If you would, turn to Zechariah chapter 14. As we go through our study on the minor prophets, we'll, Lord willing, finish with Zechariah today. As you turn to the text, I wanna share a couple of quick stories with you first off. Zechariah 14 is the text of one of my favorite questions ever. Just like on Wednesday night we handle questions, there was a year at Faith Bible Camp I was teaching a teen class and I told them I would try to answer questions and one young lady had apparently been reading Zechariah 14 down in verses like 11 and 12. It describes a rotting plague on the disobedient people. And she asked, is that the zombie apocalypse? It's not. The other story, you know I'm not a big fan of the reformer Martin Luther. I'm not one of those guys who quotes him all the time. But back in the 1500s, Martin Luther wrote two separate commentaries on Zachariah in two different languages. The first was in Latin, the second in German. And here's what he had to say about Zechariah 14 in his first commentary. You ready? Nothing, he said nothing. He stopped his commentary at the end of chapter 13. And if anyone wondered why he didn't say anything about Zechariah 14 in his first commentary, here's what he wrote about it in his second one. Quote, here, in this chapter, I give up. I am not at all sure what the prophet is talking about. So it's really too bad Martin Luther wasn't around to answer questions at Faith Bible Camp because who knows what solution we would have come up with. Let's read Zechariah 14 and see if we can't figure out what the prophet is talking about. The whole chapter. Behold, the day of the Lord is coming. And your spoil will be divided in your midst, 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. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as he fights in the day of battle. 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. 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 shall come and all the saints with you. And it shall come to pass in that day. that there will be no light, the light will diminish. 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. And in that day it shall be that living water 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 and the Lord shall be king over all the earth. In that day it shall be the Lord is one and his name one. All the land shall be turned into a plain. from Geba to Ramon, south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be raised up and the inhabitants in her place from Benjamin's gate to the place of the first gate and the corner gate from the tower of Hananel to the king's winepress. The people shall dwell in it and no longer shall there be utter destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. And this is the plague that will be with which the Lord will strike all 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. that shall come to pass in that day that a great panic from the Lord will be among them. Every Wotan will seize the hand of his neighbor and raise his hand against his neighbor's hand. Judah also will fight at Jerusalem. and the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be gathered together, gold, silver, and apparel in a great abundance. Such also shall be the plague on the horse and the mule, on the camel and on the donkey, and on all the cattle that will be in those camps, so shall this plague be. 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. 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. In the family of Egypt, it will not come up and enter. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no reign. They shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all nations. that do not come up to the Feast of Tabernacles. 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. Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them, and that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. So I just want to remind you of just a smidgen of what we have covered in this book since we started it. The historical context of Zachariah's prophetic ministry is based in the time of the return from exile. After 70 years in Babylon, The Jewish people had been released from their captivity, they'd been allowed to return to their homeland if they wanted to, and they had been commanded to rebuild the temple and reestablish the worship of Yahweh. They laid the foundation of the temple, but then concerns for their own safety, fears from surrounding enemies, their own personal projects, and to some extent laziness, had impeded the progress, and so in late August of the year 520, the prophet Haggai was sent from God with a message, and he goes to the governor and to the high priest and tells them bluntly, the people say that this isn't the time to build the temple, but they've got all the wainscoting up in their own houses, and so get to work, get the people, go up the mountain, get the materials, build the temple. About two months later, Haggai is joined by another prophet. This young man named Zachariah shows up in public and starts explaining all about his visions that he has received from God. He says, well, down in a clearing among the evergreen trees, I saw riders on horseback coming from throughout the world and they reported to a man on a red horse because God knows everything that's happening everywhere. He says, I saw four horns, things that are symbolic of great power and also craftsmen prepared by God to destroy that power. I saw a surveyor with a measuring line in his hand and he was measuring