Discover the illuminating study of the Old Testament book of Zechariah as Dr. J. Vernon McGee leads us through prophetic revelations concerning the Antichrist and the foresight of global events. Through a listener’s heartfelt letter from Texas, we delve into the universal struggles of despair and the impactful role faith plays amid trials. As we examine the foolish shepherd’s prophecy, we’re reminded of the redemptive narrative interwoven through scripture, pointing to a forthcoming hope in Christ.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellence.
SPEAKER 03 :
Is the stage already set for the Antichrist? Well, Dr. J. Vernon McGee believed that it was, and that was over 40 years ago. Well, before the terrorist attacks, pandemics, and the global unrest that have shaken our world in the past few years, he held those beliefs. Welcome to Through the Bible. I’m Steve Schwetz, and in this study of the Old Testament book of Zechariah, we’re going to hear about the foolish shepherd, also known as the Antichrist. But to start, let’s hear from a listener in Texas who wrote about living in the valley of despair. That’s exactly who Zachariah was speaking to. So here’s Dr. McGee reading that letter that he received years ago.
SPEAKER 01 :
It says, you once said you had never been the man you wanted to be. If you had been the man you wanted to be, you wouldn’t be the preacher that you are. When people are hurting, they aren’t interested in a preacher’s eloquence and rhetoric. When people are living in the valley of despair, they aren’t interested in the preacher’s accomplishments. They want help. They want someone who can comfort them with the same comfort with which God comforted them. If you had been the man you want to be, you would be just like that rich preacher you told us about who preached on the blessings of poverty. You’d be a Job’s comforter, multiplying words without knowledge. You once said you would never preach the sermons you wanted to preach. Your preaching and teaching is greater than you know. In the Bible, God tells us a tree is known by the fruit it produces. I receive Jesus as my Savior through your teaching of the Word of God. And I thank you for that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, so many people still need to hear about the gift of the life of Jesus Christ. And that’s why we’re so excited to tell you about some of the new things that God is doing through his word. And Greg, where do you want to start?
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s a tough question because every time we sit down and want to talk about what’s new, there’s just too many things for the amount of time we have. But today we’d like to talk about a ministry that we really probably haven’t talked about for quite a while, and that’s Finland.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, and we kind of had lost touch with some of our Scandinavian partners, mainly because we had finished the production, and that’s not a pun, finished, finish. Yeah, I get it, I get it. But we had finished the production, and we just had it available to those partners. Well, recently, our good friend Ray Allery in Canada got in touch with the folks in Finland, and they said, oh, we’re still airing through the Bible on lots of FM stations. We love it, and we would love to get closer to…
SPEAKER 03 :
back with through the bible so we can talk more about how can we do more ministry yeah that is so exciting because we have not seen a lot of fruit frankly coming out of much of western europe yes and finland is kind of the poster child for that so hopefully we will see more of an impact on terrestrial radio an old format that we’re really in many parts of the world moving away from and yet the ministry partners who really do know what’s best in that local area they’re the ones that can make the decision of how to best reach their people and if they see terrestrial radio as a way to go Great. Let’s do it.
SPEAKER 04 :
And there’s another exciting element to this whole story, and that is that our very own Steve Schwetz is going to be there, Lord willing, next month in Finland to talk with Ray and the team about how can we do more ministry together.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I’m really excited about it because also it’s a ministry partner that we’ve known for a long time, yet I’ve never been able to meet personally. And that’s one of the wonderful blessings that I’ve had in the last few years is Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER 04 :
And this is one of the many reasons we’re building up our international team, because we’re pursuing a model where we get even closer to our partners than we’ve ever been before. And we find that exactly what you just said happens. I don’t think I’ve ever been on a field where I didn’t come home and either we had discussed something that we hadn’t thought about discussing as a ministry possibility, or I heard a story I’d never heard, or I learned some new element of what is ministry in that particular context. So it’s always valuable.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, so I’m certainly looking forward to that trip. And you can be praying for that trip in January, that God would open doors for us, that we would see maybe ministry opportunities that we hadn’t seen before, and that God would bless the faithful teaching of his word, which has always been our prayer request for you. And if you’re not already on the World Prayer Team, my friend, oh, what are you waiting for? Sign up today. TTB.org is the place to go. You sign up. We’re not going to sell your name or spam, but you’re going to get a really good ministry update every day, Monday through Friday, with a prayer point on it. And you can, figuratively speaking, travel the world on your knees praying along with so many other World Prayer Team members. We would love to have you join us.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it’s one of those things, and Steve and I are charter members. I know we read it every day. We pray. It blesses us, and we know it’ll bless you.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. Greg, why don’t you pray for us as we begin?
