Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20090712.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Zechariah: Paving The Path Toward A Blessed Future
Part IV: Informing God's People About The Messianic King And His Kingdom, Zechariah 9:1-14:21
C. Predicting Messiah's Refreshing Blessings Opposite False Shepherds
(Zechariah 9:10-10:12)
  1. Introduction
    1. God promises to bless His people if they follow Him and His truth, but false spiritual shepherds abound to deceive and to mislead them from God and His truth into sin and resulting divine discipline.
    2. This truth was revealed in Zechariah 9:10-10:12, and works both to motivate us fervently to follow the Lord as well as to want to discern and to depart from false spiritual guides (as follows):
  2. Predicting Messiah's Refreshing Blessings Opposite False Shepherds, Zechariah 9:10-10:12.
    1. Our Lord will establish worldwide peace at His return, Zechariah 9:10:
      1. God predicted He would terminate the existence of war chariots, war horses and battle bows at the start of the Millennial reign of Christ, Zech. 9:10a; Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 1563.
      2. Ephraim signifies the old Northern Kingdom and Jerusalem the old Southern Kingdom in the divided monarchy, hinting of the final unification of Israel's monarchy under Christ, Zechariah 9:10b.
      3. Messiah's proclamation of peace will extend to the nations, for His rule will be worldwide, Zec. 9:10c!
    2. Our Lord will deliver Israel from her Gentile enemies, Zechariah 9:11-17:
      1. Based on the Abrahamic Covenant made by sacrificial blood offerings in Genesis 15, God promised to free Israel from the empty cistern used as a dungeon, a reference to her national exiles, Zechariah 9:11.
      2. God will then doubly bless Israel in restoring her richly to her past blessings, Zechariah 9:12.
      3. Indeed, God promised to rouse the sons of Zion against the sons of Greece, implying God's work to give Israel victory over her Grecian overlords during the era of the Maccabeans, Zechariah 9:13.
      4. This victory over Israel's Greek oppressors foreshadows her final victory over Gentile foes in preparation for the Millennial Kingdom, Zec. 10:14-17. "The description of a thunderstorm controlled by God (v. 14) pictures poetically Israel's empowerment for victory over her enemies (v. 15)," Ibid.
    3. Our Lord will destroy the false shepherds who misled His people into sin and her woes, Zechariah 10:1-5:
      1. Taking the picture of a storm and applying it in a different direction, the Lord promised that the Source of Israel's Messianic blessings will be the Lord as opposed to idolatrous, false shepherds, 10:1-2a.
      2. The false shepherds had misled Israel, letting her go into idolatry and divine discipline, Zech. 10:2b.
      3. Accordingly, God promised to punish these false shepherds, and to care for His flock to make them courageous as is a proud horse in battle, and thus successful in overcoming Gentile foes, Zech. 10:3-5.
    4. Our Lord will regather all scattered Israel at His coming, Zechariah 10:6-12:
      1. The Lord promised to strengthen and compassionately deliver all Israel from her Gentile enemies to the joy and rejoicing of Israel in her God, Zechariah 10:6-7.
      2. Israel will then be gathered from her world dispersion as God signals for her to return, Zechariah 10:8a.
      3. This regathering of all Israel to the land will come with redemption and multiplication of the people (Zechariah 10:8b): the people of Israel will remember their Lord, and God will bring them back into the land in a wonderful, true spiritual reunion of Israel with her Creator God, Zechariah 10:9-10.
      4. Every obstacle to this regathering will be removed as when God led Israel through the sea on dry land in the crossing of the Red Sea and the Jordan River, Zech. 10:11a; Ibid. Typifying all of Israel's Gentile foes, Egypt and Assyria will be subjected to the Lord, and the people of Israel will be strengthened so that their behavior (walk) will be in God's Name (to His glory), Zechariah 10:12; Ibid.
Lesson: To encourage returned exiles to follow Him, God had Zechariah predict the great worldwide peace of Messiah's coming kingdom, of Israel's final victory over all of her Gentile foes when God will judge her false shepherds who had led her into vain idols and resulting divine punishment by such oppression, and of the regathering and spiritual renewal and blessings of repentant, restored Israel.

Application: (1) May we also focus on our eventual blessings as motivation to keep fervently serving the Lord! (2) May we be wary of false shepherds who detract us from God's truth and blessings, and (3) DISCERN the true from false shepherds by the written Scriptures, 2 Timothy 3:13-17.