The Woman Satan Couldn’t Kill
Revelation 12:13-17
January 15, 2017

As you know we are studying through the book of the Revelation,
And most recently we have entered a parenthetical section in the book.

After the sounding of the 7th trumpet all of heaven declared that “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ”
• In short, heaven announced that Jesus wins!
• It didn’t matter how angry the enemy was…
• It didn’t matter how numerous the enemy was…
• It didn’t matter how crafty the enemy was…

The enemy loses and Jesus wins.
That victory is further explained in chapters 12-14.

We’ve already seen:
THE CHILD SATAN COULDN’T STOP
In Genesis 3 God announced that the seed of the woman
Would crush the head of the serpent,
And ever since that day, Satan set out to stop the seed.

• He tried relentlessly throughout history to kill the woman so that the child would never be born, but ultimately he failed.

• He then tried relentlessly to kill the child once He was born, and for a moment it seemed as though he succeeded, but God raised Him up and seated Him at His right hand, so Satan failed there too.

Despite his efforts to stop this child, Satan lost.

Satan then adapted his efforts to attack those the child set out to redeem.
Satan sat out to condemn the elect (it is the current battle we face)

An attempt to accuse the elect before God
And to accuse God before the elect.

And last week we saw that he will fail there as well, as we looked at:
THE BATTLE SATAN COULDN’T WIN

• Satan battled in the heavens, but was ultimately thrown down to the earth, having lost all access to heaven and thus can no longer accuse the saints before God.

And that is where we left off.
Revelation 12:12 “For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.”

AT THIS POINT, REALITY HAS SET IN.
HE WON’T WIN.
He couldn’t stop the child,
And now he has been removed from the heavenlies all together.
The battle is ultimately lost, and his time is short.

But that doesn’t mean he will quit.
In fact, this only spurs on a new battle for him to fight.

This morning we look at the third area of his defeat, we see:
THE WOMAN SATAN COULDN’T KILL

(13) “And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.”
• He is on the earth
• He is extremely angry
• And so he again goes on the offensive
• This time he seeks to destroy the woman.

We already learned back in verse 1 who the woman is, it is Israel.
And here we find that Satan is out to persecute her.

The word “persecuted” translates DIOKO
It literally means “to pursue” or “to chase” or “to hunt”

When Satan gets permanently removed from heaven,
He’s so livid all he can think about is striking a blow against God. Since God is out of reach, Satan goes after God’s chosen people.

He pursues them
He hunts for them
He seeks to chase them down

Now I would remind you of the TIMING of this entire event.

This event was already alluded to up in verse 6.
Revelation 12:6 “Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.”
1260 days is 3 ½ years.

It is the same timeframe here.
(13-14) “And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.”

So the event we are dealing with here is
A persecution that begins at the half-way point of the tribulation
And carries on until the end.

Allow me to bring all of this together for you a little bit here.

TURN TO: MATTHEW 24
• Matthew 24 is what is known as “The Olivet Discourse”
• It was a sermon inspired by the questions of the disciples.

(3) “As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

• To answer that question Jesus then gave His “end times” sermon.

According to Jesus the end times can be characterized by a few common themes.
1) GLOBAL UNREST – wars and rumors of wars
2) DECEPTION – many false christs
3) DEFECTION – many will fall away
4) TRIBULATION – hated by all nations

These are the common themes that one can expect during this end times.

There is ONE EVENT that will kick this thing off
And make it exceptionally horrific.

(READ: MATTHEW 24:15-22)

There Jesus refers to The ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION
• It is the event we have already discussed some.
• It was the event which was depicted in history by Antiochus Epiphanes when he desecrated the temple during the time of the reign of Greece.

But ultimately it is a future event when the Antichrist will enter the temple And declare himself to be God and demand that all people worship him.

2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 “Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.”

Jesus said, when that event occurs you had better run!
(16-20) “then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Whoever in on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in the house. Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! “But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.”

Jesus said this event will be bad.
The Antichrist will be out to kill you.

We linked this event with the second seal back in Revelation 6.
The first seal was that white horse who represented false peace.
It was the rise of Satan’s puppet ruler who rises and rules even over Israel.

But the second seal is characterized by world war and famine and death
In which ¼ of the world’s population ends up dying.

