Discovering Jesus in Zechariah

The episode, "The Branch, the Donkey, and the Pierced King," examines the Book of Zechariah as a prophetic blueprint for the life, death, and return of Jesus. The host discusses Zechariah's visions, starting with High Priest Joshua's filthy garments, which are removed by God to illustrate imputed righteousness through Jesus, who is called "the Branch". The discussion then covers the prophecy of the King's humble entrance on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9), contrasting His first coming for salvation with His future return to reign. Key prophecies are highlighted, including the exact fulfillment of Christ's betrayal for thirty pieces of silver and the profound statement, "They will look on Me, the One they have pierced" (Zechariah 12:10), establishing Christ's deity. This pierced One becomes the source of an open fountain for cleansing (Zechariah 13:1), concluding with the ultimate promise of the King's return to the Mount of Olives, when all common aspects of life will be consecrated as "HOLY TO THE LORD".

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

On the eve of his crucifixion, Jesus prays to his father, I have given them your word, and the world hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them from the world, but you keep them from the evil one. Hey everyone, welcome back to Aliens on Earth Season 2, Episode 35 in our series Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament. And to our Aliens on Earth family who's tuning in from all over the world, we just want to say thank you for being here. Whether you're doing your morning routine, you're stuck in traffic, or you're just in your house cleaning, wherever you are. Thank you for tuning in. And and those of you who are joining us for the very first time, welcome to the podcast. So last week we were in this construction site with Hagai. We heard God say, consider your ways, a challenge to stop building our own paneled houses while God's temple sat in ruins. We discovered Jesus as the desire of all nations, the one whose presence made the second temple's glory even greater than Solomon's. And we saw one of the most stunning reversals in scripture: God placing the signet ring back on the line of Zerubbabel after he ripped it off of Jehoiakim and reversing the curse, he preserved the bloodline that would produce Jesus Christ Himself. But if Hay was that sort of foreman on the construction site, the guy barking the orders and getting the bricks laid, then Zechariah is the architect that had the blueprint. So same construction project, same time period, same audience, but where Hagai is practical and edgy and throws those punches. And this man was given night visions that almost felt and read like cinematic trailers for some kind of movie line or story of redemption. And Zechariah's name means Yahweh remembers. And that's the heartbeat of this book. That's that's the very essence of it. God hasn't forgotten, he hasn't forgotten his people, he hasn't forgotten his covenant with David, he hasn't forgotten his plan to send a redeemer. Zechariah was a young man and he was a priest by lineage, he was the grandson of Ido, and Ido returned from Babylon with the first wave of the exiles. So this is a young priest prophet standing alongside the elderly Hagai. So both of them are calling this traumatized nation back to faith. Here's what makes Zechariah extraordinary. Of all the minor prophets, this book contains one of the clearest and largest number of messianic passages. Chuck Swindall calls this a miniature book of Isaiah. The New Testament contains over 40 citations and allusions to Zechariah's prophecies. Many of the most dramatic moments of Passion Week, the triumphal entry, the betrayal for 30 pieces of silver, the scattering of the disciples, the piercing of Jesus on the cross were all written in Zechariah's scroll. This is 500 years before they actually happen. So this book is 14 chapters long. It's packed with all these apocalyptic visions, these messianic prophecies, and just this hope. We can't cover every verse, but we're gonna hit the moments where Jesus bursts through the text like light through a stained glass window. And I want to encourage you just grab your coffee, get your notebook, and let's jump right in. Hey guys, real quick, before we jump in, if you've been blessed by this podcast or find it impactful, I'd like you to hit the follow button. Be a partaker of spreading God's truth by sharing this with your friends, coworkers, family, or even strangers. Let's spread the truth of Christ together. Now, back to this episode. So we start off here with a really powerful vision. In Zechariah chapter 3, I need you to picture this like a scene from a movie because it plays out like this almost courtroom-like drama. So Zechariah sees Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord. Now, this isn't the Joshua from the book of Joshua. This is the post-exile high priest, the spiritual leader of the returned exiles from Babylon. So he's standing in the heavenly court before the presence of Almighty God, and beside him stands Satan, the accuser at his right hand, ready to bring charges against him. And here's a kind of