018 When You Seek For Me

Zechariah 10:1-12

February 26, 2017

Last week we entered a bit of a new section here in the book of Zechariah.

Basically the backdrop to the section is that

· God is now addressing that group of Jews

· Who have chosen not to take advantage of the favor God has bestowed upon Israel,

· And have chosen simply to remain in Babylon.

We saw God directly confront them in chapter 9

Zechariah 9:11-12 “As for you also, because of the blood of My covenant with you, I have set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to the stronghold, O prisoners who have the hope; This very day I am declaring that I will restore double to you.”

God’s point was really quite simple.

All His plans, all the prosperity that He had in mind for them

Centered around them returning to the land of promise.

The main point to be understood was that all Jews should return to Israel because God was about to send His King to them.

Zechariah 9:9-10 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; And the bow of war will be cut off. And He will speak peace to the nations; And His dominion will be from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.”

So basically we learned that

· Since God’s King is coming to Israel,

· And since God is promising to take care of all the surrounding enemies,

· And since all of God’s blessing which He has promised is for Israel and not Babylon…

Then by all means leave your life in Babylon, and with eyes of faith,

Come take hold of the life God has promised.

And of course we saw direct application in that to our lives,

Noting all the times the New Testament reminds us

Not to love this world, or store up our treasure here,

But instead to remember that our citizenship is in heaven,

From which we eagerly long for our King as well.

Well tonight, God is still making that point.

And having revealed the promise of

He coming King and subsequent blessing,

God is now pushing for these Jews to believe it.

And that is made apparent to us by the very first word of chapter 10, “Ask”

· “Ask” is a word of action.

· “Ask” is a word of faith.

It is a word which identifies a person who is beginning to understand that

All of their future lies within the hands of a generous and gracious God,

And who has determined to ask Him for it.

This obviously also has direct implications to the New Testament as we have Jesus reminding us:

Matthew 7:7-11 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. "Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? "Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”

I know this concept has been more than a little misunderstood in our day.

People like to take passages like this and use them to basically insinuate that

If we ask in faith we can have anything we want from God.

And we should certainly be aware by now that

That in no way reflects the heart of God or the intention of His word.

Rather, the point to the command to “Ask” is that

We be a people who believe the promises God has made

And therefore are not afraid to seek them above everything else,

Which is made evident when we “Ask” for those things.

To put it another way.

· We don’t just ask for anything we want and expect God to “Hop to it”.

· We ask according to His will.

· We ask according to His promises.

It simply means that instead of ignoring what God has said,

We determine to seek it out.

That is precisely what God is now doing here in Zechariah 10.

He has made the promise,

And now He is wanting them to believe it enough to seek it out.

By the way, this has always been the intent.

Remember the famous sermon God preached to Israel as they were about to go into exile?

Jeremiah 29:10-14 "For thus says the LORD, 'When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. 'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 'I will be found by you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.'”

Even from the outset God’s intention

Was that after this period of discipline,

Israel would refocus on Him and start seeking Him once again.

God’s intent was that they would

Let go of the futile promises of the world and their false deities

And understand that in God alone did they have a future.

And that their new faith in Him would evidence itself

Through their seeking Him instead of the things of the world.

That is exactly the implication and intent here in chapter 10

When God is now declaring to these people to “Ask” Him.

There are two main points here.

#1 A REMINDER OF WHO TO SEEK

Zechariah 10:1-2

“Ask rain from the LORD at the time of the spring rain – The LORD who makes the storm clouds; and He will give them showers of rain, vegetation in the field to each man.”

Now first, let’s just take the statement at face value.

If we are talking about needing rain, then the statement is very obvious.

If you need rain, who should you ask? “the LORD”

Why? Because He is “The LORD who makes the storm clouds”

When should you ask for it? “at the time” when you need it.

It’s just a simple proverb of sort.

When you need something, then you should ask the One who can provide it at the time when you need it.

THAT’S A RATHER SIMPLE POINT.

Obviously we could be talking about literal rain here.

You are aware that one of the consequences of their failure to rebuild the temple was that God had withheld moisture.

Haggai 1:9-11 "You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why?" declares the LORD of hosts, "Because of My house which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house. "Therefore, because of you the sky has withheld its dew and the earth has withheld its produce. "I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground produces, on men, on cattle, and on all the labor of your hands."

