PITP #09

In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, The LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers. Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD. Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever? (Zechariah 1:1–5)

When the Lord of hosts says, "Turn unto me, and I will turn unto you," history shows He means it—and He is still saying it today.

Is God Pleased or Displeased With Our Nation?

Just this week Gallup came out with a report that 80% of those polled are dissatisfied with the state of our nation. Seventy-nine percent believe things are getting worse, not better, and 52% say they are struggling here in America right now. I don't think we should live our lives according to daily tracking polls—rising or falling based on who likes us—but it is interesting to consider the pulse of our nation. As we look around, much of what we see can feel dark and despairing, and many who do not have our hope are deeply concerned.

I don't really care what Gallup, Rasmussen, or USA Today have to say. But I wonder: if these polling agencies could ask God, "Are You pleased or displeased with the state of our nation?"—what would He say? Here in Zechariah 1, in a prophecy 2,529 years old, we read in verse 2: "The LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers."

I believe the answer would be that the Lord is not exactly thrilled with how things are going—not because the Dow is at a seven-year low, not because housing prices have plummeted, not because many have lost their 401(k)s, but because of the spiritual condition of our nation. Every physical thing that happens on earth is a manifestation of something spiritual happening behind the scenes. We've looked at Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26, the blessings of obedience and the curses of rebellion. I believe these curses are coming to pass—not because God is pushing a "smite" button, but because God is unable to bless us because of our sin. When He removes His hand of protection, the enemy comes in like a flood.

The Setting: A Returned but Backsliding Remnant

It's important to remember what was happening in Israel at this time. The book just before Zechariah is Haggai, and the book just after is Malachi—the last of the Old Testament prophets (though John the Baptist was the final Old Testament prophet, as Jesus tells us). Zechariah was written after Judah had been exiled in Babylon for 70 years.

Remember the story. After the civil war divided the nation, the people kept walking away from the Lord. The northern ten tribes were destroyed by the Assyrians about 2,800 years ago; roughly a century later the Babylonians destroyed Judah and Benjamin and took them captive. Then the Persian Empire conquered Babylon, and the king—Darius—freed the children of Israel to return to the land, just as God had foretold a couple hundred years before Cyrus or Darius was even born. We read of their return in Ezra and Nehemiah, as they tried to rebuild the city, temple, and walls.

But they quickly became discouraged in the work, so God sent prophets—Haggai and Zechariah—to challenge them and wake them up. Zechariah tells them God was "sore displeased" with their fathers. In the original language, that phrase speaks of God being angry to the point of wrath—angry over the idolatry, adultery, and wickedness of His own people. God is not a respecter of persons, even toward Israel. They were not beyond His chastening. He punished them, but a remnant returned. Now, after years of laboring on the temple and the wall, the people had grown lazy in their walk with God, and their religion had become mere religious exercise—the very thing that had sent their fathers into captivity in the first place.

The Lord of Hosts

After this word, God gives an exhortation: "Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts." That title—the Lord of hosts—is used 46 times in the 14 chapters of Zechariah. It's important to think about what it means.

When Israel first entered the promised land, the first city they encountered was Jericho. Joshua, the commander, was surveying that great stronghold—probably concerned, because his people were not battle-hardened soldiers. There he came upon a man in full battle array with a drawn sword, and Joshua asked, "Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?" I think Joshua hoped the man would say, "I'm with you." But the man said, "Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come." There we are introduced to the Lord of hosts, the commander of the army of God—who I believe is Jesus Christ. Joshua had the right response: he fell on his face and worshiped, and was told to take the shoes from his feet, for the place was holy ground.

The Lord of hosts—the Lord of armies. God's army is awesome. In the Garden of Gethsemane, when Peter pulled his sword, Jesus told him to put it away: did Peter not realize He could call twelve legions of angels? The commander of the army of the Lord is our God. So when He says to His people, "I was sore displeased with your fathers," you take a big gulp. Twice He repeats the title: "Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you." I judged your fathers; now turn to Me, and I will turn to you.

Draw Near, and He Will Draw Near

This reminds me of James 4. In verse 6 we read, "But he giveth more grace." How many of you are thankful that God gives more grace? "Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble." Israel's fathers became enemies of God, and James explains how: "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (James 4:4).

