Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, the hosts methodically show how Scripture is one cohesive story. Critical Thinking with a little bit of theology and apologetics and you have what this podcast is about. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity today must address woke, deconstruction, and progressive Christianity, all topics that are addressed if we go purposefully through the Bible. Join Glenn and Steve weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S28 || Jerusalem: The Capitol of Global Peace || Zechariah 14:9-21 || Session 28 || Verse by Verse Bible Study
What if the world was ruled from Jerusalem, echoing the peace of the Garden of Eden? Explore this fascinating vision as we journey through Zechariah 14, where the return of Jesus to Jerusalem heralds an era of unmatched tranquility and divine governance. We'll discuss the theological implications of His reign and what it means for all nations to recognize Him as the one true God. Join us as we dissect the prophetic narrative that ties the past, present, and future into a cohesive divine plan, emphasizing the profound significance of Jerusalem as the epicenter of worship.
Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible. My name's Glenn, I'm here with Steve. If you have your copy of the Word of God, open it to the book of Zechariah, chapter 14, starting in verse 9. As we saw last time, the Lord Jesus has returned to Jerusalem. He has saved the Jewish people, but yet there's still some truths here that we're going to learn about God and about his character and what he's going to be doing here in the future. Let's go ahead and dive in and read.
Speaker 1:We'll start reading in Zechariah 14.9, says this and the Lord will be king over all the earth. In that day, the Lord will be the only one and his name the only one. All the land will be changed into a plain, from Geba to Rimen, south of Jerusalem. Now we have here the Lord returning to Jerusalem and reigning over all the earth. The end of verse 9 speaks of a deep theological truth about the nature of God he will be one and his name one. At that time, there's going to be no worshiping other gods. Only the one true God will be worshiped. This will be the case where Jesus, who is God, will be on the throne in Jerusalem and will be recognized for who he is the only God to be worshiped. Now, Steve, I find that to be quite profound because all throughout the scriptures it tells us the Lord is one and Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, the one true God.
Speaker 2:I also think, glenn, that this is a culmination of the narrative of God working with the nations Whenever he scattered them. At the Tower of Babel, he pulled one man out. Abraham gave him promises of a great nation, meaning a large nation of many descendants, that he was going to give him some land and that through his seed, all the other nations were going to be blessed. As we progressed through that story and we got to Jacob, his grandson changed his name to Israel and the 12 tribes of Israel. We saw that nation come out of Egypt and go into the land to possess it.
Speaker 2:All throughout that particular narrative, god kept referring to himself as the Israelites as his people, and that he was the God of Israel, and I think that this is a culmination of that, in that it says there that he alone is the Lord over all the nations and that everything is now at a point where all the nations are acknowledging who he is and that he is the God. Now, of course, I think it's going to be through Jesus, who is going to be reigning there in Jerusalem, and I think we've established that through the other verses that Zechariah has talked about. But to me it's kind of like tightening up a loose end at the very end of a story and it's kind of bringing it to fruition.
Speaker 1:As always, as we've done throughout this book, we need to answer the question is this a symbolic thing, fit the church age? For several reasons. One is there are still other gods being worshiped and it uses the specific language there in all the earth, In all the earth, it is not the case that the Lord will be the only one, the only one that's worshiped. That's not the case today and never has been the case. In that day it will be the case. Secondly, in verse 11, it talks about Jerusalem dwelling in security, and today neither physical Jerusalem nor the church are dwelling in complete security. The church and physical Jerusalem has been under attack for its entire history, so we can't say it dwells in security. Jesus' first coming, he did not dwell in the midst, as it says here, of Jerusalem. He didn't dwell in the midst of Jerusalem either physically or spiritually. He was rejected by the Jewish people and he was rejected out of the city by the Jewish people and he was rejected out of the city. He dwells in our hearts now, but he's physically in heaven, at the right hand of the Father. The Holy Spirit dwells in Christians. To shoehorn this into some sort of figurative language about the church and a state of salvation for Christians just doesn't fit the text. If nothing else, just again, look at verse 10. Look at the physical locations, into a plain from Geba to Rimen. Those are physical locations. Jerusalem will rise and remain on its site.
