The Angel of the Lord and the Horsemen

Transcript

GR 1002
02/06/1977
The Angel of the Lord and the Horsemen
Zechariah 1:7-17
Gil Rugh
The book of Zechariah in your Bibles. Zechariah is the next to the last book in your Old Testament. So it's not too hard to find, even though it's not an often turned to book, I guess, but next to the last book in the Old Testament. Zechariah, Malachi. You should have gotten an outline when you came in, and if you didn't, if you'd raise your hand, the ushers would see that you get one. We've got plenty of them, and they won't be any good after this week, so please take one. This is a rough outline, and next week we'll give you the revised, updated one, but I didn't get a chance to get that one done. So this will serve our purposes for now, and next week the outline is basically the same with some changes and one or two additions. Ok, everybody have one?
We started the book last week and looked at the first six verses. On the front you have an outline that covers the whole book. Just entitled “Outline of Zechariah”, and broken down into four major divisions; the introduction, the eight visions, question of fasting, and the two prophecies. And we looked at the introduction last week, the first six verses. If you'd just flip over to the back side of that sheet, also, the top part has an outline which is not complete. As you note, it only goes through the first eight chapters. I just put that on as an abbreviated outline, just to help you think through. I didn't mean for it to be that abbreviated, but the rest of it will be on the sheet you get next week. It basically breaks down eight visions, four messages, and two burdens. The third division of that outline is two burdens, and that covers the remainder of the book. And it's just a simple way to think your way through the book of Zechariah. You think eight, four, and two, and you can pretty well think your way through the book of Zechariah. That outline I just took from the books in the bibliography under general works, John Cawood, "Let's Know the Bible,” and I'd recommend that you get that book. It's basically a simple introduction to the Bible. The opening part of it gives you an overview of the Bible. Then it has a brief one page introduction to each book. It'll have a paragraph or two summarizing the book, and then it'll have a very brief outline, so that you can think your way through the book. So a very helpful book as far as getting a grasp on the Bible, and thinking your way through it, and through the individual books. And this outline is just a sample from that book.


Another book under the general works in the bibliography is a book by Hobart E. Freeman, "An Introduction of Old Testament Prophets", and that's a very fine work.
The first half of the book covers just the subject of prophets and prophecy, and a very good introduction to the whole matter of the prophets. Then the last part of the book is an introduction to each of the individual books of prophets, so that you get a lot of background material. And then a more detailed outline on each of the prophetic books. So a very helpful book.
Then I've just listed some specific works on Zechariah, so if you're interested in pursuing your study further, these are good books to use. These aren't the only ones, I've limited it to those who take a pre-millennial position of the book. And basically the position that we'll be taking. The first two… I've put them in order as I would recommend them. The first two I've put in their position because they're simple, concise, and inexpensive. Maybe the last is the first, G. Coleman Luck, "Zechariah", I think it cost a dollar and a half, paperback book published by Moody Press. And that series is a very excellent series published by Moody. It's good for you to have all those in your library. They're cheap enough, yet they're very helpful. Feinberg's book is about a dollar and a quarter, it's a little thin paperback. It's been republished with his other commentaries on the minor prophets in a larger work that’s about seven or eight dollars, which is very helpful. Hard to get good material on the minor prophets, but his work is very good. Then Merrill Unger, David Baron, and Charles Feinberg. Feinberg's book, "God Remembers" is a much more extensive study and it's the only one on the list that may be out of print. I don't know that it's been reprinted. I have Van Camp and Press, but if you go to the book store, Van Camp and Press no longer exists, they went defunct. I don't know that that's a reflection on his book. They published some good material but they just didn't make it. And I don't know that it's been republished, but the other works here are in print. So if you're interested in pursuing the book of Zechariah, that'll help you.
Ok, let's get into the book of Zechariah this evening. The first six verses were the introduction, they were a call to repentance. Remember the theme and thrust of the book of Zechariah is comfort and consolation for the nation Israel, to encourage the nation. Particularly Zechariah has a ministry in encouraging the building of the temple along with Haggai. Haggai is just the book before Zechariah. They were instrumental in encouraging the people to resume the construction of the temple and then seeing it through to completion. But it begins by a call to repentance, because this is foundational to God being able to bless them that they be a people in a place of blessing. Israel, since the time of Abraham, has been the people that God has chosen to bless but because of rebellion He has been unable to bless them. So Zechariah's first six verses called them to repentance. And it's a warning as you would expect in a message of repentance, verse six in particular. "But did not My words and My statues, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers?" The fathers, they didn't live forever, the prophets, they died, but God's Word was a relentless pursuer and they overtook the Jews and they suffered the judgment that God said they would for their rebellion.