devastating detail. Joshua is wearing filthy garments. The Hebrew word used here for filthy is one of the strongest expressions in the entire Hebrew language. Scholars like Charles Feinberg note that it describes filth of the most vile and loathsome type of character. So we're not talking about a coffee stain on a white t-shirt type of filthy. We're talking about garments that are soaked in excrement, like soaked in just filth. This is the high priest, the one person in all of Israel who's supposed to be spotlessly clean before God. So just imagine that for a second. Standing in the holiest courtroom in the universe, wearing the most disgusting clothes imaginable. And Satan is right there and he's pointing at him. Look at him. Look at what he's wearing. He's disqualified, he's unworthy, he's contaminated. And here's the thing Satan's accusation isn't necessarily false. Joshua's garments, they really are filthy. The nation really has sinned. The priesthood really has been compromised. So the accusation is accurate, but then God speaks and he doesn't address the accusation. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you. Is not this a brand plucked from the fire? And that's in Zechariah chapter 3, verse 2. A brand is this charred stick that's that's pulled from a fire just before it's consumed. That's Israel, that's Joshua, that's honestly you and me. We're burning up, and God reached in and snatched us out. And then comes that moment. So the angel of the Lord commands take away the filthy garments from him. And then he says directly to Joshua, Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with rich garments. And this is Zechariah chapter 3, verse 4. So they strip off the filth, they put on the pure vestments, they place a clean turban on his head. And remember, the high priest's turban had a gold plate on the front inscribed with the words holiness to the Lord. And that's found in Exodus 28, verse 36. So think about this, guys. This is the gospel in the Old Testament. Joshua the high priest is standing there as a representative of all of God's people. We are the ones in the filthy garments, we are the ones that Satan has every right to accuse. And we cannot clean ourselves up. Isaiah 64, 6 says that even our righteous deeds are like filthy rags before God. But in this vision, God doesn't ask Joshua to clean himself up. He doesn't say go take a bath and then come back. He commands the filthy garments to be removed, and he himself provides the clean robes. This is imputed righteousness. This is 2 Corinthians 5 21. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. So at the cross, Jesus took our filthy garments, he wore our sin, our shame, our disgrace. In exchange, he dressed us in his perfect righteousness. Matthew Henry wrote this actually pretty beautifully. He says, Christ loathed the filthiness of Joshua's garments, yet did not put him away, but put them away. He parts between us and our sins, and so prevents our sins from parting between us and our God. So notice it's the same Joshua. The name Joshua in Hebrew means Yeshua, which is the same name as Yeshua, which is the name we translate into the English as Jesus. The high priest named Jesus is stripped of filthy garments and re-clothed in purity. The real Jesus would strip himself of heavenly glory, clothe himself in our filth on the cross, and then be raised to resurrection glory. Zechariah chapter 3, verse 8 then says, I am going to bring my servant, the branch. And the branch is a title Isaiah used in Isaiah 11:1. Jeremiah used this also in Jeremiah 23:5. Now Zechariah uses the branch, is the Messiah, the shoot from the stump of Jesse, the righteous king who would grow out of a dead-looking tree to bring life to the world. So what does that mean for us? I want to talk to the person right now who is standing in the courtroom of their own mind wearing filthy garments with the accuser whispering at your right hand. You know the voice. It's the one that says, Remember what you did, remember who you were, remember that night, remember that choice? You think God wants you after all that? You think you can serve him with those hands? You think you can worship him with that mouth? Look at your garments. You're filthy. And the worst part is part of you agrees because the accusation isn't entirely wrong. You did do those things. You have fallen. You are flawed. But here's what the enemy never tells you: the verdict has already been rendered. And it's not guilty. Not because you're innocent, but because someone else already served your sentence. God didn't look at Joshua and say, clean yourself up and come back. He said, take the filthy garments off of him. And he did it himself. You didn't have to earn clean robes. You can't earn clean robes. Every attempt you make to scrub yourself clean with willpower, good behavior, with religion, and performance, it's like washing filthy rags with more filthy rags. It's like you're you're in a dirty pool trying to clean your dirty skin off with dirty water. It just doesn't make sense. Only God can do this exchange. Maybe you're carrying shame from something you've never told anyone. Maybe there's a secret sin that you've confessed to God a hundred times, but