Zechariah 9, and we'd like to read the first 10 verses, although I suspect that most of our time will be spent in the first 8 this morning. Zechariah 9, verses 1-10. It says, The burden of the word of the LORD in the land of Hadrach and Damascus shall be the rest thereof, when the eyes of man, as of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the LORD. And Hamath also shall border thereby Tyrus and Zidon, though it be very wise, and Tyrus did build herself a stronghold, and he took silver and the dust and fine gold as the mire of the streets. Behold, the LORD will cast her out, He will smite her power in the sea, and she shall be devoured with fire. Ashkelon shall see it and fear Gaza also shall see it and be very sorrowful and Ekron for her expectation shall be ashamed and the king shall perish from Gaza and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited and a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines and I will 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 and he shall be as a governor in Judah and Ekron as a Jebusite and I will encamp about mine house because of the army because of him that passeth by and because of him that returneth and no oppressor shall pass through them anymore for now have I seen with mine eyes Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto thee. He is just, and having salvation, lowly, riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle-boar shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the heathen, and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. And again God will bless that reading from His precious word to us. Now in your outline, what you've really got there is an outline of 9 through 14. It's kind of a bit more than just chapter 9. But I want to just kind of review some of the things in the outline just so we know where we are in the book. And we said really in Zechariah there are three sections. The first six chapters are these night visions. Remember in one night he had these eight night visions. So it's the visions of Zechariah. And then in the middle section, there are really four prophecies that are really in response to a delegation from Bethel. We've covered those. And then the final six chapters, in chapters 9-14, you have two burdens. And I want you to see that. Verse 1, the burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach and then chapter 12 starts the second burden the burden of the word of the Lord for Israel saith the Lord. Now let me just talk a little bit about this word burden for a moment because some of the more modern translations like the NIV will have the word the oracle instead of burden the oracle of the word of the Lord And so, how is it that they come up with such different words, burden and oracle? Well, the word, the root Hebrew word burden, from which we get our word burden, means to lift up. And it's kind of like lifting up a heavy burden. You know how sometimes when we moved house, we had a lot of boxes filled with books, and they were a burden. In fact, I thought I was going to die. If anything would convince me to go electronic with my library, it was moving those books. It was burdensome to lift them. And so that's how the idea to lift up, that's where the King James translators come up with the word burden. Another thought, and this is where the oracle comes from, is to lift up the voice. And so that's why they'll come up with the word oracle. I personally, and not just because I'm a King James guy, and you've probably noticed that, that I love the King James, and I find many of these new translations disappoint me tremendously. But anyway, that's another story for another day. I like the idea of burden, because really, both these sections, 9 through 11, and 12 through 14, primarily deal with judgment. And it is burdensome to deal with judgment, isn't it? And they do deal with judgment. In fact, interestingly enough, what we're going to see is this. Although there are judgment messages, there's blessing as well. Because in chapters 9 to 11, you have punishment pronounced on the Gentiles. He starts with Syria, goes to Phoenicia in this chapter, and then moves to the Philistines. So there's judgment on the Gentiles, punishment on the Gentiles, but there's also blessing for Israel. And that's what you're going to see in the first section, 9-11, punishment on the Gentiles, blessing for Israel. The second section, 12-14, is almost the same, but it's kind of reversed. It's discipline of Israel and blessing for the Gentiles. Discipline for Israel, blessing for the Gentiles. Because Israel rejected their Messiah, they have to be disciplined. So it's discipline for Israel and blessing. And so you end up with all the nations coming up at the end of chapter 14 to Israel to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And they're experiencing great blessing as they're enjoying the blessing of the Lord in the city of Jerusalem. So that's the way we're going to see those factors. As we look at these, I want to just mention that the first three chapters that were going to be, the whole section really, 9 and 