SPEAKER 04 :
Heavenly Father, we just continue to marvel at how you open new doors almost every week here at Through the Bible, and we’re just trying to follow you and be faithful. I pray for Steve and Ray’s trip to Finland. We pray that you’ll bless that ministry, and we look forward to celebrating what you’re going to do in that part of the world. In Jesus’ name, amen.
SPEAKER 1 :
Amen.
SPEAKER 03 :
Here’s Dr. J. Vernon McGee, beginning at Zechariah 11, verse 15, on Through the Bible.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now, friends, we have come to another and the final major division here in the book of Zechariah. As we said at the beginning, actually, there are three major divisions in the book. That was, first of all, the apocalyptic visions and visions in chapter 1 through 6. Then we had the historic interlude, chapters 7 and 8. And then we came to the last major division, prophetic burdens, chapters 9 through 14. Now we saw that the first prophetic burden had to do with aspects connected with the first coming of Christ. Now that was 9 through 11. Now we’ve come to chapter 12 today. And we have the second burden, prophetic aspects, connected with the second coming of Christ. And that’s chapters 12 through 14. And we’ll be taking that up in a moment. We did not take the last verse of chapter 11. In fact, we read it and said we’d save it for today in order that we might deal with it in a more thorough manner. Now, verse 17 is connected with this last part. Very frankly, what we have here in the 11th chapter, the first part of it presents the good shepherd of the sheep. The good shepherd that gives his life for the sheep. Sold for 30 pieces of silver over to the people and then delivered into the Roman government who put him on a cross. But that cross became a place of redemption. It became the brazen altar of God, where the Lamb of God was offered to take away the sin of the world. He was the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. We had that in the first section. Now we are presented with a foolish shepherd. And this foolish shepherd is not coming until later. much later than the first shepherd. Why? Because there is an interval that takes place that Zechariah very candidly is not concerned with at all. He’s prophesying to a remnant of people that returned. And if you think that he had in mind the church, of the 20th century, may I say to you, I think you’re way off base because actually there is an interval here and the foolish shepherd will be coming after God completes his purpose in the church and turns again to these people. And I read verse 15 again and this section rather hurriedly. The Lord said unto me, take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd. For lo, I’ll raise up a shepherd in the land who shall not visit those that are cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that which is broken, nor feed that which standeth still. But he shall eat the flesh of the fat and tear their claws in pieces. But he’ll shear the sheep and kill them for food. But he himself will not be a shepherd to the sheep. That one that’s coming is the Antichrist. The Lord Jesus says, I’ve come in my Father’s name. You would not have me. You rejected me. But if there come one in his own name, him ye will receive. And very frankly, I thought in the beginning of my ministry, that we must be far from that because you didn’t have the climate in the world or the psychological background for the appearance of a man like that. But we’ve come a long ways since I was a young minister. And today as I look about me, I think the world’s right for him. I don’t mean that I think that he’s coming shortly because I do not know that. Only God knows that. But I am confident of this, that any false shepherd that appears today, if a man appeared on the scene today that had the credentials, and the Antichrist will have them, that he could bring peace in the world and bring out of this chaos that we’re in today, he could bring a cosmos, he could bring order, and that he could bring prosperity to the world. Do you think the world today would ask whether he came from heaven or hell? I don’t think they’d care. Because they take just about anything today, and that’s true of every country. Right now, the world is not blessed with great leaders, and certainly our nation is not. So we’re ready for the man when he comes. That doesn’t mean he’s coming tomorrow. Maybe a long time off. But we have the climate for it today, which we didn’t have when I first began in the ministry. And God says he’s going to be one that’s really going to take the world for a ride. He’ll be the great deceiver. He’ll present the big lie. And the world is ready for it. Verse 17, now here he is. Woe to the idle shepherd. That is the thing that he calls him here. Woe to the worthless shepherd. He’s no good. He’s of no value. Because why? Let me give you Dr. Unger’s translation. And Dr. Unger’s quite a Hebrew scholar. And I follow men of this caliber. Woe, worthless shepherd, forsaker of the flock. Let the sword be against his arm and against his right eye. His arm shall be completely dried up, and his right eye shall be completely blind.” Now, he’s a worthless shepherd. Why in the world is he? And the word woe here is that word in the Hebrew, hoi, hoi, hoi, hoi, hoi, and it itself is a word that denotes trouble that is coming. And this shepherd is of no benefit, but believe me, the world will go after him. And so Israel’s rejection of the good shepherd that’s