Please turn in your Bibles to the book of Zechariah, chapter 9. We've taken a couple of weeks off of Zechariah, so now we return to it. This is, remember, a word that's addressed to the exiles that have returned to the land of Judah. And there's really a big transition here in the book when we start chapter 9. In the first six chapters, you'll remember, there's a series of visions that come to Zechariah in the night. And the prophecy is actually dated, so if you've got your Bibles open, turn to chapter 2, verse 1. Oh, that's not where we wanted to go. It's, let's see, I mean chapter 1, verse 7. It talks about the 24th day of the 11th month, which is the month of Shabbat, and the second year of Darius. The word came to Zechariah, and we said this is about 520 BC. And we get these series of visions, all directed at encouraging the people to rebuild the temple. And then we have this little interlude in verses 7 and 8. If you look at chapter 7, verse 1, it talks about the fourth year of King Darius. So we're a couple years later, and Darius, there's this little episode because the people wonder if they should continue the fasts that remembered the exile. And so we had that, and now we come to chapter 9. And in chapter 9 through the end of the book, chapter 14, there's a real shift in the type of literature it is. It's actually much more what we would call apocalyptic literature, somewhat like the book of Revelation. And in fact, There are more quotations from these last few chapters of Zechariah that are applied to Christ during the Passion narratives than any other portion of Scripture. So this portion is rich in terms of its Christology and pointing to the work of Christ, but it speaks of other matters of great significance. to the church, and we really don't know when these visions and these words came to Zachariah. It doesn't date the last several chapters, 9 to 14, aren't dated for us. So this may have been years later, it may have been after the temple was finished, and it probably was, in fact, after the temple was finished. But again, it addresses these people who have returned from the exile. Well, let us read the Word of God, starting in Zachariah 9, verse 1, and see what it tells us. The burden of the word of the Lord against the land of Hadrach and Damascus, its resting place. For the eyes of men and all the tribes of Israel are on the Lord. Also against Hamath, which borders it, and against Tyre and Sidon, though they are very wise. For Tyre built herself a tower, heaped up silver like the dust, and gold like the mire of the streets. Behold, the Lord will cast her out, and He will destroy her power in the sea. and she will be devoured by fire. Ashkelon shall see it and fear. Gaza also shall be very sorrowful, and Ekron, for he dried up her expectation. The king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. A mixed race shall settle in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. I will take away the blood from his mouth and the abominations from between his teeth. But he who remains, even he, shall be for our God, and shall be like a leader in Judah, and Ekron like a Jebusite. I will camp around my house because of the army, because of him who passes by and him who returns. No more shall an oppressor pass through them, for now I have seen with my eyes. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem. The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations. His dominion shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. Even today I declare that I will restore double to you. For I have bent Judah my bow, fitted the bow with Ephraim, and raised up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and made you like the sword of a mighty man. Then the Lord will be seen over them, and his arrow will go forth like lightning. The Lord God will blow the trumpet and go with whirlwinds from the south. The Lord of hosts will defend them. They shall devour and subdue with sling stones. They shall drink and roar as with wine. They shall be filled with blood like basins, like the corners of the altar. The Lord their God will save them in that day as the flock of His people. So they shall be like the jewels of a crown, lifted like a banner over His land. For how great is its goodness, and how great its beauty! Grain shall make the young men thrive, and new wine the young women." And here we will end the reading of God's holy word. Well, some people think that this past week was a very momentous week in the history of our nation. Nancy Pelosi declared that she was the most powerful woman in Washington. I'm not sure exactly who that was directed at, but I'm sure there were many who took notice. Here's a quote from her speech as she became the first woman Speaker of the House in history. This is an historic moment. It's an historic moment for Congress. It's an historic moment for the women of America. It is a moment for which we have waited for over 200 years. And in case you had forgotten to wait for that, this will help you realize this is something you should have been waiting for, I suppose. And so we might look at it in terms of the first woman Speaker of the House as something to celebrate. And we might also look at it as something, as a defeat for those who have a high respect for the sanctity of life, that a person with her voting record is now the leader of the House of Representatives. Regardless of whether you view this as something positive or something negative, it is not something that should cause tremendous anxiety. And I just marvel when people talk about how historic and how meaningful and how important these events are. Because I'm pretty sure that in a very short time, no one will remember who the Speaker of the House of Representatives was in the year 2007. And she may feel that she is the most powerful woman in Washington or who knows where else, but the Bible tells us that God is the one who calls the