Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: In these last days, you and I are watching a biblically miraculous event of the Jews being regathered in might and in power, but it's really the Lord doing the whole thing.

Guest (Male): On today's word, Pastor Brett Meador and Israel's divine regathering in belief.

Brett Meador: All through the Bible there's prophecies about this, and this is all the same prophecy of the Jews being regathered and eventually have might brought back to the Jews. That's all coming. And eventually, their eyes will be opened during the tribulation period when they'll see Jesus as the Messiah.

Guest (Male): A study of the book of Zechariah reveals God as the redeemer who rescues, restores, and strengthens his people. Though the children of Israel were scattered, the Lord has made good on his promise to restore their land with a divine regathering yet to come. Pastor Brett Meador reminds us from today's word that our hope too is secured in a redeemer who is coming again.

Brett Meador: Here in Zechariah 10, there are seven little sections within chapter 10. The first section is verse one. We're going to call this a divine rain. It says, "Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain. So the Lord shall make bright clouds and give them showers of rain to every one grass in the field."

Here we have this admonition just to ask the Lord for rain. Now, is this a literal rain or is it a spiritual rain? That's a question you might want to ask when we talk about rain, especially in prophetic contexts here. And the answer to this is both, literal and figurative. One of the things as if you're a Bible student, you start to recognize that the Bible talks kind of about both, and that's the case, especially when you're talking about the end times and what have you.

God is speaking to the children of Israel about what he wants to do for them, and he's talking about just ask me and I'll give you rain. Ask for the divine rain, both spiritual and figurative. By the way, during Zechariah's time, there was a literal dryness and also a spiritual dryness, and the Bible speaks of both things.

Remember the book of Joel was about the swarm of locusts that had destroyed all the crops, and so the people, they needed some rain that new crops would grow. So there in Joel, he said, "Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month." So that was the prophecy Joel gave about a literal needing some precipitation, literal rain.

But then Joel sort of mysteriously, his gaze goes further than the local drought, and then in chapter two of Joel, verse 28, a few verses later, he says, "And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions." The idea of pouring out rain, former and latter, and then pouring out my spirit upon you. And of course, talking both spiritually and literally, they needed rain, both the Holy Spirit being poured out and water. Water is often linked to the Holy Spirit, and so we see that link.

So the Lord holds back his rain from Israel, and that's what's going on literally during Zechariah's time. They're literally going through a drought. But they're also spiritually going through a drought during Zechariah's time. And so what should they do? What's the answer to their dry time of literal and spiritual drought? The answer: ask. That's what it says in our verse. Back to Zechariah, it says there very clearly, the very first word of the chapter, "Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain."

I think this is one of the most simple things that the Lord asks of us to do, but it's one of the last things we do. And I know it sounds simple, but is that why Jesus had to say it so clearly in Matthew 7:7? "Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." What a great promise of the word, Matthew 7:7. James tells us, you have not because you ask not. I know it sounds so simple, but I think we go through times where we're sick or hurting or broke or in trouble and we just think, "Lord, where are you?" But have you asked?

So this idea of ask, ask for the rain and the Lord's going to send it. That's what he says. All that to say, the first thing we see here is a divine rain, verse one. Not only a divine rain, but number two, a divine recompense. Let's check that out, verse two and three. It says, "For the idols have spoken vanity and the diviners have seen a lie and have told false dreams. They comfort in vain. Therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled because there was no shepherd. Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds and I punished the goats for the Lord of hosts hath visited his flock the house of Judah and hath made them his goodly horse in the battle."

Interesting, a divine recompense. What's this about? It's about the people that were listening to the false leaders. And this is something that was happening in Zechariah's time, but even more so pre-exile in Babylon. Do you remember the prophets that were giving everybody the things they wanted to hear? Meanwhile, the true prophets were saying things that the people didn't want to hear. And so the people chose to hear the things they wanted to hear and they blew off the true prophets. That was a major theme in Jeremiah; they never listened to a word he said.

And should we be concerned about that in the days we live? Boy, you better believe it. Matthew chapter 24, remember what Jesus said? Jesus said, "For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they should deceive the very elect." Jesus was talking about this when the disciples asked, "What's the end of the world going to look like?" And Jesus said, "This is what it's going to look like. This is one of the signs and wonders." He'd say people following after signs and wonders and claiming to be teachers but are really just false prophets and false teachers. And the people were duped by the evil shepherds. And Lord says, "I'm going to thump on these guys." A divine recompense is what he says here. So that's verses two and three.

Then we have the third section, the divine redeemer. The divine redeemer. This is where I love what it says in verse four. Suddenly it just kind of pops out. It says, "Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor together." Now, this is one of those verses that the King James is a little hard to discern, but whenever you read a verse where you're like, "What is this all about? I don't know if I understand this," one of the things you can do with the various good translations that are out there is compare. And then you might get hints as you read some of the other. If you don't have a Greek or Hebrew dictionary or interlinear or whatever, let me show you how this works.