Because of their refusal to build God’s temple, God had withheld rain,

And it is certainly possible that the prophet here refers to

Asking God for literal rain at the time in which they need it.

But it is also very likely there is a spiritual application here.

Rain is a symbol for blessing

Hosea 6:1-3 "Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. "He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, That we may live before Him. "So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth."

Isaiah 44:3 “For I will pour out water on the thirsty land And streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring And My blessing on your descendants;”

Isaiah 35:1-7 “The wilderness and the desert will be glad, And the Arabah will rejoice and blossom; Like the crocus It will blossom profusely And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, The majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the LORD, The majesty of our God. Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble. Say to those with anxious heart, "Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, But He will save you." Then the eyes of the blind will be opened And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness And streams in the Arabah. The scorched land will become a pool And the thirsty ground springs of water; In the haunt of jackals, its resting place, Grass becomes reeds and rushes.”

It wasn’t just rain Israel needed, but God’s favor in general,

Which was often illustrated with rain.

And even then this makes a very valid point to Israel.

The only hope of receiving the things you seek is in God,

Who alone provides it.

Whether that is literal rain or spiritual blessing.

Seeking for it anywhere else is foolish since only God is the source.

Psalms 146:1-7 “Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul! I will praise the LORD while I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Do not trust in princes, In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation. His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; In that very day his thoughts perish. How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, Whose hope is in the LORD his God, Who made heaven and earth, The sea and all that is in them; Who keeps faith forever; Who executes justice for the oppressed; Who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free.”

Only God supplies the things you seek.

This is also why the prophet continues

By pointing out the utter folly of listening to false prophets or seeking false gods.

They cannot fulfill what they promise.

(2) “For the teraphim speak iniquity, And the diviners see lying visions And tell false dreams; They comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep, They are afflicted, because there is no shepherd.”

If you cry out to your household idols (“teraphim”)

If you listen to the “false dreams” of the “diviners”

Your “comfort” will be “in vain”; it won’t last.

And the result will be affliction like sheep without a shepherd.

That is the analogy of people who seek the things only God can provide

From a source other than God.

It leaves man empty and broken.

Now Israel certainly did this in her past.

Jeremiah 2:13 "For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water.”

Jeremiah 6:14 "They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, 'Peace, peace,' But there is no peace.”

Jeremiah 10:21 “For the shepherds have become stupid And have not sought the LORD; Therefore they have not prospered, And all their flock is scattered.”

· Certainly part of the reason that Israel was sent to Babylon in the first place

was because instead of seeking God, they had begun to seek false gods and false prophets.

· Certainly they did this because the message of the false prophets was much

more appealing to the flesh than the message of the true prophets.

· However the end result was exile with no comfort.

That certainly happened in their past.

But it may be that it was beginning to happen again,

And this might have been why the Jews wouldn’t return from Babylon.

Instead of believing the message of God’s prophets

They were listening to the message of the false prophets

Still holding out hope that their best future was in Babylon.

These men must have been encouraging the people that they could have their “Best Life Now” right here in Babylon.

BUT YOU’D BE FOOLISH TO LISTEN TO THEM

False prophets may indeed do a good job making promises,

But the problem is that they cannot back them up.

(Only God can produce rain!)

Listen to Peter and Jude talk to you about the reality of the false prophets.

2 Peter 2:17 “These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved.”

Jude 12-13 “These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.”

Both of these men referred to them in the same light.

· Peter – “springs without water”

· Jude – “clouds without water”

And that hearkens back to the point being made here.

There has only ever been one who could send the rain,

Everyone else who promised was like a lying cloud.

So the message here is pretty clear.

DON’T LISTEN TO MEN WHO OFFER WHAT THEY CANNOT PRODUCE.

SEEK THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN ACTUALLY DELIVER.

Reminder of who to Seek

#2 REMINDER OF WHAT TO EXPECT

Zechariah 10:3-12

It begins with God voicing His displeasure with those false prophets

Who are leading His people astray.

(3) “My anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the male goats;”

Make no mistake about it, God is not pleased with the false prophets

Or the people who follow them and discourage the others.

