January 2nd - The Flock Sold for Slaughter

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Text – Zechariah 11

Today we're going to look at one of the harsher passages in scripture, where Christ breaks his covenant with the people Israel and destroys them as a nation, since they have rejected him and esteemed him as nothing. This passage is extremely prophecy rich and will be important for us to remember that Zechariah is written over 500 years before Christ walked the earth, and that it perfectly predicted key events in his life.

What are some prophecies from Zechariah that Christ has already fulfilled? Humble and riding on a donkey; priest and king; the removal of sin in a single day; good shepherd.

How is Christ the good shepherd? Because he laid down his life for his sheep. What was his reaction to those who were bad shepherds? Fierce anger. What were those shepherds doing with the sheep? Selling them for profit, treating them like merchandise. Are these literal sheep, or do they represent something else? They represent people, the flock of God, and we know that God cares for his flock. What is the result of those who had rejected God and were putting their whole hope in possessions and things of this world? That is the first three verses of chapter 11, which we looked at last time,

Zechariah 11:1-3 Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars! Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, for the glorious trees are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been felled! The sound of the wail of the shepherds, for their glory is ruined! The sound of the roar of the lions, for the thicket of the Jordan is ruined!

Things of this world will completely pass away, they will be burned, felled, ruined, destroyed, and the wail of those who put their trust in material wealth or themselves will show that they have nothing for all of eternity. Today we're going to look at some of those people; people who don't care for the flock at all.

Zechariah 11:4-17 Thus said the LORD my God: "Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. Those who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, 'Blessed be the LORD, I have become rich,' and their own shepherds have no pity on them. For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the LORD. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand." So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named Favor, the other I named Union. And I tended the sheep. In one month I destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. So I said, "I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another." And I took my staff Favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the LORD. Then I said to them, "If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them." And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter"— the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter. Then I broke my second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. Then the LORD said to me, "Take once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd. For behold, I am raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for those being destroyed, or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs. "Woe to my worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! Let his arm be wholly withered, his right eye utterly blinded!"

So if we remember from chapter 10, that God is fiercely angry with the shepherds who don't care for the flock, he is going to replace these with someone else. At this point, from the New Testament, we can see that these false shepherds, while representing many people throughout history, like kings, popes, and false teachers, here are ultimately the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Scribes. We've looked at Matthew 23 a few times in this class, do you remember what happens in that passage? Jesus declares seven "woes" on the Pharisees, calling them blind guides and utterly condemning them, totally angry that they were keeping men out of Heaven. The very last verses in that passage will really come alive after we look at Zechariah. So at this point, God has rejected these shepherds, we might say that this happened explicitly in

Matthew 21:43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.

Now the command to Christ,

v.4 Thus said the LORD my God: "Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter."

This is a recurring theme throughout scripture, Psalm 23, John 10, Isaiah 40 (which we'll read at the end), and namely when Christ fed the 5,000 on the shores of Galilee.

Mark 6:34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.

These were like sheep without a shepherd, but we see here in Zechariah that they had shepherds, they were just terrible shepherds.

v.5 Those who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, 'Blessed be the LORD, I have become rich,' and their own shepherds have no pity on them.

At this point the shepherds, the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Scribes, become not so much shepherds, but sheep-traders, as they'll be called in a moment, and they are over people not in a teaching/leading role, but only for the money, leading them to slaughter apart from God and Christ. They even go so far as to thank God for the money they have received in their evil dealings, treating people as objects and serving greed.

This was done in a variety of ways, one way was by requiring special temple money which had to be purchased, another way was in selling the sacrificial animals at exorbitant prices, and yet another was in taking tithes and offerings while doing nothing for the people. Some of these riches were not monetary, but in pride and selfishness, with the rabbis taking the best seats at parties and way overdressing themselves so people would know they were the super-righteous dudes. At this point we think, "I should feel sorry for these sheep." But we're going to see that their leaders are only half the problem.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

These people under these shepherds weren't complaining for the bad teaching they were receiving, but were glad to be told they could work their way into Heaven. This happens even today, probably moreso today, that people like Joel Osteen and Creflo Dollar and Perry Noble and Ed Young Jr. are only in it for the money and prestige, but if no-one was following them, they wouldn't be shepherds. The shepherds are a huge problem, the but biggest problem is the people who follow them.

v.6-7 For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the LORD. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand." So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named Favor, the other I named Union. And I tended the sheep.