10, you have basically, chapters 9 and 10, you have Israel under the rule of the Grecians. And we're going to see Alexander the Great is the subject of this chapter, chapter 9, but you'll also see that in chapter 10 as well. So Israel as they were ruled by Greece. And then in chapter 11, we'll see Israel under Roman rule, and we'll get to see that. And then chapters 12 through 14 is going to be Israel under the rule of Antichrist. And that's going to be interesting when we get there. But all of it is really the times of the Gentiles, right? We're living in the times of the Gentiles, but under that time of the Gentiles, there were different times that there were different Gentile rulers. And so this section is primarily going to be Israel. Their rule by Greece is going to be dealt with. Also, we're going to find, as we look at this, that it's very filled with pictures of Christ. We're going to see his procession into the city of Jerusalem. What we know as Palm Sunday. I'll talk about Palm Sunday. That's going to be revealed to us right here in this chapter. We read it in verse 9 and 10. And then we're going to see his price valued at and his betrayal in chapter 11. And he's going to ask the question, what do you value my shepherd care? What price would you put on me? And they're going to say 30 pieces of silver. Zechariah chapter 12, we're going to see his piercing of his side on the cross. And then chapter 14, his parting of the Mount of Olives upon his return when his feet will stand in the Mount of Olives in that day. So tremendous things to look forward to, very Christ-centered, probably the most Christ-centered portion of the Old Testament in these chapters 9-14. And really, Bible prophecy is really miraculous if you really think about it. It's God revealing to us something about Himself. Let me read from Isaiah 46 verse 10 to show you what really is going on in Bible prophecy. It says, verse 9, Remember the former things of old, for I am God, there is none else. I am God, there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning. And from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. And it is really miraculous, isn't it? God is telling us, at the beginning, what's going to happen at the end. That's miraculous, isn't it? I mean, prophecy is really God telling us the future before it happens. And only God can do that. And that's the wonder of Bible prophecy. God knows what is going to happen, not just today, but a hundred years from now. As if it's already a given fact. He knows it. And so, God knows the end from the beginning. Now, as we look at chapter 9, particularly, verses 1-8 are going to deal with the campaigns and conquest of Alexander the Great. And although there's definitely a historical significance here in what Alexander the Great did and accomplished, and yet what we're going to see is that one of the interesting things about Bible prophecy is that there's a present fulfillment, but there's also a future aspect to it as well. And I think what's going to happen is what Alexander the Great did is also going to be repeated before a greater ruler comes. Let me explain what I mean about the fact that there's some things written in this passage that clearly have a future aspect that hasn't yet been fulfilled. For instance, in chapter 9 and verse 7, speaking of the Philistines, he's going to take his blood out of his mouth, his abominations between his teeth, He that remains, even he, shall be for our God and he shall be as a governor in Judah and Ekron as a Jebusite. Now, it's evident that there's no history ever of Philistines being for God. They've always been the enemy of God. And there's no example anywhere in scripture of the Philistines actually being on the side of God. So obviously there's a future time when people that live in that area that was once dominated by the Philistines, which would be, let me say it, the Palestinians of today, are actually going to be for God. Now is that hard to imagine right now? But it's going to happen. And obviously, it's a future thing. This did not happen during the reign of Alexander the Great. In fact, it says, Ekron as a Jebusite. See, the Jebusites weren't part of the nation of Israel. In fact, when you see the book of Joshua, Jerusalem was owned by the Jebusites. And the tribe of Judah couldn't conquer the Jebusites. It wasn't until the days of David that the Jebusites were brought under subjection to Israel. But instead of all being destroyed, they were actually absorbed as part of Israel. And some of them played a notable part in scriptural history. For instance, David, when he wanted to stay the plague, he bought a piece of ground off Ornan the Jebusite remember that place actually the place that we recognize as Calvary right that was owned by Orn and the Jebusite. And he said to David, you can have it and you can have the oxen and you can have everything you need. And he said, no, I'm not going to offer to God that which cost me nothing. But so you had a Jebusite that had been integrated into the history of Israel. We'll talk more about it when we get to it as we go through. But