Speaker 1:It mentions these places Benjamin's Gate, corner Gate, tower of Hananel, places. Benjamin's Gate, corner Gate, tower of Hananel those same locations, those same towers and locations were mentioned over in Jeremiah 31 when it talks about the new covenant with the nation of Israel. And it talks about those specific places the Tower of Hananel, my amillennialist friend. What is the symbolism for the Benjamin's Gate and the wine presses and the Tower of Hananel in the Christian life? There is none.
Speaker 1:Without morphing the text into something that it's not saying, we just can't take the text as a lump of clay and make it say what we want it to say by broad brushing it. Now, what we can do, steve, is take what this is actually saying, and it's saying there's going to come a time, as we saw last time, there's going to be plenty of water and the desert's going to turn green and Jesus is going to be on his throne and there's going to be peace because he's in charge. Here. It says Jerusalem will no longer be under attack, but will dwell in security. What we can ask is what's that going to be like? There's peace on earth, there's enough water to go around to grow enough food. We finally have peace and no more wars. All people realize that they must bend the knee to the one true God.
Speaker 2:It kind of sounds like the very beginning in the Garden of Eden, how it was with Adam and Eve and how Adam would walk with God every day in the cool of the day. It said Everything there was at Adam's disposal. Of course he was given one command of one tree that he couldn't partake of, but it was paradise. God provided everything for him. But it was paradise, god provided everything for him. Of course, god told him be fruitful, multiply, and you have dominion over everything here.
Speaker 2:I think it's going to be wonderful Now.
Speaker 2:I don't think it's going to be a point where we're just all sitting back and not doing anything.
Speaker 2:We're going to be given tasks to do and things to do for the earth itself, just like Adam was given as well, but we're not going to have to do it by the sweat of our brow. That curse is going to be lifted once again. There's also other scripture that mentions about creation itself, where creation groans to be lifted from the curse. So I think it's not only just going to be us, but it's also going to be creation itself that's going to be happy to once again get back to a time whenever there's not any type of animosity amongst the animals and strife and things like that. Grasses can grow without brambles and briars trying to choke them out. It's just going to be a great time of peace, and I think of a time of whenever God originally wanted it to be, with him dwelling among his people in Jerusalem and his people, all the other nations as well, throughout the earth. I just think it's going to be a great time and look forward to.
Speaker 1:We have over in the Gospels, jesus teaching several parables where he would talk about a nobleman going off and leaving people in charge. And he comes back and the sense of the parables is he's going to come back at a time when he might not be expected. The question for us now these passages are talking about Jesus coming back. Do people today expect Jesus to come back? Do we live either inside the church or in the world in a way where we think, oh, jesus could come back any minute? Do we live like that?
Speaker 2:There are some of us that do, glenn, that we live with the expectation that Jesus can come back any day. There's other Christians that don't live that way. Through their eschatology of their end times, they think that there are certain things that have to happen before Jesus can return again. So they're working to try and make those things happen before he returns and they're not really living under expectation where he can come any day. And, of course, the pagan world, the unbelieving world, absolutely not. He returns and they're not really living under expectation where he can come any day. And, of course, the pagan world, the unbelieving world, absolutely not. They're not living at all with expectation for Jesus to return at all, much less at any point in time.
Speaker 1:Those unbelievers you mentioned there. What do you think it's going to be like for them at the moment? Jesus comes back.
Speaker 2:It's going to be a great surprise to them, number one. Number two is oh, they're going to dread it. They're finally going to realize that this God that they have scoffed and made fun of their whole lives is actually real. You know, some of us are going to be able to say I told you so, but it's not going to be a pleasant I told you so. They are going to have to deal with God, and there's going to be a recognition on their part. Now we're even told, though, in some of those people, that they're still going to deny God. Even during that point in time, they're going to go to their demise, denying God, not wanting to worship God at all. It's just amazing to me that, even though we have a God that's going to make himself known, that they're still going to deny him and not want to have anything to do with him.
