Sunday
Morning Bible Study
December
7, 2014
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it address the person who is: Empty, lonely, guilty, or afraid
to die? Does it speak to the broken
hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision
Is the church loved? Regular: 2900
words Communion: 2500 words
The historical background to Zechariah, like that of Haggai, is found in
the book of Ezra.
Zechariah lived during the time that the Jews had begun to return from
Babylon and rebuild their Temple.
The prophecies of Zechariah are given during the years of 520-518 BC.
One of the key distinctions of the book of Zechariah is the amount of
prophecy about the coming Messiah.
We now in section in Zechariah, when he gives a series of prophecies that
look far into his future.
Chapters 9-11 dealt primarily with the first coming of the Messiah.
Chapters 12-14 will deal with the second coming of the Messiah.
These last three chapters are a
single prophecy, and constitute what some have called, “second to none in
importance” (Feinberg) in regards to its prophetic value in “understanding the
events of the last days for Israel – the time of the Great Tribulation, and the
establishing of God’s kingdom on earth” (Feinberg).
Except for one verse (13:7), the
rest of the prophecy lies in our future.
(Zechariah 13:7 NKJV) “Awake, O
sword, against My Shepherd, Against
the Man who is My Companion,” Says the Lord of hosts. “Strike the Shepherd, And the
sheep will be scattered; Then I
will turn My hand against the little ones.
So one last time, we are setting our DeLorean time machine for our own
future. Buckle up your seat belts and let’s hit the road…
14:1-15 The day of the Lord
:1 Behold, the day of the Lord
is coming, And your spoil will be divided in your midst.
:1 the day of the Lord is
coming
This is a time of judgment, culminating in the return of Jesus Christ.
This is a specific time described
by the prophets.
It is not a literal twenty-four
hour day, but a period of time.
:1 your spoil will be divided
The city of Jerusalem will be captured towards the end of the battle of
Armageddon.
The spoils of the city will be divided among the nations that are attacking
it.
:2 For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; The city
shall be taken, The houses rifled, And the women ravished. Half of the city
shall go into captivity, But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off
from the city.
:2 gather all the nations
It would seem that the entire world
will have turned against Israel.
:2 houses rifled … women ravished
Sounds kind of barbaric.
Here’s an interview with Andrew White, the Anglican bishop that used to be
in Bagdad, but has since been evacuated to Israel.
The news reports tells us that the Islamic State is not only beheading
children, but looting households, raping women, and selling women and children
into slavery.
This is from “The Guardian”, a British newspaper back in October:
Mostafa Kader was one of the restive crowd, grieving for an uncle who had
been beheaded by militants, and a young mother and her daughter both brutally
raped and murdered.
Kader fled 10 days ago, leaving his village, which lies 16km from Kobani
centre, in the small hours of the morning. He and his wife took their
five-year-old, their toddler and what little else they could carry.
His uncle planned to join them but at the last minute changed his mind,
unable to leave a village that had been his home for more than eight decades.
The militants beheaded him, refugees arriving later told Kader.
"He was 85 – he could not even lift a weapon," said the young
father, baffled by the brutality. Even more haunting were stories from his
wife's village, where the fleeing family found the bodies of her sister and an
eight-year-old niece lying in pools of blood.
"They had been raped, and their hearts were cut out of their chests
and left on top of the bodies," he said, struggling to hold back tears.
"I buried them with my own hands."
:2 Half of the city shall go
into captivity
Initially, half of the city is
captures.
:2 the remnant …shall not be cut
off
Perhaps it’s this “remnant” that’s
left that will be like “supermen” (12:8)
(Zechariah 12:8 NKJV) In that
day the Lord will defend the
inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be
like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of
the Lord before them.
:3 Then the Lord will go
forth And fight against those nations, As He fights in the day of battle.
:3 the Lord will go forth
and fight
Jesus returns to Jerusalem and fights the battle.
It’s interesting to look at what
the other prophets have written and compare them. It’s like looking at the same event from
different perspectives.
