Zechariah 10: The Messiah

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Intro:

You'll remember that in Chapter 9 we started into the first of the final two oracles that closes out the recorded prophetic ministry of Zechariah. This first oracle, likely given after the temple had been completed and after Zerubbable had passed out of leadership in the little Persian province beyond the river served to lift the people’s eyes forward to what God was going to do among them when He brought the long promised Messiah to them.
In chapter 9 we saw this king coming to the people, humble and mounted on a colt of a donkey with salvation from the YHWH. This salvation would come from the YHWH to this king and then the people would enter into its blessings as well. They would find that their natural means of war and conquering would be removed from them but this did not mean that the battle was over, rather the King would wield His people as a bow and a warriors sword. Just as Joseph had recieved a doubled blessing in Israel so these people under the reign of this Messianic king should experience a multiplied blessing. This would lead to celebration as the people are made beautiful, like jewels of a crown and are called the flock of God.
This last image, that of the flock is then going to be picked up and expounded upon in these next chapters as we see the messianic king shown to be a Good Shepherd of His people and contrast against the pitiful and worthless shepherds that they have had.
This is where we are headed in Chapter 10, a prolonged exposition of this coming messianic shepherd king and what He will do for His people.
The chapter can be divided up into three sections:
V 1-2, The need for a Shepherd
V 3-5, The Shepherd King
V 6-12, The Salvation of the Shepherd
Listen for these as we read but first lets pray.
Pray & Read

Verses 1&2: A Call to Seek God

Verse 1 is transnational verse between the end of chapter 9 and the central issue of chapter 10. The end of chapter 9 had expressed the blessing and abundance that would come from God as a result of the ministry of the messiah a now we see in verse 1 of chapter 10 a call to ask the Lord for rain and an affirmation that it is He who brings the rains that water the fields and causes the crops to flourish.
What is going on here?
Think back on Israel’s history. What seems to happen every time that the people receive blessing from the Lord? They forget God and seek out other God’s.
This is the reason for verse 2.
There is a persistent danger for God’s people that when they experience blessings they can easily forget about God and turn to false gods for guidance and in worship.
There is a reminder by way of contrast here that it is God who brings the rain and blesses the crops and the false gods, which aren't gods at all, and in fact as we read here utter nonsense.
Now, it is not as though these false gods can actually speak, it is probably important to point that out, Zechariah isn't saying that these gods speak but they utter nonsense. Rather the wording here speaks to the calamitous and disastrous results of following the supposed guidance of these false gods and their diviners or prophets, those who claim to speak for them. The word for utter nonsense, says one commentator, describes the natural consequences of evil behavior. The lives of those who follow these false gods turn into utter nonsense! Easy to see in the world around us today, that's for sure!
Now this is a good spot to stop for some application even though we are right at the beginning of this passage. None of us are immune to this error. If you were to survey the entire history of God’s people you would find that this may be the most common pitfall that besets them.
There is in every age the temptation to turn the blessings of God into false worship. Now just because we don't have Canaanite idols and temples around us to enter into and bow down this doesn't mean that we have escaped these things. Our hearts as is often said, are idol factories. We seem to have an endless capacity to worship that which is not God, to set things up in the center of our hearts and give our lives over to the service of them.
It provides a great deal of caution to us that Israel was most prone to this when they were experiencing the heights of God’s blessings. This is the caution in this text. We don't have a lot of info to go on about this post exilic period but it does seem like the people still struggle with remaining faithful to God even as He is working to bring them back from exile and establish them in the promised land again. Haggai had need to calling them back to faithfulness along with Zechariah and we will see more of that in Malachi and we also see if in Ezra and Nehemiah.
Now we also see at the end of verse 2 one of the causes of this wandering toward false gods.

Lack of a Shepherd

Therefore the people wander like sheep;

they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd.

