Zechariah 1:7-17

Explore the remarkable vision of Zechariah 1:7-17 with Joshua Lewis at Kings Fellowship Church in Ada, Oklahoma. This message dives into the prophet's vivid encounter with a man on a red horse among the myrtle trees—a scene filled with symbolic depth and hope. Joshua unpacks the interplay of God's mercy and justice, revealing how this ancient prophecy speaks to God's faithfulness in shaking those at ease while comforting the troubled.

You'll discover how this vision ties into the broader redemptive narrative, highlighting God's promises to restore and rebuild His people and judge his enemies.

Join us to see how Zechariah's vision applies today, reminding us of God's sovereignty and His unchanging desire to partner with His people for His glory.

We hope you have enjoyed these sermons from King’s Fellowship Church Ada. It is our prayer that these resources will encourage and edify you in your walk. We request that you view these resources as a supplemental tool for your discipleship. These sermons are intended to complement, not replace, your faithful service to your local church, wherever you may reside.

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Transcript

  Zechariah chapter 1, verse 7 through 17. On the 24th day of the 11th month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Edo, saying,  I saw in the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen.

And behold, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses. Then I said, What are these, my Lord?  The angel who talked with me said to me, I will show you what they are.  So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered,  These are they whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth.  And they answered the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees and said, We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth remains at rest. 

Then the angel of the Lord said, O Lord of hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these 70 years?  And the Lord answered gracious and comforting words to the angel who talked with me.  So the angel who talked with me said to me, cry out,  thus says the Lord of hosts, I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion,  and I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease.

For while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster. Therefore, thus says the Lord, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy.  My house shall be built in it, declares the Lord of Hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. Cry out again,  thus says the Lord of Hosts. My city shall again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion, and again choose. 

This is  

God's Word. You may be seated. Well, we are in the book of Zechariah.  We are in verses 7 through 17, which John just read. We've color coded those notes for you so that you can see who is speaking where.  There's quite a few different people in this story, so it's kind of hard to tell. Is it the angel that's interpreting to Zechariah?

Is this the angel of the Lord? There's a man  sitting on a red horse in the midst of these myrtle trees in this glen.  You've got a bunch of other horses, white and red and brown, that's the sorrel word, horses.  And then you have an angel that is  next to  Zachariah interpreting the events of this dream.

The 24th day of the 11th month, the month of Shabbat, is the second year of Darius. This date has a specific significance since it comes five months after the building of the temple. We see in Haggai chapter 1 verse 15, also in your notes, that that is when the temple started going under construction.

It was five months later that this prophecy comes on the scene. The reason that that is very important to us is because our last verse in Zechariah that we were reading, God said, as the Lord of hosts  if you return to me, I will return to you. Well, they returned. They built the house of the Lord, as Zechariah had prophesied that they were to do.

He gave them a word of instruction. So they go back and they begin to build the house of the Lord. What does God do? He does what he promised. He returns. This is a response of Yahweh stepping in the midst, the angel of the Lord coming on behalf of Israel and interceding on Israel's behalf. Israel, Judah, returned to God, and now here is God returning to Judah.

Moreover, the month of Shabbat is the 11th month of the year. Thus, the 24th month of Shabbat follows only a few days prior to the New Year's festival.  So it pains me to say this, but the book of Zechariah, a good chunk of it, is a New Year's Eve prophecy. If you know anything about me on YouTube, I don't really care for the New Year's prophecies every year that come out.

The year 2025 will be a year of nonsense and shenanigans. I don't care for them. I don't like them. . But hey, here's the good news.  Zachariah is not about the year 2775. It's about a prophecy that  starts in the days of Zachariah and has not yet to been fulfilled.

 So it's not like it's a, a prophecy of the new year. It just happens to be a prophecy given. Right before the new year  love Zechariah as much as it pains me to say it Zechariah  describes the vision in great detail.  We're gonna examine the components of this prophecy We're gonna look at the revelation then we'll take a stab at the interpretation what this revelation means And we'll find a way that it applies to our life The subject of this revelation as we've said is the angel of the Lord is sitting on a red horse Verse 8 describes him as a man   sitting on this horse, and verse 11 elaborates on the man's identity when Zechariah describes him as the angel of the Lord.

If you're not familiar with this phrase, and I know many of you are  the angel of the Lord, I believe, can be  pretty concretely decided as Jesus in the Old Testament. We would call this a Christophany. In fact, I do believe that. Every manifestation, every bodily manifestation in the Old Testament of God, I believe all of them are Christophanies.

Some would say some of these are Theophanies. Some, an appearance of God the Father, maybe in human flesh.  However, I think we can demonstrate very quickly that that is not the case.  Jesus says in John chapter 1 verse 18  that no man has seen the Father except him who's come down out of heaven.