John wrote,
(Revelation
19:11–16 NKJV) —11 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat
on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and
makes war. 12 His eyes were
like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name
written that no one knew except Himself. 13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is
called The Word of God. 14 And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean,
followed Him on white horses. 15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should
strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He
Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And He has
on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF
KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS
Three hundred years before
Zechariah, Isaiah recorded something similar, and even tells us how Jesus’ robe
was stained with blood:
(Isaiah 63:1–6 NKJV) —1 Who is
this who comes from Edom, With dyed
garments from Bozrah, This One
who is glorious in His apparel, Traveling
in the greatness of His strength?— “I who
speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” 2 Why is
Your apparel red, And Your garments like
one who treads in the winepress? 3 “I have
trodden the winepress alone, And from
the peoples no one was with Me. For I have
trodden them in My anger, And
trampled them in My fury; Their
blood is sprinkled upon My garments, And I have
stained all My robes. 4 For the
day of vengeance is in My heart, And the
year of My redeemed has come. 5 I looked,
but there was no one to help, And I
wondered That there was
no one to uphold; Therefore My own arm
brought salvation for Me; And My own
fury, it sustained Me. 6 I have
trodden down the peoples in My anger, Made them
drunk in My fury, And brought down their
strength to the earth.”
When Jesus returns to earth from
heaven, it will be to rescue the Jews.
His first stop will actually be in
the land of Edom (Is. 63:1), where many Jews will have been hiding out from the
antichrist (Rev. 12:14).
One of the places they may be
hiding is in the ancient city of Petra (Is. 16:1-4)
After Jesus rescues the Jews in
Edom, He will move with His armies to Jerusalem to rescue the remnant in the
city from the armies that are surrounding it.
Lesson
God’s fight
There are some battles that we must fight.
Joshua led the armies of Israel into battle to conquer the Canaanites.
(Joshua 1:5 NKJV) No man shall
be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with
Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.
Even though God promised to be with them, they still
needed to swing their swords and fight the battles.
There are other battles that God will fight.
When Jehoshaphat was being invaded by Ammon, Moab, and Edom, a prophet
spoke up:
(2
Chronicles 20:15 NKJV) …Thus says the Lord
to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the
battle is not yours, but God’s.
We get into trouble when we confuse the two.
When it comes to temptation, we want God to do all the fighting.
We ask people to pray that we will be delivered from
“lust”.
But though God will help us with the battle, this is a battle
where we must swing the sword.
(Colossians
3:5 NLT) So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have
nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t
be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this
world.
There are going to be other situations where God wants to be the one to
handle things.
Sometimes it might be a situation with someone in your
life that is causing you problems.
You want to take this person out back in the alley and
teach them a lesson.
But sometimes God would rather you shut up and let Him
handle it.
May God give us the wisdom to know when our battle is something we need to
let Him handle, and when it’s something that we need to take care of.
:4 And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces
Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east
to west, Making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move
toward the north And half of it toward the south.
:4 His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives
Video: Mount of Olives and Jerusalem
map clip
The Mount of Olives is the hill located on the east of the Temple Mount.
Is there anything special about the
Mount of Olives?
The Mount of Olives is not only
next to Jerusalem, overlooking Jerusalem, but it literally overlooks the Temple
mount itself.
Whenever you see pictures that
display the “Dome of the Rock” (where the Temple was/will be), the picture is
being taken from the Mount of Olives.
On Palm Sunday, Jesus rode a donkey down the Mount of Olives (Luke 19:37)
(Luke 19:37 NKJV) —37 Then, as
He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude
of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty
works they had seen,
On that day that He rode into
Jerusalem …
(Luke 19:41–44 NKJV) —41 Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day,
the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from
your eyes. 43 For days will come
upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you
and close you in on every side, 44 and level
you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in
you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your
visitation.”
Before Jesus was crucified, He spent His last night praying in a garden (Gethsemane)
on the Mount of Olives. (Luke 22:39; Mat. 26:36)
(Luke 22:39 NKJV) —39 Coming out,
He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also
followed Him.
(Matthew 26:36 NKJV) —36 Then Jesus
came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit
here while I go and pray over there.”
