The Coming King

Zech 9:1–11:3 sermon PFW

Intro/Setting

With regard to Christ, the law and the prophets and the evangelists have proclaimed that He was born of a virgin, that He suffered upon a beam of wood, and that He appeared from the dead; that He also ascended to the heavens, and was glorified by the Father, and is the Eternal King. –Irenaeus 2nd cent.

This morning we continue in the prophet Zechariah.

looking at the overall structure of the book,

chapter 9 begins the second half of the book.

We’ve looked at the intro, the night visions, the epilogue of the night visions, and now we come to what some refer to as the apocalyptic visions: an oracle, or burden of the LORD.

As I noted in the beginning, we aren’t intending to work through the book exhaustively.

We want to touch on, to pull out, the main themes of the prophet.

Zechariah 9 gives us a prophecy of events that were faraway to the prophet.

It’s labeled as a “burden” of the Lord, that is, a divine revelation usually associated with judgment and woe.

Its subject is God’s future wrath on the nations that opposed His people.

Up to this point, Zechariah has focused on immediate issues,

mainly the building of the temple and the restoration of the nation.

But now a different lens is placed on his book.

Now we will consider events centuries in the future, and especially the coming of the Messiah, the true king of God’s people.

And this second half of the book is made up of smaller units connected by a progression of thought that unfolds within the passage.

The dominant theme here is

the Lord’s future royal triumph

over the nations

for the sake of His ppl.

You have an outline in your liturgy:

You’ll see again, as is familiar to the biblical authors,

there is a kind of inclusio, or

book-ended structure.

See there?

Judgment on foreign enemies

the Coming King Keeping Covenant

Judgment on foreign enemies. (This is part of the Lord’s Restoral of His ppl.)

These are the parts of the text.

And, as we’ve seen before,

the center is the focus, the glory, the substance of what is being told, in this case, the coming of the lowly king.

As we look at this passage, let’s remember that it was written for us, God’s people.

It was given for our strengthening and benefit.

it is not some abstract, disconnected prophecy unrelated to normal life.

Because, as we will see, of course, that this passage preaches Jesus,

the Messiah King who has come to save His ppl,

and will return to wrap it all up, in glory.

We will look briefly at the surrounding sections,

surrounding the discussion of the lowly King / the Lord keeping His covenant with His ppl.

There is the glory!

There is the focus and wonder and marvel!

First, The Lord Will Judge 9.1-8

These verses begin cataloging judgment against Israel’s enemies/God’s enemies.

This is not unique to Zech.

The prophets are full of these judgments.

We can’t unpack all of this in one sermon. We are trying to get the main flow and punch of the prophet.

The burden comes of the word of the Lord against Hadrach and Damascus—these are cities in Syria to the North.

Then the prophet turns to the northern cost, the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon, and then moves to the three Philistine cities of the southwest.

Tyre and Sidon, though they are wise, are criticized.

Tyre is promised to be stricken at the core of her pride:

First is the military confidence, v.3 “rampart”, or seige-works.

We know that around the 900’s they built defense ramparts that were over 800 yards long and 9 yards thick in an effort to fortify the city (2Sam 24.7)

Then, secondly, prideful/ shameless materialism.

Tyre has “heaped up silver like dust, and fin gold like the mud of the streets.”

But what?

“But the Lord will strip her of her possessions…strike her down…she’d be devoured by fire.”

Here, v.4 proclaims this judgment in the reverse order of the accusations is v.3.

It’s a reversal of Tyre’s glut and pride and success.

God will strip her possessions and bring to an end her great naval power.

Ultimately, she will be consumed by fire.

And, v.5, 6

Ashkelon shall see it, and be afraid;

Gaza too, and shall writhe in anguish;

Ekron also, because its hopes are confounded.

The king shall perish from Gaza;

Ashkelon shall be uninhabited;

a mixed people shall dwell in Ashdod,

and I will cut off the pride of Philistia.

They will see the power and judgment of the Lord.

And they will tremble: fear and anguish and hopelessness will consume them.

