In the midst of our rebellion, the Lord offers the hope of a rescuer...

This week we are looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible, called the book of Zechariah. We looked on as the Lord proclaimed to the Jewish people who had returned from captivity to the Jewish nation “What I have to say to you now that I have brought you back into the land that I promised you is the same thing that I said to your parents and grandparents before I removed them from the land. As I have always said, what I require of you is to demonstrate your love for Me by how you love and treat those around you. You are to demonstrate your love for Me by promoting justice and kindness towards one another. You are to demonstrate your love for Me by refusing to exploit the poor and marginalized among you. However, your parents and grandfathers refused to listen to my spokesman the prophets who I sent to warn them. Instead, the hardened their hearts and refused to listen to Me or obey Me. Therefore, I treated them in the same way that they treated Me. Just as they refused to listen to Me, I refused to listen to them and instead exercised my right and just response to their rebellion by sending them into captivity in Babylon.”

However, in the midst of the rebellion of the Jewish people; in the midst of the Lord exercising His right and just response to the selfishness and rebellion of the Jewish people by sending them into captivity in Babylon, the Lord still had a plan for the Jewish people. A plan that Zechariah reveals in Zechariah 8:1-8:

Then the word of the LORD of hosts came, saying, ² "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'I am exceedingly jealous for Zion, yes, with great wrath I am jealous for her.' ³ "Thus says the LORD, 'I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.' ⁴ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of age. ⁵ 'And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.' ⁶ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'If it is too difficult in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, will it also be too difficult in My sight?' declares the LORD of hosts. ⁷ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Behold, I am going to save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west; ⁸ and I will bring them back and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness.'

Here we see the Lord proclaim to the Jewish people that there would be a day in the future when the Lord Himself would return and dwell in the city of Jerusalem. There would be a day in the future when the city of Jerusalem would be recognized as a bastion of truth. There would be a day in the future when the Temple of the Lord would be viewed as set apart to the Lord.  There would be a day in the future where the young and old would dwell in safety and security in the city. There would be a day in the future when the Lord would bring the Jewish people from across the planet to dwell in the presence of the Lord in the right relationship with the Lord that they were created for. And just a few verses later, we see the Lord continue to proclaim His promises and plans for the Jewish people in Zechariah 8:14-17:

"For thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Just as I purposed to do harm to you when your fathers provoked Me to wrath,' says the LORD of hosts, 'and I have not relented, ¹⁵ so I have again purposed in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Do not fear! ¹⁶ 'These are the things which you should do: speak the truth to one another; judge with truth and judgment for peace in your gates. ¹⁷ 'Also let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do not love perjury; for all these are what I hate,' declares the LORD."

Here we see the Lord remind the Jewish people of Zechariah’s day that He was a promise maker and a promise keeper. The Lord reminded the Jewish people that just as He fulfilled His promise to exercise His right and just response to their past selfishness and rebellion if they continued in that rebellion, He has promised to bring good upon the Jewish people. The Jewish people were not to look back in fear of their past. And the Jewish people were not to live in fear in the present.

Instead the Jewish people were to live in the land that the Lord had returned them to in a way that promoted truth, justice, and peace with one another as they lived in community with one another as the people of God. The Jewish people were to reject the selfishness and falsehood that marked the lives of the Jewish people prior to being conquered and led captive by the Babylonian Empire. The Jewish people were to move away from their past rebellion and opposition against the Lord and one another and move towards a life that trusted in the promises of the Lord so as to obey the Lord and represent the Lord to the nations of the world. We see this reality revealed to us in Zechariah 8:18-23:

Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, ¹⁹ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'The fast of the fourth, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth months will become joy, gladness, and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah; so love truth and peace.' ²⁰ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'It will yet be that peoples will come, even the inhabitants of many cities. ²¹ 'The inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, "Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts; I will also go." ²² 'So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD.' ²³ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."'"

The Lord proclaimed to the Jewish people “you know those four days of sadness and fasting that you have done to commemorate the major disasters connected with the fall of Jerusalem that came as a result of your selfishness and rebellion: Well, in the future those days will become times of joy and gladness for the Jewish people. So make sure that in the present you are leaning into lives that love what is true and what promotes harmony with one another as you live in community with one another. You are to live such lives, understanding that there will be a day in the future when the nations of the world will come to Jerusalem to seek the favor of the Lord.

There will be a day in the future when the nations of the Lord will seek you as a people because they recognize the reality that I am present with you as you live in a right relationship with Me. There will be a day in the future when your right relationship with Me will cause the nations of the world to recognize My presence with you so that they would desire to seek and know Me as well. Then, just a few verses later, we see Zechariah proclaim one of the clearest promises of the Messiah that has been fulfilled by Jesus in all the letters that make up the Bible. So let’s look at that promise together, which is found in Zechariah 9:9-10:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. ¹⁰ I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; And the bow of war will be cut off. And He will speak peace to the nations; And His dominion will be from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.

