We return once again to our examination of the prophecy of Zechariah. If you will take your Bibles and turn there, we'll be looking at primarily the first eight verses of chapter nine, but we're also going to look briefly at the ninth verse, and we're doing so under the title, "The Prophesied Conquests of Alexander and the Messiah King." That will make more sense to you, Lord willing, in a few minutes. You know, in our Antichrist world of chaos and idolatry, violence, anarchy that's even going on now out west, the threat of potential asteroids. Have you been reading about that? The threat of EMP's, I think they're called and other nuclear explosions. Isn't it wonderful to know what the future holds for us? I mean seriously, and isn't it wonderful to know who holds the future in a world of lies promoted by the father of lies, the devil himself? I'm so thankful for the truth of the Word of God; and as we study Bible prophecies, I marvel at God's omniscience, not only to know the end from the beginning, but also his sovereignty to be able to accomplish all these things, his omnipotence. I was talking with Nancy yesterday, and we were talking about this very thing, and we were saying, you know, we can't even predict what's going to happen tomorrow. We can guess, we can hope, but we have no way of making it happen.

Do you realize there's approximately 2500 prophecies in the Bible, and approximately 2000 of them have already been fulfilled. In fact, over 300 of them were fulfilled just during Christ's first coming. And we have no reason to believe that the hundreds yet to be fulfilled will not also be fulfilled. It's astounding, just as an example, in Daniel 11 verses two through 35 - you don't need to turn there, we're not going to look at the passage - but it contains 135 detailed prophecies concerning the Gentile dominance over Israel from 529 BC to 164 BC. And they were all fulfilled, accurately, literally, from the kings of Persia, Greece, Egypt, Syria, Antiochus IV Epiphanes; great detail in expositions that I did on that, if you ever want to look at those? In fact, those prophecies were so historically accurate that the third century AD pagan philosopher, Porphyry, considered it to be a forgery. He argued that some other author wrote the events after they occurred sometime in the second century. And of course, liberal scholars will pick up on that and say, "Yes, we would agree with that. There's no way that anybody could predict these things." By the way, that attack was refuted by Jerome in the fourth century AD, when he defended Daniel's authorship in his commentary based upon the Hebrew Scriptures.

But friends, to be sure, fulfilled prophecy gives evidence that prophecy yet unfulfilled will be the irrefutable, fulfilled prophecies in the Bible are, frankly, some of the greatest proofs of God's sovereignty and the reliability and the authority of his Word. You realize there's no other religious document that has prophecies like this, certainly ones that have been fulfilled. And because of this, because this is so astounding, it should be the headline on every newspaper. It should be taught to every child in every school, in every home. It should be studied and preached by every faithful servant of God. It should be examined by every researcher, by every politician, by every military leader. But it's not. It's ignored. It's ridiculed, because Satan blinds the minds of the unbelieving and to the natural man, the things of the Spirit are foolishness, and he cannot understand them.

Well today we return to our study of Bible prophecy in Zechariah. Let me give you a little background here. We're in Zechariah nine, and it's important for you to understand that chapters nine through 14 of Zechariah make really the second division of his prophecies. You will recall in chapters one through eight, you have a series of eight night visions that cover events that occurred during Zechariah's time; all the way through the blessings of the millennial reign of Christ upon the earth. And then in chapters nine through 14, much of those same things will be covered in that day, in that time period, but with a special emphasis on the deliverance of Israel from Gentile domination and the establishment of the Kingdom; and this will make sense to you as we go.

Now, bear in mind chapters nine through 14, that we are beginning here today, are divided into two prophetic oracles. Oracles could be translated burdens, a burdensome message from the Lord. The first oracle is in chapters nine through 11, and it's going to deal with the rejection of the Messiah and his first advent is going to deal with the judgment of Gentile powers that have subjugated Israel and blessings with her deliverance. Then the second oracle will begin in chapter 12 and go through chapter 14, and it will deal not with the rejection of the Messiah, but with the acceptance of the Messiah at his second advent; it will deal with the divine purging and cleansing of Israel that will occur with her final conflict amongst the nations that abhor her; it will reveal her salvation and restoration, transformation into the holy and priestly nation she was originally intended to be.