shots, and that God is controlling these things. And we have a passage of scripture before us that I readily admit to you, as we read it there, it probably seemed obscure. What are we talking about? But I hope as we look at this passage tonight, you'll see that this actually describes historic events that really are historic in the sense of that word, whereas thousands of years later, we still talk about the events that are described in these prophecies and the meaning that they have for the history of the world. And the important thing to see here is that, you know, why would this be helpful to the people in Zechariah's day? Well, again, we remember the context. Here's a people that have returned, a few in number. They're surrounded by hostile nations. They're trying to scrape together and rebuild their nation. And the situation is not great. And again, a vision comes, a word comes to tell them about the plans that God has for them. And in these plans, we see the power of God. the power of God being used to the benefit of his people, to the building of his church. Now, as we were sitting here before the service, Adam said to me, you know, your sermon's called God's Plans for You. This is great. I can't wait to hear how you give us all our plans, right? And this is what's remarkable here, because we can see in this passage God's plans for his church And by virtue of your belonging to the Church, you are included in this. And so there are things here that apply to you in terms of God's great power being used for the good and the benefit of His people. So there is no reason for anxiety and fear about the future. And this is a temptation that we all face. to have anxiety and fear as we look to the future, unsure of what's going to happen or seeing what appears to be happening and being troubled by it. But I want you to see as we look at this passage that God is the one directing everything that happens. He directs all the events of history and he does this to accomplish his purposes. So our response is to worship Him, to rejoice in the work that He does on our behalf. And children, if you're drawing a picture, we're going to be talking about great battles and armies in conflict. And so you might draw these battles going on down in the bottom, but over top of all of this, over top of all of this, maybe you would draw a big cloud and write God in the top. God is directing all of these things to bring about His purposes. As we look at this passage, I'd like us to see some of the things that God has promised to do, what He does for His people, and also why He does them. Let's look first at the fact that God defeats your enemies. if you are one of his people. Now, chapter 9 begins with this phrase, the burden of the word of the Lord against the land of Hadrax. This really divides the last several chapters of the book. If you flip over to chapter 12, you see the same idea repeated. Chapter 12 verse 1, the burden of the word of the Lord against Israel. So chapters 9 through 11 deal with the enemies of God's people and a burden against them. And then in chapter 12 through 14, there's a burden against the people themselves for their own sins. And this word burden literally means and most often is used in the Bible to mean burden, like a heavy load. And the idea here is this is a heavy word. This is a word of judgment. And when this word burden is used throughout the scriptures, it usually refers to a word of judgment against a people. And so this is a word of judgment. And one of the things I want you to see as we look at these chapters at the end of the book here. is that the time horizon moves out. The first eight chapters of the book, the focus has been on rebuilding the temple. It's very immediate. There's application to the coming of Christ, but the immediate focus of the people is rebuilding this temple. Well, now that that's done, the focus is moving out farther. And so there are things that are happening here that deal not with their immediate future, but what's in their more distant future. So look at verses 1-7. You see this burden of the word of the Lord, and it's against several of the known enemies of Israel. Damascus, this would be Syria on the north of Israel, where the Jews were living as they had returned. You see Tyre and Sidon as we would move down the coastline to the northeast of God's people. And then the Philistine cities are mentioned here. Gaza, Ascalon, Ekron, Ashdod, these are the principal cities of the Philistines that are to the west of Israel there, against the Mediterranean Sea. And the prophecy is saying that there's going to be judgment against these peoples, and this would have been quite striking, particularly the judgment against Tyre. You look at what it says about Tyre, verse 2, against Tyre and Sidon, though they are very wise, 3. For Tyre built herself a tower, heaped up silver like the dust, and gold like the mire of the street. See, Tyre is very wise, is very wealthy, is very proud, so wealthy that the gold is like dirt in the street. and it says God is going to destroy her power and she will be devoured by fire. This would have seemed incredible to the Jews because what the city of fire, the people of fire, this is the principal city of the Phoenicians, they had built, there was an old city that was on the coast And then they had built an island fortress on an island a half a mile out into the Mediterranean Sea. And this city was surrounded by a double wall that was 150 feet high in some places. And there was 25 feet of earth piled up between these two walls. And Tyre had withstood a five-year siege from the Assyrians when they came through. Assyrians never took it. Then the Babylonians came under Nebuchadnezzar, 13 years, and they could not break the city of Tyre. They wiped out the old city on the mainland, and it was a pile of rubble, but the island fortress had never been touched. So this would be about as impregnable a