Four Nations Who Scatter Israel

Transcript

GR 1003
02/13/77
Four Nations Who Scatter Israel
Zechariah 1:18-21
Gil Rugh


Next to the last book in the Old Testament, the book of Zechariah, page thirteen hundred and eighteen. And you should have gotten an outline when you came in this evening, which is simply a revision of what you got last week. Some changes on the basic outline in the front and then correction on the back. If you didn't get one, you can raise your hand, and the ushers will give you one, even if you got one last week, you should take this one, and then you can discard the one from last week.

We're in the section under the second major division. The eight visions, the theme of the defeat of the kingdoms and the establishment of the kingdom. In other words, the kingdoms and nations of the world are defeated and the nation Israel, God's kingdom is established. That's the theme of these eight visions that run through the first six chapters of the book of Zechariah. We looked last week at the first vision, which was of the angel of the Lord, and the horsemen. The angel of the Lord, riding on a red horse, in verse eight, and standing among the myrtle trees. And we noted that this angel is the angel of the Lord. And the myrtle trees are symbolic of Israel. And then there are four other angels, or three other kinds of horses with the angels that go with them. And they have the responsibility of patrolling the earth. And we noted in verse eleven and twelve, they bring back the announcement in verse eleven, that all is peaceful and quiet on the earth. That was not a good sign for the nation Israel, that the nations that had conquered them were now enjoying peace and tranquility. So the angel of the Lord intercedes for the nation Israel in verse twelve, asking how long would it be till He had compassion on the nation Israel. And God responds, giving His response back to Zechariah, not to the angel of the Lord. And God then says that He's jealous, that His love still burns for the nation Israel. And He will judge the nations in verse fifteen, "I am very angry with the nations who are at ease, for while I was a little angry, they furthered the disaster." They went beyond what God intended.


Look in Isaiah, chapter forty-seven, since this is going to tie directly to what we're going to look at this evening. Page one thousand twenty-one, page 1,021, Isaiah chapter forty-seven. Here God speaks concerning the Babylonians and how they have treated His people. And note verse one just for who is being addressed, "Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon…" So those are the people in view. Then just pick up verses six and seven, "I was angry with My people, I profaned My heritage, and gave them into your hand." You'll note God said that the reason that the Babylonians conquered the Israelites was because God gave the Israelites into the hands of the Babylonians. But "You did not show mercy to them, on the aged you made your yoke very heavy. Yet you said, ‘I shall be a queen forever.’ These things you did not consider, nor remember the outcome of them." So the sin of the nations, God used them to judge Israel, but in pride the nations thought it was a result of their own power and own doing. So they made it their personal program to annihilate Israel, to magnify and exalt themselves, and they didn't consider the fact that it was God who gave Israel into their hands, and they should have functioned with humility in light of the sovereignty of God. That'll mean a theme for the vision we're going to look at in just a moment.

All right back to Zechariah in chapter one. Verses sixteen and seventeen, the vision ends with a promise, and a word of comfort that God “will return to Jerusalem with compassion, His house will be built.” In verse seventeen, “the cities will again overflow with prosperity. The Lord will again comfort Zion, and again choose Jerusalem.” So real words of comfort and strength. Now as we mentioned running through these visions, they all happen within a confine of time, called the times of the Gentiles. That's the period of time, the period of time in which these visions take place, the times of the Gentiles. The times of the Gentiles began in 605 BC, with the conquering of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and will continue down through the great Tribulation. That is the times of the Gentile. That expression comes out of Luke twenty-one, verse twenty-four where Jesus refers to the times of the Gentiles. The key characteristic of the times of the Gentiles is that Jerusalem is trodden down by the Gentile, Jerusalem is dominated by Gentile powers. Now that doesn't mean that every day during this time that will be true. Today we see Israel with a relative amount of freedom. There's no particular nation that dominates Jerusalem, ruling over the Jews. But we are still in the times of the Gentiles. There were other lapses, periods of time, during this age or time period when Jerusalem functioned with relative degree of independence, but basically they are still under the domination of the Gentile. And there is coming future days when Israel and Jerusalem will be again overrun by the Gentiles. We'll see that as we move through the book of Zechariah. That expression is important, the times of the Gentile, Luke twenty-one, verse twenty-four. There's another expression you ought not to confuse it with, the fullness of the Gentiles. The fullness of the Gentiles comes out of Romans, chapter eleven, verse twenty-five. And the fullness of the Gentiles is that period of time in which God is dealing specifically with Gentile nations in a gracious way. It would coincide with what we know as the church age. So begin particularly with Acts, chapter two, and continue down to the rapture of the church. That's the fullness of the Gentiles. But the times of the Gentiles is a different period and that's the period under consideration in Zechariah's visions.