But now we want to try to grasp these first eight verses of chapter nine, and as I say, a brief mention of verse nine. And to do so, I've given you an outline, and it is just real simple two parts. First we will see the prophetic preparatory conquests of Alexander the Great and then secondly, the prophetic consummating conquests of the Messiah King. And as we will see, the prophet's revelation from God really envisions the first advent of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus. And it is against the backdrop of the initial conquests of Alexander the Great that served really as a harbinger of greater conquests and victories to come.

Now with that brief introduction, let me read Zechariah nine verses one, actually through verse nine,

“The burden of the word of the Lord is against the land of Hadrach, with Damascus as its resting place (for the eyes of men, especially of all the tribes of Israel, are toward the Lord),

And Hamath also, which borders on it;
Tyre and Sidon, though they are very wise.

For Tyre built herself a fortress
And piled up silver like dust,
And gold like the mire of the streets.

Behold, the Lord will dispossess her
And cast her wealth into the sea;
And she will be consumed with fire.

Ashkelon will see it and be afraid.
Gaza too will writhe in great pain;
Also Ekron, for her expectation has been confounded.
Moreover, the king will perish from Gaza,
And Ashkelon will not be inhabited.

And a mongrel race will dwell in Ashdod,
And I will cut off the pride of the Philistines.

 And I will remove their blood from their mouth
And their detestable things from between their teeth.
Then they also will be a remnant for our God,
And be like a clan in Judah,
And Ekron like a Jebusite.

But I will camp around My house because of an army,
Because of him who passes by and returns;
And no oppressor will pass over them anymore,
For now I have seen with My eyes.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
He is just and endowed with salvation,
Humble, and mounted on a donkey,
Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

So first, under the heading the prophetic preparatory conquests of Alexander the Great, let's look closely, beginning in verse one, "the burden" - the "maśśā'" in Hebrew - which could be translated not only burden, but "load." And in this context, it refers to a prediction of an ominous nature; a threatening warning of impending judgment, a burdensome message, if you will; a burdensome prophecy. "The burden of the word of the LORD is against the land of Hadrach. Now, nowhere else do we see this place mentioned in the Old Testament, but we do see it in an ancient Assyrian cuneiform inscription as Hatarikka, a city, a country against which the Assyrians fought in the mid eighth century BC. We see a reference to Hadrach on the eighth century BC Stele of King Zakkur of Hamath under the name Hazrach. And it really attested to the power and the influence of that day. By the way, a "stele" S, T, E, L, E is really just another term for an ancient stone monument. Usually, they were taller than they were wide, and they would have a text or some kind of ornamentation on them or both.

Now we know historically, let me give you a little background here, and then we're going to put this together, because this is really fascinating, in October 333 BC, Alexander the Great, defeated Darius and the Persians, which allowed immediate access into Syria, where these places existed, and then eventually down the coast into Palestine, all the way to Egypt. So Hadrach was on the northern region of biblical Aram, which is Syria, biblical Syria, one of the Gentile districts of Hamath. And at this time it was under the rule of the Medo Persians, under Darius. So again, "The burden of the word of the LORD is against the land of Hadrach, with Damascus as its resting place." So God's weighty burden here is going to... what he's saying it's going to settle down. It's going to remain on Damascus. His terrifying wrath is going to fall upon them. And bear in mind now, this is a region of some of the most formidable enemies of Israel. I have been in the Syrian bunkers up on the Golan Heights with a IDF soldier a friend of mine, and he could show me out across the Damascene plain, in the far distance, you can see a little green, kind of a speck in between the mountains, and that's Damascus. And so that's how close it is to Israel.

So indeed, God's wrath is going to be against these people. It will be meted out against them. And by the way, Zechariah now is prophesying this 200 years before it happened. Did you get that? 200 years later, Alexander the Great will come in and conquer Syria, after conquering the Medo Persian empire in 333 BC.