God promises to deal with them.

Incidentally you’ll see this in a couple of chapters when Jesus arrives deals with those false shepherds:

Zechariah 11:8 “Then I annihilated the three shepherds in one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also was weary of me.”

So obviously God will not leave those guilty unpunished.

But it is also important to God that His children know

What He has in store for them.

If you seek the teraphim and the false prophets you have no future,

But let me show you the plans that God has for you here in Israel.

There are 5 listed here.

1) GLORY (3b)

“For the LORD of hosts has visited His flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like His majestic horse in battle.”

That is simply another analogy from which we learn a point.

Israel was currently the afflicted flock.

· They were like sheep without a shepherd because their shepherds had betrayed them.

They are like what Jesus found when He came:

Matthew 9:36 “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”

But here God says His plan is take them

From being afflicted sheep to being a majestic horse.

And not just any horse, but the glorious horse ridden by the king in battle.

IT’S JUST AN ANALOGY OF GLORY.

And it so perfectly fits the day in which they lived.

· They were currently in Babylon.

· Perhaps they were comfortable,

· But they were still nothing more than afflicted sheep there.

God was offering them so much more.

As I think of the offer and the dilemma

It reminds me of Jacob as he was about to die.

· Here his son Joseph had ascended to the #2 man in all of Egypt.

· Jacob and the rest of his family had followed him there and amassed great

riches.

Genesis 47:27 “Now Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in Goshen, and they acquired property in it and were fruitful and became very numerous.”

But it didn’t matter how much property and wealth was gained in Egypt

They were still nothing more than foreigners in the land of Egypt

And Jacob would not let his family forget that.

First in the way he reminded his sons to bury him back in Canaan

Genesis 47:29-31 “When the time for Israel to die drew near, he called his son Joseph and said to him, "Please, if I have found favor in your sight, place now your hand under my thigh and deal with me in kindness and faithfulness. Please do not bury me in Egypt, but when I lie down with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place." And he said, "I will do as you have said." He said, "Swear to me." So he swore to him. Then Israel bowed in worship at the head of the bed.”

And then in the way in which Jacob blessed Joseph’s sons and the rest of Joseph’s brothers.

(Jacob actually divided their inheritance; gave them land he didn’t own)

It didn’t matter how comfortable Israel became in Egypt,

Jacob wanted them to remember that Egypt

Was not what God had in store for them.

God’s best was in the land of Canaan.

The same could be said in Zechariah’s day.

It doesn’t matter how comfortable you get in Babylon,

God’s best is in Israel.

The same could be said to us today.

It doesn’t matter how comfortable you get in this world, God’s best awaits in glory.

SO DO NOT SACRIFICE THE BEST FOR THE PRESENT.

You are now an afflicted sheep,

God has plans to make you a glorious horse.

So the first thing Israel could expect from obeying God was GLORY.

2) DOMINION (4)

"From them will come the cornerstone, From them the tent peg, From them the bow of battle, From them every ruler, all of them together.”

All of these titles were Messianic titles.

God was reminding Israel again that a King was coming to her.

And the King who would come would not just be any king,

But the King of Kings.

He would rule “every ruler”

It doesn’t matter how prosperous and comfortable you get in Babylon you will never achieve a promise like that.

Each of us has the promise of a kingdom as well,

But we will never get it here on this earth.

The false prophets can talk until they’re blue in the face about all the things you should possess here and now, but they can’t honor any of those empty words.

Our kingdom awaits us in heaven.

Matthew 6:33 "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

We’d be foolish to reject that kingdom for the sake of keeping this one.

Jesus taught us to forsake everything here that we might gain that one.

Matthew 13:44-46 "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

We are seeking more than comfort. We are seeking dominion.

Matthew 19:28-29 “And Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name's sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.”

Hebrews 13:14 “For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.”

If you’ll forsake Babylon and ask for the promises of God then you can expect to trade shame for glory and slavery for dominion.

3) VICTORY (5)

"They will be as mighty men, Treading down the enemy in the mire of the streets in battle; And they will fight, for the LORD will be with them; And the riders on horses will be put to shame.”

The imagery here is of foot soldiers overpowering a cavalry.

And the reason they are able to do it is because God is with them.