The people wander because they are like sheep without a shepherd!
Now quite often this shepherd language points us toward the king. Even and maybe even especially so in the ancient neareast many nations describned their kings as shepherds, this is not a picture unique to the Bible at all. For Israel this shepherd language points naturally toward the line of David and the promise that it would be his descendants that would shepherd the people of God due to the everlasting kingship that was bestowed on him in covenant with God.
It is good leadership that would direct the people to seek God and worship Him rightly. David had been the beloved Psalmist of Isreal leading his people in worship of their God. This is what the Shepherd was to do and yet we see that Israel lacks a shepherd to lead them.
They are afflicted for lack of a shepherd! There is no king on David’s throne to lead the people in faithfulness and thus they are prone to drift from their moorings.
Now this at first glance then seems to be a contradiction to the very next verse!

3  “My anger is hot against the shepherds,

and I will punish the leaders;

How can there be no shepherd and yet God be angry with the shepherds?
It really isn't a hard problem to reconcile especially when we see the word play involved here. You may see a little footnote in your bible there in the parallel second line that adds some clarity to what is going on here. This is a great example of one line of Hebrew poetry helping to clarify another in parallel to it.
The word there for leaders is actually a bit of a pejorative word meaning a male goat. These supposed shepherds with which God is angry aren't actually shepherds at all, they are just members of the flock, brash male goats assuming leadership and when the goats lead the flock and not a true shepherd we can see how the people can lack a shepherd and yet God can be angry with those who presume to be shepherds but are not.
This situation, sadly, seems to have persisted for the duration of the post exilic and inter-testimental periods as when Jesus comes to His people we read in Matthew 9 that:

36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37

This then brings us to Christ himself.
Verse 3 also turns on a Hebrew pun. The word for punish and the word for cares in the next line share the same verbal root and sound quite similar and so in the same time when God is going to punish these self pronounced leaders, these false shepherds, these brazen goats, God is going to turn in care toward His people, the flock of His people described here for reasons we will see in a moment as the house of Judah.
These wandering afflicted sheep we read will become like a majestic steed in battle. You would be hard pressed to find two animals that contrast each other better than an aimlessly wandering sheep and a war horse. Sheep are helpless and have no capacity to care for themselves the war horse on the other hand is an animal that has been trained and moves with undaunted purpose. God is going to do something that will change the constitution of His people from helpless wandering animals to majestic beasts with a driven purpose.
We read of what He is going to do now in these next verses with verse 4 forming the cornerstone verse of this chapter. (Pun intended)

The Messiah

Verse 4 describes what God is going to do with or through Judah. This is the reason for focusing on the tribe of Judah in verse 3. We read here of 4 things or more specifically 4 pictures of what is going to come from the tribe of Judah.
We read:

From him shall come the cornerstone,

from him the tent peg,

from him the battle bow,

from him every ruler—all of them together.

Now there is a great deal of consensus here that this verse is directing us toward a singular messianic figure, even with the last line and the next verse clearly moving beyond just one singular individual but we will get there in a moment.
What I want us to do though now is to see the three specific ways that the Messiah, Jesus Christ, is described here by Zechariah and see those things actually coming to be in the New Testament! Taken together these images provide a powerful picture of who Christ is and how He leads His people.

Cornerstone

The first image that we see is that of a cornerstone.
Now we don't do a lot of building with stone these days, it is an expensive and hard to work with material but when you build a building with stone one of the most important parts of that building is to lay for it a cornerstone. The cornerstone serves not only as a structural anchor but it actually serves to align the entire building. When you lay the cornerstone it is imperative to make sure that this stone is perfectly square and that it is aligned in exactly the direction that you want your structure to sit. Every subsequent stone that you build into that structure is going to be set in alignment with the cornerstone. Because everything in your building is tied into this cornerstone if it were to begin to weaken or erode you would find that soon the whole structure would be compromised. Therefore your cornerstone needs to be both strong and true and set correctly. Failure in any of these points will result in the failure of the structure.
Isaiah long before this had prophesied about God’s coming work with a cornerstone in Isaiah 28:16
Isaiah 28:16 ESV
therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’
We then see this promised cornerstone revealed to be none other than, as we have mentioned, Jesus Christ. Speaking of this very theme in Ephesians 2 Paul says of the work that Christ came to accomplish:

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Psalm 118:22 had declared:
Psalm 118:22 ESV
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
And 1 Peter 2:4 tells us:
1 Peter 2:4 ESV
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,
Christ is for the people of God the chief and precious cornerstone. He is true and has been set by the Father as the one on whom the rest of this structure, the Church, His people, the beautiful Temple Bride is to be established.