Speaker 1:We're told by our Lord over in the Gospels, in Matthew 24-25, that people are going to be crying out for the mountains to fall on them because of their fear of the Lord. So it's going to be quite dramatic. Part of it is explained in this next section. I'm going to go ahead and read this next section. It's quite ugly and quite graphic A little bit of an asterisk here about what the Word of God is going to tell us, but nevertheless it's in the Word of God, so we're going to read it. It's not going to be pretty for the people who go up against the Lord.
Speaker 1:Zechariah 14, starting verse 12, says this Now, this will be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem. Their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet and their eyes will rot in their sockets and their tongue will rot in their mouth. It will come about in that day that a great panic from the Lord will fall on them and they will seize one another's hand, and the hand of one will be lifted against the hand of another. Judah also will fight at Jerusalem and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered gold and silver and garments in great abundance. Also, like this, plague will be the plague on the horse, the mule, the camel, the donkey and all the cattle that will be in those camps. With this, verse 12 specifically and clearly says the Lord, god, will send a plague upon the enemies that causes a destruction of their flesh. It says, rots away various parts of their flesh.
Speaker 1:Now, god has used several different ways of defeating enemies over the course of the Bible. I think of Pharaoh and his army got drowned in the Red Sea. 2 Kings 19,. God killed 185,000 Assyrians in one night. Judges 7,. He used hidden torches at night to scare the Midianites into fighting each other and running in confusion. 2 Kings 7.6,. He caused the Arameans to hear the sound of a giant army and scared them away. Therefore, god has used many different ways to defeat his enemies over the years and he can still use still another way to destroy them, and I think that's what we see here.
Speaker 1:Just like all those others were real, then I take it that this one is real just as well. God is going to cause a plague and also cause them to panic and fight against each other. All he has to do, as he said earlier in the book is wave his hand and these things will happen. This is a very horrible description of God's judgment. The equally horrible thing, I think, steve, though, is to fight against a holy God. That's what's really horrible. The punishment is proportional to the victim of the crime. In this case, a crime against a pure and holy God deserves a severe punishment, wouldn't you agree?
Speaker 2:It's all going to come to an end for these people.
Speaker 2:We mentioned before whenever the Israelites at one time took the Ark of the Covenant out and battled with them, because at that time they were treated kind of like a good luck charm and it was being misused.
Speaker 2:And what happened was the Philistines defeated them and took the Ark back. But when they put it in their temple, the temple of Dagon, the next day the priests come in and Dagon's toppled over. They put Dagon back up, and then the priests come back in the next day and not only is Dagon over but his head is severed as well. And those priests then understand and know that the God of Israel is greater than their God Dagon, and from that point they would kind of walk over the threshold away from it and not want to have anything to do with this God of Israel, and even so much that the Philistines ended up taking the Ark of the Covenant back to the Israelites. There's story after story after story of God standing up for himself and fighting for himself with the people of Israel and for the people of Israel, and this is another example of that.
Speaker 1:Fight against a holy God at your own peril, because that's what it's saying here. In the midst of that horribleness, though, look at verse 14, a glimmer of light in the midst of the darkness. The nations attacking Jerusalem will leave a great wealth at Jerusalem for all the Jews to gather. Then they will be the beneficiaries of this, as happened with some of those other stories in the past. Now I'll admit here one thing, steve If we look at verse 15, this is probably, admittedly, one of the greatest arguments against the premillennial position if there is one, which is it talks there about battles happening with horses and mules and camels and donkeys, and the criticism amongst some Bible teachers is that's just doesn't representative of modern warfare.
Speaker 1:So I'll agree that isn't representative of modern warfare. So I'll agree that isn't representative of modern warfare. So either that's symbolic or I always hesitate to speculate about end times, because there's been so many people that speculate wrongly. But I'll say this all we would have to do is run out of petroleum oil. If we run out of petroleum, then what are we going to be? We're going to be back to horses and mules and camels. It would happen rather quickly, because there's really no other way to do work, get around. It's all built on oil and if we were to run out, then we're back to horses and manual labor and I don't see this as being a conundrum from that standpoint.