So to sort of bring this all together.
WHAT YOU WILL SEE ON EARTH IS THIS:

There will be a leader arise who will take Israel under his wing and who will rise to control the world with an agenda of peace.

But 3 ½ years into his reign he will completely reverse course.
• He will no longer care about putting up a good front.
• He will no longer care about offering peace.
• He will only care about destroying Israel and dominating the world.

It will be one of the strangest events ever.
• This guy will go from peace to war literally overnight.
• He’ll go from being politically correct to just being a brutal warmonger.

That is what the earth will see.
And to some extent it will be confusing as to why this guy flipped so fast.

Well, we have the luxury of seeing this event from the spiritual side
And now we know why he’ll so quickly flip his script.

• As long as Satan is allowed access to heaven and can work his plan of deception and accusation, he uses this puppet of false peace to deceive the world.

• However, when Satan gets permanently banned from heaven he is so angry he no longer cares about deception, now he only cares about destruction.

• And so Satan manipulates his ruler and sets him on a course of destruction and persecution of Israel.

Jesus saw it coming and warned the Jews ahead of time.
Satan will just be angry and will want to hunt you down and kill you.

That is what we read in Revelation 12
(13) “And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.”

Satan will be so mad at God for defeating him
That he will just seek to vent his fury any way he can.

And it centers around destroying the woman
To whom God had made so many promises.

Let me show you one (we’re studying this on Sunday nights)
Zechariah 8:1-8 “Then the word of the LORD of hosts came, saying, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘I am exceedingly jealous for Zion, yes, with great wrath I am jealous for her.’ “Thus says the LORD, ‘I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.’ “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘ Old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of age. ‘And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.’ “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘If it is too difficult in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, will it also be too difficult in My sight?’ declares the LORD of hosts. “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Behold, I am going to save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west; and I will bring them back and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness.’”

That is just one of many promises that God made to this woman Israel.
He’s going to return to reign
And they’re going to enjoy it.

So Satan is out to mess that up.
He simply wants to hurt God by hurting those whom He loves.

And this is important to understand even for us.

ARE YOU EVER CONFUSED BY PERSECUTION?
Many in our world are.

A couple of weeks ago “The Wizard of Oz” was on television
And I was watching it with the kids.

At the end when the Tin Man gets his new hear the wizard looks at him and says,
“And remember my sentimental friend, that a heart is not judged by how much you love but by how much you are loved by others.”

There are so many in our churches who actually believe that.
They think the love and approval and affection of others
Is the criteria which proves whether or not they are being a good Christian.

If people love me then I must look like Jesus
And if people hate me then I must be doing something wrong.

That’s just not true.
1 John 3:13-16 “Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

John goes on to say that when we love like this (even when being hated)…
1 John 3:19 “We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him”

Being loved is NOT evidence that you are a good Christian.

Jesus said:
Luke 6:26 “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.”

Matthew 5:11-12 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

That simply means that you should never let persecution rattle you
As though it is a negative indicator.

What we learn is that Satan hates those whom God loves.
• Satan hates those who glorify God.
• Satan attacks those who glorify God.
• Satan attacks those whom God has chosen.

Satan simply hated the woman because God had loved and chosen her.
It’s as simple as that.

Listen to what Jesus told the disciples:
John 15:18-19 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.”

John 16:1-4 “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. “These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me. “But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.”

Don’t let persecution surprise you.
The world hates you because it is controlled by Satan
And Satan hates Christ.

We are looking at that same senseless hatred here in Revelation 12.

Satan is angry, he has been removed from heaven,
And so he just sets out through his puppet
To hunt down and kill God’s people Israel.

It’s just pure hatred and rage.

And the Old Testament has promised it for them.
Zechariah 13:8-9 “It will come about in all the land,” Declares the LORD, “That two parts in it will be cut off and perish; But the third will be left in it. “And I will bring the third part through the fire, Refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ And they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.'”

It is going to be horrific.
• Jesus said it will be like no other time before it.
• That means that even the Holocaust under Hitler will not be able to compare to what Antichrist will do to the Jews.

Satan will simply seek to annihilate Israel
Just because they are God’s chosen people.

What we find here is that even in this attack, HE WILL NOT WIN.
God will not allow him to exterminate His people Israel.