This one should be very clear to us being that we are also currently studying the Revelation.

You may have the kingdom of the antichrist and Satan seeming to rule the world, but there is no doubt who owns the victory in the end.

We just looked as His battle of Armageddon this morning

As the blood ran through the streets of all the enemies of Christ.

We also saw Christ wearing that STEPHANOS (victor’s crown)

As He returned to vanquish the foe.

I can promise you that there is no victory to be found in Babylon.

Babylon is fallen, victory is in Israel.

Glory, Dominion, Victory

4) RECONCILIATION (6-8)

If you are familiar with your Jewish history

You will remember that after the reign of Solomon

The kingdom of Israel was split in two.

All but the tribe of Judah was ripped out of the hand of Rehoboam

And from that point on there were two separate nations.

The northern 10 tribes were called Israel

The southern tribe as called Judah

Far from being allies, they often warred against each other.

Israel was destroyed by Assyria and Judah was destroyed by Babylon

It had 400 years since there had been unity among God’s people.

But unity was part of God’s plan.

He was going to save “Judah” and “Joseph”

He is going to “bring them back”

And both would be “as though I had not rejected them;”

· God would make “their heart glad as if from wine;”

“their children would see it and be glad, their heart will rejoice in the LORD.”

By staying in Babylon

They would only create further division among God’s people.

How long do you suppose it would be before the Jews of Israel

Grew to resent the Jews of Babylon?

True reconciliation and unity among God’s people

Was only found when all of God’s people seek and obey God.

Incidentally this is still true.

So long as some of God’s children seek God

And other of God’s children seek the world, there will never be unity.

Jude 17-19 “But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, "In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts." These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit.”

If you want true reconciliation it comes with the decision to seek the inheritance of God’s people among God’s people.

Clinging to the world or staying in Babylon will never produce that.

God says that His children can expect:

Glory, Dominion, Victory, Reconciliation

5) RESTORATION (9-12)

Do you notice all the references to bringing them back?

(9) “They will remember Me in far countries, and they with their children will live and come back.”

(10) “I will bring them back from the land of Egypt and gather them from Assyria.”

(10) “I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon until no room can be found for them.”

And it really doesn’t matter how difficult it may seem to accomplish,

I will do it.

“they will pass through the sea of distress” (reminder of the Red sea)

“the depths of the Nile will dry up” (reminder of the stopping up of the Jordan)

God will overthrow any nation which opposes His plan

And God will bring His people back.

(12) “And I will strengthen them in the LORD, and in His name they will walk,” declares the LORD”

It is God’s way of saying that He will restore them

As His nation; as His people; as His possession.

They will go back to the land and back to their status as His people.

Now we think about all that they had in Babylon,

And we compare that to all that which God was promising them in Israel.

· In Babylon they were afflicted sheep,

· In Israel they would be majestic horses.

· In Babylon they were lowly slaves,

· In Israel they would be reigning kings.

· In Babylon they were promised defeat,

· In Israel they would gain the victory.

· In Babylon they were estranged from their brothers,

· In Israel they would have unity.

· In Babylon they were scattered foreigners,

· In Israel they would be the restored people of God.

SO WHY WOULD THEY WANT TO STAY IN BABYLON?

Only because they walked by sight and not by faith.

And the application to us is just as easy and clear.

· Here we do not have a lasting city…

· This world is promised to go down in flames…

· Here we have no kingdom…

· Here we have no inheritance…

· Here we are scattered foreigners; aliens and strangers…

But God has promised us a KINGDOM and a PEOPLE and VICTORY

And a FUTURE and a HOPE and DOMINION.

We’d be fools to cling to this world

Instead of fixing our eyes on the kingdom to come.

Jim Elliot was the famous missionary speared to death in South America who said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

It was wise when he said it on earth.

It proved eternally brilliant on the day he entered glory.

This is our call.

· Trust God’s plan.

· Trust God’s promises.

· Seek what God has, not what the world has to offer.

You wouldn’t ask for rain from anyone but God,

But rain isn’t the only thing that God offers…

Glory, Dominion, Victory, Reconciliation, Restoration…

He’s the only One who can offer those things too.

Seek God, not the false promises of the world.

Matthew 6:33 "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”