TEXT:
"[11] As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
[12] Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
today I declare that I will restore to you double.
[13] For I have bent Judah as my bow;
I have made Ephraim its arrow.
I will stir up your sons, O Zion,
against your sons, O Greece,
and wield you like a warrior's sword.”
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
Spend a few minutes discussing why Zechariah references the “blood of the covenant.” How is the blood of the covenants in Genesis 15 and Exodus 24 a foreshadow of the new covenant (Jeremiah 31, Mark 14:24)?
How is God our stronghold?
What does it mean that God would “restore to you double?”
How is the Christian faith an “offense-ive” faith?
MANUSCRIPT:
As we dive in today, it would be helpful to remember that God here is speaking to fragile people. He's talking to a people who, in the past twenty years, have come out of Babylonian captivity. He's speaking to people who are still without a king. Their confidence is at an all-time low when comparing their nation with their neighboring countries. They're a people who have been holding on by a thread.
But, throughout Zechariah, God has been restoring their confidence, not in themselves, but in him. After all, the hope of the Bible isn't found inside of you; it is found outside of you. You are not the hero of the Bible; God is. So, if they return to the LORD, he will return to them. He will bless them, and he will be their provider and protector.
In chapter 9, God has begun to build on their reasons for hope. Like a builder laying brick upon brick to build a strong home, God is stacking promise upon promise to make a strong people. Here he's promised judgment against their enemies. Their enemies will be defeated, and they will be spared. He's promised the coming of their humble and mighty king, who will bring peace to them and the nations. His kingdom will stretch farther than any kingdom has before. And today, we will find God promising his people that they will be delivered, restored, protected, and given purpose.
The four points for today's passage will be as follows:
Those in God's kingdom will be free.
Those in God's kingdom will be protected.
Those in God's kingdom have hope.
Those in God's kingdom have purpose.
Let's dive in.
"[11] As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
[12] Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
today I declare that I will restore to you double.
[13] For I have bent Judah as my bow;
I have made Ephraim its arrow.
I will stir up your sons, O Zion,
against your sons, O Greece,
and wield you like a warrior's sword.”
FREEDOM FROM THE PIT
Following the promise to send their king who will usher in a peaceful kingdom, God refocuses his attention on his people. He points his finger at his people and says, "As for you also, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit."
A waterless pit is a deep, inescapable hole that does not contain something vital to life, water. It's a hole that you cannot get out of, and it's a hole that will lead to your demise. So, this assumes that some of God's people were stuck as prisoners in a lifeless situation.
Most commentators agree that this primarily references those still stuck in Babylon as captives. So, in this immediate context, God is promising his people deliverance and freedom from their captivity in Babylon.
Now, a waterless pit would have been a familiar reference to God's people— it's what Joseph was tossed into by his brothers in Genesis 37. In Genesis 37, Joseph was initially thrown into a waterless pit to die. But, determined not to have Joseph's blood on their hands, they decided to sell him into slavery instead. If you fast forward Joseph's story, you will find that his "deliverance" from the pit was ultimately used to preserve the entire Israelite community. In Genesis 50, Joseph declares, "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today."
So, similarly, God here is saying that the pit is not the end of the story for God's people. Although they're trapped in captivity, freedom and purpose are on the horizon. Just like he did with Joseph, God will soon free them from the pit of captivity, leading to the further preservation of his people.
BY THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT
Now, how would they know that this deliverance is guaranteed? What if this is an empty promise? What if God isn't able to deliver them?
Well, they know that their freedom is coming because "of the blood of [his] covenant with [them]."
Covenants are something we often find in the Bible. A covenant (similar to a contract) was a binding agreement in which covenant members had certain obligations and could expect certain benefits in return. What differentiates a covenant from a simple binding agreement (a contract) is that covenant implies meaningful relationships. So, the language used here in Zechariah assumes a relational covenant was made between God and his people-- there was a binding agreement between God and his people.
When a covenant was made, an animal(s) would have been slaughtered and cut in half. Both parties would then walk through the slaughtered animals, implying both parties saying, "may the same thing that happened to me that's happened to these animals if I break the covenant made today."
In Genesis 15, we find God entered into a covenant with Abraham, where he promised to make him a great nation. However, a deep sleep falls on Abraham, allowing only God to pass through the slaughtered animals. So, on that day, God promised Abram that he would build him into a strong nation that would eventually bless all of humanity. The shedding of blood served as validation of this promise.
Similarly, in Exodus 24, we see a covenant made with God's people coming out of slavery in Egypt. Here God lays out the terms of their relationship with Him and promises to make them into a holy kingdom that will spread blessing and glory to the nations. Moses then takes the blood of their sacrifices and throws it on God's people as a symbolic reminder of the covenant they entered into with God.
So, Zechariah is saying that their deliverance rests solely upon the shoulders of God's faithfulness to keep his covenantal promise. They will be free from captivity because he is faithful. They will be delivered because he is determined to be true to his word. Nothing other than the blood of the covenant is where their hope of salvation resides. We can always trust the promises of God's word to ring true because God is truthful.
Jeremiah spoke about a new covenant that would be on the horizon for God's people. He said, "Behold, the days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband... For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people... For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
Well, on the night that Jesus was betrayed, Jesus held up the glass of wine and said, "This is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many (Mark 14:24)."
So, hours before he laid his life down on the cross, Jesus references the blood of the covenant. His disciples, still likely unclear of the full magnitude of what Jesus is saying at this very moment, were probably thinking back to these old covenants. But Jesus was telling his disciples they were about to enter this new covenant with God. It was time for the words of Jeremiah to ring true.
