Okay, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here. I've given you a ton of notes, and I didn't print everything off that I could have, which I will eventually. We're beginning chapter 9, verses 1 through 13, in detail. And what we're going to see is the Mediterranean Sea here, Jerusalem. and you're going to have the land of the arameans and then you're going to have the land of the phoenicians then you're going to have the land of the philistines and you're going to there's going to these verses talk about the cities that The Lord is coming and marching through Aram, or Syria, through Phoenicia, Tyre, and Sidon, and then through Philistia, and destroying those cities, and He's going to turn and give Jerusalem peace. There's a wide range of looking at these things, not too many, but several different ways. Is one, are these eschatological in the distant future? And there's going to be a similarity to it. Or is this some unknown time that we, you know, what is he talking about? And you're just kind of, you know, reading Bible verses and not really understanding it. Or is he talking about a historical event That's still in the future for Zachariah, writing in 520, but it's going to be sometime between 520, Zachariah's time, and, we would assume, the coming of Jesus Christ. Because they're going to talk about the coming of the Messiah riding on a donkey in this chapter. And so, if it's going to be chronological, it would be coming through here somewhere. And I think, on the presentation I'm going to make, and of course you don't have to agree with it, you should keep thinking, because we want the truth, not some random interpretation, that we're going to be looking from 520 into the future, and they're in the Persian Empire right now, but the Persian Empire is going to be overthrown by Alexander, coming with the Greeks, and marches further into history, eventually the coming of Christ. Alexander's going to make this exact march right here on his way into Egypt. Because he's going to come down to take Egypt and he's going to make his way. He's going to defeat the Persians in 333 right up here and drive them back. But before he pursues them, he's going to come down here and take Egypt, cover the background, cover this territory, gain more support, gain more wealth, destroy Egypt, and then come back. and go after Darius, the Persian king, at the time. And you can see Darius III is behind this screen right here. Greece is rising here. Persia is declining. And again, the decline begins during this time, even with Xerxes, Artaxerxes, and the decline sets in. They're still going to continue. Here, I'll move the board here real quickly. Here's what you see right here. We know Esther's going to marry Xerxes. Then Artaxerxes is going to be Xerxes' son. Nehemiah is going to serve Artaxerxes in the book of Nehemiah. He's the wine bearer, cup bearer. He's going to send, and he's actually going to be the one that makes the decree for the walls to be rebuilt, and that's kind of where the countdown for Daniel's prophecy. Seventy sevens are decreed, or seventy periods of seven are decreed for your people. And the countdown begins with his decree that he makes here. And that's where they start counting down, and it works out, depending on how you do the math, the first 483 years ends with the coming of John the Baptist, or the beginning of Jesus' ministry. And then there's the crucifixion with seven years left. Daniel says he'll come, but he will not receive the kingdom. He'll be destroyed. And then that leaves seven years left. And then when does that take place? That's going to be fierce. So these years would be the first 483 years. As Persia declines, and again just because Persia's declining doesn't mean it's over. Just like, you know, if America is in decline, it's not just going to end. You're going to go through that period of just like Babylon. And I often think here with Belshazzar's party. You ever wonder what Belshazzar was thinking? The empire is falling. Babylon is surrounded by the Persians. And it's just a matter of time before they break into the city. So what do they decide to do? we still got tonight let's have one more good meal one more good party tomorrow we today tomorrow we die so Lee drink and be merry and It's kind of like, you know, that's kind of where America's at right now It's like well, maybe we can squeeze in one more vacation before the economy's totally shot. How much longer? It's good. It's good event. I mean, it's good one day I think we're gonna wake up and it may be closer than we want to think and it's also it's like it's over I mean you've lost even if the twitter accounts and files are correct democracy fell it's not like it's going to fall democracy fell in five twenty not five twenty twenty twenty or democracy fell you know it's it's been falling and it is over because you know it's it's got if those twitter records are accurate what they're coming out with uh... we're we're well gone and it's just now a matter of The borders are open, the economy's twisted, we're under a foreign occupation right now. Let's just go have one more good party because, but anyway, that's not what we're talking about. They were in decline. Persia is in decline during these years. And over here with Alexander's father, Philip, Greece is rising. And they've got one thing in mind, overthrowing the Persians. I covered my other map up because Xerxes And this is what the book of Esther begins with. He was demonstrating his military power because he's going to be going to war against the Greeks. He's going to be driving them off what we call Turkey or the Asia coast, driving them back in. And he actually is going to go across and have war with them. Burns Athens. And then of course now the Greeks that's their history. We've been oppressed by the Persians They've infiltrated across into Asia. There's there's coastal cities that are in Persia's territory, but they're Greeks and They just keep slowly invading the land Ellie Phillips got a plan. That's why he gets assassinated. He wants to invade Persia and Some of the Greeks go, let's do it. Some of them say, let's not do it. Let's just be happy with what we've got. He gets assassinated at his daughter's wedding, Alexander's father, with making plans to invade Persia. And he gets executed. Alexander takes over where his father left off as a young man and starts building Greece up. And it's 331. He leaves in 331. And Persia falls by 333. And he just has this blitz. through The land so this is Greece rising and Alexander coming in 332 331 BC and that's kind of I think I'm looking at my Board because there's a huge glare on it if I don't do it exactly