promised, when they rejected him, then they were scattered worldwide. And then this gospel that the Lord Jesus said would begin at Jerusalem and go to the end of the world is being preached today. And I very frankly believe that Through radio, we’re going to be enabled to get the gospel to the end of the world today. It looks to me like that that’s the direction that we’re moving at the present moment. But in that interval of getting it to the end of the earth, It will be a long period. It’s already been 1900 years. Then there will come along this false shepherd. He’s a worthless shepherd, but he’s going to promise everything. He’s going to be the supreme politician. He’s going to promise everything that’s in the book and out of the book. Woe to the worthless shepherds. That leaveth the flock, the sword shall be upon his arm, upon his right eye. His arm shall be completely dried up and his right eye shall be utterly darkened. Now, what does that mean? Well, he used his eye not to keep an eye on the sheep to protect them, just an eye on them to see which one was the fattest that he could use. And then there was this arm. That arm should have been used for the protection of the sheep, to use the shepherd’s crook and protect them. But he didn’t do that. He exposed them. He didn’t watch over them at all. And now judgment comes upon his right eye and his arm, that which should have been used in behalf of the sheep. God will judge that judgment. false shepherd, antichrist, and we’re fine that he’s going to make it to the lake of fire even before the devil gets there. Read the 19th, 20th, 21st chapters, book of Revelation. We’re going to be there shortly. Maybe you should wait and we’ll see it when we get to it. Now, this is that false shepherd. Now, again, This false shepherd is going to be connected with a period that’s coming upon the nation Israel in the future. Because you see, there is coming the great tribulation period. The Antichrist will actually be the one that brings in the great tribulation and all of its fury. Because he’ll be discovered, but by that time he’s a world dictator. And you’ll find that the armies of the world are coming against Jerusalem. So now in chapter 12 that we’ve come to, we have the prophetic aspects that are connected with the second coming of Christ. And we have here the final siege of Jerusalem and the lifting of that siege. That’s chapter 12. Now, in this chapter, Jerusalem is mentioned 10 times. In that day is mentioned seven times. And these two really occur again and again. And actually, this is a mention of the day of the Lord that begins here with the great tribulation period. and it eventuates and goes into the Millennial Kingdom that the Lord Jesus will usher in when He comes. You see, the Antichrist brings in the Great Tribulation. The Lord Jesus brings in the Millennium. And in that day that occurs seven times, you will note it as we move along in this particular section. Now, I want us to look at that expression in that day and Jerusalem here as we get into the chapter because it has to do with that. The first verse says, “…the burden of the word of the Lord for Israel saith the Lord, who stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.” And may I say that’s a grand verse. We will not be able to deal with it today except the word burden, and that means the judgment that is coming. It’s a burden in that sense. And it has to do here with the siege of Jerusalem that precedes the battle of Armageddon. And then you have the battle of Armageddon itself. And then you find in this section here the pouring out of the Spirit upon the family of David and the remnant of Jerusalem and the whole house of Israel. That is the picture that’s here. Now, I want to spend again just a little time talking about the day of the Lord, though I have dealt with that a great deal in the Minor Prophets. But we have not exhausted the subject, I can assure you. And there’s so much confusion today, even as far back as 1951. I was in several summer conferences and I was identified and associated with other ministers there, other Bible teachers. And that summer, I heard two of these men present a very hazy and indefinite and uncertain view of the day of the Lord. One of these men was specific and he was very clear and accurate, that is, from my viewpoint and my judgments. But it occurred to me, even at that time, that if the pulpit is so fuzzy and foggy on this subject, what about the pew? Is there a clear-cut understanding of what the day of the Lord is? And what do you think of when you hear the expression? the day of the Lord. What do you think of? Is it clear in your own mind, even those of you that have been going through the Bible with us? Do you have a definite conception? Does it register? Does it click? Or is it just some nebulous and incoherent expression or phrase that just sort of like an umbrella, you can put it down over a great many things? And it can mean most anything to you. Sort of like the word glory. People use the word glory. What does it mean to you? And there are people that say amen to something. What do they mean by it? Sort of like the Englishman, you know. He went into a restaurant in this country, and he’d just been over here a short time. And he asked the waitress, he says, what kind of soup do you have? And she started out by saying, well, we have beans. And he stopped her immediately. He says, I don’t care where you’ve been. I want to know what kind of soup you have. And then the preacher in the South years