Zechariah 6

3:11I pray that we would pay attention to the prophetic word as to a lamp shining in a dark place. You were so gracious to your people, Israel, to send these visions through the prophet Zechariah, to encourage them to build the work, to finish the work, build the temple. And you're gracious to us today to let us read them and learn not only what was in store for them, but also what's still in store for us today as we look forward to your coming.

3:53And we rejoice that the Lord Jesus has been made king. Thank you, Father, for this book of Scripture. We pray that you bless your time of study. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, in Zechariah 1, he has a general call where he's telling them, don't act like your fathers. Instead, repent and come back to me, and I'll come back to you. And that's how he opens up the book. And then he has this series of night visions. And it's eight visions that span across the first six chapters of Zechariah. Where he's moving from thing to thing, and the Lord is showing him these visions, and for most of them, he has an angel there who's explaining them and interpreting them to him. It's called the angel who is talking with me. And he keeps bringing up this angel who will help Zechariah by explaining the meaning of these visions, which is also helpful for us, right? Because we wouldn't have known what these visions were about if it wasn't recorded for us in Scripture. And so the first one starts in chapter 1, verse 7. And this is going to be very closely related to the one that we're going to study today. So let's read this one, starting in chapter 1, verse 7. On the 24th day of the 11th month, which is the month of Shabbat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Edo, saying, I saw in the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses. Then I said, What are these, my Lord? And the angel who talked with me said to me, I will show you what they are. So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, These are they whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth. And they answered the angel of the Lord who is standing among the myrtle trees and said, We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth remains at rest. Then the angel of the Lord said, O Lord of hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah against which you have been angry these? 70 years. And the Lord answered gracious and comforting words to the angel who talked with me. So the angel who talked with me said to me, Cry out, thus says the Lord of hosts, I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion, and I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease.

6:20For while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster. Therefore, thus says the Lord, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it, declares the Lord of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. Cry out again, thus says the Lord of hosts, my city shall again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem. So there's a lot packed into this one vision. Several aspects of it are going to pertain to what we're studying today. The first are these horsemen that are sent by the Lord. They're dispatched by the Lord as the commander to patrol the earth and make sure everything is at rest. And we talked about how God is exercising his sovereignty over the earth. And through these angelic beings, he's patrolling the earth, and the earth is at rest. But something else he tells us is that when the angel of the Lord asks the Lord, how long will he remain angry at Jerusalem and Judah? The Lord says, he will again. Choose Jerusalem, and he's coming back to comfort Jerusalem. And in the meantime, these other nations that had been involved in conquering Jerusalem, now he is exceedingly angry with them, because he used them to conquer Israel, but they went above and beyond and made him exceedingly angry. Okay, so let all that kind of sit in the back of your mind as we continue our review. He had another vision of the four horns and the craftsmen about the nations and the Lord's vengeance on the nations. In chapter two, he brings us back to the temple.

8:16Never pulled out my notes. In chapter two, he brings us back to the temple. There's someone measuring the temple, and he is this temple is going to be rebuilt, and when it is, the Lord says at the end of, look at chapter 2, verse 10. Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come, and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. And so the promise is not just that they'll finish the temple, but that he is going to someday dwell with them again. That's the encouragement in chapter 2. Chapter 3, we have the vision of the high priest. This is important for us today.

9:00He is talking about the high priest at this time, and he has a vision of how Joshua the high priest is clean before the angel of the Lord. So, rather than being disqualified for ministry for allowing the temple to be delayed for so long, Joshua the high priest is still the high priest and considered clean, given white robes from the Lord. But then at the end of that chapter, this is what connects really closely with chapter 6: is that God says that the priests are actually a sign about the branch. And if you weren't here, we looked at several passages about the branch. If we have time today, we can look at them again. But we looked at several passages about this figure called the branch. It began in Isaiah, where the branch is testified as someone who's coming to reign. And then we looked at Jeremiah 33, where he says the same thing: this king who's coming to reign, this branch, a descendant from the line of David. Well, in Zechariah 3, what he says about these priests is that they, the priesthood, is a sign about this branch. And so he seems to be indicating early on that this branch who would come and reign as king would also fulfill the office of a priest. Well, then, the next chapter, chapter 4, he addresses Zerebbabel, the other leader at this time. We've got Joshua and Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel is the governor. He's saying he is. Going to finish the temple, but also he's going to be there again way down the road when the temple is finished. Finished. We'll talk more about that today as well. Last week, we had the vision of the flying scroll. Not last week, last time we studied Zechariah. But the vision of the flying scroll and a vision of a woman in a basket talking about how God is eradicating the sinner from his land in the future and how God is eradicating sin in general from the land and making his people and his land pure again.

