Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Just in a nutshell, the Millennial Kingdom, there's going to be people that are going to be in a hurry because they're excited to go pray in Jerusalem. The Millennial Kingdom practice will not be a got-to, it will be a get-to.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador with an inspiring prophetic image for the church today.

Brett Meador: We get to go worship, we get to go seek the Word and study scripture and be given to the things that the church is supposed to be doing. It's like we get to. It's a get-to, not a got-to. That's what we're saying, because God loves His church, and you should too.

Guest (Male): The book of Zechariah demonstrates God's power over earthly kingdoms while promising a future hope fulfilled in the Messiah. In Zechariah 8 and 9 of Today's Word, Pastor Brett Meador notes a call to trust God's sovereignty and rejoice in the salvation He graciously brings as illustrated by the devotion of the believers prophesied in the coming Millennial Kingdom.

Brett Meador: Verse one of chapter 8. It says there, "Again, the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury."

Again, this word 'jealousy' stumbles people. I hope you understand this, you know, the Lord is not jealous of the Jews or of the Babylonians or of the Romans. He's jealous for His people the Jews. Jealousy, if you look it up in the Hebrew, there's two definitions. One's the negative one, but the good version is defined like this in the Hebrew Bible, in a favorable sense, to denote a consuming zeal focused on one that is loved.

And so, the Lord loves His people, the Jews. He's got a heart for the Jews. So, God says, "I am jealous." And I'm jealous for her with a great fury. That's something you don't want to mess with. But verse three, "Thus saith the Lord, I am returned unto Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth. And the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the Holy Mountain."

"Thus saith the Lord of hosts, there shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof." Pretty interesting. Now, when is truth going to come to Jerusalem? When is the, they're going to be, you know, the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem? When is it going to become the city of truth? This is where we as New Testament Christian Church, we have an advantage over the Hebrew people of the Old Testament. Because we know what the first coming of Christ. So, I'm going to ask, you know, what's first coming, what's second coming, okay? You guys ready for that? So, verses three and four and five, first coming or second coming of Christ?

Audience: Second.

Brett Meador: Second coming, and that's clear because the city of Jerusalem's streets are not a safe place to go. It's funny, Jerusalem, city of peace. But that's hardly been what it is. But that's what it's going to be. It's going to be that when Christ comes, rules and reigns. When Christ comes, it's going to be a time of ultimate peace, and it's going to be great. And in verse seven, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country."

Scholars debate what does this mean? Because you could say in different ways, the way this says it in the Hebrew, is it, is it the Lord's going to save the people that are in the east country or in the west country? Or is it talking about saving the people from the east country and the west country? The Lord's going to save His people out of there from tyranny, or is it just a location? Don't know for sure. But the take home here is the Lord's going to protect His people. That's the main thing.

Verse 8, "And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God in truth and in righteousness." Is that first coming or second coming?

Audience: Second.

Brett Meador: Second coming, because He hasn't happened yet. But Christ is coming to Jerusalem where there's going to be an everlasting peace, it says there, and also ruling in Jerusalem. That's verse 8.

Verse 9 says, back to Zechariah's time, it says, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words, by the mouth of the prophets, which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, that the Temple might be built." This speaks of what they were doing, building the Temple, right? For before these days, "There was no higher for man, nor higher for beast, neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction. For I set all men every one against his neighbor."

"But now I will not be unto the residue of this people, as in the former days, saith the Lord of hosts. For," verse 12, "the seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give her fruit, the ground shall give her increase, and the heaven shall give their due. And I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. And it shall come to pass that as you were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong."

Now, in verses 10 through 13 here, basically the Lord's saying, times are tough, and they have been for the Jews if you know Jewish history. But He's saying that there's going to be a blessing and a time of blessing, and a time of fruitfulness. Now, this is one of the prophecies, another prophecy you and I have seen come or starting to come to pass. Not only the Valley of Dry Bones, the Jews gathering back into Israel in the Holy Land. But even the land itself.

One of the fun things about going to Israel is to see how beautiful and fruitful it's become. And this is a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Verse 14, it says, "For thus saith the Lord of hosts, as I thought to punish you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord of hosts, and I repented not. So again, have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah, fear ye not."

So, the Lord's got good plans for His people. Now, this idea of punishment, you know, "I thought to punish you." Did the Lord do that? Well, yeah, there was definite correction for Israel. And the Bible even says, this is part of who God is. Hebrews 12:6, "For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth," or the idea of spanking, punishing, it says there, "even as a father in a son whom He delights." That's important.