Because of their constant rejection, God is furious, yet here we see that Christ did indeed for a little while take the position of Shepherd of Israel. We see that from the feeding of the 5,000, when he saw them as sheep without a shepherd, he felt compassion on them, he made them sit on the green grass and he fed them, and taught them. These sheep, sold for slaughter, had a very good Shepherd.

Mark 6:39-42 Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. And they all ate and were satisfied.

Yet because they rejected him, in verse six of Zechariah 11 we see that that Christ will no longer have pity on these people, that he has caused a great destruction to come on these people. If they had stayed under his protection, they would have had nothing to fear, but we'll see in a bit that they reject him as their Shepherd. If Christ is our Shepherd and we have not rejected him, then we have great promises in his ability to guide us and bring us home to Heaven:

Psalm 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

These two staffs are used to guide the sheep and protect them from enemies, and as long as we're under the care of our Master, his favor and union keep us perfectly safe, and in the context of the passage, we're looking at the flock being the nation of Israel, and later the Holy Nation that is the church. The nation Israel is about to be rejected, where-as from chapter 10 we remember that the church will not lose even a single member.

v.8 In one month I destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me.

Some believe, and I with them, that this was accomplished in Matthew 22 when they brought arguments to Christ to trip him up in his theology and show that he wasn't God, and he answered perfectly in every situation. I hope you'll take an opportunity sometime this week to read Matthew 22, but today for time's sake, we'll move on in Zechariah.

Matthew 22:46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

We see that they also detested Christ; this is important because the word translated as impatient is considerably stronger than mere disdain, it is probably best translated as loathe, Christ loathed these shepherds for their failures, and they hated him for showing the world that they were terrible rabbis and shepherds. Proverbs 6:16-19, the way this verse is structured, we won't read it again for time's sake, but Proverbs 6:16 and 19 say that God HATES the false witness, and here we see clearly that he is furious with these Sadducees, Pharisees, and Scribes who neither enter into Heaven, nor allow those who would enter to go in.

A major part of his rejection was that the Jews were always seeking material possessions, ignoring the One who sustained them, we see this expressed exceedingly clearly the day after the feeding of the 5,000,

John 6:25-26 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves."

v.9-11 So I said, "I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another." And I took my staff Favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the LORD.

Here is where the rejection ultimately begins. The Jews were, and many still are, trusting in an OLD covenant given by God which was conditional and required the people to abstain from idols and love God and their neighbor and offer sacrifices and having utterly failed in this works-covenant, we see here that favor between God and them is broken, annulled, canceled, ceased. They are without favor in the sight of God for their constant rejection of him.

The Sheep-Traders, who are again our Sadducees, Pharisees, and Scribes, see and know that Christ is speaking for God, but they reject it anyways, their hearts were unbelievably hard and instead of submitting to him as Lord, they sought a way to kill him. As they reject him as Shepherd, he recognizes their desire and he asks for his wages here in Zechariah, here is how it plays out:

v.12-13 Then I said to them, "If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them." And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter"— the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter.

Thirty pieces of silver are roughly the price of a slave. Consider here who this Shepherd is, the King of Glory, and they esteemed him as worth slave-labor. Then this amount was thrown to the potter in the House of the Lord. Does this event sound familiar to anyone?

Matthew 26:14-16 Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?" And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.

The name Judas comes directly from Judah, one of the kingdoms of the nation Israel, and here we can very easily allegorize that Judas was a representative of the whole nation, that he has rejected Christ and is selling him for thirty pieces of silver, roughly $100 in our money. If only Judas and the Pharisees had known this scripture better, they ought to have repented and fallen down and worshipped Christ, but they pushed forward with their plan. Christ, however, did know this prophecy quite well,

John 13:21-27 After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, "Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me." The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table close to Jesus, so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, "Lord, who is it?" Jesus answered, "It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it." So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas,the son of Simon Iscariot. Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "What you are going to do, do quickly."

Now, Judas has sold Christ, he has the silver, but the money has not been thrown to the Potter in the Lord's House, how then is this going to take place?