Ok, now as we come to the vision in verses eighteen to twenty-one, as you'll note on the outline, is the four horns and the four craftsman, four horns and four craftsman. And the theme of this vision is that the nations which have crushed and scattered Israel will themselves be crushed and scattered. Now remember these are visions, the whole message of Zechariah is one of consolation and comfort and here God promises that those nations which have run over the nation Israel will themselves be crushed and destroyed.

Verse eighteen, "Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, there were four horns." Four horns, now, a horn is a rather common symbol in the Old Testament. It's frequently employed to depict strength or power both of an individual or of a kingdom. It comes from the literal picture of a bull or such an animal and the horn that they would have and the power and destruction that it could bring. As a bull would lower its head and charge the horn would bring about destruction so it carries over. It often represents a king or his kingdom, that's important, a horn is used to represent a king and his kingdom.

Let's look in the book of Daniel, we're going to be in Daniel several times this evening, so you might want to leave your bulletin here. Just back a little bit toward the front of your Old Testament, the book of Daniel, page twelve hundred and forty-eight, 1,248, the book of Daniel, chapter seven. We're going to be back in this very section later on this evening, so we won't give any explanation. All we want to do is verify the fact that a horn symbolizes a kingdom and that the Scripture supports that kind of interpretation. In Daniel, chapter seven, verse twenty-four, "As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise…" Now you'll note, that's the interpretation that God gives on this vision that Daniel has. The ten horns stand for ten kings, and the kings stand for the kingdoms so the Scripture itself makes that identification, a horn stands for a kingdom.

Look over in the book of Revelation, the last book in the New Testament, page three hundred and ninety in your New Testament, Revelation chapter seventeen, Revelation 17. Same identification, verse twelve. We'll be in Revelation seventeen later on this evening as well. Revelation 17:12, "the ten horns which you saw are ten kings…" So again the Scripture interprets the symbol for us, the horns are representative of a king or kingdom, because the king stands for his kingdom. That picture follows through as we'll see.

So as you come back to the book of Zechariah, and we read "I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, there were four horns." These horns stand for kingdoms. Now we'll note what kingdoms in a moment. Verse nineteen, "So I said to the angel who was speaking with me, ‘What are these?’ And he answered me, ‘These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.’” "These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem." And this word scattered is a strong term, denotes how harshly and how severely the Gentile nations have treated the nation Israel. It has the idea of winnowing from grain, where the grain would be beaten out on the threshing floor, and then would be thrown up and the chafe would blow away. The nations have just beaten Israel and they throw them up in the wind like the chaff. They've just crushed them, and they're scattered then like the chaff is in the wind on the threshing floor. So a picture of very severe type of punishment meted out by the nations. And this is going to be repeated three times, as though God is trying to drive home the point that these nations have scattered, they've winnowed my people and dealt with them so harshly. And the repeated emphasis is to drive home that point.

All right, now the point we have to consider here is the identity of the four nations. Who would these four nations be? How would we go about identifying them? Well, you remember we said these visions cover the period of time known as the times of the Gentiles. The times of the Gentiles began in 605 BC or 606, chronology is a little bit different depending upon who you read. But 605 BC, and runs down then to the millennium. So that rules out any nations before 605, rules out any nations before the Babylonians. Why not the Assyrians? Well, the Assyrians weren't within that time period known as the times of the Gentiles. We'll talk about the Assyrians later on this evening as well. So they're within the confines of the times of the Gentiles. Thus, we pick up with Babylon. They're the first nation. The times of the Gentiles begin with the conquering of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 605 under Nebuchadnezzar. So the first nation here, the first horn would be the Babylonians. Now we can pretty well fit the rest of them in. Following the Babylonians we have Medo-Persian empire. Following the Medo-Persian empire we have the Greek empire. Following the Greek empire we have the Roman empire. And those are the four horns or four kingdoms in view in the vision here that Zechariah sees, the four horns that scattered the nation Israel. Now again, this isn't past tense in time, but it's future, but it is written as an accomplished fact. Hebrew doesn't have tenses as we think of tenses, in other words, as far as time is concerned. The tenses in Hebrew tell the kind of action, and here the perfect tenses denotes completed action. So these are the nations that have scattered the nation Israel. That's the common way the prophets spoke, because from God's perspective it was a completed action. Even though it was yet to take place in a future time, God speaks of it as already completed. So it's sometimes called the prophetic past, because it comes over in English in the past tense. It's just from God's perspective the action is accomplished. So there's no problem even though these nations are yet future.

