Zechariah 14

Message: The Lord will reign and rule the earth and all will be God's people.

Time: Zechariah foresees a picture of the Day of the Lord. The Lord returns.

What the Lord is Saying:

[I've been reading John MacArthur's sermon series on Zechariah and the basis of these comments is from those sermons.]

Jerusalem is mentioned by name 12 times in this chapter. "On that day" is reference 7 times.

The idea here is to approach this chapter literally because calling it symbolic then muddies the water and opens it up to mean anything, based upon the individual defining the symbol.

Here in verse 1, we begin the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is not one 24 hour day of a time of the Lord. We use the word in a similar way to describe things today, but here it spawns the rapture of the church and extending through the millennial kingdom.

• The Tribulation time when the Lord takes back the earth;
• the conquering of the nations at Armageddon;
• the judgment of the nations;
• the establishment of the Kingdom;
• the reign of Jesus Christ on earth for a thousand years; 
• the vanquishing of Satan;
• the whole great eschatological time block from the Rapture to the end of the Kingdom;
• the whole era of the end of history is the day of the Lord. 
• God sets up his own reign
• God removes the reign from unregenerate man

So, as this chapter begins, the idea of the day of the Lord above or this time period must be considered.

Verse 2, "I will gather all the nations to fight against Jerusalem." That seems like an amazing thought. God here will gather nations to fight Jerusalem. God will instigate a war on His people. People today often say that religious people create conflicts or wars on others. And the reality here is that God is making a war on His own people. The people of Jerusalem, for the Day of the Lord, are coming back to Jerusalem. They are being regathered. And yet they are not all repentant before the Lord, but simply returning to Jerusalem. And in this fight the result will be "half in captivity, half in ruins." Half of the people calling themselves the followers of the Lord, his chosen people will be lost.

Verse 3 - It appears the Lord will then take those nations and move them out of his land. They will serve a purpose, but they won't set up shop among His people.

Verse 4,5, 6 and 7. -- The Lord arrives. "His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives." "The Lord will come." After the purging of His people, the Lord will come to the earth. Christ returns.

This return will bring with it a change to the City of Jerusalem. For one, the sun and light of the earth will remain. No longer will there be night.

And right in the middle of the City, gushing living waters will be spring forth, creating a river to east and to the west.

Verse 9, and now the religions of the world will all culminate into one religion, the religion of the Lord. "His name alone will be worshiped." Not just in Jerusalem, but "over all the earth." 

Verse 10, and somehow and in some way the world will be flattened ("one vast plain") and "Jerusalem will be raised up." Jerusalem will be higher than anything else on the earth. This is where Jesus will live and reign, so it must be high. And (v 11) Jerusalem is be safe and free from being attacked and purified. Why? Because idolatry will be gone. And abandoning the name of the Lord and replacing it with something else will be no more.

And the people that have opposed the Lord, have opposed Jerusalem will be "like walking corpses." Amazing. The Lord is the life giver. He creates life and he can remove life as well. And those that oppose Him will lose their life (v. 12), really in an instant. And if you aren't hit with this plague, you will be fighting with one another (v. 13). And the wealth of all the world will come to Jerusalem (v. 14). Nothing will be exempt (v. 15) from this, but it will affect everything, man and creature alike.

The people that remain on the earth (v. 16), in the communities that had opposed Jerusalem will be tabernacled or will dwell among God's people. They will worship. They are people who will have turned to Christ at the Day of the Lord. People will continue to not turn to the Lord and those nations won't have rain (v. 17), but will have drought. Egypt will say they don't need rain because they have the Nile River. But the Lord clearly states that if the "no rain" doesn't get you, the plague will (v. 18, 19).

And on that day, this is incredible, everything will be sacred and everything (cooking pots, harness bells of the horses) will call upon the name of the Lord saying, "Holy to the Lord" (v. 20, 21). There will no longer be any degenerate or unclean person remaining. Holiness will abound. What a future state.

Promise: The Lord will return to His People and the covenant He has with all His people will stand firm throughout eternity.
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