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Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast. Powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey. Let's be honest, a lot of us are still treating digital ministry like it's a backup plan from 2020. But discipleship isn't just happening on Sundays anymore. People need gospel centered connection every day of the week. And if you're stuck juggling five different platforms, one for giving, another for sermons, something else for events, it's no wonder engagement feels off. That's not ministry. That's a mess. Subsplash changes that one platform. Everything you need, media, giving, events, messaging, your app, your website, built specifically for churches. No hacks, no workarounds, just clarity and simplicity. Because every day you wait, families scroll past your sermons, new guests click away from clunky sites, and real people miss real moments with Jesus. Don't waste another summer stuck in digital survival mode. Use it to get ahead, simplify, upgrade. Get back to what matters. Head to subsplash.combible-dept and schedule a free no pressure demo. And let this be the summer your church gets focused and fully equipped. Hey family, it's day two 49 and we are ending the Book of Zechariah. Today. We are in Zechariah chapters 12, 13 and 14. If you have not done the reading, I want you to pause the audio, stop the video, go do the reading so that you have all the context for the the material that we are going to study. Today. We're finishing out the Book of Zechariah. And like always, I'm always going to start off with context, right? Context makes everything make sense. The context of today's passages are the same as yesterday. Okay, Zechariah chapters nine to 14 all fit together. So yesterday we looked at Zechariah chapters 9 to 11, and today we're looking at Zechariah chapters 12 to 14. So the context has not changed from yesterday. To give you a recap, Zechariah chapter one to eight are more prophetic visions, prophetic dreams. And then chapters nine to 14 would be what we would consider apocalyptic prophecy. Okay, this is the root or the foundation of what John the Revelator is going to run with. I mean, the book of Revelation is going to be apocalyptic literature, like full blown apocalyptic literature. But we get the roots of apocalyptic prophecy right? Here at the end of zechariah from chapter 9 to 14. And so that's just a literary context. I think knowing the genre of literature that you're reading provides a lot of healthy and helpful context. If you need a date for Zechariah chapters 12 to 14, we could situate these chapters or these oracles that are recorded in these chapters from 516 B.C. to 490 B.C. somewhere in that window. Okay, so if you need more context, information about context, you can go to yesterday's video, which is day two 48, where we really introduced Zechariah chapters nine to 14 as a section before we dove into chapters nine to 11. All right, what is happening? Before we dive into nerdy nuggets. Just kind of want to give you a sense of, like, what's happening? Okay, Yesterday, remember, Yahweh's on a path. He's actually taking the same path as the Assyrians and the Babylonians took. But then instead of capturing or conquering Jerusalem, he saves Jerusalem. Here in Zechariah chapter 12, the situation is reversed. Okay? The tables have turned. It is the nations that have invaded Israel and are besieging Jerusalem. Okay? So that is the big picture. Like, what's the context of what's happening? The besieging of Jerusalem is the context of what's happening. And obviously this is a prophetic oracle. Okay? This isn't happening in real time. This is a prophecy, an apocalyptic vision of the nations of the earth invading Jerusalem and besieging Jerusalem. Now, this is a way more familiar story than what we dealt with yesterday, right? All throughout the Old Testament, we have gentile pagans attacking Israel and Yahweh their king, saving them from destruction. This vision, this apocalyptic vision that Zechariah has, it ends with another prophecy of the day of Yahweh where God will bring judgment and salvation to the nations. Okay, as with the first, the interpretation is difficult with no obvious event in history being referred to. So the usual interpretation would be that it is either a spiritual, like figurative prophecy or a future eschatological one. But the answer is very, very, very unclear. Okay, so by spiritual and figurative, we mean not literal, right? Like, this is not a prophecy that will literally come true, but there's some kind of symbolism here that's gonna come true spiritually or figuratively. The other option would be to say that it's a future eschatological fulfillment, which would mean the day of Yahweh would be the return of Jesus far, far, far into the future. But the answer's unsure. We're unclear. It could go both ways. Okay, get into some nerdy Nuggets. Chapter 12, verses 10 to 14. Talk about him who they have pierced. Him who they have pierced. Remember, Jesus is pierced in his hands, in his feet. He's also pierced in his side with a spear. Okay, him who they have pierced. Again, even though the big picture of Zechariah's oracles and his prophetic words in this apocalyptic vision is very unclear, debatable, it contains details of great clarity. So we got super unclear and super clear living right next to each other that once again point towards Jesus. Chapter 12, verse 10, speaks of the one whom the people of Jerusalem will pierce and then they will mourn. It is not immediately clear who this pierced one is. This is also a textual issue. As some ancient manuscripts read, they will look on me. And some say they will look on him. Okay? They will look on me versus they will look on him. That's a manuscript issue that you may not want to spend time thinking about or care about. But it's a nerdy nugget, okay? This is all part of a wider issue on how this and other prophetic passages in Scripture, like Isaiah chapter 52 to 53, seem to indicate the death of the Messiah. Now, this would have been a curveball. It's easy for us to think about the death of the Messiah because we don't have the context of the original audience. However, for the original audience, the suffering or the death of a Messiah figure was a totally foreign idea for them. The. The. For the Jewish conception of a Messiah, the Messiah was a conquering Messiah. And that's it. That's. That's the only shelf that