fortress as could have been imagined in this day, and yet here Zechariah tells them that it's going to be overthrown. And so the people would have been asking, how can this possibly happen? How could this happen? And yet it did happen. And it happened in an event that is on the back of your outline. If you turn the outline over and you see the map showing the conquest of Alexander the Great when he invaded Palestine in 333 BC, nearly 200 years after this prophecy. Now, if you look at the outline, you see coming in arrows from the top. There's an arrow that goes down the coast through Sidon to Tyre. There's also an arrow that goes to Damascus. When Alexander, as a 22-year-old, took over his father Philip's kingdom, he was over in Greece. He was the leader of the Greeks. Who was the world power at this time? The Persians. and they still controlled all this area and Alexander was committed to moving through and conquering the Persians so he won a decisive battle against Darius in 333 BC and started down the coast into Palestine here and he came to Tyre after taking Damascus he came to Tyre and besieged Tyre for seven months and now Alexander appears there with no navy and here's a city That's a half a mile out in the sea. And there's no way Alexander should be able to take this, but Alexander does. He takes the rubble from the old city on the mainland, and he builds a causeway 200 feet wide all the way out to the city. And during that time, the people from Tyre are doing everything they can to stop them. But Alexander is able to get out there and finally batter through these walls and take the city of Tyre. And he enslaves, 75% of the city becomes slaves because they were unwilling to let him come in. Seven months, and it was done. And the unthinkable had happened. And then as you see here, Alexander the Great marches on down through the cities of Philistia. You see, only two of them are listed on this map. Gaza, very down at the lower left corner, and Ascalon there. It took him two months to take Gaza. That was the toughest of the Philistine cities. And he moves on down into Egypt, takes over Egypt, then he comes back through the land of Palestine and heads out into India. He goes all the way to India, captures all of the Persian Empire before he himself eventually succumbs to disease. And I want you to consider what this means in terms of this prophecy. Here we have an example of one of the greatest events in history. A 22-year-old starting out with 35,000 men, he literally built his army while he was succeeding in his campaign because he incorporated the people that he conquered and they joined him. And what was considered completely impossible happened. This young man conquered the greatest military power in the world. in overthrowing the Persians. And who did it? Well, look at verse 4. Behold, the Lord will cast her out. He will destroy her power by the sea, and she will be devoured by fire. God did it, but how did he do it? He used Alexander the Great to accomplish his purposes. And consider what this means for us. God has all the power of the universe at his disposal. All of it. And he uses those for the blessing of his church to accomplish his purposes. Alexander, as great as he was, was merely a tool in the hand of our God to do what God had intended, which was to judge the enemies of his people that had harassed them for centuries. And so you have to realize, if you are a person who's trusting in Jesus Christ, this power, this power that controls things like Alexander the Great, is the same power that is operative in your life. God wants to bless and is building His church in the same way. He's defeating the enemies of His church, and we've been told that. And He's also defeating your enemies. And you might consider, who or what are my enemies? And for some of you, your enemies may really be people that are around you and have your ill in mind. And thankfully, not a lot of us have people like that in our lives, but you may. God says he will get the enemies of his people. But one of the ways he does that is what's described here in verse 7. Verse 7, I will take away the blood from his mouth, speaking here of the Philistines, and the abominations in between his teeth. What's he talking about? It's the sacrifice, the bloody sacrifices to their idols. It's a graphic picture of these people eating the meat, and the meat is stuck between their teeth, and the blood in their mouth, and God says, I'm taking that out of their mouth, these filthy idolaters. And it says, those who remain, even he shall be for our God, and shall be like a leader in Judah. and an Ekron like a Jebusite. Well, who are the Jebusites? They were these people that David had to conquer that were in the city of Jerusalem. And they became incorporated as a part of Israel. And what it's talking about here are these Philistines who are converted to be like leaders in Judah. That God takes some of his enemies and makes them his servants. And this is true for us as well. See, God will remove the enemies of His Church, and some of the ways He does that is to convert us into friends and servants of His Church. And that's the case for every one of us, if we are in fact servants of His Church, that we were once enemies, and He's converted us. And so this encourages us to pray for those who might be our enemies. But in addition to that, we all face a greater enemy, the enemy that is sin and death. And this is where the great power of God to destroy our enemy is so powerfully seen in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And these verses point us there. There was not a widespread turning of Philistines to faith in Jehovah. This kind of prophecy has its ultimate fulfillment in the Gospel, that people of every nation and every stripe come to Jesus Christ, and His work on the cross is what converts us and defeats our enemy of sin and death. So God will destroy your enemies. But God does