11:08Finally, we're to chapter 6, our passage for today. Look at chapter 6, verse 1. The seventh vision. Again, I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of bronze. The first chariot had red horses. Does that sound familiar? The second, black horses. The third, white horses. And the fourth chariot, dappled horses, all of them strong. Then I answered and said to the angel who talked with me, What are these, my Lord? And the angel answered and said to me, These are going out to the four winds of heaven, or these are the four winds of heaven, or these are the four spirits of heaven.

11:55These are going out to the four winds of heaven after presenting themselves before the Lord of All the earth. The chariot with the black horses goes toward the north country, the white ones go after them, and the dappled ones go toward the south country. When the strong horses came out, they were impatient to go and patrol the earth. And he said, Go, patrol the earth. So they patrolled the earth. Then he cried to me, Behold, those who go toward the north country have set my spirit at rest in the north country. So, did you catch all of that? He's got these horsemen again. This time they're these horses. He doesn't actually talk about the horsemen, the people riding in the chariots, but he at first just talks about chariots being pulled by these different horses. And it sounds already similar to what we saw in chapter one. These horses, there's different colors. In fact, they don't line up exactly with the horses that we see in chapter one. But they are eager to come and patrol the earth. And they're waiting to be dispatched by the Lord. So again, verse 5, the angel answered and said to me, These are going out to the four winds of heaven after presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth. The chariot with the black horses goes toward the north country, the white ones go after them, and the dappled ones go toward the south country. When the strong horses came out, they were impatient to go and patrol the earth. So they're wanting to go. And you can imagine impatient horses. And he said, go, patrol the earth. So they patrolled the earth. So they are ready to go and exercise the Lord's control over the earth. They're raring to go. Is that what you say?

13:43Okay. They're excited to go. They're waiting for the Lord's permission. He says, go, patrol the earth. So again, we return to this idea that the Lord is in control over the whole earth and actually sending out these patrols over the earth to watch over it and put the earth at rest. Now, when we studied in chapter one, we talked about how this would be particularly encouraging for the tiny nation returning from exile in the midst of all these world empires, right?

14:21Because right now they are a tiny nation that's just returned from exile. They don't even have walls yet to defend their land or defend their city. And yet, they're getting this message that the Lord is patrolling the earth and he's in charge of all of these things. Throughout this message, throughout this vision, there's several things that seem to be symbols of some sort. We don't know what they all mean. There's the two mountains that might be the Mount of Olives and Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

15:01But they're just called mountains of bronze, which seems to be just saying the Lord's might or the Lord's judgment over the nations. These strong mountains, and these chariots are coming through them to be sent out to patrol the earth. We have the colors of the horses, and people try and line them up. Can you think of another place where we have horses? Revelation, right? We've got chapter one of Zechariah, where they're patrolling the earth. Some of the colors are the same there, some of the colors are different. Then we've got our chapter, Zechariah 6, where we've got four different colors of the horses with the chariots. And then we've got Revelation, where we've got four different colors, but even with those, the colors don't line up. And so we can kind of try and line them up and say each of these horses symbolizes death or famine or something like that, like it says in Revelation. But here it doesn't really say that. And when they're reading this book, they don't have the book of Revelation yet. And if you remember, one of my favorite stories, I'll read to you from 2 Kings 6.

16:172 Kings 6, starting in verse 8. Once when the king of Syria was warring against Israel, he took counsel with his servants, saying, At such and such a place shall be my camp. But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel. Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are going down there. And the king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God told him. Thus he used to warn him, so that he saved himself there more than once or twice. And the mind of the king of Syria was greatly troubled because of this thing. And he called his servants and said to them, Will you not show me who of us is for the king of Israel? And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king, but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom. Okay, so this Syrian king, he thinks there's a mole. He thinks he's got a betrayer that just keeps telling Israel where his army is going to be. But he talks to his advisors about that, and they say, no, there's not a spy. It's this Elijah. He knows everything you're going to do. He hears the words that you speak in your bedroom. So he's able to get there first. Well, verse 13, the king doesn't like this. He said, go and see where he is, that I may send and seize him. So he's going to go get Elijah.