right That's close enough I think okay so in our notes let me just read let me just read chapter nine uh... the first few verses and again i don't want to read too much into it but i'm going to tell you what i'm going to present between chapter nine verses one through let's just say uh... well ten in chapter 9 verse 9 you clearly have the coming of Jesus because that is a verse Talking about Jesus coming in peace But then in chapter and we see in chapter 9 verse 9 is the first coming of Jesus he comes on a donkey peaceful but chapter nine verse ten he comes and drives out the war chariots and and has no war in other words he comes and establishes peace which is the kingdom of god so chapter nine verse nine is the first coming christmas and palm sunday chapter nine verse ten is the second coming and what takes place so chapter nine verses one through nine what i'm going to say they're gonna take place between five twenty and palm sunday somewhere in there and the only key player we've got here would be alexander in the coming of the greeks or the rise of the romans and the romans are mentioned later so here we go chapter nine verse one I'm reading in the NIV. It says, an oracle or massa, a burden, which is identifying this. That's almost like the Hebrew title of this section. This is a burden, something Zacharias is bearing. It's a prophecy. It's going to show up in chapter 12, verse 1 also. So chapter 9 and 10 are this burden. Another burden or oracle begins chapter 12, 13 and 14. So this one begins, the word of the Lord is against the land of Hadrach, and will rest upon Damascus, for the eyes of men and all the tribes of Israel are on the Lord. Now, as I read this, what we're going to do, the Lord is making a move, just like the Assyrians made a move, but it was the rod of the Lord's anger. Just like Nebuchadnezzar made a move, but it was the Lord was burning Jerusalem and bringing his people into captivity. This is also the Lord marching and moving out from the north. But I'm going to say, and it's in agreement with many commentators, that this is now Alexander, just like the Assyrians, Sennacherib, Tiglath-Pileser, did the work of the Lord. They're even called the Rod of God's Anger. Nebuchadnezzar clearly did the work of the Lord. Even Daniel and Jeremiah both recognize him. He's given everything in your hands. And Nebuchadnezzar, God moved through Nebuchadnezzar. And now the Lord is going to be moving through Alexander. and all the eyes of men in the tribes of israel are on the lord or if you can imagine alexander marching down as he's going to the whole world is watching the eyes are on the lord and that we have you know it's like are you sure you said daniel already prophesied there's going to be the four bs and one of the beast is the leopard coming from the west with with the wings moving very quickly and that is the Lord is the one who stirred up the waters and here comes these beasts out of the water controlling history for the Lord and so you've got you know Daniel's already said he's coming and it's okay so Hadrach Damascus all the eyes of Israel and the world are on the Lord as he's marching and upon Hamath too, which borders on it, and upon Tyre and Sidon. Though they are very skillful, the people of Tyre and Sidon, Tyre has built herself a stronghold. She has heaped up silver like dust and gold like the dirt of the streets, but the Lord will take away her possessions. and destroy her power on the sea. And she will be consumed by fire." Now, he's gone through the Arameans, or the Aram, gone down through Phoenicia. And of course, as the Lord is marching down from the far north through the area of Phoenicia, the Philistines along the coast are looking, oh my gosh, look what's coming our way. Ashkelon will see it and fear. It's like, when's he going to stop? Well, Alexander's heading towards Egypt. He's already defeated Persia, and they know it. I mean, they don't have Twitter, they don't have, you know, CNN news, they don't have, you know, all the satellite coverage, but they do know from reports the Persians have been defeated and are fleeing back east, and Alexander is going to go in pursuit. No, he's turning south, marching through the Arameans, marching through Phoenicia, and the Philistines are like, oh my gosh, he's heading towards Egypt, and he's going to go right through our town. Ashkelon will see it and fear. Gaza will writhe in agony. And Ekron, too, for her hope, will wither." Whatever her hope is. In her gods, in their military, in Alexander turning around, going the other way. Gaza will lose her king. And Ashkelon will be deserted. So there's four of the five Philistine cities mentioned because Gath has already fallen to Uzziah, and then again to the Assyrians. Foreigners will occupy Ashdod. This is the result of it. And I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. I will take the... and that's the end of the Philistines. When Uzziah, the Assyrians, Alexander and then Nebuchadnezzar also in there came through the Philistines are gone They've been now just mixed in with everybody else and and they're no longer anywhere in history Which is interesting to take note of because the Romans named the land just like they named uh... change the name of jerusalem in one thirty five hadrian to a leah capital leah and you can even see inscriptions of it they'd be took it over their tired of the jews was gonna rename your city rename your land they renamed jerusalem alia capital leah after hadrian's family and they named the land philistia the land of philistia or week we say palestine palestine or the palestinians and understand aliyah capitalia is not the real name of the city it's jerusalem in the ancient world in egyptian documents and today it's true it's not only a capital yet and the land of israel or judah was judah the philistines are we are the romans renamed it you know palestine but that's not the real name it's like it's it's a name the romans applied after two thousand years three thousand years and so here we are today that's where the income and there are it's it's the phil is they call the land of the philistines palestine mean it's the land of the philistines just i mean he better it's not the land of philistines we know that the romans did it and propaganda wanted to be that way so just keep that in mind this war this battle is not over because what's taking place right here and is being described in five twenty going up to three thirty three up to the time of the of the uh... entrance into jerusalem by jesus in thirty a d it goes all the other time in this book up until the end of world history as we know it and so the nations are eventually going to surround