Zechariah 9

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0:00 We're talking about favorite Bible verses this summer just for fun until we get to the school year. Some of you have sent me your favorite Bible verses. I'm excited about that. We're going to put them up on the board there next to your picture. If you don't have a picture up there yet, we'll fix that too. But you can also send me your favorite verses. I'm excited about reading those. I've been looking at some of my favorite verses last week.

0:30 Aaron talked about the Shema and Deuteronomy. Then Jesus' take on that in Matthew. This week I want to look at a verse that's been a favorite of mine for a while. It's in Zachariah chapter 9. Zachariah is kind of hard to find because he's like a smaller prophet. If you get to the New Testament like Matthew, you've gone too far. You've got to go back to the left.

1:03 But if you get to Isaiah or Joel, you've gone too far to the left, you've got to go back to the right. Anybody using a paper or copy? You can't read it in here. It's too dark. Yeah. Yeah. Zachariah chapter 9, the verse is verse 12. In chapter 9. Oh, it's not.

1:35 It's verse. 11. This is for you also because of the blood of my covenant with you. I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Oh, no, it is 12. Return to your strongholds. Oh, prisoners of hope. That's it. Today I declare that I will restore to you double. I like that imagery so much.

2:08 Return to your stronghold. Oh, prisoners of hope. That's just like. I don't know. I never, before I read that verse, I never thought about putting those words together. Return to your stronghold. Prisoners of hope. Prisoners of hope. Zachariah is like one of these minor prophets because he's prophesying like towards the end of the Old Testament period.

2:38 There's a little bit less of him. You're pretty sure his dad was one of the original crew to come back from Babylon. Remember that Assyria conquered the southern kingdom and took them off and then Assyria was conquered and then those people were conquered by the Babylonians. But before that, Cyrus of Persia said you guys can go back if you want. And not all of the Israelites went back. Most remnant of them went back.

3:09 A lot of them had established life there and wanted to stay. But a remnant of them took money and Cyrus gave back all the money that they had documented as taking. And they went back to Israel. Now Israel had been repopulated when Assyria would conquer a group of people. They would take the brightest and the best off to their capital city and then they would repopulate the glands they conquered with other lands. It would be like if somebody conquered the southeast and brought people from the northwest

3:45 and the southwest to settle in the southeast and took away all the Gator graduates to somewhere else better. It took off the brightest and the best and brought in other people from other places to resettle. This is what happened. So then when everybody came back, when the Israelites came back, there was people living there. And the temple had been knocked down but nobody had rebuilt it. They hadn't rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem but there were people living there. And they didn't particularly like that these Israelites who had developed holiness laws

4:20 to keep themselves separate from other people were coming back and wanting to re-establish a way of living that they had developed there. It wasn't until actually this journey back where the tribe of Benjamin and Judah had been conquered by Assyria and they had gone off and lived. This is where we have Daniel and the lions then they live under Nebuchadnezzar. And then when they're there living as aliens in a foreign and strange land is when they develop most of the 400 and something laws because they've got to distinguish themselves

4:54 from everybody else. And so when they're coming back then the remnant of Israel that had intermarried with all the people start referring to the people coming back as Jews because it's a shortened version of Judah. So we don't have the term Jews until they come back from Babylon it really develops in the intertestamental period. But what I'm saying is the people who were living saw the Jews coming back as a problem. So they're coming back to a homeland and the people there are not excited that they're

5:24 coming but Cyrus way off said they could and gave them money. And so amongst kind of a hostile group of people and you can see this still like part of the reason that the Pharisees don't get along with the Samaritans in the time of Jesus is because the Samaritans are the remnant of the people who had lived there and intermarried. So this like animosity carries on for generations. We're trying to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and the temple amongst problematic people.

5:58 Like what a weird situation right where you feel like this is your land that was given to you that was given to you by God that you were taken and then the king the emperor sends you back with money and says you'll be able to get there then you get there and nobody wants it says that they had to rebuild the wall with a mortar and one hand and a sword and the other because they're fighting people off as they're trying to rebuild the system right. And it's in that context to the return that Zechariah is spending most of his time prophesying.

6:33 He's like speaking on behalf of God to the people of God. And he's telling them this line, return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope. When I was looking this up, the summary of the context of Israel at the time of Zechariah I thought was really pertinent. They gave three phrases to summarize the context.

7:10 Foreign rule, economic uncertainty and internal apathy. I mean America is not an occupied country right now but we can relate to these terms. Foreign rule, economic uncertainty, internal apathy. In this context that Israel's living that then Zechariah speaks on God's behalf and

7:46 he tells them return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope. Of course they had this hope of finally coming into the place where they belonged. They had this hope of walking in. Isaiah talked about the mountains will be brought down and the valleys will be raised up.