the circumference of the city of Jerusalem because God plans to stand like a wall around his holy city. I saw Joshua the high priest covered in excrement from head to toe, but he was saved from God's wrath. He was cleansed. He was empowered to serve because only God can establish His people in holiness. Zachariah saw a flying scroll over the city and he said he could read the words on it that said, every thief and liar will be banished from God's presence. And on the visions go, eight visions in all. And then the very next day, God commands Zachariah to gather a few men to make an elaborate gold crown, go to Joshua the high priest, put that crown on his head and tell him, you don't get to keep this. You just get it for now because it really belongs to the priest king who is coming and in the day of the Lord, there will be a priest king who is crowned to rule over all the earth. Zechariah 14 is sort of the culmination of this prophet's encouraging ministry. all of the themes from those night visions and from his symbolic actions and from the questions that he answers, the burden to the Lord that he bears, all of them find their final resolution in Zechariah 14, which starts, behold, look, the day of the Lord is coming. Zechariah tells his people, who at that very moment were surrounded by enemies, that the coming day of the Lord will see all nations gathered against Jerusalem, but then God himself will fight for his people. In that day, he says, you will see Yahweh himself standing on the Mount of Olives. He will be king over all the earth. The nations will be brought into obedience to him. And everything, everything will find its purpose in holy service to him. This final prophecy of Zachariah assures us Messiah King Jesus will return to earth in victory and glory. Now, to go through chapter 14, We can break it up into a few parts. First off, I want you to see the nations making war on Jerusalem. Verses one and two. Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst, for I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem, The city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. One of the reasons theologians and commentators have had a difficult time with Zechariah 14 is that for much of world history, it could hardly be imagined how this might happen literally. Like how could the nations of the earth be gathered against the nation of Israel in Jerusalem when you, from right now, back up just a hundred years in history, And the idea of a nation of Israel, the idea of a Jewish nation is implausible at best. So people struggled with this chapter, right? Martin Luther, I have no idea what Zechariah is talking about. For Zechariah to be right in any sort of literal sense, it's gonna require an unimaginable upheaval of nations. And when we get to verse four, it will seemingly demand natural disasters of a cataclysmic scale. And in fairness, since the establishment, or I should say the reestablishment of Israel as a nation in 1948, and watching how the nations surrounding Israel hate it, It is a lot easier for us to accept a literal sense of how this can be fulfilled when it confused people a couple hundred years ago. And yet we've always simply been called to believe God's word without doubting his ability to bring it to pass. And throughout Christian history, there are people who have just simply believed it. So for example, in 1918, when there was no nation of Israel, there was no plan to create a nation of Israel, there was a commentator named David Barron who wrote a commentary on Zachariah and essentially said, this seems to suggest there'll be a restoration of the nation of Israel before the coming of the Lord, right? So you may know, Some folks hold to a non-literal understanding of these passages in the Old Testament, and they argue that the nation of Israel was God's people in the past, but now all of those promises that were made to Israel will be fulfilled, but they'll be fulfilled with God's people now, which is the Lord's church. I have yet to encounter any of them who suggest that the nations will lay siege against the Lord's church and it will be spoiled, in verse 1, as the nations plunder and divide its possessions. The church will be taken, in verse 2, and the houses rifled and the women raped and half of it enslaved and made captives. Right? We don't want any of that. To say, well, we'll take the precious promises and blessings made to Israel, and we'll assume those for ourselves, but all the curses and bad stuff, that's still for them, is not a fair way of interpreting scripture. Verses one and two describe the nations of the world. And incidentally, it does not, include an area for exceptions. And so if you want to know is America included, is it in a nation of the world? all the nations of the world being brought against Jerusalem in order to destroy it. And in that day, it will look like an apparent victory for those nations of the world. The city that describes will be taken, captured, the buildings plundered, the people abused, half the residents captive. But at the end of verse two, the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. There is a divine rescue planned when, in verse 3, the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as he fights in the day of battle. The Lord, Yahweh, will fight for Jerusalem against the nations of the world. Now I want to remind you that Zechariah has already promised this is God's plan for that day. Look back at chapter 12 for just a moment. Chapter 12 Verses 2 