17:34And it was told to him, Behold, he is in Dothan. So he sent there horses and chariots and a great army. And they came by night and surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God arose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And you can kind of get the shock there. You know, he's just walking outside, and then, behold, there's an army with chariots and horses there. And the servants, Said, alas, my master, what shall we do? He said, Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.

18:11Now, if that was true, humanly speaking, the story wouldn't have had to go on. But I think it's probably just Elisha, some people in this servant. And when Elisha says that, the servant kind of raises an eyebrow, like, you know, what are you talking about? There's clearly a lot more of them than there are of us. Okay, so Elisha, verse 17, goes on. He says, Then Elisha prayed. It said, O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see. So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Okay, and you can read the rest of the story for yourself in 2 Kings chapter 6. The small point that I wanted to make with that fun story is that God has a lot of horses. Okay, and so, you know, we want to look at Zechariah 1 and Zechariah 6 and Revelation 6 and say, oh, wow, four horses, four horses. Actually, in chapter one, it's three. But we want to make those connections and say, you know, these must be the same horses, but we don't know that. God has a lot of horses, and he seems to be using them all the time to patrol the. Earth to protect the earth. This is a reality that Elisha wants to show his servant that God is there, that God's forces are there. There's a lot of horses and chariots, and they've got it covered.

19:47In the same way, I think we're seeing God's power on display in chapter 6: that these horses are, these chariots are going out to patrol the earth as God's patrolmen, dispatched by him. So we just have another encouragement that God is in charge of world affairs. He's not scared of other armies. He knows what's going on. If you remember, at the end of chapter 1, he has this vision of the horses, but then he goes on to talk about how he is exceedingly angry with the nations.

20:21We read it about 10 minutes ago that he's exceedingly angry with the nations because when he used them to discipline the people of Israel, they took it a step further and made him even more exceedingly angry. Well, now we read at the end of this vision, verse 7, when the strong horses came out, they were impatient to go and patrol the earth. And he said, go, patrol the earth. So they patrolled the earth. And then he cried to me, Behold, those who go toward the north country have set my spirit at rest in the north country. And usually in scripture, that's a euphemism for he. His wrath has been quenched. He set his spirit at rest. His wrath, his exceeding anger, is over now towards the north country, which most likely would have been Babylon. So just as you think about the map, we've got our hand map again, you'll notice that none of the horses went west or east. Does that work from your point of view? West or east? Because the sea is over here, so there's no nation over there. And the wilderness is over there, so there's no nation over there. So these horses are going in all the different directions, but two of them have got to go north because the big, bad empires are up there, and one's going to go south because who's kind of south end over here? Egypt, right? So they're going to take care of these big bad nations and make sure that the Lord's wrath is quenched. His spirit is at rest in those countries.

21:56Any questions about our first vision for tonight? It's about to get super cool. Not that it wasn't super cool already. All right, look at verse 9. And the word of the Lord came to me. So this time he doesn't say, I looked up and saw, but we'll see at the end. This has elements that are very similar with the rest of the night vision. So it seems like this is the final night vision. Okay? And at the beginning of chapter 7, you'll see it's in the fourth year of King Darius. So, Zechariah doesn't seem to get any more revelations that are at least in Scripture for a couple more years after these. So, we're about to read the final night vision, verse 9. The word of the Lord came to me: Take from the exiles Heldi, Tobijah, and Jediah, who have arrived from Babylon, and go the same day to the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah. Do you guys remember who all those people are?

23:02I don't think we know who all those people are. Verse 11: Take from them silver and gold, and make a crown, and set it on the head of Joshua, the son of Jehosadak, the high priest. Okay, so let's think through what just happened. These people, who seem to be some kind of nobility, maybe they're related to the priestly families. We don't really know. We have other people in Scripture who have these names, but they're kind of in different generations and they're common names. So, basically, we can't quite nail down who these people are, but what we know about them is that they've just returned from Babylon and they've got some silver and gold, presumably for the temple to decorate the temple or something. But he says, Go the same day to the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah, take from them silver and gold, and make a crown.

23:55So, whether in the vision or maybe the next day when When Zechariah, after all of these night visions, whether he's supposed to actually go and do this in person, he's supposed to take silver and gold from these three, or maybe the fourth one, Josiah is included, take silver and gold from them and make it into a crown. Now, I think that if you were a Jew and you were living in this day and you were reading this night vision, you would start to get pretty excited, okay, because they're about to make a crown. And you remember hearing our governor, Zerubbabel, he's from the line of David.