Tribulation? Yes
Annihilation? No

(14) “But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.”

Satan will set out to kill her and God will provide supernatural deliverance.

Don’t let the imagery confuse you.
It is a reference to God’s deliverance during the Exodus.

Exodus 19:4 “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself.”

Deuteronomy 32:9-11 “For the LORD’S portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance. “He found him in a desert land, And in the howling waste of a wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for him, He guarded him as the pupil of His eye. “Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, That hovers over its young, He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions.

The nourishment spoken of is no different than the manna
Which God provided throughout the wilderness wonderings.

Satan will set out to annihilate Israel and God will supernaturally protect them just as He did during the exodus from Egypt.

Let me give you another passage to chew on here.
TURN TO: MATTHEW 25

• You already know that the Olivet Discourse begins in Matthew 24 with Jesus outlining the events of the end.

• In Matthew 25 He is still in this same discourse but He is giving parables to describe the magnitude of this time period.

• He gives a couple of parables which deal with readiness for the 2nd Coming (10 virgins, Talents)

But look at (VERSES 31-46)

Does that passage seem a little more understandable now?

• We know that during this time of tribulation Satan is going to be hunting down the Jews and seeking to annihilate them.

• And we know that God will supernaturally protect them and provide for them so that they are not totally annihilated.

• According to what Jesus taught in the Olivet Discourse it appears that the means through which God will deliver them is Gentile believers.

It’s like an UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, through which
God will deliver His people from Satan’s attempt to annihilate them.

SO, SATAN LOSES AGAIN.

But of course, he is not finished.
Israel escapes the initial onslaught so Satan regroups.

(15-16) “And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth.”

Here is more symbolism to be rightly understood.
Floods are pictures of destruction.

Since Satan cannot reach Israel due to her having escaped to the wilderness,
He unleashes what is called “water like a river”
To try and sweep Israel away “with the flood”

• We remember the first seal of false peace
• We saw why that transitioned into the second seal of world war.

We now understand that this war had at its root
A desire to annihilate Israel, but God protected them.

• The third and fourth seals were the next efforts of the Antichrist.

Famine and then Death represent that river out of his mouth.

The Antichrist uses famine and wild beast and plague
As a means of long range attack against Israel,
And the attack is so lethal he actually kills ¼ of the world with it.

Because he could not seem to reach them with his army,
He instead unleashes a plan to kill them
By famine and wild beast and plague.

It is an all-out attempt of the enemy to wipe out Israel.

“But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth.”

In short, God miraculously causes nature
To intervene and save His people.

When Pharaoh had Israel pinned against the wall, what did God do?
• He split the red sea.

When the wilderness had Israel in danger of dehydration and death due to lack of water, what did God do?
• He commanded water from a rock

How many times in the Old Testament did we see God cause nature to shift in order to deliver Israel?
• We saw hailstones…
• We saw the sun stand still…
• We saw rivers and seas dry up…

In whatever ways Satan tries to remotely kill Israel,
God causes nature to intervene and stop it.

The direct imagery is to the days when Korah sought to rebel against Moses and overthrow him.
Numbers 16:31-32 “As he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split open; and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who belonged to Korah with their possessions.”

That is the kind of deliverance seen here.

SO…
• Satan sets out to kill Israel through war and God intervenes.
• Satan attempts to kill her through famine and plague and God intervenes.
HE SIMPLY CANNOT WIN

God made promises to Israel that He will keep.
Christ will reign and they will enjoy it!

That is the point you should be seeing.
• Satan cannot stop what God is doing.
• Satan’s kingdom has transferred all power to Christ and despite his rage, there is not a thing Satan can do about it.

Martin Luther penned that infamous hymn “A Might Fortress Is Our God”
“And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us. We will not fear, for God hath willed, His truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure. One little world shall fell him.”

Satan cannot totally destroy God’s chosen people.
God has promised them an earthly kingdom,
And He is preserving that promise.
But…
Satan still isn’t done, and he never accepts defeat.

(17) “So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”

This verse is really an introductory verse.
It is a verse that is described throughout chapter 13.