all I'm saying now is that there's obviously parts of this prophecy that were not fulfilled in the days of Alexander the Great. Right now, Palestinians are not absorbed into Israel. They are trying to destroy Israel. They may live in the land, but they are not for our God and they are not absorbed as like a governor in Judah. Basically, given positions of responsibility in the nation. Also, verse 8 would tell us, that although the primary purpose of it is talking about Alexander's campaign, he says, I will encamp about mine house because of the army, because of him that passes by, and because of him that returns. And this is clearly speaking about the fact that Alexander didn't actually conquer Jerusalem. We'll talk about that when we get there. And the reason is that God is encamping about his house. But then he says, and no oppressor shall pass through them anymore for now I have seen with mine eyes. And so he's making the statement no oppressor will ever go through the land of Israel again. Well clearly that didn't happen in the days of Alexander the Great because the Romans conquered Judah. since then that the Ottoman Empire conquered Judah, and the British Empire conquered Judah. You see, they've been under dominion ever since, basically. Right? So clearly, this has got a future fulfillment. So all I'm saying is, some of this is fulfilled in the days of Alexander the Great, some of it awaits a future fulfillment. I'm going to suggest to you, that actually, almost all of it is going to be repeated. For instance, we're going to start with the destruction of Syria. And Alexander the Great conquered Damascus and Syria. But I believe before Jesus comes to reign and rule, Damascus and Syria will be conquered again. Now does that sound a bit like today's news? Doesn't it just? And I believe that maybe this is part of what God is going to do. He's conquering these lands with a view of His Son coming to reign. So we want to just keep those things in mind that there's a fulfillment that occurred during the days of Alexander the Great, but there's obviously some things that have a beyond that date expectation. So in chapter 9, 1 through 8, you've got the campaigns and conquest of Alexander the Great, 333 BC. 9 through 11, which is Jesus coming, you've got basically the coming of Messiah, entry to Jerusalem, 33 AD, verses 9-11, and verses 12-17 is the conflicts of the Maccabean period, 175-63 BC. Now, the Maccabean period is not found in scripture, but it's found in the Apocrypha. Okay, first and second Maccabees describe the struggles that occurred in the land of Israel with a group who were descendants of Joseph Maccabeus who fought valiantly against Alexander's generals. Okay, so that's the final section that we're going to look at here. So it's really interesting section about history. You know, there's no doubt about it that The best education a man can get is the Bible. Because it doesn't just teach you what the Bible says, but it's going to teach you world history. You're going to learn about the history of the world in studying the Bible. You're going to learn about all these rulers, these events, because Scripture deals with them and fits them into their right context in God's story, His story. So let's begin with this destruction of Syria and it says, burden of the word of in the land of Hadrach and Damascus shall be the rest thereof when the eyes of men as of all the tribes of Israel shall be toward the Lord and Hamath also shall border thereby. So basically what you've got is you've got a land, you have a city and you have a border. Notice we saw those things. The land of Hadrach, Damascus is a city and then the border of Hamath shall border thereby. And so it's really speaking of this whole political area that was really what we now know as modern day Syria. Hadrach is in northern Syria, Damascus of course in Syria as well. And so one of the things that Alexander the Great was going to do in his conquest was he was going to conquer the area that we now know as Syria. That whole political area is going to come under his judgment. And then from there he's going to move into Tyre and Sidon. Now Tyre and Sidon, what's known as Phoenicia, Tyre and Sidon is known for its commercialism. very, very wealthy. Tyre and Sidon were maritime people and they were incredibly wealthy. And so, in a sense, Alexander is going to judge a political area and then he's going to judge a commercial area that's known for commercialism. And then finally, he's going to go into Philistia, where the Philistines are, and he's going to deal with their pagan worship. Because it says in verse 7, I'll take away his blood out of his mouth and his abominations from between his teeth. And the idea is that this pagan worship is going to be conquered by Alexander the Great. So you've got basically Alexander conquering a political area, conquering a commercial area, conquering this section that is involved in paganism. And by the way, when the Lord Jesus comes, He is going to do the same thing. He's going to deal with all the politics of this world. Even so, come Lord Jesus, I