Chapter 9

By way of introduction to this chapter Israel’s future is contained in four unconditional covenants — the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and New covenants to Israel. The Abrahamic covenant was first declared in Genesis 12:1-3. It was also declared in chapters 13, 26, and in Exodus 6:2-9. The Palestinian covenant describes the real estate that the Jews will have in the future. It does not belong to them now. Now the Jews are out under the fifth cycle of discipline but in the future they will have a tremendous piece of real estate. The Davidic covenant promises that Israel will always have the same leadership — from the tribe of Judah, the family of David, the Lord Jesus Christ. The New covenant to Israel reiterates all of these things.

Just because a person is a Jew it doesn’t mean that he is under these four covenants. To be under these four covenants he has to be born again. So the second concept of the future of Israel has to do with those Jews in the past — Old Testament — who received Christ as saviour. Abeam was a Gentile. While he was in Our of the Chalders he believed in Jesus Christ, received Him as saviour, and became a Jew. Abraham has a Gentile brother by the name of Nahor. As far as we know Nahor is in Hell, Abraham is in heaven. Abraham had a lot of sons but two of them are prominent in scripture. The oldest is Ishmael, described in the Hebrew of Genesis as “that wild ass of a man” .He is one of the fathers of the Arabic groups. But the line of the Jews does not go through Ishmael, the line of the Jews goes through Isaac. The difference: Isaac is a believer, his brother is not. Isaac had twins. The oldest of the twins is a Gentile, the youngest is a Jew. Again, the difference: Esau was an unbeliever, Jacob was a believer and when he became a believer his name was changed to Israel, prince of God. Notice that the foundation of the Jewish race was regeneration. Jesus Christ is often called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were born again. So the Jews who were born again of the Old Testament times are going to be under the four unconditional covenants. And when a Jew, right down to the cross, put his trust in the Lord, he came under these covenants which are not fulfilled until the second advent, beginning at the Millennium. However, there is one exception. There were Jews who were alive during the ministry of our Lord who are brought in on the Day of Pentecost to the new age, the Church Age. They are entered into union with Christ — baptism of the Spirit.

During the Church Age Jews and Gentiles believe in Christ and become a part of the body of Christ, and they are not a part of these covenants. Why? These covenants have not been fulfilled and will not be fulfilled until the second advent, they cannot be fulfilled during the course of the fifth cycle of discipline. In the fifth cycle of discipline we have the Church Age. Jew and Gentile are entirely different. Paul is a Jew but he is in union with Christ — Church Age.

In Zechariah chapter nine we have the glorious future of Israel after the fifth cycle of discipline, after the first administration of it and after the second administration of it. The first one started in 586 BC and terminated in 516 BC, the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity. Zechariah is writing in 520 BC and he is going to tell about the glorious things that will happen to the Jews after they come back from the fifth cycle of discipline, and these glorious things are based upon learning Bible doctrine and using it. That will last until the death of Alexander the Great. But there is also a second period. In 70 AD the Jews go out again under the fifth cycle of discipline and that goes all the way to the second advent. Then there is going to be the Millennium, the glorious age. And there is a sort of an historical parallel between the Jews of the first administration of the fifth cycle of discipline and the absolute perfect environment which comes to them at the end of the second administration of the fifth cycle of discipline. So we have again the dual fulfilment of prophecy in Zechariah chapter nine and in that period we are going to see prosperity to Israel — which now, of course, is historical but it wasn’t when Zechariah wrote — and, again, prosperity to Israel under the Millennium.

The doctrine of anti-Semitism

1. The anti-Semitism clause is presented in genesis 12:1-3.

2. The anti-Semitism clause is backed by historical case histories, e.g. Assyria. Its anti-Semitism ruined it. For example, Cyrus the Persian in his fantastic rise to fame. In 25 years, from 450 to 425 BC he conquered the world, a fantastic record for that day. He was pro-Semitic. For example, Alexander the Great who finally broke the record of Cyrus the Great. Alexander conquered the world all of the way to the Indus river in India in twelve and a half years. He was pro-Semitic. For example, Julius Caesar had a fantastic attitude toward the Jews. Therefore, the fantastic blessing that came to Caesar as a result. Spain was on its way to becoming a great world power. In 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella married uniting the two major provinces of Spain. They threw out the Moors, they sent out exploration (e.g. Columbus), Spain discovered gold and made money hand over fist. And Torquemada in 1492, a Catholic priest, persuaded Ferdinand and Isabella to found an organisation which he called an inquisition, to destroy the Jews. And it did. But it ruined Spain. And Jews got away and escaped and were offered a haven in England, and as Spain went down England went up so that in the 19th century Gladstone, a Christian, and Disraeli, a Jew, alternated during the Victorian era as far as being Prime Minister. And, of course, with the rise of England — pro-Semitism. The fall of England — anti-Semitism. Nothing has gone right in England since the renunciation of the Balfour Declaration.