24:47This is about to happen. We're about to get a king again. They're making a crown, and they're going to put it on somebody. And we know we have somebody in the Davidic line. We're going to go put the crown on him. We're going to have a king again. But then, verse 11: take from them the silver and the gold and make a crown and set it on the head of Joshua. That's the wrong guy, right? I think this would take you by surprise. Set it on the head of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest.

25:28So now instead of Setting it on this governor who's in the line of David, they're taking this crown and symbolically setting it on the head of the priest. Not the guy who would be qualified to be king, but the priest. Verse 12: And say to him, Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold the man whose name is the branch. For he shall branch out from this place, from his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord.

26:08It is he who shall build the temple of the Lord, and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne, and there shall be a priest on his throne, and the council of peace shall be between them both. I think that maybe as he keeps going, you might have the idea again that he said the wrong name or something. Because now he's saying that this person is supposed to come and build the temple, and he just, like a vision or two ago, talked about how Zerebbel is going to be the one who puts the top stone on the temple. He's going to finish it.

26:45And now he's saying, no, this priest king is going to finish the temple. Well, he tells us who it is. Behold the man whose name is the branch. If you weren't here for our sales, Study on Zechariah 3, and you have a pencil. I encourage you right now to write down Isaiah 4, Isaiah 11, and Jeremiah 33. Isaiah 4, Isaiah 11, and Jeremiah 33. The branch is a name of the Messiah, this king who's going to come and reign. And so, symbolically, what he's just done is he's had this crown made, and he puts it on the high priest and says, Behold, the man whose name is Branch.

27:38For he shall branch out from his place. So he shall be from Israel. He shall build the temple of the Lord. This Messiah is going to build the temple. It is he who shall build the temple of the Lord and shall bear royal honor and shall sit and rule on his throne, and there shall be a priest on his throne, and the council of peace shall be between them both. So that last line, I think it means something like the council of peace or between the priesthood and the king, because now it's one person.

28:13Now there is a priest on the throne for the first time. Does anybody know another time that something similar like this happened? Melchizedek. Melchizedek. Right? He's a king. He's also a priest. But other than that, in the history of Israel, we always have the king being from the tribe of Judah and the priests being from the tribe of Levi. There couldn't be a Levite on the throne. But now he's saying this Messiah is going to be a priest and a king. Verse 14.

28:59And the crown shall be in the temple of the Lord as a reminder to Helam, Tobijah, Jediah, and Hen, the son of Zephaniah. You'll notice the first and last name changed. So they might be called, I think it's still the same four guys, but they've got different names or something, like a nickname. So this crown is supposed to stay in the temple. So it's not supposed to stay on Joshua's head. He's not saying, okay, I'm doing this so that Joshua will reign as king. He's saying, I am doing this as a symbol to show you that this branch, this Messiah who's coming, is going to be the priest-king, the only one who reigns over Judah, over Israel. So he tells them to leave this crown in the temple, which is why I think this last vision is supposed to be followed up by actual action. I think that maybe these guys actually, the next day, like, Are coming from Babylon, and they actually do this in real life after the vision takes place. A lot of people think that that crown stayed there in the temple all the way until when Rome sacked Jerusalem in 70 AD. We don't have a lot of details on that.

30:17But either way, this is supposed to be a reminder of this sign. Verse 15, those who are far off shall come and help to build the temple of the Lord, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you, and this shall come to pass if you will diligently obey the voice of your God. In Haggai, in a little bit in Zechariah, we've seen the theme and had to look back at the book of Isaiah about this, that it's not just Israel who's going to build this final temple, but instead, treasures and wealth are going to flow in from the nations to build this final temple that Messiah builds. But also, people are flowing in from all the nations to help build this temple and come and hear the word of the Lord there.

31:05Zerubbabel seems to be there at the end times, helping the Messiah build the temple. And all of this is getting ready for the priest-king to reign. So, again, verse 15: those who are far off shall come and help to build the temple of the Lord, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. If you've been here throughout the summer, we've seen that. Phrase, I think it's three times now. And each time it's the Lord speaking about coming to dwell with his people, and he's saying, when you see all these things, you're going to know that the Lord has sent me to you.