Matthew 27:3-7 When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." They said, "What is that to us? See to it yourself." And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, "It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money." So they took counsel and bought with them the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers.

v.14 Then I broke my second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

This occurred forty years later when the Romans made an effort to destroy the whole people of Israel, murdering about a million people. During the siege it even came to pass where Zechariah said they would devour themselves; cannibalism took place during this time. And Israel was banished from being a country for almost 2,000 years, and today not only is there no strong bond between Israel and Judah, many Jews don't even know which tribe or kingdom their genealogies come from.

Now, having rejected the true Shepherd, the Jews are still looking for a Messiah, for a shepherd who will bring them back to a world power and save them. None will come, but for their insolence, the wrath of God will come upon them, and this next passage occurs sometime in the future, when a shepherd will arise over Israel, but not at all a good one. Here we get a fuzzy view of Antichrist, a failure as a messiah, a failure as a shepherd, a failure as a false god, and a failure as a savior, but the reward for all who reject the true Christ.

v.15-17 Then the LORD said to me, "Take once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd. For behold, I am raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for those being destroyed, or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs. "Woe to my worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! Let his arm be wholly withered, his right eye utterly blinded!"

This false shepherd will not care for anyone, he will be only concerned with his own gain, with his own wealth and reputation, and care nothing for the flock. Ed Young Jr., a Southern Baptist apostate, recently coerced his whole church into giving more tithes through a mandatory direct deposit system. In his example we can see that there will be one main false shepherd, but that there are no lack of false shepherds, they devour their flock, they drive them so hard that their hooves are torn to tatters which can probably be spiritualized that they preach legalism and never allow their flock to rest in Christ, and ultimately they don't care for their flock. Perry Noble, one of the greatest antichrists operating today, publically told his congregation not to expect him to visit them at home or even in the hospital.

And in all of this, we see that these false shepherds are powerless to see what is right or to do what is right, and that he is ultimately worthless. Because of Israel's rejection of the Messiah and the false teachers who stood between God and Israel, and the false commands they taught, we see what Christ preached at the end of Matthew 23 come true:

Matthew 23:37-38 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! See, your house is left to you desolate."

So we see in all of this that the Old Covenant has ceased, the New has come. The Old was conditional and required constant upkeep, but Christ in his perfection has offered himself once for all, being a perfect sacrifice, saving to the uttermost those who draw near to him. The Covenant that the Jews hold to today is obsolete, it cannot save, they are rejected as the Nation of God, where-by the church has been adopted into this role.

Hebrews 8:13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

And finally, Christ is our better Shepherd, trust in him, know that you have his favor and union if you hold fast to the confession of faith you have in him, not trusting in yourself or a covenant, but trusting in him who died for your sins and was raised for your justification.

Let's conclude with one of my favorite passages in all of scripture:

Isaiah 40:9-11 Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!" Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.

August 29th - God is Working

Prayer Requests
Walk through the Old Testament
Celebrate Freedom Witnessing (Sept 4)
Shelby's Friend's Play
Pollock's Grandparents
Two students from the North Cobb area killed in car accidents
James in the Orchestra
Kari's Sister's visit

Text – Zechariah 1:7-21, Psalm 137

Last week we did an overview of the Babylonian captivity of the people of Judah which took place between 605 and ~535 BC. If you don't fully understand what was going on there it is fine, it is a lot of history and since we're so far removed, it's hard to really grasp the details. Today we're going to look at some of the details and hopefully you'll understand the faithfulness of God even if you don't understand 70 years of history in the 6th century BC.

Does anyone remember the name of the king of Persia who Isaiah prophesied by name over 100 years before he was even born? Cyrus. Here is a huge rabbit trail, but one that I think is important that we follow for a lot of reasons. Sometimes the way my brain works is strange, like the way I catalogue Bible verses or names sometimes takes me a little while to sort through, but it ends up that I have memorized more verses and names than anyone I know. As I was thinking about Cyrus, I wondered, "How would you possibly spell that in Hebrew?" Because Hebrew doesn't have a soft-C sound or even an S-sound that is close to Cyrus, so I looked it up, and it turns out that his name wasn't Cyrus, but Koresh. Cyrus is our Anglicization of the name Koresh, just like Jesus is the Anglicization of Joshua. Remember the name Joshua for the Messiah, it's gonna be hugely important in upcoming weeks.