jerusalem by chapter fourteen so this we're we're in the middle of the continuity of this whole book nonetheless foreigners will occupy ash dot They're not Philistines. They're foreigners. It's the Gaza coast right now. Or Gaza Strip. "...And I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. I will take the blood from their mouths, the forbidden food from between their teeth. Those who are left will belong to our God." They're going to be adopted into the people of God and become leaders in Judah. and Ekron will be like the Jebusites." In other words, Ekron will become followers just like the Jebusites joined Judah and were intermingled into Judah. The same thing is going to be with whoever is left of them. They're going to come into Judah. The Aramean cities fall. The Phoenician cities fall. Gaza or the Philistines is completely eliminated from history. But now they turn to Jerusalem. What's going to happen when the Lord turns to Jerusalem? Or, in our case, as I'm telling the story, Alexander turns to Jerusalem. I will defend my house, the temple, Zion, against marauding forces. That could be the Greeks. that had destroyed everything else. They're coming now to Jerusalem, but they're not going to destroy it. Never again will an oppressor overrun my people. For now I am keeping watch. So now that's an interesting verse right there where you're going to have the now with Alexander coming and sparing Jerusalem. But then when it says, never again will an oppressor overrun, it's like, well, wait a minute. Jerusalem's going to become disobedient again. They're going to crucify the Messiah, who's going to prophesy, you're going to fall to the Romans. And so they will be overcome, dispersed, but they're moving towards that goal of never being overthrown again. And so this time, If this is going to be future, then of course that would be true. Because once Jesus marches and saves Jerusalem, they're never going to fall again. But when Alexander marches and spares them, they're only going to be put off to fall again another day. Now verse 9, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, who's been spared! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem, See, your king comes to you! Now if they would have accepted the king on that day, Then that verse would have been true never again will oppressors be here But they're going to crucify the king that came riding in a donkey and so okay. Well, we need to hold off He's righteous and having salvation gentle and riding on a donkey on a colt the foal of a donkey he's coming in as a non-oppressor to a welcoming city And then it says, verse 10, I'll take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. Not only is he going to bring peace to Jerusalem, he's going to proclaim peace to all the nations around the world. And Alexander didn't do that. He conquered them. And then he died. And they went back to just crazy wars, which we can talk about with the four generals, the Seleucids and the Ptolemies fighting from the north up here. This becomes the Seleucids up here. remains of Alexander's military. The Ptolemies take over in Egypt remains of Alexander's military and they fight each other back and forth and that's the wars of Daniel chapter 11 or the wars of Syria between Seleucid and Egypt and they're fighting for possession of the land of Israel because that's the bridge between that's another whole story. Okay now to do this correctly let's go to the notes I'm gonna come back on page 3 those pages are just I just took screenshots of the framework book because what you see right there on page 3 beginning in the year 520 see the dates on the left side 520 the details what takes place in the year 520 are in the middle and on the right side are the scripture references or the writers of scripture so Haggai and Zechariah are writing at that time 520, 519, 518, 516, and you can see all the details including the prophecies of Haggai, the prophecies of Zechariah, 519, 518's there, 516, the temple's complete, and then we're going to have the details, 490, Darius attacks Athens by sailing across the Aegean Sea. 585, Xerxes begins to reign. 583, Xerxes displays his vast wealth. That's Esther, chapter 1. Turn the page. We're just marching down this chart right here, but there's more details here. Between 481, 480, and 479, Xerxes goes to war against the Greeks. That would be Esther's husband. He goes to war against the Greeks. That's recorded in Daniel chapter 11 prophesied in Daniel chapter 11 And he's defeated there's many details there that's fun to talk about but that's the the Persians attacking the Greeks Setting the stage in their culture is we need to defeat the Persians. They're driven out 478 now you've got Esther chapter 2 so between Esther chapter 1 and and Esther chapter 2, you've got the years 481, 480, and 479. Xerxes puts his wife away, goes to war for three years, comes back and says, I don't have a queen. And that's when Esther shows up. So that's where the book of Esther takes place. And then 474, that's Haman and Esther and Mordecai. That's Esther chapter 3, 473. That's, again, according to Haman's plans and Xerxes's order, the Jews are to be killed on March 7th, but the Jews are allowed to defend themselves. In other words, they're going to let them bear arms, and no one attacks the Jews. First of all, you can just plunder the Jews. We're going to disarm them. But they can't change the law, so what they say is, OK, we're not going to change the law, but we're going to add to it. The Jews can arm themselves. Well, also the Persians aren't so interested in plundering them, because the Jews are going to shoot back. And that solves that problem. 465, Xerxes is inside, and he's assassinated. Artaxerxes takes over. Now we get to 464, and that's where Ezra and eventually Nehemiah is going to come up here during those verses. 