Now Jesus, how could you say no one has ever seen the Father? Jacob seems to have wrestled with God    God seems to come with Abraham and have a meal with him  the 72 elders on the top of a mountain had a picnic with God. Who were they eating with? Jesus is clearly saying, I am the one they have been eating with.

As we have studied the Nicene Creed, and we talk about how the Son is begotten and not made, we talk about how the Son is eternally begotten. It has always been the Son's role to display the Father throughout creation. So in eternity past, all throughout history, anytime the Father is being made known, He is being made known through the agency of the Son making Him known.

The Son comes to reveal the Father. So, this happens even in the Old Testament. I don't have enough time to go through all of the references, but we'll take a stab at two of them very quickly if this is a new idea for you.  Also, to be very clear, one of you might be thinking, Josh is saying that Jesus is an angel.

That is incorrect.  The word angel of the Lord could also be understood to say the Lord of the angel armies.  Again, pretty significant because the former verses that we've read said that the Lord of Hosts will come, the Lord of Hosts will deliver, the Lord of Hosts will bring Judah back if they repent.

Well, here is the Lord of Hosts in the midst of this garden. A few verses for that is Judges, verses 13, 15 through 22. It's a very unfamiliar passage for some. These are Samson's parents, okay? Samson's parents are hanging out   and there's a man who comes to Samson's mama. And he says, hey, you're gonna have a son.

And he  is gonna be a Nazarene. You're not gonna cut his hair, no wine, all this kind of stuff. He's starting to predict. Her son that's going to come. Now She goes and tells her husband. Her husband's like, Ah, who is this guy? I'll point him out if he ever shows up again. Well, then he shows up again.

She just thinks he's a man until this story here. That gives you a little bit of context. So  Manoah  said to the angel of the Lord, Please let us detain you and prepare a young goat for you. So he is  speaking to this man who's presented himself to her once before. And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah  if you were to detain me, I will not eat your food.

But if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord. Ramona did not know that he was the angel of the Lord. And then  Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, what is your name? So that when  your words come true, we may honor you. Then the angel of the Lord said to him  Why do you ask my name, seeing it is too wonderful?

How many times do angels brag about themselves?  Not very often.  But he's, here he's saying, My name is too wonderful for you to know. He continues in verse 19, So Manoah took the young goat  with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the Lord  to the one  who works wonders. And Manoah and his wife  were watching, and when the flame went up towards the heaven   from the altar, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar.

That was pretty cool. Now, Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground. The angel of the Lord appeared to    appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord, and Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die, for we have seen death. 

So here,  THEY understood the angel of the Lord to be God himself. Very important. And then Exodus, chapter 3, 1 through 6. I'll read a few selected verses, and this will spare us a little bit of time. Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father in law Jethro to the priest of Midian.

He led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Hebron to the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in the midst of the bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside and see the great sight, why the bush is not burned.

And then the Lord saw that he turned aside to see. God called to him out of the bush, Moses, Moses.  So, the angel is in the bush, and God is speaking from the bush, because the scriptures are attributing the bush as being the God stuff. The angel of the Lord is God, and God is the angel of the Lord. But how does this make sense?

Again, we, we mentioned John 1, 18, only the son has come to reveal the father. Next in this vision, if we see, hey, the main figure is right there. We have this angel of the Lord, this messianic figure sitting upon a red horse. We have these other horses that are on patrol. We see a red horse, a sorrel horse is what the ESV will translate.

 Many other translations will say brown and others will say white horses. So we have red sorrel  and white horses.  Now, it's possible that this is a scene of Chronicles of Narnia  because nowhere in this story does it say that these horses have riders. So, are these horses talking? Well, I mean, I don't think it's really possible.

In fact, all my commentaries assume that there are riders on the horses. Now,  for the sake of fun, I have not illustrated riders on the horses, cause they weren't in the text, so we're just gonna leave it up for our imagination. For all intents and purposes, this was a dream  a vision of the night. Again, some translation will call it a vision, others, vision of the night.

That would be a dream. Both talking horses are acceptable, okay? We're about to see a scroll come out of heaven and tie people up, okay? So, so it's completely within the bounds of a dream  for horses to talk. Nevertheless, You need to know my commentaries say they're probably writers trying to steal all the fun out of the text.

Now,  we also have an angel whose job it is to assist in the interpretation of this dream vision, right? So in verse 9  he speaks  additionally about the angel. Helping Zacharia interpret the vision. But also in verses 14 through 17, the angel is relaying the words from the angel of the Lord. It's a very interesting passage.

We'll probably go and look at it in a moment.  But it says, then the angel of the Lord spoke comforting, comforting words to zacharia to me.  through this intermediary angel, which is really interesting.  Some people would ask, why does God need angels? Why does God need spiritual beings to patrol?

