God at War
Zech. 9
Of all the descriptions of God found in the Bible, one of the most shocking is found in a song sung by Moses and the people of Israel after their rescue from the Egyptians at the Red Sea.
Exodus 15:3 The LORD is a man of war; The LORD is His name.
“A man of war”- a warrior, a fighter, a soldier, fighting for victory against His enemies. For some reason that’s not an image we connect with God our Father, God our Shepherd, God the Creator of all things. But it’s interesting how often in both the OT and the NT God is described using this metaphor.
Deuteronomy 1:30 The LORD your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes,…
2 Chronicles 20:29 And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they heard that the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel.
Matthew 10:34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.”
Revelation 19:11 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.
Now granted, many of these descriptions are symbolic, but the question is, symbolic of what? Is the Lord calling us to be involved in some kind of Christian jihad? If not, then what does the Bible mean by calling God a “man of war”?
I invite to think along with me about these questions as we read tonight in Zech 9, where God describes Himself as a Warrior in 3 ways: as Conqueror, a Peacemaker, and a Rescuer.
I. THE LORD IS A CONQUEROR (v. 1-8)
Many of the world’s warriors are remembered best as conquerors of huge kingdoms. Somebody took time to produce figures on how many square miles they conquered:
Genghis Khan 4,860,000 Alexander the Great 2,180,000
Attila the Hun 1,450,000 Adolf Hitler 1,370,000(lost it all in 3 yrs)
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) 720,000
These conquering warriors racked up an impressive record, and changed history, but one thing I notice: none of them would be what you’d call good guys. The reason they conquered was for their own pride and lust for power. Certainly you’d never want to use any of these guys to represent God.
And yet God is a conqueror. He does use His power to take enemy territory, but here’s the difference: when God goes to war as Conqueror, He fights to defeat evil and defend righteousness.
This is what Zechariah describes in vs. 1-9: a prophecy of God going to war against evil. The enemies are the enemies of His people Israel, and the battle begins many miles north in Syria, specifically the regions of Hadrach, Damascus, and Hamath. (v. 1-2a) The Syrians were infamous for oppressing Israel, and these areas were considered unconquerable. Yet when God goes to war, Zechariah says, they will fall.
In vs. 2b-4, the battle moves south to the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon, famous metropolitan seaports known for its wisdom and power, as well as military might on land and sea. Yet when God goes to war, these rich merchants shall be turned out of their homes, their navy will be sunk to the bottom of the sea, the strong fortresses burned to the ground.
The final assault comes in vs. 5-7 on the major Philistine cities of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and Ashdod. God will come sweeping through these cities, killing their king, emptying out their cities, vaporizing almost all their hopes for the future---almost. The prophet throws in a curve ball in vs. 7 (read.) The blood and abominations refer to idol worship. This verse seems to say that God will conquer some of the Philistines not by crushing them, but by converting them, bringing them over to His side, like a Jebusite (original inhabitants of Jerusalem, who became part of Israel when David conquered the pagan city.) These longstanding enemies of Israel and the Lord could not stand before God at war.
On the other hand, look at vs. 8 (read). God promises to camp out with His people, to keep His eyes on them to protect them from danger. No other army could threaten His people when He was keeping them safe.
The words of this prophecy were fulfilled c. 200 years later when Alexander the Great marched through this route conquering each of these areas. Guess which area Alexander did not harm or hinder? Israel. Through this pagan conqueror, God fulfilled His Word and conquered all of these areas.
But beyond this literal fulfillment, there is an important principle here: if you’re at war with God, you’re on the losing side. God is determined to conquer this world, either by His power, or by His love. There is no way anybody will ever successfully frustrate God’s plan of world domination. History is working toward the day when, in the words of Paul,
Philippians 2:10-1110that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
You and I will be conquered by the Lord either by bowing before Him now by choice, or bowing before Him on that day because we have no choice. Have you allowed the Lord to conquer your heart and life? Have you surrendered all of you to Him?
II. THE LORD IS A PEACEMAKER (v. 9-10)
The United Nations occasionally sends military troops into a country to serve as “peace-keepers.” You can debate about whether such peacekeepers like this do much good, but one thing is certain: sometimes it takes a warrior to bring peace.
People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. - George Orwell
A warrior not only makes war, but also keeps the peace. Zechariah describes such a peacemaker in vs. 9-10. Zech urges Israel to welcome this King with shouts of joy because He comes in peace and comes to bring peace.
In those days, a warrior king would ride into town after the battle in one of two ways: if he rode in a horse, he had come to destroy the town and kill everybody there. But if he rode in on a donkey or a mule, he was telling the people he came in peace, not to destroy them, but to rebuild the town, to bring them justice, to deal kindly with them. This King comes in peace.
But this King also comes to bring peace. V. 10a says He will get rid of the weapons of war in Ephraim and Jerusalem. Instead of declaring war, he will proclaim peace, by ruling over all the earth from sea to sea, and from east to west.
Again, the Bible tells us Zech’s prophecy is literally fulfilled when Christ rides into Jerusalem for the last time in
John 12:12-15 12The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ The King of Israel!” 14Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: 15“Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, Sitting on a donkey’s colt.”