James continues: "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." That is exactly what God said in Zechariah 1—turn to Me, and I will turn to you. God resists the proud; therefore we, His people, must also resist the enemy. James adds, "Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded... Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up."

I believe these are the very same words God was speaking to His people through Zechariah 2,529 years ago. They were on a slippery slope, going the same direction their fathers had gone, having failed to learn the lesson of history. But God graciously came and said, "Turn to Me, and I will turn to you. Do not be like your fathers."

The Unchanging Message of the Prophets

"Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried." This is the message God has been giving to fallen man since the fall: turn to the Lord, depart from wickedness, and He will turn to you. Study every Old Testament prophetic book and you find it. And not only the Old Testament—John the Baptist came preaching, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Jesus said the same. Paul reiterated it.

But "they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD." The fathers hardened their hearts, stiffened their necks, and stopped their ears, and so they came under judgment—yet everyone who turned to Him found grace. The God of the Old Testament is not different from the God of the New Testament. He is loving, gracious, and merciful, waiting with open arms for man to turn. The sad fact is that man so often remains in rebellion. "Your fathers, where are they?"—they died under the wrath of God. "And the prophets, do they live for ever?" And yet here we sit 2,500 years later, still reading the word God gave through them.

A Vision on This Very Day

God says in verse 6 that His words took hold of the fathers, who acknowledged, "Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us... so hath he dealt with us." Then in verse 7: "Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sebat... came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah." Zechariah saw a man riding a red horse, standing among the myrtle trees, with red, speckled, and white horses behind him in the valley.

As we sit here on February 18th, 2009, consider this: by the Jewish calendar, this is the 24th day of the month of Shebat. We are exactly 2,529 years from the very day Zechariah received this prophecy. God gave this vision to a nation coming out of revival—a people who had returned to the land with great jubilation to rebuild, but whose hearts had grown discouraged. As we read in Haggai, they let God's house lie in ruins while they built their own paneled houses—even vacation homes. God sent Haggai and Zechariah to wake them up.

The red horse is interesting. We read of another red horse in Revelation 6:4. I don't believe these are the exact same riders, but in Revelation the red horse removes peace from the earth, and when peace is removed, man goes his own way into war. Here in Zechariah, the man on the red horse, with the angel of the Lord among the horses, represents those whom the Lord sends to walk to and fro through the earth. Satan also goes to and fro seeking whom he may devour, but God has His own angelic watchmen. They report, "We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest."

God Is Jealous for Jerusalem

The angel of the Lord then asks, "O LORD of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years?" And the Lord answered with "good words and comfortable words." Prophetic words are always a comfort to the church. The Lord declared, "I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy, And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease."

In verse 2 God was displeased with His own people and judged them—for judgment always begins at the house of the Lord. But now God says He is displeased with the nations that have become lax and lazy, the nations at ease who believe they are at peace. "I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction." God had been a little displeased with Israel, but the nations harshly devastated them, so now God's displeasure rises to the level of wrath. Then comes mercy: "I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it... and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion."

When Zechariah prophesied, the temple still lay in ruins, and the people thought God was angry at them. But God says the opposite: He is angry with the surrounding nations, and He will rebuild His house and prosper His cities.

Four Horns and Four Carpenters

Zechariah then sees four horns, "the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem," and four carpenters who come to "fray," or terrify, them. God repeatedly does things more than once and teaches the same lessons over and over. Judah was expelled in 586 BC when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, just as God warned in Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26. After 70 years in Babylon, He graciously brought them back to rebuild.

But the people became stubborn again, and their lives became oriented around mere religious works—until 70 AD, when Titus of Rome destroyed the temple on the same date in Jewish history, the ninth of Av. Over the next decades the Jews were driven out, and by about 120 AD the land was depopulated and repopulated by Rome—until May 14th, 1948, when they took the land again with great joy and turned a devastated wilderness into one of the most fruitful, productive nations in the region. In June of 1967 they recaptured Jerusalem, and today people in Israel are praying for a rebuilt temple. There will be a third temple, built by God's grace.