464, 458. Oh, 458, notice that's the decree to rebuild Jerusalem. And that would be where the 490 years begins being counted down right in that time period. Daniel 9.25 begins in Ezra 7, verses 12-26. And so now the countdown for the final 490 years begins, but there's going to be a break at 483 when the one to whom the kingdom belongs is cut off. And he doesn't get anything. He comes to get the kingdom, but doesn't get it. And there's seven years left. And that's the seven years we're waiting for. 457, Ezra committee ends their three-month-long investigation into Indomery. That's the whole... When you get into Ezra, chapter 10, see, we've actually started the book of Ezra, you see. Now we're taking a break, going through Haggai and Zechariah. We're going to come back to Ezra. And in this time period right here, Ezra is going to be checking out the fact that some of the especially the priests have married foreign women and they're going to spend three months investigating it. And it's like, OK, we've got to break these marriages up and send these women back to their nation because we've got to stay true to the promise. And that's, again, very interesting. That's Ezra chapter 10. Then 446, Nehemiah is in Susa, and here's the report. He's serving Artaxerxes, and right here is where this is going to take place. There's all those verses. Nehemiah is going to come back as an ambassador from the Persian Empire and help rebuild the wall. He's got official orders. He's got to report back. Then 432, the book of Malachi takes place. I will point this out, Malachi also begins with the same masa, a burden, an oracle, just like these last two sections, chapter 9, verse 1, chapter 12, verse 1, the masa, the burden of Zechariah. Malachi begins with that same word, the burden of Malachi. Now, 430 to 470, that's just giving you some ideas of what's developing in Israel between 430, right here after the days of Nehemiah, up until 370, which is right before the rise of the Greeks and the final days of the Persians. They're breaking in. It talks about the high priest, the scribes, the Jewish people, the Jewish view of the Gentiles, the Samaritan division, because the Samaritans were the Jews that had intermarried with the Gentiles and had never left the land from the days of the Assyrians. They're still there, but they didn't go into captivity. They're not pure Jews, but yet they're in the Jewish land, and they're rejected. It talks about the language then the next page 7 There you've got 367 366 365 BC a 15 year old Phillips on a Macedonian King is taken hostage to Thebes for two years at the age of 60 at 15 in Greece Philip learns military science and the Greek passion to overthrow the Persians now 359 Philip becomes the co-regent with his father in Macedonia and demonstrates the ability as a general and diplomat 356 Alexander the Great's father who's been trained in Greece in Thebes He becomes king of Macedonia again Greece is in the south think of Corinth Macedonia is to the north think Thessalonica and Philippi Philippi and Thessalonica are Macedonian Corinth is Greek and talks about what Philip does in 356 346 Philip has become the master of Greece along with Macedonia. He's now conquered Greece unites the two Into what is known as the Greek, you know Empire. It's only two nations though in 337 Philip announces his decision to his Greek Confederacy that he's going to invade Persia and Some are gonna unite behind him others are gonna say absolutely not in 336 Philip sends 10,000 troops across the Aegean Sea to Troy or Troas to get ready and He's assassinated at his daughter's wedding in the summer of 336 Well that ended Philip had such hope except he's got a son 336 Philip's son Alexander is 20 years old and he becomes king and uh... he was educated by aristotle this is flat out it's amazing his father philip sent him to greece because that's where philip and had been educated he sends alexander degrees and hires the the the man aristotle to be his grade school elementary teacher and high school teacher so at the age of twenty he's been trained by aristotle if you could imagine fluent in language, helps form the Koine Greek language Alexander's going to. He understands military. He understands not just knowledge, but he understands how to think and how to form categories. He's going to be able to look at this whole picture and organize it. The kid is brilliant. Not to mention, he's prophesied by Daniel. The Lord said, he's coming. Uh, Macedonian's ambassador to Athens, and he was at 18 years old, he was an ambassador. His mother is Olympias. She had long red hair, according to the stories, uh, and taught him that he was an ancestor of the Greek god Achilles, and his father Philip came from the line of Hercules. So according to his mother and his father, his mother drilled in him that he was related to the God from both sides of the family, that we would say part of the remains of the Nephilim, that he had angelic blood in him. That's what they taught. Now, they didn't describe it according to Genesis chapter 6, but they identified it according to the Greek understanding of the gods, that he was not just a mere mortal. He had the blood of Hercules and Achilles in him from both sides of the family. And this is, if it's true or if it's not, you can decide how you want to picture that. But nonetheless, in his mind, he's undefeatable. Nothing can stop him. At this point right here, Thebes, Macedonian city, decides that they don't want Alexander, a 20-year-old punk kid, telling them what to do. So they rebel against him. He gets them to unite with him and attacks them, slaughters them, and sells 30,000 of their people into slavery. And then both Greece and Macedonia unite behind him. I should say, Thebes would be a Grecian city. The Macedonians already sided with him. And once he destroys them and they say, OK, we're either going to get sold into slavery or we're going to side with him. So now he's united what his father had originally united. 334, at the age of 22, Alexander leaves Pella. For Asia Minor crosses over you see the map on the bottom of page 8 he leaves Pella goes up through Philippi Same place Paul's gonna go crosses at the Helen spot and begins to conquer that coast from Troy down to Miletus You may remember Miletus in the Bible but all those cities along that coast are Greeks They had gone across and settled on the coast. And so they become Persians, but they're actually Greeks. So when they came over to conquer, they just opened the gates and said, come on in. So he conquers that by just showing up. So now he's in Persian territory, and he begins to march across Asia, goes through Gordium, where he has to, well, there's going to be a story there where he, there's a knot there, they don't know how to, whoever can untie that can conquer the Persians. He takes his sword, slices the knot in half, and it's like, oh, never thought of that, and marched on. Goes through the Cilician gates towards Isis, or Isis there, And that is where he now is in position to defeat the Persians. 