We find that when Satan can’t wipe out Israel,
He turns his fury toward those who helped her escape.
(I mean he’s got to kill something)

He turns his fury towards “the rest of her children”
(These are Gentile believers; saved during the tribulation)

This helps us understand why there are so many Gentile martyrs during the tribulation.

Remember what we saw in Revelation 7?
Revelation 7:9 “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands;”
Later in that chapter we learned that these were
Those who had been slain during the tribulation.

They are killed because Satan is mad at God
And because God has made Israel somewhat off limits.
It’s just raw, unbridled, senseless rage against God.

One thing important for you to see is how Satan knows who to attack.
How Satan spots a true believer.

• Do you suppose that when Satan goes looking for Christians that he will subpoena churches for their membership records?

• Do you suppose that when he goes looking for Christians that he will look for people with a fish on their car?

• How do you think Satan will go about identifying true believers?

Oddly enough Satan will use Biblical criteria for identifying true believers.
He will look for two attributes in people.

He looks for those “who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”

These are the two undeniable characteristics of true believers.
Obedience & Endurance

They obey God, and they persevere until the end.
Those are the byproducts of genuine faith.

These attributes are so indicative of believers
That they are the criteria Satan will use
In his attempts to identify them and kill them.

In fact in chapter 13 that is what you will see.
• Satan will pass laws and make cultural realities that make it impossible to hide
as a believer.
• You will either take his mark or you will be faithful to Jesus.
• You will either obey God or you will obey Satan.

How was it that Satan was able to capture Daniel? (a law forbidding prayer)
How was it that he capture Daniel’s friends? (a law commanding idol worship)
How was it that he captured the apostles? (a law forbidding evangelism)

That is how Satan will make war with the true believers.
He will use their obedience and endurance as the trap.
He’ll use their faithfulness to God against them.

Because he knows that true believers
Would rather expose themselves to suffering than deny their Lord.

I just want you to understand the rules of the battle.
• Persecution comes because the enemy hates Christ.
• Because he hates Christ, he attacks those whom Christ loves.
• And he identifies them by their devotion and loyalty to Christ.

THE ONLY WAY TO ESCAPE THE BATTLE
IS TO BE UNFAITHFUL TO CHRIST.

And those who do that only reveal that
They never genuinely belonged to Christ.

Don’t deceive yourself into believing that your faith is real
If you have no obedience or endurance.

1 John 2:3-6 “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, ” I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”

James 1:22-25 “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”

The Bible says a person who claims to be a Christian
But who doesn’t obey is deceiving themselves.

But you also must have endurance if you claim to be a Christian.
Matthew 10:22 “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.”

These are the criteria by which Satan identifies believers.
And these are the very actions which will put them in danger,
As you will see in the next chapter.

But even then they overcome…
Revelation 13:7-10 “It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints.”

Revelation 14:12-13 “Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘ Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!'” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.”

They will overcome (as we saw last week) because of “the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony, and because they did not love their lives even when faced with death.”

Satan still loses!
• He can’t stop Jesus
• He can’t condemn the elect
• He can’t annihilate the Jews
• He can’t break the genuinely redeemed

There is not a thing he can do, regardless of his rage,
Which will stop the inevitable from occurring
And that is the absolute reign of Jesus Christ upon the earth.

Psalms 2:6-12 “But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.” “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.'” Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the LORD with reverence And rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!”

Jesus will reign…Satan will lose.
Wisdom aligns itself with the winning side
Regardless of the difficulty in doing so.

God’s Vision For Israel – Part 1
Zechariah 8:1-3
January 8, 2017

I know it’s been a few weeks since we last studied together here in the book of Zechariah, but I’m confident we can get back in the flow.
At this point we are 2 years away from the completion of the temple.

As it was being rebuilt we saw in chapter 7 an event that prompted this most recent sermon by Zechariah.
• A group of delegates traveled from Bethel to Jerusalem to seek the favor of the LORD.
• Their question had to do with a ritualistic fast they had been keeping in memory of the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar.

Continuing in this fast seemed strange for them for a couple of reasons.
1) It seemed strange to continue fasting for losing the temple when the temple was very close to being rebuilt.

2) It didn’t appear that this fast was working anyway since they couldn’t see that they were reaping much benefit from their faithfulness to keep it.

