ZECHARIAH: GOD’S PRESENT DIRECTIVES AND FUTURE HOPE

XVII: Anticipating Messiah’s Kingdom Blessings

(Zechariah 10:1-12)

I. Introduction

A. Zechariah along with Haggai called the returning Hebrews back to rebuilding the temple, and he gave God’s directives and future hope. (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, “Introduction to the Book of Zechariah,” p. 1310)

B. Zechariah chapters 9-14 present two “burdens” or oracles, with Zechariah 9-11 predicting Messiah’s first advent and rejection by Israel and Zechariah 12-14 foretelling His second advent and acceptance by Israel.

C. Zechariah 10:1-12 anticipated Messiah’s Kingdom blessings when He arrived to offer that Kingdom, and we study the passage for our insight and application (as follows):

II. Anticipating Messiah’s Kingdom Blessings, Zechariah 10:1-12.

A. Zechariah 10:1-5 predicted that the Messiah would destroy Israel’s false shepherds when He instituted His Messianic Kingdom (Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 1564):

1. Israel’s true Source of blessing was the Lord who gave the important “latter” rains of spring that were so essential to the nation’s crop production, not the idolatrous, false shepherds who used divination and caused God’s people in Israel to wander like sheep, Zechariah 10:1-2.

2. God was angry with Israel’s false shepherds and punished her foreign rulers, called “goats,” equipping His people to overcome their foes like a proud horse in battle, Zech. 10:3 NIV; Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Zech. 10:3.

3. Messiah is called the Cornerstone, the Tent Peg, the Battle Bow and the Ruler in Zechariah 10:4, terms that signal “the strong, stable, victorious, and trustworthy nature of Messiah’s rule,” Ibid., B. K. C., N. T.

4. Consequently, God’s people would fight their enemies like mighty men, for the Lord would be with them and enable them to overthrow their enemies in battle, Zechariah 10:5.

B. Messiah will then “regather all Israel,” Zechariah 10:6-12; Ibid.:

1. The Lord predicted that He would strengthen the “house of Judah,” the Southern Kingdom of Judah, and save the “house of Joseph,” the Northern Kingdom of Israel with its two major tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh being the seed of Joseph, restoring and reuniting them due to His compassion, Zech. 10:6; Ibid.

2. The people of the Northern Kingdom, referred to here as “Ephraimites,” would become like mighty men and be filled with joy, rejoicing in the Lord for His blessings just as God blessed the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin to their south when the Northern Kingdom of the ten tribes had gone into Assyrian Captivity due to their sin, Zechariah 10:7. God’s forgiveness and thus His restorative blessings would be complete!

3. God will signal for His scattered people to regather and redeem them, and they will become as numerous as they once had been in the days of Solomon, for though God had scattered them among many foreign peoples, yet in distant lands they will remember the Lord, survive, and return to Israel, Zechariah 10:8-9.

4. God will bring them back from Egypt and gather them from Assyria, nations representing all the countries of Israel’s dispersion (Hosea 11:11; Zechariah 10:11; Ibid.), bringing them back to Gilead and Lebanon, “the northern and eastern extents of Israel’s occupancy of the land promised to Abraham (Gen. 15:18; cf. Deut. 30:3-5),” Zechariah 10:10a; Ibid.

5. So many people of Israel will return to the land that at first there will not be enough room for them, v. 10b.

6. In Israel’s regathering, the Lord will remove every obstacle to their restoration, “pictured in terms of the ancient deliverance when He brought Israel through the sea on dry land,” Zechariah 10:11a. “Again Assyria and Egypt were mentioned to represent all Israel’s enemies (cf. v. 10)” as God promised to bring the pride and rule of such enemies of Israel down in her regathering, Zechariah 10:11b.

7. In the end, God will strengthen His people “so that Israel’s behavior (walk) will be in His name (i. e., she will glorify Him by obeying Him),” Zechariah 10:12; Ibid.

Lesson: God promised that with Messiah’s arrival and the establishment of His Kingdom, He will punish Israel’s false spiritual shepherds and Gentile overlords, providing through Messiah the strength and stability for Israel to defeat her Gentile foes. The Lord will then regather Israel from all of the Gentile nations where they had been scattered, returning them to the land and reuniting them in great joy and victory over their foes with Israel’s people functioning in righteousness and glorifying the Lord by obeying Him.

Application: (1) May we anticipate the institution of Christ’s great Kingdom with joyful anticipation. (2) May we learn from Israel’s history to repent of sin and to confess it for God’s restoration and blessing in our own lives.