8:17 The crooked places will be made straight. He's talking about Cyrus releasing the Jews back to Israel. They had a vision among their people of what it would be like for them to come back where all things were set to right where their king comes in front of them and they ride in. They had a notion of how things were supposed to be. They had a hope they had clung to among foreign countries for generations. 70 years.

8:48 A generation I suppose. And then they get there and all they've got is their hope. It's like chained them to unrealistic expectations. Turned them off from reality. Their hope might be seen as disconnected from what's happening.

9:20 They might be like trying to go to be there in Israel and going, you know when they rebuilt the temple, when they finally rebuilt the temple they got it done. The people of Israel wept. Not for joy but for sadness because the temple was such a shadow of what they remembered and were told Solomon's temple was like. It was just they had this hope that didn't match reality.

9:58 According to your stronghold, oh prisoners of hope. God is speaking through Zachariah and somehow saying that the people who have been held captive by a hope are set free. If you go back in just a couple of verses to get the context, the beginning of chapter

10:32 nine talks about how he's going to defend the tribes. Most people think that the scribe that wrote this down for Zachariah set those first several verses in the first block like one through eight. Set them there as a historical context for the prophecy that Zachariah gives in nine and following. So starting at chapter nine verse nine Zachariah says, Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion.

11:05 Shout aloud O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold your king is coming to you righteous and having salvation. Is he humble and mounted on a donkey on the cult the full of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem and the battle bow shall be cut off and he shall speak peace to the nations. His rule shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.

11:37 As for you also because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to your stronghold O prisoners of hope. Today I declare that I will restore you double. God is saying through the prophets Zachariah that you don't have to be chained to your hope anymore. You can return to the place from which you came the place where you belong where you can stay. Most people interpret this as return to your God away from the mere hope of him.

12:14 Of course, Zachariah is like seeing into a future. He's telling Israel he's trying to encourage Israel amongst foreign rule economic uncertainty and internal apathy. God is promising there is deliverance coming. You will have a king who brings peace, who makes hope no longer a prison, but from hope

12:49 you spring into the place where you belong and can live in safety. You're no longer a prisoner, but you can live in the stronghold. He's saying there's a day coming and then you and I have heard that passage maybe enough to know that it's quoted as Jesus coming in at the triumphal entry when he rides in on the cult on the full of a donkey and he's coming in and he's kicking out the money changers and he's saying my house is a temple of prayer and he's building a place of peace.

13:23 He comes in and heals the lame and forgives the sinner. He's building a kingdom of peace instead of a kingdom of war. Jesus does the thing that Zachariah prophesies. And so then if that's true, you and I are not held captive by hope.

13:57 I don't know what you look forward to. I did two or three weeks ago. I did a funeral for a guy that has been somewhere between 59 and 62 my whole life. I don't know how he did it. His name is Craig Hench. His kids are about maybe eight or nine years older than me and baby sat me when I was a

14:29 little kid. I think he sat in the same chair at Holy Cross in Lake Mary every Sunday. Kind of a faithful quiet guy, a little like he knew that he wanted things done the right way. Craig did. I was talking to his wife and she also has been about that same age my whole life.

15:01 When I was a kid she always would remember my birthday and send me a $10 check in the birthday card. Miss Joanne Hench. All the way into college. Freshman New York College. I still got a $10 check from Miss Joanne Hench. She was telling me I hadn't seen them a lot lately as they got older because I wasn't out there like Mary as much. She was telling me he had gotten a new job. He was working from home. He was kind of a finance guy. He had COPD at the end and got to where he had trouble breathing and then he had to stop

15:32 working and she said he would definitely still be working if he could. He was by now no longer late 50s, early 60s as he had been my whole life. He was early 70s. But he'd still be working. When you asked his kids one of the things they liked about him was that he always provided for the family. The guy liked to work and he liked things done the right way. And I was thinking about this message they picked a passage that I used and but the image

16:06 I had of Craig was what does it look like when the workaholics job is all done. What does it look like when rest is life giving? When adventure is the job of the day. When creation is done when we can create things not because we must but because we can without

16:43 a deadline or people to please or a paycheck cash. What does it look like when all of your limiting anxieties and fears are put aside and you can explore the relationships next to you without fear of failure or hiding vulnerability. What does it look like when Craig is done working?