am so tired of politics. What a blessing that's going to be, right? He's going to deal with all the politics of this world. He's going to deal with all the commercialism of this world. Commercial Babylon is going to come under the judgment of God. And then finally, He's going to judge the paganism of this world and the idolatrous systems that are found on the planet. But at least in our perspective, Alexander's conquests are in view. Now I want you to notice something else that's very fascinating to me in this chapter. In verses 1 and verse 8, you've got your attention is drawn to eyes. In verse 1, it says, The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach and Damascus shall be the rest thereof when the eyes of men, eyes of men as of the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the Lord. And so the thought is that men are going to be looking at what's happening, Alexander's conquest and you can imagine how Israel or the land of Judah is going to feel at this time. Because Alexander is coming along and he's swallowing up Syria. And then he's moving from there to Tyre and Sidon and destroying them. And then he's moving to the Philistine area and he's going to destroy them. Well, who's next? It's Judah, right? And so the eyes of men are on the Lord and what they're saying is, Lord, what are you going to do here? How are you going to defend us? How are you going to protect us from this man who's marauding everywhere and destroying everything in his path? So there's the eyes of man and especially it tells us the tribes of Israel shall be toward the Lord. And then again in verse 8, it says, I will encamp about mine house because of the army, because of him that passeth by, and because of him that returneth, and no oppressor shall pass through them any more, for now have I seen with mine eyes. And this time it's God is saying You've got your eyes on me, but I've got my eyes on Alexander the Great, and I've got my eyes on all these enemies that are going to come against you. You can rest in me, because I'm watching them, and I'm knowing what they're doing. Isn't it good to know the Lord's got His eyes on everything? It's good to know that, isn't it? His eyes are firmly fixed on what's happening, and nothing's taken Him by surprise. He's watching all of these things. Well, Alexander the Great, we've got to deal with this man, Alexander the Great, and he's found elsewhere in scripture, in Daniel chapter 8, and Daniel chapter 11. And so, he's a person that scripture reveals, and of course, in the prophecies that are written about Alexander the Great, they're written before he came on the scene. That's why they're prophecy. But they're revealing the coming of this man. And so, let me tell you a little bit about this man. You've heard of the philosopher Aristotle, right? Everybody heard the name Aristotle, even if you've never read anything by him, you've heard about him, right? Well, Aristotle was the man who educated Alexander the Great. He was basically one of Aristotle's students. He was the son of Philip of Macedon who ruled over the area that we know as Macedonia. And Alexander the Great came to power in 336 BC. 336 years before Christ. And remember, our man Zechariah began to write in 520 BC. So 200 years down the pike, Then we're going to see the coming of Alexander the Great, but he's already writing his history 200 years beforehand. That's the wonder of prophecy. In a very, very short time, Alexander the Great conquered the empire of the Medes and the Persians in a very decisive battle, and I don't even know if I can pronounce this, Guagamela. G-A-U-G-A-M-E-L-A Guagamela in 331 BC. And he became, at that point having defeated the Medo-Persian Empire, he became the overlord of Asia Minor, the pharaoh of Egypt, the leader of the Greeks and his empire reached as far as India. And he died in 323 BC at 32 years of age. And what he said prior to his death was, I have no more worlds to conquer. He conquered all that area of the world, the main empires were brought under his control and when he died he had no natural heir. There are some thought that he may well have been a homosexual. It's hard to be dogmatic about that. But he definitely had no male heir. And if he was a homosexual that would explain why. So his empire was torn into four parts by his four main generals. And so that's kind of a brief history of this man, Alexander the Great. So he begins with the area of Syria. Now I mentioned Syria Because I think it's important for us to think a little bit about Syria. I think it's in the headlines. Damascus in Syria claims to be the world's oldest city. That's interesting, isn't it? The world's oldest city. It has been conquered numerous times. It was conquered by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and then groups called the Ptolemies and the Seleucids. And these were the generals of Alexander the Great. They were always fighting for the four parts of his empire because even though they had a quarter of the world's biggest empire, it wasn't enough, they wanted more. So the problem when he divided between his four generals