Does anyone know why the name Koresh might pique my interest? It's because when I was growing up there was a famous cult leader named Vernon Howell, more popularly known as David Koresh. As I researched the name Koresh I found that David Koresh changed his name in order to claim he was the Messiah and the deliverer of God's people. He gained a small following as the second coming of Christ and convinced his people that Armageddon was taking place at their complex in Waco, Texas. As I researched him I remembered something important that isn't keeping with our lesson today but is important enough to share and I don't know when Zechariah would give me another chance to say this.

One of Koresh's biggest sins in a long list of big sins was his sexual sin, he married basically every woman and girl in his cult. The youngest was 12. I want to remind you that the most consistent mark of a cult is sexual sin, and it's amazing what someone can convince someone of in the name of religion. This is prevalent in Koresh's little cult, in the Mormon cult, and in Islam and Catholicism which most people think are too big to be cults, but they share every major distinction of cult-activity. Your body belongs to you and nobody should ever inappropriately touch you, especially in the name of Christ. Sexual purity is of utmost importance to him and your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, with the gift of an intimate relationship confined within the marriage covenant.

I wanted to share that because Koresh is being seen as more and more as a nice, misunderstood guy, when in reality he was a really wicked man.

So, to Zechariah,

Zechariah 1:7-21 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying, "I saw in the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses. Then I said, 'What are these, my lord?' The angel who talked with me said to me, 'I will show you what they are.' So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, 'These are they whom the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.' And they answered the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtle trees, and said, 'We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth remains at rest.' Then the angel of the LORD said, 'O LORD of hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these seventy years?' And the LORD answered gracious and comforting words to the angel who talked with me. So the angel who talked with me said to me, 'Cry out, Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster. Therefore, thus says the LORD, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be built in it, declares the LORD of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. Cry out again, Thus says the LORD of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.'"

And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns! And I said to the angel who talked with me, "What are these?" And he said to me, "These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem." Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen. And I said, "What are these coming to do?" He said, "These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one raised his head. And these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it."

v.7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying, "I saw in the night..."

This prophecy is two months after the first one, and is considerably longer than the first, it spans 8 visions and 6 chapters. All of these visions happened in one night, it was a busy night for Zechariah. Each of these builds on the next, so when we get to the end we'll read them all in order.

There are a few important things to see in this verse, first we remember our Zechariah, the son of a priest and a priest himself, has previously called Judah to continue repenting and to listen to the word of the Lord, for it will outlast both its hearers and the preachers who are proclaiming it.

The second important thing is the "Shebat" which is the name of a month. This month is in the spring when nature is waking up again and flowers are blooming and there is new birth happening all around. It is highly symbolic of Israel being saved out of a season of despair, and we'll see a flowering tree in a minute.

v.8 behold, a man riding on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses.

We're going to get a really good picture of these horses in chapter 6, but for right now there is a different lesson than the horses being taught. A red horse though, for this lesson, is symbolic of war; we'll see in a bit that this man on the horse is none other than Jesus Christ himself. Notice that there are other horses, these are representative of angels, and the different colors represent different duties; white for peace, red for war, black for death, and sorrel, which is light brown, the Bible never tells us what it represents.

The myrtle tree represents Israel, and at this time of year, it would be flowering with beautiful red and white flowers. A neat thing about the myrtle tree is that when you crush its leaves, it smells really nice; symbolic of the suffering of the believer bringing a pleasant outcome. The Hebrew for myrtle tree is Hadassah, do you know anyone else with that name? Esther's Hebrew name was Hadassah.

v.9 Then I said, 'What are these, my lord?' The angel who talked with me said to me, 'I will show you what they are.'

Zechariah doesn't understand, so we get a great lesson: ask.

v.10 So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, 'These are they whom the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.'

These are God's ministering spirits, his messengers and soldiers to accomplish all of his purposes. Some are to do good, others are to do evil to punish sin. You remember that God told Cyrus that there weren't two gods, one who is good and one who is bad, but that there is one God and he makes good and creates evil. Some of these angels are not nice at all:

Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. The LORD said to Satan, "From where have you come?" Satan answered the LORD and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it."

In 1 Kings 22 God asks for a volunteer to bring a wicked king to a specific place so that he can kill him there, and some angels speak up, but nothing definitive, and then Satan stands up and says, "Let me go lie to him." and God lets him go; even guaranteeing Satan's success.

So know that God is working from the beginning, and is working today. He has ministering spirits acting constantly in the world. The report of these angels comes next,

v.11 And they answered the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtle trees, and said, 'We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth remains at rest.'