There is much discussion among commentators about who the four horns are. Animal horns in Scripture often picture strength. Some believe they are the same four nations Daniel described in Nebuchadnezzar's dream: the head of gold (Babylon), the chest and arms of silver (Medo-Persia), the body of brass (Greece), and the legs of iron (Rome). Three have already been destroyed; the Roman Empire, in some form, will be rekindled in the last days and ultimately destroyed by the Lord Himself. The four carpenters come to bring terror upon the nations that divided Judah—a theme we saw in Joel 3, where God judges those who divide the land of Israel.

A Warning for Our Own Day

Here we are, just as Zechariah was 2,529 years ago. Israel is back in the land after captivity. They are seeking grace and mercy to build a temple. And God promises both to grant them that grace and to judge the heathen nations that divide their land. We need to take note, because many of the wealthiest and most powerful nations are now seeking to divide the land of Israel.

It is today that they are to announce who will be Israel's prime minister after last week's elections—very likely Benjamin Netanyahu, though there's still some question. Even "Bibi," who in 1996–99 said he would never allow a two-state solution, is now warming to the idea, as the United Nations, the European Union, and our own leaders in Washington call for dividing the land. God has clearly said He will judge the nations at ease that divide the land. And we wonder why our nation is in such difficulty, why 80% are dissatisfied and so many fear things are getting worse. I'd have to agree—I think things will get worse and more difficult.

Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

But church, let not your heart be troubled. When we read the prophetic Scriptures, we gain insight into what God is doing, and we see that He has an ultimate plan and knows exactly what He's doing. He is on the throne. Forty-six times in Zechariah He reveals Himself as the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies—and one day the body of Christ will return with Him as part of that army. Paul told the church at Thessalonica, "Comfort one another with these words."

We should not look forward with anticipation to the coming judgment on those who have rejected Christ—Revelation makes clear the wrath that will be poured out on all who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. But we should look forward to the coming of our Lord. As I've studied the major and minor prophets over several years, I've seen repetitions some might call coincidence. I don't believe in coincidence. The Lord works the same way over and over because His message is the same, and He keeps calling out: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11). The world is looking for peace, but it will never find it in Washington, New York, or the Oslo Accords. Peace comes only from the Prince of Peace.

Peace in the Midst of Tribulation

Paul gives us this exhortation in Philippians 4: "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." We in the body of Christ have the opportunity to experience God's peace.

In John 16:32, Jesus told His disciples they would be scattered—strike the shepherd, and the sheep scatter—yet He would not be alone, for the Father was with Him. "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." That promise of tribulation isn't one we write on a sticky note for the bathroom mirror, but it's what the Lord said. In Christ we may have peace; in the world we will have tribulation. Every one of us has gone through trying times—nowhere near what the persecuted church endures—and it's very possible that tribulation will become much worse before we get out of here. But in Christ we can lay hold of that peace.

So we must be a praying people. We are coming into a time the Bible speaks of more than any other—the last days. Looking forward to that coming time, we take comfort in the Scriptures and call out to God that His peace would guard our hearts and minds. You may say, "I don't think I could face that kind of difficulty." But Paul also said, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." It is God who gives the strength in the midst of trial, and He has promised that the day of trial will end. Let not your heart be troubled, because we have a God in heaven who sent His Son for us and has prepared a place for us.

Wake Up—The Work Is Not Done

I know this is probably not a politically correct message, and it's a heavy one in a fearful time. But it's the message the Lord spoke through Zechariah 2,500 years ago, through Isaiah 2,700 years ago, and through Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, Zephaniah, and Obadiah—because He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Even though many in the church think God has become some distant deity off on the side of the universe who no longer cares, that's not the case. As God said in Isaiah, "I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands." Nietzsche said God is dead—but Nietzsche is dead, and God is alive and still on the throne.

The Lord desires us to call out to Him and turn to Him. I'm thankful to look around this room and see a people who do call out, who search the Scriptures daily, who follow hard after the Lord. But I'm sad to say many in the American church are asleep, and I believe the Lord has given me a message to wake people up. Paul told the church at Rome it's "high time" to wake, "for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed" (Romans 13).