you still feel the weight of it every single day. Maybe you walk into church on Sunday and you feel like a fraud because you know what your week really looked like. Can I tell you something right there? Joshua was the high priest. He was the most religious person in the entire nation. And his garments were the filthiest in the room. Think about that. Your proximity to ministry doesn't make you clean. Your title doesn't make you clean. Only the blood of Jesus makes you clean. And here's the practical part to all of this Satan's power is in the accusation. That's all he has. He can't touch your position in Christ. He can't actually do anything. He can only try to make you forget it. So the next time that voice comes, and it will come, maybe today, maybe a few minutes after you listen to this podcast, maybe you're hearing him right now. I want you to say this out loud the Lord rebuke you, Satan. I am brand plucked from this fire. My filthy garments have been removed. I am clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Romans chapter 8, verse 1 says, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Not less condemnation, not some condemnation on bad days. No, it's no condemnation. That verdict is final. The robe is on, the turban is on your head, and it reads, Holiness to the Lord. And for the person who hasn't yet come to Christ, maybe you're listening and you think you have to get your life together before God will accept you. The truth of the matter is you actually don't. Joshua didn't take a bath before entering the courtroom. He came filthy and God clothed him. So come just as you are. He'll handle the wardrobe change. He will take care of it. Now we kind of fast forward to Zechariah chapter 9, and we hit one of the most famous messianic prophecies in the Bible. It says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you. Righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. That's Zechariah chapter 9, verse 9. So let's look at the context here. In the Near East, when a king rode into a city on a war horse, it usually meant he was heading into battle. He was on a conquest. It meant I'm here to dominate. But when a king rode in on a donkey, it meant I'm here to make peace. It was a deliberate act of humility. So a king arriving not to destroy but to serve. And Zechariah says, This king is righteous and having salvation. He doesn't just bring salvation, he is salvation. He has salvation. It's in him, it's who he is. So 500 years later, in the final week of his earthly life, Jesus sends two of his disciples ahead to find a donkey that no one has ever ridden. And he deliberately, intentionally, he choreographs his entrance into Jerusalem on that animal. And Matthew chapter 21 from verse 4 to 5 tells us explicitly this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. So Jesus knew exactly what he was doing. He had inspired the prophecy through Zechariah, and now he was fulfilling it in real time. So the crowd, so the crowd spread palm branches, they shouted Hosanna, they declared him king. But here's the tension that Zechariah sets up. In the very next verse, Zechariah chapter 9, verse 10, this same king who rides in on a donkey in peace is also described as the one who will speak peace to the nations and whose rule will extend from sea to sea and from river to the ends of the earth. The humble donkey rider is also the world-conquering king. This is the same one the book of Revelation describes riding the white war horse at his second coming. We could see that in Revelation 19, 11 through 16. So first coming, a donkey, then second coming, a war horse. First coming to save, and second coming to reign. So think about that for a second. This is exactly where the first century Israel stumbled. They wanted the war horse, they wanted the military liberator who would crush Rome. They couldn't understand why the Messiah would show up on a donkey. They were reading Zechariah 9:10, but they skipped 9-9. They wanted the kingdom without the cross. What does this mean for us, though? Think about that. Let's look into this. I want to ask you this honest question. Which Jesus are you looking for? The donkey Jesus or the war horse Jesus? Because I think a lot of us were making the same mistake Israel made. We want a Messiah who shows up with power, who fixes our circumstances, who crushes our enemies, who makes everything comfortable. We want the war horse. We want God to ride into our situation and dominate the problem, fix my marriage, heal my body, get me the promotion, destroy the person who hurt me. But what if Jesus rides into your life on a donkey? What if he comes not to fix your circumstances, but to transform your character? What if he comes not with a sword, but with a towel and a basin to wash your feet? What if the greatest thing he could ever do for you right now isn't to remove the problem, but to walk you right through it? You see, the donkey entrance wasn't a weakness, it was a strategy. Jesus rode into the temple in humility because that's how he conquers. He conquers through service, he conquers through sacrifice, he conquers through surrender. Philippians chapter 2 from verse 5 to 8 says, He emptied himself, took the form of a