Now this is important. I want to just digress for a moment to give you a bit of an overview of what we have in Bible prophecy in this regard. And here I'm referring to the precision of fulfillments of these ancient prophecies, especially now predicting Alexander the Great and the Grecian Empire. Approximately 265 years before Alexander the Great's conquest of Tyre, - that we read about in the text that we're looking at today, described here in Zechariah's prophecy - 265 years before that happened, Ezekiel predicted this very thing in Ezekiel chapter 26 through 28; that prediction was made in 597 BC. And then later on, according to Daniel 2:39 and chapter seven and verse six, Daniel also predicted these conquests and these victories of Alexander the Great; a prophecy that was made in 535, BC, so about 200 years before these things happen. And now here in Zechariah, which was written between 480 and 470 BC, about 55 years after Daniel's prophecy, we see another prediction of Alexander the Great, and that occurred about 200 years after Zechariah's prophecy. Now, folks, that is astounding, absolutely, utterly astounding. Please don't lose the wonder of this, because it attests to the sovereignty of God. And of course, Alexander the Great's conquests occurred between 336 and 323 BC, which is about 2400 years ago.

So again, back to the text. "The burden of the word of the LORD is against the land of Hadrach, with Damascus as its resting place (for the eyes of men, especially of all the tribes of Israel, are toward the LORD)." And indeed, when Alexander's armies came in and defeated the Medes and the Persians and then swept through into the region of Syria and destroyed these cities, including Damascus, with unimaginable force, the eyes of men - especially of the tribes of Israel - they were on the Lord. They were on Yahweh. They weren't on Alexander. Yeah, Alexander was doing this, but they realized that something supernatural was going on here. This is amazing. And as we see, Alexander was simply an unwitting servant of the Lord.

Verse two, "And Hamath also, which borders on it..." so this burdensome message is coming against them also. That was a city about 150 miles north of Damascus that he also conquered, and this, by the way, would allow him now to move down the coast to destroy the Philistines and make his way down to Egypt. Also notice in verse two, the burden of the word of the Lord is against "Tyre and Sidon." Now bear in mind that these were preeminent cities in the ancient world, in ancient Phoenicia. Both of these cities are in Lebanon today along the coast. Tyre is about 12 miles north. Now it's just ruins, and of course, there's a city there, but the ancient Tyre is just ruins. It's about 12 miles north of Israel's border, and at that time it served as a quarry for many different nations. And Sidon, an ancient Canaanite city, is about 20 miles north of Tyre, on the coast, and the zenith of its power and prosperity was achieved by its vast trade of murex dye and glass industries. Interesting, right? Murex dye, by the way, is a purple dye, reddish purple dye/pigment made from the mucus of several species of mucus, I shouldn't say mucus. Murex maybe they had mucus too, right? Murex snails. Isn't that amazing? Used for clothing, for luxury items. And so this burden of the word of the Lord is against Tyre and Sidon, "...though they are very wise." And indeed, both of those cities were wise in their own eyes. They were satanic, pagan, idol worshiping cities in the Mediterranean port region.

And then it says verse three, "For Tyre built herself a fortress and piled up silver like dust and gold like the mire of the streets." It's interesting. In Hebrew, the word "Tyre" and "fortress" is a play on words. In Hebrew, it would say. For Tyre, which is "ṣōr", meaning rock, "built herself a fortress." The word is "māṣôr," which means citadel. And so, "for rock built herself a citadel." Or we could say for ṣōr", built herself a māṣôr. So you have a play on words to really be a form of mockery. And the imagery here, obviously, is one of fabulous wealth, like the riches of Solomon. You will recall in First Kings 10:27, we read how Solomon made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem. Now, some history here. These wicked Phoenicians in Tyre built for themselves a formidable fortress about a half mile off the coast. The walls were in some places as large as 150 feet. So you have this massive fortress. And it's interesting in 724 through 720, BC, the Assyrian king Shalmaneser besieged that fortress for five years and finally gave up, and then later on in 586 to 573 BC, Nebuchadnezzar the Second of Babylon, comes into the same area, and he unsuccessfully besieged Tyre for 13 years and gave up.