Someone asked me recently, "What if the Lord tarries another hundred, hundred and fifty, or two hundred years?" Then we'll keep doing what we've always done—keep pressing forward and preaching the gospel—because even if He tarries, tomorrow our salvation will be nearer than today. I don't think He's going to wait, but if He does, it's because much work remains. The fact that we are still here on February 18th, 2009, means God isn't finished. There are still people who need His grace. Do you know anybody who needs the grace of God? We all do.

Proclaiming His Praises

In John 6, after a great multitude left, Jesus asked the disciples, "Will ye also go away?" Peter, inspired of the Father, answered, "To whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life." When Jesus ascended, He gave us that word—the message of reconciliation, the gospel—and said, "Occupy till I come." We have an awesome opportunity, as Peter wrote, being "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood... that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light." We were all once in darkness, dead in trespasses and sins, but by grace we've been saved, not of works lest anyone should boast. He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might receive His righteousness—not so we could be holy rollers, but so we could take the word of God into the world and declare the gospel.

Paul said, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation." What happened 2,500 years ago is happening today—it's not an accident, it's not coincidence. God is on the move. It's been my prayer over these nine weeks that the prophets would shake your heart with anticipation that God is alive and doing the work. And that's exactly what's happened—not because I'm a dynamic speaker, but because God's word is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword.

God desires to do a work right here in Escondido, in your own backyard. Perhaps your next-door neighbor doesn't know the Lord. Maybe it's as simple as taking one of the Bibles in the back and knocking on their door—you might even find out they're already a Christian. When was the last time you talked to your neighbor? Every one of you has coworkers, family members, and friends who don't know the Lord and need His tender touch, who need to be made new creations in Christ as you have been. Romans 1 tells us the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith to those who believe, but the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

The Lamb Who Returns as Lion

God's wrath will come on a Christ-rejecting world, and there's not a single person I would want that to happen to. I wouldn't want it poured out on Osama bin Laden—I'd hope he would repent and turn to Christ and spend eternity with God, because that is God's desire. Every person who watched the planes fly into the towers and heard "wanted, dead or alive"—they too need Christ. He is coming with the same wrath He poured out on the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Edomites, the Philistines, and the Perizzites, who no longer exist as a people. But for the unbeliever, death is not the end. The Bible reveals a second death, an everlasting torment, "where their worm dieth not"—a horrible place God created not for man, but for Satan and his demons. Yet because of man's stubbornness and refusal to repent, there is punishment for sin.

So it's my prayer that before that day comes, we'd share the gospel with as many as we can. There will come a day when Israel begins to build the temple again. My hope is that we're not here when it begins—but if we are, look up, your redemption draws nigh. Just as they built it after the first destruction, and just as it was destroyed again in 70 AD, God will again judge the nations that divide Israel. The first time the temple was built, Jesus came as a Lamb. Here we are 2,500 years later, with Israel praying to build again—and Jesus is coming for part two, this time as a Lion. When He came the first time, they were looking for a lion and got a lamb. When He comes again, they'll be looking for a lamb and get a Lion. But as surely as He came the first time, He will come again. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Father, I pray that the testimony of my life and of the lives of my brothers and sisters here would never be that You are sore displeased with us. Father, I pray that we would be those like Enoch, who pleased You—who, before he was caught up, had the testimony that he pleased You. Lord, I pray that before we are caught up, we too would have that testimony. Without faith it is impossible to please You, for he who comes to You must believe that You are, and that You are a rewarder of those who diligently seek You. Work in us that we would be a pleasing people, so that on the day of Christ, when we stand before You, You would say, "Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into your rest."

We do look forward to that day, and we say, "Lord, come quickly." But God, before You come, hoping for the day of Your coming, I ask that You would pour out Your Spirit and raise up men and women to be missionaries—not just to Africa or China or the Philippines, but missionaries to Escondido, San Marcos, Valley Center, Bonsall, Fallbrook, Poway, and Rancho Bernardo. Let us be missionaries here in Southern California. Help us to reach the poor and downcast, to be those who reach out with hands of mercy and grace—not only with the gospel, Lord, but with whatever we have to give. For we ask it in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, Amen.