These of course find their final fulfilment in God’s coming universal reign,

that reign and rule under which all other kingdoms of the whole earth will fall.

And this, we remember, will conclude what was begun way back at the beginning; that conquest under the leadership of Joshua, which he failed to complete to its fullest, this will be the completion of that conquest.

Joshua 13 tells us that when Joshua came to an old age,

there was still much land to be taken,

and many ppls still to drive out.

And the Lord tells Joshua,

“I myself will drive them out from before the ppl of Israel.” Josh 13.6

And among the cities that needed to be conquered were the cities of Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Gaza.

They were to be under the control / belong to, Judah.

Well, the oracles/burdens in Zech 9 assure God’s ppl that He will finish the conquest and conquer these cities.

But notice, very interesting, this section ends, perhaps, not as we would imagine.

It ends, not with judgment and conquest, but with what? with cleansing and in-grafting—those are the last words (v.7).

I will take away its blood from its mouth,

and its abominations from between its teeth;

it too shall be a remnant for our God;

it shall be like a clan in Judah,

and Ekron shall be like the Jebusites.

O the glory?!!!!

Do you see it?

The grace and mercy of God?

And for you, bros/sis, what mercy and grace?

By nature, children of wrath/children of disobedience, hating and being hated, despising the Lord; far from Him.

But He comes, He calls, and He creates in us a new heart…and gives us life…and WE are ingrafted into His family; WE are conquered and cleansed when we place our faith in Christ!

He is everything! He is our all!

O the glory of being conquered by Christ!

Rejoice, dear Christian, rejoice!

The promise here of the Lord to clean out the blood from Philistia’s mouth and the detestable things from between its teeth is a reference to the practice they had of eating bloody animals, unclean meat, things that for the people of God were unlawful and repulsive (Lev 11/19)

This is referring to what the prophet Amos talked about as well in Amos 1.

The Lord will judge, He will be victorious.

That is doom for His enemies and the enemies of His ppl.

He will cleanse Philistia, and a remnant will become His ppl.

Amos 1 says the same. He tells us too; the Philistines would perish under the Lord’s judgment, but there is hope, even for them, even for you and me and all who call upon the Name of the Lord.

They will be saved, even like the clan in Judah.

And the same Ekron, she will become like the Jebusites.

The Jebusites lived alongside the ppl in Jerusalem generation after generation, but under King David, they were fully conquered and incorporated into the community.

The Lord will judge His enemies.

And He will bring His people in.

May we remember this.

May we never forget, and along with it, may we remember that He will save whom He will save.

He is a merciful God.

All who come to Him, He will never cast out or turn away.

Glory in that, bros/sis!

He has conquered, and cleansed, and ingrafted you into His family!

Remember that.

Remember that when you feel crushed by your sin, or the world around.

He is the victor!

And remember that as well when you interact with those around you;

your family, friends, coworkers—all those who haven’t been cleansed and conquered.

Remember, and tell them, with works and words,

tell them about the Lord who justifies.

Tell them about King Jesus who promises refreshment and life and glory.

And then, we come to,...

Secondly, The Lowly King Will Come 9.9-17

Zec 9:9-10

" 9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth."

This is a reason for great rejoicing. A king is coming.

What kind of king?

A king who will be known for His righteousness.

Righteousness, in Israel’s earlier history, was often coupled with justice as a royal expression regarding concern for the poor and the oppressed.

The King who will come is on who is righteous—he executes justice, governs equitably, lives in integrity, delivers the oppressed, and provides for the poor.

All of these things, if we are biblically astute, we know, these reflect the Lord Himself; these are the things that characterize the Lord; they reflect His will and law.

Later in Israel’s history, in the years after the Exile, the concept of righteousness came to be paired and understood as connected with the idea of covenant faithfulness.

You know that word; hesed.

Righteousness and hesed, covenantally faithful.

Zech 9.9 describes a coming king who is righteous.

He will be all that Israel was called to be, but failed to be.

He will be upright.

He will show compassion.

He will be just, and faithful, and merciful.