they have to put the Messiah on. And so when the Bible, when Zechariah starts talking about the Messiah will be one who is pierced and the people are going to mourn because of what they've done. The Jewish world, even of the first century, when Jesus was walking the earth, would not have a shelf to put that on. Okay? So that may seem normal to us, but that is not normal for the original audience of Scripture. John, however, you know, Jews may or may not want to interpret this this way, but John, who was a Jew, definitely interpreted this way. Okay? He was very clear on the identity of the pierced one. If there was. If. If there's anybody who's not clear on who is this pierced one that Zechariah is talking about, John goes ahead and says In John, chapter 19, verse 37, he says these things happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, not one of his bones will be broken. And as another scripture says, so John is now quoting Zechariah, they will look on the one they have pierced. So Zechariah 12:10 is getting quoted by John in the New Testament in John 19:37. So John says, I know exactly who this one who was pierced is, or this one who they have pierced is. Okay. And then we get into chapter 13. And chapter 13 is what scholars would call the song of the sword. Okay, song of the sword. There's another passage that points towards Jesus. This sole poetic part of the oracle continues the theme of the shepherd from yesterday. Now, in yesterday's reading, there is a theme of a shepherd who is a messianic figure. And we didn't really get into that in yesterday's video, even though the chapters contain this content. We just didn't have enough time to get into it. But in this song for today's reading. Okay, in Zechariah, chapter 13, the Good shepherd is struck down by the sword and his flock is scattered as with the pierced one. This prophecy is problematic to the usual Jewish interpretation of the Messiah. Okay. But again, it is used directly in the Gospels to refer to Jesus in Matthew, chapter 26, verse 31. And in Mark 14:27, Jesus himself quotes from the song of the sword found here in Zechariah, chapter 13, clearly indicating that it is about the death of the Messiah, his own death. Okay. The scattering of the flock could be interpreted in a few ways. Okay, so who is the shepherd? That's not really up for debate. Unless a Christian is debating with someone who's Jewish because they don't believe that Jesus is their Messiah or our Messiah. But the scattering of the flock is not as debatable. This could be, or not as undebatable. This could actually be interpreted in multiple different ways. I'll give you a couple options. Three options, to be exact. Okay, what. How do we interpret the scattering of the flock that Zechariah prophesies that the. That the shepherd is going to get struck and the sheep are going to scatter. A couple things that that could mean. Number one, this could be referring to or prophesying about the immediate scattering of the disciples and them going into hiding following the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus. That would be the most clear to me. Okay, that's the most obvious option to me. Okay, I'll give you a second option. The Jewish wars that would follow Jesus's death, the Jewish people are gonna go at it with Rome, and it's not gonna end well for the Jewish people. Okay? The idea being that the people rejected their king who was stuck, who was struck down, and then they faced the consequences in 70 AD when Jerusalem was destroyed. Okay, Rome comes in and levels Jerusalem to the ground. And this interpretation kind of sees that leveling of Jerusalem, that total defeat of Jerusalem and the defeat of the temple and the end of the temple sacrificial system as a consequence of. For the rejection of the Jewish Messiah, which would have been the striking down of the shepherd. Okay, so Zechariah is saying, hey, the shepherd is going to be struck down and there's going to be a political or national consequence on the people of Israel as a result of rejecting their Messiah, who is none other than Jesus Christ. Okay, so third option. Let me give you a third option. Which would be the persecutions that would come upon the early church in the apostolic era and afterwards, both from the Jewish authorities and then later from the Roman ones. So the scattering of the flock. God actually tells the early church, hey, I want you to go into all the nations. And they don't do that until they experience persecution. And once they experience persecution, they scatter. And as they scatter, they spread the gospel. They bring the Gospel to all these places where they are running away from persecution or hiding from persecution. And so the persecution ends up working for the Church because as they scatter, they spread. As they scatter, they spread the gospel. Okay, so three options for how the scattering of the flock could be interpreted. I'll just remind you of those three options really quick. It would be the immediate scattering of the disciples on that weekend where Jesus died. It could be the Jewish wars that follow Jesus's death that lead up to or culminate in 70 AD and the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple. Or it can mean the persecutions that would come upon the early church in the apostolic era, following the death, burial, resurrection and ascent of Jesus. Okay, so all of these things could be used as possible points of interpretation for the scattering of the flock that Zechariah prophesied in his final couple chapters of the book that bears his name, Zechariah. Something I wanna tackle from chapter 14 is the day of Yahweh, the oracle. And the book ends with the day of Yahweh. Again, as a reminder, the day of Yahweh is any time that God interrupts history in either judgment or salvation. Okay, so when we think about it that way, there are many days of Yahweh, many times where God has interrupted human history to either Judge or to save. Okay, but also, this is a little confusing. There's not just days of Yahweh or multiple days of Yahweh. There are. There is a singular, culminating, comprehensive day of Yahweh. Okay, not days of Yahweh, a day of Yahweh, which would be the final time that God interrupts history to bring a final judgment and final salvation. Zechariah describes this day in terms of a siege of Jerusalem with the armies of the nations surrounding the city. Yahweh comes with an angelic army to save the city and