333, Alexander goes through Gordium. At a night attack, he passes through the Cilician gates, which should have been easily defended by the Persians, but they couldn't. In the fall, Alexander meets the Persian king Darius for the first time. The Greeks outmaneuver the Persians. Alexander and the champions, that's his elite cavalry, charge and collapse the Persian front line. Alexander pursues Darius III. Darius escapes in the night. Bill Alexander spends the night in Darius's royal tent celebrating the victory. And instead of going after him and running to the east, in 333, he turns after that battle and marches down. And that is where we pick up, biblically, 333. And on the next page, 332, you've got the whole account right there of what he's going to do. This is history now. Page 9, 332, Alexander continues south between the mountains of Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to Tyre. Alexander sends ambassadors to the, watch this, sends ambassadors to the island city of Tyre, a half mile off the coast. Now we're gonna come back and talk about this. There's so many things that I wanna point out here. Tyre is on the coast, the city. But Tyre is also an island about a half mile off. For 13 years, Nebuchadnezzar fought this city, destroyed and laid waste this city on the coast. But he could not get to the island city. They built a 45-foot wall up facing the island there. They're half a mile off. No one can do anything about it. So when Alexander gives her, he realizes Nebuchadnezzar had spent 13 years and could never defeat the island city. So he says, OK, one city. He sends an ambassador over to the city, half a mile. They roll him out there. The next thing he sees is on top of the wall, that large wall facing the back to the coast land, his ambassador's body being thrown over the wall into the Mediterranean Sea. Now, Alexander is not Nebuchadnezzar. Alexander then decides, because he's not going to give up, he takes all that nebuchadnezzar left of the destroyed coastal city and starts dumping it into the Mediterranean Sea, forming a road, a causeway, some kind of a ridge, a formation there. And the Phoenicians, the people of Tyre, they take their boats and hire scuba divers to go down and pull out the rocks. And so they're good at the sea. And so everything they build up just keeps collapsing. So Alexander hires other sea people to put ships out here to protect his military, as they just take the land, the devastation that Nebuchadnezzar left, and just keep dumping it in rocks and bricks, and they build a walkway, a road, all the way out to the sea, out to the island. Now, I'm going to do this in your Bibles. You have your maps in the back of your Bibles, please. Now, let's see if this works. Okay, let's see if this works. Go to the back of the maps. Sometimes you can see it work and sometimes you can't And I'm looking I've had Bibles before that this would work Look at an Old Testament map somewhere sometime before the New Testament and you may see Tyre as an island and There may be a little dot. It's an island. And I'm not seeing one in my Bible right now. I've seen them before. I should have checked beforehand. Do you guys see an island? Like an Old Testament map, there should be like this. There should be... Tyre should be like a dot in the sea. Do you see that? But, when you get to a New Testament map, like I'm looking at the Jesus ministry map right here, it's not an island. It looks like this now. It looks like this. It comes out like this. It's because Alexander didn't build that much, but through all the years now, silt has built up around it, and there's actually, you can walk out there now. He built a bridge, but it was permanent, and it built up around it. So now, on a modern map of Tyre, you have this area, you can go all the way out to the island, and there's land. Alexander basically connected the island to the mainland, and it's there today. So if you look at a true Old Testament map, Tyre is an island. There's a coastal city, Tyre, but there's an island city. Nebuchadnezzar defeats the coastal city, but he can't defeat the island. Alexander builds a road out to it and destroys that. And that's what's taking place right here. on page nine alexander says ambassadors alexander then takes the next seven months to build a two hundred foot wide half a mile long mound to the sea in order to make a road out to the island city of of tire alexander their roles as catapults and battery rams out to the wall of the city destroys the city of tire now read it to you and fulfills the prophecy of ezekiel twenty six Darius offers Alexander, this is the Persian king, the last Persian king right here that's behind the board, offers Alexander's daughter in marriage and some 300 million dollars in gold. That's the number that would translate at one point in history. I wrote it down. The territory west of the Euphrates, you have everything west of the Euphrates. So he can marry the Persian king's daughter. He gets 300 million cash and you can have all the land west of the Euphrates. Just go home. Alexander says no. and leaves, goes on to conquer Egypt. So he's got, marries into the royal family, gets the cash, gets the land he's conquered. I'm not even going to fight back. Alexander says, no, but I'll come get you later. I'm going to go get Egypt. And then he comes and gets Persia later. And that's what takes place there. Now, as we go through here, I'd say on his way to Egypt the Philistine city of Gaza refuses to open its gates and he just is destroyed by Alexander Egypt welcomes Alexander who stops first at Memphis and then establishes one of several cities He would call Alexandria ever heard of Alexandria Egypt. Well, he's like seven of them there There's there's Alexandria's in every land he's conquered. There's a city named Alexandria and Um, Alexander then leaves Egypt, heads back towards Darius and goes to Jerusalem. At this time, this is where that verse is set, where he spares Jerusalem. Jaduah is the high priest from 371 to 320. Josephus records this. I've got it written in the notes. Part of it, I didn't print it all off tonight. Jadu is the high priest and watches Alexander's conquest coming through, you know, with the Persians up north, coming down through the Arameans, the Philistines. Jadu is mentioned in Nehemiah 12.10. His name is actually mentioned there. Jadu, I mean the actual man, Jadu began to think that this young Macedonian might be the goat or the five-winged leopard of Daniel's prophecy. As we can see in the first eight verses of Zechariah chapter 9, So the priests go out to meet Alexander because this is the goat. This is the four-winged leopard. Alexander sees this, got off his horse, hurried over to Jaduah and bowed down in front of him. Alexander then said that he had seen Jaduah in a vision and that Jaduah was a representative of heaven. Alexander told Jaduah that what he had to say would be of great advantage to Alexander. I've had a dream and you've got a message for me. I've seen you people in a dream. What is the message you've got? Jaddua then opened the scroll to Daniel and read to Alexander the prophecies