and 3, he says, Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. It shall happen in that day. I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples. All who would heave it will surely be cut in pieces, though all the nations of the earth are gathered against it. In verses four through eight, God promises to strike the enemies of Israel with confusion and blindness and grant success to the efforts of the people fighting against those nations. In verse nine, it says, it shall be in that day that I will destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. Now, do you remember what else Zachariah said was gonna happen back there in chapter 12? The day of the Lord is not going to be just a moment of military salvation for Israel, it's also going to bring spiritual salvation. The Lord God, Yahweh, says in verse 10 of chapter 12, I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication, then they will look on me whom they pierced. Now understand, we can read that with sort of a spiritual understanding that they are going to see the Messiah King Jesus as their savior. They're gonna look to him in faith. And I would argue that this remnant of the people after the city of Jerusalem has fallen, they are going to look to Jesus in faith, but they are also, Zachariah says, literally, literally going to look at Jesus. At the darkest moment of hopelessness and helplessness, Zachariah tells us in our text in chapter 14, verse three, that the Lord, Yahweh, will go forth and fight against those nations, and here's how he's gonna do it. Here's how the people are going to look at him, because in verse four, in that day, his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives. So now I just want you to picture this, the Lord Jesus standing on the Mount of Olives. To remind you, the city of Jerusalem is built on the top of Mount Zion, directly to the east of Mount Zion is another mountain that's slightly higher, it's called Mount Olivet or the Mount of Olives. And what separates those two mountains is the Kidron Valley. In verses 1-3, Zechariah is describing this battle where the nations of the earth wage war against Jerusalem, having it surrounded, having laid siege to it. The city is taken, the people are being gathered up captive. There is literally nowhere to run. That is, until verse four. Verse four and five, in that day, his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall split in two from east to west, making a very large valley. Half of the mountain shall go toward the north, half of it toward the south. 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. Zachariah here is describing the return of the Lord Jesus at the end of time to be at the top of the Mount of Olives on that peak overlooking the city of Jerusalem. And he is coming as salvation for his people in victory over the world. Friends, let me just tell you why you should believe this literally. It is not a coincidence that in Mark chapter 11, the Lord Jesus is standing at the Mount of Olives when he tells his disciples to have faith in God, because when a man of faith says to this mountain, be removed, that's what's going to happen. It is not a coincidence that in Matthew 24 and 25, the Lord Jesus takes his disciples and sits himself down on the side of the Mount of Olives and from that place delivers the most comprehensive teaching on the end times known as the Olivet Discourse. And in that discourse, he says, when you see the Son of Man comes in glory and all the holy angels with him, then He will sit on His throne in glory and all the nations will be gathered before Him. It is not a coincidence that in Acts chapter one, that the crucified resurrected Jesus led his disciples one more time to the top of the Mount of Olives. He commissioned them to go out and reach all nations with the gospel. And from that place at the top of the Mount of Olives, he began ascending into heaven and sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. And in fact, those 11 stunned and flawed men just stood there staring up into the cloudy Judean sky until two angels appeared and stood next to them saying, why do you just stand here gazing up into heaven? The same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you've seen him go. In other words, he's coming back just like he left. He's coming back to exactly where he left. Zachariah tells us there is a coming day when the Lord Jesus will descend from heaven and his precious pierced feet will touch down on the Mount of Olives and that moment will be such a tectonic shift in world history that he creates this seismic shutter that So severe that the foundations of that mountain quake and it is broken apart. It splits in two. The earth quaking as half the mountain moves to the north and half the mountain moves to the south. And the valley that gets created as a result is the means of escape for the people who are in Jerusalem. There is no reason to take this anything but literally. When the Lord Jesus returns to earth, the people of Israel will see him. They will literally look on him whom they have pierced. They will look to him for rescue. They will know with certainty that Messiah King Jesus alone provides a way of salvation for his people and they will find that their only hope is to flee to him and the salvation that he gives. Not only will the people of Israel know Jesus' salvation, but Zechariah describes all people gathered will know that the battle belongs to the Lord. Verse three says