"And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one." Zechariah 14:9
Zechariah 14Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one.All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king's winepresses.And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great abundance.And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague.And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness Unto The Lord; and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar.Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.
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"Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein: for I, says Jehovah, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her . . . Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, says Jehovah; and many nations shall be joined to Jehovah in that day . . . and Jehovah shall inherit Judah His portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again" (Zech. 2:4-12).
So also —
"I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them; and they shall be as though I had not cast them off; for I am Jehovah their God, and will hear them" (Zech. 10:6).
Again, how unlike anything that has yet happened in Jewish history, and how utterly inapplicable to the Church, is such a prophecy as the following —
"In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf, and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left, and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem" (Zech. 12:6).
To apply this either to Israel's past history or to the Church is to turn prophecy into a mockery, and to deprive the Word of God of all value. Yet what can be simpler when read in the light of God's revealed purposes concerning the kingdom of His Son, who will appear to execute judgment having
"on his vesture and on His thigh a name written — King of kings, and Lord of lords" (Rev. 19:16).
Malachi predicts, as we have seen, the Lord's appearing, "like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap," so terrible that he asks — "Who may abide the day of His coming?" The effect of His return is that He purifies the house of Levi, so that they
"offer unto Jehovah an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto Jehovah, as in the days of old, and as in former years. And I will come near to you to judgment . . . For I am Jehovah, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed" (Mal. 3:3-6).
Such is the unvarying testimony of the Hebrew prophets. Did God mean those to whom it was given to understand it in its natural sense, or not to understand it at all? Would it have been possible for any Jew to have understood it in any other sense than as a magnificent series of prophecies concerning his own nation? And is it credible that any believer in the Lord Jesus can maintain, that when God used language which could only arouse such hopes, He was mocking them with hollow and delusive expectations?
Let us take a parallel, though of course impossible, case. Let us imagine that the Lord sent a series of prophets who foretold the destruction of the British monarchy, the dispersion of the people, and the foreign occupation of the land; but, while announcing these woes, predicted in the same breath that, after a long period of national degradation and desolation, a great prince of the royal family would arise, the scattered people would be gathered, an era of untold prosperity and glory would dawn upon the country, and signal judgments would be inflicted on the foreign usurper. Supposing that the first part of this prophecy were fulfilled, the monarchy destroyed, the people dispersed, the country given over to foreign occupation, what would the British outcasts have to look forward to? Would it not be to the accomplishment of the other part of the same prophecy foretelling their final deliverance and blessing? And what would be said if a Russian priest, expounding these prophecies during the time of Britain's overthrow, were to explain the predictions of calamity as having had their literal fulfilment in the disgrace and dispersion of the English people, but to contend that the predictions of blessing had no reference to the nation whatever, and simply foretold the prosperity and glory of the Oriental Church — that when the prophets spoke of Britain they meant the Greek ecclesiastical system, when they spoke of London they meant Constantinople, when they spoke of the descendant of Queen Victoria they meant the Eastern patriarch? Would not everybody call this solemn trifling? And yet this is just what Christendom has done with the prophecies given to Israel. It has readily admitted that the curses are the national inheritance of the Jewish race, but it has appropriated to itself the blessings foretold by the same prophets, in the same breath, about the same people, and it has applied their promises of national prosperity and glory, dominion and vengeance, to a spiritual system which bears no more resemblance to the nation of Israel than the Greek Church to the British Empire."
by T. B. Baines.
Section 2 of: The Lord's Coming, Israel, and the Church
The Historical Abuse of the Jews by the Church
By Dr. David R. Reagan
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