This was an amazing time in the history of the world where there were no wars. Remember this is because of the work that God did through Cyrus, and completed through Darius, bringing most of the known world at this time under the control of the Persians. One of the only times in history where there was world peace, and this is not at all pleasing to God, as we'll see in a bit.

v.12 Then the angel of the LORD said, 'O LORD of hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these seventy years?'

The angel of the Lord is Jesus Christ, here we see him beautifully interceding for his people, asking God how long their punishment shall last. There are a lot of terms for angels in the Bible, everything from sons of God to Seraphim (on fire ones), to the word here, Mal'ak, which comes from Melech, which means king. The angel here is not a pretty wingy thingy, but a messenger of the King.

1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus...

Apart from God accepting mediation and having mercy on these people whose sins wouldn't be paid for for another 500 years, both these Jews and we would be utterly without hope. God's response is beautiful:

v.13 And the LORD answered gracious and comforting words to the angel who talked with me.

It may be that what is said next are these words, but I think there were some other words spoken in here which are not revealed to us. It is very dangerous to speak where God has not spoken, so I wouldn't presume to try to say what was said in here, but a great Puritan, John Flavel, did consider what might have been said and he did it very well, and I do not think that God would object to this discourse.

Father: My son, here is a company of poor miserable souls, that have utterly undone themselves, and now lie open to my justice! Justice demands satisfaction for them, or will satisfy itself in the eternal ruin of them: What shall be done for these souls?

Son: O my Father, such is my love to, and pity for them, that rather than they shall perish eternally, I will be responsible for them as their Surety; bring in all thy bills, that I may see what they owe thee; Lord, bring them all in, that there may be no after-reckonings with them; at my hand shalt thou require it. I will rather choose to suffer thy wrath than they should suffer it: upon me, my Father, upon me be all their debt.

Father: But, my Son, if thou undertake for them, thou must reckon to pay the last mite, expect no abatements; if I spare them, I will not spare thee.

Son: Content, Father, let it be so; charge it all upon me, I am able to discharge it: and though it prove a kind of undoing to me, though it impoverish all my riches, empty all my treasures, yet I am content to undertake it.

We have an intercessor because the Son of God willingly took our sins on himself and paid for them in his own life's blood. Apart from him there is no hope of reconciliation or mercy, but in him there is grace upon grace upon grace. Following these gracious and comforting words, Christ commands Zechariah to speak,

v.14-17 So the angel who talked with me said to me, 'Cry out, Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster. Therefore, thus says the LORD, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be built in it, declares the LORD of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. Cry out again, Thus says the LORD of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.'"

For sake of time I think this passage basically speaks for itself, that God is done being angry with Israel and is bringing them back to prosper, and prosper they did from this point on for quite a while. One of the evidences of this is that the temple was being rebuilt at this exact moment.

In the first prophetic outcry we see that God was very angry with the fathers of Judah; in this passage God compares his anger towards Babylon to the anger he felt towards Judah as only a little, and the anger he feels towards Babylon to be great. Remember that they were not righteous people, they had no relationship with God, they sinned exceedingly and did terrible things to all sorts of people, including the Jews.

One place we see this played out exceedingly clearly is with Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, better known as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. When they refused to abandon the God of Israel, Babylon tried to execute them with lions and fire, but God was with them and saved them. Besides that the Jews in Babylon were horrendously treated.

In the second passage God is sending destroyers to Babylon for their attrocities.

v.18 And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns!

A horn is a symbol of power and violence, like the horn of a bull or elephant or rhinoceros. Zechariah didn't know what they were, so what'd should he do? Ask.

v.19 And I said to the angel who talked with me, "What are these?" And he said to me, "These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem."

We don't know precisely who or what these horns represent, it could be kings or governments. We know that at least one, and maybe all, represent Babylon. Knowing what they represent isn't as important as seeing what God is doing to them.

v.20 Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen.

Craftsman is anyone who knows what they are doing in building, but specifically here the Hebrew means they are carpenters. Zechariah can see that, but he wants to know their purpose, so he asks, (I love this theme)

v.21 And I said, "What are these coming to do?" He said, "These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one raised his head. And these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it."

God is sending specific people or angels or whoever to destroy these powers as punishment for their treatment of his people. Jews before Christ believed at least one of these was the Messiah. Some Jews believed in two Messiahs, one to die and one to reign as king, one Jewish commentator even called one Messiah the "Son of David" and the other the "Son of Ephraim."