Now with verse seven, we come to a series of visions, and you'll note on the outline, eight visions. And the thrust of these visions is the future deliverance of Israel, the future deliverance of Israel. And there's a series of eight visions, and these visions Zechariah saw all in one evening, one night. So we're going to spread them out. You read through the first seven chapters of the book of Zechariah, and then try to put yourself in Zechariah's place. That he saw that all in one night, and you get some idea how overwhelming it must have been. So the subject will be the same. He won't be saying the same thing, but the future deliverance will run through each of the visions.
All right, the first vision is, I've titled it, "The Angel of the Lord and the Horseman.” On the back outline it's a "Rider among the Myrtle Trees." Just help fix it in your mind, what is the subject of this vision? Well, the angel of the Lord and the horseman with Him. More simply, just the rider among the myrtle trees, who we'll see is the angel of the Lord.
Okay, look at verse seven. "On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, as follows…” Now its date here, specifically the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month. This makes it approximately, not exactly but approximately, three months after Zechariah's introductory sermon, a call to repentance, because that was given in verse one in the eighth month. Well now we're in the eleventh month. We don't know what day of the month in verse one, but we know here we're on the twenty-fourth day of the month. This day, the twenty-fourth, becomes significant. If you take time to read the book of Haggai, you'll find out that several of Haggai's significant messages were given on the twenty-fourth day of the month. And it was on this day, five months earlier, that work had resumed on construction of the temple. So it was a significant day, and becomes more significant now because of the visions God is going to give to the nation Israel regarding their future.
All right, what did Zechariah see? "I saw at night," this is a vision. A vision differs from a dream in that the person who receives the vision is awake and fully conscious while he receives the vision. When a person gets a revelation from God in a dream, he is asleep. But with a vision the person is alive and conscious, but he is given the ability to see certain things that God wants to reveal. And this is what happens to Zechariah on this given night, on the twenty-fourth of the eleventh month. "I saw at night, and behold, a man was riding on a red horse and he was standing among the myrtle trees which were in the ravine, with red, sorrel, and white horses behind him."
All right, the first person of importance for us is the man on the red horse standing among the myrtle trees, this is where the stress is. You'll note in verse eight, it's the man riding on the red horse and then behind him there are other horses. Now there are riders on those horses we'll see, angels are riding those horses, but the stress is not on those persons. You have the stress on the rider on the red horse and then there are other horses behind him of different colors. And this person becomes a key figure in Zechariah's prophecy, he is called "the angel of the Lord."
Let's look at verse eleven, "So they answered the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees," So the man among the myrtle trees is none other than the angel of the Lord, and the angel of the Lord, as many of you are already aware, is one of the most significant personages in the Old Testament. Perhaps we could say the most significant. His revelation isn't limited to this one form, but He is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was manifested before His virgin birth as the angel of the Lord to the nation Israel. And so when Zechariah sees this man on a red horse among the myrtle trees, he is seeing none other than Jesus Christ before He became a man, before He was born as a baby.
A couple passages on the angel of the Lord. Back to the book of Genesis, Genesis, chapter sixteen. It becomes obvious that this man is more than an angel, and I've just picked out a couple passages, a few passages, to draw attention on. If you want to do a study of Him, you can get your concordance and follow down every place the angel of the Lord is mentioned. But He is called God, and He is also worshipped, and that is not true of any other angel in the Bible. The angel of the Lord is called Jehovah, and He is also the object of worship, which indicates that He is not an angel in the class of other angels, but He is none other than deity Himself. In Genesis, chapter sixteen, and the situation here is with Hagar having been cast out from Sarai because of the conflict with the birth of Ishmael, and so on. But note verse seven, "the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness." So the angel of the Lord comes into view here. Now look down to verse ten, "Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her…" Now note, the angel of the Lord speaks and says, “’I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.’ The angel of the Lord said to her further, 'Behold, you are with child, and you shall bear a son; and you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has given heed to your affliction. And he will be a wild donkey of a man, his hand will be against everyone, and everyone's hand will be against him, and he will live to the east of his brothers.’ Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, 'Thou art a God who sees." So here you can see very clearly, the angel of the Lord is given a title of deity, "she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her "Thou art a God who sees." So this could not be true if He was only an angel, and also the prerogative He takes on Himself, "I will multiply your descendants.” He is going to fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant. Obviously, He is more than an angel.