17:20 Of course we have things to hope for. I like to say I love I was saying that I'm looking forward to a hike this fall in Smoky Mountain National Park. And the hardest part I like to build a hike that's a loop. It's kind of hard to do because you got to get the right length and the right elevation

17:50 change so you can do it in the right amount of time. And it's harder to find a loop in the parks that fits just right so you don't have to use a shuttle so you can come back to your car a couple days hike. It'd be way easier to do an out and back hike. Or you just go out as far as you'd like half the time you have and then you turn around and come back. But I hate the moment on the trail when you go oh but what might I see if I could keep

18:25 going. More than once I've been on a trail with family and friends and I'd be like there might be something cool. Let me just run ahead I'll come back and get you if there's anything cool. The moment where you turn around and you're done bums me out. There might be something else you could see. I really am looking forward to the time when I can explore as absolutely long as I want. I will run and not weary. I will walk and not grow faint.

18:58 And I can do it for as long as I want and not miss any time to hang out and be a dad or a brother or a son or a grandson with the people that I love. Of course we have stuff to look forward to. Of course we have stuff to put our hope in but the promise of Zachariah is that your hope is not a prison. You're not you are not sequestered set away and bound to something that won't let you

19:34 free. Your hope is not a limiting factor but an animating factor. Do you see? Your hope in the capacity to be who God has called you to be is a foretaste. It's an appetizer not a chain that because of what Christ has done he has launched the end into the now.

20:06 He has brought the fullness in glimpses into the like small. He has brought glimpses of the infinite into now the finite. I was trying to think of some places where that is referred to. There's a section in Paul's letter to the Philippians.

20:36 If you don't want to believe me but we can believe the Apostle Paul perhaps this is Hebrews. Not Hebrews Philippians, Galatians, Ephesians. Remember he writes in Philippians chapter 4 verse 7 he says Paul says, Rejoice in the Lord always and again I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

21:08 The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. This is the biggest most repeated refrain I've heard from people outside of faith in Jesus observing people with real faith in Jesus. The guy just seems so unbathered.

21:43 Paul says that there is in Christ a peace that confounds understanding that when the world says you should be anxious and afraid and fearful and stressed you can have a peace operating inside of you. There's another place in when Paul is writing to the letter to the church in Rome where he says we rejoice in our sufferings. We go into hardship carrying joy yet.

22:16 I remember one time when I was talking to a friend years ago who had gotten diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease. I was sitting with him because he had trouble lifting his arms up above his shoulders like this. I was asking him if he was despairing. I said this is so sad to watch happen to you. He said it is sad but you know what's weird? He said I do not despair.

22:49 Like the people who have come around me there is joy in our conversation. Is that weird? And I said rich, no man. Joy for us we find in the midst of suffering because we know suffering produces character and character produces hope and our hope when it's in the Lord is not a prison. It does not disappoint but leads on to what we taste now.

23:19 I'm saying that because Christ came in on the donkey as Zacharya said that he might, that your hope is no longer a fool's hope. But you can taste its beginning fulfillment now. This is why Zacharya says return to your stronghold. Don't stay merely in hope but go and experience it now. Both scholars understand the stronghold of Israel to be in relationship to the God.

23:54 Israel gets to be in relationship to God. What does it look like for you to return to your stronghold? How do you do it? How do you have hope not be a prison but be the beginning for taste, the appetizer of what's to come?

24:26 For me it's to get around the story of the gospel. To remind myself of what's true. The way I uncover peace that transcends understanding, joy in the midst of suffering, love for my neighbor, the capacity to serve, the inspiration to create, the things of God, the way I do it is I go around the story.

24:59 I remind myself of who I am and what Christ has done for me, where I'm going. For you these gatherings are not merely a habit, there's a lot of easier habits. For me these gatherings are about the story because it's a way to come out of kind of into the stronghold to experience the promise of the hope. Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope.

25:36 I hope, I want for you all to have a sincere hope in the life to come. This world is not as good as it ought to be. Born rulers, economic uncertainty, internal apathy, injustice, hardship pain.

26:08 This world is I want you to have a sincere hope that there is a better place and we are going there. But don't be held captive by the hope. Zechariah wants people to be buoyed in faith by the promise that their hope is not a prison but there's a stronghold to which they can return now in order that they could live now as though the king had come already.

26:41 So the promise, the hope that you have in the future, doesn't bind you to inaction, to wait, but releases you to live with love, generosity, service, creativity, adventure. Your hope in the future releases you to live. That's what I'm looking forward to. That's why I love that verse.

27:11 Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope. Let me pray that we could be those people. Hey, Lord, give us the grace of faith that we might live not as prisoners chained and waiting, but as those moving around underneath your reign now with love and creativity, with hope and adventure, with joy. For Jesus' sake that his work would not be wasted on us, we pray.

27:48 Amen.