more. This passage tells us that God also preserves you in times of distress. Look at verse 8. I will camp around my house because of the army, because of him who passes by and him who returns. No more shall an oppressor pass through them, for now I have seen with my eyes. Look again for a moment at your map. You see there that after Alexander finished off Gaza, there's this little side trip over to Jerusalem. And it turns out that during his siege of Tyre, he, at least if we can trust the history of Josephus, the Jewish historian, Alexander asked the Jews for help, and they said no. As long as Darius is our king, we will not help you." Well, Alexander wasn't very happy about that after he finally finished conquering this region, and so he turned his attention to Jerusalem. And so now, with this vast army that had even defeated Tyre coming at Jerusalem, the people of God pray and sacrifice and ask God for wisdom. And again, according to Josephus, God told them to dress the people in white robes, to open the doors and to have the high priest come out to greet Alexander. Somewhat vulnerable position to be in. And this is in fact what was done. And Alexander prostrated himself before the high priest. And his generals, what are you doing? And he said, I've seen this man in a vision, in a dream. A man dressed like this high priest. Again, according to Josephus, We know for sure Jerusalem was not touched and Alexander was favorably inclined toward Jerusalem and left them alone. And isn't this what this tells us in verse 8, I will camp around my house in the midst of this chaos of this army wreaking havoc on everyone else in the area. I will camp around my house because of the army, because of him who passes by and him who returns. They were kept safe, again, by the power of God. God's might is what protects His church, His house, right? This is what it says, because of my house is there. And of course, the New Testament tells us that the people of God, the church, are the house, the dwelling place of God. And so we know that God is protecting us, that His power, His great power that controls an army like Alexander's is at the disposal of His church, to protect His church even in the darkest times. And if you are one of God's people, God will preserve you even in the darkest times. So as you face uncertainty in your life, broken relationships, financial hardships, health problems, even death itself, God says He is with His people to preserve them. And I have to testify, having watched over the last few weeks my grandmother die slowly over time, and to see the way she dealt with that, stomach cancer is not a pleasant way to die, and she didn't complain, And she bore up with that suffering in silence for the most part. It takes a lot of grace to die well. It really does. And I had the sense that God was helping her through that. And I know you probably have seen this in your experience with your own relatives. That God supplies grace. He's with His people even in the darkest times to preserve them. and to bring us through these things. So God will destroy your enemies and God will preserve you, no matter what hardship you face. Well, thirdly, let's see that God also will work through you to do amazing things. Now, skipping down here to verse 12, there's a call here for the people to return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hell. Even today, I declare that I will restore to you double. I think this year goes out as a call to all those exiles who have not come back. And Zechariah in the midst of this prophecy says, come back, come back. And then we move into this. What is God going to do? Verse 13 helps us to see a particular application of what God will do with his people. God here is pictured as a warrior. and his people as his weapons. I have bent Judah my bow, and fitted the bow with Ephraim's." That would be the old northern kingdom, but here again it's just used to refer to his people. So it's like his people are the arrow and the bow. I've raised up your sons, O Zion, and what has he raised them up to do? Against you, O Greeks. Well, this is quite interesting. Now, when did the Jews fight against the Greeks? It certainly wasn't in this episode with Alexander the Great. Well, forgive me, this is more of a history lecture than most sermons are, but after Alexander died in 323 BC, there was a war, basically, infighting to determine who would lead this vast Greek empire. And the empire was divided into three parts. There was a part based out of Egypt, there was a part based out of Syria, and there was a part backing Greece. And the part based in Syria was the part that controlled Jerusalem. And in the course of time, a tyrannical ruler named Antiochus Epiphanes came to the head of that group, that part of the Greek kingdom that controlled Palestine and Jerusalem. And in 167 BC, Antiochus, he was bent on Hellenizing his whole territory. Everyone would be Greek, and he would wipe out all religions that interfered with that. He sacrificed pigs to Zeus on the Jews' altar. And many commentators think that this is the abomination of desolation that Daniel, Bill preached to Daniel, mentioned this. That this was this event predicted in Daniel. Pigs desecrating the altar of God. And Antiochus' efforts to destroy the Jewish religion led to a rebellion among the Jews. And so a family with five sons The last name, it was a nickname, Maccabees, which stood for, which means literally the hammer. This family led a guerrilla warfare by the Jews against the Greeks who controlled their area, and they defeated the Greeks. And they knocked them out of Jerusalem, and they recaptured the temple. This is what the Jews celebrate when they celebrate Hanukkah, is relighting the lights of the temple. And so the most improbable thing happened. This ragtag band of Jews using guerrilla warfare tactics destroys one of the greatest military powers of the time. And the Jews took back