Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Just remember that God has not forsaken His people, the Jews. He still has a plan for Jews and Israel. He’s chosen them, He’s comforting them, He’s going to prosper them.

You are also a chosen child of God if you are a Christian. If you’ve accepted Christ, you are grafted into the vine of Israel where God chooses you. And He also comforts you, and He’s got a plan and will prosper you.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador assures this promise of God is for all His children. When opening to the book of Zechariah, we first hear a clear call of God to the unrepentant people: "Return to me."

But then the Lord offered Zechariah a series of visions to communicate a message of divine encouragement to the returned exiles, assuring them of God’s jealous love. And as Pastor Brett Meador reflects on today’s word, we too will see God’s desire for restoration.

Brett Meador: If you break down the book of Zechariah, chapters 1 through 6, it’s an interesting experience from one night that Zechariah had. We’re going to see eight visions or dreams, you might call them, that Zechariah is going to have in one night. And basically, verses 1 through 6 is an introduction and it’s a call to repentance, where Zechariah is calling the people of Israel to repent for their sins.

It says in verse 4, "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." Man, this is talking about for generations there’s been generations of disobedience. It’s like the older people didn’t hear the prophets that the Lord sent.

And more accurately, it’s saying they would not hear. It’s not that they did not hear, they would not hear what the Lord said through the prophets. It’s interesting because that’s what we have to decide. Are we going to do what the Bible says or are we going to rebel? And it’s so easy to see this in Israel with Zechariah the prophet and go, "Yeah, these people, what a bunch of losers. God told them for centuries what to do and for centuries they just said we will not believe and follow."

But then you have to kind of say, "Lord, are there little things that you’ve told me to do that I’ve refused to do?" And then not only were they disobedient, they would even try to delay. That’s the second part of this in verse 5, the delay that we see. Check it out, verse 5 says, "Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?" He’s saying, you know, you’ve procrastinated too long. How long are you going to live? Don’t delay, you know, repent now is the idea.

So many times there’s so many people with regrets of how they used their time. These guys just delayed for years and years and never really did what they were called to do. So verse 6 says, "But my words and my statutes which I command by my service the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? And they returned and said, like as the Lord of Hosts thought to do unto us according to our ways and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us."

It’s interesting, he’s basically saying did they not take hold of your fathers? In other words, did they not overtake? Some of your margins say on that word "take hold", did they not overtake? It’s like a police officer stopping you with the red and blue lights being pulled over, that’s the idea. He’s saying, but my words and my statutes which I commanded you guys, didn’t they pull you over like a police officer? Is the idea.

And they returned and said, "Like as the Lord of Hosts thought to do unto us according to our ways, according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us." It’s interesting that these older people just said, "Nah, we’re not going to do what he says." And even with years going by, the truth caught up to them is the idea and took them over. There’s an external appearance of repentance where they were ripping their garments, but that wasn’t real repentance.

They needed an internal repentance which is more of a rending of the heart to have true repentance. And that’s the problem, the people went through all the motions of repentance, but they weren’t really repenting. And Zechariah’s calling them out. Now, this is where after verse 6, verse 7 is where it starts with the beginning of the eight visions or dreams of Zechariah.

By the way, one thing you should know about in Zechariah here, these visions, each vision that we read has sort of a pattern to it. And I’m going to tell you, some of these visions are really hard and weird. I’m just going to tell you right now. And some of them are really hard to understand. I’m just going to say it. But if you are looking for some interesting things about these visions, first of all, there’s a pattern that you’ll see that each vision does possess. And you can kind of look for these patterns.

The first pattern that you see is every vision has sort of some introductory words about the vision. And then the second piece is it gives a description of what he saw, the description of what he saw in his vision. And then there’s always in each vision there’s a question as to what the meaning, it’s almost like there’s going to be a question to an angel, what is the meaning of this vision? And then fourthly, there’s an explanation from an angel.

