His people to have to this glorious salvation.
[00:30:58] Do you sing?
[00:31:00] Pretty simple. Do you sing? Or, you know, maybe if you're like me in high school, you just kind of awkwardly stand There. I'm not promoting that. That's what I did. Students, Christians sing.
[00:31:11] They do. They just sing. Boys, you must sing. Girls, you must sing. It's in the blood of Christianity to sing to the Lord with one another. It's what we do. It's what we will do. No one is too cool to sing. And I mean this next one emphatically. No one is too bad of a singer to sing.
[00:31:29] Sing. Sing loud, sing proud.
[00:31:33] The lack of a desire to sing can be worrying.
[00:31:38] Do you lack a love for the Savior? Do you lack a passion for the Church? Do you lack a salvation in your hearts? We should sing and sing happily to the Lord.
[00:31:50] Because when the glorious and beautiful Savior is in the midst of his people, we'll have no other words to say than to sing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
[00:32:02] And then at the conclusion of this speech, we see something else interesting. So after we see this wonderful praising of God for what he has done, we see be silent, all flesh.
[00:32:16] I know you might be thinking, this is not going to get you out of singing. This is not what he's saying. Sing, but also be silent. This is a whole different change up. In fact, the audience has changed. These visions are being proclaimed to Israel, but the focus turns to all flesh.
[00:32:34] This means the whole world and everybody in it.
[00:32:38] So this is now not to God's people, but to the world, those nations that are at rest. He says, be silent, all flesh. God is roused and coming to dwell with his people. Which means he's coming to judge those who are not his people.
[00:32:54] Keep silence.
[00:32:57] There is a hymn written in 1864 which says, Let all mortal flesh keep silence.
[00:33:05] And with fear and trembling stand.
[00:33:08] Ponder nothing. Earthly minded students stand in awe of God as He completes swift justice on the earth.
[00:33:19] And you and I want you guys to do this now. Take a moment in silence to ponder your sinful condition.
[00:33:37] Now I want you to think, if God came today, would you be singing or weeping?
[00:33:47] And I want to conclude by just saying, return to the Lord. All who are wondering if you feel like you were close and now you're far, you never felt like you're close to God or had a relationship with Him.
[00:34:00] Don't delay coming back. He has not moved.
[00:34:04] Remember what these visions and what Zechariah is proclaiming to us. Vision one showed us that God is comforting to his people that are hurting. Vision 2 showed us that God is just to judge the wicked, but also merciful to save the righteous.
[00:34:20] Vision 3 showed us that God's people will be all over the new heaven and earth created by God.
[00:34:26] His people will come from all nations. His people will be protected by him. His people will sing to him and to one another. And most importantly, his people will live with his glory in his midst.
[00:34:40] In their midst, students consider Jesus and this wonderful reality that is in store for all who trust in him. Let's pray.
[00:34:51] Father, thank you for your word and God. We pray that again, as we did at the beginning, what your Word says and what we learn about you would lead us to rejoicing, even to singing, to being glad, making joyful noises to you.
[00:35:06] Lord, help us to bridge that divide between intellectual, our feelings and our joy.
[00:35:14] Lord, help us to understand even better this text and how it applies to our lives as well. We get in our groups and discuss.
[00:35:22] We pray this in your son's name. Amen.