Look over in chapter thirty-one of Genesis, Genesis thirty-one, and note verse eleven, "Then the angel of God said to me in the dream." (Here's the person again, the angel of God.) "’Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ He said, 'Lift up now your eyes and see that all the male goats which are mating are striped, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you." Now note verse thirteen, "I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you made a vow to Me." So "the angel of God said to me," verse eleven, what did He say? Verse thirteen, "I am the God of Bethel.". So obviously you're not dealing with an angel here, because this angel claims to be God.
One other passage. Look over in Exodus, chapter three, Exodus, chapter three, and verse two, Exodus 3:2. "And the angel of the Lord appeared to him (Moses) in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed." So here where Moses confronts God in the burning bush, he is confronting the angel of the Lord. "So Moses said, ‘I'll turn aside now, and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.’ When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush." You'll note verses, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in the burning bush and God called to him from the bush, so there's just the interchanging of names, the angel of Jehovah and God. Verse five, "’Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ He said also, 'I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' Then Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at God."
So just those passages which make clear that the angel of Jehovah, now as we confront Him in the book of Zechariah, same personage. Every time you confront the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament, you are talking about Jesus Christ before the incarnation. The angel of the Lord never appears in the Bible after the birth of Jesus Christ, doesn't appear in the New Testament period. The angel of the Lord, it's not an expression in the New Testament, because the angel of the Lord no longer functions as the angel of the Lord. In the New Testament He functions as the Messiah, the incarnated Jesus Christ.
All right, this is the person then that Zechariah sees in verse eight, "and He was standing among the myrtle trees which were in the ravine," back in Zechariah 1:8. Now the myrtle trees, and myrtle trees symbolize, are typical of the nation Israel, because of their fragrance and their lowliness, they are a type or symbol for the nation Israel. And incidentally, this myrtle becomes a name. It's a name of Esther in the book of Esther. So Esther, Myrtle, the name carries over to today. But it was a tree, a bush tree, and because of its fragrance and the lowliness of it, it becomes the symbol of Israel. What you have here is the angel of the Lord standing in the midst of the nation Israel. And the nation Israel depicted here is the myrtle in the ravine. And being in the ravine depicts the lowliness, the degradation of the nation, the humiliation, the suffering that the nation has gone through, which characterizes Israel from the time of Nebuchadnezzar in 606, 605 BC, all the way through the times of the Gentiles, down to the second coming of Jesus Christ. They are depicted as in a state of humiliation and lowliness.
Ok, now that's important and it's a comfort to the nation Israel. Before we go further, keep in mind here the nation is having experienced the judgments of God. Even the book of Zechariah opens up that this is the word of the Lord that came to the prophet Zechariah in the second year of Darius. That now even the dating is going on the years of Gentile kings, because Israel is dominated by the Gentiles, which is one of the characteristics of the times of the Gentile. But even in this state, God has not forsaken the nation Israel. And the angel of the Lord is seen standing among the nation, the nation is not forsaken, in spite of their humiliation, in spite of their suffering. Now that's an important factor. It was hard for Israel to keep in mind because why hasn't God fulfilled His promises, why does God allow this to happen? Has He forsaken us? No, He is right there in their midst. And His promise is that He would never forsake them. He has assured the nation that He will always be with them. In spite of their sin, He can never cast them off.
We ought to look at another passage. Look in the book of Leviticus. I hope that by the time we've done the book of Zechariah, that there will be no a-millennialists left, but that we'll all be biblically accurate, and thus we'll be pre-millennialists. (That is a bias statement.) Leviticus, chapter twenty-six, verse forty-four, Leviticus 26:44. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, third book in the Old Testament, page one hundred and eighty nine, page 189, Leviticus twenty-six, verse forty-four. Here there is the prophecy of judgment that would come upon the nation and that God would give them into the hands of their enemies, and so on. But verse forty-four, "Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God." An assurance to Israel that even when God judges them, He'll never, never break His covenant with them.
