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Today we're going to be talking about prophecies about the first coming of Christ in the book of Zechariah. In the previous two messages we've given an overview, an outline of the book. Then last time we covered the eight visions of Nehemiah or of Zechariah, the night visions that were given to him in one night. And that's covered in chapter one through six. That today we're going to be talking about prophecies about the first coming of Christ. Now keep in mind, the book of Zechariah was written over a 40 year time period from 520 to 480 BC, a full five centuries before the birth of Christ. And I'll just say from the outset, what we're trying to do is establish a eschatological hermeneutic, which is a long way of saying, how do we interpret Bible prophecy? It's a very, how should we say, controversial subject today, especially as it relates to unfulfilled prophecy. So we're starting on safe grounds. Today we're talking about fulfilled prophecies in the book of Zechariah. And as we go through these, I want you to make a mental note as to how these prophecies were fulfilled, because I think that may give us a clue as to how unfulfilled prophecies will be fulfilled. Because can we all agree that God is consistent? He is ultimately consistent. We are ultimately inconsistent, but God is not like us. He is ultimately consistent. What he has done in the past, we can expect him to do in the future because he is perfect and we are not. So I will say at the outset that we are trying to establish an eschatological hermeneutic based upon fulfilled prophecies today, prophecies about the first coming of Christ. And you may be surprised to find out how many there are. We're going to be looking at the person and work of Christ, some very interesting prophecies. But before we do so, I'll put in a good word about George Washington. How many of you saw the movie Young Washington at the theaters? Very inspirational. I will say that I believe that George Washington was a providential figure in the establishment of history's great nation. America is history's great nation, founded as the first Protestant nation with very strong Puritan fervor. And George Washington led a providential life. I won't give away the storyline of the movie, but you'll have to see it for yourself. The fact that he actually lived through the French and Indian War to become the commander in chief of the colonial army. And then later our first president is the providence of God. There's just no other way around it. So anyway, George Washington said it is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible. You see, the hidden truth in American history is that the great majority of the founders of the Declaration of Independence were what we would call fundamentalists, Bible believing, Bible living fundamentalists. That was the culture, the predominant culture in America in the 1770s. And George Washington was right there with that. Okay, having said that, let's get into our study for today. We're going to be looking at the person and work of Christ. And you may be surprised to find out how much regarding the person and work of Christ is scattered around in the book of Zechariah. So we're going to look at these things in a chronological fashion, beginning with his humanity. We Read in Zechariah 6:12, then say to him, the Lord of armies or the Lord of hosts says this. Behold, there is a man whose name is Branch, for he will branch out from where he is, and he will build the temple of the Lord. Now, as you know from other books in the Old Testament, branch is a messianic term. It's used in Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 11. It's used in Jeremiah as well. It's referring to the Messiah, the branch. And there is a man whose name is Branch. The humanity of Christ is crystal clear in Zechariah 6:12. This coming branch, this Messiah will be a man. He will be a human. This is reiterated Jeremiah 33, verse 15 in those days, and at that time I will make a righteous branch of David sprout, and he shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth. So Zechariah is predicting a branch, a man who is a branch. And as Jeremiah compliments this passage, this branch will execute justice and righteousness on the earth. So he is first of all a human. Second, we see he is a priest. The priesthood of this man is also declared in Zechariah. In fact, in the very next verse, Zechariah 6:13. Yes, it is he, this branch, this man who will build the temple of the Lord, and he who will bear the majesty and sit on and rule on his throne. So he will be a priest on his throne. And the council of peace will be between the two offices. So this branch is one who will build the temple. He will be a priest, and he will sit and rule on his throne. He will be a priest and king, dual offices. This coming one, the throne that he will sit on in Zechariah 6. And verse 13 is reiterated in the Davidic covenant that we see in 2nd Samuel chapter 7 and verse 16. Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever. Your throne shall be established forever. This is a covenant that God made with David, one of the the great covenants of the Old Testament. We have the Abrahamic covenant, we have the Noahic covenant, we have the Davidic covenant. And this will be a forever kingdom, a forever priestly ministry. And this is made clear in Psalm 110. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. So this is another bit of information regarding Christ, that he will be a priest and will establish a forever priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. We find out more about Melchizedek in the Book of Hebrews, which is a story for another day. So that's the humanity of Christ. He is a man. He will be a priest, he will be a king and have an eternal priesthood. Now we transition to his deity. His deity, not just a man, but God. A God man. We see in Zechariah 13, 6, 7. And someone will say to him, what are these wounds between your arms? I'm reading from the New American Standard in the King James, it says, what are these wounds on your hands? So Zechariah is predicting a time when this man, this priest, will have wounds on his hands. Then he will say, that is Christ. Those wounds, those with which I was wounded at the house of my friends. An interesting statement, wounded at the house of my friends. I think this is referring to the fact that it was the Jewish people, the Jewish leadership, my friends. They were the ones who placed these wounds on my hands. Then he goes on in verse seven, says, awake, sword against my shepherd. And against the man my associate declares, the Lord of armies. So the Lord of hosts strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the little ones. So we have both the humanity and the deity of Christ. Christ in these verses. His hands were wounded. He was a man. But then we have this remarkable little statement that says, against the man, my associate. I put that in italics. It's not in the original. I put it there for emphasis. Declares the Lord of hosts. So the Lord of hosts, Jehovah Yahweh, says, regarding this man, this wounded man, he is my associate. He is my equal. He is God, just as I am God. He is my associate. I think of Philippians 2, verse 5, where Paul says that Christ thought It not robbery to be equal with God. And this is intimated here in Zechariah that this man is also my associate. He is the God. Man is revealed here in Zechariah 13, 6 and 7. Then we have reiterated in Matthew 26, which we'll look at in more detail in a little bit. Jesus said to them, you will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. Well, where did Jesus get that statement? Well, apparently he was a student of the book of Zechariah and he's quoting from it. In fact, Zechariah is one of the most quoted books in the New Testament in terms of its prophetic content. Okay, now we look at the work of Christ and it really gets interesting here. And I'll be dealing with, in a sequential fashion, these prophecies concerning the work of Christ. And you'll notice that they all have to do with the last week of his earthly life, what we call the Passion of Christ. These are the things that Zechariah is focusing on. We begin with the triumphal entry. Again, we're looking at these things in a sequential fashion in the last week of Jesus life leading up to his death, burial and resurrection. Of course, we know that that took place on Palm Sunday, the triumphal entry. And I remember it was in 2023 when Bob Ulrich and I were standing outside the Western Wall, the Wailing Wall, on Palm Sunday. And there was just a really special feeling about that being in the very city where Christ entered on that Western Wall so many years ago. So we have the Palm Sunday prophecy in Zechariah, chapter 9, verse 9. Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion. Shout in triumph, daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and endued with salvation. Humble and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. This is probably one of the most well known prophecies in the Book of Zechariah. And we have in this verse three characteristics of Christ. In Zechariah 9, Zechariah points out, he is righteous, he is godly, he is without sin, and he is endowed with salvation. In other words, he is bringing salvation. He's just not a man on a donkey. He is bringing salvation to you. And he is humble, mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. And that also has the idea of peaceableness. He's coming in peace. He's a messenger of peace, as opposed to riding on the white horse. At his second coming, coming to war. In his first coming, he came to bring peace. At his second coming, he comes to bring war on the ungodly. So here are the characteristics of Christ, and we see this fulfilled in exact detail, by the way, in Matthew 21. Let's look there. Matthew 21, 1:5 says, when they had approached, these are the disciples coming back to Jerusalem after the Sabbath, the previous Sabbath. They're hanging out with Lazarus and Mary and Martha in Bethany. So it says, when they approached Jerusalem and they'd come to Bethpage at the Mount of Olives, Jesus then sent two of his disciples, saying to them, go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with it. That is the child, the baby of the donkey. Untie them and bring them to me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, the Lord needs them and he will send them on immediately. Now, this took place so that what was spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled. Say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you. Humble and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. So here again we see Jesus is a great student of prophecy. The prophecies of Zechariah, quoting without error, Zechariah 9. 