In each one of the visions, if you look for these things, it’ll help you sort of understand the eight visions of Zechariah. And remember, all these happen in one night. He must have had some serious spicy pizza before the night before he went to bed that night, or it was the Holy Spirit. I think it was the Holy Spirit. But keep this little list in the back of your head as you’re looking at these visions: introductory words, description, question, explanation is sort of the pattern here and that’s going to be helpful.

The first vision, we’re going to call this first vision the rider in the myrtle trees. It says in verse 7, "Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, in the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying." Now, before we hear the vision, a couple things, month Shebat, that’s February 15th, 519 BC is when he received this.

So again, if you’re following these dates, take into account the Babylonian calendar and the lunar calendar and all that. Here’s the question: why does Zechariah and Haggai, why do both of these guys record meticulously this precise date of each vision? The answer? I don’t have any idea. But I feel like we’re missing something. So there’s your assignment, try to figure out why is Zechariah so obsessed with the exact date of each vision.

Because I’m convinced that in the Bible there’s nothing there that’s just meant to be, "Oh well, man he’s just stupid about dates." That’s not the way the Bible works. When you see something and you’re like that’s so unnecessary, usually not only is it necessary but it usually has something of huge meaning, and I’ve just never come across any commentator or theologian or pastor or sermon that actually says why these dates are so important and I haven’t figured it out.

So maybe you can. But it is amazing to me that each date is so meticulously recorded here. So some reason to maybe pray about it, search the scriptures. Maybe the further down the road we get, we’ll know more why Zechariah recorded these dates with such precision. But anyway, back to the rider in the myrtle tree vision. Here we go, verse 8. He says, "I saw by night and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom, and behind him were there red horses, speckled and white."

So the first thing we see here in this vision is a rider, the description of a man riding on a red horse. Red in the Bible is a symbol of war and judgment. Revelation 19:11 talks about that. And Isaiah 63 verses 1 through 6 associates red with the concept of war and judgment. Judgment, of course, red being the blood of Christ on Calvary, the judgment for our sins, on what have you. But also the book of Revelation associates the color red with warfare and judgment. So kind of keep that in mind.

And then also we have here a myrtle tree. Now, when you go to Israel, one of the fun things that the Israeli tour guides love to tell us about is Israeli myrtle wood and how it’s the only place in the world where you can find myrtle wood. And you go to the myrtle wood stores, and all throughout Jerusalem there’s these myrtle wood stores and stuff. And none of my Israeli tour guides except for one now knows that actually there’s only one other place in the world where you can find myrtle wood like in Israel. Does anybody know where that’s at?

Oregon! As it turns out. Now, I do have to say, you might argue that the Oregonian myrtle wood trees might be a different species, and I’ll tell you why. And you people that are into plants and shrubs and trees and stuff, you could probably do a deeper study on this. But the average myrtle wood tree in Israel is like six feet tall. They’re just short little myrtle wood trees.

But you know when people come from tours, they always bring the little wooden carved nativity scenes or myrtle wood crosses or myrtle wood nativity sets. That’s because that’s the big thing, everybody buys the myrtle wood carved from in Jerusalem there. And there’s some really cool carvings and stuff that they’ve done.

But for you that are interested, the word "myrtle" is the Hebrew word Hadas or Hadasah, which is the word Esther. Her name meant like myrtle, which is funny, you could call her Myrtle. That’s not a name we use very much anymore, maybe your great-grandma was named Myrtle.

But Esther, it’s kind of interesting, you say how is Esther’s name Myrtle, how does that apply? Did you know that I’m probably getting off course too much here, but did you know that the myrtle wood trees there in Israel they blossom once a year, but if you crush the blossom it puts out this beautiful fragrance?

The myrtle wood tree does, the blossom itself. And it’s kind of an interesting type of Hadasah or Esther who during time of real crushing, she lived at a terribly dangerous time for such a time as this kind of thing, and yet during time of crushing, this beautiful fragrance came from this woman, Hadasah or Miss Myrtle.