Look over in Jeremiah, chapter thirty. Jeremiah is about in the middle, page eleven hundred and one, Jeremiah, chapter thirty, page 1101, verse eleven. Again there is a promise of punishment here but an assurance of preservation. So note verse eleven, "’For I am with you,’ declares the Lord" (God is speaking to Israel.) "’to save you, for I will destroy completely all the nations where I have scattered you, only I will not destroy you completely. But I will chasten you justly, and will by no means leave you unpunished.’" Now this is a couple of a passages on God's assurance to the nation Israel. Some people would see the nation Israel as having been cast off by God, because of their sin, and now the church has replaced the nation Israel. That is not a possibility biblically. God did not make His covenant with anyone but the descendants of Abraham through Isaac. It would be no comfort at all to Jeremiah, it would be no assurance at all to the Jews for God to say “I'll never cast you off my people, but by you “my people” I mean all the Gentiles.” That's not an assurance at all. So God's promise here stands. I take it it stands today. The nation of Israel has not been cast off by God, they are not done, through, and finished. They are going through a period of chastening, but God's promises still hold true, because He is the Lord their God. He has to meet the fulfillment of the covenant that He promised.
So back in Zechariah then. We keep moving through the Old Testament. Here we are after seventy years of captivity, back in the land. Where is God? He is present right among the nation. And you know, you could jot down Hebrews 13:5. We won't turn back there, but the comfort you and are to take today is basically the same comfort that the believers in Israel were to take. Be satisfied with what you have, Hebrews 13:5, says, because He has promised, "I will never leave you or forsake you." So I go through the difficulties, I go through the trials, I go through the low times, where's the Lord? Oh, the Lord's forgotten me, oh, the Lord's left me. Oh, bunk!! He hasn't. He said "I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you." So He can't do it, because if He did it, He wouldn't have kept His word. But I don't feel like He is with me today. Well, so what. He didn't say that the feeling would never leave you. He said "I'll never leave you." You know, we identify the Lord with a feeling. No, He's a person, and He's promised that He will never leave or forsake, and He demonstrates that in His dealing with Israel.
All right, back in Zechariah 1:8. There's some other horses here, other horsemen. Just doesn't mean there's just three, red, sorrel, and white, but there are red, sorrel, and white horses. Evidently there are companies back here and they're riding on the different colored horses. These are angelic horsemen as we'll see as we move through the section. The symbolism in the colors probably rather simple. Red is consistently the color of bloodshed, judgment and that would be pictured here. You note Christ Himself is riding on a red horse and there are angels behind Him on red horses, picturing judgment, particularly judgment as it will fit in context of the coming dealings of God with the nations who have been mistreating Israel. So in Isaiah sixty-three, the first two verses you have the Messiah depicted in garments stained in red by the blood of His enemies depicting the judgments of the tribulation culminating in Armageddon. So that would be particularly in view, and so it is a comfort to Israel that the horses here, the red horsemen and the judgment and the bloodshed, particularly as directed toward the nations. Now there are also white horses and white horses are consistently a picture of mercy, of victory, of triumph, and they would characterize Israel's victory and triumph that will be fully realized in the coming earthly kingdom. Then you have the sorrel horses, and they're mixed. They have red and white and they picture judgment and mercy blended together. And that's going on as God's pours out judgment, but He meets and mixes judgment with mercy. And He does that even in dealing with nations.
Now these horsemen become rather important. Verse nine, Zechariah has a question, "Then I said, ’My Lord, what are these?’" Note he doesn't say, “Who are these?” He is aware that there is a truth being conveyed in this and he wants to know what is being pictured. "And the angel who was speaking with me said to me, ‘I will show you what these are.’" Here we have an interpreting angel who will appear through the book. He's different than the angel of Jehovah, he is the interpreting angel. I believe he's mentioned, I think, eleven times, I don't remember for sure, through the book of Zechariah. And he's going to do interpreting, but sometimes the angel of the Lord will override him and speak, and give the answer. Sometimes the interpreting angel will do the speaking. "I will show you what these are. And the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered…" So the interpreting angel says I will show you, and now speaks the angel of the Lord who is on the horse among the myrtle trees.
