Careful Now

23/5/2017

“I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her...

I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.”

(Zechariah 12:2-3)

3 Comments

IKc

24/5/2017 02:18:07 pm

Mike:please help me understand this more - with or without the president. Zechariah wrote the next to last book of the old testament - who was he? At first it seems like he's writing about destruction of Jerusalem because they rejected God's laws? but then he's making it a rock against al attackers... love u Mike. Thanks for sharing.

Trinityinme.Team

26/5/2017 11:52:54 am

Hi KC,

Love to you too my friend and nice to hear from you.

Your question about the prophet Zechariah and trying to understand what seems to be his speaking about two different things at the same time, is not unlike that of the Ethiopian eunuch who was struggling to understand the prophet Isaiah in Acts 8:26-40. God the Holy Spirit has spoken through the Old Testament prophets a huge vista of future events, which have been and will be fulfilled with a surgical exactness that is astonishing. Apart from receiving Him and the help of His enlightening the eyes of our hearts, the things of God appear like a spaghetti bowl of disconnected contradictions.

So to the question of who Zechariah was, a bit of historical context is required. Around 1,000 BC the Kingdom of Israel was divided into Northern and Southern kingdoms as a result of their sin and failure to heed God’s warnings. The 10 tribes of Northern Kingdom were conquered and deported by the Assyrians in 733 and 722 BC never to be heard from again, being absorbed into Assyrian culture. The reaming two tribes of the Southern Kingdom were conquered and deported by the Babylonians in 605, 597 and finally in 586 BC. However, God promised them that after 70 years of captivity they would return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city and the temple that the Babylonians had destroyed.

In 712 BC Isaiah had prophesied (Is. 44:28; 45:1, 4-5; 13) about a Babylonian ruler named Cyrus who would be a vessel in God’s hand to release his captive people to return and rebuild Jerusalem. 106 years later in 606 Jeremiah prophesied (Jer. 25:11-14; 29:10-14) about the duration of Judah’s captivity in Babylon, and then 68 years later Daniel reads and “understood” that their captivity was nearly up and that Cyrus was going to be God’s gentile vessel to accomplish their release and rebuilding of the temple, whether Cyrus acknowledged him or not. (Dan. 9:2) And my friend that is exactly what happened.

Daniel most likely went to King Cyrus, who must have known of Daniel’s resume as a captive Jew, an accurate interpreter of dreams and a prophet. Daniel opened up the scroll and read to him Jeremiah’s prophecy of a limited 70 years captivity for the Jews in Babylon, and then he dropped the hammer of Isaiah’s prophecy and said to Cyrus… “You’re the man Cyrus. God has your name and number! Make it happen!” The impact this must have had on Cyrus is huge as we read in the prophet Ezra:

Ezra 1:1-3 “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing: "This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: “‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people among you-may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD , the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem.

This event and the “moved on the heart” of the King, would be the modern day equivalent of Saddam Hussein, Moamar Khadafy or the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, resending their sworn determination to wipe Israel off the map, and instead supporting Israel to take control of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It is unimaginable, yet this is what happened, exactly as God had foretold. There is no power, person or ideology that can hinder “heaven’s rule”, God’s prophetic plan or His timing. It will come to pass. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away”. (Matt. 24:35)

So, exactly 70 years after being taken into captivity, and exactly as God had prophesied, 49, 897 Jews left Babylon to return to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua the High Priest. We can now understand a bit better who Zechariah was and what he was saying.

Zechariah began his prophetic ministry to this group of returned exiles 17 years after they returned (520 BC). His prophetic ministry was to strengthen those in his day …“This is what the LORD Almighty says: "You who now hear these words spoken by the prophets who were there when the foundation was laid for the house of the LORD Almighty, let your hands be strong so that the temple may be built. (8:9)

But, most of his prophetic ministry is focused on the Messianic Advents (First and Second Comings) of Jesus Christ.

Rather than survey the full book and the 8 Night Visions recorded in the first 6 chapters, I want to highlight some of the many verses/ messianic prophecies that we are likely very familiar with, but perhaps never considered their origin, date or their context in the midst of the temple being restored. In doing so, let us remember the exactness of their prophetic fulf

Trinityinme.Team

26/5/2017 11:55:36 am

fulfillment and consider this in light of:
• 1:3- 'Return to me,' declares the LORD Almighty, 'and I will return to you,' says the LORD Almighty. Do not be like your forefathers
• 1:14 “'I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion,”
• 2:8 “whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye”
• 2:10 “For I am coming, and I will live among you," declares the LORD.”
• 3:8-9 “I am going to bring my servant, the Branch… and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.”
• 4:6, 10 “'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty.”… “"Who despises the day of small things? Men will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.”
• 6:12-13 “Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the LORD. It is he who will build the temple of the LORD, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne.”
• 8:2-3 “"I am very jealous for Zion; I am burning with jealousy for her."
This is what the LORD says: "I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain."
• 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!
Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and having salvation,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey”
• 10:4 “From Judah will come the cornerstone”
• 11:12-13 “So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter"-the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD to the potter.”
• “On that day…” used 15 times in Chapters 12-14
• 12:3 “On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.”
• 12:10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and 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.”
• 13:7 “"Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
against the man who is close to me!"
declares the LORD Almighty.
"Strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered,
and I will turn my hand against the little ones.”
• 14:4-5 “On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem”…. “Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.”
• 14:9 “The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.

The numerous prophesies of Zechariah outlined above, that we now see as history fulfilled, make us certain of the things still to come. We can be ABSOLUTELY 100% certain that as God has fulfilled His prophetic word in the past, He will do so for those prophesied events still to be fulfilled.

Hope that encourages you to keep reading the scriptures, listening for the Spirit’s voice, and looking for His soon return to rapture those who are His.

Blessings in His Name!

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