3. There are three kinds of Jews. One is a racial Jew. A racial Jew has a lot of Gentile blood in him, there is no such thing as a Jew who is pure Jewish. For example, you take the largest tribe in Israel, Ephraim. Every person in Ephraim is half Gentile — half Egyptian and half Jew. Joseph was the Prime Minister of Egypt and he married an Egyptian princes. He had two sons, Ephraim and Mannaseh. Ephraim and Mannaseh are two tribes in Israel and they are both half Gentile at their foundation point. So what is a Jew really? A Jew is any Gentile who has the genes of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In other words, a racial Jew is anyone who has the genes of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in him. That is a racial Jew.

We have also a religious Jew. A religious Jew can be a Jew or a Gentile but he is involved in Judaism. They are generally condemned by the Word of God, as per Matthew 23.

The third category is the regenerate Jew. All regenerate Jews in our day are members of the body of Christ and they are just as much Church as you are. When a Jew accepts Christ as saviour he enters into union with Christ and he is then an ex-Jew, just like a saved Gentile is really an ex-Gentile. A Jew or a Gentile in Christ is no longer Jew or Gentile, they are Church of God, the body of Christ. A Jew is still a racial Jew but from the divine viewpoint he has been born-again into the family of God, entered into union with Christ and he is no longer a Jew, he is a member of the body of Christ.

4. How do you evaluate a Jew? a. First of all you judge a Jew as an individual. When you evaluate a Jew you evaluate him as you would evaluate anyone else. You must evaluate people on the basis of what they are as an individual. We must always, as born-again believers, be fair an objective when we are dealing with individuals; b. We must judge Jews as a nation. Zionism in itself has so many anti-God paragraphs that it would curl your hair, and so we cannot as Christians ever condone Zionism. However, as Christians we have to take a mighty good look at Israel today and admire them as a nation — for lots of things, such as industry, aggressiveness and ingenuity. We also evaluate Jews as patriots in our country.

c. Finally, you must evaluate the Jew who is an internationalist. If you are a Christian with any discretion then this is the one you are against. Example: Karl Marx and Engels.

d. Then you evaluate a Jew as a Christian. That’s very simple, you mind your own business.

We are going to study in the first eight verses fantastic and vigorous peoples who were destroyed in one year. In one year God raised up a man and used him to wipe out anti-Semitism in his day. In 586 BC the Jews went out under the 5th cycle of discipline. The Chaldeans took them out and after Nebuchadnezzar died and the generation of believers died out with him the Chaldean empire went down rapidly. It was rotten. So God raised up a man and in 539 BC Cyrus the Great conquered the Chaldean empire. And he began to administer to the Jews who were captives of the Chaldeans. By 536 BC the Persians said: “Go back to your land.” In 535 they started to build their temple because they have to get their temple built before the 5th cycle will be taken off. That temple represents the whole structure of their doctrine. And in 535 BC they also quit, the story is found in Ezra. In 520 BC God raised up Zechariah to get the people building the temple. In 516 BC they finished it. From then until 323 BC the Jews had their golden age, based on Bible doctrine. Zechariah is now prophesying in 520 and he is going to tell how right down in the year 332 BC, nearly 200 years later, how in nine months every anti-Semitic organisation in the middle east was wiped out. They fall into three categories: a. the Syrian city states; b. the Pheonician city states; c. the four surviving Philistine city states.

Verses 1-2, the judgement of the Syrians.

Verse 1 — “Burden” doesn’t mean a whole lot to us. The Hebrew word means a crushing weight of judgement. It means the dropping of a big rock that crushes everything. A good translation would be: “The smashing judgement from the word of the Lord.”