"These are those whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth." These are sent to patrol the earth. And here you get an insight again into the functioning of the angelic hosts. The word patrol here is a good translation, it means to go back and forth. It would be used of military men on a, you know, guard duty or doing patrolling. Walking back and forth, checking the situation out, being alert to conditions. And here you see the angels of God, remember He is the Lord of Hosts in the book of Zechariah. And His Hosts include all the angelic beings, have a responsibility to be patrolling the earth, and you get a glimpse again into the angels’ functions. Here you see that part of their function is to do patrolling in the earth. And to be going back and forth in the earth, and to oversee what is going on, be sensitive to its conditions.
All right, verse eleven. So these patrolling angels. They respond. "So they answered the angel of the Lord…" In other words, the angel of the Lord identifies them, and even though He doesn't verbalize a question. (He doesn't say, “How are things?”) He says, "These are those who patrol the earth." And now they give their report and their report is, "We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth is peaceful and quiet." Now that might seem like good news, but note the stress here in verse eleven. It's "the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees." It's the angel of the Lord standing among the people of God, the nation Israel. And this report is given by the patrolling angels that everything is at peace. "All the earth is peaceful and quiet." Now isn't that a blessing? No, it's not a blessing, that's not good news, that's bad news. And the angel of the Lord interrupts here with a prayer to God on behalf of the nation Israel, because what is wrong? It's here you have the nations of the earth who have been responsible for the destruction of the nation Israel, for conquering and abusing the nation, now relaxing and enjoying peace and tranquility. This does not depict the scene of the nations of the earth being aroused and destroyed in preparation of the setting up of the kingdom. So this isn't a good report for the nation Israel, it's a bad report. Now you have to see it in light of the nation Israel, and that's where the report is centering.
So verse twelve, "Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, 'O Lord of Hosts, how long wilt Thou have no compassion for Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which Thou has been indignant these seventy years?’" So you see that report that all is peaceful and quiet motivates the angel of the Lord who stands among the nation Israel to intercede for the nation to the Lord of Hosts. "How long will you have no compassion for Jerusalem and the cities of Judah…" How long will you allow the nations that abused you people to be peaceful and tranquil? Peace in the earth is not always a blessing.
Interestingly, here as well, you have Jesus Christ carrying on an interceding ministry for the nation Israel, and you could compare that with John, chapter seventeen, the intercession after His incarnation on behalf of those who would be believers in His name. He carried on that kind of ministry on behalf of the people of God before His incarnation. The “people of God” being there the nation of Israel, and here He intercedes, "’How long?’" And always when that expression is voiced in the Old Testament, it an indication of faith. He's not questioning God, but is a question of how long? It's a question of faith, the assurance that God will have compassion, but how long will it be before you intercede with compassion?
All right, now there's an answer in verse thirteen. "And the Lord answered the angel who was speaking with me with gracious words, comforting words." So there's now a response and the Lord answers with gracious words and comforting words, or good words as you have it in the margin. And good words are words that promise good, and that's what happens. In response to the prayer of the angel of the Lord, the Lord of Hosts responds with good words for the nation Israel. In other words, these are encouraging words, they are words of good. He is going to restore the nation. He is going to judge the nations that have abused His people. Comforting words, those of consolation. Now, you see this down through verses fourteen through seventeen, the good words, the comforting words. There are at least three things that God is going to say that are good and comforting.
First, God still loves Jerusalem. God still loves Jerusalem, and if you've ever gone through a difficult time, and you know you just feel like you've been abandoned and you're reading the Word, and you come across a portion that stresses how much the Lord loves you. That just comes as a tremendous encouragement and blessing. You know, you just sit back and think, the Lord loves me. That makes everything else more bearable, and the nation Israel needed to hear this at this point, God still loves Israel. The chastening that they have undergone isn't an indication of a lack of love. It's rather the opposite, an indication of love.
Secondly, God is very angry with nations who have afflicted Israel. So that's true as well. He is very angry with the nations that have afflicted Israel.
And thirdly, He does purpose to bring glory, prosperity, and growth to the city of Jerusalem. Glory, prosperity, enlargement, they are God's purposes for the city of Jerusalem and thus for the nation Israel.
