They Shall Be My People, and I Will Be Their God

Zechariah Lesson 1 Zechariah They Shall Be My People, And I Will Be Their God Kay Arthur

Introduction. Do you need rescuing? It was just two weekends ago that I stood on this platform and I looked into that camera and I said, “You’re being tempted about having an affair with this person that you have been flirting with and I just want you to know that if you do not obey God, if you disobey God, if you yield to that temptation, you will deeply regret it, deeply regret it.” Now how did I know? I knew because I had taken a survey of the women that had come to the conference. And one of them had written down that she was being tempted, that she was being enticed and she knew that she was in danger. Because I asked, “What are your greatest needs, what are your greatest concerns?” And so afterward that message she came up to me and she identified herself. I love it; that’s honesty, that’s openness, that’s being naked and open in His sight so that she doesn’t have to hide and wonder, “Does she know that it’s me.” (There were no names on the papers.) But when she said that to me, she said, “I want you to know that I am the one.” She said, “These are the circumstances and I’ve been tired. I have been out of the Word of God. And I haven’t been as happy as I should be at home. I’m the one and I want you to know that I’m not going to go there.” She was rescued. She was rescued by understanding that God is God. By understanding that yes, He is a loving and He is a compassionate God. But when we disobey Him, when we turn aside from His precepts, His statutes, His commandments, we cannot get away with it. The reason we can’t get away with it is because God is holy. Because God is righteous in all of His ways. He is not only a God of love but He is a God of wrath. But the most important thing to recognize is He not only a God of wrath, He is not only a God of love, but He is the only God. There is no other. In Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). And to Him we will give an account (Romans 14:12).

Do you need rescuing? Psalm 6:1–5 1O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger, Nor chasten me in Your wrath. 2Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am pining away; Heal me, O LORD, for my bones are dismayed. 3And my soul is greatly dismayed; But You, O LORD—how long? 4Return, O LORD, rescue my soul; Save me because of Your lovingkindness. 5For there is no mention of You in death; In Sheol who will give You thanks? The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) and when we yield to temptation there is a death of sorts, but there is a permanent death. The Psalmist is saying you need to rescue me now so I don’t go down to death because if I go down to death in Sheol, into the grave, who will give You thanks? Leave me on this earth and rescue me. You know, we need rescuing, don’t we? We’ve tasted of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2), haven’t we? We have tasted it in our ancestors. Go to Genesis 3. When we tasted it through our ancestors, through Adam and Eve, then we know the awful residual effects of that sin. Look at how Satan entices Eve. Genesis 3:1–10 1Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden (she knew where it was), God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” (We know this from Genesis 2) 4The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! (“You surely will not die! You will not go to the grave. You will not die. What a liar. John 8:44 calls him a liar. He was a murderer from the beginning. He intended for her to die.) 5“For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like (what?) God, knowing good and evil.” (Now watch.) 6When the woman saw that the tree was good for food (it was not an ugly tree), and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Crunch. We don’t think it was an apple. They ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It would make her wise. It would make her like God. So she took the fruit of the tree. What do we see? Why does man need rescuing? Why do you and I need rescuing? Why do we have a problem in our flesh with sin and with temptation? Why? Why are we drawn to things we shouldn’t be drawn to? I believe it is the residual poison of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that still resides in our flesh. It is called sin. It is called sin. In Romans 5:12 it says, 12Therefore, just as through one man (and he’s talking about Adam) sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned— You go to James 1:14–15 and you read about being tempted and a man is tempted when he’s drawn away of his own lust and enticed. (14But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.) The temptation is not the sin, but the minute he bites it, the minute he takes the bait, the minute he acts on it, then he sins and death follows sin. We think we can walk independently from God. We think we know better than God. “God, I know what

of 7 Zechariah Lesson 1 Zechariah They Shall Be My People, And I Will Be Their God Kay Arthur you said, but this marriage is a hard marriage. And God I am not happy and I’m sure You want me to be happy. I’m sure.” No. God wants you to keep your covenant. You made a covenant. So we think we know better. We think – oh you’re praying with this woman or you’re praying with this man or you’re talking about spiritual things and your husband or wife won’t talk to you about spiritual things so you just think, you know, “Surely God is going to bless this. We have a spiritual bond.” You’re blind. You’re stupid. You’re in danger and you’re going to regret it. You need rescuing. You need God to come along and rescue you. We think that we can decide. We think that we can discern. Or, we think (now listen carefully) that in our plight we can get rescued with the arm of flesh. God will send along some human being or some human scheme or finances or something that will rescue us with the arm of flesh, and it may not be totally right, but it’s okay because it’s our rescue. And we forget that those who trust in the flesh will be gravely sorry because God wants us to trust in Him. Jeremiah 17:7 7“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD.