Why does God need    partners in his kingdom? And the question on the answer I have for you is like, I have no clue. I mean, the reality of the situation is, is that Jesus should have just lived here on the earth, right? Like if, if Josh Lewis was like in charge of like evangelism.  And I could, I could say like, hey, Jesus, just don't go anywhere.

You just stay here, do that glowy thing that you do, right? And then everyone who doesn't believe your God will be convinced. And then they'll all believe, right? But for whatever reason, it brings God good pleasure to partner with his children.  So the only reason I can come to, for why God would send an angel, Like, why does God send an angel to Daniel to deliver a message or an interpretation of a dream?

Can't the Holy Spirit give the interpretation of the dream? Isn't the Holy Spirit omnipresent? Well, certainly. But for whatever reason, He chooses to partner with us is probably the same reason He chooses to partner with angels, with spiritual beings in the heavenly places. Because it brings God pleasure. 

So  we have this angel, for whatever reason,  taking the message of  And then delivering that message to Zachariah. Now, let's talk about the setting of this revelation. As we're trying to study the components. They are in a glen. A glen is a narrow valley deep in the mountains. A glen is often, has a stream running through it.

 The top of the mountains are kind of the peaks, the lower parts are the valleys. A glen is the very base of those valleys, where those mountains come to kiss together. Barry Webb makes an observation of the word translated here as glen, or hollow. In some versions of Zechariah 1. 8, and again, that means, Textual variants.

Not all of our Hebrew Bibles will have this Hebrew word for Glenn, but some of the textual variants that we have uses the word toim.  This term often refers to watery depths of the Old Testament. So in Genesis one, verse two, the earth was, was out form in void, void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. 

So here is the angel of the Lord  riding over the depths.  In Exodus 15, 5, the depths also covered up Pharaoh's armies. They swallowed them up and brought them down to the depths of the earth. This is imagery of chaos.  The glen contains a small forest of myrtle trees.  J. Vernon McGee suggests that the myrtle trees grow in valleys where water is available.

So again, that image of watery depths works out because myrtle trees typically grow in glens.  Our myrtle trees here  typically have red blossoms  but for whatever reason in Israel and in the time of Zechariah, they would have been white. 

 Myrtle trees are an evergreen shrubbery, typically growing seven to eight feet in height.  For those who lack an imagination, you have the illustration up there on the screen.  Let's try to tackle our interpretation of the revelation. So we know what the revelation is, we can see it, we can see literally, there's a picture for us, but what does it mean?

  When tackling the interpretive process of prophecy,  we can identify clear and plausible interpretations. So, in some sense, there are going to be very clear things in the text, and there are going to be things that are hard to understand. As we went through, again, our series going through the Nicene Creed, we talked about the doctrine of perspicuity.

The perspicuity of scripture teaches that the scriptures can be understood, but it doesn't claim that all of the scriptures are easy to understand. What it claims is the necessary doctrines of salvation, what requires to have faith in God, to reveal who God himself is, all of those things can be found in the scriptures.

So you can rest assured if you were one day hit on the head on a desert island, a coconut comes and hits you on the head and you suddenly have amnesia, but you have a Bible, right? You could open up that Bible and learn everything you would need to know about God. And, the necessary things to do with your relationship with God, that of faith and repentance, to be in right standing with Him.

Nevertheless, some of the scriptures are hard to understand. Peter says this of Paul. He says false teachers come in, taking Paul's writings, and they distort those as they do with all the other scriptures. So, scripture is not always easy to understand. Which means we should be looking for, fixating on, the clearest parts of this passage.

 Focus on the clear, and then once the clear is established, then start to understand the minute details. Sometimes people get drunk on symbols.  And they can miss the forest through the trees. People can get really sucked into the small Oh, this horse is red, and this horse is white, and this horse is sorrel, and And then does that fit within Revelation, where there's horses in Revelation?

Whoa, whoa, settle down, settle down, settle down. You don't have to go all There's one red horse in all of the Bible. Here, and there's another red horse in the New Testament, in the book of Revelation. It doesn't mean they're connected.  I do think that they're probably connected at the end of Zechariah. But, but I just want you to know!

That's not how we do Bible prophecy, right? We don't just want to run to an interpretation because  because we see an association of some kind. So we want to avoid two different things, two ditches on both sides of the road when we're understanding prophecy, two ditches. 

 One is called reader response theory,  everyone say boo,  boo. We don't like reader response theory, it's not good,  reader response theory says, I am going to read the Bible, and as I read it, whatever it means to me, must be what it really means.  I've given you a definition in your handout.

Reader response theory is a literary approach that emphasizes the role of the reader in interpreting a text. Instead of focusing solely on the author's intent or the intrinsic meaning within the text, this theory highlights the active process by which the reader creates meaning based on their personal experience, emotionals, and personal context.