is that each general wanted a bigger part of the pie and so they ended up fighting each other, particularly the king of the north and the king of the south and as a result of that Damascus was conquered first by the Ptolemies and second by the Seleucids. Rome conquered it in AD 64. The Arabs conquered it in AD 636, became capital of the Muslim world. But, the Bible tells me that before the coming of Christ, Damascus will be completely destroyed. Which would give me a certain sense that we are definitely living in the last days. How do I know that? Isaiah 17 verse 1, the burden of Damascus Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. Isaiah 17.1 Now, if you look at pictures of Damascus today, already half of the city is a ruinous heap. It's amazing. This has to happen before Christ comes. will become a ruinous heap. He will take it away from being a city. That would tell us that we're living in some pretty exciting days. Right? Your news headlines ought to take on a whole lot more meaning now when you begin to think about these. So Alexander conquered it, but what we're saying is some of these things are going to happen before the coming of Christ. Now it's not going to be the Lord is going to, just like the Lord was using Alexander the Great, And the Lord has used historical figures. He's also going to use historical figures to bring about the destruction of these empires. And so before the coming of the Lord, this place called Damascus will become a ruinous heap. And so it's good to know that, that these things prophesied in Scripture are going to happen. And then we also find out about the cities of Tyre and Sidon. Now this is very exciting. They were inhabited by a group called the Phoenicians. And these, as we said, were traders. They were very wealthy. They'd been there. Sidon was established before 2000 BC. Tyre just after 2000 BC. Through their maritime exploits, they were a center of world trade. And they had a stronghold. It tells us in verse 3, it says, well verse 2, Hamath shall also border there by Tyrus and Spider, though it be very wise. And Tyrus did build herself a stronghold, and he took silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets. This is how wealthy it was. Silver is like dust. There's plenty of dust around, isn't there? Well, there was plenty of silver and gold. It's very, very wealthy. It was very wise. And of course, when we look at Ezekiel 28, we realize that behind the prosperity of Tyre was none other than Satan himself. In fact, the revelation in Ezekiel 28 talks about Lucifer. and the revealing of him and it's speaking about the king of Tyre and the fact that the person that was ruling over Tyre, let me just break in in verse 7 of Ezekiel 28. Behold therefore I will bring strangers upon thee and terrible of the nations and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom and they shall defile thy brightness. Later on it talks about the fact that the Prince of Tyre had been in Eden, the Garden of God. And so it would clearly indicate that behind the wealth and the wisdom of Tyre was none other than Satan. I think it's good to remind ourselves in the Millennial Kingdom It says that Satan will be cast in the bottomless pit. And one of the effects of him being in the bottomless pit for a thousand years is that he will deceive the nations no more. And the implication is that right now he is deceiving the nations. And we have to recognize that. I think this nation is being deceived. Right? I mean, it's just clearly it's being deceived. And all the nations have been deceived, but in the Millennial Kingdom they won't be able to deceive the nations because the one who is doing it will be in the bottomless pit. But quite clearly at this time, Tyre had been influenced by Satan, the rulers of Tyre. It had become a very prosperous nation because of their great wisdom in their maritime exploits and their business dealings. And so God is going to destroy Tyre and Sidon. Now, it was going to be a challenge because it does say that there's a stronghold here. In fact, this stronghold, they had constructed a wall 150 feet high around the city. Now that's a stronghold, right? This is before the days of you know, kind of guided missiles and all the rest of it, a 150 feet wall around the city, and they felt, and it's an island, it's an island off the coast, so they feel like we're as safe as it's possible to be. And it seemed to be the case, the Assyrians had for five years tried to overcome the city, the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar had laid siege to the city for 13 years, without success. So all the previous empires, the Babylonians and the Assyrians, had failed miserably to destroy Tyre, such was its great strength. Alexander did not have a navy. That's a problem, you're dealing with an island. How is he going to deal with it? Well, simple. He built a causeway from the mainland, it took seven months, and then he marched his soldiers across the causeway and they destroyed the city. And so Alexander the Great destroyed the city, just as this passage prophesied was going to happen. And