But it’s kind of cool, they used myrtle wood to build their tabernacle, they used the wood as a air freshener because the wood is very, it’s almost like our cedar here that smells really nice. But all that to say, the myrtle tree, like the fig tree, is sort of a symbol of Israel itself in this particular dream. I’ll give you that kind of the heads-up there. So you got the vision here of the rider in the myrtle trees. And let’s read on and see what it says here.

It says here in verse 9, "Then said I, O my lord, what are these?" This is the question. What are these? "And the angel that talked with me said unto me, I will show you what these be." Verse 10, "The man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, these are they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth." Verse 11, "And they answered the angel of the Lord that stood among the myrtle trees and said, we have walked to and fro on the earth and behold all the earth sitteth still and is at rest."

So right now we’ve got a few things going on here. We’ve got these other horses with the man, speckled. Some of your translations, does it say instead of speckled, does it say brown? The reason why there’s disagreement, nobody knows what the Hebrew word for speckled, the word that’s translated as speckled here, nobody really knows what that word means. So there’s like a Hebrew word that nobody knows what it means, so they say brown, speckled, polka-dot, whatever, and they just don’t really know for sure.

So there’s a big debate on what that Hebrew word actually is that’s in that verse. But the point is there’s these other, you know, that are behind the man riding the red horse that’s standing amongst the myrtle wood tree, and one was red, one was speckled or brown or whatever your margin says perhaps, and also white. So you say, okay, the description here is man on a red horse standing among myrtle trees with other colored horses behind him. You got the vision so far? It’s like one of my dreams, Pastor Brett, one of those weird dreams. Yeah.

So the explanation comes in verse 10, who this is. Now, it’s interesting, who is walking to and fro? Does anybody remember somebody else that was going to and fro? Satan! That’s an interesting thing that the fallen angel Satan does. But that’s not to be mistaken with these angels. These I believe are angels that were sent by the Lord, but they’re doing the same thing for different reasons.

Satan’s going to and fro over all the earth to see who he can devour. But these angels are sort of inspecting what’s going on over the earth and they sort of report to what is called here the Angel of the Lord.

Now, whenever you come across the Angel of the Lord there in verse 11 it says, "They answered the angel of the Lord that stood among the myrtle trees." That tells us who this is. Anybody want to take a bold guess, who’s the Angel of the Lord here? It’s Jesus. Whenever that phrase "Angel of the Lord", it usually, I should say usually, most of the time it’s a speaking of the pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. Some are afraid to call it a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ, but some people call it a theophany or it could be called a Christophany, Old Testament appearing of Jesus.

And we see that in several places throughout the Old Testament. But this Angel of the Lord is the one standing among the myrtle trees. And he’s hearing what these guys have to say as they are looking over all the earth. Well, let’s continue in verse 12 and see what’s going on here. It says in verse 12, "Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of Hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah against which thou hast indignation these threescore and ten years?" How long is threescore and ten years, King James? Seventy years.

So what are we talking, what period are we talking about when we’re talking about seventy years? Anybody? The captivity in Babylon. How long, there’s this rhetorical question, how long is Israel going to sit in captivity? That’s what Zechariah’s referring to. And this gets a little confusing because we hear there in verse 11 it says the angels are going all over walking to and fro and they’re seeing that the earth sits still and is at rest. And I might be tempted to say, well that’s good, anytime the world’s at rest or at peace, that’s good. But that’s not good in this case.

How is that not good? That’s what we need right now: peace on earth, goodwill toward men, Merry Christmas. But that’s not what’s going on here. Here’s, I’m going to just kind of fast forward and tell you what’s going on here. What the angels are saying, "Wow, the whole world’s at rest while the Jews are in captivity." God’s people are in captivity and in trouble.

