I Will Set Your Prisoners Free!

I Will Set Your Prisoners Free!

Zechariah 9:11-12 “As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.  Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today, I declare that I will restore to you double.”

This verse was given in a Wednesday morning prayer group that I have joined. If you are an early riser and you are looking for an awesome way to start your mornings, I invite you to join in on this Zoom prayer group. It meets Wednesday mornings at 6:30 in the morning EST. The leader usually starts with a song of praise and worship. Then, sometimes we have a talk on a certain topic, sometimes we pray, and sometimes we share words of prophecy. The leader goes with whatever she feels the Holy Spirit is telling her to do. It is a great way to begin your day. Anyway, I will put the info for the prayer group in the show notes in case you want to check it out. It is on Zoom, so you don’t have to have your camera on if you don’t want to. You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to. You can just come on and see what you think. 

Someone on the call yesterday morning typed Zechariah 9:11-17 into the chat. When I checked it out this evening, verses 11 and 12 jumped right out at me. I will set your prisoners free is something that I love to hear. It seems like something I have been hearing a lot lately, and that is usually a sign that God wants you to pay attention to something. This is a good thing to notice. When you start to see or hear the same thing over and over again, it is good to notice it and to stop and ask the Lord if he is trying to teach you something or tell you something.

I usually think the verses are pretty straightforward, but I felt the Holy Spirit nudge me to look up its meaning. Guess what? The Holy Spirit actually knew what He was doing. I know, right?! The Holy Spirit, one of the three persons of the Trinity, knew what He was doing when He nudged me to look up the meaning of the verse. When I looked it up, I had a clearer picture of what the verse was saying. The article I read,  for which I will put a link in the show notes, did a great job of explaining why they used the words they used and what those words or meanings would mean to the Israelites.

For instance, the verses start off by talking about the blood covenant God made with us. I have done a few Bible studies in the past, so I have the benefit of knowing how important a covenant is and the difference between a covenant and a contract. However, not everyone listening has this information, and it is important that we understand why this statement God made is so important.

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 a 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 entering into a covenant with Abraham, promising 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 validated this promise.

I have heard the reason God had Abraham fall into a deep sleep so that He wouldn’t have to walk through the slaughtered animals.  Walking through the slaughtered animals would have been like Abraham saying, "May the same thing that happened to me that's happened to these animals if I break the covenant made today.” However, Abraham is human, and he is likely to break the covenant, whether on purpose or accident. If he doesn’t walk through the slaughtered animals, then he is not bound the same way God is bound. So, Zechariah is saying that their deliverance rests solely upon the shoulders of God's faithfulness to keep his covenantal promise.

The next part of the verse says, “I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.” This small sentence has two very important parts. First, it reminds us that God is speaking to fragile people. He's talking to people who have come out of Babylonian captivity in the past twenty years. The Lord is saying He will set them free. Most commentators agree that He is referring to those still stuck in Babylon as captives. So, God is promising deliverance and freedom to His people.

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.

The verse goes on to say, “Return to your stronghold.” I really didn’t know what this meant until I read this article. 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.

The article goes on to say, “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.”

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today! Lord, we love you, and we thank you for setting the captives free, for filling us with hope for a better life, for your covenant with us, for always being here for us, and for all the ways you protect us, especially for all the ways we don’t even know about. Lord, we love you and we ask this in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed day!

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