the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations. At the end of verse five, he exclaims that Yahweh, my God, will come and all the saints with you. The word saints there may well be a description of the raptured saints of earth, but I think it's more likely speaking of the angelic army accompanying the son of God. The word saint simply is the word meaning holy ones, and it's the same description that gets used for angels other places in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul describes this day when he writes to the Thessalonians and says that in that day, the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Spectacular changes are coming. Verses 6 and 7 says the lights are going to go out. That's not the electricity, although maybe the electricity is going to go out too. But the sun, the moon, and stars aren't going to give their light like they used to so that only the Lord will know what time it is. And when he wants to light up the world, that's not a problem. He is the light of the world. So at the end of verse seven, Zachariah says it's gonna be at nighttime that there's gonna be light. It's gonna be light whenever the Lord Jesus wants it to be light. Verse eight says life-giving water is gonna flow year round to refresh and restore the land. In essence, in this coming day, the world is going to find that there is not now nor has there ever been anything natural about nature. The stars twinkle and the moon rises and the sun shines and the rain falls because the Lord Jesus has always held all of those things together. And verse nine says, the Lord shall be king over all the earth. In that day, it shall be the Lord is one and his name is one. The Lord is one is a portion of a Hebrew prayer known as the Shema from Deuteronomy chapter six, verses four and five. Here's what that prayer says. It'll sound familiar to you. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. The Lord our God is one, and he deserves our complete love and devotion. Now here's what I want you to do, please. Take out a mental sticky note, Scribble, love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength. Write that on the sticky note and then put it somewhere that we can find it again later. Because Zechariah is not done with this Shema prayer. But here in verse nine, all he says is the Lord is one. That is the Lord is unique. There are not other gods. And there are certainly no gods like our God. He is united. There is no rift in the persons of the Godhead. This is a statement of deity. So when Jesus said, I and my Father are one, he was echoing this Shema prayer and the Jews understood it. They sought to murder him for claiming to be God, which is exactly what he was doing. This one Lord, Yahweh himself, who in chapter 12 it's described as he was pierced, right? This is the crucified Lord Jesus. The Lord God will stand on the Mount of Olives. This is Jesus and Jesus will come and he will rule and reign as king. Zachariah says in verse nine, the Lord shall be king over all the earth. The prophet Zechariah's words echo forward through history, and when we get to Revelation, they're gonna be echoing out from the halls of heaven itself. We cannot repeat often enough the words of the Hallelujah Chorus from Revelation 11, 15. The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. So this chapter describes the nations making war on Jerusalem. It goes on to describe the Lord Jesus standing on the Mount of Olives. And now I just want you to see everything, everything from there on gets committed to Christ's glory. A quick look at chapter 14 tells us we're not halfway through, but I better be halfway through. A simple summary would indicate verses 10 through 21 offers a description of the millennial kingdom under the rule and reign of Messiah King Jesus. Verse 10 says, all the land will be turned into a plain from Geba to Ramon south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be raised up and inhabited in her place. Or in other words, stay in its place. I think the idea of this verse is that the Lord Jesus is the safety of his people. Listen, Psalm 125 verse 2 describes the mountains around the city of Jerusalem as there by God in order to provide protection for the city, but here in verse 10 those mountains are made flat. They are, it says, turned into a plain, even as Jerusalem remains where it is at the top of Mount Zion, everything around Jerusalem is flattened so that the city where Jesus reigns is easily visible and easy to access. It doesn't need to be surrounded by mountains for protection. When the Lord Jesus is there, he is the protection of that city. Now, to the disappointment of my teenage friend at camp, verses 11 through 15 do not describe zombies, but it does offer a picture of judgment. a flesh-rotting plague awaits all who are disobedient. And not only will it strike people, but it will strike, in verse 15, against the cattle and livestock of those people. Verses 11 through 15 describe this plague as against those who fight against the Lord. So those who are actively fighting against the Lord. And we might wanna ask, well, what about the indifferent? What about the ones who weren't actively fighting? What is God's view of those who would say, well, I don't hate the Lord, I don't fight against the Lord, but I don't worship him either, I'm just indifferent, I'm unsure, I don't care, I'm on the fence. Well, verses 16 through 19 tells you you must worship the Lord Jesus or a plague will also fall on you. Start at verse 16. It shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came up against Jerusalem shall go from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. 