There is only One who can rescue us, beloved. There is only One who can redeem us and that’s God. And how does He do it? Look at Genesis 3.15. God turns to the serpent. Adam and Eve now know they are naked. They are trying to cover themselves up with fig leaves. They are hiding from God in the garden and the serpent is gloating. And God says to the serpent: Genesis 3:15 15And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” So what you have over here is you have the serpent and Revelation 12:9 tells us that the serpent is the devil. You have the woman with fig leaves and long hair. So God is going to put enmity (war) between the serpent and the woman. But not only between the serpent and the woman, but between the woman’s seed and the serpent’s seed. So the woman is going to have a seed and the serpent is going to have a seed. So the serpent is going to have people who are going to follow him. She’s going to have people who follow her in the righteousness that is to come. But then it tells you that that serpent’s seed will bruise the woman’s seed on the heel. And that the woman’s seed will crush the head of the serpent. So this is the first promise of a Savior, this is our first promise of rescue. This is our first promise of redemption. Redemption from what? From sin. She bit the fruit. She became a sinner. So she is going to have a seed. Now from her seed is going to come the Messiah, the Christ. And that Messiah is going to have His heel bruised by the seed of the serpent. Crucifixion, if you will look at my feet, is where the heel is bruised. Because when they nail them to a cross, they nail them so that their knees are flexed so they have a long and tortuous death. They can’t exhale so they are going to come up, exhale, grab a breath and go back down because of the pain. They do that with the legs flexed, with the knees flexed so they can push themselves up. So here is the protevangelium, the first promise of the good news of a seed that will crush the head of the serpent, will get rid of the head of the serpent although the serpent bruises His heel.

So how is God going to take care of us? How is God going to rescue us who are sinners? Through His Son, the seed of the woman, who crushed the head of the serpent, Who rescued us (now listen) from the domain of darkness and brought redemption, the forgiveness of sins. I want you to go to Colossians 1 – yes, we are studying Zechariah.  Yes, I will get there but this is my introduction. Listen to this: Colossians 1:13–15 13For He (God) rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son—He rescued us (from what?) the domain of darkness. He transferred us (where?) into the kingdom of His beloved Son (when we believe on Jesus), 14in whom (Jesus) we have (what?) redemption, the forgiveness of sins. When Adam and Eve (now listen carefully) when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, God in His mercy, cast them out. He put His angels there with flaming swords from all directions. Why? Because man was a sinner. By one man sin entered into the world. So He cast them out. In casting them out, go to Genesis 3:22, I want you to see why He did this. Genesis 3:20–24 20Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. 21The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. 22Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us (the man has become like one of Us—God is saying—like one of what? Us—isn’t that interesting? In Genesis 1:26 Let Us make man in our image Father, Son and Holy Spirit), 22Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. 24So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of

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Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the (what?) tree of life. Let’s say this (my podium) is the tree of life. Why would God do that? Here’s the tree of life. Because if he ate of that tree of life in his sinful state, he would live forever and ever and ever as a what? As a sinner. Now can you understand why Zechariah opens up with the words, Return to Me that I may return to you.