Speaker 2:This is written roughly about 500 years or so BC, before the birth of Christ. Again, as we pointed out, how does somebody express warfare that's going to take place over 2,500 years later and the advancements that's there? I don't see it being a problem with being a symbology here related to instruments of war. A symbology here related to instruments of war.
Speaker 2:All of these the mule, the camel, the horse, all of those things were used in warfare at some point in time. So I don't see it having a problem of being symbolic of something that's going to be in the future. I mean, how is it that you have somebody describe what's going to be used for instruments of war before any of them have actually even taken place? They wouldn't make any sense if they had things such as tanks or stealth airplanes or even drones, which are coming into their prominence now in our day. How are those things going to be described in a way in which the people there are going to understand? The bottom line is it's telling us God is going to fight for his people and for his city of Jerusalem.
Speaker 1:And that's the word of encouragement. Let's go ahead and read the next section. Steve, if you could start at verse 16 and read down through 19,. We're going to see where the word of God gives us a strong description of how the earth will be governed during the earthly millennium of Christ.
Speaker 2:Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of booths, and it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them. If the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall on them. It will be the plague with which the Lord smites the nations who do not go up to celebrate. So in this it's talking about after the battle for Jerusalem is over and the Jews are victorious because God has defeated their enemies.
Speaker 1:If we look at the last half of verse 16, it mentions two things in there that the nations will go up to Jerusalem to do. This is, again, it's after the defeat of the military case. In the time of peace, nations will go up to Jerusalem to do two things. What does it say they will do, Steve?
Speaker 2:They're going to go up and worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and they're also going to celebrate the Feast of Booths.
Speaker 1:Obviously, who is the king that it's talking about?
Speaker 2:The king is Jesus himself. He's going to be sitting on the restored Davidic throne.
Speaker 1:Obviously Jesus. He holds the throne of David. That's quite clear in the Gospel of Matthew and other places. He is the heir of David's throne and he will sit on the throne of David in Jerusalem and rule the world from there. The throne of David is in Jerusalem and Jesus is not in Jerusalem today. So he is not on the throne of David today because he's in heaven, at the right hand of the Father. The throne of David is in Jerusalem and the king is not here. It's not much of a kingdom without a king and the kingdom is not on the earth today. In that day, the king will be on the earth and we will have a true kingdom. It also says here that the king is the Lord of hosts. God Almighty, the Lord of hosts, as we said earlier in the book, is the one in charge over all of the heavenly beings, the heavenly armies, if you will. If Jesus is king and the king is the Lord of hosts, what does that make Jesus? What is that saying about the nature of Jesus Christ, the Lord of hosts?
Speaker 2:what does that make Jesus? What is that saying about the nature of Jesus Christ? That makes Jesus God himself?
Speaker 1:It is yet another claim to the deity of Christ Jesus is the Lord of hosts, god Almighty. Now it also mentions this feast, the Feast of Booths, or some of the translations say Feast of Tabernacles. This is actually still celebrated today by observant Jews. The name that's used today is Sukkot. Here's a question, steve Of all of the Old Testament, mosaic law, and all of the 613 plus laws and all of the traditions, why that one? Why not say they're going up to celebrate the Ten Commandments? Or maybe they're going up to celebrate the Feast of Passover? It mentions the Feast of Booths.
Speaker 2:Why that one? This was one of the three major feasts that are prescribed in the Mosaic Law that the people are supposed to make a trek back to Jerusalem the Feast of Booths, the Feast of Tabernacles. What they do and, as you mentioned, they do it still today is they put up little tents, little booths that they stay in while they do this worship. It's a week-long worship and feast as well. It was to commemorate God bringing them out of Egypt and taking care of them the whole time, from Egypt until they go into the promised land under Joshua. He provided for them with manna, he provided for them with quail, he provided them with the water at the spring that turned into sweet water when the branch was thrown into it whenever Moses struck the rock and the water came out of it. He provided for them all throughout that whole period.
