They were like the WWII pilots that flew missions over the Nazi territory – feeling the seriousness of the hour and the weight of the duty – but without the poet’s sense of awe at the heavens they flew through. There was one man who saw it differently:
From “Great Aviation Quotes” comes this inspiring memorial: “During the desperate days of the Battle of Britain, hundreds of Americans crossed the border into Canada to enlist with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Knowingly breaking the law, but with the tacit approval of the then still officially neutral United States Government, they volunteered to fight the Nazis. John Gillespie Magee, Jr., was one such American. Born in Shanghai, China, in 1922 to an English mother and a Scotch-Irish-American father, Magee was 18 years old when he entered flight training. Within the year, he was sent to England and posted to the newly formed No 412 Fighter Squadron, RCAF, which was activated at Digby, England, on 30 June 1941. He was qualified on and flew the Supermarine Spitfire. Flying fighter sweeps over France and air defense over England against the German Luftwaffe, he rose to the rank of Pilot Officer. On 3 September 1941, Magee flew a high altitude (30,000 feet) test flight in a newer model of the Spitfire V. As he orbited and climbed upward, he was struck with the inspiration of a poem — “To touch the face of God.” Once back on the ground, he wrote a letter to his parents. In it he commented, “I am enclosing a verse I wrote the other day. It started at 30,000 feet, and was finished soon after I landed.” On the back of the letter, he jotted down his poem, ‘High Flight.’ Just three months later, on 11 December 1941 (and only three days after the US entered the war), Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr., was killed. The Spitfire V he was flying, VZ-H, collided with an Oxford Trainer from Cranwell Airfield flown by one Ernest Aubrey. …At the enquiry a farmer testified that he saw the Spitfire pilot struggle to push back the canopy. The pilot, he said, finally stood up to jump from the plane. John, however, was too close to the ground for his parachute to open. He died instantly. He was 19 years old.” Listen to what he wrote at 30,000 feet:
“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high un-trespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.”
John Gillespie Magee got it right. A 19 year old saw the beauty and poetry in doing his work. He noticed the world, but he saw it as the work of his Creator. He was INSPIRED, not just INFORMED.
Israel was in need of serious realignment with the Majesty of God. They needed the GRAND CANYON view of God. No one goes to overlook the vastness of the Grand Canyon to gain SELF ESTEEM. They were starved for a vision of the Glory of God – not a vision of self! They were nearing a Dead End. God told them that He was going to work in them as He promised.
Let’s take a minute and look at what God promised to Israel in Zechariah 10, and then we will look at seven instructions that every believer can use to avoid the Dead Ends of life – all by applying the principles found in the text.
We need to be careful not to be so anxious to apply God’s Word that we torque it out of the context of what God was saying and to whom He was speaking. This passage is to Israel and about Israel. Look at the breakdown of the text:
God told the people to call out to Him, now that the time of the Spring Rain (the time of the grain harvest) was ready. The prophets used the term “latter rain” for the end times. God wanted the Jewish people that were demoralized to go ahead and ask Him to bring out the latter times He promised them (10:1). They needed to put away any false sources of information, because they were only going to be judged for their false words (10:2-3). The God unloaded His promises again:
- A Messiah will come from you! (5).
- A fighting force will be raised up that will drive others more equipped away as they are restored to their former land (6).
- They will dance in the streets over the return (7).
- I will then continually pull them home in waves to the land, and they will be huge again (8).
- Though they are sown into the nations, they will remain distinct and they will return unique (9).
- They will come from many lands until they are stuffed into the small land! (10).
- Even after those days, a Great Tribulation will come upon them, and I will deliver them from their enemies (11).
- Finally I will renew them and they will walk in MESSIAH’S name (12).