servant, humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, because of humility, not despite of it, God highly exalted him and gave him the name above every other name. So think about that. So maybe God's plan for your life right now doesn't look like a war horse type of entry. Maybe it looks like a demotion instead of a promotion. Maybe it looks like a season of just obscurity instead of a platform. Maybe it looks like serving people who don't appreciate you, loving people who don't love you back, staying faithful in a place that feels small and insignificant. That is not failure. That's the donkey. That's the donkey, and the donkey always comes before the war horse. Humility always precedes exaltation. The cross always precedes the crown. So here's our practical takeaway in all of this. Stop despising the donkey season. If you're in a place where things feel really humble, small, they feel overlooked, you might be exactly where Jesus was the week before he actually shook the foundations of human history. The entry on the donkey didn't look like a victory. But five days later, the cross didn't look like a victory either. But Sunday morning changed everything. Your donkey season has a resurrection coming. Think about that, guys, and really, really, really imagine that. So let's let's keep moving along. So we go into this darkest quarter of Zechariah's prophecy. And what we find here is actually really specific, so detailed that it will make the hair on your arm stand up. And I mean it. Listen to this in Zechariah chapter 11, the prophet is told by God to act out a parable. He says the role of a shepherd who tends his flock, but the flock despises him. So he asks for his wages, and they pay him 30 pieces of silver. So listen to God's response. Then the Lord said to me, Throw it to the potter, the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter. And this is Zechariah 11, 13. 30 pieces of silver. In the ancient world, that was the price of a slave. Exodus chapter 21, verse 32 shows us that. It was the lowest, most insulting valuation that you could put on a person. So God's shepherd was valued at the price of a slave. And the money was thrown into the house of the Lord and went to the potter. Now, when you look in Matthew chapter 26, verse 15, Judas goes to the chief priests and asks, What are you willing to give me if I deliver him to you? And they counted out 30 pieces of silver, the exact amount. Then in Matthew 27, 3 through 10, after Judas is consumed with all this guilt, he throws the money back into the temple, the house of the Lord, and the priests use it to buy the potter's field as a burial place for strangers, thrown into the house of the Lord, given to the potter, 500 years before Judas was even born. Zechariah wrote the receipt, and it gets even deeper. Zechariah 13:7 says, Wake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is my companion, declares the Lord of hosts. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. So notice the language right there. God calls the shepherd the man who is my companion. In Hebrew, the word is Amiti, meaning my associate, my equal, the one near to me. This isn't just any shepherd, this is someone who stands as God's equal. And God Himself calls for the sword to strike him. This is a divine orchestration of suffering. So look at this. Jesus quoted this verse on the night of his arrest. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he told his disciples, You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. And that's in Matthew 26 31. And that's exactly what happened. Every single disciple fled. Peter denied him three times. So, what Zechariah gives us across chapters 11 and 13 is the inner workings and the mechanics of Christ's betrayal and death, written half a millennium in advance. The price is 30 pieces of silver. The destination of the money thrown into the temple, given to the potter, the method of the shepherd struck, the result the sheep scattered. This isn't vague poetry or some kind of imagery that happened to be the same. This is forensic prophecy. And then Zechariah 12:10 just delivers a final almost emotional knockout. I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and the supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. Did you did you catch that point? God says they will look on me, the one they pierced. God is the one who is pierced. The one on the cross isn't just a prophet, isn't just a teacher, isn't just a good man. He is God in the flesh. And the mode of his death or the way of his death, piercing points of crucifixion, this is a form of execution that didn't even exist in Zechariah's time. The Romans wouldn't even invent it yet for centuries to come. But Zechariah saw it. John stood at the foot of the cross and watched a Roman soldier drive a spear into Jesus' side. And in his gospel, John wrote, These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled. They will look on the one they have pierced. And John wrote this in John 19, 37. John was reading Zechariah in real time. And then in Revelation 1:7, the aged old John writes this. He says, Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. Zechariah's prophecy is reaching from the cross all the way to the second coming. So what does this mean for us? There are two things that we should take away from this, and they go in opposite directions, but they're both very essential. Just how specific this prophecy is should really anchor our faith. When you have days where doubt creeps in, when we wonder if any of this is real, if the Bible is just this human book, if Jesus is really who he claimed to be. Come back to Zechariah 11 and 13. 