Now these nations are supported in the book of Daniel as well as being the nations in view. Look over to the book of Daniel again now, Daniel, chapter two, page twelve hundred and thirty-seven, page 1,237. Daniel had some very significant visions of the times of the Gentiles himself, and consistently in the book of Daniel the visions pick up with the Babylonians, and they'll run down then to the millennial kingdom. In Daniel, chapter two, we have Daniel interpreting the vision of the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw. He had this dream and saw this image. Now Daniel comes and tells him what the dream was first, and then he interprets for him. And we're just going to pick up with the interpretation in verse thirty-seven of Daniel, chapter two, “’You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength, and the glory.’“ You note how God takes credit, the kingdoms in power are there because of the appointment of God, and here God has given the kingdom the power, the strength, and the glory. "’And wherever the sons of the men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold.’" So Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian empire in the vision or the dream of Daniel two is symbolized by the head of gold in this great colossal image that Nebuchadnezzar saw. So that's the first empire, Babylon, the head of gold.

Then the next kingdom, verse thirty-nine. And "’after you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you…’" Well, the second kingdom. What kingdom arose after Babylon? Medo-Persia, they conquered the Babylonians and that is recorded even in the book of Daniel itself a few chapters over. So that's the second kingdom, Medo-Persia, the silver, depicted by the metal silver in this image even though it's not referred here.

"’…then another kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth.’" What kingdom followed the Persian empire? The Greeks and it was under Alexander the Great that the last Persian kings were crushed and their empire was brought to an end.

“’Then,’” verse forty, “’there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron…’" And this kingdom was depicted as iron, "’inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things…’" Iron isn't as precious as the other metals, but it's stronger, it's not as pure, but it's stronger. And that was true of the Roman empire. And that moves on down, we're not going to do the details of that right now, we'll allude to them later. The toes of image … but the Roman empire is the last empire. Now it will have at least three forms as we'll see in a moment. So Daniel, chapter two, the same empires. The head, Babylon. The chest of silver, Medo-Persia. Then the bronze belly, Greece. The legs iron, Rome. Same four empires that Daniel sees.

Look over in Daniel, chapter seven, Daniel, chapter seven, we have a vision or a dream, a vision that Daniel sees in Daniel, chapter seven. Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. It covers the same period of time, Daniel sees the same thing, but he sees the empires of the world as God sees them. Nebuchadnezzar saw them as man would see them, colossal and overwhelming and rather beautiful. God portrays them to Daniel as wild animals tearing each other apart but the same kingdoms and the same picture. So in Daniel, chapter seven, verses two to eight, you have the vision of the beasts. Verse two, “’I was looking in my vision by night,’” Daniel 7:2, “’and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion…’” Verse five, “’another beast, a second one, resembling a bear…’” “’After this,’” verse six, “’another one like a leopard…’” Verse seven, “’I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong, and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed, and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beast that were before it, and it had ten horns. While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were (plucked) out…’” and so on. Same basic vision.

Look at verses seventeen, beginning with verse seventeen for the interpretation, verse seventeen, “’These great beasts, which are four in number, are four kings who will arise from the earth.’” And again the king and his kingdom are synonymous.
"But the saints of the Most High, or the Highest One will received the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever…’” Then Daniel has a question about the fourth beast and something of his nature and character. So in Daniel, chapter seven, you have a lion, that represents Babylon, the bear, Medo-Persia, the leopard, Greece, and the terrible beast, Rome. So if you just make three columns on your paper, you can compare Daniel, chapter two, and Daniel, chapter seven, and put the metal and the part of the image in one column, put the animal in another column, and put the nation in another column. And they all balance out. The head of gold in chapter two is the same as the lion in chapter seven. It represents Babylon. And so on down the line.