again, when this is written, you can imagine if anybody from Tyre gets hold of this scroll, they'd just be laughing. Everybody else has failed. The Assyrians have failed. The Babylonians have failed. This guy's not going to do it. Well, he did. And he did it exactly as the scripture says. Behold, the Lord will cast her out. The Lord is using Alexander as his instrument. He will smite her power in the sea, verse 4, and shall be devoured with fire. And so, as he destroyed the city, all of it that didn't end up being pulled into the sea, and basically what he did, he shaved the top of it, and it became a place where people would dry their fishing nets. I mean, that's exactly how he dealt with it. And so what wasn't thrown in the sea was burned by fire. And so Alexander did a phenomenal job of destroying that city. So, having done that, next on the agenda is the cities of the Philistines. Now there are five cities of the Philistines, what we call a Pentapolis. Remember the cities of Decapolis, there were ten cities, Pentapolis, five cities. But only four are mentioned here. Gath is not mentioned. And it would indicate perhaps at this point Gath had already been absorbed into Judah perhaps or whatever but only four of the cities of the Philistines are mentioned. And they're going to be conquered next. Ashkelon shall see it and fear Gaza also shall see it and be very sorrowful. And you could imagine their fear when they see the destruction of Tyre and Sidon that seemed unconquerable. And now we're next. And they're absolutely in fear. Her expectation shall be a shame. The king shall perish from Gaza and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited and a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod. Now I want you just to focus on that because one of the things that Alexander did and many of these empires did is when they destroyed an area they would bring in other conquered nations from other places. And that's what he's saying is the people that would inhabit the area that was once inhabited by the Philistines won't really be from there. They're not legitimate heirs to that piece of real estate and they'd be foreigners. And so that area where the Philistines lived is now what we know as the Gaza Strip and part of that area. And these are nations that have been brought in from other places. They're living in that area. I'll cut off the pride of the Philistines. I'll take away his blood out of his mouth, his abominations from between his teeth. But he that remains, even he, shall be for our God, and he shall be a governor in Judah and an ecron of Jebusite. And what we learn is this, that one of the amazing things about God and judgment in Scripture is that it says that God in wrath remembers mercy. And often, in the midst of judgment, God shows mercy. So for instance, the judgment of Jericho, there was a prostitute called Rahab and her family, who in the midst of wrath, received mercy. And there's lots of examples of that in scripture, where God conquering an area, and yet in the midst of wrath, there's mercy shown. And in this instance, there'll be mercy shown to those that live in that area, what we would call today the modern Palestinians. And some of these modern day Palestinians, as we would know them, as God seeks to destroy them, He says some of them will be for our God. When I go to Israel, I'll be with an assembly in Nazareth. And the guy that works there is a fellow called George Khalil. And most of the people in fellowship in the assembly in Nazareth are converted Palestinian Arabs. That's interesting, isn't it? In the land of Israel. I have friends in California. who are converted Palestinian Arabs who love the Lord Jesus and we're going to be with them in glory. But this is something more. These people are going to be for our God, speaking in the context of Judah and Israel, and so some of them are going to join forces and be with the God of Israel. Some of them will be given responsibility, a governor in Judah, and Ekron will be as a Jebusite, just as we said, as it was swallowed up into Israel, becoming loyal to Israel, part of God's plan to preserve them. He says also, I will encamp about mine house, verse eight. Now this is where it gets very interesting to me. I will encamp about my house. Because of the army, because of him that passeth by him, because of him that returneth. And this is speaking of Alexander. And this is where we learn a lot from a man called Josephus. If you've never read any of Josephus, you'll find his writings very interesting. He documents a lot of Jewish history and tells you things that you won't find in scripture but are really kind of fascinating. So let me tell you the story about God preserving the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem from destruction from Alexander the Great. Because some of the descendants of Sam Ballot, you remember him from the book of Nehemiah, when Alexander was conquering Tyre and Sidon he left the land of Judah and went and joined himself with Alexander and told him how nasty the Jews were and how rebellious they were and how he needs to go and