of himself, that he's the goat defeating the ram, that he's the leopard defeating the bear. Alexander then promised Jerusalem would never be touched nor its temple polluted. That's just like we see in Zechariah 9. He entered Jerusalem and worshiped as a Gentile at the temple. He does go to the temple, but he worships at the temple. Before leaving in peace, Alexander gave gifts to Jerusalem and Jaduah. Alexander moves into Samaria to Samaria, who killed Alexander's deputy and rebelled. Samaria then is destroyed. Alexander moves to Tyre and arrests his troops before he began to move across Syria to meet Darius III. And then you've got other details of the end. The sad thing is not, if you want to say sad, but the fate is, by three twenty three at the age of thirty two though alexander had gone all the way east for you to see the map he went all the way out to india he turns and comes back to babel on at the age of thirty two and uh... he had had wounds hardships different things to take a place he gets a fever and dies on june eleventh uh... in three twenty three at the age of thirty two now what is interesting also to make justin tell about this is he became, there's a disease, I can't tell you what it is called right now, but he began to lose motion, mobility, began to lose feeling, and pretty soon all he could do was just lay, and he could move his eyes. And all of his troops, they knew he was dying, all of his troops came by, and Alexander looked at all of his troops, and all he could do was look at them. Then all of a sudden on June 11th now watch this. This is the this is the fact the facts He dies and they declare him dead But a miracle takes place his body doesn't start to decay for like another like seven days or 11 days It's like it's like wow. It was like a miracle Except if you go back and you look at the disease He didn't die. He just could no longer move his eyes or open his eyes and his breathing was so shallow So they had he was a they had the whole funeral procession for him puts him in the and it's like his body never Decayed during the whole whole procedure, and it's like this is amazing. It's like well. He's not dead yet and so they had and so that's history looks back for years they talked about it and And then as history looks back and identifies the disease, it's like, well, he didn't die for another week or something. Which is, you have to look that up. Anyway, that's the end of Alexander. And that's, again, much that can be said about that. Now, let's go to the notes after that, I guess. I guess I went through all those information. We're on page 11. and uh... page eleven our into the texas scripture zachariah nine one this is the english standard version i've got the hebrew there in a box for you transliterated and translated uh... zachariah nine one says this the oracle of the word of the lord and again you can see there when it says the the oracle reading the hebrew backwards word masa m a s s a it means translated their burden of the word of the Lord and it is on Zachariah. So he's going to have a burden. He's going to have a burden. He's going to have something he's going to bear. It's the word of the Lord. But this word of the Lord, it says, is against the land of Hadrach and Damascus is its resting place. For the Lord has an eye on mankind and on all the tribes of Israel. so there the lord is watching all of this all of mankind he's watching uh... and on israel or some translated all the eyes are watching the lord uh... and both can be true as you go through this i've written out a little bit about masa the word means translates burden oracle etymology derives from a meaning that means to take up or carry the placement of this word here in hebrews likely serves as a title and I got the other references to it. God is coming against these people. The Word of the Lord is now against these people. That is going to be mentioned here. And he mentions the cities are underlined here on the map on the top of page 11. He mentions these are Syrian or Aramean cities. Hadrach, it's right there about 20 miles southeast of Aleppo. Hamath, and Damascus. And then he's going to move into Sidon and Tyre. Point 3 at the bottom of page 11. In the Bible, God's Word does come to the earth. When the Word of God comes to the earth, Micah 2.7, it comes to doing good. In Psalm 107, verse 20, God's Word comes for healing. Isaiah 9.8, God's Word is coming or falls on nations to bring judgment. Jeremiah 5.14, God's Word comes like a destructive fire. Ezekiel 12.28, God sends His Word as a transforming and shaping future events as the Lord plans. In this case, the Word is against these people. It's been pronounced against these cities. And you can see them underlined there the enemies of these lands always came from the north so whenever there's a Someone attacking these lands they came from the north even if they came from the east if it was be the Assyrians the Babylonians They came from the east and entered from the north if they came from the west like Alexander They came from the west, but they came in from the north So this is a typical invasion into this land and the Lord is leading this invasion Now, your question is, or your point, the thing that's going to help you clarify this, is the Lord going to come back, His second coming, and invade this land from the north? Because if you're going to put this in the future, He's going to come in and march this land from the north. That could be. We see Him marching from the south in Isaiah, coming out of Edom. If it's Alexander doing the work, it'd be just like Nebuchadnezzar or Sennacherib coming from the north. So either way, the Lord is invading from the north. I said that this is Alexander's invasion. Point seven, the eyes of the whole world were watching Alexander's movement. Judah was particularly aware due to they'd been defeated by Babylon. They were standing in the Persian Empire. The prophecies of Daniel said this was coming. So the Israelites were watching this take place Mention of the city of Hadrach. There's just some information there on the city of Hadrach Thought to be in North Lebanon take a life policer mentions it as other Assyrians in their cuneiform writing the city Hadrach is only mentioned once in scripture. It's mentioned right here. The Assyrian place name is also had Tariq ka or in the Aramean, Hazaric. Today it's an ancient archaeological site called Tell Afishi in Syria. That monument there on the right side, that picture, was found there. According to that document is taken by the Hittites and or 1350 and ruled by Hittite King Until the 1200s in 785 Hadrach was in the kingdom of Hamath Hadrach was mentioned in the basalt