change the city and nation forever. Things like making the Dead Sea live. The survivors from the nations would then come to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles, which would never happen. Okay, but. So the exact interpretation of this prophecy is unclear. But John uses this image of the nations surrounding God's people and Jesus leading an army from heaven to destroy evil and save his people. That would be revelation, chapter 19. Again, the debate is always whether this is referring to a day of Yahweh or the day, the of day of Yahweh. But what's super, super interesting is that here the nations celebrate with the Jews the feast of the Tabernacles. Tabernacles was a remembrance of when Yahweh dwelt in their midst in the desert, living in his own tent in the middle of theirs. So this would be Yahweh tabernacling amongst his people, dwelling with his people in a tabernacle, AKA a tent. The ultimate picture that we want to see is that Yahweh is also tabernacling amongst the nations as well as the Jews. So the same way that God's tent was in the center of the Israelite camp, as they walked through moments like Exodus and numbers and Leviticus, this same God is going to tabernacle not just amongst the Jews, but amongst the nations. And that's what Zechariah is revealing to us in chapter 14. This is a huge deal. And later we see this again in John's writings, in his Gospel, when he speaks of the word that became flesh and made his dwelling with us. The word he uses is tabernacled amongst us. Okay, this is John 1:14. And so in a lot of ways, Jesus becomes the fulfillment of this prophecy found in the book of Zechariah. Go figure. Then in the Apocalypse, John is at it again, and he writes of God speaking from the throne. And it says this. Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God. That's Revelation 21:3 once more. The word he uses for dwell is tabernacles. Zechariah, then, is part of a tradition that flows throughout Scripture that God's ultimate goal and purpose is to tabernacle with humanity. Jews and Gentiles alike are designed to tabernacle with the Lord and for God to tabernacle with us with them. That is the ultimate goal and purpose of the temple. It is a picture and a step towards the reality of heaven on earth, God and humanity living together. So Zechariah's message to the people who had rebuilt the temple is that they are a part of a wider, greater temple story that would see all nations, all people, everywhere on the planet tabernacling with Yahweh forever family. The wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos is out now and available everywhere. Books are sold, literally. Today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a Books a Million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of Scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. Let's get into our Thomas truth. Our Thomas truth for the day is that although Zechariah is confusing and difficult to interpret, there is a clear application. God's desire is to dwell with us. But the question are we the kind of people worthy of him dwelling with us? This desire to dwell with us, it's what drives his purposes. And the moment you know that, the moment the rest of Scriptures begin to unlock for you, you begin to unkey it. It's an interpretive key that unlocks. I said unkey it. I mean unlock it. It's an interpretive key that unlocks meaning and it's what drives Yahweh's purpose. It is his ultimate goal to unite all things in Christ for God and humanity to be as one in Christ Jesus. This is who we are, what we are made to be. This is what we were created for. You and I. We are the temple, not made by human hands, but made from the body of Christ himself. You have the same spirit within us. We have the exact same spirit within us. We are tabernacles with legs, legs and arms and feet, and we can move and walk around and we're living, breathing tabernacles, bringing his presence to a world suffering from his absence. That's not just true for Zechariah. That's not just true for John as he quotes Zechariah as he records and recounts the life and teachings and ministry of Jesus. That's true for you and I today, that we are tabernacles or temples of the Holy Spirit. And we bring God with us everywhere we go. So if God's ultimate dream is a tabernacle with us, he does that through Christians who make God accessible to non Christians. And that's our timeless truth. That is true forever. That we will always be people who connect God our Father with his lost children who do not know him or not in a saving knowledge of his power and his grace and his character and his mercy. So not only is God working to dwell with people ultimately when heaven invades earth one day in the eschatological future, but. But the work of Christ on the cross has made atonement for us so that you and I can be tabernacles of the Most High God. That we would be tabernacles with legs and arms and feet, tabernacles that can speak, tabernacles that represent the glory and the power and the presence of God to people who don't have access to the power and glory and presence of God. And that is an honor, never a, never a burden that we have to bear, but a privilege that we get to share in. And I'm really, really excited about being someone who can carry or host the presence of God so that other people can experience God in a way that they have not before. All right, like every day, I've given you context, I've given you some nerdy nuggets, and I've given you a timeless truth. I'll see you right here tomorrow. For day 250, we're in a brand new book of the Bible. Tomorrow we are in Malachi. Malachi, chapters one and two. It's gonna be incredible. I'll be here. I hope you will join with me in continuing our trek through the books of the prophets. Tomorrow we've got the Italian prophet Malachi. It's gonna be fantastic. No, I'M just joking. He's the Hebrew prophet Malachi and we're gonna dive in tomorrow. Day 250. If you're on a streak, I'm proud of you. If you are not on a streak, I'm still proud of you. But I want to challenge you to start a streak and to stick with this daily habit of reading God's Word and studying it every single day. I'll see you tomorrow for day 250. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department Podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at the Bible Department and on Instagram. Hebibledepartment if you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.