Psalm 137 was written to describe the destruction of Babylon:

¹By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
²On the willows there
we hung up our lyres.
³For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
"Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"

⁴ How shall we sing the LORD’s song
in a foreign land?
⁵If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget its skill!
⁶Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy!

⁷Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites
the day of Jerusalem,
how they said, "Lay it bare, lay it bare,
down to its foundations!"
⁸O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who repays you
with what you have done to us!
⁹Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock!

This Psalm recounts how painful the exile was, and how the Babylonians scorned them and burned Jerusalem and the temple, how they were prisoners and mistreated. the middle section is wonderful because it reminds us that we need to only work for God and speak truths about God, and if we're not going to speak truth, it'd be better if our tongue didn't work.

Finally is the imprecation at the end, Edomites is a way of saying the people whom God has created for the sole purpose of showing his power on by destroying. They aren't just the Babylonians, but in this passage they are just the Babylonians.

God is so angry and his wrath is so just and his judgment so complete that he will destroy Babylon down to the very smallest of her babies.

So our major application in this is that God is still working, he is not slack concerning his promises, but patient, and he will repay every atrocity done to his beloved.

August 1st - Jesus, Called Nazarene

Prayer Requests
Pastor Aaron traveling
Jud, Leon, and Lee preaching
School
Survey of World Religion (Friday nights)
Jenny's Mom's surgery
James' knee
Mall Witnessing

Text – Isaiah 3-4,11

Here ends another wonderful year of Bible study, I hope you’ve enjoyed being taught as much as I’ve enjoyed teaching. Next year we will go through Zechariah, I was so blessed just in preparing the calendar, and I’m sure you’ll be blessed by us going through it. What started out as an intimidating book has already started to come alive for me, and I’m sure it will soon to be your favorite book in the Bible.

Today, since we’re still waiting for our new 6th graders we get to look at something off-topic, but which is totally applicable in your lives because it deals with a huge sin which the whole nation is guilty of, and which Georgia is especially guilty of, which is nation-worship. As we went through First Peter I hope you saw explicitly that we are not citizens of the World or of the United States or of Georgia, but we are citizens of Heaven and are merely guests here under this government. I want to show you yet another reason why the Bible is relevant today and that we must know it.

Last week we looked at Manasseh; who was Manasseh’s prophet? Isaiah. What’d he do to Isaiah when Isaiah confronted him with his sin? Cut him in half. So that’s my transition…not a particularly good one. We’re going to be in Isaiah today, Isaiah 3 and 4. Do you think this book was written before or after Isaiah was murdered? This seems like a dumb question, but there are some people who think there were more than one author of Isaiah…but this book has such awesome continuity that I’m sure there is no way that could happen; Isaiah wrote this whole letter.

In chapter 1 Isaiah goes through the sins of Judah and why God is angry, chapter 2 describes eternal judgment. Both of those are awesome chapters, but I think if we only went through those you wouldn’t learn as much because you already know a lot about those topics. So we’re going to be in chapter 3 because this is God’s judgment on a living nation.

2v22 Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?

This transitional verse is after God shows the end of the wicked and is now telling the people to listen to him instead of the many false-prophets who were operating in Israel. Today we have hundreds of popular people who are saying we don’t need to be afraid of God or worry about our sins because there is no judgment to come. God is saying otherwise, he’s going to give proof through a temporal judgment so that if his people will repent and turn back to him, they will be saved.

Imagine a little boy whose father tells him to stay with him, but then the boy runs towards a busy street and his dad catches him and spanks him for putting his life in danger and disobeying. This is a temporary consequence, but if the boy still refuses to repent and runs into the street, he will face a permanent consequence. So chapter 3 is all about temporary punishment; it could be called a very stern warning.

3v1 For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply, all support of bread, and all support of water;

The first thing I really want you to see is that this is to Israel specifically and not to America. America is not God’s chosen people, the people Israel were in the Old Covenant and the church has become Israel in the New Covenant. One of God’s judgments on Israel was famine and drought; I want t show you that we have an infinitely harsher punishment,

Amos 8:11 “Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.

