Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20090524.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Zechariah: Paving The Path Toward A Blessed Future
Part II: Encouraging God's People About The Coming Messianic Kingdom, Zechariah 1:5-6:15
G. God's Call To Obedience In View Of Christ's Coming Victorious Kingdom
(Zechariah 6:1-8, 9-15)
  1. Introduction
    1. In view of Christ's coming victory over the world's pagan apostasy, God's people need to ALIGN with God's calling of them to be richly rewarded of the Lord in that kingdom!
    2. Zechariah's final night vision and what comes after it offers a great motivation to that end (as follows):
  2. God's Call To Obedience In View Of Christ's Coming Victorious Kingdom, Zechariah 6:1-8, 9-15.
    1. Zechariah's final vision of his set of eight night visions presents a theme of God's final, sure and complete judgment of the world's pagan nations in the end time, Zechariah 6:1:
      1. The final vision starts at a valley between two mountains of brass, Zech. 6:1b. Brass in Scripture often typifies judgment (Num. 16:35-40; Num. 21:9 with John 3:14), so the vision focuses on judgment.
      2. The definite article appears with "mountains" to read "the mountains," mountains known to the people of Jerusalem to whom Zechariah ministered, Ezra 5:1-2; Merrill F. Unger, Zechariah, 1974, p. 101.
      3. Well, Zechariah 14:4-5 notes the Mount of Olives east of Jerusalem will split at Christ's return for Israel to escape antichrist as she flees Jerusalem east toward the Kidron Valley that is located between Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives. It is believed Christ will there capture the antichrist and send him to eternal torment, Rev. 19:19-20. Thus, the mountains are Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives!
      4. The vision adds that war chariots proceed from between these two mountains, chariots hitched to four variously colored horses, Zech. 6:2-3! They recall the first vision of the different colored horses telling of God's judgment on the nations, Zech. 1:8, 11, 15. Revelation 6:1-8 also refers to differently colored horses that represent God's world judgment in the future Great Tribulation Period.
      5. A special emphasis in Zechariah 6:5-6 is put on the movement of these chariots to the north and to the south, directions from which Israel's Babylonian and Egyptian foes respectively moved to oppress her.
      6. These chariots eventually traverse the whole earth (Zech. 6:7), quieting the Spirit of the Lord (Zech. 6:8), picturing God's final conquest of all the world's evil nations at the end of the Tribulation Period!
    2. However, God next shifted from the use of a vision to speak normally to Zechariah about a pressing issue to motivate Zechariah's contemporaries to obey God in preparation for the kingdom, Zechariah 6:9-15:
      1. After the night visions had ceased, God told Zechariah directly to bring into Josiah's home Heldi and Jedaiah, Jews who lived in Babylon but who headed a delegation bearing gifts to Jerusalem for the rebuilding of the temple ( Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Zech. 6:10), Zechariah 6:9-10.
      2. Zechariah was to take from them silver and gold, and, making two crowns, set them on the head of Joshua the high priest, Zechariah 6:11. This act would be accompanied by his predicting that Messiah, the BRANCH, would build the final millennial temple and sit on David's throne, gloriously and harmoniously uniting the crowns of high priest and king in Himself, Zechariah 6:12-13.
      3. These crowns would not stay on Joshua's head, but serve as a memorial to the Babylonian delegation of Zechariah's prophecy of the kingdom temple, the king-priest Messiah and of the nations that would help build that future kingdom temple as the Babylonian delegation were then doing, Zech. 6:14-15a!
      4. Zechariah 6:15b does not mean the kingdom's arrival relies on Israel's obedience, but that participation in the kingdom is based on personal obedience, Ibid., Unger, p. 116! This would urge the Babylonian delegation not just to give to the temple, but fully to heed God by MOVING to ISRAEL, Zech. 2:6-7!
      5. This message takes on great force if we note that Babylon fell in an armed conflict only two years later (Ibid., Unger, p. 48). The Babylonian delegation did not have any time to waste in heeding God!
Lesson: God will conquer the world's evil nations, and bless His people with Christ's great kingdom. However, the believer will be rewarded then based on his CURRENT, PERSONAL obedience to God.

Application: May we who believe in Christ IMMEDIATELY direct our ways to OBEY God's will for us NOW that we might enjoy His BEST rewards as seen in the message to Babylonian delegation!