It suggests that a text does not have a fixed meaning, but is instead a dynamic interaction between the reader and the written words. This would undermine the objectivity of Scripture. It would undermine any consistency and unity within the body of Christ. Because if whatever it means to you, it means to you, and whatever it means to me, it means to me. 

You can't just come to a text of scripture and say, Well, it doesn't mean that to me.  You've got to figure out what it meant to the original author.  If you want to say, I think the original author meant this, and you want to say, I think the original author meant that, well then you can agree to disagree, and there's a chance for unity, because you're fighting from the same standard of authority.

But if you are the standard of authority, and I am the standard of authority, we will always divide, because there can never be unity when you have different standards of objectivity. The second fallacy    is just as bad as the first fallacy, and this is called false equivalencies. I kind of mentioned that a moment ago.

 A literary false equivalency occurs when two things are compared as if they are the same. In prophecy, a false equival equivalency  ignores important differences that would make the comparison invalid or misleading. For example, Leaven is used in the scriptures to talk about sin, but leaven isn't always used in the scriptures to talk about sin.

Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like leaven, right? So when you come to some Bible prophecy and leaven comes up, should you instantly assume that it's sinful? No, not necessarily. Just because there is an equivalent kind of comparison, doesn't mean that that comparison works in every place of the Bible. 

In the same way, birds are used in parables, right?  There's a, there's a parable of the seed and the sower, where Jesus goes out to throw seed, right? And then the birds of the air come down and pick up the seed and they eat it up. 

 Birds come in and they eat up the seed. And in that parable  the, the birds are representative of demons. But are birds always representative demons? Well, no! Jesus, the kingdom of heaven will be like a tree with lots of birds that come and sit in her shade, come ,.And rest in the branches. Those aren't demons coming to rest in the house of God, 

 so when trying to figure out what red horses mean, we can't just run to the only symbol of a red horse. Okay? That would be a dangerous thing to do.  Anytime you see the color red, you can't just run to every time red is used in scripture and say, hey, red over here is this.

You could say red is representative of blood. Red is representative of wrath. Red is representative of love. All of those things are true! And you can see all of those things in scripture! But it doesn't mean it means all of those things. Or even one of those things.  When we approach a prophecy, we've got to figure out what it means to the author. 

I do believe  as I mentioned before  these dreams that are coming to Zechariah, they are a chiasm. Which means that dream one matches dream eight. Dream 2 matches dream 7. Dream 3 matches dream 6. Dream 4 matches dream 5, right? And they're all pointing in a specific direction, and they terminate on this idea that we need a king priest ruling over Judah.

That's, that's what they're pointing to, okay? Now, I do believe if we had just dream 1, we could not say that that's the writer in Revelation. But because we have dream 8, Dream 8 actually has all four horses that we see in Revelation. So I think that we can use that in our interpretation of Dream 1, but because we haven't gotten to Dream 8 yet, we can't get there.

So, you'll have to wait for the unveiling of said horse at a later date.  So, when we read the text, what are we looking for? We're looking for the big idea, the main theme. And fortunately for us, in these verses,  The interpreting angel gives us the meaning.  I think it's so interesting as I dive into commentaries, and I don't mean to take any shots, okay?

I don't mean to take any shots. But espe specifically the dispensational commentaries, they run to interpretations and they ignore the angel's interpretation. They run straight to all the images. And again, you just can't get drunk on symbols. You have to look at the main author's intent. You have to look at what the angel told Zachariah this dream is about.

And then you can start looking at those smaller details.  So, the angel of the Lord speaks to Zechariah, and he tells them the main message.  The main message  is that God is about to shake those who are at ease,  and he's going to steady those who have been shaken.  The word here is to unsettle  those who are settled, and to settle those who are unsettled.

This word is meant to trouble those who are secured. And secure those who are troubled.  This word is reminding Judah that Babylon will be destroyed and Judah is receiving comforting words. The, the, the, the horsemen go all throughout the, the land and they come back and they tell the man, the, the angel of the Lord.

What do they say to him? The world is at rest.  This is not a good thing.  The world is at rest. You see, Babylon has always tried to replace the kingdom of God.  The first Babylon was an attempt to rebuild Eden, the place where heaven and earth would meet.  There are too many parallels to ignore. It was a walled in city. 

It was a, this obelisk was this place of worship where heaven and earth would meet.  That attempted to reconcile heaven and earth in one people. A people united under one mission, under one kingdom.  The last Babylon that will come on the scenes of Revelation. This Babylon also believes  It possesses a never ending peace.

We see this in Revelation 18, 7 and Isaiah 47, 7 through 8. Where Babylon speaks of herself, I will, I will never, no one will ever take my peace from me. No one will ever be able to take all of my wealth and my splendor and my glory.  It's like those who wrote the, the lines of the Titanic when it was going off to sea, and they said, Hey, God himself could not sink this ship.  This is what Babylon says in her heart. It's what she offers the nations. That's what she offers her vassals that she's conquered.