Speaker 2:And so the Feast of Booths was a commemoration of that and still is a commemoration of that today, where God of Israel, the Elohim of Israel, brought them out and took care of them the whole time. It's a picture of when God dwelt among them, he tabernacled among them you mentioned that in the last session of how God was there with them and would meet with Moses at the tent of meeting in the pillar of cloud, and the glory that was there Again. This happened the whole time that they were in the wilderness, up until the time that they went into the land. To me, it's appropriate to celebrate this feast because Jesus is going to be there in Jerusalem as king. And what should you do with a king? Is you worship a king, you honor the king. So this is an appropriate, in my mind, type of a feast to do to commemorate that the king, the Lord, god himself, is now dwelling once again among the people.
Speaker 1:I would agree. That's really the idea. The original idea, as you well said, was Israel coming out of slavery from Egypt, so they would celebrate that. Today, the observant Jews sometimes set up a little overhang in their living room or something like that, where they're not sleeping in their regular bed or they may have something a tent outside, but nevertheless it's celebrating and remembering this wonderful time where they were brought out and gathered into the land. Well, what's going to happen in the millennium? The Jews will again return to that land. They will have come out of the nations and returned to the land that God promised them all the way back in Abraham's day. That's one is that they will remember coming out of Egypt. It will remember coming out of the nations. It's also possible and this is admittedly speculation on my part is that Jesus could return on the Feast of Tabernacles. There are some Bible teachers that say well, look, he was crucified at the Passover feast. The Holy Spirit came on the Feast of Pentecost. Therefore, he's going to return his second, coming on the Feast of Tabernacles. Now, I don't know Again, that's pure speculation, but it's possible that they celebrate that because that's the day that he came back. Also, if we just look at the nature of the feast and what the Old Testament required of it. Look at the nature of the feast and what the Old Testament required of it.
Speaker 1:Deuteronomy, chapter 16, gives the instructions to the Jewish people for this feast. It was supposed to be a seven-day feast. I don't know about you, steve, but I like a week-long party. They were supposed to gather all the produce of the year's harvest, so it's sort of like the American Thanksgiving. We're celebrating all of the wonderful food we got this year. They were supposed to include everyone. They were supposed to bring their entire family, the poor and the lonely from the neighborhood. They were supposed to bring the servants and they were ordered to rejoice. You will go out and have fun. So that was Tabernacles. It was a week-long festival of celebrating the harvest and celebrating the produce. You're supposed to bring all the friends and neighbors and have this big party. So it was a joyful feast and I think that's really what's going on here is that in the millennium it's going to be a very joyful time and we'll be able to bring everyone. We'll be able to bring all the neighbors and all the friends. We get to spend a lot of time with the people we love in a joyful time of eating and drinking and being able to just enjoy the Lord. That's what Tabernacles is going to be, and so it's not a time of sour face and down and dreary things. This is a joyful time.
Speaker 1:And then, in verse 17, it says there whoever refuses to go to Jerusalem to worship Jesus will have no rain on them. So again, this shows that the Lord is controlling the earth. He is in charge. You will come up and give honor to the one true king, but if you don't, you're going to suffer the consequences. This tells us that there's going to be a righteous rule on the earth.
Speaker 1:It is a different administration, a different dispensation, if you will. It's not the giving of the law and letting humans follow their own conscience. It's also not a detailed law to govern every part of life, like was what was under Moses. Detailed law to govern every part of life, like was what was under Moses. It's not a time of just giving people principles to live by, which is what we have now. No, he's going to personally rule from the earth and he's going to rule with a loving hand and an iron fist against his enemies. So it gives us a time of a new dispensation and a new administration on earth where he is in charge and he will be honored because he insists. So Wouldn't you agree, steve?
Speaker 2:I do agree, and it's going to be all the nations. So once again we have this picture of the culmination of God dealing with the nations. All the nations are prescribed to come and worship the God. Hark as we back to Scripture when it says Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords.