30 pieces of silver thrown into the temple, given to the potter. The shepherd is struck and the sheep scattered, the one pierced, written 500 years before it happened. There is literally no human author that could have ever invented this. No conspiracy could ever have orchestrated all of this together. The precision of this biblical prophecy is just one of the strongest evidences that the Bible is not a human product, it's a divine revelation. And when your faith kind of wobbles and stand on these receipts, stand on this proof, this truth. So the second thing I want us to take away from all this is look at how much Jesus was valued by the people who should have known him bet. 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave, the religious leaders and the keepers of scriptures, the ones who studied the Torah their whole lives, valued the Son of God at the lowest market rate. And I want you to ask yourself, honestly, what price tag have we put on Jesus? Not honestly, not in theory, not with our Sunday school answers, but in practicality. How much is Jesus worth to us today on this Sunday afternoon? Is he worth 30 minutes of in the morning? Is he worth the sacrifice of a relationship that's pulling us away from him? Is he worth the career pivot that would give us more time with him, with our families and with our faith communities? Is he worth the uncomfortable conversations? Is he worth the tithe? Is he worth our obedience when obedience costs us something? Because the world will always undervalue Jesus. Culture will always price him at 30 pieces of silver. Nice for a moral lesson, useful for a holiday, for Christmas, for Easter, but not worth reorganizing your whole life around. But the question for the alien is do you agree with the world's appraisal? Or do you know what he's actually worth? Zechariah 13, 7. Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. There will be moments in your life when it feels like the shepherd has been struck, when your prayers go unanswered, when the person that you trusted betrays you, when the church that was supposed to be safe turns out to be broken, when God feels silent. Those are the Gethsemane moments. And those moments, you'll be tempted to scatter, to run away from the faith, or to isolate, to conclude that God isn't real because the pain is too sharp. But remember, the scattering was not the end of the story. The disciples scattered on Friday night, but by Sunday morning, the tomb was empty. Within weeks, those same scattered sheep were standing in the streets of Jerusalem, preaching with fire in their lungs. The scattering is temporary, guys. Just remember that. The gathering is permanent. So don't let your Friday make you forget that Sunday is coming. And right after this piercing prophecy, Zachariah gives us this tender verse. On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from the sin and uncleanliness. The one who was pierced becomes the source of cleansing. When the soldier drove that spear into Jesus' side, John tells us that blood and water flowed out in John chapter 19, verse 34. And for centuries, theologians have said that this fountain Zechariah prophesied, the blood for atonement, the water for purification, a fountain, not a trickle, not a drip, an inexhaustible flowing open fountain. It's opened for sin and uncleanliness, not just for religious mistakes, but for moral filth, not just for accidental failures, but for deliberate rebellion. The fountain is deep enough for the worst of it. And notice the fountain is opened, not locked, not guarded. It isn't even reserved for the worthy. It is opened. It connects back to Zechariah 3, the filthy garments removed from Joshua. The same God who stripped the filth off the high priest now opens a fountain for everyone. That exclusive priesthood provision becomes a universal river of grace. So Jesus stood in the temple on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the day when the priests would pour water out on the altar to symbolize God's provision. He cried out, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. And that's in John 7, 37 and 38. He was standing in Zechariah's temple, claiming to be Zechariah's fountain. The one who would be pierced would become the source from which all cleansing, all healing, and all forgiveness would flow. So what does that mean for us? Some of you are living with a thirst that nothing in this world has been able to quench. You've tried relationships and they've left you emptier than before. You've tried success and the promotion didn't taste the way you thought it would. You've tried pleasure and the morning after always feels the same. You've tried self-improvement, the diets, the routines, the morning rituals, the podcasts, the therapies, the journals, and