“on the land of Hadrach and Damascus.” Syria was divided into two or three states. The northern state was the land of Hadrach (they call it Syria now), and the southern state was Damascus. It was wiped out by Alexander the Great right after the battle of Isis.

The rest of this verse is poorly translated in the King James version. It says: “its resting place.” What is its resting place? “Its” refers to Hadrach and Damascus, and that would be the “resting place” of this burden of judgement for anti-Semitism. Now the rest of the verse says: “for the Lord’s eyes are upon man and the tribes of Israel.” The “tribes of Israel” means that God keeps His word. There is an anti-Semitism clause and it is still in effect right now. “On man” means that He doesn’t allow man to destroy the Jew. The Lord notes anti-Semitism and smashes it.

Verses 2-4, the Phoenicians.

Verse 2 — there is also a border city state called Hamath. “shall border thereby” is literally, “which borders thereon.” Translation: “And Hamath which borders thereon..” Hamath also is anti-Semitic so it gets clobbered. This took care of the Syrian states. It took one month to destroy them and wipe them out completely.

The next nut is a little harder to crack — Tyre and Sidon. Sidon is on the land and is vulnerable despite mountains around it. Half a mile offshore is an island called Tyre. This island has two sets of walls one hundred and fifty feet high going completely around it. It owns a navy of 350 ships, the largest and strongest navy in the world at the time. Alexander took Sidon and then faced the problem of Tyre.

“Tyrus” is the Latin for Tyre. “Sidon, though it be very wise.” It should be translated, “though it be very prosperous” .This is not wisdom exactly, it is prosperity. So what is the prosperity of Tyre? Not only did they have a 350-ship navy but they had a one thousand-ship merchant marine. They are the shipping people of the world and went all the way to England. They went out into the Atlantic and traded with people all over the world. They stole the formula for iron and they competed with Assyria in the heyday of Assyria, but to be sure that the Assyrians would never get to their iron foundries they put them up in Spain, calling them Tarshish. When Jonah was going to Tarshish he was going west to Spain (he should have been going east to Nineveh). Tarshish means the iron foundries. These people were very wealthy.

Verse 3 — “And Tyre did build herself a stronghold [fortification, considered to be impregnable, no one had ever been successful in conquering Tyre].” But Tyre was anti-Semitic and God’s judgement is going to fall, and an impregnable fortification is no longer that; “and heaped up silver as dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets” — they were fantastically wealthy.

When Alexander came to the shores of Sidon he sent an ambassador across on a boat. There were five men. They went over and said that Alexander would like to offer sacrifices in the temple of Hercules. So they gave Alexander an answer. They took his five ambassadors and put them up on the top of the 150-foot wall, right in the sight of Alexander half a mile away, and they cut their throats and kicked them into the sea. Now Alexander didn’t think that was very nice, so he sent another group over and they did the same thing with them. So Alexander said: “All right, you’ve had it.” He began to go to a nearby mountain and take the rocks off the mountain, and he began to fill the sea in out to the island of Tyre and built a road right out to the island. His men finally got over the walls and the whole island of Tyre was wiped out except for 30,000 people who went to the various temples. Alexander gave an order which said that anyone found in a temple would have their life spared. Finally, Alexander took these 30,000 people and sold them into slavery. Then he burned the whole place to the ground, fulfilling the scripture of Ezekiel 26:14 [written long before Zechariah] that Tyre would be left like the top of a rock. So, down goes the Phoenicians. There is a detailed description of this in Ezekiel 26, beginning at verse 8. Even today fishermen cast nets off the rocks of ancient Tyre. What happened to Tyre? Anti-Semitism.

Verse 4 — “Behold the Lord will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the sea; and she shall be devoured with fire.” Alexander burned Tyre to the ground. This was literally and totally fulfilled. This prophecy was written in 518 BC and was literally fulfilled in 332 BC.

Verse 5-7, the Greeks.

The Philistines are Greeks. Notice that there are four city states left to the Philistines at the time of fulfilment. In 332 BC we have Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and Ashdod. One is missing: the hometown of Goliath, Gath. Gath was destroyed by king Aziah.