31:47And this shall come to pass if you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God. Okay, so we just covered a lot of ground, but if we're backing up just a moment and putting ourselves in the shoes of the people who are hearing this for the first time, remember the main thrust of all of these is build the temple now. Obey now. And that's what he ends with. If you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God. Obey now. Build his temple. But also know that Zerubbabel is not just the finisher of the temple in the time of small things, but he's going to be there at the end. Also know that Joshua isn't just going to serve as a priest in this little temple they're building now, but he is actually a sign for this branch who is to come. And the crown is put on him to say that this branch is the priest and the king, not just the coming king.

32:53We're going to look at a couple other passages, but before we do, are there any questions about this verses? 9 through 15. Anything I skipped over or that you were curious about? Do the red horses never yeah, I've wondered that myself. The language around the horses is a little confusing. In verse 6, the chariot with the black horses goes toward the north country. The white ones go after them, and the dappled ones go toward the south country.

33:33The beginning of verse 6 is something like the ones that are with the black horses. So those could be the red horses. We don't really know. I kind of think they went two and two, but I just made that up. So we don't know where the red horses will go. Good question, though. Maybe they, another idea, by the way, the red, when we saw the angel of the Lord in chapter one, he was riding a red horse. So it could be that the red horses are for staying in Israel or something, being in charge. Those are the main ones, something like that. But people just made that up too. So, Noah? So if they went ahead and crowned Joshua, would they have to give we have to give some kind of clarification, A, just to make it clear, symbolic he's not actually king now.

34:30That kind of was just on the mouth. Yeah, I think that he asked if they crowned Joshua, how much clarification would they have to do of saying, okay, he's not really acting as king right now or something like that? I think they would have known from the vision. I think they would have seen, you know, number one, this priest isn't from the line of Judah, and it's the descendants of David who are supposed to reign on the throne. So I think they would have picked up on that. I think the symbol would have been clear to them that it's going to be a priest. That's what's unique about this vision. It's going to be a priest. But then I think he confirms it and clears up any confusion by taking the crown back off him in verse 14 and putting it leaving it in the temple of the Lord. So it's not like they just leave it on Josiah and say, behold the branch, and then it ends there. They put it on him, say, behold the branch, and then the crown gets put in a temple as a reminder of that the branch is coming.

35:36Any other questions? Great questions. You, Rosemary? Well, my question is on verse 7 main is okay. Yes. Because you believe in that. Abraham asked. It's okay. And in James' age, it says the rabbits are sounds like a strong. Right. Yeah. I think that their main function is that patrolling and reporting back. And that's what we see in chapter one: is that they patrol the earth and then report back to the angel of the Lord that all is at rest. And that kind of seems to be their main function. But then at the end of verse 8, then he cried to me, Behold, those who go toward the north country have set my spirit at rest in the north country. We don't know what that entails. Maybe they were able to take action. They seem ready to take action in the story that we read from Elisha's day. Or maybe they report back to the Lord and the devastation has been completed, and that's why the wrath is appeased, or his spirit is at rest. Something like that. We don't have the details, but I think those are our options. Any other questions? Great questions, by the way.

37:11Okay, turn to Psalm 110. I believe that you can never turn to this psalm enough. The young adults turn to this psalm all the time because this psalm, Psalm 100 and Is a foundational psalm for the Christology, the study that we have of Christ, for the Christology and the knowledge that we know about Christ and the Messiah in the New Testament. The apostles and Christ himself over and over and over keep pointing back to Psalm 110 to teach us things about who Jesus is. Jesus does it. The apostles do it from the very beginning at Pentecost. Peter stands up and quotes from Psalm 110. They'll continue to do it in their letters over and over and over. And we learn a lot about the Messiah in Psalm 110. A Psalm of David. The Lord said to my Lord, Jesus quotes that and says, who's he talking about? And he stumps the Pharisees and Sadducees. Because who is David's Lord? The Lord says to my Lord, who's my Lord? Well, he must be the Messiah. And Yahweh is talking to the Messiah. And he says, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. So this seems to be the ascension where the Lord is sat at the right hand of God, having accomplished his death and resurrection. And he says, sit at my right hand until, so there's this long time, until I make your enemies your footstool. So there's going to be an end to this time when all his enemies are his footstool. So sit at my right hand until this happens. Verse 2. The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies. So, this seems to be an action that's going to take place later on. That after these things happen, this Messiah, this king, is going to go out and rule from Zion with a mighty scepter. Verse 3: Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power and holy garments from the womb of the morning. The dew of your youth will be yours. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses. He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way. Therefore, he will lift up his head. So, this king is going to come and be conquering. He's going to shatter kings and nations.