And a little over 500 years after proclaiming this promise, we see Jesus fulfill this promise in Matthew 21:1-11:

When they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me. ³ "If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and immediately he will send them." ⁴ This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: ⁵ "SAY TO THE DAUGHTER OF ZION, 'BEHOLD YOUR KING IS COMING TO YOU, GENTLE, AND MOUNTED ON A DONKEY, EVEN ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A BEAST OF BURDEN.'" ⁶ The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them, ⁷ and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their coats on them; and He sat on the coats. ⁸ Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. ⁹ The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!" ¹⁰ When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, "Who is this?" ¹¹ And the crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee."

Now you might be here this morning, and at this point a question or objection has been raised in your mind. And if we were to have a conversation in the courtyard coffeehouse, the conversation would sound something like this: “Well Dave, what about all the stuff that Zechariah said in verse 10. I mean, if Jesus actually fulfilled this prediction and promise, then all of the things in verse 10 should have happened too. But they haven’t happened. So how can you say that Jesus actually fulfilled this prediction and promise and is the Messiah?” 

If that question or objection is running through your mind, I want to let you know that you have a fair question. And my response to your question and objection is this: The reason why what is predicted and promised in verse 10 did not take place is because the Jewish people rejected Jesus as their Messiah. And because the Jewish people refused to place their confident trust in Jesus as their Messiah, because the Jewish people continued to rebel and reject the Lord, verse 10, like the previous promises and predictions that we have looked at this morning are for a day in the future. And in that day in the future, the Jewish people will recognize the gravity of rebelling against the Lord and rejecting Jesus as Messiah. We see this reality revealed for us just a few chapters later, in Zechariah 12:10:

"I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

Here we see Zechariah proclaim that, on that day in the future, the Lord will, by the power of the Holy Spirit, pour upon the Jewish people His grace and compassion. And in His grace and compassion, the eyes of the Jewish people will be opened to see that Jesus was the fulfillment of His promise to send a rescuer, a deliverer, a Messiah, to bring the Jewish people, and all people, back to God. And on that day in the future, when Jesus returns to earth to usher in the kingdom of Heaven in its fullest sense, the Jewish people will see Him whom their forefathers wrongly rejected and handed Him over to be pierced by crucifixion.

Now remember, this was written over 500 years before Jesus entered into humanity to live the life humanity refused to live and die the death that humanity deserved to die. And on the day in the future, as the Jewish people see Jesus, they will weep bitterly like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. The Jewish people will recognize that they missed and rejected Jesus and will weep over the loss of the blessings that their ancestors missed as a result of that rejection. However, upon Jesus return, Zechariah reveals the promise of what is to come for the Jewish people and all humanity in Zechariah 14:9:

And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one.

Upon Jesus return, Jesus will defeat selfishness, sin, and death and will usher in the spiritual and the earthly blessing of the kingdom yet be fulfilled for the Jewish people as well, which is referred to in church mumbo jumbo talk as the Millennial Kingdom. During the time of the Millennial Kingdom, the Lord will dwell with the Jewish people who placed their confident trust in Jesus, and who will experience the fulfillment of the promises that the Lord made to the Jewish people. During the time of the Millennial Kingdom, Jesus will rule and reign as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Jesus will rule and reign as a result of being the One True God and the One True King.

And, it is here, when God speaks, that we discover a timeless truth about the nature and character of God and God’s activity in history. And that timeless truth is this: In the midst of our rebellion, the Lord offers the hope of a rescuer. You see, the point of the book of Zechariah is that the Lord is just and will execute justice upon the wrongdoing and injustice of those who rebel and reject Him. Yet in the midst of the Jewish people’s rebellion and rejection of the Lord, the Lord offered hope in the promise of a rescuer, a deliverer, a Messiah, who would bring the Jewish people back to the Lord.

And just like the Jewish people, all of humanity has done things that hurt and wronged the Lord and others as a result of our rebellion and rejection of the Lord. And just like the Jewish people, in the midst of our rebellion and rejection of the Lord, the Lord offered hope in the promise of a rescuer, a deliverer, a Messiah, who would provide all humanity the opportunity to experience forgiveness and the relationship with God that they were created for. In the midst of our rebellion, the Lord promised that whoever responded to that hope by responding to the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader would be rescued from God’s right and just response to selfishness and rebellion to live in relationship with the Lord as part of the people of the Lord.

So here is a question to consider: How will you respond to the reality that, in the midst of our rebellion, the Lord offers the hope of a rescuer?  How will you respond to the offer of rescue that the Lord extends through the fulfillment of His promise of rescue through His Son Jesus?

Because, in the midst of our rebellion, the Lord offers the hope of a rescuer…