Verse 16, "These are the things that you shall do: Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates. And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath. For all these things are things that I hate, saith the Lord." Wow.

Isn't it amazing when the Bible says God hates stuff? Breaking oath, you know, love no false oath. You know, somebody makes a promise that isn't meant to be kept or wasn't kept. And man, we make oaths in this life. Oath or covenants. You could say marriage is an oath and covenant. Contracts in business are oaths and covenant. And one of the things God hates is people that don't take those oaths seriously.

You say, "Brett, you're just making more of that about marriage." No, well, actually, in the New Testament, the Bible makes it really clear, God hates divorce. Just telling you what the Bible says. He hates divorce. And that's why if you're planning on getting married, you better make real certain the person you're marrying is the person you're going to stick with the rest of your life.

But what if they, they go insane, sickness and in health. When you said that, you were supposed to mean it. That's part of the oath. In sickness, mental illness, or health. Like you're signing on for something that's really radical. And God says, "That's what I want you to do." Be an oath keeper. Be careful on that one.

Well, verse 18 goes on, it says, "And the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, The fast of the fourth month, and of the fifth month, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth." Now, pause for a second. Does this ring a bell? We're talking about the fasts of the fifth and seventh month and the other ones, too: the seventh, the fifth, the fourth and the tenth. So, they had all kinds of fasting months, and you're thinking, oh great, all this time of fasting.

But I love this verse. Why is that, Brett? Check it out. It says, "All those fasts, the fast of the fifth, the fourth, the seventh, the fast of the tenth month, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts." "Therefore, love the truth and peace." Amen and amen.

All those fasts you were doing. Remember, they asked that earlier in the chapters, you know, like, should we continue to weep, fast, and mourn? The Lord's saying, "No, you don't have to keep doing that." And here in all these fasts that they were doing, the Lord says, "Man, time to have a feast." I love that. The Bible says, "Delight thyself in fatness." What a great scripture.

By the way, Isaiah 61, verses one through four, talks about how the Spirit of the Lord anointed me, you know, to preach tidings and proclaim liberty and opening the prison and all that. But it goes on and talks about how, you know, the Lord is going to bless, and there's going to be righteousness and beauty and not heaviness. How the Lord was going to turn our sorrow into gladness, our mourning into dancing. And you see a little snapshot of this with this weeping, mourning, fasting ritual the Jews were doing. The Lord says, "Man, instead, you're going to have gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore, love the truth and peace." I love that. From fasting to feasting.

Well, verse 20, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people and the inhabitants of many cities. And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts. And I will go also. Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord."

Now, this is really something. This is where we're going to see people, they're going to want to go to Jerusalem. The inhabitants of one city shall go to another and say, "Let us go speedily to pray." The idea of 'speedily,' the idea is 'continually,' 'willingly' is the idea. There's a positive here. It's not just, run, we got to pray. It's like, we get to. It's a get-to, not a got-to. That's what we're seeing. What we're talking about here, just in a nutshell, the Millennial Kingdom, there's going to be people that are going to be in a hurry because they're excited to go pray in Jerusalem.

The Millennial Kingdom practice will not be a got-to, it'll be a get-to. I mean, you know, who goes on a Wednesday night in the midweek of a busy week with lots of work to do and stuff? Who goes to a Bible study? People that think it's a get-to and not a got-to. And I love that about our church. People pile in for a Wednesday night Bible study. That's awesome.

But the Millennial Kingdom is going to be like that ten times over. We're just going to be so glad to be with the Lord. Like the psalmist, "I was glad when they said, Let us go into the house of the Lord." You know, our feet shall stand in the gates of Jerusalem. Like it's going to be a got-to and not a get-to. We get to go worship, we get to go seek the Word and study scripture, and, you know, be given to the things that the church is supposed to be doing. Because God loves His church and you should do. That's just kind of the important thing.

Well, verse 23 is great. It says, "This is going to be a change, of course, in the Millennial Kingdom." Verse 23. "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, In those days, it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold of all languages and of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you."

Right now, the world hates the Jews. Antisemitism is on the rise exponentially right now. In the Millennial Kingdom, the Jews will be appreciated as God's chosen people. And they'll be exonerated as that, and they'll be popular. Instead of being antisemites, everybody's going to want to, "Hey, can we go with you because you're a Jew?" It's like people will want to hang out with the Jew in the Millennial Kingdom. And that's going to be different than all of history. All throughout history, the poor Jews have been the recipient of, you know, antisemitism, slavery, the Holocaust, and all kinds of Holocausts throughout history. We can talk about, you know, Hadrian, we can talk about Antiochus Epiphanes, we can talk about Pharaoh, we can talk about others throughout history that wanted to kill Jews. But in the Millennial Kingdom, they're going to be celebrated.

