Sermon Tone Analysis

Alexander the Great

We saw last week about the conquests of Alexander

how he destroyed all of the enemies around Israel

how God was the deliverer of Israel at that time

our last verse

how Jesus was going to be the ultimate deliverer/rescuer

He died to save us from our sin

we are going to continue that theme of Deliverer this week

the Old Testament prophets could not see the church age

it was a mystery to them.

something that was not revealed to them by God

verse 9 is Jesus coming into Jerusalem when He was rejected as king

but I think the old testament prophets also saw Him as the conquering king of verse 10

God gave these prophets and people short term visions and long term at the end of the age visions

we are going to look at 2 kings in Jerusalem this morning

Jesus and Antiochus Ephiphanes

Read Zechariah 9 9-17

Pray-

The Righteous King

or should we say the conquering king

these next verse is looking way down to the Lords return to earth

there will be no more war in Israel

horse, chariot, battle bow are all weapons of war

He will speak peace to the nations

Jesus in His kingdom on this earth will be a kingdom of peace

Jesus is giving his people a bright hope of the future

His rule will be from sea to sea

from the river Euphrates to all of the earth

His kingdom of peace will be for 1000 years

Why is Jesus going to do this?

Because of the blood of His covenant

the blood covenant

God had Abraham cut a Heifer, Goat, ram, dove and pigeon

and the covenant was made both parties would walk through

but God made Abraham be incapacitated

so only God walked through

the blood covenant was given to Abraham

this peace treaty was given by God

the God who cannot lie

the promise was given to Abraham that his descendants would be in the land

Joseph put into a waterless pit

the pit of captivity

because God made a peace treaty with Abraham

now return from captivity

in the millennial kingdom the Israelites will the most blessed people on the earth

God Will Use Israel As A Weapon

now God is going to give another prophecy

He took us to the end now he will Give them encouragement along the way

against the enemy of Israel

Antiocus Epipenes

Ron Daniels

Last week, we talked about Alexander the Great and the kingdoms he conquered.

When he died, the Greek Empire was divided between four of his generals.

One of these generals was Selucius.

The Selucid dynasty gave rise to some of the most wicked men ever to rule kingdoms on this planet.

(For a more complete background on this history, you'll want to read the notes or pick up the tapes on Daniel 8 and 11).

The Jews suffered terribly under the Seleucid leaders, the most infamous of these was Antiochus Epiphanes, the man who was a predecessor to the antichrist, and who, I believe, was demon-possessed (Dan.

8:24).

Antiochus Ephiphanes came against the city of Jerusalem, killing those Jews that were not loyal to his pagan commands and plundering Jerusalem's wealth.

Two years later, he returned.

This time, pretending to be on a peaceful mission.

But as soon as he entered the city, he pillaged it, killing the Jews - even those who were loyal to him.

He plundered the temple treasures, stealing everything that was of value, and kidnapping about 10,000 as slaves.

Then he laid down the law: no one was allowed to offer sacrifices to God anymore.

He sacrificed a pig on the altar, and commanded that every city erect altars to his gods and offer pigs on them daily.

Those Jews who refused suffered terribly, being tortured and killed in unmentionable ways.

One of those who refused to submit to these abominable decrees was a man named Mat-tath-EE-as.

He told his five sons that it was better to die for God's Law than to live against it.

When Antiochus' men came to his city, they insisted that Mat-tath-EE-as make the first sacrifice, knowing that his popularity would make everyone else follow his example.

But he said, "Even if every other nation obeys this command, I and my sons will not!"

Another Jew stepped forward to offer the sacrifice, infuriating Mat-tath-EE-as.

He and his sons pulled out their swords, killing the Jew, the King's General, and several of the soldiers.

Mat-tath-EE-as' followers became a great army, but after a year, he died.

His son Judas Maccabeus then became the leader of this army of faithful Jews.

The neighboring Samaritans went to battle against Judas' army, and were miraculously defeated.

The Syrians came against them, and were miraculously defeated.

Antiochus Epiphanes heard of this revolt, and gathered an army together to destroy them.

But when he saw that the nations' taxes had not been paid, he decided to first go to Persia to collect the money.

In the meantime, he told his governor Lysias to conquer Judea, destroy Jerusalem, and wipe out the Jews.

An army of 40,000 soldiers, 7,000 horsemen, was joined by Syrians, apostate Jews, and slave traders.

Again, God performed miracles that have no earthly explanation, giving Judas' army the victory.

Lysias gathered 60,000 soldiers and 5,000 horsemen, against Judas' army of just 10,000 men.

The Jews were again miraculously victorious.

It was at this point, when Judas told his people that they should return to Jerusalem, to purify the temple, and give sacrifice to God for how He had so incredibly gone before them in battle, defended them, and devoured their enemies.

Back in Jerusalem, they re-furnished the temple, re-built the altar, and re-dedicated it to God.

lets look at that prophecy starting in verse 13

this history of the Maccabees was God orchestrating these events

we look at them as these men who got fed up and took over

but it was God using them as a a weapon of war

there are at least 2 accounts coming out of Ukraine war

1 some Ukrainian troops were going to be overrun by Russian tanks.

a soldier phoned his dad and told him to pray. the dad called the church to pray.

later that night it looked looked a spaceship was shooting down lightning at the tanks and they were destroyed.

2 a Russian tank company took this town, removed the towns flags and attached them to their tanks.

another Russian tank company mistook the first as Ukrainian and fought them and the the 2 companies killed each other

in all of the disinformation coming out of there I dont know if this is true.

But I like to think so

In Ezekiel 38 this type of destruction is talked about, to be done by God

God is going to the major fighting

This Antiocus is a for shadow of what the Antichrist will do in the tribulation

and Jesus will defeat Him just as he defeated Antiocus