The last place Jesus stood before ascending into heaven was on the Mount of
Olives (Acts 1:9-12)
(Acts 1:9–12 NKJV) —9 Now when
He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud
received Him out of their sight. 10 And while
they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by
them in white apparel, 11 who also
said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same
Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as
you saw Him go into heaven.” 12 Then they
returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a
Sabbath day’s journey.
Ezekiel recorded that the Messiah
would come through the “eastern gate” to the Temple. (Eze. 44:3)
(Ezekiel 44:3 NKJV) As for the
prince, because he is the prince, he may sit in it to eat bread
before the Lord; he shall enter
by way of the vestibule of the gateway, and go out the same way.”
When Jesus entered Jerusalem on the
donkey, tradition has it He entered in through that same eastern gate.
In 810, the Arabs walled up the
eastern or “Golden” gate, thinking this would keep the Messiah from entering
it.
The Muslims also
built a cemetery in front of the eastern gate, thinking that would also keep
the Messiah from entering the gate, lest he be “defiled”.
There is also an ancient Jewish
cemetery on the other side of the Kidron Valley, on the Mount of Olives. The Jews believe that when Messiah comes to
Jerusalem, the dead will be raised, and those buried closest to the Eastern
Gate will rise first.
The cemetery is still functioning
today. It has been in operation for
three thousand years. It supposedly
costs at least $50,000 to be buried there.
:4 the Mount of Olives shall be split
When Jesus stands on the Mount of Olives, the mountain is split.
With half of the mountain moving north, and half moving south, a new valley
will appear that will lead from the Temple eastward towards the Dead Sea.
:5 Then you shall flee through My mountain valley, For the mountain
valley shall reach to Azal. Yes, you shall flee As you fled from the earthquake
In the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Thus the Lord
my God will come, And all the saints with You.
:5 Azal – ‘Atsel – “reserved”
We don’t know where this is.
:5 the earthquake in the days of Uzziah
The earthquake took place 240 years before Zechariah (Amos 1:1)
(Amos 1:1 NKJV) —1 The words
of Amos, who was among the sheepbreeders of Tekoa, which he saw concerning
Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son
of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
The Jewish historian Josephus links
this earthquake with the time when Uzziah tried to enter the Temple and became
a leper (2Chr. 26:16-20)
The earthquake took place in 760
BC, 240 years before Zechariah.
:5 …And all the saints
Jesus returns with … us. (Rev. 19:14)
(Revelation 19:14 NKJV) And the
armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white
horses.
:6 It shall come to pass in that day That there will be no light;
The lights will diminish.
:6 no light…lights will diminish
Isaiah wrote,
(Isaiah 13:10 NKJV)
For
the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not give their light; The sun will
be darkened in its going forth, And the moon will not cause its light to shine.
(Zechariah 14:6 NIV) On that
day there will be neither sunlight nor cold, frosty darkness.
Joel wrote,
(Joel 2:30–32 NKJV) —30 “And I
will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. 31
The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the
coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. 32
And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved. For in
Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, As the Lord has
said, Among the remnant whom the Lord calls.
:7 It shall be one day Which is known to the Lord Neither day nor night. But at evening time it shall
happen That it will be light.
:7 at evening …it will be light
Perhaps at the end of the day it gets light.
One commentator suggested it will kind of a “murky” light.
:8 And in that day it shall be— That living waters shall flow from
Jerusalem, Half of them toward the eastern sea And half of them toward the
western sea; In both summer and winter it shall occur.
:8 living waters shall flow from Jerusalem
“Living” water is water that comes from a spring rather than rain water
collected in a cistern.
We talked about this last week.
Ezekiel tells us the water actually flows from God’s throne in the Temple
(Eze. 47:1)
(Ezekiel 47:1 NKJV) —1 Then he
brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from
under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple
faced east; the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple,
south of the altar.
(Ezekiel 47:8–10 NKJV) —8 Then he
said to me: “This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the
valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters
are healed. 9 And it shall be that
every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be
a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be
healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes. 10 It shall be that fishermen will stand by it from En Gedi
to En Eglaim; they will be places for spreading their nets. Their fish
will be of the same kinds as the fish of the Great Sea, exceedingly many.
Half of the water will flow through the new valley into the Dead Sea, the other
half into the Mediterranean.