Incidentally, Egypt and Assyria were both mentioned as places the people will return from. Interestingly enough, both had Jewish communities that were significant. We did not know until excavations in the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth centuries about the Jewish band at Elephantine, near Aswan today. The excavations of papyri showed a Babylonian Jewish brigade that built a Temple in Elephantine and were corresponding with the Temple at Jerusalem. It was eventually restored, but modern excavations have revealed the connection that Zechariah was referring to. The Elephantine papyri offer some of the best information about how the ancient Temple functioned, and the oldest marriage documents in the Jewish world. The Temple was destroyed by Egyptian priests that did not like the idea of a Jewish Temple on their soil. The Temple was apparently to the Lord God of Israel, but also included other various deities.
The point is that God promised Israel’s restoration, and He intended to keep His word. They were small and it was hard to believe, but God wanted them to ask Him to bring on the end times, because He wanted to encourage them with His faithful character!
This prophetic story has rich application for the believer beyond just telling a story of dead men long ago. The principles found in this portion offer:
Seven Instructions to God’s People to Help them Avoid a “Dead End”:
God’s people should seek Him confidently concerning their future! (10:1). God has the power and God has the plan, but He has made it so that His people can participate. We lose all strength when we try to bring about the future without Him. We lose all joy when we try to avoid the future through worry.
- He alone Has the might of the Heavens (not Baal – or the gods made up by the world).
- He alone will bring the planned end (the latter rains and the grain harvest - used prophetically as “end times”).
Zechariah 10:1 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.
God’s people should avoid the traps of false information! (10:2). The enemy also has a plan – to disrupt the walk of the believer and get them caught up in lies. He is the “father of lies” and he wants to boost fear by confounding the trust the believer has in God’s unfaltering word. He plants false beliefs and false speakers that destroy and demoralize the work and confuse the followers.
- They are found in superstition.
- They are found in spokesman that tell lies– offering a false view of the future and bringing comfort from lies.
- They leave people nowhere, with no true direction and no true leader.
10:2 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.
God’s people should not follow self appointed sources! (10:3a).The enemy plants lies and liars (above), but for an added measure of confusion, some appoint themselves to help as the confusion grows. They may WANT to help, but they have neither the call nor the true makeup to be a shepherd – for they are goats! The way to tell is to see if they possess the character of the shepherd and if they possess a knowledge of the owner’s desires as well as a history of following that desire.
- God will chasten those who claim to lead — but don’t.
- God will chastise those He did not appoint – but insist on taking control.
10:3 “My anger is kindled against the shepherds, And I will punish the male goats;
God’s people should watch His unfolding plan closely! (10:3b-5). God is doing now what He said He would do in the past. Know His promises, and walk with confidence! He will make wild asses into majestic horses. He will use them to bring plant in the lives of people the Messiah. He will fight His enemy with His faithful ones. He will use them to uproot larger and better equipped armies!
- The Lord’s prior revelation should give them confidence.
- He has set to make them something honorable! (majestic horse -3b).
- He will take from among them the key support that will hold all together. (cornerstone – 4a).
- He will raise up the One on whom all valuables can be trusted (tent peg – 4b).
- He will use them to defeat enemies (bow, all together – 4b-5).
- He will bring victory though the enemies have better implements to fight with (riders put to shame – 5b).
10:3b: “For the LORD of hosts has visited His flock, the house of Judah, And will make them like His majestic horse in battle. 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. 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.
God’s people should trust His Word more than what they see in their present world (10:6-7). If the people of God look at the situation they are in with fleshly eyes, they will fail. They must see the God of the impossible. They must trust that He will deliver them and restore them to an intimacy and blessing they have only heard of. The day is coming when the rejoicing will be all there is!
- The scenario God offers may not look overwhelmingly clear or even possible at times – but He will do it! (6).
- He will do the impossible for the sake of His chosen plan and people (6b).
- He knows how to “give back what the locusts have eaten” (6b, cp. Joel).
- He puts His name on the line with His Word. (6b).
- Though sorrow may be our lot today, we have the promise of joy tomorrow (7).
10:6 “I will strengthen the house of Judah, And I will save the house of Joseph, And I will bring them back, Because I have had compassion on them; And they will be as though I had not rejected them, For I am the LORD their God and I will answer them. 7 “Ephraim will be like a mighty man, And their heart will be glad as if from wine; Indeed, their children will see it and be glad, Their heart will rejoice in the LORD.