And this description of righteous, this, and other forms of the word, we find them in context of salvation.

Like that portion of Isa that speaks of the restoration promises to Israel in Exile,

Isa 40-55,

these hold out to God’s ppl a future;

a future where they are delivered at last from Exile.

And in these passages and uses of the word righteousness,

it’s used to describe God’s faithfulness in working out salvation,

AND

to describe the justification or vindication of Israel.

The faithful Lord: listen...

Isaiah 41.10

fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 45:8

"Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the LORD have created it.

He is faithful!!

Isaiah 45:13

I have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways level; he shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward," says the LORD of hosts.

Isaiah 51:5

My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait.

And Israel’s vindication/justification:

Isaiah 43:26

Put me in remembrance; let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right.

Isaiah 45:25

In the LORD all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory.

Isaiah 50:8

He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.

And we see, in Isa, these two wonderfully culminate in the Suffering Servant, the Righteous One, the One who bears the iniquity of the nation that they will be vindicated in the end:

Isa 53.11

“Out of the anguish of His soul He shall see and be satisfied;

by His knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

make many to be accounted righteous, and He shall bear their iniquities.

With this rich, Isaianic background, the prophecy to those in Exile,

it makes sense that the coming King’s characteristic of righteousness in Zech 9.9 goes along with the fact that He will bear salvation/ having salvation.

Looking back to the context of Zech, in his time, the Jews did not have a king.

We encountered Zerubbabel earlier.

He was the last member of the royal family that we hear of.

He was never crowned as king; but he governed Jerusalem.

The first eight chapters of Zech show him as an active person.

He now seems to have faded away from the scene.

And in this era with no king, God’s ppl are told to look for the ruler to come whom the Lord would send.

They are to look for the One who fulfils and fits that messianic expectation of the OT.

He is a King who is just, having salvation,

who comes in meekness and affliction.

In the totality of history, there is only one person who fits this description—the Lord Jesus Christ.

What a marvelous description!

The Messiah who comes as a king!

Let’s look more closely.

We’ve looked at the background, the past, the prophecies.

Let’s look at the fulfilment and understand what is being spoken.

He is righteous and having salvation is He.

Some say this merely describes the king who comes, that His reign will be just.

But we can’t end with merely His reign.

This must also speak to His person, that He Himself is righteous.

Again, remember the Suffering Servant of Isa:

“Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations” (Isa. 42:1).

The One who establishes righteousness is the One who is pleasing in God’s sight; the One who Himself is righteous is all His ways.

It is Jesus who accomplished righteousness as the personal qualification for serving as God’s just/righteous King.

This is what we mean when we use the term “active obedience of Christ.”

Jesus perfectly obeyed God’s law.

He kept it perfectly, all of His life…perfectly fulfilling that law, all the moral and spiritual requirements for man to keep, Jesus kept:

Matthew 5:17 ESV

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Christ accomplished righteousness under God’s exacting Law, for our sakes, bros/sis.

Is this important?

O you better believe it is!

What is more important?

Why?

Because what do we know about the state of man outside of Christ?

Romans 3:10–12 ESV

as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.

All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Jesus Christ is the single exception to this fact.

He was born of the HS as the true Son of God.

He came to accomplish a positive righteousness to give to all who look to Him in faith.

Praise God!

His perfection, given to me?!? …given to you?!?

This is why Zech says of this King,

Zec 9:9

"Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he,"

The point of the verse is that He comes with all righteousness and salvation to us and for us!

One of the great Reformers said,

“As He came for the sake of others, and has been for them endued with righteousness and salvation; then the righteousness and salvation of which mention is made here, belong to the whole body of the Church.

This king, bros/sis, He brings salvation and righteousness…and He brings peace.

And the peace that He brings, it is so much more than the absence of conflict, or stress and suffering and sorrow.

This is shalom!

That robust, full, glorious peace that alone comes from the Prince of Peace.

It brings with it a sense of harmony, wholeness, and blessedness.