Bible 101. You’ve read through a book that is not easy, a book that is complicated but a book that is a jewel among jewels. Next to the book of Isaiah, no other book in the Bible gives us the revelation of the seed of the woman who is going to rescue you and me and mankind and Israel from their sin. You are about to study the most incredible and awesome book. And what’s good about it, is that it’s only 14 chapters long. And because it’s only 14 chapters long, it’s not like Isaiah which is 66 chapters long, you may make it.  And I am praying that you do make it. Zechariah is set in a book called (what?) the Bible. What is the Bible all about? The Bible is all about (now watch) the redemption of man—the redemption of man through the seed of the woman. It begins with God creating the heavens and the earth. It starts with a garden, right? And that garden is called paradise. It starts with the garden of Eden. And all the way through that book, what you’re going to read is the love of God, the power of God, the mercy of God, as He redeems man and brings man to Himself so He can restore to man what he lost in the garden of Eden. So when you open up in the Book of Genesis what you see is you see a mention—an identification of two trees. What are they? You may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden of Eden except from the tree of (what?) of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16–17). So they were not to eat of this tree. If they ate of this tree, in the day that they ate from it they would surely (what?) That’s a tombstone. They would surely die. But there was also another tree in that garden. And what was that a tree of? The tree of life. They ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they were kicked out of the garden lest they eat from the tree of life as he says in Genesis 3:22–23 … and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— (live forever as a sinner-----live forever, ever, ever—needing rescuing. We can’t do that.) So the Bible opens up in a garden. Where does the Bible close? Go to Revelation which is the last book. It’s the last opportunity to hear his revelation. It‘s the end of one book which is made up of 66 books, which is made up of 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. And you come to Revelation 21:1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, Where was God in the garden of Eden? He was among them. Did they know that God saw them? Did they see God? Oh yes, He walked with them in the garden. They hid from Him when they had sinned. Now we come to the end of the book, and when we come to the end of the book, we have a new heaven and we have a new earth. We have the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven as a bride adorned for her husband. And it says, 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have (what?) passed away.” So what happens in this new heaven and this new earth and this New Jerusalem, all the past is wiped away. It is all gone. There is no more mourning, there is no more tears, there is no more sorrow, there is no more death for those who have been redeemed, for those who have been rescued, but not for the others. Look at what he says. He says in verse 5 that He is making all things new. Then in verse 6 6Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. 7“He who overcomes will inherit these things...

Now who is the one who overcomes? Go back to 1 John 5. 1 John 5:4–10 4For whatever is born of God overcomes the world— whatever is born of God—whoever is born again—now watch. Whoever is born again of the woman’s seed, who is Jesus Christ. Whoever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that overcomes the world (what? what does it say? You tell me. I want to hear you say it.)—our faith—our faith. What is faith? It is taking God at His Word. It’s believing what He says. It’s knowing what He says and then living accordingly. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). And so what we see here is we see these are the ones that

of 7 Zechariah Lesson 1 Zechariah They Shall Be My People, And I Will Be Their God Kay Arthur overcome. Go back to Revelation 21:7 7“He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My (what?) My son (My child). 8“But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” Do you see the contrast? Do you see the separation? The seed of the woman, and the seed of the serpent. Those who believe belong to the seed of the woman. Those that do not believe belong to the seed of the serpent and they are cast into the lake of fire where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:44, 46, 48). And where do we live? We live in a place that’s not going to have the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in it, but it’s going to have the tree of life.

New Jerusalem. Go to Revelation 22. He is describing what this New Jerusalem will be like. How there will be no temple because He’s the temple and how there will be no sun or moon because He’s the light—Jesus is the light. And how there will be nothing unclean or practices or abominations—nothing will ever come into that city. And then in Revelation 22:1 is says, Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the (what?) tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond- servants will serve Him; 4they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. 5And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them (You’ve been transferred from a kingdom of darkness as we saw in Colossians into a kingdom of light. Light forever.) 6And he said to me, “These words are faithful and true”; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things which must (what?) soon take place. It is sooner than when it was written. Alright. So we go from Genesis to Revelation. Right? What is the story all about? It is the redemption of man, the rescue of man. The rescue, redemption and restoration to what they lost in Eden and what they will gain in the new heaven and the new earth.

