|
About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Chapter - Chapter 9 ch. 9:1-8 ch. 9:9-13 ch. 9:14-17 Judgment
On Israel’s Enemies (ch. 9:1 - 8) The
problem with this chapter is that it jumps all over the place in
history, or prophetic history. Within
the context of one paragraph, you can see the thoughts jumping around,
from past, to present, to near future to end times.
This makes it hard to understand and interpret
The
first 8 verses of this chapter are hard to
understand, with certainty, at least in the light of futuristic
prophecy. Many scholars
believe these verses apply to Alexander the Great, but there are many
who don’t see it this way. Alexander
was born in 356 B. C..
In 333 B. C. he defeated the Persians in Greece. This first big victory came
when he was 19 years old. From
Greece
he moved eastward until he conquered the whole known world, right over
to The
cities and regions mentioned in these eight verses seem to be in order
of Alexander’s conquest until he got to In
verse 1 we see the name of a place called Hadach.
This area is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible.
Many people disagree about where this is.
It appears to be a leading city of Verse
2 mentions Hamath, which is the most northern area of which is known as
the promised land, the land promised to Abraham. Also in verse 2 we see In
verses 1 through 4 we see
northern cities that are, or were to be judged. Verses 5 through 8 deals
with southern cities. This southern region is filled with Philistines.
All these cities and areas have been a constant problem for Israel. King
Nebuchadnezzar totally wiped
out these cities. I see this as God’s fulfilled judgment that is seen
here. In
verse 7 we see that these cities, like the northern cities will be
included in the people of God. This
may speak of the inclusion of Gentiles into the house of God as seen in
the New Testament, or might speak of some future prophetic significance
of these places. Verse
8 does appear to be futuristic which might well suggest some futuristic
aspect to all eight verses. In
verse 8 God says that never again will oppressors overrun His people.
The words “never again” must mean at the end of this age.
Therefore, when Alexander the Great went across the known world
back in Old Testament times might well be prophetic of the last day
anti-christ who does the same, yet in the final analysis cannot overrun
the city of The
Coming Of
We’ve
just seen the entry of Alexander into Jerusalem, or the end time anti-christ, however you view the past verses.
Now in contrast we’ll see the triumphal entry of the
Messiah into Jerusalem
. That’s Jesus as seen in
the gospel writings.
In
verse 9 we see God telling the Daughter of Zion and the Daughter of
Jerusalem, that is, to The
Messiah being a king is spoken of by pre-Babylonian exile prophets,
but not so with post-Babylonian prophets, except for here.
Note
here that we see the “gentle” king riding a donkey.
Jesus was a gentle man. The
only signs of Jesus being not so gentle was seen with His dealing with
the Jewish leadership. This
must be distinguished from Jesus’ second coming to earth, when He will
also return as a King, as a general of war, and not a gentle King.
He will return as a King of armies who will defeat all the powers
of evil. Prior
to Solomon Jewish kings road on donkeys, but not so after Solomon.
He brought in horses for kings to ride on. Verse
10 helps us to understand something about prophecy.
Verse 9 is specifically speaking of the time which Jesus entered Verse
10 says that there is coming a time, and I say, “coming a time”,
because it has not yet come, when God will take away all the chariots
from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem. Ephraim was the youngest
son of Joseph who was born to his Egyptian wife.
Jacob, Joseph’s father adopted Ephraim along with his brother Manassas. Both men’s families were two of the twelve tribes of Israel. Ephraim represents the
northern tribes of Israel, while Jerusalem
represents the southern two tribes.
He
goes on to say that “the battle bow will be broken, He’ll proclaim
peace to the nations, His rule will extend from sea to sea, and from the
River ( We
need to see Jesus at His return as a mighty warier. He comes as a
general of a great nation to fight. We
also see in verse 10 that Jesus the Messiah will bring peace, from sea
to sea, and from “the River to the ends of the earth”.
The River refers to the Euphrates In
verse 11 God promises to free Israel
who are prisoners from the waterless pit that they are in.
He will do this because of the blood of His covenant as stated
here in verse 11. The
“blood of His covenant” is a specific reference to the Old Testament
blood covenant that began with Abraham and ends at the cross of Christ.
It is because of the cross that The
term “waterless pit” refers to wells which had no water.
These were often used as a place to keep prisoners.
Israel
is being spoken of here as prisoners in one of thee waterless pits.
In
verse 12 God tells Many
commentators suggest that verse 13 is speaking of the time of the
Maccabeus, when The
point to be made is that the northern and the southern tribes would come
together as one and defeat their enemies.
And of course, that’s the only way an enemy can be defeated.
This is something for the modern day church to think about and
learn from. The
Lord Will Appear (ch. 9:14 - 17) The
closing few verses of chapter 9 speak clearly of
the return of Jesus, the Jew’s Messiah to earth.
Verse
14 says, “then the Lord will appear over them.”
The word “them” refers to the Jews.
“His arrow will flash like lightening” is the next phrase.
One can’t help think of the New Testament passages that speaks
of the return of Jesus as lightening flashing across the sky. The
next phrase says, “the Sovereign Lord will sound the trumpet.”
This too is a well known phrase in the New Testament, especially
so in the book of Revelation. We
know at the sound of a trumpet, Jesus will return to this earth as
lightening flashing across the sky. The
last phrase of verse 14 and the first phrase of verse 15 tells us that
our Lord will march in the storms of the south, and the Lord will
protect them. Once again,
the word “them” refers to Verse
15 speaks of the fate of In
verse 16 we see that God will “save them”, that is, “save Israel.” He will save them on
“that day.” That
day refers to the end of this age when Jesus returns to save The
last half of verse 16 and verse 17 repeats what we have learned in
chapter 8. After Jesus’
return, It
is clear from Zechariah’s writings that the thousand years of Jesus’
rule on earth will be mostly about Israel
and it’s domination over the rest of the world. This will finally be their time to shine as they were meant to
shine.
|