The fountain that had to be open was not the slit in the neck of an animal.

It was the death of the only son of God.

And Zakariah, he couldn't see how this would all take place,

but this God granted him to see that if anybody's going to be saved

a new fountain has to be opened whatever it is. How did the writers of scripture understand the unfolding nature of God's plan to save?

John Piper addresses that question from the Book of Zakaria in this episode of Light and Truth.

This sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church on December 5th, 1982.

Would you turn with me to the Old Testament Prophet Zachariah? That's the second book from the end of the Old Testament, chapter 8.

And while you're turning to Zechariah 8, let me tell you that there are three dated prophecies in this book, similar to three dated prophecies in this book similar to three dated prophecies in Hagai and they

reveal that this prophet Zakariah was a contemporary of Hagai, and so we know that he was prophesying about

520 BC and in the subsequent decades.

Both Hagai and Zakariah prophesied in Jerusalem to the returned exiles, and both of them

had as their goal to encourage the beleaguered saints to get on with the building

of the temple.

Now I think the main point of the Book of Zechariah is found in chapter 8 verses 13 to 15.

So I want to read those with you, and we'll wind up with these verses in a little while too.

As you have been a byword of cursing among the nations,

O House of Judah and House of Israel,

so I will save you, and shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands

be strong. There's that admonition to get on with the work. For thus says the Lord of hosts, as I purpose to do

you evil to you when your fathers provoked me to wrath and I did not relent, says the Lord, of hosts. So again I have purposed in these days

to do good to Jerusalem and to the House of Judah. Fear not. So the main point of the book I think is

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