And you will remember that this reality
Sparked a sermon from Zechariah about seeking God’s favor.

We saw the LORD confront this group of delegates
(and really the entire land of Israel)
With three very important truths involved in seeking God’s favor.

1) Consider Your Real Purpose
Why do you do it? Is it for God’s glory or for your benefit?

2) Consider Scriptures Reiterated Prophecies
If you want to please God, then you should start by reading the word and seeing what things He has clearly revealed as pleasing to Him. Don’t invent some new uncommanded ritual and then assume that God will honor it if you remain faithful to it.

3) Consider God’s Revealed Passion
That is to say, you should look at the past and see how God has responded to various behaviors throughout history and there you will learn a great deal about what things are important to Him.

And that is good advice for any believer
In search of living a life that is pleasing to God.

But in all of that there is something else you should know, and it is this:

THE FAVOR OF GOD IS ULTIMATELY NOT A RESPONSE TO YOUR BEHAVIOR, BUT IS IN REALITY A CONSEQUENCE OF HIS SOVEREIGNTY.

In short, God shows favor to His children not because they deserve it,
But because He has chosen to show them favor.

If we were to put it another way, we could say that
God’s favor is a consequence of grace, not works.

So, while God did answer the question as to how to seek His favor (which we should all do)
Now God is going to reveal that His favor on Israel
Has always been a certainty based upon His grace.

And regarding Israel, I think I can prove this rather quickly.

There is no doubt to us who is considered the father of Israel.
It is Abraham. (actually the grandfather of the man God named Israel)

Remember what God said to Abraham?
Genesis 12:1-3 “Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

I hope you remember this from our study of Genesis, but what did this Abram ever do to deserve such tremendous blessing from God?

-Nothing
Abram was a greedy slave owner, whose only objective was to make a buck.
He wasn’t a particularly devoted man or even a moral man.

And yet we have there the God of the universe deciding, by grace alone,
To take this Abram and make him a tremendous object of blessing.

Now some would quickly say that this blessing
Was contingent upon Abram’s obedience.
After all God did tell him to first leave his country and his relatives
And go this special land before God would bless him.

Let’s consider that:
• Abram did leave his own land, but if you’ll remember, he didn’t leave his
relatives. He actually took his nephew Lot with him which proved to be a
problem God had to solve.

• He did go to the land, but if you’ll recall he only stayed until it became difficult,
for in the first famine Abram bolted.

• And these mistakes were only followed by others such as an adulterous
affair and even a debate with God regarding the source of his descendants.

The point is that the only reason God showed favor to Abraham
Was because God wanted to show favor to Abraham.
And even Abraham’s mistakes could not nullify this decision.

Now that is NOT TO SAY that Abraham’s mistakes did not come with discipline or even difficulty, they surely did.

There is a lot of hardship and difficulty throughout the patriarchal family
And it is all a result of sin and bad decisions,

But none of that sin, and none of those bad decisions
Ever changed God’s mind about His decision to bless this family.

That blessing flowed from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob
And all throughout the generations.

And for these refugees it should still be clearly in view.

Think about their situation.
• Against all odds, after 70 years being absent from their land, and living in a foreign nation…
• Not only have they returned to Israel, but they are also rebuilding their temple with the blessing of the king who formerly ruled over them.

There is no reason this should have happened and no explanation
Except that God was choosing to show favor to these undeserving people

To make sure that these refugees understand this
They are given this remarkable chapter here in the book of Zechariah.

Zechariah 8 outlines 10 remarkable revelations from God
Regarding His plan for Israel.

So let’s begin to work our way through it tonight.
#1 GOD REVEALS HIS PASSION
Zechariah 8:1-2

You’ll find it is rather simple to identify each of these revelations
Since they all begin the same way, “Thus says the LORD”

In most cases “Thus says the LORD of hosts”

And the first one is vitally important to our understanding.
God says, “I am exceedingly jealous for Zion, yes, with great wrath I am jealous for her.”

I love this statement.
I love the emotion.
I love the implication.

God says that He is “exceedingly jealous for Zion”

Thank about that for a second.
We do have other passages of Scripture which reveal God’s “jealousy”

Exodus 20:4-6 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

Exodus 34:12-17 “Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst. “But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim — for you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God — otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice, and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods. “You shall make for yourself no molten gods.”