Verse 5 — “Ashkelon shall see it, and fear [they shall see the fall of Troy. Ashkelon, as a result, surrendered].” When Alexander arrived at Ashkelon they threw open the gates and surrendered. So Alexander simply put an administration in there and left them alone. “Gaza also shall see it, and be very sorrowful [very pressurised. Gaza resisted].” “Be very sorrowful” is a hiphil imperfect and it really means to writhe in extreme pain. The reason is because Batis, the king of Gaza, refused to surrender to Alexander. When he saw what had been happening he refortified his city and hired some mercenaries plus his own Greek troops. And they manned the walls so well that Alexander couldn’t get anywhere. Batis was a young Greek who admired the Persians and he was very loyal to Darius. He wouldn’t surrender and it took Alexander quite awhile but he sent his engineers to the wall and finally built a ramp up the wall. Eventually they went over the wall into the city and by this time they were so angry with the resistance that this was one of the few times that Alexander showed no quarter. Alexander was one of the fairest men in the ancient world but this was a no-quarter deal. And when he finally caught Batis he was so angry by this time that he had a hole cut in each one of his feet. A rope was put through the holes and alive he was dragged through the streets of the city until he was dead. Alexander was famous for his non-cruelty but this was an exception. So nearly 200 years before, Zechariah by God the Holy Spirit says: “Gaza shall writhe in pain” .

“the king shall perish” — reference to Batis, king of Gaza; “and Ekron, for her expectation” — the expectation at Ekron was deliverance. But the deliverance at Ekron was disappointment. Instead they were enslaved. So all of verse 5 is literally fulfilled. “she shall be ashamed” means that she went into slavery;

“Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.” Why? Because eventually Alexander took the people out of there and gave them a new home. He didn’t want the Philistines in that area any longer.

Verse 6 — “And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod” — this actually means a group of foreign people. Alexander wanted to keep one of the four cities for a fortification and to always keep the door open to Egypt, so he took the people of Ashdod and moved them out of there and he put in some of his own troops. So we have, “foreigners shall dwell in Ashdod”; “and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines” — the Philistines as a race now ceased to exist. There were a few survivors. The only people who survived were Philistines who personally received Jesus Christ as saviour. The rest of the Philistines were wiped out. They were anti-Semitic, with the exception of the believers. “The pride of the Philistines” — the Philistines had a brilliant civilization. But along with this they had the usual idolatry, etc.

Verse 7 — “I will take away his blood out of his mouth” .The Philistines, as Greeks, offered human sacrifice. They didn’t generally do it but they did it for certain situations; “and his abomination from between his teeth” — the human sacrifices and the pagan festivals. Dagon was the chief god of the Philistines because they were sea peoples and Dagon is comparable to Neptune; “but he that remaineth,” — none of the Philistines survived; “even he shall be for our God.” This is not quite literal but we can get pretty close to it. Literally, “He that remaineth, even he shall turn to our God.” Those who survived received Christ as saviour; “and he [the surviving Philistine] shall be like the governor in Judah [Zerubbabel, a born-again believer in Zechariah’s day].” So not only did these Philistines who survived receive Christ as saviour but they became dynamic believers, Bible-centred, doctrinal believers; “and Ekron shall be as a Jebusite.” When David conquered Jerusalem the surviving people in Jerusalem were the Jebusites. They were famous warriors and while Joshua conquered most of the land there was one tribe they couldn’t conquer — the Jebusites. Never was there an army in Israel tough enough to take on the Jebusites until David. David finally conquered them and that is how Jerusalem was established. The surviving Jebusites received Christ as saviour. The major force of the Philistines who survived came from Ekron. There is a great lesson here: those who are on positive volition toward the gospel are going to survive the disaster and be saved.

