The God Who Defends and Restores
Notes
Transcript
Bible Passage: Zechariah 12:1–14
Bible Passage: Zechariah 12:1–14
Summary: In Zechariah 12:1–14, the prophet declares God's promise of protection and restoration for Jerusalem. This passage highlights the divine commitment to defending His people against their enemies and the deep mourning that will lead to repentance and renewal.
Application: This sermon can help Christians grasp the assurance that God protects and fights for His people, encouraging them to trust Him in their struggles. It also emphasizes the importance of repentance and turning back to God in times of distress.
Teaching: This sermon teaches that God is intimately involved in the lives of His people, actively defending them and calling them to repentance for true restoration. It reveals God's character as a protector and restorer, inviting believers into a deeper relationship.
How this passage could point to Christ: In this passage, Christ is foreshadowed as the Shepherd who will be struck, leading to the mourning of the people. His role as the Savior fulfills the ultimate promise of restoration for Israel and demonstrates how through Him, God's protection and salvation is fully realized.
Big Idea: God promises to protect and restore His people, calling them to repentance through His divine intervention and grace.
Recommended Study: In preparing this sermon, consider delving into the historical context of Zechariah's prophecy and its implications for the post-exilic community. Use Logos to explore commentaries that unravel the metaphor of mourning and its significance in Zechariah's vision. Examining cross-references to the New Testament, specifically the Passion narratives relating to the Shepherd being struck, may also enhance your understanding of the prophetic fulfillment in Christ.
1. God’s Protective Promise
1. God’s Protective Promise
Zechariah 12:1–5
The burden of the LORD concerns Israel’s future.
The LORD is the one who declares.
Omnipotent in heaven
Omnipotent on earth
Omnipotent among men
Thus says God the Lord, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it And spirit to those who walk in it,
and Isaiah 44:24
Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, “I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself And spreading out the earth all alone,
He is the all-sufficient One who assures that all these things will be performed. Participial form used here emphasizes His continual activity, see Heb 1:3
And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Verse 2 - “Behold” tells us to take notice. What will the LORD do?
Make Jerusalem a cup (lit. basin or bowl) that causes reeling to all the peoples around.
— a common figure used by the prophets expressing the visitation of God’s judgment.
God’s wrath will be poured out upon all people coming against Israel.
When the siege is against Jerusalem… This is a mutual help and a common defense; indicates that Judah will suffer the same fate of Jerusalem.
This is a time when all nations will be bitten by the virus of anti-semitism. The nations aligned against Jerusalem and Judah are:
revived Roman Empire, Dan. 2 and 7; Rev. 13 and 17;
Assyrian power, Dan. 11.
A Northern confederacy, Ezekiel 38-39.
The kings of the East, Rev. 16.
This passage has Armageddon in view, Joel 3:2
I will gather all the nations And bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there On behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations; And they have divided up My land.
They are positioning themselves to receive the stroke of God’s unmixed wrath upon themselves.
Verse 3 is an amplification.
Jerusalem will become a heavy stone for all the peoples. The nations who come against her will be rendered powerless and they will be severely injured (lacerated). Zechariah is describing a picture of the nations’ complete annihilation and destruction for all nations gathered against Jerusalem.
Verse 4 — The horse as part of the cavalry held a large place in Eastern warfare, yet these weapons of war would be thrown into a deadly fright and blindness; those who rode them would be smitten with madness. Cf. Deut 28:28 as part of the curses for Israel’s disobedience of the LORD:
“The Lord will smite you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart;
In contrast, whereas He blinded the weapons of war, the LORD eyes are opened in love and compassion for the house of Judah. Jeremiah 24:6
‘For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them up and not overthrow them, and I will plant them and not pluck them up.
and Psalm 32:8
I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.
He is attentive to His people and will not let them down. He is the LORD of hosts.
2. Divine Empowerment in Battle
2. Divine Empowerment in Battle
Zechariah 12:6–9
God will give victory over the foes of His people in a two-fold way:
God empowers Israel to triumph over their adversaries;
God will personally overpower the enemies of His people.
The clans of Judah are to be like the devastating power of fire. We have most recently seen the devastating power of fire in the fires of Southern California.
This ‘fire’ only touches the nations arrayed against Judah and Jerusalem, the people and the city itself.
But the battle and its outcome is not dependent on Israel and their leaders in the final analysis.
Verse 7-8 — The LORD will also save: this is deliverance in the physical sense; God will deliver in such a way that human pride will not be indulged. The defenseless will be saved first (the tents of Judah) before the fortified and well-defended Jerusalem so that all will realize the victory is of the LORD.
in verse 8, the description is of the feeble among the people being endowed with superhuman power and strength for the LORD; they will be like David the warrior king.
For the house of David, God lays all His power at their disposal.
Verse 9 — In summary: all the nations that come against Jerusalem (the nation) will certainly be destroyed.
When will this happen? Near the end of the Great Tribulation, at the battle of Armageddon. This is the last frantic effort of Israel’s enemies to blot Israel out of existence. Instead, they will meet the most crushing defeat at the Hands of the LORD of hosts Himself.
3. Repentance and Restoration
3. Repentance and Restoration
Zechariah 12:10–14
Now the deliverance depicted here moves from the physical to the spiritual.
The nation as a whole, from highest to the lowest is included in this spiritual deliverance.
Restoration begins at the place of rejection, Jerusalem representing the whole nation.
The Spirit of grace and of supplication — The SPirit awakens their hearts to God’s grace and to their need for Him to bestow His favor upon them.
‘For I will pour out water on the thirsty land And streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring And My blessing on your descendants;
another is
“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
“I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
Also Ezekiel 39:29
“I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,” declares the Lord God.
With both physical and spiritual sight they will look on Messiah. The word sight used here has the idea of confidence in the object seen.
“For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
This is the promise of Jesus. Also, the bronze serpent in Numbers 21:9
And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.
Conviction of sin is followed by the presentation of the Savior. An OT example is Joseph and his brothers: they confessed of their evil deeds toward Joseph, followed by Joseph revealing himself to them.
With spiritual eyes now wide open they see the One they have hoped for all their lives. They then mourn for Him, for what He had experienced for them because of their sin. They smote their breasts (mourned) for Him. Isaiah 53:5
But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
The intensity of their grief is described like mourning for an only son, or the bitter weeping over the death of a firstborn, like that described in Exodus 11:6
‘Moreover, there shall be a great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as there has not been before and such as shall never be again.
Verse 11 depicts a penitence as great as any in Scripture. It is Psalm 51 experienced as a nation, a great public calamity. It is a universal sorrow of the people as a nation, compared to the nations mourning of the death of godly king Josiah by Pharaoh Necho of Egypt, and the people experienced a loss of hope and soon destruction of the land, Jerusalem, and the temple.
Verse 12-14
The land ( the people) will mourn - it is overwhelming, intense , and sincere. It is both private and public, national and individual, families and individuals are engaged in it.
Royalty/ leadership will mourn.
Nathan - not the descendant of David, but representing the Prophets...they will mourn.
The priests (house of Levi) will mourn.
The ones serving the temple (house of the Shimeites) will mourn.
All who remain at Messiah’s appearing in the land will mourn.