So these are good words and comforting words for the nation. Note, verse fourteen, "So the angel who was speaking with me said to me, 'Proclaim, saying, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion.’" This message now. The answer to the prayer, the angel of the Lord intercedes with the Lord of Hosts. And here we know from New Testament revelation the Son is interceding to the Father. And the response comes back, but it doesn't come back to the angel of Jehovah. It comes back as a message for Zechariah to proclaim. “Cry aloud.” This is something I want known and voiced. So the prayer was voiced, and now here is the response that is for all people to hear and it's very strong. "I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion." And here's the demonstration of the intensity of God's love. He has a strong jealousy. Now we think of jealousy wrong, in often the wrong context. Here's it's in the right context. He is jealous because of the one that He loves has been abused, has been mistreated. And very strong statement here. Some people don't think of a jealous God, but a strong statement. The word translated jealous here means to burn, means to glow with heat. So you get some idea. You could talk about Him being in a jealous rage, you could talk about it being burning with jealousy. So He hasn't been ignorant of what's been going on, he hasn't been ignorant of how the nations have been treating the one that He loves. And He emphasizes it by saying, I am jealous with jealousy. So He repeats the word, remember we mentioned this in another context last week. "I am jealous with jealousy". He is really jealous, He is really angry over the treatment of His people. "I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion." So He hasn't wavered in His love, His love hasn't cooled a bit, He is intensely in love with the nation Israel.
You know, that is remarkable, that encourages me. I see what the nation of Israel did, how they responded to God, it hasn't affected His love one bit. We come through all that, and what is He saying? He has this intense love for the nation Israel. That encourages me, that God's love for me doesn't depend upon what I do. I'm His child, and as His child, He loves. Now He doesn't always love everything I do, He sometimes has to chasten me for it, but His love doesn't cool. His love for me is just as deep and strong all the time.
All right, look at verse fifteen, and what you find here, the other side. The intensity of God's love is balanced, directly proportionate, to the intensity of His anger. And He has an intense jealousy for His people, and He has an intense anger with those who have mistreated His people. So in verse fifteen, "But I am very angry with the nations who are at ease; for while I was only a little angry, they furthered the disaster." Now this verse again indicates a very intense anger. He says, "I am very angry." And there are a number of ways (we won't go through each step here) how this builds the stress on the anger of God. But the sentence starts out with His anger. You'd say with a very great anger, I am continually angry. With a very great anger, I am continually angry. Now you get the point that He is upset. You know, I am angry continually with a great anger. He wants to drive home the point, and He balances it saying, and building the same way He did in verse fourteen, to show how jealous He was for Jerusalem. And you balance that now with My anger directed toward the nations and it becomes a very frightening thing. It is a very secure thing to be the object of God's love, and that God's love is intense and strong, but that is balanced by the same kind of intensity with His wrath. Now people don't like to put that on the scale. All we have to do is read verse fourteen and then read verse fifteen. The same God who is capable of this intense jealousy of love in verse fourteen is the same holy God capable of this intensity of anger directed toward "the nations who are at ease." So you see the report in verse eleven wasn't a good one. That God is very angry with the nations who are at ease, because they are at ease not realizing their position in regard to Him and with His people.
"For while I was only a little angry…" Now at first that might seem like a contradiction with what we talked about last week in verse two of chapter one, where the Lord was very angry. And we noted there again intensity is expressed, He was angry with anger. But the idea here is not that He only had a little bit of anger, but His anger was only for a little while so you translate it "I was angry for a little" as “angry a little while.” Now God's anger had limitations with the nation Israel, but the nations that He raised up didn't keep it in that confine. In other words they didn't see themselves in context of God. God would raise up the Babylonians to judge Israel, but did the Babylonians see themselves as an instrument of God, and were careful to judge Israel as a chastening instrument? Did the Persians do that? No, they just saw themselves as the victor and they went beyond what God would intend. Now they didn't frustrate the purposes of God obviously but their action demonstrated their rebellion against God. It's just like if you told someone that they were free to discipline your child, and you have in mind that they will give them a spanking or two. And you come back and they've beat them half to death with a belt or pipe. Now you say that goes far beyond what I had in mind. That's basically what's happened to the nation Israel. It went far beyond what God intended for them to do. Now God intended for them to be looking at it from their perspective. Obviously God was in total control. They accomplished what God's purposes intended to accomplish. The sin of man never frustrates the purposes of God. But in their accomplishing those purposes they demonstrated their rebellion against God. They thought that they defeated Israel because of their superiority. Their goal was to annihilate them and crush them. And so for the same reason Israel was being judged, now these people demonstrate that they deserve to be judged as well. Only they're in a worse position because they were never the objects of His love in the first place.