But in the whole area before Alexander hit Egypt there is one spot that was totally preserved — Jerusalem. What happened? Two things. Alexander went down by a beautiful stream that he loved in Macedonia in his own country. This was just before his army was ready to go. Alexander went into some kind of a trance in which he saw a man who had a beard and garments Alexander had never seen before. He later described them and there is a record of it. The man had a beard and a special type of crown and long flowing robes. And this man said: “Alexander, you will conquer the Persians. Never be afraid” .Alexander never forgot that dream. And now after God had fulfilled God’s purpose in wiping out all anti-Semitism he comes up from the south and he approaches Jerusalem. The high priest, with the scroll of Daniel in his hand and followed by the priests and the Levites and the singers, all marched out of Jerusalem as Alexander’s army is moving up. So Alexander calls a halt to his army and he moves out with his staff. And when Alexander saw the high priest he was shocked because this was exactly the same type of a crown, the same type of beard, and the same type of clothes that he had seen in his trance or his vision. So he gave the command to stack arms. His generals thought he was crazy, and said: “They may have weapons in there.” Alexander said: “Not these people. These people have a God and that God talked to me once.” And he went out to meet the high priest. And the high priest took that part of Daniel — the leopard and he showed him first of all how Persia was the bear, and he would conquer the bear, and how Chaldea was the lion. He said: “You are the leopard.” Alexander was very impressed with that, so much so that he said to the high priest: “I would like to offer sacrifices to your God” .The high priest said: “You cannot offer sacrifices to our God, but you can come to the steps of the temple and I will offer sacrifices.” In other words, apparently that was the only way the high priest could give Alexander the gospel. And Alexander actually walked into the city and went to the steps of the temple. And he was so impressed with the Jews that he by-passed them and went into Egypt. When he came back from Egypt and started toward the east he asked if any of the Jews would be interested in becoming administrators. He intended to found a number of cities. Thousands of Jews volunteered to go along and they became his administrators. In this way there were Jews scattered all over the place, all the way to India. Alexander always had a fantastic attitude toward the Jews.

Verse 8 — here in one verse we find divine protection of a city. Here is an army that could have destroyed the city so easily. “And I will encamp about mine house [Jerusalem] because of the army [Alexander’s army], because of him that passeth by [Alexander passed by on his way to Egypt], and because of him that returneth [Alexander came back by Jerusalem on his return, and on his way to conquer Darius in the Tigris-Euphrates valley]: and no oppressor shall pass through them any more [until the death of Alexander there was never again in the middle east anyone who was hostile to the Jews]: for now have I seen with mine eyes [dual fulfilment]” .Alexander saw with his eyes the fulfilment of his vision. But in the future, “behold every eye shall see him [the Lord Jesus Christ]", and the Jews in the future in Jerusalem will be delivered by the same Lord Jesus Christ [in a different way, but the same principle].

We now have the two advents of Jesus Christ and they are brought in for a purpose. In verse nine we have the first advent of Jesus Christ and in verse ten we have the second advent of Christ. The Jews had to learn to distinguish between the two advents. This was taught in every generation to the Jews so that they would understand when the time came the difference between the first and the second advent. The first advent [verse 9] is the cross; the second advent [verse 10] is the crown. God had promised four unconditional covenants to Israel and He will fulfil these covenants to Israel at the proper time. So a part of Jewish theology from the very earliest of times was the cross and the crown. The cross must always come before the crown and as far as the future kingdom of the Jews is concerned it will be made up of those who are regenerate, those who have come by way of the cross.

The Bible teaches two future eternal kingdoms: one related to the Church and one related to Israel. There was a reason for it as we see in Zechariah’s day. In 586 BC the Jews went out under the 5th cycle of discipline. In 539 BC the ones who administered the 5th cycle, the Chaldeans, were decisively defeated by the forces of Cyrus the Great. In 536 BC Cyrus the Great issued the decree which made it possible for the Jews to go back to the land. The Jews went back to the land under the leadership of Zerrubabel and Joshua the high priest. In 535 BC they began to build the temple but at this point they had a tremendous amount of opposition. As a result of this opposition the work on the temple was discontinued. In 520 BC Zechariah the prophet was raised up to tell the Jews to get started again on the temple because the 5th cycle of discipline was not over until the temple was completed. The temple represents the whole concept of doctrine. So in 520 they began and in 518 — where we are now in this passage — we have Zechariah giving the prophecy of the future of Israel when the 5th cycle is completed. In 516 BC, seventy years after it began, the fifth cycle of discipline was over, the temple was completed, and by now the Jews understood the importance of doctrine. So between 516 and 323 BC the Jews had their golden age. Based on Bible doctrine they had tremendous spiritual blessing and fantastic economic prosperity. They were free from war and they were protected in a most miraculous way in a period when there was a tremendous amount of warfare. We have seen in the first part of chapter 9 the prophecy of what would happen and in this connection with this we have first of all the period of the Persian empire. In the period of the Persian empire several things happened that are very difficult for historians to explain. The Persians developed a remarkable scientific background. They developed a concept of medicine, mathematics, astronomy and other fields of scientific activity so that the Persian empire became the centre of science. In the whole concept here the Persians were a very noble and fantastic race. For example, under Cyrus the Great a large number of the Persians were believers. Under Darius the first a large number were believers. Under Darius Hystaspes again we have the same concept. Eventually Xerxes became a believer but not when he invaded Greece.