ago, and I think this is a great one, they had a business meeting, and he said, now we’re going to call on the treasurer to present his report and let us know what the status quo of the church is. So one of the deacons got up, he says, Mr. Preacher, he says, I think you ought to explain to us what the status quo is. And he got up, he says, well, that’s the Latin for the mess we’re in. Well, friends, may I say to you, these expressions can mean different things to different people. Now, what’s the day of the Lord mean? Well, it’s an important expression. Actually, it occurs 18 times in Zechariah alone. And we’ve seen it in both the major and minor prophets. And Joel, well, that’s the theme of this book. Malachi, that we’re coming to next, he speaks of the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. In one sense, it’s a theme of the Old Testament, one of the most important themes. And we want to break it down now, which I’d like to do. A day, what do you mean by day? And let’s understand clearly, he’s not talking about the Lord’s day. The day of the Lord and the Lord’s day are two different things. It’s just like chestnut hearts and a horse chestnut. It’s just like anti-fat and fat ante. They’re two different things. The Lord’s day and the day of the Lord are two different things. And it’s not a 24-hour day. Peter says, but beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing that one day is with the Lord is a thousand years. Thousand years is one day. Now, the events that the prophets include in the day of the Lord preclude the possibility of their happening in a 24-hour day. In fact, the tremendous things that will take place in the Great Tribulation have made some men actually reject it and ridicule that viewpoint because they say you couldn’t have that many crisis events in that brief time. Well, that was before we got actually to the 20th century. And the U.S. News and World Report took the 10 years beginning with 1960 and the crisis events that took place in that brief period of time. And I don’t think God will have any problem with it because I tell you, there is a tremendous speeding up of crisis in the world today. Now, the day of the Lord is a period of time. It includes the great tribulation period and the millennial kingdom, which means that it’s over a thousand years. Now, has the day of the Lord come? Are we living in it? Well, the Old Testament closes with that day still in the future. And the Old Testament pointed on to, and the New Testament still anticipated, Paul, you will recall, in 1 Thessalonians, he makes it very clear that it was still in the future as far as he was concerned. For he wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5 too, for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord So come it, as a thief in the night. It had not come up to Paul, apparently. And there’s nothing happened since then that would indicate that it has come. Now, the character of the day of the Lord. It’s a good day and it’s a bad day. It’s sort of like we’ve heard in recent months. I got good news for you and I got bad news for you. Well, the thing is that the good news and bad news can come in one message. It’s like that pilot on an Italian plane. He came on the air and he introduced himself. He says, we welcome you aboard the certain flight. He says, now I have some good news for you and I have some bad news for you. And he says, first of all, I’ll give you the bad news. He says, we’ve lost contact with the ground. Our entire radar has gone out and we have no radio contact. In fact, we don’t know now where we are. That’s the bad news. Now, he says, for the good news, he says, we’re making good time. Well, may I say to you that the day of the Lord is good news and bad news. The bad news first, the Great Tribulation. The good news next, the Millennial Kingdom. And both features are going to be emphasized now, beginning here in the 12th chapter. Zechariah will emphasize them. He’ll give you the bad news. In verse 2, he says, “…Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling.” unto all the peoples round about, when they shall be in the siege, both against Judah and Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all peoples. All that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the nations of the earth be gathered together against it.” Now, that’s the bad news. Well, there’s some good news coming because you go over to the 14th chapter, verse 8, and it shall be in that day that living water shall go out from Jerusalem and so on. Good news is coming also. Bad news, good news. Now, in the 12th chapter, we’re going to be dealing with the bad news. Now, I want to come back next time and to go into verse 1. and two and three that we have read today but did not go into them. These are thrilling verses, and this is a thrilling section of Scripture that’s woefully neglected today. Until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, we see both good news and bad in the Bible, but all of it points to Jesus. And that’s why we’re committed to studying the whole word with you. So why don’t you share this study with a friend or listen again by downloading our app or visiting ttb.org. And then be sure to come back next time as we continue to go through the Bible.
SPEAKER 02 :
All to Him I owe. Sin had left the prison safe. He washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Our journey on the Bible Bus today is supported by the prayers and gifts of fellow passengers as we travel through the Bible.