She says, hey guys, I have an everlasting peace. I've conquered all people, and now they've all submitted to me. No one can rise up and destroy us.  Just like Egypt, when Joseph goes into Egypt, and all the peoples of the world sell themselves into Egypt, Egypt is the superpower. They believe they could not be destroyed. 

It's Babylon rearing its ugly head. Babylon promises the unity of the nations. You can see that in Revelation 17, 12 through 13. Babylon will have a leader one day, a leader who will be their king, but also a priest who demands worship in the house of the Lord.

We see this in 2 Thessalonians 2, 4, where he stands up, the man of  of  of perdition. Nope, that's not it. Someone help me. The man of lawlessness? There it is. Okay.  Stands up in the house of the Lord and declares that he is God and demands to be worshipped. Babylon has its own Melchizedek. They have their own king priests to replace Jesus.

Babylon is a false kingdom trying to re present Eden, right? Trying to re present the kingdom of God. It looks kind of like the kingdom, but it's not.  It's full of depravity. The Babylon of Zachariah's day is no different. It's  The Babylon has conquered all of her major enemies. This Babylon is living in the apex of its prosperity and military conquest.

This Babylon offers pleasure and prosperity. According to the horsemen,  Babylon's empire had brought world peace.  But the peace of Babylon cannot rival the prince of peace.  The peace of Babylon can never replace the true shalom of God's peace.  The peace Babylon offers  is offering of that of chattel slavery. 

The peace that Babylon offers is that of overt sexual rebellion. The peace that Babylon offers With slavery to false gods and demons.  There can be no peace on Earth when the world is at war with God.  It is a false peace.  Without getting political, I'm happy with the way the election went, okay? Just so everyone knows, I'm not like, anti nation, anti America. 

But can I tell you? If you trust in princes, if you trust in presidents, if you trust in political parties, I'm happy with the way the world is.  You're trusting Babylon.  If you're expecting their peace and their prosperity and their empire to come in and to save you,  you're trusting in Babylon,  but Josh, we're not Babylon.

We're a nation founded on American principles. I told you guys this, we preached through Habakkuk.  We've murdered millions of babies. We export pornography as our number one export. It makes more money than the NBA, the NFL, the NHL, all of the major sports combined.  We are not God's country. We are Babylon. 

This is why the vision takes place in a glen.  In the deep,  when God speaks to his people, when he speaks to Zechariah, they are in a low place.  Every time in prophetic literature where God speaks of Israel being restored to her glory, where is she?  On a mountain.  In high places. Where was Eden recorded? On a mountain,  high and lifted up, exalted,  Zion, the chief mountain, the new Jerusalem, coming out of the heavens, high and exalted, but here, Zechariah is not on the mountain, he is in the glen.

Because God is promising a reversal of roles. You are in chaos, but I am bringing you out to rule and reign. And Babylon, I will bring low, back into chaos. 

In Isaiah chapter 41, 19, I will put. In the wilderness, the cedars of Acacia, and the myrtle, and the olive, and I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane  and the pine together, and Isaiah 55, 13, instead of thorns shall come up the cypress, instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle, and I shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

In these prophecies of Israel's future day, a day where there will be a highway of holiness, a day where God would come into the wilderness, into the desert, and make it springs of living water where the earth gets re terraformed and God's kingdom comes on earth once again, he says of the myrtle trees.

It's the promise of restoration of Jerusalem. This is how, once again, we know that Jerusalem is the subject of this prophecy.  Israel has been brought low,  but the host of heaven has heard the report.  The host of heaven come and report to the angel of the Lord. The earth is under Babylon's rule, under their rest.

And the Lord of hosts himself says that just won't do. The Lord of Hosts begins to intercede on behalf of his people. The Lord of Hosts begins to make intercession that Babylon would fall. Let's read these verses as a way of reminder. Then the angel of the Lord said, See, we see Jesus crying out, O Lord of Hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these 70 years? 

And the Lord answered, Gracious, And comforting words to the angel who talked with me.  So the angel who talked with me said to me, Cry out, thus says the Lord of hosts, I'm exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. And I'm exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease.  For while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster. 

Therefore, thus says the Lord, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it declares the Lord of hosts and the measuring line has been stretched out over Jerusalem Cry out again thus says the Lord of hosts my cities shall again overflow with prosperity and the Lord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem  half this message is of judgment Verses 14 through 17 describe this anger.

This is not a petty jealousy. This isn't God being fickle. Yahweh loves Israel like a father loves a child. Like a way a husband loves a wife.  A love that cannot stand by as others mutilate, shame, defile his family.  As Judah has returned to God, he has re inherited Judah as his people, and he is there to defend them. 