So He was angry but only for a little while, they furthered the disaster. And this anger will be poured out on the nations, we see it as nation after nation succumbed. And God replaced the Egyptians, He replaced the Assyrians, He replaced the Babylonians, He replaced the Persians, He replaced the Greeks, and into the Romans. But the ultimate anger will be poured out in the Tribulation and then in the culminating judgments. And so we see in Matthew, chapter twenty-five, at the end of the chapter, in the judgments there, when Christ comes to set up the kingdom, He judges the nations on the basis of their treatment of the nation Israel. And their treatment is a manifestation of their character.
Ok, moving on, verses sixteen and seventeen, tying things together. God gives five comforting words to the nation Israel here in verses sixteen and seventeen, five words of comfort. "Therefore …" Now you note what He has done, verse fourteen He's proclaimed His love, verse fifteen He's proclaimed His anger, love for nation Israel, anger with the nations. That's the distinction that we make often when we say the nation or nations. The nation is Israel. The nations are all the other nations apart from Israel. So His love and His anger. Now there's five comforting words stressed in verses sixteen and seventeen.
The first one involves the second coming of the Messiah really. “Therefore, thus says the Lord, ‘I will return to Jerusalem with compassion …’” “I'll return to Jerusalem with compassion.” And now in all these visions there is immediate comfort to the nation, but the real ultimate fulfillment is a future thing, ultimately the millennial kingdom. There is comfort presently, but the full fulfillment is in the future. "I will return to Jerusalem with compassion.” God is going to turn with favor to the nation, He's not going to chasten them forever. Now the ultimate fulfillment of this will be Christ's return at the second advent, and He'll return with compassion for the purpose of establishing the kingdom and establishing the nation Israel as the people of God on the earth. Now the church doesn't fit there and we'll talk about that in our study in First Corinthians fifteen. That's the first word of comfort, "I will return to Jerusalem." Now, He'd return in helping them establish and build even the temple now, but the real fulfillment of it, fulfillment rests with the coming of Messiah at His second advent.
The second word of comfort regards the building of the temple in verse sixteen. "’My house will be built in it,’ declares the Lord of Hosts.” The building of the temple, that's the second word of comfort and encouragement, the temple will be rebuilt. Remember that Zechariah has a message of encouraging the people to resume building the temple in his day. And there's a word of comfort, the temple will be rebuilt, and four years later that was successful, the temple had been rebuilt. But it goes beyond just that temple. The real fulfillment is the millennial temple of Ezekiel chapters forty to forty two, where in the millennial kingdom, there will be a temple. And that temple will be a temple that exceeds the glory of Solomon's temple. And it will have the glory of the presence of the One who was greater than Solomon, Jesus Christ Himself.
Just thumb back to Isaiah two so you see this temple. Isaiah two, verses two and three, Isaiah, chapter two, verse two, page nine hundred and fifty eight, page 958. Verse two, Isaiah is speaking, "In the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains…" And the mountain of the Old Testament is a symbol of a kingdom. "And will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. And many people will come, come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths.' For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." Promise of God of what will happen in the last days, and Zechariah is simply reiterating that promise and that prophecy. My house will be built and the “nations of the world will stream to it." That has never seen its fulfillment. The temple was completed four years after Zechariah started his messages, but the nations of the earth never flocked to it. Because even when Israel built its temple, it was dominated by Gentile powers. It built the temple because the Persians said you can build the temple. It had a temple in New Testament times under the Romans. It had a temple because the Romans allowed them to have a temple. In 70 AD when the Romans decided they wouldn't, they didn't. But the temple that the Old Testament prophets talked about is the temple that is the center of the earth. This is where the law for all mankind is dispensed. And it is the capital of the world. So My temple, "My house will be built in it," in Jerusalem. The temple has to be built in the appointed place in Jerusalem. That's the second word of comfort.
The third word of comfort is that Jerusalem, and these are related as you see, will enjoy great growth and expansion. And verse, the last part of verse sixteen, the first part of seventeen, "a measuring line will be stretched over Jerusalem." And the measuring line depicts and suggests growth and prosperity, as the city is measured as it grows. So it's portraying, the measuring line being stretched over it, its prosperity and its continued growth. Then also the first part of verse seventeen, "Again, proclaim, saying, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, "My cities will again overflow with prosperity…" So Jerusalem will enjoy growth and prosperity. My cities will again enjoy and overflow with prosperity. So there's coming a time again when Israel will enjoy the glory and splendor, greater glory and splendor that it has ever had previously.