While the Jews are in trouble, everybody else is at peace and happy and surrounded with calm and all that stuff. And why allow the bad nations to be at peace when they continually attack and harass the Jews? That’s the question that these sort of angels are going to ask. And it seems to me that God is watching how the other nations and people treat the Jews.

Does anybody remember what’s the name of the judgment where God’s going to judge the nations of how they treat the Jews? Yeah, the sheep and the goats judgment, right? Jesus talked about that in Matthew 24. There’s a official judgment just for that, how nations treat the Jews. And so the angels are saying, "How long, O Lord, is this going to be where everybody else is at peace but the Jews are in trouble?"

So it goes on there in verse 13. It says, "And the Lord answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words." So the angel that commanded with me said unto me, "Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy." Okay, now here’s where we have to talk about what the word "jealousy" means. Is God, does he have a human characteristic that he’s jealous of us? Is he jealous of people in this story? Well it says he’s jealous, but he’s not jealous of, he’s what? He’s jealous for the Jewish people and he’s hurting for his own kids.

And even though they’re little rascals, even though they’ve sinned, even though they’ve done bad things, God still loves them and has a plan for them. You parents know how this is. You know, you love your kids even if they did get a bad report card, even if the teacher at school gives a bad report about their behavior, you still hear bad stuff, you still love them and you still feel defensive somewhat toward them. That’s just a knee-jerk reaction. But the Lord in his holy behavior, he still has a love for the people of Israel.

And so when these nations treat his kids badly, God says, "I am jealous for you." And he’s very clear about that. God is watching and he’s keeping score is kind of what you might add to that. That’s something to keep in mind. Boy, the Lord says, "I am jealous for Israel." And so verse 15 he says, "And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease, for I was but a little displeased and they helped forward the affliction."

In other words, God used the Babylonians to punish his people, correct them, but then they took it too far. And remember, what was one of the things that made the Lord most angry with these nations that he used to discipline the Jews? It’s after the fact they would celebrate, "Haha, those stupid Jews, look what happened." And God says, "I see that, I’m going to judge you for that." God says, "I’m going to judge you."

So even though the Lord used these nations, once their attitude became overconfident and the Lord says, "I was okay with it, but then you helped the affliction even worse than what I had planned." Verse 15. Verse 16, "Therefore, thus saith the Lord, I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies, my house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of Hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem." Verse 16 is a promise of several things.

All in a fatal blow here the Lord says three main things that I’m going to do. Number one, I’m going to promise the Messiah. That’s what he’s saying here when he says "I am returned". I’m going to return to Jerusalem with mercy. That’s Christ, both his first coming and his second coming. I hope you see that. This is the dual fulfillment.

Christ is going to come to Jerusalem both when he was slain on a cross, rose from the grave, but he’s also coming again, the second coming. Also, his house shall be built, both you know with the first coming and the second coming. There’s a new house temple being built, that’s what he says here.

And then thirdly, the boundaries shall be enlarged. And it’s interesting because Jerusalem’s boundaries were enlarged from both in Zechariah’s time, but also in today’s time and in the time that Christ is going to come, his second coming, Jerusalem will be enlarged even more than what it is today.

It’s funny because one of the big disputes in the world is the land around Jerusalem. And the nations freak out over the Jews being in Jerusalem. That discussion’s going to be over when Christ comes, the second coming. The whole land for peace thing will be out the window and the Jews and God will take over all of Jerusalem. That’s what the Bible says.

So in verse 17, "Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, my cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad, and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion and shall yet choose Jerusalem." You know, the Lord’s saying, "Don’t worry, I know you’re sitting in desolation and ruin, but I’m going to fix this." And he gives us these massive prophecies.

So the rider is sitting in the myrtle tree. The rider is Jesus, the myrtle tree is Israel, the angels going on these other horses and stuff are going to and fro seeing how the world is treating the Jews. The answer that comes is the Lord is going to come back. He’s going to restore Jerusalem, going to restore the temple, and he still loves the Jews and he still cares about them.

