SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/23/2016 7:08 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 The Human Conqueror
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Zechariah 9:4-7
Message of the verses: We will begin by looking at verse four: “4 Behold, the Lord will dispossess her And
cast her wealth into the sea; And she will be consumed with fire.”
There is a
story about how the prophecy of this verse was fulfilled by Alexander as he came
to Tyre asking for some supplies in a boat and they would not give it to him,
which made him very upset. He took the
entire ruble that was left from the city, the ancient city and threw it into
the sea to make a causeway, as he was very serious and angry with them. In seven months he was done with that job and
marched across that causeway to defeat them.
Can you imagine how they must have felt as they saw this causeway
getting closer and closer to them, knowing that there time was about
complete. Others tried this before and
could not do it, but this was God’s timing to get done and it got done. Now it runs in my mind that Ezekiel also prophesied
that this would be done. Ezekiel 26:1-14
speaks of a prophecy against Tyre.
Now since
God used these pagan kings to accomplish His will think about how He can use
His Messiah to accomplish His will with the nations. All the nations will come together in what is
known as the Day of the Lord, the battle of Armageddon, and Jesus Christ will
return to planet earth to destroy all of the nations with the sword of His
mouth as it speaks of in Revelation chapter 19.
He will then separate the sheep and the goats, taking the sheep into the
kingdom with Him, and putting the goats into judgment with the Antichrist, the
false prophet, and Satan, and will rule the world for 1000 years.
Alexander
will next move to fight against the Philistines: 5 Ashkelon will see it and be afraid. Gaza too
will writhe in great pain; Also Ekron, for her expectation has been confounded.
Moreover, the king will perish from Gaza, And Ashkelon will not be inhabited. 6
And a mongrel race will dwell in Ashdod, And I will cut off the pride of the
Philistines. 7 And I will remove their blood from their mouth And their
detestable things from between their teeth. Then they also will be a remnant
for our God, And be like a clan in Judah, And Ekron like a Jebusite (Zech.
9:5-7).”
The
following is a rather long quote from John MacArthur’s sermon on these three
verses that will help us understand what they mean.
“In fact, it's most interesting that history records something of Alexander's defeat of Gaza in detail. It says in this verse, "The king shall perish from Gaza," and do you know that in the annals of Alexander which we have, that is exactly what happened? You see, all the other cities kind of went down easy, they didn't want to get too involved in fighting Alexander, they did the best they could for a little while, they gave up. But Gaza tried to resist and it took him five months to get to Gaza. And by the end of the five months, he was very angry. And sort of to show his anger, he gave them no semi-independence which he did for nations that knuckled under. And he took their king, took great spikes and drilled holes through the feet of the king, wrapped thongs through the holes and dragged him through the streets of the city till he was dead. The annals of Alexander even give his name, his name is Betis, B-e-t-i-s, or B- e-a-t-i-s, either one, we see it in both ways. Exactly what verse 5 said...hundreds of years before Alexander was ever born. You understand the meaning of that?
“And it says in verse 6, "and a bastard,"
a mamzer in Hebrew, a foreigner, a mongrel people "shall dwell in
Ashdod." In other words, the Philistines would lose their country to some
kind of scavengers, some mongrel people. Why? Because they were proud and God
broke their pride with Alexander. They've never been anything since. Their name
doesn't even exist.
“But you know something? There's a little bit of
grace in verse 7 because even in the terrible destruction of the Philistines,
there was something good. Verse 7 says, "And the purging that occurs to
the Philistines will cause this, I'll take away his blood out of his mouth and
his abominations from between his teeth, but he that remaineth, even he shall
be for our God, he shall be like a governor in Judah and Ekron like a
Jebusite."
“Now I want you to get the idea here. The
Philistine nation in verse 7 is pictured like a man. Okay? Like a man. Now this
man has blood in his mouth and abominations between his teeth. You say,
"What's that?" Philistines in their pagan worship used to make
blasphemous sacrifices. And they would drink the blood and eat the sacrificial
meat. You know, like in 1 Corinthians 8, mean offered to idols and drinking blood...Acts
15 talks about the pagans that did that. And so they were doing that. Literally
drinking blood and eating abominating sacrifices. And he says here that this
purging by God, this use of Alexander to wipe out their country will cause them
to spit out their idolatry, to take the blood out of their mouths and the
abominations from between their teeth, and he that remains those who remain
after this shall be for our God.
“You know what it had? It had an actually a
redeeming effect on a remnant of the Philistines so that at the time of
Alexander, some of the Philistines turned to God. You know, in any time of
God's judgment, there's always a place for the repentant remnant, isn't there?
Yes. Remember in Malachi when God said I'm going to come in judgment and some
gathered together and began to pray. And He said, "Oh, I haven't forgotten
you, I have a book of remembrance for you and you shall be Mine in the day that
I make up My jewel." God always remembers the repentant no matter what the
circumstance of judgment. And so he says, this is going to have a good effect,
they'll spit out their idols, they'll be taken out of their mouths and the
remaining ones shall be for our God and they'll become like a...literally a
chiliarch, like a thousand ruler or like a commander, a man who has authority
over a thousand in Judah. They'll become like a ruler in Judah. They'll become,
really what he's saying, important. They'll become like a big shot. They'll
move into Judah...
“You say, "Well, were proselytes in those days
looked down on?" No, no, no. Don't you see what he's saying here? These
Philistines, as pagan as they were, once they spit out their idols and come to
God, they will be in Israel like a ruler, see. God exalts that. God didn't just
say, "Well, I know you're a pagan, you can come in, you're not an
Israelite, you can find a place in the back there..." No. He made them a
ruler over thousands, as it were.
“And he says they'll make Ekron, which is the
symbol of the people of Philistia, from the city of Ekron like Jebusites. You
say, "What is that?" You remember who dwelled in the city of
Jerusalem when David took it? Jebusites. And when David took the city and made
it the city of God, many of the Jebusites believed in the true God and they
remained in that city. And he's saying the same thing here. They're going to be
accepted just like the Jebusites. So literally there would be a revival there
and there would be those who would be a part of Israel's life because they
worshiped Israel's God and it would be not unlike 2 Samuel 24 where you have
Araunah who was the Jebusite who became a respected and beloved friend of
David.
8/23/2016 7:36 PM
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