9. So how was this prophecy fulfilled? I would say pretty much exactly as it was written. Maybe I'm missing something, but it seemed like it was fulfilled exactly as Zechariah prophesied it, some 500 years in advance. Now, here's the route that these verses in Matthew 21 describe. They began in Bethany, then they go up north to a little town of Bethphage, just south of the Mount of Olives. That's where they secured the donkeys. They move across just north of the Garden of Gethsemane, which of course we know that Jesus would be visiting again just a few days later, across the Kidron Valley and then through the gate there into the old city. Now, it's interesting that the very next verse, Zechariah 9:10, has a sudden change in terms of chronology, you might say. So we'll look at that just as kind of an aside for no extra charge in Zechariah 9:10. Again, keep in mind, Zechariah 9:9 was a prophecy concerning the triumphal entry Jesus in 32 AD. The very next verse says, and I will eliminate the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, and the bow of war will be eliminated, and he will speak peace to the nations and his dominion will be from sea to sea and from the Euphrates river to the ends of the earth. Now, do we think that this is also first coming prophecy? I don't think so. Has this happened yet? I don't think so. I wish it were the case, but no. The dominion of Christ does not extend from sea to sea and from the Euphrates river to the ends of the earth. This is a second coming prophecy, but it's bumped right up against a first coming prophecy. You'd think Zechariah would try to make things easier for us, but we see that in other places. Isaiah, chapter 60, for example, that Jesus quotes, talks about his first coming, and then it immediately moves into the second coming and God's judgment. So we see this kind of annoying confluence of first and second coming prophecies bumped up against each other. So we have to do a little thinking and observing to try to ferret all of this out. Now this is what we call when we have these verses bumped up against each other. We call them the two mountain ranges of prophecy. And maybe you've heard of that concept. I brought along a little chart from Clarence Larkin's classic book from 1924, which talks about the two mountain ranges of prophecy. So when we have the Old Testament prophets, such as Zechariah, who's looking at things to come, he will see the first mountaintop of prophecy concerning the first coming of Christ and some of the details of that, such as the triumphal entry and the events that followed, the crucifixion of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the ascension of Christ. Then we have the day of Pentecost, which moves us into the valley of the church age, and we're in that valley. So sometimes you feel like you're in the valley and you're kind of in the dumps. That's okay. We're in the valley between the two mountaintops of prophecy. And the prophets didn't see what was in the valley. Some might say that the church is prophesied in the Old Testament. I don't believe it was. Paul says it was a mystery, Ephesians, chapter three, which was hidden in God. It was not something that was foretold. It was a surprise and God knew about it, but it was a surprise to us. So we're in that valley and then we have that second mountaintop, which is matters pertaining to the second coming of Christ, such as Daniel's 70th week, which we're going to be looking at just a moment, the second coming, the Battle of Armageddon, the establishment of the kingdom. That's the second mountaintop. Then we have the millennial kingdom, which we don't know an awful lot about. So I guess you could say that's the second valley. And then we have the new heaven and the new earth. So there are mountaintops and valleys in the Scripture. And the prophets didn't have a complete understanding of those things, particularly as it relates to the timing between these mountaintops. And that's not just my opinion. Peter was of the same view. In 1 Peter 1, 10, 11 we read as to this salvation. The prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. The prophets could only see the mountaintops, not the distance between them. I remember when I was living in Northern Virginia, and every once in a while our family would go out to the mountains to escape all the hot air in Washington, D.C. i was a pastor in the D.C. area, and it got a little bit oppressive at times with all that hot air. So we'd go out to the mountains and we'd see the near mountain range, and we could see a far mountain range between them, but we had no idea as to the distance between them until we actually got into the first mountain range. And that's kind of the same perspective that these prophets had. And Peter acknowledges that they were seeking to know the time between the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. But they didn't know. And by the way, we don't know either, do we? Because we're in the valley. We can look back at the first mountain range, as we're doing today, and see the fulfilled prophecies concerning Christ and his sufferings. But we don't know the timing of the glories to follow. Now, people are always writing books about it, trying to figure it out. The timetable and the Feast of Trumpets and this, that and the other. I've been reading books like that for 50 years, and so far they've all been wrong. I will say I'm going to have to write a book that's going to be right. And if I do, it'll be wrong too. Because if the prophets couldn't figure out the timing between the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow, I don't think I will either. In fact, I think that's a secret that's hidden in the Godhead he knows the timing of the Rapture and all the events to follow, but we don't. And that's why we're supposed to live every day as if he could come today, as John says, so that we will not be ashamed before him at his coming. So he keeps it a secret, and that's for our good. I think if we knew when he was coming, we'd