In these first eight verses there is the formation of the introduction to the rest of the passage. In it we have this concept: the Jews were in danger of losing track of a very important principle. To enter the plan of God you must come by way of the cross. The Jews had a thorough theology on the cross. Codex number 2 of the Mosaic law was a complete theology. In included the tabernacle, the modus operandi of the priests, the holy days, and the Levitical sacrifices. This was the complete agenda of Codex number two. And they thoroughly understood the cross from this particular principle. But they needed to relate this information from Codex 2 to the fact that the final kingdom of the Jews — the crown — would not exist until long after the cross. The cross must come before the crown and the point to the Jews was that they must first of all accept Christ as saviour. This was taught in every generation; it now becomes a part of prophecy, and in this prophecy we see the Jewish failure. So in verses 9 and 10 we are going to have Jewish failure. Verse 9 is a prediction of Palm Sunday, how the Jews tried to by-pass the cross and pick up the crown, which is always a Satanic principle. Jewish failure on Palm Sunday is set up in contrast to the rest of the passage where we have Jewish success from doctrine. Success from doctrine came after the death of Alexander the Great. Remember that from 516-323 BC the Jews lived by doctrine and they had the golden age. Then they began to fizzle out and they went through three cycles of discipline. They were in the fourth cycle of discipline when the Maccabean wars hit. The Maccabean wars brought the Jews out of four cycles and postponed the fifth cycle of discipline until 70 AD. So here we see a 200-year reprieve because of what Bible doctrine did. Doctrine can always change the tide.

All of this is related to the first advent of Christ, it is not just placed in here accidentally but there is a purpose and a pattern. Everything in the way of Bible doctrine to the Jews depends upon entering the plan of God which must start with the cross.

Verse 9 — “Rejoice greatly.” Rejoice is a qal imperative, it means have inner happiness on a maximum basis; “O daughter of Zion.” “Daughter” here means virgin daughter in contrast to the woman of Hosea. In other words, this was written in 518, two years away from 516 when the 5th cycle of discipline was over. And when the 5th cycle is over the Jew is again a virgin daughter in contrast to the wicked wife of Hosea. So when they come out of the 5th cycle in 516 they have an order: Rejoice greatly, have maximum inner happiness. Maximum inner happiness depends on Bible doctrine and from 516 to 232 BC they will have this. Then they will start to neglect this and will start to have trouble. And trouble brings us down to Palm Sunday — “behold they King cometh.” “Thy King” is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, He is the fulfilment of the Davidic covenant, He is David’s greater son. The coming has to do with His first advent, but specifically now it has to do with Palm Sunday; “he is just” — “just” means absolute righteousness. When He comes to the cross He is going to satisfy the character of God. It means that Jesus Christ has a righteousness in His humanity that satisfies the righteousness of the Father. He will bear the sins of the world even though He is tempted once again. First Satan tempted Him, then the people of Jerusalem tempted Him to by-pass the cross. But He will go to the cross and the sins of the world will be poured out upon Him and judged. When the Father judges the sins of the world in Christ, that satisfies His justice. Righteousness and justice of the Father represent holiness — we have the holiness by-pass. The holiness of the Father is satisfied by the work of Christ on the cross — doctrine of propitiation. This means the God is free to love the human race and still be consistent with His holiness. He by-passes His holiness when He offers salvation to the human race. And the reason He by-passes His holiness is because His holiness was satisfied at the cross. The people on Palm Sunday had two things in mind. They first of all want Jesus Christ to accept their human good and to therefore skip the cross and get with the kingdom. They wanted to throw off the yoke of the Roman empire, even though the Roman empire at this time was doing great things for them. In fact the Roman empire was at its best from the standpoint of law, from the standpoint of administrative organisation, from the standpoint of justice and, as a matter of fact, that is why Jesus Christ came at this time. He came at the right time, in the fullness of time. But they wanted to throw off the yoke of the Roman empire and this means: “Accept our human good, put the cross before the crown.” Therefore, on this Palm Sunday when Jesus Christ came — justice/righteousness — they said, “Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord", and they were saying, “Save now,” which is what Hosanna means, and they were quoting from Psalm 118:25,26, the verses dealing with the crown. Just before that in verses 21,22 of Psalm 118 we have the cross. They were saying, “By-pass the cross, let’s get the crown” ."He is righteous, having salvation” — this means He came the first time ["Behold the King cometh"] to provide salvation; “lowly” — that is, in humility or orientation to grace. He was orientated to the grace of God. Lowly means that Jesus Christ from His own free will went on positive signals, He was willing to go to the cross — “riding upon an ass, even upon a colt, the foal of an ass.” In other words, Jesus Christ rode on an animal that had never been ridden before.