So now the question is how does Zechariah fit into all of this? How does Zechariah fit into the big picture? And you’re read it. It was not easy to just get an overview of this book. If it wasn’t easy to get an overview of this book, and you’ve got all these things you’ve got to do and you’re busy with life, and you’re trying to support yourself, get all your work done, do all the things you have to do just to survive, why bother? Why bother with Zechariah? Why not just sit in church and hear a sermon and grab what you can and use that for the week? Why? Why would you study Zechariah? Because Jesus said and God said, “Man does not live by bread alone, but my every word that comes out of the mouth of God.” (Deuteronomy 8:3) If you’re to live by every word, then can you skip Zechariah? No. No. You can’t skip Zechariah if you’re to live by every word. You say, “I’ve got enough basic knowledge. I can just walk in that basic knowledge.” Oh, have you been tempted lately? Have you been tried lately? Have you found yourself in a pit of despair of depression? Or are you anxious about the future? Are you anxious about this nation and what is going to happen in this nation? Is your nation your salvation? No. Does your future depend on who runs our government? It will be affected by it but it doesn’t depend on it. We’re to live by every word, not in our own knowledge, not in our own understanding. We are to trust in the Lord. Proverbs 3:5–6 5Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. 6In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. So if we are to live by every word, and Zechariah is in God’s book, what do we need? We need to study Zechariah. You are going to labor in a book – now listen, that seems at times to very hard to understand at times. But you know what, if you will labor in this book – now that you have gotten the overview of the book – you are going to understand it even better. And the more that you read it and the more that you study it, the more that it is going to come forth, and you are going to have a treasure trove of truth—truth that God does not put in any other place in His 66 books. He is going to give you details about Messiah and about the salvation of Israel that you don’t see any place else. He is going to talk to you about Jerusalem. Who cares about Jerusalem? It’s across the ocean and it belongs to—who does it belong to? (Palestinians would say them. The Jews would say them. The Catholic Church would say Jerusalem belongs to them—everybody wants a piece of that land. Why? Because there’s the seed of the serpent that is out to get Jesus and His followers and His chosen people, Israel. And that’s

of 7 Zechariah Lesson 1 Zechariah They Shall Be My People, And I Will Be Their God Kay Arthur why you need to understand Zechariah. When you go through Zechariah, do you know the main city in that book is Jerusalem? And Jerusalem is mentioned over and over and over again. When you mark it and count it, it’s mentioned about 42 times. If you study Zechariah and you see what God says about Jerusalem, then no matter what the world is saying, no matter what the Palestinians are saying, no matter what Iran and Iraq and everyone else in the world is saying about this, no matter whether the UN declares it a Palestinian state or others, you know the truth because you know the Word of God, and you know what Zechariah has to say about Jerusalem. Now what have you done? You’ve read through the Book of Zechariah. You have looked at it chapter by chapter. You have wrestled with it. Now you are going to take it apart bit by bit. But the fact that you have wrestled with the book, the fact that you have read it, the fact that you have gotten the overview will help now do your homework this coming week, it will help you focus in on details of the big picture and having the big picture will help you see how the details fit into the whole story. Now understanding this—understanding that the Bible is all about redemption—that the Bible is all about returning to the Lord, then what you’re going to see as you go chapter by chapter, how all of this fits into the big picture of the Bible, but also how this vision fits with maybe the end of the book. And how what He says here, comes to light here. So as you start studying the first chapters of Zechariah and those visions – and maybe your head is spinning a little bit - just remember, it’s one revelation and it is one book with one purpose. You will then begin to see that God says about Jerusalem.

But you will also want to see what God says about the King, about the Messiah, because when you get to the end of Zechariah and that last chapter, what do you read? The King, the King, the King. So what is He telling us about the King and who is the King? I want us to go to Luke 24 for just a minute. Two men were walking on the road to Emmaus. They were downcast. They were walking along and another man joined them and He asked them why they were looking so sad. Luke 24:18 says, 18One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?” (Jesus had just been crucified. It was what feast? It was the feast of Passover. During feast of Passover that city is jammed because Jews come from all over to celebrate the feast of Passover.) 19And He (the man) said to them, “What things?” And they said to Him, “The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, 20and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him. 21“But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. (You’re smiling. Why are you smiling? What happened on the third day? He was resurrected. Oh, what a surprise. Oh, what a surprise. Not if you understand the feasts. Not if you come back here to the book of Leviticus. Not if you understand what happens at the feast of Passover. I’m sorry before you even get to Leviticus you get to Exodus, the second book in the Bible and you read about the Passover. And then you begin to study and you find out as you go through the Scripture of the unfolding of the truth of the fact of the Passover Lamb is going to be resurrected. And you have the feast of Passover: which is the feast of Passover, the feast of Unleavened Bread, and the feast of First Fruits which happens 3 days after Passover. Jesus is the first fruits of those that slept (1 Corinthians 5:20). But of course you wouldn’t know and appreciate that if you hadn’t really started at the beginning of God’s Book and studied it. But if you have studied Exodus and Leviticus and studied the feasts and you have moved on through and you’ve studied the Scriptures and you see “3rd day” and you smile. You know Jonah prophesied about it.) So Luke 24:21 21“But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. (We have a nation that needs redeeming. We have a people that need redemption. We have a people that need rescuing. Why? Because when this was written, who were they under? They were under Rome. Of course, Daniel prophesied that. He didn’t name Rome but he prophesied that. And of course the book of Zechariah takes you from the Medes and the Persians to Greece. So you begin to see how all of this fits together. This is why you’ve got to study the book of Zechariah so you can understand what Jesus is going to tell us.) Now look at what it says, They were saying 21“But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. ….then he says in verse 25, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! (Who is the prophet that you are studying right now? Zechariah. O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in (what?) all that the prophets have spoken! Zechariah’s a prophet right? How are you going to believe in something you don’t know? How are you going to know about something you didn’t read or didn’t study?) Jesus goes on to say: 26“Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” 27Then beginning with