Now Daniel goes beyond what Zechariah does, and just allude to it, so that you don't think there is another kingdom in a different sense. Daniel shows that the fourth empire will go through several stages. That they'll be the Roman empire as we've already seen it in existence, but the Roman empire will also undergo a revival and will be resurrected in a ten nation confederacy seen in the ten toes on the image in chapter two and seen with the ten horns on the head of this terrible beast in Daniel, chapter seven. They'll be a revival, the Roman empire in a ten nation confederacy, we saw that in chapter seven. While you're there, we'll just pick that up. Where at the end of verse seven it had ten horns, “’While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up…’” That little horn is a very significant person, he's the Antichrist, we'll refer to him in a moment. Look at verse, over at verse twenty, "’and the meaning of the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up, and before which three of them fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth uttering great boasts, and which was larger in appearance than its associates.’" Verse twenty-four, "’As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings. And he will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will give into his hand for a for a time, times, and a half time.’" One time, two times, and a half time, making three and a half times. Now if you compare this expression with other expressions in Daniel, like over in chapter twelve, you'll find that time, times, and a half time is equivalent to three and a half years and we have a time line here. Then we move right into the kingdom, when God's kingdom will be established.

Look over in the book of Revelation, and hopefully this will pull it together before you get too lost. In Revelation, chapter seventeen, all the way back in the end of the New Testament, Revelation, chapter seventeen. Remember, we mentioned one of the reasons that the book of Revelation is so difficult is that all the symbolism in Revelation comes out of the Old Testament and since we're not familiar with it in the Old Testament. Now you pull all that symbolism together in one book, it just causes confusion, but really the better you understand the Old Testament pretty soon Revelation just falls into place. In Revelation, chapter seventeen John sees the empires that Daniel has seen, that Zechariah has seen, but he goes beyond a little bit. And look at verse nine, “’Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, and they are seven kings.’” So here you have again the symbolism interpreted from the first part, the first eight verses of Revelation seventeen. There were seven heads and seven mountains, and verse ten tells us that these stand for seven kings. Now note, “’five have fallen, one is, the other is not yet come, and when he comes he must remain a little while. And the beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction. And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings…’" Now you know you read something like that, “’and seven kings, five have fallen, one is, the other is not yet come, "when he comes he'll remain a little while, and the beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth, he's one of the seven…’” You'd think that you'd like to go back and study the gospel of John. Tell you what you do. I was going to bring an overhead, and I didn't. You know, here's an aside. Some of you want a beautiful project, you can design an overhead with a head on it that will adjust for our screen. You think they make an overhead that adjusts beyond the set distances that they’re all made for. I can't find one and I haven't been able to find anyone that can find me one. I don't know what that means on the tape but maybe someone will write from Minnesota that they've got an overhead that will do it. But you can write down, number from one to eight on a piece of paper or your bulletin or something.

Now I'll just give you the kingdoms, then we'll go back and identify them here. John goes back before what Daniel saw and what Zechariah saw. So the first kingdom, number one, Egypt, Egypt, that's the first kingdom. The second kingdom, Assyria. Those two kingdoms were before the times of the Gentiles. So Daniel didn't see them and Zechariah didn't see them. John includes them because he's including the scope through the Old Testament, so he goes back before the times of the Gentiles, because these nations were still significant in the history of Israel. Egypt, Assyria, number three is Babylon, number four is Persia, Medo-Persian empire, number five is Greece, number six is Rome. You got that so far? Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, that's six. Number seven, just put the ten nations, ten nations, number eight is Antichrist. Number seven the ten nations, number eight is Antichrist. So then you read what John says in verse ten of Revelation seventeen, "they are seven kings…", symbolism of the seven heads and the seven mountains, they are seven kings. All right, a king and his kingdom, synonymous. What would they be? Well, the seven, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and the ten nations. Now note how he does it, "five have fallen…" By the time John is writing five of these kingdoms have already fallen or been destroyed. Well, that's true. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Greece, all five of those have fallen. "One is…", number six, Rome, as John wrote, the Roman empire ruled the world. "The other has not yet come…", that would be the seventh, that would be the ten nations. You'll note that "when he comes, he must remain a little while." Here John says that this kingdom is going to be of short duration, this ten nation confederacy. That's true, because you can write right beside that three and a half years. That's all the ten nation confederacy will dominate the world. Then the verse eleven, "And the beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is one of the seven…" You remember when Daniel saw this there were ten horns and one horn came from up among the ten and displaced three of them and dominated the horns. Well, the eighth kingdom as John sees it really comes out of the seventh, because the Antichrist will be represented, will be representing one of the ten nations. But he will assume so much power that he will dominate this ten nation confederacy, and so on.