Application

A key application for this aspect of the work and person of Christ is that our lives do truly matter. There is a faction of the church that would claim that salvation by grace through faith not of works means that what we do after our bring joined to christ has no bearing on our having been joined to him. Pray a prayer and your in regardless. This is a disastrous error and misunderstand the grace of God in salvation.
When God saves us by His free and unmerited grace that salvation has the practical outworking in this life of being brought into alignment with this cornerstone, Christ, who is true and perfect in all of His ways.
This does not mean that we are saved by our alignment with Christ but it does mean that one of the marks of a true and saving faith will be a continuing settling of ones life into alignment with Christ.
If you have ever seen a brick layer set a brick into place in a wall I think that forms a great picture of what it means to be brought into alignment with Christ through the work of the Spirit, the brick layer presses the brick into the morter and works it down into place tweaking it until in perfectly aligns with the straightness and squareness of the wall.
This also means that when our lives are out of conformity to Christ the cornerstone we ought to feel the pressure being brought to bear upon our lives by that cornerstone. If we are unaffected by this it is quite likely that we are not actually yet a part of the wall.
Romans 8:29 ESV
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Ephesians 4:22–24 ESV
to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
We are to be conformed to the image of His Son, brought into alignment with the corner stone!
(if time, Christ as the embodiment of the law of God)

Tent Peg

The next picture we have of this one to come from the tribe of Judah is that of a tent peg.
From him the tent peg.
Now this might sound a bit odd to us but the imagery is really derived from Isaiah chapter 22. We read there of Eliakim:

20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house. 24 And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25

The peg here, in a similar way to a tent peg, us used to fix something secure, in this instance it is the honor of his fathers house.
Similarly we read in Ezra 9 that:

8 But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant and to give us a secure hold within his holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our slavery. 9 For we are slaves. Yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us protection in Judea and Jerusalem.

God granted them a secure hold in His holy place. This is the significance of the tent peg it secures one thing to another and it has the strength to bear up a load. This imagery points to the headship of Christ as the one on whom the whole house and its glory hangs.
When we are in Christ we are fixed securely to God’s house, held firmly in place by the one who never fails. I am reminded of our hymn, He Will Hold Me Fast!
Those He saves are His delight Christ will hold me fast Precious in His holy sight He will hold me fast

The Battle Bow

Thirdly we see that this one to come will be a battle bow.
Christ is like a lamb, He is the humble King mounted on a colt the foal of a donkey, but He is also a mighty warrior. We have see this facet of God’s power to conquer and now we see that this power will be granted to this one who is to come from the tribe of Judah.
How cool is it then to read in Revelation 6:2 of the rider on a horse holding in His had a bow and riding out to conquer.
Revelation 6:2 ESV
And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.
This imagery of the conquering King is an important part of the ministry of the Lord and of great comfort to His people. Just as we have a conquering King so in Him we are found to be conquerors.
Romans 8:37 ESV
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
It is through Christ the conquer that we likewise become conquerors and overcome all that comes against us here in this world and enter triumphantly into the next.
1 John 5:4 ESV
For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

A Multitude of Conquering Rulers

This then leads us to the last item that we see come from Judah.

from him every ruler—all of them together.

5  They shall be like mighty men in battle,

trampling the foe in the mud of the streets;

they shall fight because the LORD is with them,

and they shall put to shame the riders on horses.