In fact, I want to read you Ezekiel. He prophesied exactly, not only Nebuchadnezzar coming against Tyre, but as we will see, Alexander the Great who followed him, in Ezekiel 26 beginning in verse seven. And by the way, this Ezekiel's prophecy against Nebuchadnezzar would have occurred about 11 years before it happened,

"For thus says the Lord GOD, 'Behold, I will bring upon Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings with horses, chariots, Calvary and a great army.

"'He will slay your daughters on the mainland.'"

See, they had a town on the mainland, and then the fortress, you know, a half a mile off.

"'He will slay your daughters on the main land with the sword; and he will make siege walls against you, cast up a ramp against you and raise up a large shield against you.

"'The blow of his battering rams, he will direct against your walls and with the axes, he will break down your towers.

"'Because of the multitude of his horses, the dust raised by them will cover you; your walls will shake at the noise of calvary and wagons and chariots when he enters your gates, as men enter a city that is breached.

"'With the hooves of his horses he will trample all your streets. He will slay your people with a sword; and your strong pillars will come down to the ground.'"

Then he changes here, and notice he says, "Also they..." not speaking of Nebuchadnezzar; he broadens the reference here beyond Nebuchadnezzar, and what we are about to read applies to Alexander.

"'And they’” referring to Alexander,

"'...will make spoil of your riches and a prey of your merchandise, break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses and throw your stones and your timbers and your debris into the water.

"'So I will silence the sound of your songs, and the sound of your harps will be heard no more.

"'I will make you a bare rock; you will be a place for the spreading of nets. You will be built no more, for I the LORD have spoken,' declares the Lord GOD.

"Thus says the Lord GOD  to Tyre, 'Shall not the coast land shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan, when the slaughter occurs in your midst?

"Then all the princes of the sea will go down from their thrones, remove their robes and strip off their embroidered garments. They will clothe themselves with trembling. They will sit on the ground, they will tremble every moment and be appalled at you."

And that's exactly what happened. Alexander the Great came in, and he conquered that fortress in seven months. Folks, this is one of the most dramatic fulfillments of Bible prophecy in all of Scripture. What he did, we know, historically, is he used the stone rubble and debris from the decimated coastal city of Tyre - as a result of the Babylonian conquest - and took all of that debris and constructed a causeway into the Mediterranean to eventually reach that fortress. And then, with the use of siege engines, he breached the city wall. By the way, thesiege engines, many of them...most of them, actually, they were massive, massive machines; two story towers. Most of them would be covered with wet hides to protect themselves from fiery arrows. Most of them would hold 150 men inside of them that would turn the wheels so that it could keep moving forward. They were also designed to be mounted on ships, and they could be disassembled and then transported on land, disassembled, transported by ship. Quite an engineering feat. And we know when Alexander came against Tyre, he had amassed a navy from other neighboring city states to help him with the assault. There was about 250 vessels that he had, and they had, on these siege engines that were put on the ships as well, they were able to use torsion catapults to launch 30-pound balls against the walls. They were able to fire these large arrows with these torsion catapults. They were manned by teams of specialized artillery artillerymen, and eventually they broke through and they killed the inhabitants of Tyre and enslaved the men and women. And this fulfilled Ezekiel prophecies in Ezekiel 26 through 28 to the letter.

Once again, let me emphasize this, prophecies made in 597 BC, against Tyre. In other words, prophecies made 260 years before they were fulfilled. I want to back up for a moment and remind you of Daniel's prophecy regarding this very same thing, these same events, and they were made about 62 years after Ezekiel prophecy. You will remember, in the book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar, had a dream of this, of this massive statue representing Babylon, Medo Persia, Greece, Rome, and later on, a revived Rome and a stone, remember, that was cut without hands that smashed them all, which pictured Christ at his second coming that will destroy the fourth empire in his final phase with just catastrophic suddenness; shattering the Gentile powers forever at the establishment of his kingdom. But anyway, in Daniel two, in that context, in verse 39, Daniel interprets the dream to explain the image, and then he says that, "then another third kingdom of bronze will rule over the earth," another one will arise; and as predicted, that third kingdom arose and conquered the Medo Persian Empire and ruled over all of the earth. And this was the kingdom of Macedonia, or Greece, ruled by Alexander the Great and that began in 334 BC.