It’s the kind of peace that transcends my problems, suffering, conflicts, …the kind that sustains, even gives me rejoicing in the midst of those very things.

When the king comes, He will bring this kind of peace to all the nations, because He will call from them all those whom He has decreed to be His:

Psalm 72:8

8 May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth!

O this King’s reign will have no end.

This righteous King, King Jesus, He will complete what He began.

He will bring it all to glorious conclusion.

[[[ fill out more here: Complete v.9b ]]]

Connected to this too, while the Lord is establishing peace, He will manifest His faithfulness to His cov’t in delivering His ppl.

Zechariah 9:11

11 As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

Exodus 24:8

8 And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Zech explains this deliverance in terms of being freed from the waterless pit.

We aren’t ignorant of this, right?

It is familiar imagery.

It brings to mind the image of Joseph’s deliverance from the waterless pit; the well he was thrown into (Exo 37).

And also, it echoes of Jeremiah’s deliverance from the cistern (Jer 37).

Or the Psalms, 30, 40, 103:

Here the pit is an image widened to encompass deliverance, restoration from the grave/Sheol.

Being delivered from the pit is to be snatched from the jaws of death.

And certainly, in the history of Israel, the pit was the Exile.

Remember, we talked about Exile being a picture of final judgment, death itself.

Do you see the glory of it?

The deliverance from the pit comes via the coming King.

The King will come, and He will fight for His ppl.

He is the Divine Warrior. (vv.10-17)

And now, O the joy!, they are no longer in the pit, prisoners of the pit!

The are what? ....the are now prisoners of hope!! (v.12)

And that hope is in the Lord’s cov’t faithfulness (hesed) for His cov’t ppl.

He will restore them!

The rest of the chapter explains the Lord’s fighting for His ppl.

Praise Him, dear ppl, praise our God who restores, who delivers, who fights, fought, and has defeated the enemies of His ppl.

See how glorious that is?

Doesn’t a moment’s reflection on that wonderful deliverance and victory for His ppl, doesn’t that stir your affections?

Doesn’t that warm your heart?

I pray that it does.

Unless your heart is black and without life, Christ’s ppl rejoice at the thought their rescue and life,…life in Jesus.

Rejoice in our conqueror King.

Then, this next section closes as the passage opened, with the Lord’s judgment on foreign enemies.

Finally, The Lord Will Restore His People 10.1-11.3

Rain was needed for food and life, really.

There had been a drought.

This was a point of temptation to apostacy, flirting with/imbibing false gods.

Like Elijah and the Caananite Baal.

Zech says ask, for it is the Lord/YHWH who makes the storm clouds;

He gives rain and vegetation. 10.1

They are not to listen to false prophets who lead them astray.

Neither are they to turn to household “gods”/idols. 10.2

So to restore them, part of this is reminding them to whom they are to turn and ask and seek; and whom they are not to seek.

The Lord will restore His ppl by lifting them up, from foreign nations, and from under their own wicked leadership. 10.3-7

Zec 10:8-12

" 8 "I will whistle for them and gather them in, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as many as they were before.

9 Though I scattered them among the nations, yet in far countries they shall remember me, and with their children they shall live and return.

10 I will bring them home from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria, and I will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon, till there is no room for them.

11 He shall pass through the sea of troubles and strike down the waves of the sea, and all the depths of the Nile shall be dried up. The pride of Assyria shall be laid low, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart.

12 I will make them strong in the LORD, and they shall walk in his name," declares the LORD."

This is what we see in 11.1-3,....

The Lord will indeed lift up His ppl,

but He will also, at the same time,

bring low their oppressors through His powerful Judgment.

Like the Great Flood, like the crossing of the Red Sea, God undertakes and executes redemptive judgments.

He destroys His enemies/the enemies of His people,

and He delivers/saves those who are His own.

It all points ultimately to God’s final work in Christ who comes at the Last Day and makes final His victory and vanquishes forever all of His enemies!

1Co 15:22-26

" 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death."

He is Victor, King, Redeemer!!

1Co 15:54-55

""Death is swallowed up in victory."