Now this has caused some commentators to believe that perhaps these descriptions don't just speak on one singular messianic individual. After all from Judah we read will come “every ruler” and this is made certain in it plurality with the following verse:

5  They shall be like mighty men in battle,

They is plural. There are multiple rulers spoken of here? Multiple triumphant, mighty, conquering rulers.
So what are we to do with this?
Well, I don't think it is as hard as it may seem. We already saw the answer in Micah 5:5
Micah 5:5 ESV
And he shall be their peace. When the Assyrian comes into our land and treads in our palaces, then we will raise against him seven shepherds and eight princes of men;
You may recall that there was a tremendous amount of hope in this passage for Israel. Micah 4 and 5 similarly speak of the coming of the messiah and one of the features of the messianic reign is going to be God’s raising up of faithful under shepherds to rule over his people under the Good Shepherd which is Christ.
Israel, even in the days of good and godly kings had always suffered from a lack of qualified godly leaders. It didn't take long after the death of a godly king to see that the leadership structure under them had done little to train the hearts of the people in godliness.
The promise of the messianic kingdom is that this kingdom will be marked, not just by one good king but that this King will enable an abundance of godly leaders to rule with him and lead his people in righteous ways.

The Outflow of Salvation

And so this is who the messiah will be. The Cornerstone, the Tent Peg, wielding a victorious battle bow as a conqueror with other righteous leaders issuing forth in the administration of His reign.
We then see the results of this in the remainder of this chapter as what we could call the outflow of salvation.
We read:

6  “I will strengthen the house of Judah,

and I will save the house of Joseph.

I will bring them back because I have compassion on them,

and they shall be as though I had not rejected them,

for I am the LORD their God and I will answer them.

We are nearly out of time for today but there are a few things I would like us to see in these verses as they describe the outflow of salvation that will accompany the reign of this coming ruler.
We see here salvation in terms of reconciliation with God, joyful blessing, and a new exodus.
We see the reconciliation in verse 6. I will save them says the Lord, I will bring them back, I will have compassion on them, I will make them as though they had not rejected me.
Now we need to understand again, as we have been saying for some time now, when we see this type of thing talked about in the OT we must read it in light of what Christ came to do and has done. Though this is speaking of the reconciliation of Judah and the House of Joseph those two headings simply stand for the entirety of God’s people. Salvation extends to all of God’s chosen people through the reign of the Messiah.
I also love all of the I wills in this passage! And notice that last line! Why is it that God will do these things? Is it something in them? No, it is because he is the LORD their God, He is doing this because He is faithful to His own covenant and will not let it fail. Salvation belongs to the Lord and to the Lord alone.
We also see in verse 7 the joy and gladness that comes along with being a conqueror in the Lord.

Then Ephraim shall become like a mighty warrior,

and their hearts shall be glad as with wine.

Their children shall see it and be glad;

their hearts shall rejoice in the LORD.

KEY: Sin claims to offer Joy but this is a lie from the pits of hell and we must learn to be ever vigilant in preaching this to ourselves. True joy is to be found in overcome sin through the power of Christ, through the Spirit at work in us!
Lastly in verses 8-12 we see this imagery of a new exodus. Keep in mind again that this exodus is pictured in terms that they would have been familiar with.
Verse 10: Egypt and Assyria = South and North
Pass through the sea exodus language
Assyria laid low and Egypt’s scepter removed. = the powers at be in the world will not prevail in the face of the Kingdom of the Messiah.
I heard a guy this week talking about how Egypt and, I think it was, Assyria need to exist because God says he is going to do things with them in the end times. This misses the point that often times these nations served the purpose of simply illustrating the powers at work within the world.

Walk in His Name

Here then is where we will close, verse 12:

12  I will make them strong in the LORD,

and they shall walk in his name,”

declares the LORD.

This will be the lasting impact of the rule of the messiah over His people. They shall walk in His name. Just as the people of Israel had been called to walk in the name of the Lord when they had come out of Egypt so now these people, of which we are members if we are in Christ, are to walk in the name of the Lord.
I will give the Apostle Paul the last word this morning as he encourages the church in Ephesus to do this very thing in Ephesians 4 and a bit of chapter 5:

4 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4

17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Walk in Love

5 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

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