Did you know in the Hebrew Bible, this is the end of chapter 1? And chapter 2 begins in verse 18. And it makes sense to me because that’s going to be vision number two. Now I was planning on going through all eight visions, I’m only going to do the first one and we will pick up the vision of verse 18 and onward. But before you pack it up, just remember that God has not forsaken his people, the Jews. He still has a plan for Jews and Israel. He’s chosen them, he’s comforting them, he’s going to prosper them.

And the reason that’s important is because you are also a chosen child of God if you’re a Christian. If you’ve accepted Christ, you are grafted into the vine of Israel where God chooses you. And he also comforts you and he’s got a plan and will prosper you in his time. It may not look like it right now, you might be like that time going, "Lord, where are you and what’s going on?"

But the Lord, he’s faithful to the Jew. See, that’s one of the most sinister parts of replacement theology, those that say that God’s done with the Jews because they were so bad, God says, "Yeah, the Jews are no longer my people, now it’s the church." And they believe the church has replaced Israel. Horrible theology.

And the number one reason I think that replacement theology is so wicked is number one, it makes God a liar. Because God made an everlasting covenant with the Jews where he says, "I’m going to, even though the Jews have sinned, I’m going to scatter them, I’m going to judge them, I’m going to correct them, but I will not forsake them." I’ve made an everlasting covenant based not on who the Jews are but who I am. And his Abrahamic covenant is an unconditional covenant.

And here’s the problem if you’re saying, "Well God reneged on that covenant," then you need to say, "Well what keeps him from going back on his promise to you?" If God forsakes the Jew, why wouldn’t he forsake you? Because you and I have given plenty of reason for God to say, "Eh, I’m kind of tired of Brett. He’s just a little sinner and he just keeps sinning and he’s not truly repentant, so like the Jews I’m going to totally forsake him."

That’s not the God we serve, that’s not the God we believe in. He will never leave you or forsake you. It’s one of the things he’s saying here in chapter 1 of Zechariah, that the Lord says, "I have a plan for my people. And even though everybody else is living in peace while the Jews are in captivity, I’m going to restore, I’m going to rebuild and I’m going to bless my people." And that’s a covenant we should remember for the Jews, but we also can apply to our own lives. The Lord loves us and he will not forsake us. That’s good news for you and for me. Amen?

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador reminding us of a promise of God in today’s word from both the Old and New Testaments that God indeed will never leave you nor forsake you. Some great encouragement.

And Pastor Brett will be closing our time in a word of prayer in just a moment, so I hope you’ll stick around for that. But first, today’s word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church in the Portland, Oregon area where Pastor Brett Meador’s the senior pastor.

We invite you to find out more about Pastor Brett and Athey Creek Church by going to todayswordradio.com. If you missed any portion of this study, you’ll find all of Pastor Brett’s messages online at todayswordradio.com.

And I also want to mention one more thing, that in addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, Oregon, we also have locations in Hillsboro and McMinnville. For more information, just go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link "Locations". Well, Pastor Brett Meador concludes today’s study now with this closing word of prayer.

Brett Meador: Lord, we are thankful for your word and as we look at the book of Zechariah, pray that you’d give us, Lord, more understanding of just your nature and your character. We see how you had a plan and a purpose and so many intricacies to what was happening here with the Jews. I pray that your plan would unfold in our lives, Lord, in these days that we’re living.

Lord, we seem to see that these days we’re living in right now are like Zechariah’s time, only the latter fulfillment of prophecy as the days get closer to the time where you intervene and you restore Jerusalem and rebuild the millennial kingdom temple. Lord, we look forward to that day.

But until then, I pray that we’d just be faithful following you, walking with you, Lord, serving you. Lord, give us a hunger and a thirst after righteousness, I pray. So bless these your people who’ve taken this time to study your word, may it bring forth good fruit in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador on today’s word. And that’s all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will continue another verse-by-verse study in the book of Zechariah. Today’s word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.