GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
ZECHARIAH 9:5-8
5 Ashkelon will see it, and be afraid;
Gaza too, and shall writhe in agony;
Ekron also, for its hopes will be dashed.
The king shall perish from Gaza;
Ashkelon shall be uninhabited;
6 a mixed race will dwell in Ashdod,
and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines.
7 I will wipe the blood from their mouths,
the forbidden food from between their teeth;
their remnant will belong to our God;
like a clan in Judah,
and Ekron shall be like the Jebusites.
These places were all cities of the Philistines, each with its own king (Amos 1:8; 1 Samuel 21:10). They were lined up along the coast, hooking inland at their northern reach. Gaza was far to the south, on the way to Egypt. Ashkelon was about fifteen miles north of Gaza, and Ashdod another fifteen miles north of that. This was where the fishhook (or candy cane, if you will) curved inland, to Ekron just a few miles east, and Gath (which is not mentioned in this chapter) just a few miles south of Ekron, some twenty-five miles, as the crow flies, west of the walls of Jerusalem.
The last mention of Gath in the Bible is from the days of King Uzziah, when Micah, Amos and others speak of its downfall (Amos 6:2; 2 Chronicles 26:6). Here in Zechariah, the remaining cities of Philistia’s famous Pentapolis are strung together in a poetic chiasmus, all in a state of downfall, pain, misfortune, and desolation. They were savage, furious foes once (recall Goliath’s foul curses, 1 Samuel 17:43-44), but now the Lord will step forward and wipe the blood from their mouths. But his intention is not to destroy them further, or to inflict any more pain. Gath was gone; their pride was gone. But God wanted to bring the remnant of their race into his family. This is his will, his desire, for all of us. He wants all men to be saved “and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). He says: “Come to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:22).
8 But I will encamp around my house
as a guard against those who march back and forth;
no oppressor shall again march over them,
for now I am watching with my own eyes.
Here God sets up a rampart and a watch to guard his people. This is the same promise from Psalm 34:7, “The Angel of the Lord camps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.” What is this protection?
• It is the protection of God’s holy angels. He is the Lord of hosts, that is, the Lord of Armies, and the heavenly armies of his angels are ministering spirits sent out to serve for the benefit of those who are going to inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14). The angels guard God’s people from invisible attacks, so that they will not be harmed in any way.
• This is also the protection of the Word of God. Since so many attacks on God’s people come from the words of the world, God has given us his word as the foundation stone upon which to stand. If all of our neighbors were mute and could not write, we would easily know which of them was kind and which was savage simply by their actions. We would know which was faithful to the Lord and which was faithless just as easily as we can tell who is a man and who is a woman, or who is jealous and who is content. But since the world uses words and language, motives can be hidden, and the lies of the world are all around us like leaves on a tree that obscure the branches, or useless details in a story that obfuscate the plot.
• This encampment is also the protection of the Holy Christian Church. God uses his servants to guide and instruct one another.
“Thus,” says Luther, “those who are in charge of the ministry of the word are the soldiers of Christ. They go out, spread the Word, and do bitter battle against Satan as much for the hearers of the Word, for Satan never ceases going around, seeking whom he can devour, as Peter says (1 Peter 5:8), and whom he may call away from Christ through his oppressors, that is, through teachers of works and human righteousness” (LW 20:93). The church is anywhere that Christ is preached. “For where Christ is not preached” (our Confession says), “there is no Holy Spirit to create, call, and gather the Christian church, and outside it no one can come to the Lord Christ” (Large Catechism, Third Article, par. 45).
• Finally, this is also the protection of God himself, personally. All of these other protections are from him, and they have their power from him, from his will and his word. He acts through these things as he does through the Means of Grace (the Gospel, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper), for the protection of his elect. But he himself is at work, watching over us. “He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4). And as the Lord told his prophet in the vision of the almond tree: “I am watching over my word to fulfill it” (Jeremiah 1:12).
The Lord surrounds us with his angels, his word, his church, and he himself is watching over us. “Surely, O Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround us with your favor as with a wall of shields” (Psalm 5:12). “You are my hiding place. You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance” (Psalm 32:7). He watches over us as our Good Shepherd, leading, watching, defending, and caring for us in every way (Psalm 23:1; 80:1; John 10:11). He protects us from every danger that surrounds us, whether water or fire or oppression. “When you pass through the water, I will be with you, and when you walk through fire, you will not be burned” (Isaiah 43:2). These things can harm the body, but not the soul. Our numbers might seem small, and this is offensive to some. There are certain Christians who assume this is a sign of weakness, or error, or that God is disciplining us because of hidden sins. But the true church will always be a small thing. We are always a remnant, not a vast nation. We seem like the fortified city that stands desolate (Isaiah 27:10), the burning stick snatched from the fire (Amos 4:11), a remnant of the lame and the hobbling (Micah 4:7) so that the world can’t figure out how we can possibly continue. But we do, because the Lord’s eye is upon us, not because we deserve to survive or that we merit any special blessings from him. This is his grace at work among us as he surrounds us, “for out of his fullness we have all received grace upon grace” (John 1:16), blessing after blessing after blessing. Who deserves this grace from God? Surely not the Philistines. Surely not us. “Praise his glorious grace.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Zechariah 9:5-8 God’s glorious grace