Verse twelve, he begins to elaborate on the ten horns which are ten kings, they haven't received a kingdom as yet, as John wrote that was yet future. As we stand tonight, it's still future. But they will receive a kingdom in connection with their functioning with the beast. The beast is the Antichrist, the political world ruler in the tribulation. And let me just look at verse seventeen. "For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be fulfilled." In other words, these ten nations will be in agreement that the Antichrist ought to rule over them. So for the first three and a half years you have a ten nation confederacy dominating the western world. For the last three and a half years of the Tribulation, you have the world united under the leadership of one individual who proclaims and declares himself to be God and worthy of worship, the Antichrist. So those are the eight kingdoms that John sees. You can see that the heart of it comes right out of the Old Testament.

Ok let's go back to the book of Zechariah, don't want to forget that that's the book we're studying. Now the four kingdoms represented by the four horns that would scatter Jerusalem, he sees those. Then verse twenty, Zechariah one, "Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen." And craftsmen is a good translation, its used of workers who are skilled in any kind of craft, skilled workers in metal or wood, stone, those kind of craftsmen. Smiths, would get the idea, carpenters is too limited, we think of carpenters of one who works with wood. But this denotes craftsmen, can work in any of these areas, whether it's with stone or wood, metal, whatever.

Now note these craftsmen come and they'll be against the horns so there's a conflict here. So verse twenty-one, “And I said, ‘What are these coming to do?’ And he said, ‘These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man lifts up his head…’” Now you note how he goes back and repeats. Zechariah asks, "What are these craftsman coming to do?" The interpreting angel goes back to remind him of what those nations did, the horns are those who have scattered Judah, so that no man lifts up his head. No man lifts up his head again pictures how thoroughly they have crushed the nation Israel. You know lifting up the head pictures a little bit of strength left. You know, we'd say that he barely had enough strength to lift up his head. That symbolizes just a little bit of strength, enough to just barely lift your head. Israel didn't have that much strength left. The nations had been so cruel that there wasn't a man left even to lift up the head, depicting that there was no strength at all left in the nation Israel. And important note here that God drives home, the nation Israel has no strength. That does not mean that they are to be destroyed because God defends and sustains His people. And the fact that Israel has no strength does not mean that Israel is defenseless, because Israel still has God. And so the nation is without strength, but God is intervening.

"But these craftsmen have come to terrify them, to throw down the horns of the nations who have lifted up their horns against the land of Judah in order to scatter it." These craftsmen have come to terrify and come to throw down. Now strong words, to terrify, to throw into a panic, so these craftsmen are going to oppose the horns, throw the horns into panic, and thus prepare them for destruction. Throw down is the sense of destroying. So they terrify them and throw them into a panic, and then they destroy them. And you'll note at the end of that verse, "to throw down the horns of the nations who have lifted up their horns against the land of Judah in order to scatter it." So twice in this verse he mentions that scattering, that winnowing that we referred to already in verse nineteen. You know, that God repeats it, that it's unbelievable that these nations have done this to My people. When I raised them up, I gave them power, I gave them authority, then in effect, they rebel against Me. So God brings the craftsmen to deal with them. Now the craftsmen are rather simple to interpret. Who are they? Well, we can go back and look at history. Who were those that destroyed these empires? And really the horns and the craftsmen overlap and they become the same. So, the first of the craftsmen would be Persia, because Persia was the craftsman that destroyed Babylon. But then that Persia became a horn, because God raised up Persia to destroy Babylon, but then Persia in its pride and arrogance mistreated the people of God and rebelled against God. So they become a horn, and so Greece becomes the craftsman that God raises up to destroy the horn of Persia. But Greece destroys the horn of Persia and in itself becomes a kingdom and in rebellion against with a goal of destroying God's people. God must raise up another craftsman, so God raises up Rome, and Rome destroys Greece. But then Rome becomes a horn, a mighty kingdom, and persecutes and attempts to destroy the people of God. So you see that the craftsmen in effect become the horns. Now that's only three craftsmen if you'd been counting, Persia, Greece, and Rome. There's a fourth and final kingdom that would be depicted as a craftsman and it is the ultimate craftsman. It is the kingdom that will annihilate all kingdoms and will function totally subservient to God, because it is God's kingdom. So the fourth craftsman in effect is the Millennial Kingdom under the rule of Jesus Christ.

