Zechariah 9:1-17

The coming of Christ and the Day of the Lord mean different things to different people.  Not only are their theological debates about the definition of these terms; but when they occur, they will have a profoundly different impact on different people.  For some people the coming of the Lord will mean utter destruction while for others it will mean utter delight.  The impact that the coming of Christ will have on us is solely dependent on how we view Christ right now.  If we have trusted Him as our redeemer from sin and have been reconciled to God through His blood; we will be delighted by His return because we will experience the reality of our position in Christ.  However, those who reject the Son of God, considering Him to be a fable or myth, will experience His return as destruction.

GOD WILL JUDGE THE NATIONS:  Zechariah now begins to address the coming judgments of God on the nations surrounding Israel.  These writings are long after the first part of the book and refer to a time of judgment that is coming long after the original readers are dead.  The rise and fall of nations is in the hand of God.  Some of the judgments described in the first part of the chapter seem to be describing the conquests of Greece under Alexander the Great.  His conquest was swift and complete and took many of these powerful nations by surprise.  God was using him to judge the idolatrous nations around him.  However, he and his succeeding leaders were unsympathetic to the children of Israel and hated them because they refused to worship the Greek dictators as gods.  Though they were used to judge the idolatry of many nations, they too were judged by God.  The point of all this is that it is God who sets nations up and it is God who tears them down.  He is the sovereign judge and we can trust Him to do what is right and just.  He has done it in the past.  He is doing it now.  He will do it in the future.  One day we will look back over the history of this planet and recognize His sovereign rule from start to finish.

GOD BRINGS JOY TO ISRAEL: In the midst of all this judgment are the children of Israel, a weak and dependent nation that is just trying to eke out an existence after her captivity.  At times it seems like this nation is bouncing back and forth like a ping pong ball through the pages of history.  Zechariah affirms that there is great hope for His people and for this nation.  He has promised to send a redeemer that will reign supreme over His people.  The Redeemer is the Lord Jesus Christ.  He will arrive riding on a donkey and will set His people free.  Christ will come to set His people free.  The expectation of Israel was simply that they would be set free from the oppression of the nations around them.  But, God’s plan is far more complete than that.  He is coming to set them free from sin.  In His first coming He paid the price for our sins on the cross.  He redeemed all who believe from slavery to sin.  Unfortunately, the majority of the children of Israel did not recognize Him as the Messiah and rejected Him as their Savior and King.  This has brought about the pain and suffering that Israel has experienced over the last couple millennia.  However, at Christ’s second coming things will be very different.  He will arrive as conquering King, Israel will be saved from sin and experience with all who believe the joy and peace of being under the reign of Christ.