We don’t really have time to look at it, but this is exactly how Laodicea was described, not lacking anything physically, but hugely lacking in spiritual things. I sincerely hope you see how blessed you are to have had Dave as a youth pastor and myself as someone whom God has put in my heart to desire to teach you the Word and to spend so much time in preparation. Beloved, I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said this lesson took me more than ten hours to prepare. Honestly, Summit is an island of grace in a sea of apostasy. Please, please, please don’t take this for granted.

3v2-3 …the Lord God of hosts is taking away…the mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor and the skillful magician and the expert in charms.

These are all specialists, people who take their careers seriously and know what they are doing. Our school system has done a fantastic job of turning our country into a people who know a huge number of useless facts and are utterly unable to be productive. This will be exacerbated in your generation as we gain people who can’t research because Google has destroyed their discipline, who can’t communicate because Twitter has killed their attention span, who can’t devote themselves to one spouse because television has glamorized fornication, who can’t read a map because GPS has washed their brains. And look, it ranges from noble professions like judges and preachers, to even people God hates, magicians and charmers. In a God abandoned society nobody does their job well.

This is what my sermon is going to be on when Pastor Aaron gives me the opportunity to preach it, and so I exhort you now to do whatever you do with all your might, as though Christ was your boss, because we are called to excellence.

3v4 And I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them.

When Isaiah was writing this, we can take it literally, because Manasseh would take the throne at 12 years old. But, see this as also figuratively that people in charge really never grew up. I considered not making this point, but it has to be made, that our president is the epitome of this verse. He acts like Justin Bieber on television, he’s totally in love with himself and takes every opportunity to exalt himself. Recently he showed his total lack of forethought when he was smoking on television on the beach in Louisiana and flings the cigarette right down onto the sand. The main point is that the leaders of the country will be uneducated, immature, and incompetent. Facebook keeps me in touch with high school and Air Force friends and they are all still 12 with no sign of maturing.

3v5 And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honorable.

This exists in America, I’m sure you see it, but I want to jump the pond real quick. When I lived in England I was not a Christian, but my analysis of the country was that everyone was out to steal from everyone else. The farmer sold his food for too much and felt he was getting one over on the store owner. The store sold the food for too much to customers and felt he was benefiting. The mechanics sold parts and labor for way too much. The police were totally corrupt and lazy, the taxes were through the roof, and nobody had any desire to help anyone else. It was a never ending cycle of no one being able to trust anyone or ever getting a fair deal or feeling right about how they treated people. I remember even as a non-Christian feeling that that nation was abandoned by God.

In the youth you could see an utter disregard for life, property, or authority. In the United States if your car is stolen is probably gets pieced out and the thieves make a decent amount of money…it’s still totally wrong, but at least they have a purpose. There is a pandemic in England of car theft, but most of the cars end up burned or driven into lakes or crashed, for no monetary purpose but just because. It is a MISERABLE way to live and the culture there reflects it in skyrocketing alcoholism, suicide, and depression.

The United States isn’t too far behind. Isaiah doesn’t mention financial collapse by name, but we see in the next verse that it is implied.

3v6 For a man will take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying:"You have a cloak; you shall be our leader, and this heap of ruins shall be under your rule";

With the lack of trained leaders, we see the people desperate for any leadership, the credentials become someone who hasn’t lost their jacket. We see this in our last election where we were forced to choose between the lesser of two evils (which we failed to do), and the problem with choosing between two evils is that you’ll always end up with evil.

The upcoming response is tragic, he says, “I have lost my jacket…I can’t be in charge.”

3v7-8 in that day he will speak out, saying:"I will not be a healer; in my house there is neither bread nor cloak; you shall not make me leader of the people." For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their deeds are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence.

These people are not victims, they have willfully run into these situations by exalting themselves and ignoring and disobeying God. This next verse was true for Judah, but beloved when we compare America to them, we make Judah look like angels.

3v9 For the look on their faces bears witness against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves.

What was Sodom’s sin? Homosexuality. I think it is amazingly prophetic that Isaiah chooses the word “parade” to describe their sin. Part of God’s grace is shame, ironically, because it lets us know we are sinning and drives us away from sin, but when it is removed the people dive into sin, and from here we see the “Woe to them” which is a funeral lament, expressing that these people are counted dead. I don’t want you to think this only refers to homosexuals, but that you remember that we were ALL dead in sin before Christ raised us from the dead. But I also don’t want you to overlook that this is a sign of God’s judgment.