Joshua 24:19-20 “Then Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins. “If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you.”

God puts His jealousy on clear display there.
We might say that “He is jealous regarding His glory.”

That is to say, He does not share His glory.
Isaiah 42:8 “I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images.”

God is jealous regarding His glory.

Would we say that God has proven that throughout the ages?

Yes, I think we can say He has more than proven that.
• We saw what God did to the false gods of Egypt through the humiliation of
the plagues.
• We saw how God punished Israel with their neighboring nations every time
they stepped into idolatry during the times of the Judges.
• We saw how God eventually kicked Israel out of the Promised Land
throughout the period of the Kings for their willingness to give God’s glory
to false gods.

Scripture makes it abundantly clear that you should not cross God there.
It is an areas where He is jealous about something.

Well here God takes that exact same language and instead of applying it to His own glory, HE APPLIES IT TO ZION.

“I am exceedingly jealous for Zion”
God has the same kind of passion for His people
That He has for His own glory.

In fact, He says, “with great wrath I am jealous for her.”

That is to say, I get angry when anyone messes with Zion.
I get very angry when anyone touches My people.

Did we not already read in this book..?
Zechariah 1:14-15 “So the angel who was speaking with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion. “But I am very angry with the nations who are at ease; for while I was only a little angry, they furthered the disaster.”

Zechariah 2:8 “For thus says the LORD of hosts, “After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye.”

We saw this jealousy on display throughout those night visions.
• We saw Him talk of destroying those nations which plundered Israel.
• We saw Him rebuke Satan for accusing Joshua.
• We saw Him coming to the aid of Zerubbabel to finish this temple.
• We saw His promise to purify His people.

Those delegates came from Bethel to seek the favor of the LORD.
What they failed to realize was they clearly already had it.

You’d have to be blind to not be able to see how much God cares for her.

In fact, there is a word in the Hebrew that I really love.
I first came across it when we were studying Genesis.

The word is not used in this passage,
But I definitely see the evidence of it all over the chapter.

That word is CHESED in the Hebrew.
Most commonly it is translated “lovingkindness” or “kindness”
But it is more than just God being nice to someone.

I tend to think a better use of it is “loyalty” or “faithfulness”
I think you could even call it “preference”

In fact, in Hosea 6 it is translated “loyalty”
Hosea 6:6 “For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

God didn’t just want His people to be kind to Him,
God wanted loyalty or faithfulness from His people.

I first became acquainted with that word in our study of Genesis
Because it became evident that whatever it actually meant,
It was obvious that Abraham had it.

Abraham clearly had the CHESED of God on His life.
And whether or not Abraham recognized it,
What is evident is that those around him certainly spotted it.

Let me show you.
It became evident on the day when Abraham began to look for a wife for Isaac and Abraham sent his servant back to Mesopotamia with strict orders not to take a wife from among the Canaanites.

It was quite a mission to be on.
Go to a foreign country and find a woman who will marry your master’s son sight unseen and who will then accompany you back to this foreign land to be with him.

Because of the difficulty of this task Abraham’s servant prayed to God,
And I want you to see what this servant prayed.

Genesis 24:10-14 “Then the servant took ten camels from the camels of his master, and set out with a variety of good things of his master’s in his hand; and he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor. He made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at evening time, the time when women go out to draw water. He said, “O LORD, the God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today, and show lovingkindness to my master Abraham. “Behold, I am standing by the spring, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water; now may it be that the girl to whom I say, ‘Please let down your jar so that I may drink,’ and who answers, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels also’ — may she be the one whom You have appointed for Your servant Isaac; and by this I will know that You have shown lovingkindness to my master.”

Abraham’s servant prayed that God would show “lovingkindness” (CHESSED)
To Abraham by revealing a wife for Isaac.

You know the story. At that time Rebecca showed up
And did exactly what the servant had prayed for.

After it was over the servant prayed again:
Genesis 24:26-27 “Then the man bowed low and worshiped the LORD. He said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His lovingkindness and His truth toward my master; as for me, the LORD has guided me in the way to the house of my master’s brothers.”

He reiterated that God “has not forsaken His lovingkindness”

I don’t know if it was obvious to Abraham,
But it was certainly obvious to everyone around him
That God was faithful to him; that God was loyal to him.