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Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. So if He began with Moses, what did Moses write? Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. So where did Jesus begin? In Genesis or Exodus? In Genesis. Don’t you know they must have been standing there with their mouths open? I mean, I’d be on the floor fanning myself from all the truth I was getting. Because He started with Moses and moved right on through all the prophets. If you’d been there, you wouldn’t have had to do Zechariah. Jesus explained to them in Zechariah the things concerning Himself. Isn’t that awesome? When you were reading Zechariah, did any Scriptures that caused your eyes to light up and a ding to go off in your head? Why? Because you saw Scriptures and if you have read the New Testament, hey–those things equal each other. So you’re going to see Jesus in Zechariah as you go through and unpack him. Listen to what it says, 30When He had reclined at the table with them, after He gets through with teaching them and that… and 31Then their eyes were opened (He broke bread and verse 31) 31Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; (God opened their eyes) and He vanished from their sight. 32They said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?” Do you know what? You’re going to get a holy heartburn.  As you study Zechariah, you’re going to have a holy heartburn because you are going to learn things about Jesus that Zechariah tells us details that he gives us about Jesus.

Structure of Zechariah. When you look at the Book of Zechariah structurally, you marked a time frame, right? That time frame was given to you at the beginning of the Book of Zechariah. So if you will go to Zechariah 1:1 In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the prophet…So you saw when this book begins. It begins in (what?) the second year of Darius in the 8th month. You can figure that out and we’ll go into detail on it—you’ll see that is 520 BC. So this book opens up then. And then when you go to chapter 7: 1In the fourth year of King Darius, (not the second year but the fourth year) the word of the LORD came to Zechariah... So you have two time references. As you study, you’re going to see that when this book begins, those people are discouraged. Those people are feeling defeated. It is hard and they are wondering where God is. They have come back from captivity. There is just a remnant of them. They had started building the temple. They stopped building the temple. God sends Haggai the same time He sends Zechariah, and you’re going to see that. He brings a message to them. Now why are they feeling so bad? Because (listen carefully) they’re feeling the residual effects of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They are a people that have then turned away from God, and they are reaping the harvest of it.

Part 1—Visions. When you look at Zechariah part 1—and I believe the book falls into two parts—part 1, chapters 1-6, you’re going to see visions that He is going to give to these people hope and how them how He is going to rescue them. And what He is going to do to their holy city, Jerusalem. How does He open the book? Zechariah 1:2 “The LORD was very angry with your fathers. 3“Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Return to Me,” (I was angry with your fathers now listen to Me.) “Return to Me,” declares the LORD of hosts, “that I may (what?) return to you,” ... Return to Me that I may return to you. In chapters 1-6, you have the visions. I lifted up my eyes and saw…I lifted up my eyes and saw…so you have the visions.

