Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20090628.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Zechariah: Paving The Path Toward A Blessed Future
Part IV: Informing God's People About The Messianic King And His Kingdom, Zechariah 9:1-14:21
A. Predicting Alexander The Great's Preparatory Arrival For Messiah
(Zechariah 9:1-8)
  1. Introduction
    1. If God wants to help His people, nothing can stop it, even a humanly overwhelming king and his reign.
    2. This fact is noted in Zechariah 9:1-8, and encourages us to rely on God in facing humanly ominous rulers:
  2. Predicting Alexander The Great's Preparatory Arrival For Messiah, Zechariah 9:1-8.
    1. Zechariah's prophecy is concerned with the preparation of Israel for the Messiah and His Kingdom, so Zechariah 9:1-14:21 offers specific prophecies about Israel's coming King and His Kingdom.
    2. However, since Israel faced oppression from Gentile nations around her, a key theme in Zechariah's prophecy is God's judgment of the Gentiles en route to giving Israel the Kingdom, cf. Zechariah 1:14-15.
    3. Accordingly, Zechariah 9:1-7 shows how God will use the powerful, rapid conquests of Greece's great conqueror, Alexander the Great, to subdue various longtime foes of Israel (as follows):
      1. In Zechariah 9:1-2, God's prophet foresaw Alexander the Great's rapid moves after his defeat of the Medo-Persians at the battle of Issus in 333 B. C., moves that conquered Israel's historical enemies of Hadrach north of Hamath and Damascus, the capital of Aram, Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 1562.
      2. The words, "when the eyes of man, as of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the Lord" (verse 2) "indicate the awe of all peoples at the divine judgment brought on their cities," Ibid.
      3. Next, the great cities of Tyre and Sidon would fall before Alexander the Great's army, Zech. 9:3-4:
        1. Tyre had resisted both a five-year siege by the Assyrians under Shalmaneser V and a later thirteen-year siege by Babylon's Nebuchadnezzar, Ibid. This city's wealth and self-reliance was legendary, her silver being said to be as common as dust and her gold as common as dirt, Zech . 9:3.
        2. Yet, Zechariah 9:2b-4 predicted Alexander would destroy Tyre with fire, a prophecy fulfilled as he besieged Tyre for seven months, building a causeway out to the island fortress, and amassing a naval barrage against it with ships from other city states, Merrill F. Unger, Zechariah, 1974, p. 155.
        3. It was thus God Who used Alexander the Great to defeat Tyre in this remarkable way, Zech. 9:4.
      4. The fall of the previously undefeated citadel of Tyre along with Sidon would terrify the Philistines (Zechariah 9:5 NIV), and four of the five principle cities of the Philistines are named in Zechariah 9:5-6 as falling in war, only eventually to have their remnants assimilated into Israel (Zechariah 9:7), a prophecy evidently to be fulfilled in the coming Messianic Kingdom, Ibid., Bible Know. Com., O. T.
    4. However, lest Alexander the Great be feared as a threat to Israel's rise out of her Babylonian Captivity, God promised to protect Israel from destruction by this great ruler and his feared forces, Zechariah 9:8:
      1. God promised to camp about His temple because of the arrival of Alexander the Great's forces, 9:8a.
      2. This would occur twice, when Alexander passed south into Egypt and returned back north, 9:8b; Ibid.
    5. The details of how this protection occurred witnesses to God's powerful fulfillment of Biblical prophecy:
      1. Amazingly, though Israel had declared loyalty to the Persians whom Alexander the Great defeated, and though he severely punished the Samaritans, he showed unusual favor to Israel, Ibid., Unger, p. 158.
      2. Jewish secular historian Flavius Josephus claims (The Antiquities of the Jews, Book XI, chap. VIII, p. 350 as cited in J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, vol. 3, p. 954) the high priest heeded a vision he had to go out of the city to meet Alexander, and when he did so, Alexander recalled a dream he once had in his homeland of a man dressed just like him who had advised him on how to defeat Persia! A Jewish account claims the high priest then showed Alexander the prophecy in the book of Daniel about him, and this so impressed Alexander, he offered sacrifices and worshiped in the Jerusalem temple, Ibid.!
    6. God's pledge that no oppressor would pass through Israel anymore (9:8c) will be fulfilled in the Messianic Kingdom, so God's protection of Israel from Alexander the Great was a foretaste of this future protection.
Lesson: Though Alexander the Great would destroy seemingly invincible enemies of Israel, God would fully protect Israel from his army's destruction in preparation for the coming of the Messiah!

Application: May we rest in God's protection from even formidable rulers that we might do His will.