If you take some of the newer translations like the ESV, I really like the ESV. The NIV says, "And from Judah," that's an important part that the Hebrew does imply but the King James doesn't. "From Judah will come the cornerstone." Does this start to make sense now? Because Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah, Jesus is the cornerstone that was rejected by the men. Like suddenly the NIV kind of, "Oh yeah, now I know what it's talking about." From him the tent peg. See, in the King James, instead of calling it tent peg, it's the nail. So you're like, "Wait, what's the nail?" Well, the tent peg. And then the battle bow. And then from him every ruler. What's going on? Well, let's take another look as you keep looking at the newer translations.

ESV says, "From him shall come the cornerstone, from him the tent peg, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler all of them together." What this is saying is the "him" is the one from the house of Judah, the cornerstone, which we know that's Jesus. And by the way, those first two, the cornerstone, is that referring to the first coming or the second coming of Christ? First. And we know that because the cornerstone was rejected. He was the rejected cornerstone. That's the reason we know that's kind of the first coming.

Now, the tent peg refers to the tabernacle and we could go on this in depth but the tabernacle tent pegs, if you went through the study on the tabernacle with us when they built the tabernacle in our Old Testament studies, each part of the tabernacle has its symbols. But the tent pegs hold the tabernacle down. It anchors it. But there were tent pegs made of silver, which is kind of an interesting thing. Silver is the metal of blood or redemption, redemption. And so the tent peg is kind of this symbol in the Old Testament of Jesus our redeemer who were held down firmly tabernacling with the Lord's presence by Christ and his redemption. There's all kinds of imagery there that's really cool that we could get into.

But then the battle bow, first coming or second coming? That's more the second coming. See, this is where Zechariah uniquely sort of meanders in and out of the first coming and the second coming. And then the big question is who's "every ruler all of them together?" Most believe Bible scholars would say that's us who come with Christ because we're going to be leading with Christ. We get to rule and reign with Christ and so some people say that's the Lord of hosts, the Lord who is coming. And it reminds us of the conquering the second coming like in Matthew chapter 21:42 talks about the builders rejecting the cornerstone. That's that verse we were talking about about the cornerstone.

But in this divine redeemer, the reason we say redeemer is because that's what he does. He holds us down in his tabernacle, the tent stake, but then he brings us to the glorious second coming of Christ in like Psalm 24. I love that. The Lord is mighty in battle and he's also called there the Lord of hosts. That's his second coming, and that's what's speaking about here in the part of this verse where it says his battle bow out of him every oppressor together. Or those, the word "oppressor" is a bad, difficult translation there. It's more of a ruler who's coming with Christ. So anyway, a little difficult verse, but it's a glorious speaking of Christ, first coming and his second coming, tucked away in that single verse, even though the Jews had been duped in verses two and three, the redeemer is still coming. Don't you love that?

So we have that, the divine redeemer. That's number three. Number four as we go on into the next verse, verses five to the beginning of verse seven, we have a divine restoration. Check it out. It says in verse five, "And they shall be as mighty men which tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle and they shall fight because the Lord is with them and the riders on the horses shall be confounded. And I will strengthen the house of Judah and I will save the house of Joseph and I will bring them again to place them for I have mercy upon them and they shall be as though I had not cast them off for I am the Lord their God and will hear them. And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man."

Notice here the Lord's saying, "I'm going to restore and bless Israel," but "I'm going to make the men of Israel mighty men." And the Lord's restoring them not just as they've been scattered all over the world, but he regathers them in might. And it's interesting to do a study on the word "mighty." The singular word is "Gibbor," but the plural is "Gibborim," which means mighty, strong, valiant. And this restoration, someday the Lord's saying in the future, the Jew is going to be once again deemed as a mighty man, the idea esteemed as the mightiest.

And what's interesting about that, by the way, we understand that the mighty men of Israel, we're starting to see that happen right now. And so one of the things you and I have to really be cognizant of is when you see the IDF, Israeli Defense Forces, and they're having battles like the Yom Kippur War, the Six-Day War, people in the world marvel at Israel and think, "How do they do it?" And we know that they're certainly skilled and they have technology and all that stuff, but they've also been given sort of a divine protection in these latter days. I think we're starting to see this "Gibbor" word come to pass in modern time.