This is a great love. It is the very word that comforts Judah  that should put the fear of God in Babylon.  Now, some of us, we live in a world where there is merely a care bearer Jesus in the sky. Who does nothing but happy rainbows and fun and loves everyone and is great and sugary and kind. And can I tell you that God is great, I would even say sugary and kind. 

But that can only be defined by someone who would not allow those they loved to be mutilated. For those that they love to be defiled.  I tell you, I've said it before, . If anyone touches my kids, I will do prison ministry from the inside.

Do you understand? Okay, don't touch my kids. Okay, and this is the way Jesus reacts to his people.  Don't touch what's mine because real love gets involved.  This is not in my notes, but I'm gonna tell it anyway because I love this story. There was a man in St. Elmo. He was a Methodist pastor. He was sent to St.

Elmo.  I moved to St. Elmo, Illinois as a youth pastor at this non denominational church. And we would gather together in this city that had 1, 500 people in it. We would gather together with all the pastors.

That's right. 1, 500 people in a town. And we had more than one church.  And we would gather together and pray together. And the pastor of the Methodist church told us a story. And I believe it's true. He has no reason to lie. He told me that there was a group of deacons who hated him. When he moved there. He was assigned to the church by the bishop that's over them.

So they had no say and he would preach and they didn't like it. He reorganized the church and they didn't care for it. And then one day, eight of them locked him in the sanctuary and beat him to a pulp.  Within eight months, all of them were dead, except for two of them. One of them was in a mental institution and the other one had gotten divorced and was bankrupt. 

Don't touch God's people. Be warned. And again, you're like, oh, that's Old Testament stuff. Guys, the New Testament, Ananias and Sapphira drop dead.  Like, I just, I just want to encourage you with this word of encouragement,

why can we trust God? Why do we, our hearts stirred to love our God? Is because he has promised to protect his people.  He will never allow an injustice to go unanswered. And maybe it's not in this life, right? Maybe it's not guys dying on a motorcycle crash or, or dying of cancer because someone touched your kid.

But I tell you, there will be a day of reckoning where people will answer for their sin. And we serve a God who is just. And for every, that might not be a good message for someone who is an abuser, for someone who wants to afflict, but it is a good message to the afflicted. It  is a good message for every son and daughter of God who has been taken advantage of.

that you can put your faith and trust in a man who will get the last word.  Prophecy can be hard to understand at times,  but we can also make prophecy more complicated than necessary. 

We could spend 15 minutes talking about these brown horses. We could  ask over and over the importance of the colors of red, brown, and white. We could major on the minors and actually get drunk on these symbols and miss the forest through the trees. The scriptures themselves interpret the big idea for us in those verses we just read.

Jesus is not blind. He sees our suffering. He has received the report of our oppression. Jesus will not leave us abandoned and alone. Jesus is interceding for you right now. He is making intercession. He is moving the hands and the heart of God as he prays.  Throughout the scriptures, our God is moved to act out of compassion over and over and over again.

Jesus sees the woman whose,  son has died, her only son, and she is now a widow. She has no husband and no children, and he is at the gate bringing this child in their mourning.  This only son who's died, and Jesus says he is moved to compassion. He feels the pain of this mom, and, and raises this son from dead to life. 

And nowhere in there was any kind of word of faith thing going on. It wasn't like Jesus disciples were like, Hey, Jesus, let's put a demand on this faith. It wasn't like the mom said, Jesus, if you'd only raise up my son. No one believed. Everyone was mourning. Everyone was sad. No one had expectation that Jesus would do the thing he did.

But because he merely saw the people, he saw the pain, he moved to action.  How about the feeding of the 5, 000?  No one said, hey Jesus, this would be a great time to multiply a Lunchable.  They didn't say, hey, hey Jesus, this would be a great time to act.  But he sat the crowd down, and in the midst of people's unbelief that a couple of fish and a couple of bread could feed the multitude, he was moved to compassion.

Because if they would have gone home, they would have died on the way of exhaustion. 

How about the many times throughout the gospel that Jesus sees the sick and the lame, and he's moved to compassion. In the same way, we see Jesus here, the angel of the Lord, interceding, moving to action. Our God is not slow to act. We do not serve a God who spun the world into existence and walked away.

The angel of the Lord speaks to Zachariah comforting words.  Are you distressed? Are you fearful? Are you weary?  The Lord speaks to his people through the scriptures words of comfort. In Psalms 55, 22, cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. How about Matthew 6, 28 through 30?

And why do you worry about your clothes? Why  look at the flowers of the field as they grow. They do not labor or spin, yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all of his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and gone tomorrow and thrown into the fire,  will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith? 

How about Matthew 11 28 come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest  just as God visits Zechariah  and Provides to him the Word of God that comforts him today The people of God can go to the Word of God for comfort.  Jesus is not far off He wasn't far off in Genesis when Babylon was on its rise He was not fall off far off in Zechariah's day  when Babylon was on the rise and his people were destroyed You And he is not far off today, as the people of God live within Babylon, and we are distressed and worried and heavy laden, Christ still provides rest in his word. 