nothing has reached the deepest part of the ache. That ache is the thirst Zechariah is talking about. And Jesus says, Come to me. I am the fountain. Not a bottled water that you have to buy and not a well that you have to dig up yourself, but a fountain that's already flowing, already open. It's already free. You just have to come and drink. And honestly, for those of us who've been drinking from this fountain for years, but just kind of wandered away upstream or you know, wherever to other sources. You've been sipping from streams that are polluted and you honestly know it. The fountain is still open. You don't have to earn your way back, you don't have to grovel. Zechariah says it's opened for sin and uncleanliness. That means that it was designed for people who mess up. It was built for the broken. The fountain doesn't close because you sinned. The fountain exists because you sinned. Here's take the step of faith. Before you go to bed tonight, get alone with God and bring him the thing that you've been hiding, the sin that you haven't confessed out loud, that shame that you've been carrying, that habit that you've been white knuckling in secret, bring it to the fountain. Let the blood and water do its work. 1 John chapter 1, verse 9 promises if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And it's all, not some, not most, but all unrighteousness. So I'll end with this. Zechariah ends with a breathtaking scene of prophecy in chapter 14. He describes a day when the Lord Himself will stand on the Mount of Olives and the mountain will split into beneath his feet. Zechariah chapter 14, verse 4. The same mountain where Jesus ascended to the heavens in Acts chapter 1, from verse 9 through 12. That same mountain where angels said, This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go in Acts 1, chapter 11. He left from the Mount of Olives. He's coming back to the Mount of Olives. And when his feet touch down, the mountain will know who's standing on it. And Zechariah 14, verse 9 says, The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day, there will be one Lord, and his name, the only name, the donkey rider becomes the world ruler, the one pierced, the one becomes the reigning one, the struck shepherd becomes the eternal king. And then the final verse of Zechariah gives us this detail. On that day, even the bells on the horses will be inscribed holy to the Lord. And the cooking pots in the temple will be as sacred bowls before the altar. Zechariah 14, 20 through 21 tells us that. Every common, ordinary, everyday object will be saturated with holiness. There will be no more separation between sacred and secular. Every pot, every bell, every inch of life will belong to God. So here's what Zechariah is trying to leave us with. And one day, every single thing in all of creation, from cooking pots to horse spells, will be branded with the name of your God. So what does that mean for us? And I want to close this with a vision for our everyday life, because Zechariah 14, 20 through 21 is one of the most practical verses in the book. Even though it sounds apocalyptic, cooking pots inscribed wholly to the Lord, horse spells branded with God's name. You know what? You know what that means? It means that one day there will be no such thing as a secular moment, no meaningless task, no throwaway Tuesday, every act will be worshiped, every breath will be sacred, every conversation, every meal, every commute, every diaper change, every spreadsheet, every workout, every late night feeding, all of it will drip with holiness of God. And but here's the thing: as aliens on earth, we don't have to wait for that day to start living that way. You can brand your cooking pots right now. You can inscribe holy to the Lord on your Monday morning. You do it by doing everything, even mundane, even boring and exhausting tasks as an act of worship. As Colossians chapter 3, verse 23 says, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters. That verse turns your cubicle into a temple, it turns your kitchen into an altar, it turns your carpool lane into a sacred ground. So this week, I want you to pick up an ordinary part of your day and consecrate it. Your morning commute, turn off the noise and talk to God. Your lunch break, pray for a coworker by name. And when you're doing the dishes after dinner, thank God for the family that made them dirty, the workout, worship while you sweat. Take one cooking pot and inscribe it as holy unto the Lord. Because when you do, you're not just living in the present, you're rehearsing for eternity. So, with all this being said, next week we will close out the entire series with the prophet Malachi, the last voice before 400 years of divine silence. So we're gonna discover Jesus as the Son of righteousness who rises with the healing in his wings, and we'll wrestle with what means to live faithfully when God goes quiet. So this week I want you to remember Yahweh remembers. He remembers his promises, he remembers your name, he remembers the covenant written in the blood of his son. The branch has sprouted, the fountain is open, the king is coming back. So until next week, this is Aliens on Earth, and I'm your host, Nate Gazao. Peace.