This servant even banked on the fact
That God always seemed to be loyal to Abraham.

And again I remind you that this was not based upon Abraham’s works,
But upon God’s sovereign grace.

Now the reality is that this loyalty always stuck with Israel.

See Jacob:
Genesis 32:10 “I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies.”

See Joseph:
Genesis 39:21 “But the LORD was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer.”

Listen to Moses sing after God led Israel through the Red Sea:
Exodus 15:13 “In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom You have redeemed; In Your strength You have guided them to Your holy habitation.”

Perhaps the most famous place this is used in Psalm 136
TURN TO: PSALMS 136

Do you see what the Psalmist is doing?
He is recounting every aspect of Israel’s history the fact that God has never ceased to be faithful.

And I think this gives us a better understanding of when God says, “I am exceedingly jealous for Zion, yes with great wrath I am jealous for her.”

• We could say, that He is so jealous in fact that He would drown the Egyptians after crushing them with plagues.

• We could say that He is so jealous in fact that He would uproot the Canaanites and give their land to Israel.

• We could say that He is so jealous in fact that He would thoroughly punish any and every nation that ever laid a finger on Israel.

DO YOU SEE THAT?

NOW LET ME TAKE IT ONE STEP FARTHER.
• No one in here has the slightest difficulty recognizing God’s faithfulness to Israel.
• No one in here has the slightest difficulty recognizing that God is in fact jealous for Israel.
• We could go on and on and on and on about all the supernatural ways that He has cared for them and delivered them and worked for them.
• Even today the fact that they are back in their land is an unfathomable miracle.

We can see it, it’s obvious.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT WE HAVE TROUBLE SEEING?
God’s faithfulness to us…
God’s jealousy for us…

That was the problem of this delegation that came from Bethel.
They were seeking God’s favor as though they didn’t have it.

• Could they not recognize that God had liberated them from exile in Babylon?
• Could they not see that God had given them back their land?
• Could they not see that God was protecting them from the enemy?
• Could they not see that God was helping them rebuild the temple?

God’s jealousy for them and faithfulness to them was all over the place,
And yet it appears they had difficulty spotting it.

I think we do the same sometimes.
We see God’s favor on others
And seem to have a much greater difficulty seeing it in our own lives.

But rest assured:
“Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with Thee. Thy changest not, Thy compassions; they fail not. As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be. Great is They faithfulness, Great is Thy faithfulness, morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed, They hand hath provided. Great is Thy faithfulness, LORD unto me.”

And that is the first thing God reveals here in His vision for Israel.
IT ALL STARTS WITH HIS JEALOUSY FOR HER.

God has a passionate love for His people.
A love not born out of merit, but grace,
And not only is evident, but it is also absolutely unchanging.

And of course we can carry this out as far as we absolutely want to.
• We actually have the benefit of seeing God incarnate coming to earth and
dying upon a cross simply so that He might redeem these people whom
God so dearly loves.

• We can fast-forward into the book of the Revelation and study chapters like
the one we studied this morning (Revelation 12) and see God’s faithful
protection of the woman Satan so desperately wants to destroy.

It is obvious.
• God loves her
• God cares for her
• God is faithful to her
• God is jealous for her

You’d have to be blind to miss it

So, God reveals His passion.
#2 GOD REVEALS HIS PLAN
Zechariah 8:3

Because God is so jealous and passionate for this people,
We next get into the revelation of His plan for them.

“Thus says the LORD, ‘I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.’”

You see God’s plan there outlined in three steps.

1) I WILL RETURN
“I will return to Zion”

2) I WILL REMAIN
“and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem”

3) I WILL RENOVATE
“Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.”

The simple point being that Israel
Is at the very center of all of God’s plans going forward.

And to them this must have been a great piece of information.

Go back to the book of Ezekiel
• See Ezekiel fascinated with the glory of the LORD.
• Then go to chapters 10 and 11 and see God’s glory depart from Israel.

It is absolutely heart breaking and gut wrenching.
It gives the picture of absolute abandonment.

And certainly it must have felt this way since after God left,
Babylon entered and Israel was exiled.