probably get all puffed up with pride. So the prophets could only see the mountaintops and not the distance between them. And neither do we. Well, before we leave the triumphal entry, we're going to do a little review of what Pastor Matt covered, I think, two weeks ago, and that is the timing of the triumphal entry for those who were here on June 28th. You'll recall that Pastor Freeman was covering Daniel Chapter 9, and that, of course, includes verses 24 to 27, the last section of Daniel Chapter 9. And I have the notes from that. He did a great job. And I'm just going to reiterate some of those things because it relates to the whole issue of the triumphal entry. We see how scriptures kind of work together to present a complete picture. So we're going to do a quick review of Daniel 9, 24, 27 as it relates to the subject of the timing of the triumphal entry. It didn't just happen on any old day. It happened at a specific day that was prophesied in Daniel's 70th week prophecy. So let me just quote a few of those verses. The full Context is Daniel 9, 24, 27, but we're just going to look at 25 and then 26A. Again, Daniel is speaking. He says, so you are to know and understand that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the prince, there will be 7 weeks and 62 weeks it will be built again. We're talking about Jerusalem. It will be built again with streets and a moat, even in times of distress. Then after the 62 weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing. Well, this is kind of a difficult passage, and I'm sure that Pastor Freeman did a great job unfolding it. And I'm just going to hit a couple of the highlights of that as it relates to the timing of the triumphal entry. So this period of time begins with the decree to rebuild again, taking this from Daniel chapter nine. And it will end with the cutting off of the Messiah. And Daniel prophesies that the time period from the beginning, the decree to rebuild to the cutting off The Messiah would be 483 years or 69 weeks. This is the prophecy of Daniel's 70th week. And we'll get into what that means. We begin with the beginning, which is the decree to rebuild. When did the decree to rebuild Jerusalem take place? Now, there were four different decrees, but the one that I think fulfills this the best is the decree that took place during the days of Nehemiah by King Artaxerxes Longimanus, otherwise just known as artaxerxes, in the 20th year of his reign. We have the narrative of Nehemiah, who was called of God, motivated of God to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the wall. The temple had already been rebuilt at this point, but the people were in a position of insecurity because they were surrounded by enemies. And so when you're surrounded by enemies, what do you do? You build a wall. And so that was Nehemiah's charge from God. And he approached the king. He was a cupbearer for the king and he said, made his request. The king Artaxerxes said to me, what would you request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And then the result of that prayer is a letter was given to Asaph, the king, the keeper of the king's force. So he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel which is by the temple, for the wall of the city and for the house to which I will go. And the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was on me. This was the decree that Daniel was predicting that would allow Nehemiah to go back and rebuild the city. That is the starting point of this whole narrative. Now, the date of Artaxerxes decree was in the Hebrew calendar, the first of Nisan BC 445, or in our calendar, our Gregorian way of looking at things. Gregorian calendar March 14, 445 B.C. early spring. That's the beginning of this period. And then we have the end of that. So that's the date of the decree that begins this 69 week period. Then we move to the terminus of this period, which is the cutting off of Messiah, perhaps predicted. Also in Daniel chapter nine, it says when he approached Jerusalem, this is on the day of his, what we call the return, the glorious triumphal entry. As he was approaching Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, if you had known on this day, I highlighted or I underlined this day, even you, the conditions of peace. But now they have been hidden from your eyes. Jesus understood there was something special about the day of his triumphal entry. And he's weeping because he knows that he would be rejected. Despite the shouts of Hosanna, the admiring crowd, he knew that a few days later they would be saying something quite different. Crucify him. He understood. He knew where this was going. He knew where he was, what was approaching, and he was weeping. He says, if you had known on this day, something special about this day, even for you, the conditions of peace, but now they've been hidden from your eyes. This was the predestined day when their choice must be irrevocable. The day so distinctly signalized in Scripture as the fulfillment of Zechariah 9, verse 9. Jesus understood the significance of that day because he understood Daniel's prophecy. He knew math. He knew this was the terminus, this was the cutting off of Messiah. That's what was going to be commencing on this day. So when was the date of the Triumphal entry? The 10th of Nisan, AD32 in our calendar, April 6, AD32. This is where it gets real interesting for the nerds in our group, the math people, in terms of what was the time period between those. What was the interval? So the interval between the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and the cutting off of