Ok, let me back you up to the book of Daniel again, then we'll be done, just to show you the fourth kingdom. Daniel, chapter two, first of all, so that you see that it is God's kingdom that does destroy these kingdoms and thus is the final craftsman. Zechariah doesn't go into that right now, He will as we move through these visions. The Millennial Kingdom will come into focus very clearly in his prophecy. Daniel, chapter two, page twelve hundred and thirty-seven, verses thirty-four and thirty-five, we'll just fill in what Nebuchadnezzar saw. He saw this huge colossal image of a man. And we saw that the different parts of this man represent the different parts of the kingdoms. But then he saw, verse thirty-four, "You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found." You note what God has done with these horns, these kingdoms that attempt to winnow the nation Israel and make them like chaff, in the ultimate end God is going to make these kingdoms the chaff. And when He makes them chaff, there will be no one to preserve them as God did the nation Israel. The end of verse thirty-five, "But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth." And a mountain in the Old Testament too symbolizes a kingdom. So this stone becomes a kingdom, another symbol of the kingdom is a mountain, just like a horn symbolizes a kingdom.

Look down in verse forty-four. As Daniel interprets on, in the colossal, the toes of the image, the ten toes. You note what happens in the days of these kings, verse forty-four, "And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy." So during the final kingdom, these ten nation confederacy and that final form of it under the Antichrist, is just a form of the ten nation confederacy. At that point the earthly kingdom will be established. So we can't have the kingdom in existence now because the ten nation confederacy hasn't been established yet. And when this kingdom is established it won't be established in the hearts of men, as some would hold, with the kingdoms of the world continuing on. You'll note that there is an abrupt end to the kingdoms of the world when this kingdom is established, they are crushed, they are ground to powder and they blow away. That's immediate intervention.

Look over in Daniel seven. Daniel, chapter seven, verses eleven and twelve.
“Then I kept looking because of the sound the boastful words which the horn was speaking.” (This is the little horn which came up from the ten, this is the Antichrist)
"I kept looking until the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but an extension of life was granted to them for an appointed period of time. I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming. And He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom. That all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed." So again during the time period when these, this ten nation confederacy, is functioning Jesus Christ will intervene and set up His kingdom. The Antichrist will be destroyed at the end of verse eleven. The other nations, dominions taken away, but they have an extension. During the Millennial, the nations of the earth will function but they will function without dominion because Christ Himself will dominate the world. But the Antichrist will be in hell during the thousand year millennium. This is depicted in Revelation 19, when Jesus Christ comes personally and intervenes at Armageddon, and destroys the nations and sets up His kingdom. So at the end of Revelation 19 you find the beast and false prophet cast into the lake of fire and the Millennial Kingdom set up in Revelation, chapter twenty.

So the four horns, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome. The four craftsmen that judge the four horns, Persian judged Babylon, Greece judged Persia, Rome judged Greece, and the kingdom of Jesus Christ will judge Rome and all the other kingdoms of the world together. The assurance of this for Zechariah in his day, God's guarantee that He will preserve His people. That would be a word of encouragement and comfort to the Jews even though this was future from their perspective as Zechariah wrote it. That God would care for the nation, and that the nations that did abuse the nation Israel would be judged by God. That God would preserve them in spite of the fact that they had no strength to preserve themselves. A word of encouragement when you realize how much God is in control of the affairs of the world. That these nations would come on the scene and Israel would think, oh my, not again, here we go again. To take comfort in the fact that God promises that the craftsmen will come, and when all is said and done, Israel will be here. It will be the nations that will have suffered destruction.

Now we ought to take that as encouragement as well. You're a believer today, well, difficulties comes, trials come. God never abandons me. I'm without strength. God doesn't abandon me. I don't need strength to win my battles, God's strong enough to do it without me. You know, sometimes I say, boy, I don't have enough strength, what's going to happen? Well, I guess God's going to have to do it. That's usually the place He has to bring us, because until I run out of strength, I think it is God and I that are going to whip them and I, I just get in the way. And so I'm encouraged as I read about the nation Israel.

All right. I'll just give you a moment, perhaps I lost you somewhere along the line. If you didn't understand anything, don't ask me. But if you have something that wasn't clear maybe you'd like to raise a question.


Question and Answer:

Right, right, those who heard and believed the message of the prophets would have been the saved in Israel. Right. Now they wouldn't have understood necessarily the full import, like of the horns and the craftsmen. They would be just recognizing that God's promise and assurance, that He was going to preserve them and keep them. Right.