Paul was undoubtedly considering this verse when he wrote Romans 1:24-25, which we won’t read now for time’s sake, but it says exactly what Isaiah just said.

3v10 Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.

Shall we all die and face the consequences? No, here we see that if we have received righteousness from Christ, we will be spared. Judah would have read this both temporally and spiritually, and so I hope you’ll also realize that our reward, won for us and provided to us on the cross, is in Heaven. What amazing grace it is that God would address his saints and reassure us even in the midst of him giving such harsh words to the reprobate.

3v11-12 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him. My people— infants are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, your guides mislead you and they have swallowed up the course of your paths.

Isaiah speaks of the oppressors being infants. I don’t think this is spiritual or figurative at all, but he’s literally saying that kids are in charge. The reason I believe this is because I see this in our country, that children are in charge of the household and the parents live to serve them. It’s exactly opposite how it should be; it is a sign of judgment.

Another sign is that women are in charge. Here it is vitally important that our theology is right, that we see that God isn’t against women, but that he created them with the major purpose of them representing the church and men representing Christ. The church should never feel they are in a position to tell Christ what to do, and likewise it’s not that women are incapable of being in charge or are intellectually inferior, because there are plenty of verses that say exactly the opposite, that women and men are equal intellectually and spiritually. What we see here is a rejection of theology, of women striving (as it says in Genesis) to be over men.

And then we see that those who are in charge aren’t doing a good job, but are misleading the people and driving them to ruin. It’s all quite depressing. Look who God blames:

3v13-15 The LORD has taken his place to contend; he stands to judge peoples. The LORD will enter into judgment with the elders and princes of his people: "It is you who have devoured the vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor?" declares the Lord GOD of hosts.

This is a continuing theme in the Bible that the people who represent God and are supposed to be teachers are found to be at fault for failing to teach the whole counsel of God. If we had more time we could spend a huge amount of time on this, but our major application here is to preach the Bible verse by verse and not skip things that are offensive or our hearers don’t want to hear. We might make more money and friends by preaching what unbelievers want to hear, but ultimately we’re lying to them and bringing destruction on them and dishonoring God. The vineyard idea is really expounded on in Isaiah 5, you might consider going home and reading it tonight.

We’re coming to the end of judgment, but look at something that I hope really convicts both the young men and ladies in this class to look to the inner person instead of the outer person for beauty.

3v16-24 The LORD said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, flirting along as they go, tinkling with their feet, therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will lay bare their secret parts. In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents; the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarves; the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets; the signet rings and nose rings; the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags; the mirrors, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils. Instead of perfume there will be rottenness; and instead of a belt, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a rich robe, a skirt of sackcloth; and branding instead of beauty.

Ultimately I think it speaks for itself, that God is concerned with the inner person and not the outer adorning. Finally we see a major judgment which a cult in Kansas has made a whole ministry out of,

3v25-26 Your men shall fall by the sword and your mighty men in battle. And her gates shall lament and mourn; empty, she shall sit on the ground.

America loses far less soldiers in battle than most countries, but we’ve still been mired in impossible and unfruitful wars for decades now. Don’t think these have been outside of the scope or control of God. We see that America hasn’t reaped the full harvest of this judgment yet, as Judah had, as chapter 4 verse one attributes,

4v1 And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, "We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach."

Judah lost so many men in battle that there were seven women to every living man, and they were desperate to be married and forget that the population disparity was a punishment for their sin.

So with all of that sin and judgment are we hopeless? No, we still have a hope, one which was prophesied 600 years before it happened here in Isaiah’s gospel,

4v2 In that day the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel.

Here is one of the strangest titles for Jesus in the Bible, he’s called a branch, or in Hebrew (Isaiah 11:1), a Nazar (or Netser).

Matthew 2:23 And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled: "He shall be called a Nazarene."

With the little time we have left I want to read what Isaiah is introducing here in chapter 4, he really says it better in chapter 11, which is what he was intending to do from this introduction:

11v1-10 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

So, your application is that nations apart from Christ are doomed, but that he came into the very people whom hated him and he died for their sins, defeating death so that he will restore all things. Put your trust in him and not in a nation. When you see the judgment of God fall on a nation do not just point it out, but point people to the signal of hope, the Nazarene who was dead but is yet alive, who is mighty to save and abounding in grace and righteousness for all those who will come to him, but will defeat his enemies with a Word.