Messiah, the beginning again being March 14, 445 BC, the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, the terminus being April 6, AD 32, the cutting off of the Messiah. So now we do a little bit of math. We're trying to hone in on the precision of the word, of God, of the prophetic word. God just doesn't throw things out there. And, you know, it's like, well, I'm getting close. No, that's not good enough. So we do the math. 69 weeks of prophetic years. Each week represents seven years. The Hebrew year, or the prophetic year, is a lunar year of 360 days. It's different than the solar year that we operate by today, which is 365 and a quarter years. These were prophetic years of 360 days. So when we do the equation, and I know all of you are out there with your phones, with your calculators there, you'll have to trust me on this. But you can check the math later. 69 years or 69 weeks times 7 years equals 483 years. Remember, the 70th year hasn't started yet. That's a subject for another day. We're just talking about the 69 years. 69 weeks by 7 is 483 years times the prophetic year, which is 360 days. That totals 173,880 days. Now let's make some calendar adjustments just to make this more complicated. The intervening period that we just referred to as the 69 weeks or 483 years in solar years, which is 365 and a quarter days, that is 476 years and 24 days. Now, 476 solar years times 365 is 173,740. Then we have to add the 24 days that is part of that. So we add that to the total. Then we add for the leap years, which is 116 days. You know, in our solar calendar, every four years we have a leap year. So that would be February 29th. And I think that's the year when, when women can ask men to get married. I think that's what our culture says. But apart from that, the leap years, we have to add 116 days for Leap years. And these are adjustments pertaining to the conversion from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, which took place in AD 1752. And that's way too complicated for me to get into. But what I'm trying to establish is that There were exactly 173,880 days between the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and the cutting off of Messiah. That's exactly 483 prophetic years, just as Daniel predicted. Now let me quote from Sir Robert Anderson, who has the definitive book on this whole subject of the timing of the triumphal entry. And he wrote this book in 1894 and it's still unsurpassed on this subject. And by the way, Sir Robert Anderson worked for Scotland Yard. He was a detective, so he had an eye for precision. So he wrote this book as a Bible believing Christian to really underscore the precision of the word of God. So he said to believe that the facts and figures here detailed, which we've just gone over in summary, amount to nothing more than happy coincidence, involves a greater exercise of faith than that of the Christian who accepts the book of Daniel as divine. There is a point beyond which unbelief is impossible. And the mind, in refusing truth, must needs take refuge in a misbelief, which is sheer credulity. In other words, you'd have to be crazy not to believe the book of Daniel is divine when you look at the precision of this prophecy. So anyway, that's our review from two weeks ago. Now we move on to the next Passion Week event that is prophesied in Zechariah and that is the betrayal of Christ. And here it's pictured as the priests are doling out 30 shekels of silver to the greedy Judas as the price of his betrayal. This is all prophesied in Zechariah, by the way, I said to them, this is Zechariah 11, 2, 3, or 12 and 13. And I said unto them, if ye think good, give me my price. I believe this is Judas speaking. And if not, forbear. So they that is, the high priest weighed for my price 30 pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto me, cast it unto the potter, a lordly price that I was prized at of them. And I took the 30 pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. Zechariah 11, 12, 13. It's interesting as a side note to consider how much Jesus was worth. He was willing to betray the Son of God for a mere 30 shekels of silver. Exodus 21:32 tells us how much Jesus was worth. It's written right into the law, if the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant, in other words, injure them, gore them, he shall give to their master 30 shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned. So if you had an ox and he gored somebody else's maid or manservant, you would pay them 30 shekels of silver as payment for their injury. So Jesus was worth basically an ox, gourd, slave. That was it. That was it. That was the price of the betrayal. So we see. How was that fulfilled? What kind of fulfillment was this? Just a spiritual fulfillment? Was it kind of an approximate fulfillment? Well, let's look in Matthew 27 to see how this prophecy, given 500 years in advance, was fulfilled. In Matthew 27, 5, 7, it says, and he cast down, that is, Judas cast down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went and hanged himself. Then the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, it is not lawful for them, for to put them into the treasury because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field to bury the strangers. Didn't we hear about the potter's field in Zechariah? Didn't we hear about the 30 pieces of silver in Zechariah? How could zechariah have known 500 years in advance the cost of the betrayal? The fact that Judas would throw them down in the temple and that the high priest, the priest would use them to purchase what would be known as the potter's field. I'll leave that to you. It sounds like inspiration to me. All right, let's move to another aspect of the Passion Week. That is the smiting of the shepherd. We see that pictured here. It's Predicted in Zechariah 13:7. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd and against the man my associate declares the Lord of hosts, Strike the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the little ones. So this is the smiting of the shepherd. He says, a result of that, the sheep are going to be scattered, and I will turn my hands against the little ones. Jesus quotes from this. In Matthew 26, Jesus said to them, you will all fall away because of me this night, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. Well, Jesus was reading the book of Zechariah again, wasn't he? He quotes it exactly. And of course we know, as he predicted, that when the shepherd was struck at the crucifixion, what did the disciples do? They all scattered. They scattered. They hid in the corners. They couldn't get away fast enough. You remember Peter's betrayal three times before the rooster crowed. They all scattered, just as Jesus predicted. Just as Zechariah predicted 500 years before. Not only that, but he predicted a larger scattering. A larger scattering. He says, I will turn my hand against the little ones. I think he's referring to the people of Israel, the little ones, the ones who rejected him, the ones who smote him, the ones who crucified him. He says, I'm going to turn my hand against you. And we read about that in the olivet discourse, Matthew 24. He responded and said to them, do you not see all these things? Truly, I say to you. He's talking to the gathered Jews who were around him, who were conspiring against him. Truly, I say to you, not one stone here. He was at the Temple Mount, Herod's great temple. He says, not one stone here will be left upon another which will not be torn down. I did have the privilege back in 2023 of going to the base of the Temple Mount. And you know what I saw there? I saw huge stones from Herod's temple that had been thrown down off the Temple Mount. And they're still there, too large to move. But apparently the Romans were able to just throw them off. Just as Jesus said, not one stone from Herod's temple was left upon the other. They were all torn down. He turned his hand, he says, as Zechariah promised, I will turn my hand against the little ones, the people of Israel. The people of his friend's house, as Zechariah talks about, had turned against him and had crucified him. He says, I'm going to turn my hand against you. I'm going to tear down this precious temple of yours. Not one stone will be left upon it. And we of course know through history that that was exactly the case. The siege of Jerusalem from AD 68 through 70, leading to the tragic decimation of Jerusalem. Josephus described it in his War of the Jews. He says, now, of those that perish by famine in the city that is Jerusalem, the number was prodigious, 1.1 million killed in the siege, mostly Jews. And the miseries they underwent were unspeakable, which is the fall of Jerusalem, A.D. 70, resulting in their dispersion for almost 2,000 years until Israel was reclaimed as a nation in 1948, just as Jesus predicted. Just as Zechariah predicted. What is my conclusion? All of these prophecies, first coming prophecies, were fulfilled in a literal way and in great detail. What should we expect regarding Second Coming prophecies? Same way. You'll have to find out next time. Next time we will transition to Second Coming prophecies, which are abundant in Zechariah. You think what we saw today was a lot? This is just a smattering of what Zechariah deals with, particularly in chapters 9 through 13 of the book. But I think this helps us to kind of establish a hermeneutic in terms of how should we expect unfulfilled prophecies to be fulfilled from a God who is totally consistent? Well, I would speculate that we will find when those days come and we look back and say, you know what, Jesus, Zechariah's predictions were utterly fulfilled. For example, when we get in Zechariah 14, it says, his feet will land on the Mount of Olives. Well, you know where Jesus is coming back? He's coming back to the Mount of Olives. Just as when he ascended, the angel said, hey, don't stand here gazing. Jesus is going to come back exactly as he left. And where did he leave from the Mount of Olives. So there's a lot that we can ascertain regarding unfulfilled prophecies if we take God at his word in a literal way. Well, let's pray, Father, we echo with Peter that we have a more sure word of prophecy. Whereunto ye would do well that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. Lord, I pray that your prophetic word would be a light to us and would be a hope to us and would encourage us to patient waiting as the writer of Hebrews says, for you have need of patience that having done the will of God, you may receive the reward. So Lord, help us to be saints who patiently wait for the fulfillment of your word and who are busy about your work, the work of the gospel, the work of living for Christ and doing his work and his will until he comes. Encourage us, Lord. Give us that patience that we need. Give us the encouragement that we need not from our emotions which are always changing and up and down, but from the sure word of prophecy. That is where we find hope. That is where we find encouragement. So may your Holy Spirit continue to teach us. May we be diligent students of the Word, and as a result of that, may we be fruitful in your harvest. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.