Verse 10 — At the second advent when Jesus Christ comes back the Jews are in great danger. They are bottled up in Jerusalem, the armies of the king of the north are hitting them from all sides. The day of the second advent is a day of darkness to keep them from being destroyed. There are two Jewish generals who have organised believers to resist, and we read: “I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim,” the armoured forces from the king of the north, “and the horse from Jerusalem,” reconnaissance forces hit Jerusalem first, “and the battle bow shall be cut off [broken]” — the forces that come against Jerusalem will be destroyed, as detailed in Zechariah 14.

Once the enemy has been destroyed, “he shall speak peace unto the heathen” — this is the beginning of the Millennium. Remember that all passages dealing with peace are Millennial passages in the scripture. There will never be world peace until the Millennium. The only exception is when you have a consolidated national entity influenced by doctrine. For example, from 96-192 AD, the period of the Antonine Caesars there was a period of almost perfect environment on the earth. There was no war during this time except a few frontier skirmishes on the Rhine and on the Danube. Rome had its best consolidation then and this was the period when the canon of scripture was completed and there was maximum doctrine. All of the evils that almost destroyed the Roman empire almost disappeared during this time. Everything during this period showed the impact of Bible doctrine, the importance of Christianity. Here was a period when Bible doctrine had maximum influence and because of that you have a period of peace and prosperity. There is one other way to have peace and that is to have a strong military establishment so that no one will attack. In the Millennium the battle bow will be broken because Jesus Christ will break it and there will be no more weapons and because the Lord Jesus Christ will personally control.

“he shall speak peace to the heathen” — this is an idiom which means He will maintain peace among the heathen [Gentiles]; “dominion shall be from sea to sea” — this is the restoration of Israel from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea; “and from river to river” — from the Nile to the Euphrates; “and to the ends of the earth” — which means He will rule the rest of the earth. He will also put the Jews in their proper spot, the 5th cycle of discipline is over.

This is brought in as a point of doctrine to show the Jews in whatever age they live, from Zechariah’s time right up to 70 AD, that the cross must come before the crown. You can’t have the cross without the crown. So this is a gospel message really to the Jews in every generation. The people who get with salvation are going to find that between the cross and the crown there is phase two and the secret to phase two is Bible doctrine. And now we are going to have an illustration of this, we are going to have the Jews down around 167 BC and the Maccabean revolt when the Jews are under the 4th cycle of discipline. They are under the Seleucids, one of the Hellenistic dynasties, often called the kingdom of Syria because the capital was in old Syria. The kingdom of Syria went all of the way to India and Seleucus, who was one of Alexander’s generals, took over this area.

Verse 11 — “the blood of the covenant” refers to believers. The Maccabeans were believers. Their motivation to fight against hopeless odds was Bible doctrine. These were the people who accepted the cross before the crown and the whole Maccabean revolt was based upon the inspiration of the Word of God — Old Testament scriptures. So the blood of the covenant refers to Codex number two of the Mosaic law which deals with the cross. “I have sent forth thy prisoners” — the prisoners were those who were enslaved in the time of the Maccabean revolt. The prisoners also will be the Jews later on who will be bottled up in Jerusalem; “out of the pit” — this is a dry cistern and it refers to the fact that the Jews would be delivered in time of disaster. Bible doctrine is the basis.