Jesus was led to the cross like a lamb led to the slaughter. On the cross, he was crushed for humanity, and his blood was poured out for many. On the cross, he was pierced for our transgressions. On the cross, he was crushed for our sins. On the cross, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him. By his wounds, we can be healed. So, it is on the cross that we find forgiveness for sins because it was on the cross that Jesus drank the full wrath of God.
Church, the words spoken here in Zechariah apply to you and me today. God's people could cling to the promise of deliverance from the waterless pit, not because of their ability to get out of it but because of the blood of God's covenant with them. In the same way, our hope for deliverance is the blood of the covenant. Jesus is our hope. Our hope for freedom from the snares of sin and death resides in nothing other than the blood of Jesus. We can be delivered from this waterless pit because of the bloodshed on the cross. The cross is the declaration of God's faithfulness to his people. We were once slaves to sin, but now we have been set free and are slaves to righteousness. So, when we question and wonder if freedom is ours, the cross is where we fix our gaze.
RETURN TO YOUR STRONGHOLD
Following this promise of deliverance, God calls his people to return to him. He says, "Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double."
Prisoner of hope is a beautiful phrase. Although they may be in chains, they are not in chains without hope of freedom. They will be set free. Therefore, they are prisoners of hope.
When we consult the Psalms, we see God consistently referred to as their stronghold. So, this is an invitation to return to walking with, trusting in, and finding refuge in their God. And it's an invitation directly tied to a promise of restoration (double restoration). Like Job, God will restore them twice as much as they once had whenever they return to him. He's promising them a hopeful future with him.
On the one hand, this reminds us that a life with God is better than a life away from him. He is our stronghold, our protector, and our provider. When dwelling in a stronghold, you're protected in ways you don't know about. A stronghold protects you from dangers that you can't always see. Brothers and sisters, this past week, God protected you in ways you may never know.
On the other hand, this reminds us that the Christian life is a life of hope. We are prisoners of hope, which means that no matter how bad things may get in this life, we have hope that things will get better. In the same way, no matter how good things get in this life, we also cling to the hope that things will get better. We cling to the hope that God will restore to us double. The lowest sorrows and the greatest joys of this life will pale when compared to the joys we will experience one day in heaven with God. The Christian life is a life of hope.
GOD’S WEAPON OF CHOICE, HIS PEOPLE
Zechariah then says that he has "bent Judah as [his] bow," and "made Ephraim its arrow," against "Greece."
There are disagreements amongst scholars regarding Greece here. During this time, Greece would not have been a prominent nation. It would be like us prophesying a great battle between America and Madagascar. But, in the future, Greece did become a powerful nation through Alexander the Great. And through the Maccabean revolt, God's people did defeat the Greeks who were oppressing God's people at this time. But I found Eugene Merrill's summary here to be helpful. He believes that Greece could be interpreted as a general reference to any hostile power that might arise against God's covenant people.
So, here we see God's people being used as an instrument against their enemies. They will be his bow. They will be his arrow. And he will wield them like a sword. Here we're beginning to transition into what theologians call eschatological language (Language pertaining to the future and final judgment). We're going to dive into that more in the coming verses.
But, what I want us to see today is the truth that those who God delivers will be those whom God uses. Those who find refuge in God will be those that God uses. If you've been set free from sin, you've been set free to righteous living.
The Christian life is not passive; it's active. Those who God has delivered are those who dwell securely in the stronghold of God. And those who dwell safely in the stronghold of God become the weapon of God.
God has always had a purpose for his people. And his purpose is offense-ive, not defensive. Jesus, when speaking to Peter, he said, "On this rock, I build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." The language used here implies God's people knocking down the gates of hell. Jesus, when speaking to his disciples, tells them to "go into the world and make disciples." That's active, offense-ive language.
So, the Christian faith is not a passive faith where we sit quietly in a fortress, nor is it merely a defensive faith where we sit tight, waiting to defend against the enemy's attacks. The Christian faith is an active faith; it's a strategic faith; it's an offense-ive faith. We boldly and strategically enter into the world of darkness to battle and win souls to Christ.
Although there will be a future battle that one day takes place, we also must be reminded that we find ourselves in a battle today. And, as we wage war, we must remember that God has disarmed his people and equipped them to be people of peace. So, the battle of the Christian faith is not against the people around you. God has not called you to trample your neighbors; he has called you to love your neighbors. God has not called you to cut down your persecutors; he has called you to bless those who persecute you. We do not fight against flesh and blood. Instead, we understand that we fight against "the rulers, and the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12)."
We find ourselves in a spiritual battle today. Therefore, we put on the whole armor of God and stand firm against the attacks of Satan. We fasten on the belt of truth, and we put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for our feet, we put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, we hold up the shield of faith to extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. We put on the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
UNITY IN GOD’S KINGDOM
Now, something interesting here is the unity found in these verses. After Solomon died, God's people were divided into two kingdoms: Israel (northern) and Judah (southern). Ephraim was a northern tribe of Israel, and Judah was the southern kingdom. So, God is saying that he will take Ephraim, a tribe of Israel, and unite it with Judah. Together they will become the chosen weapon of God against Greece. God here is joining those who were once divided. Ephraim and Judah will unite again to carry out God's purpose and plan. He won't just bring peace to the nations; he will bring peace to his people. The peace that the gospel brings tears down all barriers. The walls that man builds, the gospel tears down. God was planning to create a united people who joined together to carry out his plan.