Oh, that the people of God would run to the Word of God for comfort. The Bible is not an old, dead relic. The Word of God is living and active. The Word of God is able to make you wise for salvation. It is profitable for teaching, rebuking, and training. It can prepare you for every good service unto God. 

But that Bible, the all authoritative, never failing, inerrant Word, also tells us. that God still speaks today.  God reveals himself through the gift of prophecy.  In 1 Corinthians 14, 3, But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement, and comfort.  What is Zechariah but the gift of prophecy, bringing the children of Judah  comfort, encouragement, and joy?

Strength?  I'm not suggesting that prophecy is equal to Scripture in its authority, nor its clarity. However, the infallible Word of God, the very Word that claims it alone is sufficient, testifies that prophecy also is used to strengthen, encourage, and comfort.  Last weekend, I had the chance to go to Calvary Chapel, Oro Valley.

, and they asked me to speak on prophecy.  So I did. I opened up the Bible. I taught what the Bible says about the gift of prophecy. I talked about how  Peter  in Acts 9, you know, goes on the rooftop, and he sees the pigs in a blanket coming down, and he sees a revelation.

He doesn't know what it means. So he tries to get the interpretation, and then after he gets the interpretation, he gives the application. Ah, I see, these three men, unclean men that are coming to my door, three, this blanket came down three times. And I explained how God can speak today in various ways. And he can speak in a way that we don't quite understand that we need an interpretation for, just like Peter needed.

And how that needed to apply to our lives. And then, I  had to show him how to do that. Right?  And that scares me every time I do it,  so I got up, not knowing whether what I was gonna say was true. And that can scare you. It might scare you right now, and I get it.  But Zachariah didn't know what this meant. Peter didn't know what it meant. And if God was to speak to us, it doesn't mean that we're gonna know what it means. 

So I get a picture. Of a guy. I'm in the back of the room. He's worshiping. Okay?  I see a picture of a bear. Scratching his back on a post. Cool. Bear scratching back on post. I see a car.

It's a red. It's a Chevy of some kind. I'm not really a car guy. If John was there, I could describe it to him and he could have given me the interpretation, right? It was a red Chevy. It was a convertible. And then I felt like the Lord said, this is about retirement. I said, okay. So I got up and I shared this word with him.

I said, Hey, I feel like there's an itch that you can't scratch and it's retirement. And I feel like God's placed on your heart, this red Chevy vehicle  you know, it's, it's got a convertible top on it. And  and I'd like to pray for you and your plans for retirement. I didn't hear God say he would give you retirement.

I just felt like this had to do with retirement, and I wanted to pray for you. You know what he told me? He said, my last name is Bereson.  And everywhere we go in our family, we have bears all across our house. On our family reunions, . We have bears everywhere. And I was like, that's cool, right?

And then he told me  I'm a financial advisor. And when I get to a million sales, they give me this red ruby ring. And I told my wife, in honor of this like red ruby ring, this kind of high accomplishment, we would retire, and I would buy her favorite car. I still can't tell you what the car is, he told me what it was, but it was a red Chevy convertible.

He mentioned the exact kind of car. And then I told him, I told him in the dream it was like a muscle car, it was like between 60s and 70s. I think he said it was a 68. John, I sent you the video. Do you remember what it was?  Okay, so I sent them the video because I recorded it with the guy afterward. I thought it was too cool Okay, I I can't remember cars.

Anyway,  that was neat  I couldn't have known that  but you know what it did for him a guy who's longing to retire It comforted him  that god saw him where he was at  gave him strength Now, I'm, I didn't add a book to the Bible, guys, okay? I'm not saying like, hey, when you prophesy, it needs to be inscripturated, right?

Like, I'm just saying, what we do is if we hear God speak, we submit it. And I was on stage. I just said, hey, does that make sense to you? Test it, weigh it right now. And I gave a long lecture before. If I'm wrong, tell me I'm wrong, okay? I'd rather be wrong and own it. Then I have to live in a lie.  Right after that, there was a lady on the front row, who, I said, hey, I feel like I gotta order for you as well.

 Another woman in the room, you know, over on my right side. I shared a word. This is all recorded, by the way. You can go look this up.

Calvary Chapel, Oro Valley. Go fact check me. This happened.  There was a woman over on my right side. I, I, I said, hey   I saw a picture of a teacup and there was a chip in the teacup.  Okay? It was like  it was like the movie Beauty and the Beast, little, little chip or whatever. I've given this word once before in Chicago. 

And I was like, every time I see this picture, it has to do with God preparing a table before you in the presence of your enemies.  And I feel like there are people in your family, likely, who are at war with one another, and that God is inviting you to bring them together to make peace. And she goes, that's exactly where I'm at.