God’s commitment to Israel must have been questioned
By more than one person over the next 70 years.

And of course it was not that God had “unchosen” Israel,
It is merely that she needed to be disciplined for her sin
And purified through that discipline.

God punished Israel, but He never forsook her.
• Watch Him protect Daniel and those other Hebrew boys time after time.
• Watch Him use Esther to protect them from Haman.

God hadn’t forsaken them, even though it must have felt that way.

The beauty here is that God has now promised to:
• “return to Zion”
• And “dwell in the midst of Jerusalem”
• And turn that city into “the City of Truth”

What is He referring to?
JESUS

I would imagine that when God said He would return to Zion,
That most of the Jews probably expected another cloud.

You remember the glory cloud that filled Solomon’s temple and forced everyone out…

I would imagine that this is what these Jews probably expected.
They probably figured another cloud was coming.

But God has something much better in mind than a cloud.
God wrapped His glory in human flesh.

John said:
John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

The glory did come, not in a cloud, but in the form of a bond-servant.
God did return, and He returned to renovate Israel
And redeem Israel into the nation for God’s own glory.

Of course you know how the story unfolded…
• Israel rejected their Messiah just as they had rejected God’s glory in the Old Testament.
• And Israel nailed Jesus to a cross and killed Him, thus delaying the fulfillment of this promise.

And many have said that because of this God is now finished with Israel.
It is called Amillennialism.

But those who hold that view seem to have forgotten that
God’s favor to Israel has never been performance based.

In fact shortly after Jesus rose and ascended to heaven we have Peter preaching in Jerusalem and he says:
Acts 3:17-26 “And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. “But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. “Moses said, ‘THE LORD GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN; TO HIM YOU SHALL GIVE HEED to everything He says to you. ‘And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ “And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days. “It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘AND IN YOUR SEED ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED.’ “For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.”

• Peter reminds these Jews in Jerusalem that Jesus had done everything necessary to fulfill the prophecies regarding His suffering and atoning death.

• The only thing now delaying the promise is the repentance and faith of Israel.

• But once they repent and turn to Christ God will again send Him from heaven to do in Jerusalem exactly what He is promising here in the book of Zechariah.

WHY WOULD GOD STILL DO THAT FOR THEM?
Well listen to what Peter said:
(25-26) “It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘AND IN YOUR SEED ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED.’ “For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.”

It is because God is passionate about you.
God is jealous for you.
He made promises regarding you
He is loyal to you and those promises.

Paul said the same thing:
Romans 11:25-29 “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery — so that you will not be wise in your own estimation — that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.” “THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.” From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”

God’s plan for Israel hasn’t changed, because God is jealous for her.
• He promised to return to her and He will.
• He promised to dwell with her and He will.
• He promised to purify her and He will.

This is all part of the plan because God is faithful, God is loyal.

And, according to the theme of Zechariah, THE LORD REMEMBERS

Now we’ll stop here for tonight,
But I think some great points are made here for you and me.

• No, we are not Israel.
• We are Gentiles.
• We are a wild olive shoot that has been grafted in.

But we are, just as they, great recipients of God’s amazing grace.
We also are recipients of God’s favor, God’s loyalty, God’s jealousy.

And like Israel we receive those things not based upon our own works
But because the sovereign God of heaven chose to be gracious to us.

And just as God is seeking to quiet the anxiety of these refugees
Who are living in an unsettling time,
We can take great comfort in exactly the same way.

GOD IS FOR US,
And if you’d open your eyes you’d see that His favor is obvious.

That may not mean the absence of hardship (it didn’t for these refugees) but it certainly does mean the presence of grace.
• God was watching them as He is watching you.
• God was defending them as He is defending you.
• God was atoning them as He is atoning you.
• God was aiding them as He is aiding you.

They came questioning God’s favor and in reality
That is the last thing they should have ever questioned.

And it is the last thing you should ever question too.
God has been nothing but faithful, our entire lives are a testimony to it.
He is at work on our behalf continually.

It is not to say that we do not seek God’s favor, or seek to do the things that please Him; we most certainly do.

What you must understand however,
Is that His favor is not conditional upon our faithfulness.
Rather He shows us favor because He is faithful.

Rest in that for a little while.
Romans 8:28-31 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”