Part 2—Rescue, Redeem, Restore. In chapters 7-8, you have God letting you know that He is going to rescue, that He is going to redeem, that He is going to restore. Let me show you that quickly. Zechariah 1:14 14So 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. (Jerusalem is like the city. Zion is like the people.) 15“But I am very angry with the nations who are at ease; for while I was only a little angry, they furthered the disaster.” 16‘Therefore thus says the LORD, “I will return to Jerusalem with compassion; My house will be built in it,”… 17“ ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.” ’ ” I am jealous for you. Because I am jealous for you, I’m not going to let another person have you; I’m not going to rescue you. I am going rescue you and bring you back to Myself. I am going to restore your city. That is what He says with the first vision. Go to Zechariah 8. Zechariah 8:1Then the word of the LORD of hosts came, saying, 2“Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘I am exceedingly jealous for Zion, yes, with great wrath I am jealous for her.’ 3“Thus says the LORD, ‘I will (what?) return to Zion…What has He said to them at the beginning of the book? How does He open it up? You need

of 7 Zechariah Lesson 1 Zechariah They Shall Be My People, And I Will Be Their God Kay Arthur rescuing. Return to Me and I will return to you. Now He is saying: 3…I will return to Zion and I 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.’ He goes on and tells what He is going to do. So in Zechariah 1 and in Zechariah 8, He gives the fact that He is jealous and that He will return. I am jealous for you and I am going to return. In Zechariah you’re going to get the details of His return like you’re not going to get in any other book in the Bible. You’re going to get the details of His return. You’re going to get the details of the redemption of Israel—the redemption of the Jewish nation. When does it happen? How does it happen? And it’s all based - this whole story—from the Garden of Eden all that way to the new Jerusalem – the whole story of the word of God is this: You departed from Me. You ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, return! Return to Me! Testament because the Bible is a book of redemption. These people have eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they need to repent, and they need to return, and repent and return is (shuwb). It’s the same.

How do we return? You get to the New Testament, what is Jesus’ message? It’s in Luke 13. Unless you repent and believe in Me. If you don’t, you will perish. So it goes right through. Listen, it doesn’t stop in Zechariah. When you study Malachi, you’re going to see it. Malachi 3:7 “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of hosts.“ But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ And so when the New Testament opens up, we see, How do we return? Because we come to the cross of Jesus Christ.

Watch for Jesus in Zechariah. The Old Testament is the account of the awful affect of sin, of the residual effect of Adam and Eve eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Therefore, precious one, as you read through Zechariah, you want to watch for Jesus. Psalm 40:7 Then I said, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. Jesus talking to the Jews, says to them: John 5:39 “You search the Scriptures … and you don’t know they are speaking of Me. Oh precious ones, I urge you, search the Scriptures. Search out Zechariah. Give it the time that it deserves. Adjust your schedule. Determine to finish what you began. It is just 7 weeks. Give yourself to these 7 weeks and see what God does as He shows you the King and Jerusalem and what is to come. As He teaches you how He rescues His people – and how because He is God He is able to bring you and me into that New Jerusalem, that new city. So that is what I am urging you to do. Study faithfully.

Conclusion. I want to close by looking with you at Ezekiel 20:33. God is speaking to His people. It says, “As I live,” declares the Lord GOD, “surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I shall be king over you. He is the redeemer. And listen to me carefully, if you are His, He is not going to let you go. And whatever it takes, He is going to bring you to Him. He is going to rescue you because you are precious in His sight. He will do it with an outstretched arm. He will do it with a might hand and even with wrath poured out. This is what He says, I shall be King over you. I shall be King over you. The Bible opens up with the prediction of the crucifixion. The Book closes with Jesus coming in all of His glory to reign as King of kings and set up a kingdom that will never ever be destroyed. 34“I will bring you out from the peoples (He is speaking to Israel) and gather you from the lands where you are scattered (you’re going to appreciate this even more as you do Zechariah), with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out; 35and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. 36“As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you,” declares the Lord GOD. 37“I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; 38and I will purge from you the rebels and those who transgress against Me (Zechariah 13 is going to light up there.); I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Thus you will know (the rebels) Thus you will know that I am the LORD. He’s going to purge the land. You’re going to see: Remember that vision where He puts that woman in an ephod? He puts the lid down and gets it out of there and takes it to Babylon. Let’s study the Word of God for His sake. Let’s hang on His every Word, for His sake and our sake; let us be made clean by the washing of the water of His Word (Ephesians 5:26) as we study Zechariah. For your sake, finish the course.