The water can now flow to the Dead
Sea because of the new valley.
:8 both summer and winter
All year long. The water doesn’t depend on the season or the
weather.
:9 And the Lord shall be King
over all the earth. In that day it shall be “The Lord is one,” And His name one.
:9 “The Lord is
one,” And His name one
The great cry that identifies Judaism is:
(Deuteronomy 6:4
NKJV) “Hear, O Israel: The Lord
our God, the Lord is one!
But when Jesus returns, the Jews won’t be the only one crying this out, the
whole earth will.
Jesus will be king of the entire planet.
(Zechariah 14:9 NLT) And the Lord will be king over all the earth.
On that day there will be one Lord—his
name alone will be worshiped.
:10 All the land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of
Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be raised up and inhabited in her place from
Benjamin’s Gate to the place of the First Gate and the Corner Gate, and from
the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses.
:10 Geba to Rimmon
Video: Jerusalem hills
Currently, Jerusalem sits in the Judean hills that run north and south
through Israel.
Geba was north of Jerusalem, while
Rimmon was a town on the border with Edom to the south.
The picture is that all the land of Israel will be leveled to the same
altitude, except Jerusalem.
Jerusalem will be higher than all the surrounding land.
:10 inhabited in her place
All the places listed are to show that the city will go back to being just
what it’s supposed to be.
:11 The people shall dwell in it; And no longer shall there be utter
destruction, But Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.
:12 And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem:
Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, Their eyes shall
dissolve in their sockets, And their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths.
:12 Their eyes shall dissolve
I have a video of this. Warning: You may want to cover your eyes.
John also records the destruction
of Israel’s enemies:
(Revelation 19:17–18 NKJV) —17 Then
I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to
all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for
the supper of the great God, 18 that you
may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the
flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people,
free and slave, both small and great.”
:13 It shall come to pass in that day That a great panic from the Lord will be among them. Everyone will
seize the hand of his neighbor, And raise his hand against his neighbor’s hand;
:14 Judah also will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the
surrounding nations Shall be gathered together: Gold, silver, and apparel in
great abundance.
:14 the wealth of all the surrounding nations
This time the plunderers are plundered.
:15 Such also shall be the plague On the horse and the mule, On the
camel and the donkey, And on all the cattle that will be in those camps. So shall
this plague be.
:15 On the horse and the mule
They too will melt. Think chocolate
bunnies.
Want to see another version of the melting
bunny?
Some have suggested that Zechariah might be describing some sort of neutron
bomb (and not the hair dryer that melted the bunny).
:12 this shall be the plague
Lesson
The Right Side
Jesus is coming.
Are you on His side?
Jesus said,
(Matthew 12:30 NKJV)
He
who is not with Me is against Me…
How do you get on the “right side”?
It’s not by being good enough.
God knows you will never be “good enough”.
That’s why He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross.
He died to pay the price for your sins.
All God is looking for is that you turn to Him and ask for His help.
God wants you to simply trust Him.
(John
3:16 NKJV) For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
14:16-21 Millennium
:16 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the
nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship
the King, the Lord of hosts, and
to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
:16 everyone who is left
At this point in world history, there will be two kinds of people on the
earth.
Those of us taken in the Rapture will have our glorified bodies.
Those who believed and lived through the Tribulation will have their old
bodies.
It’s from these people that the nations will send representatives every
year to Jerusalem.
Jerusalem will be the de facto capital of the world, and Jesus will rule.
:16 the Feast of Tabernacles
The Feast of Tabernacles (or
“Sukkoth”, Lev. 23:33-43)
falls around October each year.
Part of the feast was designed as a
celebration of the end of the harvest season, when all the crops have been
harvested.
The Feast of Tabernacles was set up to remind Israel of the time when God
delivered them from Egypt and they wandered for forty years in the wilderness, living
in tents or “tabernacles”.
It was also a time when God lived with the people, when His presence was in
the Tabernacle.
Jesus was also an embodiment of
this feast. John records:
(John 1:14 NKJV) And the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
The word “dwelt” is literally the
word “tabernacled”. Jesus settled down
with us when He took on human flesh.
When Jesus returns, the most important of the Jewish feasts to be
celebrated will be the Feast of Tabernacles.