Well, chapter 9. Here we go. Zechariah chapter 9, verse 1. "The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach, and Damascus shall be the rest thereof, when the eyes of man, as all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the Lord. And Hamath also shall border thereby; Tyrus, and Zidon, though it be very wise; And Tyrus did build herself a stronghold, and heaped silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets. Behold, the Lord will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the seas; and she shall be devoured with fire."

Now, these are some prophecies we went over in previous studies, okay? Basically, verse 1 and 2 is people are turning their eyes toward the Lord when trouble comes. And in this section, some people see Alexander the Great, and this is kind of a reiteration of what Alexander the Great did in the book of both Daniel and Ezekiel. If you, you can write this down in your notes. Daniel, chapter 7, 8, 10, and 11. That's where we were seeing prophecies concerning the Alexander the Great as it involved Jerusalem and Tyre and Sidon.

And also, in about 330 BC, the destruction of Tyre and Sidon. That's what this is referring to. But not just those regions, when also Alexander came in verse 5. It goes on and says, "Verse 5, Ashkelon shall see it, and fear; Gaza shall also see it, and be very sorrowful, Ekron; for her expectation shall be ashamed; and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall be not inhabited. And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abomination from between his teeth; but he that remaineth, even he, shall be for our God, and shall be as a governor in Judah, and as Ekron as a Jebusite."

Now, what's this all about? Well, does anybody know what are these cities that we just described? All those cities we just mentioned, there's something common about them. They were Philistine cities. But there's a city of the Philistines conspicuously missing from this list. Does anybody know which city that is? Gath. That's the biggest Philistine city. Why is that not listed here? The answer: the Jews had taken over Gath by this time. It would already be part of Israel's cities. They'd take it over by the time this prophecy would come to pass. So, it was the four Philistine cities, as it turns out. All that to say. It was already among Judah and Israel at this time.

Well, verse 8. "And I will encamp about mine house because of the army, because of him that passeth by, and because of him that returneth; and no oppressor shall pass through them anymore: for now have I seen with mine eyes." This is where Zechariah gets a little tricky, because we're kind of talking about Alexander's time. But he, all in these chapters, sometimes he weaves in and out of the first coming of Christ, the second coming of Christ, the end times, Zechariah's time. We've bounced around. But he's starting to move his way back through time.

And there's always a gap, and I want you to think about, what's the gap that is always left out when these prophecies are given? Think about that just for a second, we'll come to that in a few minutes. But here in verse 8, the Lord is, says He will encamp around Jerusalem. Now, that's something that the Lord has done throughout the history. There's all kinds of great stories of the Lord, Lord of hosts, camping around Jerusalem.

But one of those stories is, and you could bridge Alexander the Great's story. Remember when Alexander the Great came to crush Jerusalem? If you remember, the Lord encamped around Jerusalem. Did Alexander the Great crush Jerusalem? No, it was the only city he didn't crush. Why? The story, I've done whole teachings on this, Jaddua the priest came out and, remember, showed Alexander, this is comes from Josephus, the Book of Antiquities number 11, chapter 8, is where the story is told of Jaddua coming out and showing Alexander his name, the great world leader, listed in the Book of Daniel.

Not his name, but his, who the Greek leader would come and crush the whole world. And Alexander was so moved that his name was in the Jewish Hebrew Bible prophetically that he did not destroy Jerusalem. And some argue that that's what this is talking about in verse 8, the Lord encamping around Jerusalem. But then you see the gaze of Zechariah go farther in verse 9. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, having salvation, lowly, and riding upon the ass, upon the colt, the foal of an ass." First coming or second coming?

Audience: First coming.

Brett Meador: First coming. Verse 10, "And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off; and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth." First coming or second coming?

Audience: Second coming.

Brett Meador: Second coming. You see what I'm saying? You can understand why the Jews are like, "Well, why didn't Jesus conquer all the nations from sea to shining sea?" Because that's what the prophecy says. But there's a gap. There's a gap between verse 9 and verse 10. And does anybody want to know what you call that gap? Who could say?

Audience: Church Age.

