Chapter 9
This chapter switches to "verse" format, and is titled in the ESV "Judgement on Israel's Enemies"
First, Damascus, Tyre, and Sidon.
Then Ashkelon - Gaza.
vs 6 - 6 a mixed people shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of Philistia. [Zec 9:6 ESV]
Then this amazing verse, that surely describes the current situation:
7 I will take away its blood from its mouth, and its abominations from between its teeth; it too shall be a remnant for our God; it shall be like a clan in Judah, and Ekron shall be like the Jebusites. [Zec 9:7 ESV] This speaks of Philistia. Of Palestine, if you will. They will be like the Jebusites. Go back and read about them. Even these will ultimately be converted. They will turn to God. Now there's a thought!
Then we turn from judgement to the coming triumph of the coming of the King. This miraculous verse, written nearly 500 years before the event:
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. [Zec 9:9 ESV]
2024 - So in vs 9 we see Jesus entering. Then between 9 and 10 we have the current age, the age of the Gentiles, the church age. Zechariah did not see it. It skips right over all that and goes to vs 10 where the Jews live in peace in Israel. We are not there yet. From Zechariah's time until now, there has been no such time.
2024 - This is another example of how these are not near/far prophecies. You have to look for the "gap" into which the church age goes. The OT prophets saw the coming of Christ the first time, and they saw him coming the second time...but did not see - were not told - that there was at least 2000 years in between. The heuristic is that to interpret these passages, you do NOT try to make them apply to something that was going on then AND something in the future. You look for prophecy up through the life of Jesus - in this prophecy up until he enters Jerusalem as King - and then you expect the skip to the second coming. Jesus entered Jerusalem and was celebrated, but there was no throne, no crown, no ruling with an iron rod. We look for these the next time he enters.
2024 - This verse:
11 As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. [Zec 9:11 ESV]. This surely connects with the message Jesus sent back to John the Baptist when he was in prison. Jesus sends to John that miracles of healing are happening, as foretold. But Jesus does not say he is setting any prisoners free - so John was not released. Based on the interpretation method above, we see that we have now switched to the second coming. At that time, prisoners will be freed. And what is this reference to a waterless pit? I think that is something that will come, but is not yet.
2024 - This verse also:
12 Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double. [Zec 9:12 ESV]. I believe this says that after the completion of the double punishment of Israel - of Judah - that came from the two rejections of God - one before the Babylonian conquest and again when they rejected Christ the New Covenant - God says here that he will also RESTORE DOUBLE to them. They will receive two restorations also. I did that study showing that it does not mean double in intensity, but two times. So what are the two times of restoration of Israel? One at the beginning of the Millennial, and a second after the final battle at the end of the Millennial? Maybe. Need to watch more closely for clues about this.
2024 - One more in this chapter that we have not seen elsewhere:
13 For I have bent Judah as my bow; I have made Ephraim its arrow. I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior's sword. [Zec 9:13 ESV]. Surely there is no mistaking what this says. Israel at war with Greece AFTER the second coming. Where in the world is that coming from? How can we fit that in? We know there is a reference in Daniel to the Prince of Greece: 20 Then he said, "Do you know why I have come to you? But now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia; and when I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come. [Dan 10:20 ESV]. Not sure this answers any questions, but it surely creates a few more. But I think these two verses are connected. They reference the same event, the same time....or maybe not. In Daniel we may be talking about how when Babylon falls, the next great Kingdom is Greece under Alexander the Great. But Zechariah wrote from about 520 BC. Alexander the Great comes to power in like 320 BC. However, I don't think Israel went out to war against Alexander, though they may have been under his power. I think therefore, that this passage is yet future.
2024 - BUT, MSB says the "initial" fulfillment of this prophecy was when the Maccabees defeated the Greeks in 167 BC. MSB says that victory was but a preview of Israel's final triumph over all her enemies. Even with that interpretation, we see the prophecy of Greece and Israel at war around the time of the second coming. There is nothing like that potential right now. It is something to watch out for as a sign that the end may be near.
2024 - The more of these I see, the less inclined I am to believe that the end is upon us. This is disheartening in the sense that the trajectory of the US screams descent into chaos, and most likely conquest by a foreign power. It is heartening in that the tribulation more intense than any the world has even known that will come upon the church - upon all believers - is not just around the corner either. There is time to preach, time to witness, time to evangelize - those we love, and those we haven't met yet.
Vs 14 and 16 imply a great battle - forces arrayed on both sides, but with the anti-Semitic side far superior, and the appearance of Jesus, of the second coming, just in time to save Israel by wiping out the opposing forces. If we tie that to Armageddon, at the beginning of the Millennial, then we see Greece as the primary power coming against Israel. This does not line up with any theory I've heard before. MSB note indicates Armageddon, but he makes no big deal at all about Greece. These verses cannot be about the Maccabees, because there was nothing but a very short-lived peace after that. Israel was not restored double after that battle. This is the end times, and this is Greece, one of the seven regions.
God Himself will be Israel's protector in the days of this King - Jesus. They will dominate the world, and none can come close to unseating them.
2026 - This may not be Armageddon. I have this developing idea that there is another battle, one we're leaving out, the one where the blood runs to the horses bridles that takes place right outside Jerusalem. The attack across the desert from Babylon as the Jews are making their way back to Jerusalem. There seems to be a battle embedded in the narrations that we miss. I know, that's the kind of thing I'm always trying to do - see what no one else has seen. But these prophecies don't really fit Armageddon. Armageddon is not a defense of Israel, it is a going out to fight. In Armageddon the armies assemble. That's not what we're seeing here in vs 15-16. This seems like something else.