Why? Because God will literally be
“with them”.
He will dwell with us.
:17 And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do
not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain.
:18 If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall
have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not
come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
:19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the
nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
:17 there will be no rain
This will be the penalty for any nation that does not honor God by sending
representatives to Jerusalem for the Feast.
Even though the world will be made
up of believers, those who are still in their old bodies will still have a sin
nature.
:20 In that day “HOLINESS TO THE LORD” shall be engraved on the
bells of the horses. The pots in the Lord’s
house shall be like the bowls before the altar.
:21 Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices
shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be
a Canaanite in the house of the Lord
of hosts.
:21 there shall no longer be a Canaanite
Canaanites were the epitome of the ungodly.
When Israel first conquered the land of Canaan, they were commanded to wipe
out the evil Canaanites.
It’s not until Jesus returns that this is actually, finally obeyed.
:20 HOLINESS TO THE LORD
When God first instructed Moses
about how God was to be worshipped, part of the instruction involved the
clothing that the high priest would wear when he came into God’s presence in the
Holy of Holies.
The Jewish high priest had a unique set of clothing. He was to wear a turban on his head with a
gold tag (or plate) attached to it.
(Exodus 28:36 NKJV)
“You
shall also make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the
engraving of a signet: HOLINESS TO THE LORD
Yet now after Jesus returns, even the bells on the horses will have this
inscription.
Lesson
God’s goal: Holiness
When Jesus returns, He will clean house.
Pots, pans, even the horses will be “holy”.
Holiness speaks of purity. It speaks of being right with God.
There’s something in each of us
that longs for the day when everything will be right with God.
We identify with Paul who wrote,
(Romans 7:19 NLT) I
want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I
do it anyway.
We want to walk in
purity, but we keep screwing things up.
This is the ultimate goal that God wants for all our lives.
(1 Peter 1:15–16
NKJV) —15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your
conduct, 16 because it
is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
Some of us have the mistaken idea that achieving “holiness” is how we get
God to love us, and maybe how we get God to give us things.
The truth is, God is already madly in love with us.
You can’t get Him to love you any more than He already does.
If you were that child’s grandfather, would you stop
loving the kids because he walked in your wet cement? Of course not.
But that doesn’t mean you don’t want to teach him to not
walk in wet cement.
God wants us to learn holiness because it’s what’s best for us.
It’s what being a “grown-up” Christian is all about.
Sometimes all we can think about is how much we’ve failed, and we just quit
on trying to be holy.
(1 John 3:1–3 NLT)
—1 See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his
children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world
don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. 2 Dear
friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we
will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for
we will see him as he really is. 3 And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure,
just as he is pure.
Instead of thinking about how much you’ve failed, think
about who Jesus is.
Yearn to be like He is.
Arden K. Barden wrote,
It is not the way we deal with our human situation that is the basis for
hope (as in “I have hope because I’m doing a good job with life…”) --hope is
the basis for how we deal with our human situation.
It’s our hope in the soon return of Jesus that gives us the strength to
keep going, to keep changing, to keep fighting the fight, to keep swimming
against the current of the world.
Illustration
Yesterday we had a guest speaker at our Men’s
Breakfast. Nathan Muldoon is a distance
swimmer. He’s swam to Catalina. He shared with us how he swam the English
Channel.
Nathan talked about the difficulties he faced as he swam.
He started in the middle of the night (2am) and got
disoriented in the dark.
At one point the winds picked up, he was swimming into
three foot swells, and he found himself swimming against a growing current.
A couple of miles off the coast of France he was losing
ground and France started getting farther and farther away.
He was told by his team on the boat that followed him that
he needed to sprint for an hour (after having been swimming for nine
hours). Then they told him he needed to
sprint for another hour. Then another
hour. The team prayed for the wind to calm.
Finally the wind and the currents changed, and he began to
make progress.
Nathan swam for 15 hours.
And he made it.
Beloved, life is a marathon swim.
You have to keep going.
You have to keep heading in the right direction.
There will be a day when we will stand on that distant shore.
Holy is what we will all be one day.
I think God wants us to get a taste of it now.