But all that to say, divine restoration is going to be restoring Israel back to their proper place ultimately in the Millennial Kingdom as the mighty men of the Lord. And there's a bunch of other little things here. Did you notice the rider and the horse? Check it out there and you might say, "Brett, are there going to be people riding horses in the last days?" Interesting Hebrew words here for the rider and the horse. The word for rider is "Rakab," which doesn't necessarily mean a horseman, but it means somebody mounting up on something and riding it. And then the word "Sus" can be horse, anything that's swift, or even flying like a bird is kind of the idea in swift in flight, and if someone were to ride even a bird.

So you might say, "Brett, are they going to ride horses in the last days?" Don't know. Is there going to be a horse and rider in battle at the Battle of Armageddon? The Bible talks about how the blood will flow to the horse's mane. Are there going to be literal horses? I don't have the foggiest. But the Hebrew wording here doesn't require it necessarily to be horses. It means men riding something that's swift is the real Hebrew context here. Well, Brett, why would they need horses? Have you ever heard about the EMP weapons that we have today?

There could be a time in battle where people are going to wish they had a horse and a bow and an arrow. Because an EMP is an electromagnetic pulse weapon that detonates well up into the atmosphere but causes anything electronic to be fried and no longer functioning. There's actually been examples of that weapon used in the world today. Can you imagine on a battlefield if suddenly everything with electronics in it is now no longer functioning? Like it really is curious. It makes you wonder if there is a time coming where a guy with a horse is going to be back to those things. I don't know. I wouldn't make that case. But I think it is interesting that the Bible doesn't require it to be a horse and a rider. It can be a person mounted on something very fast. That's the idea.

So the Lord's going to restore Israel back to their mighty day of battle. That's what we see there in that section. Number five, a divine rejoicing. And that's there in verse seven, the second part of it. Verse seven, "They of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man and their heart shall rejoice as through wine." I love that there's a rejoicing. Is the Lord into joy? Some people take this too far. God wants you to be happy and they talk about if you're not happy, then there's something, sin or whatever. Could be, but not always. But the Lord is in fact into you and I experiencing joy. The joy of the Lord is our strength. We get to trust in the Lord.

Jesus was joyful. How joyful was Jesus? Jesus, it says the children would run up and jump on his lap and they wanted to hang out with Jesus. And the disciples, they were the grouchy ones. "Get these children out of here." And Jesus said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me." I guarantee Jesus had a demeanor that made kids think, "This guy's cool." And that's usually the kind of person I like. He's usually joyful and jolly and kids like that. But the Bible even says that Jesus was in fact anointed with the oil of gladness. "Thou hast loved righteousness, hated iniquity, therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." This is a word about Jesus and that he was given that anointing.

Sure he had times of sorrow, weeping over Jerusalem, but Jesus, if you sum up who he was, he was anointed with the oil of gladness. And Philippians chapter four tells us, "Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice." The Jews sadly have not been a rejoicing people because they've been in their own sin and their rebellion. There's coming a day according to verse seven, "Yea, their children shall see it and be glad and their heart shall rejoice in Yahweh or Jehovah" is the idea there. That's our verse where we see a divine rejoicing.

Number six, we see a divine regathering, verse eight. And it says, "I will hiss for them." What are we now? Who's the guy on Lord of the Rings? "Precious." You're like, "I didn't know Gollum was in the Bible." No. The word "hiss" there, we know this to mean what? Whistling. When the Bible uses the word "hiss," it's most of the time talking about people going like in astonishment. Wow. Remember it says they'll walk by Jerusalem and they'll hiss and they'll say, "Whoa, what happened to Jerusalem?" The idea is they'll be going, "We remember when Jerusalem was amazing and now look at it, it's a pile of rubble."

But there's also the idea of hissing when you call a dog. That's also in the Bible, the idea of hissing. And that's the context of this one. What's the Lord going to do? He says, "I will whistle for them and gather them" like a dog. Come over here, and your horse or your dog comes running. Like which was it, the Lone Ranger that whistled and his horse would come running? That's the idea. "I will hiss for them and gather them for I have redeemed them and they shall increase as they have increased."

And verse nine, "I will sow them among the people and they shall remember me in far countries and they shall live with their children and turn again. I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt and gather them out of Assyria and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon and place shall not be found for them. And he shall pass through the sea with affliction and shall smite the waves in the sea and all the deeps of the river shall dry up and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down and the scepter of Egypt shall depart away."

This might be a little troubling for a person who doesn't have a background in these places of Egypt and Assyria. Do you guys remember in Hosea, if you recall, Egypt and Assyria was sort of an idiom for the Jews speaking of all the nations where the Jews would be scattered? Do you guys remember that? If you jot it down in your notes, Hosea 11:11 kind of used those names, the Egyptians and the Assyrians, as the two nations. They were the powerful ones at the time that were subduing Israel that would end up scattering the Jews all over the world.

