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Zechariah 9:1-17 Visions of the Coming KING

In Ps 40:8 we read concerning the Lord Jesus, “In the volume of the Book, it is written of Me”. The Holy Scriptures and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ are so inseparably bound together, that whatever impairs the integrity and authority of the one correspondingly affects the other. The written Word is the Living Word enfolded: The Living Word is the Written Word unfolded. Christ is the Cornerstone of all faith, but that Cornerstone is laid in Scripture as a bed-rock, and to disturb the Scripture authority unsettles the foundation of the believer's faith and of the church itself. (A.T. Pierson)

Last week we saw in the first part of the Book of Zechariah that Jehovah is now about to punish the nations, and that He has again become “jealous for Zion.”

To set the scene for today's message we will look at the time in the history of the Jews that Zechariah is writing about. Some aspects of his prophecy relate to the Lord Jesus as the Suffering Servant while other prophecies look forward to the Millennium and the Coming King who will reign in righteousness and justice. Following that we will examine, in outline, what that means to us.

Zechariah’s prophecy looks forward to the coming of the Messiah but between the writing of this book and its fulfilment there was a period when the nation was ruled by a priest named Mattathias and his sons. This time is called the Maccabean period although the word does not actually occur in Scripture. It was the name given to the leaders of the national party among the Jews who suffered in the persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes, who succeeded to the Syrian throne 175 B.C.. It is supposed to have been derived from the Hebrew word (‎makkabah‎) meaning “hammer,” as suggestive of the heroism and power of this Jewish family, who are, however, more properly called Hasmonaeans.

After the expulsion of the Syrian ruler, Antiochus Epiphanes, from Egypt by the Romans, he gave vent to his anger on the Jews, great numbers of whom he mercilessly put to death in Jerusalem. He oppressed them in every way, and tried to abolish altogether the Jewish worship. Mattathias, a priest, then residing at Modin, a city to the west of Jerusalem, now became the courageous leader of the national party and having fled to the mountains, rallied round him a large band of men prepared to fight and die for their country and for their religion, which was now violently suppressed. In 1 Macc 2:60 is recorded his dying counsels to his sons with reference to the war they were now to carry on. His son Judas, the Maccabee, succeeded him in 166 B.C. as the leader in directing the war of independence, which was carried on with great heroism on the part of the Jews, and ended in the defeat of the Syrians.

Before we continue with Zechariah we need to realize that the period of the Maccabees, which was predicted in chapter 9, could have led right on to the final struggle and victory of Zion which is now prophesied in the tenth chapter. It was prevented from happening by the unbelief and sin of the Jews. As a result of what happened when Zion's King first came and offered Himself, two thousand years ago, the final struggle and the victory now predicted in chapter 10 are postponed. The present age intervenes (as it does between verses 9 and 10 in chapter 9). Zechariah, like the other Old Testament prophets, did not recognise that there would be a long interval which we now call the “Church” age (Eph 3). Why did God not reveal this in advance since He foreknew that it would come to pass?

There are two parts to the answer.

First, if God had plainly revealed this beforehand, then the Lord Jesus could never have come and made a real, bona fide offer of Himself as Messiah and God could never have tested the Jews in relation to the Lord Jesus.

Second, God has been pleased to foreshow the rejection and crucifixion of Christ again and again in Old Testament prophecy, so that we ourselves, in this present age, both Jew and Gentile, may know that He had anticipated and graciously overruled the unbelief and sin of the Jews when Christ first came to them.

In chapter 10 the true Shepherd is despised and rejected, with tragic consequences. The verses at the end of this chapter tell of a faithless shepherd who would exploit the flock. The big fact to grasp in this passage is that the transaction of the thirty pieces of silver, in the light of Matt 27:9-10, clearly has reference to the Lord Jesus.

As a result of His humiliation the Jews have been under false shepherds ever since and the falsest of all shepherds is yet to exploit them as the present age draws to its close. No wonder our Lord wept over Jerusalem, on the very day when He fulfilled Zech 9:9, “If you had known, even you especially in this your day, the things which belong unto your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes” (Luke 19:42).

As we read this book we quickly see that Zechariah prophesies in graphic detail the first and second comings of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A. THE FIRST COMING

His triumphal entry (9:9)

a. Israel rejects the Messiah (12-13; 12:10; 13:7).

(1) He is hated (9:9-11).

(2) He is betrayed (11:12-13).

(3) He is abandoned (13:7).

(4) He is crucified (12:10).

b. The Messiah rejects Israel (11:9-11,14).

B. THE SECOND COMING

a. The Antichrist's reign (11:15-17)

b. The Jewish remnant's survival (13:8-9)