destroy them next. See, Samballot was a nasty piece of work in Nehemiah and his descendants were made in his image and likeness, right? So this is Josephus tells us, about 2000 men went with him, they joined forces with Alexander, they helped him in defeat in Tyre, probably helped in building the causeway, they said go get Judah next because they built a temple there to their God, they're a bunch of rebels and all the rest of it. So Alexander is marching towards the land of Judah and to Jerusalem and the priest was given a vision by God of how he, the high priest, how he should respond. His name was Jadua. Jadua the high priest, and what he was told to do was for he and all the priests to wear their white robes and to march out of the city to meet Alexander the Great. And this they did. They followed his dream. When Alexander saw them come, He remembered a dream he had had at the very beginning of his conquest. And in this dream he saw a very distinguished looking man wearing white robes. And God said to him, this man will tell you how you can conquer the world. Okay? When he saw Jeddah leading this procession, it was the very man Alexander had seen in his dream. And so as he came towards Alexander, Alexander prostrated himself on the ground before this man and said, tell me what, and so guess what Jeduah did? He got out the book of Daniel, the scroll of Daniel and read Daniel chapter eight about how he could conquer. And as a result of that, Gedua, the high priest, managed to secure Jerusalem. In fact, not only that, but Alexander gave generously to have sacrifices offered in the temple on his behalf. So impressed was he of this man Jedua. And you can read all that in Josephus. I didn't make it up, honestly. It's right there in the writings of Josephus. And in section, if you wanna know the section of his antiquities of the Jews, section 11. And you'll read it there in section 11 of his antiquities. So very, very fascinating. And of course, all this leads to where we're gonna come next time. Because in the very next verse it says in verse 9, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto thee. He is just, having salvation, lowly, riding on an ass upon the colt, the fall of an ass. And what has been set before us is a contrast. Here comes this worldly conqueror riding on his black horse that was named bull-headed because it was a bull-headed looking horse scary creature, he rides triumphantly, and the priests run out to meet him. Right? Here comes another ruler, far greater than Alexander the Great. But he doesn't come with quite the pomp and dignity, right? He's riding upon a cold, the fall of an ass. And what did the priests do? How did they respond? They told the crowds to shut up. Right? Don't be saying, blessed is he that comes. Don't be saying those things. What a contrast! They welcomed Alexander, but they wouldn't welcome the eternal Son of God. So that contrast is being set up for us in this very passage. And we'll talk more about it next time. But I wanted just to see, you say, well what has all this got to do with you and I in this day and age? Well, I want to tell you something. What we see in Syria, ought to make us realize that we are living in the last days. And how should we live in the light of the last days? Well, we should be those that love His appearing. And we should be living in the light of His coming. And at the end of this year, it would be good to ask ourselves, Lord, show me how I can live in the life of the days I find myself in. See, in the Old Testament there was a group of men and they were men of Zebulun, I think it was, who knew the times and they knew how to act. It's important for us to know the times and to know how to act. Know how to live in these exciting days we find ourselves in. Also, what we can say as well, for our own encouragement, we were reminded a lot, so for delight, what a delight it is to have a Bible that tells us the future as if it's already happened. Isn't it wonderful to have the word of God? You know the book like this, that 200 years before this guy appears on the scene, this young fellow called Zechariah is telling us exactly what's gonna happen. This is an amazing book, isn't it? And it's a very thrilling book. And God is ultimately going to judge the political system, the commercial system, and the pagan system of this world. It's all going to come under the judgment of God. And what's going to happen is that His Son is going to reign, and He will reign in righteousness. We need to live in the light of these things. Let's pray. Father, we're thankful for the Word of God. thankful for this passage we pray for you help us to understand your word to love your word delight in it and we pray it help us to live in the light of the soon coming of the Lord Jesus we see Damascus and we see this city that scripture tells us is not going to be a city anymore that it's going to become a ruinous heap half of it already is a ruinous heap It seems to us that we're living in pretty amazing days. Lord, help us to live in the light of these truths. We'll give Thee the glory in Jesus' name. Amen.