And what's interesting, as you study ancient history, you see that his Grecian Empire not only conquered all of the regions that were under the control of the Medo Persians, but he went even further east, to the very borders of India. And by the end of all of his conquest, he had carved out an empire of 1.5 million square miles. Let me tell you a little bit about his army and how he would function, because, again, what we see is the hand of God using this man and this army to accomplish his purposes, which really pictures the ultimate defeat of Gentile domination at the end of the age.

It is said that his army of around 40,000 men would move with such speed and agility that they were able to defeat other armies that were far larger than them. In fact, the Persians were anywhere between three and five times larger than Alexander's army. They invented the Greek phalanx, which was a singular rectangular mass military formation of interlocking shields, spears. They had these spikes called sarissas; long spears, or pikes. They were between 13 to 20 feet along. They had a sharp iron head on them shaped like a leaf and a bronze butt spike which could be anchored into the ground in such a way as to stop charges from the enemy, including horses, and they were so sharp they could penetrate enemy shields. They also implemented longer spears, smaller, lighter shields, and they developed what we would call skirmish infantries, archers. They had a light cavalry, a heavy calvary, and then those siege engines; and they organized various divisions that were designed to do specific responsibilities, and each working together with perfect efficiency at a moment's notice; theywere virtually unstoppable. It's interesting, they were even able to defeat the war elephants. Remember of King Porus the Battle of Jhelum. It happened in 326 BC. In fact, in Daniel eight, verses five through eight. 200 years before it happened, God revealed to Daniel even more about the mighty Alexander the Great that would come, and he depicted him as a male goat. Let me read this to you.

"While I was observing, behold, a male goat was coming from the west over the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground; and the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes.

"He came up to the ram that had had, that had the two horns,"

referring to Medo Persia,

"which I had seen standing in front of the canal, and rushed at him in his mighty wrath.

"I saw him come alongside the ram, and he was enraged at him; and he struck the ram and shattered his two horns, and the ram had no strength to withstand him. So he hurled him to the ground and trampled on him, and there was none to rescue the ram from his power.

"Then the male goat magnified to himself exceedingly. But as soon as he was mighty, the large horn was broken; and in its place there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven."

Now, if you want to know all of the details of what that means, you can listen to or read the transcript of my exposition on this, but let me give you just a little background. History tells us that after this victory, he claimed to be God, and that was greatly offensive to a lot of the Macedonian leaders, so some of them rebelled against him. Mind you, they had their own false gods, but hey, you're not the one that we're worshiping, so we're upset with you. And worse yet, we know that he merged Persian, as well as Greek, elements in his army, and a lot of them married Persian women and so what we see in history is that his vast army was not united - politically and governmentally - as an empire. And soon after his death, his generals began to fight over who would be in charge. And even, as it says in the text, they went to the four winds of heaven; and there were four of them and those dominant generals emerged and division occurred. Daniel 11 four speaks of this. And all of the Empire got weakened, and eventually they succumbed to the Roman legions. And obviously, though God granted supernatural strength and wisdom and power to Alexander to accomplish these things, he was an unwitting pawn in the hand of a sovereign God.

Now, back to Zechariah nine; while Israel's vicious enemies to the north are now defeated, Damascus and Hamath and the cities of the of the Syrian interior, and then the Phoenician cities over on the coast of Tyre and Sidon, Alexander is now free to move south along the coast to conquer the Philistines. He's going to encounter the Israelites, but then he's ultimately making way his way to Egypt. Now notice again, Zechariah's prophecy, and this one now is about 55 years after Daniel's prophecy, and this is concerning the rise of Alexander and the Grecian Empire.