their land and lived in relative autonomy until about 65 BC, when the Romans finally came in. It was about a hundred years where they had autonomy. Many commentators believe this is what's described here in these verses, this warfare between the sons of Judah and the Greeks. And what does the text tell us in terms of who does it? I have been Judah, my God. God is the one who does it. And so, verse 13 pictures God like a warrior. Verse 14, the picture changes. Now God is like a violent storm over His people. The Lord will be seen over them, and His arrow will go forth like lightning, and the Lord God will blow the trumpet, and with a whirlwind from the south, And now the image changes again in verse 15. Now it's as if His people are a devouring lion. The Lord of hosts will defend them. They shall devour and subdue with sling stones. They shall drink and roar as with wine. They shall be filled with blood like basins, like the corner of the altars. This blood would pour down after the sacrifice and be collected at the corners of the altars. It's like His people are a devouring lion devouring their enemies. This is a graphic picture, but don't miss the point. It's the Lord's power at work. And sometimes He accomplishes His purpose by using unbelievers like Alexander, and sometimes He accomplishes His purposes by using His people. The Jews actually defeated the world's superpower of the time and won back their temple. And they did this by the power of God. This is the power of God, and He can enable His church, and you as a member of His church, to do amazing things. There are something like 60 to 80 million Christians in China today, if we believe the reports that come out from the groups that are doing ministry over there. And again, this is the work of God working through His people over generations. There were people like Tim DeYoung's parents, who went there in the 40s, Tim, who were there. And Ken's mom and dad were great saints of God. But Ken will be the first to tell you they weren't superhuman, but they were great saints of God. This is God using His people like that. And when they got kicked out, and the other missionaries got kicked out, then there were people that were left there from the ministry. And they continued, faithful. These ordinary Christians. And God preserved this church, and now that they've gotten a little bit of measure of freedom, a little bit more help, that church is exploding. And there are Christians all over the place, and people continue to risk a lot to help them. But this is the idea. God's power at work in His people accomplishes incredible things. And the application for us is think about your own life. Think about our little congregation here. What is it that God might do with you? What things are there that God could use you to do? Oftentimes, we limit ourselves because we think, I could never do that. And maybe you couldn't, but God... See, God can do anything. And He can use you to do things you can't even imagine. And who would have thought the Jews would have been able to defeat the Greeks and free their temple? And yet it happened. And we've got to think about that as a little congregation. What influence could we have in this community? And Bill talked about this this morning as well. We need to pray about God giving us a vision. He can do amazing things through you. We'll see also that God blesses you with prosperity. And this is described for us in verses 16 and 17, a beautiful picture of prosperity. The Lord their God will save them in that day as the flock of his people. Now the picture is shifted to a shepherd and his sheep. They shall be like the jewels of a crown. What a beautiful description of the people of God. A king's crown and his people shine like precious gemstones lifted up so that all would see them. And verse 17 agrees how great is its goodness and how great its beauty. And then this final phrase, grain shall make the young men thrive and new wine the young women. Grain and wine, young people flourishing, this is a picture of prosperity and peace. And see, this is what God does for His people as well. He will bless you with prosperity. He will give you salvation and all that comes with it. And this is not the prosperity gospel. We're not talking about us having all the money and everything else we want, but we have the God who is all-powerful, controlling all things, and He is favorably inclined toward His people. And isn't this what Romans 8 tells us? That all things work together for good to those who are called according to His purposes. And we repeat this so often that sometimes I think we don't think about what it means. But this is what it means, for the sake of Jesus Christ, God, who is all-powerful, is inclined to control things so that they tend toward your good, your blessing. And this includes things that you might rather not happen, even those are for your eternal joy and blessing. This is the picture of prosperity that God gives His people. This is something God promises for you. Well, let's think for a minute about why God does this. Why does He do it? Look back now in verses 9-11. God does these things for the sake of His King and His covenant love. Because you might be able to say, well, these are great promises that God will defeat my enemies, He'll preserve me, He'll bless me, He'll use me. I don't deserve that. And that's true. You don't deserve that. None of us does. But that's not why God does it. The very center of this passage, and remember, often in the Hebrew writing, the main point comes in the center. And here's the center. God does this for sinful people because of the King that He's sending. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your King is coming to you. God's King is coming. And what does it tell us about this King? He is just. He's a righteous king, one who will rule perfectly well, where there will be no injustice in his realm, and that's what we sang about in Psalm 72. He will have salvation, and here the idea is that he's somehow endowed with salvation, that he can give salvation to others. The king is lowly and riding on a donkey. And the word lowly there in the Hebrew almost always means low outward circumstances. And commentators debate, you know, what does it mean that he's riding on a donkey? And the kings of Israel did ride on donkeys before the days of Solomon. But after the days of Solomon, pretty much everybody rode on a horse. And I think the point here is that, just as it says, he's lowly. He's riding not even on a full-grown donkey, but on a colt donkey. And it's a picture of the low outward circumstances, the humility of this king. We have a king that's been afflicted in some ways. And what else does it tell us about the king? In verse 10, I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nation. See, there's not going to be any need for implements of war. Because there will be no war, there will be peace. So the King is the King that brings peace, true peace. Peace that will lead to an end of all war. And we know, peace that means peace with God. And finally, this King, we're told in verse 10, has a universal reign. His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. And this is their way of saying, you know, like we would say to mean all of America, we'd say from sea to shining sea. And this is how the Jews would say it. From the Euphrates to the ends of the earth, from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea or the Dead Sea, for all that we know, this king is going to rule. Now, what king in history was a lowly king who brought peace, whose rule was universal, and who brought salvation and true righteousness. There is only one King that did that, and we know that. This King is Jesus Christ. And the New Testament tells us this. Matthew 21.5 and John 12.15 quote this verse when it's talking about Jesus coming in to the city of Jerusalem in the triumphal entry. And they put down their palm branches. This is to be fulfilled, the King coming, riding on a donkey. What if Jesus had never entered Jerusalem on a donkey? Would he still fulfill this prophecy? I think he would. Was he a perfect king, bringing salvation, righteousness, lowly? When he was born in a manger, he could have fulfilled this prophecy. But so, to make sure we didn't miss it, he actually rode on a donkey into Jerusalem. So we would know this is the one. that God promised to send. And this is why God is favorably inclined to do all these wonderful things for you. Because of His King that comes to free His people. And look with me just for a moment here in verse 11. As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Why does God do this? Because God has made a covenant. He's promised to save His people. And the blood of this covenant seals that promise. And we know that all the blood of the sacrifice is all pointed to the blood of Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of that covenant. And that's why God is favorably inclined to us, because of the blood of the covenant of Jesus Christ. And what's the proper response to this? Well, there's only one thing to do. We rightly understand these are promises for us in Jesus Christ. What does verse 9 tell you to do? Rejoice greatly and shout for joy. What else can you do? God has promised to do these things for you, to destroy your enemies, to preserve you and bless you, to use you all for the sake of Jesus Christ, your King. A couple of years ago we were celebrating the day of prayer for the persecuted church, and we watched a video, I don't know if some of you, many of you weren't here, but I know some of you, we watched a video over there that was put on by Voice of the Martyrs, and it was a brief video just showing some scenes of Christians around the world persecuted. And there were some very moving scenes in there, with soldiers storming in and little children being carried away. But as I remember that, The most moving thing that I remember is not those pictures. It was the pictures of a church in China, a group of people meeting in what looked like a barn or something, and they were singing. They were singing praise to God. And these people have almost nothing compared to what we have. And yet they sing praise to God, and you see the joy on their faces. And you recognize they understand these things. They understand what God has promised to do for them, what God has done for them in Jesus Christ. And so their outward circumstances don't cause them to be worried and anxious and afraid. Of course, they struggle with those things, but they can praise God. because of what He's promised to do and what He is doing in Jesus Christ. And that should be the same with us. We should consider all the power of God. He controls everything that happens in this world. And all that power is being used to bless you, His people. God is worthy of praise. Let us do that now as we pray to Him. Dear Lord, we do thank you that you are a God who has made great promises to his people. A God who has promised to do wonderful things. And here is where we have a chance to look at a piece of prophecy that was at least partially fulfilled in the time of the Greeks. And we see how you accomplish your purposes through great movements of history. And Lord, as we see that, help us to realize that it's the same God. You are the same God and that same power, that same plan is being worked out in our own lives. And that we have no reason to fear or to be anxious or troubled. But rather, Lord, we face each day understanding that You, the God who rules the universe, are working out all things for the good of His people. Lord, help us to see that these blessings come to us only because of the blood of the covenant. through Jesus Christ our Lord. And Father, give us confidence that we might serve you faithfully and with joy. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.