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. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no reign and they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to the Feast of Tabernacles. 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. This Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths is what it's called sometime. That annual commemoration of God's provision in the wilderness where the Jewish people would go and they would actually make a kind of tent or lean to and live in it for a week and remember the wilderness wandering. It happened at harvest time. You received a harvest and you worship the Lord of the harvest. Now the reason that Egypt is specified here is not because Egypt's got a different set of rules, but because Egypt and the Nile River Valley was the most fertile land in the Middle East. But if they won't worship the Lord of Harvest, they're not going to have a harvest. Even Egypt will find itself in a drought. If you want a harvest, you have to worship the Lord of the Harvest. Can I just apply that principle to us for a moment? What would happen in your life if you only got to keep the things that you mentioned in thanksgiving and grateful praise to the Lord? Like if you don't thank him for it and worship him with it, you're gonna lose it. What would you have left? Friends, I don't know how that question strikes you, but it hits me hard. We should worship the Lord with grateful praise and thanksgiving for everything we have, with everything we have. In fact, somewhere around you right now, you should have a mental sticky note that I would like you to find and remember what it says on it. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength. Everything you have and everything you are must be dedicated to the love and worship of the Lord your God. I think that is still on Zachariah's mind because listen to how he finishes this prophetic book. Verses 20 and 21. 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. 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, and that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. Zechariah. this profit to people who were struggling hard with the idea of re-establishing worship. They were struggling with obedience, with service, with security, because these surrounding nations He's telling them that there is a day coming when the Messiah King is going to conquer their enemies, he's going to secure them more surely than any wall around the city could ever secure them, and he's going to change their hearts so profoundly that everything, everything will be utterly dedicated to his glory. This word, holiness. is simply describing something sacred, something that's consecrated, something is set aside solely for the service of the Lord. So those words, holy to the Lord, that he says is gonna be on the bells of horses, those words, holy to the Lord, were actually engraved on a gold plate that went on the turban of the high priest. But in verse 20, if you put a bell on your horse, it's gonna say, holy to the Lord, because that is just as dedicated to the Lord's service as the high priest is. At the end of verse 20, he describes the pots in the Lord's house being like the bowls before the altar. Both of those are describing instruments that would have been used within the temple. The pots were probably those those bowls and utensils that would have been used for scooping up the ashes after a burnt offering and carrying them out to be disposed of. Those were holy, they were consecrated to be used to worship the Lord, but they weren't considered to be as holy as the bowls before the altar because those were the bowls that collected the blood of the sacrifice and were used to go in and sprinkle the blood. Those were extra holy. But verse 21 says, every pot in Jerusalem in Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. In other words, there's those consecrated pots in the temple, and there's those extra holy bowls in the temple, but when everyone is brought into loving submission to the Lord Jesus, you can go into your house, you can open your cabinet, and every bowl, every chipped dinner plate, every worn out piece of ancient Tupperware will be just as holy and consecrated to the Lord of hosts as those things that are used in the temple to worship Him. If you listen to Zechariah 14, and you read through that chapter, and what you get awestruck by is the idea of a mountain breaking in two, or the idea of the natural functions of sunlight getting changed or the renovation of the landscape around Jerusalem into essentially a big parking lot around the city. You're getting amazed by the wrong change. Here's the truly jaw-dropping transformation that comes in Christ's kingdom. There's gonna be no more distinction between the sacred and the secular. Nobody is going to say about anything in their life, well, this is what I use to worship the Lord, but that's not. This is what I've dedicated the service of King Jesus, but this is what I've withheld for myself. No, Zechariah is saying, look, everything, everything from the tag on your dog's collar to your Tupperware to your heart and your soul and your mind and your strength is for the loving service of King Jesus. You worship him and serve him with everything you have, with everything you are at every moment in your life. That's the change that's coming. I'm excited for it.