Jesus came to Jerusalem in peace and to bring peace, but they refused their King. Their refusal later led to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, just as Jesus predicted.
But there is a principle here about the Lord as a Warrior: He comes in peace to bring peace to each one of us.
A lot of people think God hates them, that He enjoys punishing and destroying people. I know some folks who see God as stern and angry, always looking for some reason to make us miserable. But Jesus painted a completely different portrait of God when He said
John 3:16-17 16For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
God was willing to go to war to bring you peace.
He sent His only Son to defeat sin and Satan on the Cross- the world’s bloodiest battlefield--not only so you and I can live in His peace—a peace that cannot be taken away from us as long as we trust Him.
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Peace is not the result of ideal circumstances, but comes through your faith in the Warrior Who fought to give you His peace. Do you have peace in your life? Bro. Mike, how on earth can I have peace when my life is in such turmoil right now? Only Jesus can give you the peace you need. It comes when you ask Him for it, and then when you hold on to His promise for your peace. It is no harder or easier than that—ask, and then believe.
To have Christ in our life, doesn’t mean sailing on a sea with no storms, it means having a boat that no storm can sink!- Author Unknown
That boat is His peace, and it’s yours for the asking.
III. THE LORD IS A RESCUER (v. 11-17)
Warriors are saviors. Their mission is not only to kill the enemy, but to rescue POWs. Zech portrays the Lord as a Savior, as a Rescuer of His people.
First, in vs. 11a He reminds them of the covenant He has with them—a Covenant sealed in the blood of Sacrifice, which binds Him to Israel and Israel to Him. That covenant is the basis of His salvation.
Secondly in vs. 11b He promises to rescue them from …the waterless pit…Most nations did not keep prisons for enemy soldiers, which is one reason why they so often just killed them. But those who were not killed were often put in large holes in the ground, with little or no hope of escape. They were not fed well, and often the only way they got water was when it rained. If you were imprisoned in a pit where no rain had fallen for a long time, your chances of survival were slim to none.
But God promises to rescue His people from the waterless pit. When He does, He commands them in vs. 12 to …return to the stronghold…=come back home to safety. This is not just a call to come back to Israel, but to come back to God Himself as their ultimate safety.
Psalm 9:9 The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, A refuge in times of trouble.
Then God promises in vs. 13-15 to raise up these prisoners to become warriors in the battle against Greece. Judah will be the bow, Ephraim the arrows, and they will fight on to victory. But make no mistake, Zech says in vs. 16, the Lord will be the One Who rescues them then. Then Israel will be as beautiful as jewels in the crown of a great King, like the flag unfurled and waving boldly in the breeze, with young men and women full of life and beauty.
Psalm 40:1-2 1I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. 2He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.
Have you been in the pit lately? Dark and dry, you almost feel your hope evaporate, and you wonder, “What’s the use of trying?” God wants you to know He will rescue you, if you will call out to Him. There is no pit in life—physical, emotional, spiritual—that He cannot reach down and rescue you. Isn’t it odd how it often takes hard times to remind us that Christ can rescue us from the deepest pit?
When Howard Rutledge’s plane was shot down over Vietnam, he parachuted into a little village and was immediately attacked, stripped naked, and imprisoned. For the next seven years his food was little more than a bowl of rotting soup with a glob of pig fat—skin, hair, and all. Rats the size of cats and spiders as big as fists scurried around him. He was frequently cold, alone, and tortured. He was sometimes shackled in excruciating positions and left for days. How did he keep his sanity? In his book, In the Presence of Mine Enemies, Rutledge tells what kept Him alive:
“Now the sights and sounds and smells of death were all around me. My hunger for spiritual food soon outdid my hunger for a steak. Now I wanted to know about that part of me that will never die. Now I wanted to talk about God and Christ and the church. But in solitary confinement there was no pastor, no Sunday-school teacher, no Bible, no hymnbook, no community of believers to guide and sustain me. I had completely neglected the spiritual dimension of my life. It took prison to show me how empty life is without God, and so I had to go back in my memory to those Sunday-school days in Tulsa, Oklahoma. If I couldn’t have a Bible and hymnbook, I would try to rebuild them in my mind…One day I heard [fellow prisoner Henry Jenkins] whisper ‘I got a new one,’ he said. ‘I don’t know where it comes from or why I remember it, but it’s a story about Ruth and Naomi.’ He then went on to tell that ancient story of Ruth following Naomi into a hostile new land and finding God’s presence and protection there…we lived off that story for days, rebuilding it, thinking about what it meant, and applying God’s ancient words to our predicament…Remember, we weren’t playing games. The enemy knew that the best way to break a man’s resistance was to crush his spirit in a lonely cell…some of our POWs after solitary confinement lay down in a fetal position and died. All this talk of Scripture and hymns may seem boring to some, but it was the way we conquered our enemy and overcame the power of death around us.”*
The Lord is a man of war. He is the Conqueror, winning your heart by His love, and your surrender. He is the Peacemaker, giving you peace that cannot be taken away. He is your Rescuer, lifting you up from the darkest pit, and setting your feet on solid ground.
What battles do you need to trust God to fight for you tonight?