Come to find out, this lady also does tea parties with the pastor's grandkids, like, once a week.  And everybody in the church knew.  So, so here, here, here's the thing.  God comforts his people through the written word of God, unquestionably.  But can I also tell you that we worship a God that's the same yesterday, today, and forever?

There is nothing important about me.  I am not the prophet of the Lord. I'm Josh. I don't even let you guys call me Pastor Josh. It's just Josh, okay? I was homeschooled. I was straight D student in homeschool. I've never been to seminary.  There's nothing special.  And, and, and I hope you all don't hear me like talking myself down.

I'm just saying, if I can do it, anyone can do it. It's not me that's significant. It's a God in heaven who hasn't changed, who loves to give his children the kingdom, whose sheep hear his voice and they won't listen to another. He says in the New Covenant, when he pours out this New Covenant, in the last days, that's a period of time from when Peter lived to the day that Christ returns.

It's an epoch of time, and in that period of time, In the last days, he would pour out his spirit on all flesh. Sons and daughters would  prophesy.  It's been given to you. It's his good pleasure. If you're weary, if you're heavy laden, if you're worried, You can run to the Word of God, and you can seek the God of heaven, who can speak to you where you are right now.

He's the same today, yesterday, and forever, and He is willing and eager to comfort your soul.  Now maybe, you're in this room, And you're like John Owen, okay? And you said, if a private revelation agrees with Scripture,  then they are needless. And if they disagree with Scripture, they are false.  However, John's own logic cuts against the grain of Scripture here in Zechariah. 

Is it not true that God had already written in the Scriptures? That Judah would have recognized that Jeremiah and Isaiah was Scripture?  Didn't Judah understand that if God had written it in the scriptures  that a coming day would come after 70 years and they would rebuild the temple? What's the point of Zechariah if God had already written it down in the Bible? 

It's because God needed, wanted, desired, needed is too strong a word. He wanted, he desired to give them a present word for where they were in that moment.  Remember, 1st, 2nd Timothy 3 16, all scripture is authoritative, insufficient, and profitable. It alone is enough to prepare us for every good work. The day that was written down was in the first century and prophecy existed in that day.

Every Bible verse that you have that says the scriptures are sufficient  was written in a day when prophecy took place.  So if the doctrine of scripture says the scriptures are sufficient.  In a day when prophecy took place, you can't say, Well, we have the Bible, we don't need prophecy! 

Now, you might say, you gave that lady a word about God's wrath. The Bible says that.  You gave one lady a word about being a peacemaker. But God's word talks about being peacemakers. What's the point of these words if they repeat what the Bible says?  If this is your argument, it's that of John Owens.  Bless your heart. 

In his attempt to uphold the scriptures,  He teaches God's people to despise prophecy, the very thing scripture commands us not to do.  John Owen, a godly brother in Christ,  unintentionally undermines the sufficiency of scripture when he claims that present day revelations have faded away. When Paul prays to the church of Corinth, prays over the church of Corinth in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 7, that they would abound in every spiritual gift until Christ returns. 

All the gifts until Christ comes back.  The sign of the new covenant is that the people of God could hear their God.  But this sermon is not an exposition on the gift of prophecy.  It's an exposition on Zechariah 1, 7 17,  and the point of this passage is that God is not silent towards his people. God speaks to his people today through the written and infallible word of God and through the gift of prophecy, a gift that must be tested and weighed against the scriptures and the covenant community. 

Babylon in the days of Genesis promised peace, order, and heaven on earth. Let us pray. But God stepped in and didn't allow people at war with him to have peace on earth. God stepped in and confused their languages and brought their order into chaos.  Babylon in the days of Zechariah also promised peace and order in a new Garden of Eden.

Babylon in Persia was actually famous for patrolling horsemen.  and an ever expanding empire, but God stepped in, bringing order to Israel's chaos, and turning  Babylon's order into chaos. God stepped in. He showed He has a greater patrol, a greater word than the word of the patrollers of Babylon, and His word reigns supreme. 

Today,  you can place faith in God,  because every time Babylon tries to  God steps in and scatters their order. Every time a political or religious  Abomination arises to undermine God's plan. God confuses their work and displays His sovereignty over the armies of heaven and of earth.  Today, if you're living your life for Babylon, and you're looking to establish your own purpose, establish your own plans, to bring your own order out of chaos, out of your own efforts, if you are looking to culture your own economic prosperity, you must repent. 

Babylon's days are numbered,  and though you may be living at peace for a time, there is a day of judgment coming.  Today, you can place your trust in God, that he will destroy Babylon, and he will give his children perfect peace, because he's the same today, yesterday, and forever. If God spoke comforting words to the children of Judah through the scriptures and prophecy, God still speaks comforting words to his covenant community today.

Let's pray.