Speaker 1:The last couple of verses in the book are Zechariah 14, 20 and 21. They start off with that same phrase that we've seen throughout the whole book. In that day, zechariah won't even let us get out of the book without one more. In that day. We have the last two verses that say this in that day there will be inscribed on the bells of the horses holy to the Lord, and the cooking pots in the Lord's house will be like the bowls before the altar. Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the Lord of hosts and all whose sacrifice will come and take of them and boil in them, and there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts in that day. So we have there in that day is really down to the very end of the book.
Speaker 1:Remember, horses are animals of war. So even the war machines, the war horses, are going to have bells on them and the words holy to the Lord. Now I reminded Steve of in the Old Testament, high priest had a turban that said holy to the Lord on it. This means no more war, because the war animals, the horses, are going to be servants of the king. If the Lord is king. He has all the war horses. There's going to be no more enemies to fight, because all of the horses are going to have holy to the Lord on them. There's going to be no one coming up against the Lord's armies to fight them. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Therefore, when he's on the throne, he will ensure peace, wouldn't you agree?
Speaker 2:Isn't that happening today, Glenn? Isn't there no more wars happening today?
Speaker 1:Well, what I see is inside the church and inside my life. I see, sometimes stuck in Romans 7, the things I do I don't want to do and the things I want to do I don't do. There's this knock-down, drag-out fight going on between the new nature and the old nature. I see squabbles and arm wrestling matches going on inside our churches. If the present church and the Christian life is the kingdom, then my response would be can we give it back? Because we messed it up and we need him to come back and do like he's describing here, which is there's going to be peace throughout all the earth and there's going to be no more war, because all of the animals of war are going to be holy to the Lord. That's the day where there's really going to be peace.
Speaker 2:None of the nations actually are worshiping God or worshiping Jesus Christ, not even Israel itself officially as a nation. At the time that we're making this is worshiping Jesus as king and of course, he's certainly not ruling from Jerusalem, so this has to be once again sometime. That's going to happen in the future, in that day is something yet still future.
Speaker 1:The last verse, verse 21, speaks of sacrifices and eating the meat of the sacrifice. What a lot of people don't realize is the sacrifices were often eaten. They weren't just totally burned up in all cases. They were eaten In the Feast of Tabernacles. They would bring your best bull and you would sacrifice it, but then you would eat it, you and all the neighbors and I'm from Texas, I know a barbecue when I see one. This is a grand time of celebration. This is a cookout, this is a barbecue they're going to be eating. Yes, there appears to be sacrifices here, but they're in celebration of Jesus because he's sitting on the throne. So each of us should ask ourselves today am I joyful when I sacrifice to the Lord and am I enjoying the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ? If not, then we need to get right with the God because we can be in a position, like it says here sacrificing to the Lord is a joyful time, steve, wouldn't you agree?
Speaker 2:I absolutely would agree and I'm just looking forward to that time, whenever it's going to happen.
Speaker 1:That brings us to the end of another book. We're here at the end of the book of Zechariah. It's been a great book and I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. Just a reminder about our ministry. We go verse by verse, phrase by phrase, through the Word of God, and one of the reasons we're here is to give you, as an individual, and your church, the tools to be able to teach these things to others. We offer these recordings for your benefit. We also offer teaching materials for free on our website. So if you go to our website, reasoningthroughthebiblecom, then you'll be able to see the teaching materials and be able to pass this along to others. Steve, I really look forward to the next one, the next book that we get to go through.
Speaker 2:I do too, and Zachariah, as with all the books that we looked at. It's just such a wonderful book and it's just the way that God has provided for us to be able to know more about him and learn more about him. Zachariah has been great in talking about that time that's going to happen still yet in the future.
Speaker 1:Thank you for being with us. Thank you for supporting our program. As you know, we don't do a lot of hard-pressed financial raising, so we could use your prayers and your financial support, but we're closing for now and we trust that God will help you reason through the Bible.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for watching and listening, as always. May God bless you.