The fourth word of comfort comes out of the middle of verse seventeen. God's comfort for Israel is assured. He promises His comfort. Note verse seventeen, "the Lord will again comfort Zion." The Lord will again, will again comfort Zion, God is going to be the comfort of Israel. They'll be conscious of His presence and of His care. So they're going through a difficult time now. God promises His presence and His comfort.
And His final word is the end of verse seventeen, and the Lord will “again choose Jerusalem." The divine election of Israel will be assured, God's election of the nation Israel will be assured and demonstrated, God will again choose Jerusalem. The standpoint demonstrating His election of Israel. Remember in Romans chapter eleven, verse twenty-nine, the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. And there you're talking in the context of Israel. And God's call of the nation Israel "is irrevocable.” That cannot be revoked. Now some make the transition that Israel in the Old Testament is the church in the New Testament. Now that would mean that these messages of comfort and consolation were no comfort and consolation. Because if you had to say to the nation Israel that God is going to comfort a people, God is going to bless a people, but you are not the people. But it's just the opposite. The nations are going to be judged and the nation Israel is going to be blessed. So if you simply accept God's Word for what it says, then you have no problem. Now God is still chastening the nation Israel, He's not done, and it's gone on now since Zechariah wrote for almost twenty-five hundred years. That's a lot of chastening, and the worst is yet to come, we have the Tribulation ahead for Israel. But when all is said and done, the nation Israel will be established as God's people on the earth. Now the church will occupy the place of the bride, who’s even superseded Israel, but we're not an earthly people. The kingdom will not revolve around us, because every person who's a part of the church will be in a glorified body. It will be the nation Israel that is in physical bodies populating the earth, and around which the earth revolves.
So the message to Israel, also, a message to us. It's the same God that we're talking about. We are the objects of His care and affection now, the church is the people that God is dealing with. And it's the same God of comfort that dealt with His people in the Old Testament that is now dealing with His people. His people now in the center of His divine work is the church. And so the promises, while they are not directed to us, we can see the application they have to us. Just as Jesus Christ stands among the nation Israel, so He stands with us promising that He will never leave or forsake. Just as God promised that He would fulfill all of His promises to the nation Israel, it's just as sure that He will fulfill all of His promises to you and I, the same God. He cannot go back on His promises to Israel. He cannot go back to His promises to Gil Rugh either. So He's a God who keeps His Word. He's a God of comfort. He's a God who desires to bless us, and the thing that stands between us and the full blessing of God is often the same thing that stood between Israel and the full blessing of God -- our own sin and rebellion. So God has to chasten, and Hebrews again talks about being chastened of the Lord. But it is encouraging to me, even in my sin, even in my chastening, He never cuts me off, because He loves me. And I'm always the object of His love, and sometimes in love, He has to chasten me. And I wonder why do I make it necessary, but He wants to bless me to the fullest.
Israel has a great hope. I'm excited about the hope of Israel and I believe Israel, they are the people of God, and not been lost that position. But they are not the people of God that God is dealing with now. So I have great hopes for Israel, but I don't have near the great hopes for Israel that I have for me, I have for the church. The promises to Israel will be fulfilled, the promises to you and I will be fulfilled. And it just points up what a great privilege we have to belong to Him.
Let's pray together. Father, we are thankful for Your Word. Lord, we're thankful for Your grace in dealing with Your people, the nation Israel. Father, that You called them in love and mercy, that You have established them as Your people. Lord, that You've promised them, and that You will carry out every promise that You've given. Lord, we realize that there is coming a day in the future when Israel will be established as Your people, that Jerusalem will be the capital of the world, that the King of Peace will rule and reign. Father, we count it a privilege to know and understand something of Your workings with that nation. Lord, our desire is that many in that nation even today would come to a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. Lord, that they might be part of that body that You're dealing with in a special way today, the church. Pray that we might be encouraged as Your people as we consider you dealings with Israel, to recognize that You are with us. That You never leave us or forsake us. That Your love, compassion, and care never fails. Lord, we pray that we simply might be willing to be submissive to You and allow You to pour out the fullness of Your blessings upon us day by day. That we might be a people that magnify and manifest Your name in this world. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen


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Zechariah 1:7-17 2-6-77