The ten nation confederacy. All these things that we talk about that are going to happen prophetically, apart from the Rapture, happen after the Rapture. Like the formation of the ten nation confederacy, something that happens after the Rapture. So it's not possible to pin point that it's happening. The reason that we think that we might be close to the Rapture is we see so many things that are going to take place in the Tribulation seemingly forming together. Like the ten nation confederacy in Europe. It's, I'm not saying that that's the ten nation confederacy, but the ten nation confederacy will be something very similar, composed of the nations of the remnant of the Roman empire that are revived. So it is interesting to see the pieces falling together in that kind of thing. But the actual information in falling together, I take it will be a post-rapture event. So, but that wouldn't be a problem. If every believer was taken out of the world today that would greatly change things and accelerate the way things might fall together. I read you an article one time in a study. Oh, it's out of I believe US News World Report, from about a year ago, where the Common Market were meeting. And they made the statement there that we need leadership so bad, give us a man, whether he's the devil or a man, and we'll follow him, as long as he became the leader. Those kinds of things, you know, make your blood run cold. But I wouldn't want to prophecy the Rapture this week but I wouldn't say no either.

Ok, in Luke 17:20, where the kingdom of God is among you. You want to turn to Luke seventeen, verse twenty. “Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.’” And that aspect is true. There are a couple of things that can be said about the kingdom. One, the kingdom and the king, as we mentioned, are synonymous. So the very fact that Jesus Christ was present indicated that the kingdom was present in Israel. They just reject it. Because if they had responded and accepted Christ as Messiah, He would have established the kingdom there. So it's there potentially ready to be set up, but in rejecting Him as king, they reject the king. But it was still present there as long as He was present. There's also a spiritual kingdom that exists in the hearts, because to have a kingdom, you have to have a king and you have to have subjects. Well, we are subjects of the King Jesus Christ, so there is a spiritual kingdom that exists today. But you note that Jesus goes on in verse twenty-two of Luke seventeen, "And He said to the disciples, "The days shall come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, "Look there! Look here!" Do not go away, and do not run after them. For just as the lightning when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day. But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. And just as it happened in the days of Noah…" And so on. Parallel chapter to Matthew, chapter twenty-four and twenty-five. So both are true. He tells them that the kingdom is in your midst, but then He tells the disciples, don't go running after those who announce the kingdom, because the kingdom is not going to be set up until a period of time. And when it is set up, you won't have to ask anybody what's going on, this will be world-wide. But He saved that information for His disciples. He just tells the Pharisees that the kingdom is here. He tells the disciples that it's not going to be established at this point. So He reserves the insight for the believers. So you talk about three kingdoms really in that context. Christ was present, the kingdom was present. The kingdom is present in the hearts of all believers. We are all subjects of the King. The kingdom will literally be established on earth when Jesus Christ the King returns and establishes the kingdom. And one doesn't nullify the other.

Ok, we'll pursue these matters of the kingdom and these prophetic areas as we move through Zechariah. Next Sunday morning we'll be talking about the Rapture of the church out of First Corinthians fifteen, which is the next prophetic event that Scripture talks about, which will pave the way for the falling together of the ten nation confederacy, the domination of the apostate church during the first three and a half years, and the rising to power of the man who is known as the Antichrist.

Let's have a word of prayer together. Father, indeed, we are thankful for your Word, again, as we've considered your promises to the nation Israel, your assurance and comfort to them. We as your people are assured and comforted as well. Lord, thankful that even though we are often unfaithful that you remain faithful. Lord, in spite of our weaknesses, in spite of our defeats, Lord, that your victory is sufficient, that our victory is guaranteed because of what Christ has accomplished for us. We thank you for your love and care and compassion on the nation Israel. We pray that we might learn as we study them. Father, to realize how their rebellion hurt them. Lord, prevented them from experiencing the full blessings that you had for them. Lord, we're thankful that they will yet receive those blessings in a coming day. Lord, we're thankful for the hope that is ours as well as Christians, that we shall see Jesus Christ. That we shall share in His kingdom, that we shall rule and reign in that time together with Him. Bless us as we leave this evening. Give us a good week in serving You. We pray that we might have the joy of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with those we come in contact with through the week. For we pray in Jesus name. Amen


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Zechariah 1:18-21 2/13/77