Brett Meador: Church Age. That's the big difference. And you can always factor in the Church Age when there's a gap in Bible prophecy. But the idea is he's going to get rid of all the weaponry and all the bows. Isaiah chapter 2, verse 4. This is the part of the scripture the UN puts in front of their, like they're the ones who are going to make people beat their spears into pruning hooks and nation. But it says in verse 4, "He shall judge among the nations." That's the Lord, not UN, United nothing. "He shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares." You see, that's what this Zechariah verse is talking about.

Well, verse 11, "As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein there is no water." Man, I love this. Man, we could talk about this. The only deliverance mentioned for mankind is through the blood covenant of Jesus Christ in His first coming. You know, we like to as Americans talk about our liberty and our freedom. But man in this world today doesn't recognize that he is actually a prisoner to sin and stuff. That's why we feel so bad about what we see going on in the world today. But like Romans 7:14, you know, man has been sold under sin. He's a slave to sin. But the idea is only by the blood of Jesus coming and dying on the cross. The Lord alone delivers His prisoners, as it says here in verse 11, out of the pit where there's no water. I love that. Man, we could talk about that verse just in the Gospel.

Verses 12 through 17 deal with more about the war after Alexander the Great. So, it bounces around here a little bit. Verse 12. "Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope: even today do I declare that I will render double unto thee; When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as a sword of the mighty man." When did the sons of Zion go up against the sons of Greece? Anybody?

The Maccabean Revolt. After Alexander the Great, remember the four generals, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, Seleucus, Cassander, those four generals took over. And then the Ptolemys and Seleucids went after it. And Antiochus Epiphanes came in like 170-ish BC and took over Jerusalem, killed tens of thousands of Jews. And then made the priest drink pig's blood. The whole Hanukkah story came out of that when the Maccabees, they were the sons of the priests they killed on the Temple steps, the Antiochus' men. And the Maccabees were these sort of Green Beret, SEAL Team Six kind of guys who came and just thumped Antiochus Epiphanes. It's an amazing story. The Maccabean Revolt is something worth studying in history. That's what this is referring to, verse 13 to the end.

In verse 14, "And the Lord shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south. And the Lord of hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and subdue with sling stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, as the corners of the altar. And the Lord their God shall save them in that day as a flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his hand."

Interesting, you know, this idea of the stones, an ensign and all this stuff, these attributes of what these guys get from the Maccabean Revolt speaks of the Lord Himself in kind of profound ways. The Lord is the shepherd of them, it says here, and shall save His flock, verse 16. Psalm 23, Psalm 100, the stones of the crown, Malachi chapter 3, verse 17, and the ensign upon the land. Isaiah talks about that as well, the ensign upon the land. And these are cool things that the Lord does for His people during this Maccabean Revolt where He saves them.

But then he ends, and I love this, because no matter what prophecy we talk about, how crazy Bible prophecy gets, you don't want to forget, the Lord is good. Don't forget that, and that's how he ends this verse 17. "For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! Corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids."

I love this. In the midst of all the trouble that Israel has, the Lord is still good and He's still going to get the people through. And that's what we, we think, the Lord is good. You might see bad things happening in the world today and things that break our hearts and stuff like that, but the Lord is still good. And He's got a plan for His people, and He's got a future and a hope for us believers, and it's going to be glorious. It's going to be great to be in Heaven someday. And I look forward to that.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador closing a verse by verse study of Zechariah 9 in Today's Word, emphasizing the ultimate goodness of God securing an eternity with Him. And we'll be concluding our time together in 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 is 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.

I 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, just go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link, Locations. Again, todayswordradio.com and click the link, Locations. Well, with our last few moments, here again is Pastor Brett Meador offering a closing prayer.

Brett Meador: Lord, how thankful we are for your Word. It is, in fact, living and powerful and we're reminded of just how you did intervene for the Jewish people. Lord, we remember how you stepped up for the Maccabees and gave them that miraculous victory over the Seleucids. And Lord, how thankful we are that you keep your Word. Your oaths, your word, is as good as gold. Lord, you always are right and you're always true. And we look forward to that day where you come back for your church, rapture us, take us to be with you for the Millennial Kingdom when you return and rule and reign from Jerusalem.

But until then, Lord, I pray that we would be busy, that our hands would be at work doing the work that you've called us to do. Lord, building the Temple as it says there, doing the work of the Temple. I pray we would do that, Lord, too. Give us strength for these days we live in. In Jesus' name, amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador closing our time today here on Today's Word. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will continue in the book of Zechariah and he'll explore what the big deal about Jerusalem is. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.