God’s people should move at His command, having been set free from the captor. (10:8-10). God has redeemed a people for Himself, and they must move at His call. They must leave the places they are FROM and become what He is shaping – an army of the redeemed.
- When God calls – the people are drawn together.
- Their size will be considerable. Separate they are weak, together they will be strong.
- In small pockets the Kingdom grew, but it will be pulled together to bring strength!
10:8 “I will whistle for them to gather them together, For I have redeemed them; And they will be as numerous as they were before. 9 “When I scatter them among the peoples, 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; And I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon, Until no room can be found for them.
God’s people need to recognize that they are not exempt from troubles, but He will lead them through! (10:11-12). God’s plan for His people is not to avoid the pain of the wilderness. The way to the Promised Land is through the wilderness of distress. He led His people there before, and He will do so again.
10:11 “And they will pass through the sea of distress, And He will strike the waves in the sea, So that all the depths of the Nile will dry up; And the pride of Assyria will be brought down, And the scepter of Egypt will depart. 12 “And I will strengthen them in the LORD, And in His name they will walk,” declares the LORD.
Before we leave the passage, don’t forget that the application is not more important than the literal promise God made to a real people. It is not just an example – it is happening in our lifetimes! Don’t forget:
- Israel is the only nation of the world with a land deed signed by the Almighty Himself (Gen. 15:18-21).
- God’s land was deeded to Abraham through Isaac and Jacob in perpetuity, with a conditional access of the land based on obedience (Dt. 28:15,36,41,63). Possession was conditional, ownership was not. Talk about the time Israel was out of the land if you want, but the Bible says the argument is invalid because God titled it to their children forever.
- The modern return of the Jewish people IS a prophetic event. Since the prophets proclaimed that God would restore the nation, many still teach that was completed when the people came back into the land after the exile. That cannot be the case – Jesus said that it would happen in the future (Lk. 21), and the only events that have followed His words are the dispersion by the Romans and the regathering in the C20th. Beside, the prophets saw Israel go into exile as two nations – Israel and Judah, but repeatedly declared that BOTH the nation’s Jews would return (Jer. 3:18; Hosea 1:11; Ezekiel 37), something that cannot truly be said of any earlier time before our own.
- Some say the prophecies of Israel are unimportant. They reveal a lack of understanding. Remember, God declared Jerusalem as the “center of the nations” (Exekiel 5:5) and the Jewish people as “the apple of His eye” (even when they were walking in disobedience – Zechariah 2:8).
- Their troubles make sense, for Jerusalem was promised to “Have no rest until she becomes the praise of all the earth!” (Isaiah 62).
- There is no other city but Jerusalem that has a specific injunction to pray for her (Psalm 122:6).
- There is no other people who have received a Divine promise that God would “Bless those that bless them” (Gen 12:3).
- There is no other people to whom God declared “Salvation is of” (John 4).
- There is no other people of whom God declare “all shall be saved” (Romans 11).
- The nations that surround Israel are also slated to bless the world (Isaiah 19), so Arab believers both within the borders of Israel and around the world deserve our love, support and care – provided they will not support her destruction.
God is moving the Jewish people back to the land. The UN hates it. The world court is against it. Islam has pledged its destruction because it is a denial of the Koran and an affirmation of the literal nature of Bible prophecy… Make no mistake, we are on a collision course with the prophetic Word of the living God. He shall not forsake them. He shall not forget. He will save as He promised. No army will stop Him, no court will block Him, no assembly will forbid Him, no king will usurp Him. God delivers what He promises.
Take comfort in that truth – not only for Israel but for your life as well. He began a work in you. He saved you, and He is speaking to you, Stop fearing the future and follow Him with your whole heart – no reservations, no exclusions, no hesitation. Drop your guard from you God and get on board. He will deliver you complete to the glory stop He has always had in mind for His children. He knows what He is doing, and there is no need to fear.