Verse four, "Behold, the Lord will dispossess her and cast her wealth into the sea; and she will be consumed with fire." This is again back to speaking about Tyre. "Behold, the Lord" - here, it's not Yahweh, it's Adonai, which stresses Yahweh's sovereign authority and rulership over the world. And we know that the Lord promised to destroy Tyre and to make her as smooth, just like a smooth rock; a place where fishermen could spread their nets. In fact, 265 Years before it happened that's exactly what God said through Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 26 beginning in verse four,

"'They will destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers; and will scrape her debris from her and make her a bare rock.

"'She will be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, 'for I have spoken,' declares the Lord GOD, and she will become spoil for the nations.

"'Also, her daughters, who are on the mainland, will be slain by the sword, and they will know that I am the LORD.'"

Verse 14 of Ezekiel, 26 goes on to say,

"'I will make you a bare rock; you will be a place for the spreading of nets. You will be built no more, for I the LORD have spoken,' declares the Lord GOD."

And today you can even go on the internet, and you can see videos of those ancient ruins, and it is exactly as God promised. Now notice who's next on the list of divine judgments. Here it's the Philistines, beginning in verse five of Zechariah nine, "Ashkelon will see it and be afraid." See what? Well, see what Alexander the Great did to Tyre and the Medes and the Persians and everybody else. I mean, imagine if China came in and is destroying absolutely everything, and we're kind of next and on the path. I mean, that's what's going on here. "Ashkelon will see it and be afraid. Gaza too will writhe in great pain." Of course, you know where Gaza is, and we know that Alexander defeated them. In fact, he defeated Gaza in five months; about 10,000 people were slaughtered. The women and the children were sold into slavery. In fact, at Gaza, they captured the king, his name was Batis, B, A, T, I, S, and we read that Alexander was so furious with those people that he took the king and he bored holes through his ankle at the Achilles tendon, wrapped cords through the holes, and then dragged him alive behind a chariot beneath the walls of the city until he died. Pretty gruesome. We also know that the plunder that Alexander got from Gaza filled 10 ships and they were sent back to Macedonia.

Notice at the end and also in verse five, "Also Ekron," another Philistine city, it says, "...for her, expectation has been confounded." And that only makes sense if you understand that Ekron had an alliance with Tyre and depended upon Tyre for military support in case they got in trouble, all right? So their expectation is now confounded; exactly as the prophet says.

"Moreover, the king will perish from Gaza." I just told you about that, "and Ashkelon will not be inhabited." Ashkelon, another Philistine city, it says verse six, "And a mongrel race will dwell in Ashdod." By the way, all of these cities would be so destroyed that not very many people lived through it, and they would be repopulated by foreigners, and the heritage of Philistia would be greatly diminished, so he says, "and a mongrel race will dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines." In Amos, chapter one, verses seven through eight, Amos prophesied the fall of these of these cities, and he did it in the mid eighth century BC, 400 years before it happened. In 635 BC, Zephaniah, who was a contemporary of Jeremiah, in Zephaniah two, four through seven God declared that ultimately, the removal of these Philistine cities would eventually allow Israel to inhabit their promised land.

Now I want you to bear in mind that all of this destruction of these Gentile powers are really an analogy of the future judgment that awaits the enemies of God's people. So Zechariah’s prophecy, as we see in all the prophecies in Scripture, has both a near and a far fulfillment. And the divine judgments of that day were not only given to the people of that day to point them, as we will see more to the first advent of the Messiah, but also to speak of the destruction that would one day come upon the Gentile powers at the second coming of Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom. Merrill Unger makes an insightful observation, quote, "The contrast is between two world conquerors, Alexander and the Messiah in His second advent. The prophecy of the one being the occasion of the long-range prediction of the other, and the long-range view of the latter, embracing also the shorter-range view. For the prophet well knew Messiah would not come as a world conqueror, King of kings and Lord of lords at His second advent, until he first appeared as rejected King and lowly Savior at His first coming." End quote, and that's what we'll look at next here.