stele of Zakir that you see right there the inscription says Zakir the king of Hamath and was besieged by King Ben-Hadad III, the son of Hazael, who is exactly mentioned in Scripture. So, the king that invades, according to this inscription, is mentioned in Scripture, along with 70 other kings. Now, just watch this. We talk about preterism. It says the Word of the Lord is going to come and rest on Hadrach and on Damascus. Now watch this. This is what Matthew Henry wrote. Matthew Henry was a commentator during the days of George Washington, going back to the 1700s. You can get his stuff online. I've got a set of his books. He was an amillennialist. Amillennialist is there is no millennium. I'm premillennial, meaning Jesus comes back before we have the thousand years. Some people, sometimes they're people in your churches, pastors. They're postmillennial. they believe uh... the millennium hat takes place and then jesus comes back mean the church is going to establish world peace and then the king will come back this was popular up until world war one Post-millennial we'll get it where the church is going to go forth to all the nation's established Christian Governments see they're not distinguishing between the church and the institution of the government There's an institution called the church and the institution called the government. You can't put them together. I don't think Any more than you can have two institutions called the family and the government, and we're going to put the two together. The government is now the family. It's like, no, absolutely not that they're trying to do that. You can't take the church and the government and say, ah, the church will be the government and the government will be the family. These institutions have to remain separate, I think. So post-millennialism fell out of favor with World War I, World War II. It's kind of like, up until that time, looks like Christian marching forward, Christians marching, but all of a sudden now you got all the Christian nations fighting each other in World War I. It's like, so that fell out of favor. Amillennialism is the idea that, ah, meaning no, none, there is no millennium. There is no kingdom of God on Earth. History happens and then we go into eternity. So, interestingly, just a side note, amillennialism, this is Matthew Henry writing about this verse. I'll read it again and here's his, the word of the Lord is against the land of Hadrach and will rest upon Damascus. Matthew Henry says when Saint Paul was converted at Damascus and preached there and disputed with the Jews then the word of the Lord might be said to rest there and then the eyes of men of other men besides the tribes of Israel began to be towards the Lord. Thus fulfilling in Acts 9.22, fulfilling Zechariah 9, verse 1, when the word of the Lord would rest upon Damascus and the eyes of men would look to the Lord. That's an amillennial interpretation. There you have it. That's Amalina. And then I would say, no, that's not right. But anyway, that's just flat-out interesting. You see the interpretations, and they keep twisting things to fit. Just like I will keep twisting things to fit my premillennial idea. And that's where you got to watch yourself. You want the truth, not your own ideas. Okay. It goes on in chapter 9, verse 2, and on Hamath also, which borders on it. So those are your three cities of the Syrians, Hadrach, Hamath, and Damascus, which borders on Tyre and Sidon, though they are very wise. And so now we turn the page to page thirteen and i've got some verses to read to you and i i i did i know this is there's a lot of information here and i i i don't want to miss it because this is a lot of fun i think it will pick this up three weeks right it's gonna be not next week or two weeks which is this one tuesday night right okay two weeks On page 13, you've got a picture of the mainland of Tyre on the right side and the island and You can see where Alexander built that road different people call it a mole people call it a Causeway basically just a land bridge that he just threw garbage in stones In Ezekiel, well, we know historically Nebuchadnezzar came over there and fought against Tyre for 13 years. He defeated the city on the mainland, just laid it waste, tore it down to rubble. I've got written here Ezekiel 29, verses 17 through 20. Because, well here's what it says, in the 27th year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, son of man, talking to Ezekiel. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, made his army labor hard against Tyre. Every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare." Meaning his men worked so hard carrying all that rock. He worked them in the ground. He did an outstanding job. He worked hard, yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had performed against her. He said, I had Nebuchadnezzar grind that city into the ground. They were bald, and their shoulders were bare, and they never got paid. after thirteen years. This is God telling Ezekiel. Therefore, says the Lord God, behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he shall carry off its wealth. Tyre fled out to that island, took all their gold with him, piles of gold, piles of silver, built a big wall, says, you can't get us. They did all that work and never got the city. I'm going to head him down to Egypt, and he's going to take Egypt. And he does. Jeremiah was there. The Jews fled there just in time to see Nebuchadnezzar. We talked about that. So he took it. And despoil it and plunder it, and it shall be the wages for his army. God says, I'm going to pay Nebuchadnezzar for all the work he did for me at Tyre by giving him Egypt. I have given him the land of Egypt as his payment for which he labored, because they worked for me, declares the Lord God. Now, this is not a commentary. This is God speaking through Ezekiel in chapter 29. Nebuchadnezzar was working for me when he ground the coastal city of Tyre into the ground. And they all fled out there, and they never got the gold or the silver. So, hey, you've got to pay your soldiers something. Go take Egypt. I've got to destroy them, too. But Tyre remains out there with a huge city. Go to Ezekiel chapter 26. I will read this, and then I've got to quit. And we've got to pick this up next time. Here's a prophecy against Tyre. And you're going to see... Now, you understand, even God says Nebuchadnezzar didn't finish the job. He never even got paid. History says he fought for 13 years and never took the island city. Watch this. Chapter 26 of Ezekiel. In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me. To Ezekiel, chapter 26. son of man, that's Ezekiel, because Tyre has said to Jerusalem, aha, the gate to the nations is broken, because Jerusalem has fallen. And Tyre's up there saying, aha, we can gain something for this. And its doors have swung open to me. Now that she lies in ruins, I will prosper. Jerusalem's loss is my gain. And they start cashing in on it. Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says, I am against you, O Tyre. Now, we're talking historically at that point. We're not talking about some Lucifer falling. This is him saying, you're excited about the prospects of now controlling more merchandise on the coastal plain, and you're going to use the fall of Jerusalem to your advantage? I'm against you. And I will bring many nations against you. Like the sea casting up its waves, meaning one after another, they will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers. I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock. Out in the sea, she'll become a place to spread fishnets. For I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord, she'll become plunder for the nations, and her settlements on the mainland will be ravaged by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord. So he's talking about two things. The coastal city is going to be gone, and the island, the rocks of the island are going to just be used for fishnets. For this is what the sovereign Lord says, from the north I am going to bring against Tyre Nebuchadnezzar. This is phase one. King of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, with horsemen and a great army. Now he's going to, for thirteen years, lay that bare, the coastal plain. The city's going to be laid bare. Piles of rubble. There's nothing left. But they fled out to the island. But look at this next verse, verse eight. He will ravage your settlements on the mainland with the sword. He will set up siege works against you, build a ramp up to your walls, and raise his shields against you. He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and demolish your towers and his weapons. His horses will be so many that they will cover you with dust. your walls will tremble at the noise of the warhorses, wagons, and chariots when he enters your gates as men enter a city whose walls have been broken through." In other words, somewhere between here, maybe in verse 8, it switches from Nebuchadnezzar to someone else who's going to finish the work. Because they're going to bring chariots, warhorses, they're going to drag it right here. It goes on and says, And his horses will trample all your streets. He'll kill your people with the sword and your strong pillars will fall to the ground They'll plunder your wealth and loot your merchandise They'll break down your walls and demolish your fine houses and throw your stones timber and rubble into the sea I will put an end to your noisy songs, and the music of your harps will be heard no more. I will make you a bare rock, and you will become a place to spread fishnets. You will never be rebuilt, for I, the Lord, have spoken," declares the Sovereign Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says and goes on to talk about it. And then it says, Will not the coastlands tremble at the sound of your fall? And that's what's going to happen as they fall. Right there, riding out on the chariots and the battering rams, that's what Alexander does when he builds that roadway out there. He then rolls out his battering rams, his chariots. They beat the wall in, and you can see where they enter into the wall right there. And they attack the city and they they drag it off. They drag it off like a bear rock In fact, I know one time. I don't know. I've got it written down somewhere But it was it was a Encyclopedia Britannica is before we had internet and I the article about tire It's this tire the island today There's nothing out there. There's no settlements. It's just fishing businesses. And they have, like, people have their nets out there, and they fish from the island. And it's basically where they go to the sea to get fish. It's just exactly what they said in the 500s. That's what Encyclopedia Britannica says it is today. And when you go out there on that rock that's left of the island, you can still see pillars in the water where they were pushed off when Nebuchadnezzar got, or Alexander got out there and pushed, just scraped it off. Just took everything and scraped it off into the ocean, or the Mediterranean Sea. You can still see those pillars laying there. You can look up pictures of that and see it online and stuff. Anyway, so that's what takes place. And those are right there. He tears down 150 foot high walls in the Eastern Sea. And we've got to pick that up next time. Turn the page one more picture, page 14 on the notes, because I spent time working on this. I want to show it to you. There's those cities and the approach going up to the north. Hadrach, the gray line would be the Lord or Alexander. Hadrach, Hamath to Damascus to Sidon and Tyre and then down through the cities of Ekron Ashdod Ashkelon and Gaza, but when he turns and goes Jerusalem is spared and that's what we're gonna pick this up next time we were together and I Started I'll have to get it printed for you. But if you look at the Bob page 16 on the very back that is cut and pasted uh... josephus account there's like two more yet four more pages three more pages of this you can look it up online but that is josephus recording alexander meeting judua the high priest And the accounts that that what the conversations that they had and what was taking place there and that's josephus Again, we're now once the book of malachi closes All these details are just in history or jewish documents. They're not in scripture They're in prophecy saying they're going to happen and josephus a historian goes back and records what had happened So it's just in I think that's where we're at in Zechariah chapter 9. We're talking about Alexander Marching down through those cities setting the stage. He's one king. That's coming. The next king is gonna come the great king will be Jesus coming in like a donkey and be rejected I'll pray and then we're free to go father. You thank you for the chance to look into these things We thank you for your word. We do ask that we'd handle them correctly that we would allow the word to transform our lives We do ask that We would have mercy for our nation. We ask that we could somehow shine a light, that we could spare souls and people's hearts may be turned to you. Look to something bigger than just this age and look to the age that is to come and live a life that is worthy of that age, at this time in history. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for your time.