"O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?""

Isn’t that wonderful? Glorious?

We have here this contrast/tention bt this powerful war imagery describing the Lord’s coming judgment on Israel’s enemies,

and the peaceful coming of the lowly king who is humble and righteous.

(humble and mounted on a donkey)

And then Jesus comes near to Jerusalem in what we refer to as His Passion Week,

He intentionally acts out the coming of the righteous and humble king from Zechariah’s description. (Matt 21; John 12)

You remember, right?

When the disciples and Jesus come to Bethphage on the Mt. of Olives,

what does Jesus do?

He sends two of them ahead to the next village.

He says, “You will find a donkey with her colt.”

And He tells them to untie them and bring them back to Him so that He can ride the colt into Jerusalem.

Matt and John have different emphasis in quoting the passage, you can see if you read the passages.

And it makes sense that the Passion Week not only starts with Jesus acting out Zech’s humble king coming to Jerusalem,

but it also culminates with Jesus resolving the tension of the passage.

One commentator says this:

In Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection,

He profoundly embodies both the humility of the king and the success of the Lord’s conquest.

On the cross, Jesus wore a crown, but it was a crown of thorns,

and He hung below the humiliating mockery of a sign inscribed with the words,

“The King of the Jews.”

But in the resurrection, He was vindicated (“saved”) and exalted as the righteous victor over all the earth.

He dethroned all principalities and powers and is lifted up as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Eph 1; Rev 19 ).

In the end, all the tension of the text resolved in Jesus Christ.

Jesus is peaceful.

Yet Jesus conquers the world.

He is gentle, yet He overcomes.

He is meek, yet He is vindicated.

He is humble, yet He turns the world upside down.

And the implication means everything, for each of us personally, and for the church collectively.

We are His.

And therefore, as I’ve reminded us again and again,

our hearts have been conquered by the humble grace of Christ.

The Spirit through Paul tells us about the pattern of Christ’s incarnation and atonement, that it provides the pattern and model for those who have come under His gentle yoke of grace:

Philippians 2:3–8 ESV

3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

And that, bros/sis, His incarnation and sacrificial humility, is the way that He became exalted as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, over all the earth:

Philippians 2:9–11 ESV

9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

And so we are freed to be like Jesus.

We don’t strive to change the world through pride or strength.

We do so by Christ-like meekness,

being humble,

even in our weakness.

This is, after all, or should be, the heart of every believer: to be continually conformed in our hearts and minds by our King, the One who is gentle and humble of heart.

And as He changes and shapes us, we become living testimonies of His grace and love and humility.

We become instruments in the Redeemers hands that He uses to change the world, even this dead and dying and so often ugly world.

I wonder if you are longing for His work in your lives?

May we ever strive to walk in the Spirit, rather than in the flesh.

May we seek His will and transformation in our growth into Christ-likeness.

I was talking to someone the other day and a really simple fact dawned on me.

Simple, but profound:

And it’s this:

Christ’s grace and love towards me has greatly hindered my ability to hate others.

His mercy and grace has greatly hindered my ability to anger and to sin in general.

His love has damaged my comfort with sinning.

And that’s a wonderful, awesome thing, bros/sis!

Has His love upset your sin?

Has it upset living far / away / comfortably distant from Him?

I pray, and plead with you, and plead to the Father for you, surrender to His love.

Reflect His humility and gentleness.

Reflect His love.

And when we do hate others in our hearts,

and when we do rage and sin and flee from Him,

what do we do?

When we fall and fall again?

We flee again to this tender, gentle, and glorious King who promises that He will never leave us or forsake us.

In fact, His promise is to be with us forever.

He has paid the debt that our sins owed.

We are freed to continue to walk in newness of life, new creations in Christ the King!!

Let us go back from His throne, from this peek of heavenly glory, back into our week with the world,

and let us go remembering

that Jesus, our King, has done all that needed to be done to give life to sinners,

and to continue to grow us to be like Him, and to live for Him.

May we do that very thing, with all of our lives.

Amen.