We've seen the prophetic preparatory conquest of Alexander the Great now the prophetic consummating conquest of the Messiah King. And I want you to notice here the grace of God that he's going to pour out upon the remnant of even the Philistines and all Gentile idolaters, he says in verse seven, "And I will remove their blood from their mouth and their detestable things from between their teeth." All of this, without getting into great detail, depicts their idolatrous practices. So he's going to abolish this, and it's going to be done through conversion. And certainly, many of the people of that day saw all that happened and converted to worship Yahweh. And only God could have such mercy and show such saving grace and sanctifying grace.

And it goes on to say, "Then they also will be a remnant for our God." And isn't it interesting, he always preserves a remnant for himself among the peoples of the world. And he even adds, "and be like a clan in Judah." A clan in the original language here refers to a people group related by common ancestor. In fact, the term can also refer to a tribal chief, as we see in Genesis 36:15 through 43, or even a group within a tribe or a nation that allies itself with a military; and though they would be profoundly humbled, they're still going to be recognized; that remnant be recognized and maintain some dignity within the nation. And certainly, at some level, that happened, but much more so we read about during the Millennium. And, oh, the grace of God. I think about this, the grace of God that he would lavish upon people no matter how wicked a remnant will be redeemed.

He even goes on to say, "And Ekron like a Jebusite." Well, what does that mean? You may recall, the Jebusites lived in the region of Jerusalem when the Israelites conquered the promised land and they assimilated with the Israelites. And one of them even became a very dear and respected friend of David, whose name was Araunah - Araunah the Jebusite - Second Samuel 24 verses 18 through 24, remember David purchased a threshing floor from Araunah the Jebusite, and that eventually became...he wanted it for an altar. It was on Mount Moriah, and that eventually became the place for the temple, where the temple would be built.

But back to Zechariah, by God's grace, eventually non-Israelites are going to be saved, and certainly we're a part of that. They will be welcomed; they will be allowed to worship the Messiah. And that's so consistent with the Abrahamic covenant that you read about in Genesis, 12, three. You can read about it as well, the Gentiles coming to faith in Christ, in Isaiah, 49 verses one through six. And this was partially fulfilled at that day. I mean, certainly some of these people would convert to worship the one true God, but in the millennium, we know that it will be completely fulfilled.

And notice what else God has promised regarding the preservation and the protection of Israel in that day, as well as when he returns, he says in verse eight, "But I will camp..." a term that is often used for a military encampment, "I will camp around My house..." What is his house? Well, it certainly would include the temple, but by extension, the city, the people, "I will camp around My house because of an army, because of him who passes by and returns;" a reference to the continuous military campaigns and the presence of foreign armies, and yet, God is going to protect them. And while this will be fully realized when Christ returns, we can see historically that he did some of that even in the days of Alexander, which is fascinating.

And here I take you to the ancient Jewish historian, Josephus, in the book the Antiquities of the Jews. Any of you that are Bible scholars, you simply must have that book - the Antiquities of the Jews - and this comes out of book 11, chapter eight and verses three and following, so to speak, sections three and following. And this speaks of when Alexander encountered the Jews in Israel. He conquered the Syrians and Tyre and Sidon and now he's in the region of Israel; and we know from history that he demanded the Jewish high priest, Jaddua, the payment of tribute that they had been paying to to Darius, the Persian monarch. And the high priest refused to do that. He wanted to stay loyal to Persia, and Alexander was enraged, and he threatened to destroy Jerusalem - which he could have done very easily - but God protected them. And what's interesting, after Alexander conquered Gaza, he turned his armies to head towards Jerusalem to destroy them, but the high priest called the people to prayer and to make sacrifices to God to plead for deliverance. And we read from history that God spoke to the high priest in a dream, instructing him to not be afraid, but to go out with his entourage and to meet Alexander as he's coming towards the city. And just outside the city this happened, the high priest and his attendants met Alexander. I want to read to you exactly what Josephus tells us. Quote,