So when it says here in our text in verse 10, "I will bring them again out of the land of Egypt and gather them out of Assyria," he's really talking about the diaspora being scattered all over. And the Gilead there is the Golan Heights. Lebanon of course is what is Lebanon today. And they would not have any place more for them, so they would be regathered. The diaspora is the scattering, but in these last days, you and I are watching a biblically miraculous event of the Jews being regathered in might and in power. They're still being regathered right now, by the way, in unbelief. They're not gathering saying, "Praise the Lord, we're going to be in Israel." No, they're just going, "We need to be safe, so we're moving to Israel." But it's really the Lord doing the whole thing. And eventually their eyes will be opened during the tribulation period when they'll see Jesus as the Messiah.

But even with all that, this verse 11 has come to pass. "He'll pass through the sea with affliction." Boy, have the Jews gone through a sea of affliction? You bet. If you know their history, it's been nothing but affliction and that's what that verse is all about. But eventually they're going to be regathered and God is the one who does that. All through the Bible there's prophecies about this. This Zechariah 10 is just one small thing. Ezekiel 36 and 37, the Valley of Dry Bones and the gathering of the bones, and this is all the same prophecy of the Jews being regathered and eventually have life be brought back and might brought back to the Jews. That's all coming.

Well, a divine regathering, and we see that. Finally, lastly, a divine renovation. In the final verse here, it says verse 12, "And I will strengthen them in the Lord and they shall walk up and down in his name," saith the Lord. Man, I love that. I've marked that. "I will strengthen them in the Lord." The Jews have been hated, despised, rejected, beaten down, but the Lord says, "I'm coming to strengthen them." There's coming a time where there's going to be hope for the future and I've got a plan and a purpose. And by the way, the Lord has that same plan for you.

You might feel like you're in a bad time or bad place, but don't lose hope. The Lord will strengthen you in his time, in his due time. You might be going through really hard things. Just ask the Jews; they know what you're going through. But good news: you and I as Gentile church or New Testament believers, we know that the Lord wants to strengthen us in his time. And it might be different. Hopefully it's different than when the Jews because we know when the Jews are going to be strengthened, it's in the tribulation period. You and I are going to be strengthened minimally at the rapture of the church. That's glorious when we're taken up to be with the Lord. So we have hope, something to hope for. Does having hope make a difference?

I love that study that was done in the 70s. It was kind of brutal. They took 10 rats and they put them in a tub of water and just had the rats swim around, and it took them four hours to drown. They timed it. Poor little rats. But then they took a second group of rats, 10 of the same kind of rats, put them in the tub. And at about three hours, they pulled them out of the water, dusted them off, fed them some nice food, took good care of them, and then they throw them back in the vat of water. And they're swimming around again. Do you know how long they lasted? They lasted 24 hours, then they drowned.

You're like, "That's so sad." But what was it that made them last 24 hours as opposed to the original four? The difference is a little rat brain had hope. And there was enough hope that they'd get fluffed up again and get some food and taken out of the water that they just kept treading water. And I wonder sometimes, you might feel like a rat in a tub and you're going down. But good news: the Lord's not going to let you drown. The Lord says here he will never let the righteous be moved. No man can pluck you out of the hand of the Father. That's what John 10:10 tells us. So we have the hope in Christ and he's not going to get us out and fluff us up only to drown us. He's going to take us out and save us, and he does that. Man, we have good news. Amen.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador illustrating the assurance we have in the Lord's plan and purpose for all who are both now and in the Millennial Kingdom to come. And Pastor Brett has a closing prayer planned to conclude our study in today's word in just a moment. 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 by going to todayswordradio.com.

If you've missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com. Our vision on today's word is to proclaim the hope of salvation and help people know Jesus through careful study of the Bible. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. Also want to mention that in addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, Oregon, we also have locations in Hillsboro and McMinnville. For more information, go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link locations. Again, todayswordradio.com and click the link locations. Well, now let's join Pastor Brett Meador with a prayer to conclude our time together.

Brett Meador: Lord, we're so thankful for this truth. We thank you, Lord, that you have taken good care of us and you have a plan for us. Lord, we're excited for your people. We know the Jews have a rough future ahead of them, even as we see the prophecies of Zechariah, they're still gathering in unbelief. But we know there's a time coming where their eyes will be opened, where you're going to save them again as a people.

But until then, Lord, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We pray for the Jews and that they would see and ready them, Lord, that they would see Jesus as the Messiah. Lord, until that happens, we know that the end is not yet. But we do know the rapture could happen at any moment. So we look with anticipation. Lord, I pray that you'd make your church waiting and watching and ready, Lord. So bless these people who've gone through this section of Scripture. Lord, may it bring forth good fruit in our lives in Jesus' name, amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador closing our time on today's word. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will continue in the book of Zechariah and we'll see how the current geopolitical climate is setting the stage for the fulfillment of end-times events. Today's word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.