Verse 12 — the Jews are going to return to the land and the 5th cycle of discipline is over — “Turn you [return] to the stronghold [the fortresses in Palestine] ye prisoners of hope [the prisoners who have doctrine are first of all the Jews of the Babylonian captivity who return to the land and, secondly, the Jews who will return as believers at the end of the Tribulation when Christ returns].” He says: “When you return [primarily now for the Jews who return after 516 BC, until 323 BC] I will render to you double.” Double means, first of all, spiritual blessing [Bible doctrine means spiritual blessing] and, secondly, economic prosperity to the nation. Double: as individuals they would be blessed and as a nation of people they would be blessed. And “double” is true for any nation in any period of history who will start out on the basis of Bible doctrine. First the believer is blessed and then his national entity is blessed; “unto thee” — unto these Jews as they would go back. They had a chance to see this in action when they got away from doctrine. When they got away from doctrine after 323 BC they began to decline, and from then on they went through some pretty bad times down to 167 BC when again they recovered. In verse 13 we have that story.

Verse 13 — “When I have bent Judah for me” .Judah resisted Antiochus Epiphanes, and this means to bend like a bow. It means: “I have forged Judah as a weapon.” This is an idiom. To bend means to pull back the bow. Who in Judah is forged as a weapon? The Maccabeans, those believers who resisted; “with Ephraim.” Ephraim is mentioned because many of the Jews of the northern kingdom had come south for Bible doctrine before the northern kingdom went out in 721 BC; “and raised up thy sons, O Zion” — in other words they are motivated by the Word of God; “against thy sons, O Greece” — Antiochus Epiphanes was a Greek descendant from Seleucus, the Greek general of Alexander the Great. The army of the Syrian empire was mostly a Greek army; “and made thee as the sword of a hero [a mighty man].” So here is the prophecy of the Maccabean revolt. The Maccabean revolt, resulting in the freedom of the Jews in that day, leads to another prophecy of the Tribulation wars of the second advent as this goes on in verses 14-16.

Verse 14 describes the success of Judas Maccabeas and his fighting of the four Greek generals. “And the Lord shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning” — God has a bolt of lightning to protect the believer; “the Lord God shall blow the trumpet [a battle trumpet], and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.” Whirlwinds of the south wind actually. There was a very destructive wind that came up off the Negev. This is like saying that the Lord will lead His troops against these people like a tornado. This describes the Maccabean-type hit and run tactics.

Verse 15 — “The Lord of hosts shall defend them.” He shall cause them to be defended (hiphil stem). This means not only in the Maccabean wars but later on in the Tribulation; “and they shall devour and subdue the sling-stones; and they shall drink [a reference to drinking the blood of their enemies; an idiom for victory], and they shall make a noise as through wine [the victory shout]; and they shall be filled like bowls at the corners of the altar” .In other words, they shall slaughter their enemies. Bowls at the corner of the altar were used to catch the blood of the animal sacrifices. This is an idiom used for the tremendous slaughter that would take place in the Maccabean revolt and later on at the second advent of Christ.

Verse 16 — “And the Lord their God shall deliver them in that day” .This has a twofold fulfilment: the Maccabean revolt and the second advent of Christ; “as a flock of his people; for there shall be the stones of a crown lifted up as an ensign upon the land.” The stones of a crown are the regenerate Jews. They are the ensign of the land. An ensign was a standard in the ancient world at which they enlisted their troops. The stones of the crown are those who fought in the Maccabean war. The stones in the crown are the precious jewels — believers. They have come to the cross and they are the stones in the crown. In the future they will have their kingdom; in the meantime they are in phase two and they will fight. They are motivated to fight for freedom.

A principle is established by the Maccabean revolt: You have to fight for freedom. Until the second advent the principle is, You must fight.

Verse 17 gives us the Millennium. “For how great is his goodness [His grace], and how great is his beauty!” Grace and beauty refer to the perfect environment of the Millennium. When He comes back the second time, through His grace and the beauty of His character He will provide perfect environment. Here is a description of it: “Corn [refers to prosperity] shall make the young men cheerful [the young men will be cheerful because of the prosperity of the Millennium], and new wine, the maids [There will be great social life].” These are two idioms. Young men refers to the prosperity and the word “maids” means young women, and it means the social life is great. So as a result of the personal reign of Christ there will be in the Millennium perfect environment as described by material prosperity and great and pleasant social life.