“ . . . when (Alexander) saw the multitude at a distance, in white garments, while the priests stood clothed with fine linen, and the High Priest in purple and scarlet clothing; with his miter on his head; having the golden plate whereon the name of God was engraved, he approached by himself, and adored that name, and first saluted the High Priest. The Jews also did all together, with one voice, salute Alexander; and encompass him about. . . . However, Parmenio alone went up to him, and asked him, “How it came to pass, that when all others adored him, he should adore the High Priest of the Jews?” To whom he replied, “I did not adore him, but that God who hath honoured him with his High Priesthood. For I saw this very person, in a dream, in this very habit, when I was at Dios in Macedonia. Who, when I was considering with my self how I might obtain the dominion of Asia, exhorted me to make no delay; but boldly to pass over the sea thither: for that he would conduct my army, and would give me the dominion over the Persians. Whence it is that having seen no other in that habit, and now seeing this person in it, and remembering that vision, and the exhortation which I had in my dream, I believe that I bring this army under the divine conduct, and shall therewith conquer Darius, and destroy the power of the Persians; and that all things will succeed according to what is in my own mind.” And when he had said this to Parmenio, and had given the High Priest his right hand, the priests ran along by him; and he came into the city. And when he went up into the temple, he offered sacrifice to God, according to the High Priest’s direction: and magnificently treated both the High Priest, and the priests. And when the book of Daniel was shewed him, wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks should destroy the empire of the Persians, he supposed that himself was the person intended. And as he was then glad, he dismissed the multitude for the present: but the next day he called them to him, and bid them ask what favours they pleased of him. ”

Is that not amazing?

Verse eight, "But I will camp around My house because of an army, because of him who passes by and returns; and no oppressor will pass over them anymore, For now, I have seen with My eyes." Now, to be sure, oppressors have constantly passed over Israel, over Jerusalem, down through the millennia. And so this prophecy hasn't been fulfilled completely yet, but a future age, in the future age of the millennium, when the Lord Jesus Christ reigns upon the earth, it will be fulfilled. And he says, "For now, I have seen with My eyes..." By the way, that doesn't mean, I didn't see this before, but all of a sudden now I see it. No, what he's saying here, the verbs, it's in the past tense, it indicates that the penetrating gaze of divine omniscience is permanently fixed upon his covenant people, and he has already seen the end from the beginning. None of this has caught him by surprise. Indeed, Isaiah, 46 verse 10 we read, "Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things which have not been done, saying, 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.'"

And then finally, in closing, underscoring the broader eschatological context of the aforementioned destruction of the Gentile world powers by God through Alexander the Great, I find it interesting the Holy Spirit goes on to predict the arrival of the coming Messiah at his first advent. Verse nine, "Rejoice greatly. O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph. O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold your King is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey." And 550 years after that prophecy, Jesus rode in to Jerusalem at the triumphal entry.

Well, certainly these would have been comforting words to those post exilic Jews that were so discouraged, but I hope they're encouraging words to you. And let me speak to you as we wrap it up this morning, I pray that these prophetic truths will animate your heart in such a way as to make you serious about your Bible study, to make you serious about the Word of God that you hold in your hands; to make you so serious about it that you will humble yourself before what God has asked you to do, knowing that he is holy and he will accomplish his good pleasure; and he will judge the wicked, but he will also save those who humble themselves, who come to him in repentant faith, and who worship and serve him. So I challenge you to live your life with this eternal perspective, realizing that no matter what we endure here this side of glory, we're just like some of those people that may have lived in Syria in those days or in Tyreor whatever, but God's in control, and God is going to accomplish his purposes. So I leave you with what Paul told Timothy, or Titus, in Titus two, beginning in verse 13, that we should be looking for "the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." So let these great historical prophetic truths move you to that end. This isn't just about learning ancient history and being awed by Bible prophecy - even though I hope you are awed by it because it gives glory to God - but this is about animating our hope to see our King face to face, amen?

Father, thank you for the glorious truths of your Word. We are so humbled when we bow before them; we recognize afresh the glory, the majesty of who you are, and we pray as always, that you will continue to reveal yourself to us through your Word, by the power of your Spirit, through the Word preached, through our fellowship, through the hymns that we sing so that we might be able to live in such a way as to enjoy all that is ours in Christ Jesus, and so that others can see the glory of God in us and want what we have that has been given solely by your grace. So we thank you. We give you praise, and Lord Jesus, will you come quickly? We pray. Amen.