39:58And yet, the Lord says of him, You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. We'll turn to the book of Hebrews as we spend our last few minutes here. Hebrews chapter 7. Verse 11. Now, if perfection had been Been attainable through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law. What further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek? So he's thinking Psalm 110. He'll quote it in just a moment. But he's saying, okay, if the Levitical priesthood could have just accomplished everything, why in the world would he say in a psalm that someone's going to be the priest according to the order of Melchizedek? Why would he need to bring that back into the picture?

41:03At the end of verse 11, rather than one named after the order of Aaron. Verse 12, for when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. That's what we spoke about earlier, that from the tribe of Judah, this Messiah, no one's ever served as a priest from the tribe of Judah.

41:27Verse 14, for it's evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe, Moses said nothing about priests. Then this becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. For it is witnessed of him, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. So speaking about Jesus ahead of time, God declared. About him this Messiah who would come and reign, that he is a priest forever. And the author of Hebrews is making the point: okay, why would he need to say that, the order of Melchizedek, if the Levitical priesthood was going to continue on forever?

42:16Well, circling back around to our text, there's only one way that all of this could have been answered, and it's through the person of Jesus Christ. This Messiah, whom God has sent through the line of Judah, born into the line of Judah, who's going to reign as king forever, is also going to reign as priest forever. And just like in Zechariah 6, where they take the crown and put it on the priest's head, symbolizing this priest-king to come, the branch. Now, for the first time, just like it says in Zechariah, there is a priest on his throne. There's a priest on the throne. And so, as we think about application, the author of Hebrews is going to repeat very similar applications twice. He's going to say it at the beginning of all this talk about the priest. And if you want to get all that the author of Hebrews has to say about the priesthood, you kind of have to read the whole book. He goes on about it for a long time.

43:30But the verses that we read earlier, chapter 4, verses 14. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. That's our first application. Let's cling to these truths. Let's hold fast to the confession that we've made that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, that he died for our sins and rose again. Let's hold fast to our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace. There's another application. Now that we know we have this king priest who is already acting as a priest in the heavens in the order of Melchizedek, let us draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. But turn over to chapter 10.

44:45Verse I lost it. Yes, thank you. I was telling Liza earlier today that A lot of people call this passage the lettuce patch. And you might see why. But verse 19, therefore, brother, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, so he's been meditating on this. He's been following some tangents, but he's been talking about this for now six chapters. And he's going to return to the idea, okay, now that we know we have this high priest.

45:34Verse 22, let us draw near. That was already one thing he said. Let's draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope. He already said that too. This is the same applications. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another and love, to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. So as we reel from our minds being blown by this text in Zechariah 6 of this prophecy, a prophet who we are Supposed to pay attention to, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, this prophet who has had this vision of the Messiah who's to come, both being a priest and a king, and how unique and one in eternity that's ever going to happen. It came out wrong, but you know what I mean. That's only going to happen once in eternity with the Messiah himself. And these things are predicted so specifically and clearly, foretelling the coming of Christ in his future reign. The author of Hebrews is clear that some of the things that we're supposed to do with these facts as they blow our mind and we keep thinking about how we have a high priest in the heavens now, we know who he is, this king-priest who's going to come and reign in Israel. Three of the things we're supposed to do are to draw near to God because we have a mediator. He says that twice.

47:31We're supposed to hold fast to our confession. He says that twice. We're supposed to cling on to these truths and be thinking about them. And finally, we're supposed to consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. So pray with me for. Father, we covered so much ground, and this passage in Zechariah was so rich, full of truths about the Messiah.

48:16We pray, Father, that you would help us trust you, knowing that your agents patrol the earth, and you're in charge. We pray that you would help us grow in our knowledge and pay attention to the prophets because their testimony is sure about Jesus Christ, and we need to pay attention to them. And finally, Father, we pray that you would help us, just like the author of Hebrews commanded us. You'd help us cling to our confession. You'd help us stir one another up to love and good deeds. And that you'd help us draw near to your throne, knowing that we can, because we're forgiven, and we have a high priest, a mediator in the heavens.

49:24We're blown away, God, by your design of this Messiah who would come. Who would also be a priest? We rejoice that we get to read about him in the Gospels. Father, I pray that you'd fill our hearts with excitement as we long for the day when he's reigning on the throne, having finished his temple in the land. Thank you, Father, for all of these truths. We pray that you'd help us learn them and apply them. In Jesus' name, Amen.