The Millennial Kingdom – Zechariah 14:5-21

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The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word.

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Can you imagine a world where everything is dedicated to the service of God? Where even the pots and pans in your kitchen and the harness on your horse sing of the holiness of God? Well, it’s coming. It’s coming in the millennial kingdom. When God’s peace will cover the earth, you’ll hardly recognize the world as Zachariah describes it in chapter 14. Welcome to Through the Bible with our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee. The Bible bus, well, it’s traveling the last stretch of road in the Old Testament book of Zechariah. But before we jump in, let’s listen to more of Dr. McGee’s special introductions on the millennium.

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We’re looking at these matters that will help us in our understanding of prophecy and the way that God is concluding and winding down his word to mankind. Now, we said last time that God judges sin, and he hates sin. He loves the good, and he never makes light of sin. He doesn’t shut his eyes to it. Paul could say, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade man. And believe me, when he’s talking to Felix, he reasoned of him of judgment, the justice of God. And this is something that has caused us to use the expression, and I do it myself, but very frankly, I feel like that I ought to qualify it when I do, that God hates sin, but that God loves the sinner. Well, that’s not exactly what the Word of God says. The Word of God puts it just a little bit differently than that. If you turn over to Psalm 7, verse 11, it says, God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. And again, in Psalm 5, verse 5, it says, The foolish shall not stand in thy sight, thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Now, God didn’t say, I just hate their sin. I hate the individual. Does God then hate? Yes. When a man is given over to sin, the man that actually God loves, God loves humanity. God loves human beings. But you can go so far in sin that actually it can be said that God gives you up. In Habakkuk 1.13, we read, Thou art of pure eyes, than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. And in Job 15, verse 16, How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water. You expect God to shut his eyes to that sort of thing? Of course he does not. And God does judge sin. But he also requires of man. In 1 Thessalonians 4, 7, the apostle Paul says, For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. That’s something that’s gone out of style, as we’ve said today. Now, in 1 John, in the first chapter, we are told that God is light. and in him is no darkness at all. That’s in verse 5 of chapter 1. This then is the message which we’ve heard of him, and declare unto you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. And then we’re told next that God is love. And over in chapter 4, we read there that He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. Now, the love of God is something else that is closely aligned actually with the fact of the holiness of God. The holiness of God and the love of God are put together in 1 John, and they need to be considered together today. And our God is also, therefore, a God of love.

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Let’s dedicate our time in God’s Word to Him. Heavenly Father, You’re the God of light, You’re the God of love, and You’re holy and You’re righteous, and we stand in awe of Your magnificent works. As we wait for your son to return, help us to take every opportunity to tell the world how wonderful you are. In Jesus’ name, amen. Turn now to Zechariah 14 as we make our way through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

SPEAKER 01 : 5:26

Now this chapter is another wonderful chapter that we’re looking at today. Zechariah 14, and as we said last time, it opens with a headline. Behold the day of the Lord cometh. And then he begins to go back and show how it came into view, the steps that were taken. First, Jerusalem was besieged. And there came enemies from every direction. And there was no help except from the Lord. And he’s talking about that the Lord Jesus will come to deliver them. And when he comes to deliver them, his feet shall touch the Mount of Olives. And I think if you just let Zacharias say what he wants to say in this chapter, not trying to make him say something that fits into some so-called spiritual interpretation, that is spiritualizing the Word of God. Just let him say it. When he says his feet, he’s talking about his feet, not his hand. And he says they’ll touch the Mount of Olives. And apparently he means that’s where the touchdown is going to be. And I’m of the opinion That if man can send a missile that goes out to the moon and spends a few days there and then comes back and they can put a battleship out in the Pacific and have that little capsule come down in two or three miles of the battleship, I’m of the opinion that God’s not going to have any trouble, friends, in the Lord Jesus Christ touching down at the Mount of Olives. And I believe that’s where he touches down on this earth. This is the thing that we saw when he left. He left from the Mount of Olives. He’s going to pick up right where he left off. When he took off, he’s coming back to the Mount of Olives. But great physical changes are going to take place that are mentioned to us here. First of all, we saw that a great earthquake would rend the Mount of Olives in two. One half would move toward the north, one half to the south. and that there would be a very great valley. Now, pay attention to that as we move on into this section that describes that for this reason. Jerusalem today is surrounded by the roughest terrain that I know of anywhere. I’ve frankly been no place that would compare to it. It’s rugged. You go north, you go east, you go south, You go west, any direction you go. You can go south to Bethlehem and you think you’re in Disneyland and you’re taking one of these toboggan rides. Up and down you go, mountain after mountain, and rugged. And you go north, oh, it is rugged. You go east, it is rugged. Big boulders, rocks. You’ve never seen so many great big rocks. And then going down to Jericho, going east. Now that, my friend, is a rugged trip. Only thing is that the United States put in a wonderful macadam highway in there. It’s not a freeway, but it’s a good highway. And it makes the trip today for the tourists. And the tourist doesn’t realize, actually, what rough terrain that is. Now, a great valley is going to open up there. And we are told in verse 5, ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains. And this is the reason that many believe it’ll be over yonder in the rock-yoon city of Petra that’s in the old country of Edom. But I’m not sure that we’re told that. And then we are told, for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Asael. Yea, ye shall flee as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Isaiah, king of Judah. And the Lord my God shall come and all the saints with thee. Now, this is a very interesting passage of Scripture here. It’s a picture of the Lord Jesus coming back to the earth. You have this in the 19th of Revelation. And there again, the armies of heaven shall follow him. And here we’re told all the saints will come with him. Well, let me turn over and just read a verse of Scripture here. It’s over in the 11th chapter of Romans, verse 25 and 26. For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. Now, you see, this is the time of the fullness of Gentiles when they all come up the nations against Jerusalem. Now we read verse 26. And so all Israel shall be saved as it’s written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and he’ll turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Now, that time definitely has not come, and His first coming doesn’t satisfy it, and their present return to the land certainly doesn’t satisfy any of these scriptures. Now, we read verse 6, “…it shall come to pass in that day that the light shall not be clear, nor dark.” We’re moving through that period of dawn to the coming of Christ to establish His kingdom. Verse 7, “…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. This, of course, I think is a definite reference to the day of the Lord, which is not actually a 24-hour day. Verse 8, “…it shall be in that day that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, half of them toward the former sea.” and that is the Dead Sea, and half of them toward the Hinder Sea, that’s Mediterranean Sea, in summer and winter shall it be. In other words, this will be a spring that will gush up of water. Now, I think it’s literal water here. If you want to find in this suggestion of the spiritual water of life. That, I think, will be true too, because the law will go out from Jerusalem, the Word of God from Jerusalem in that day. But this is literal water we’re talking about. Now, we come to a new section here, and this is quite a wonderful section. Here is the establishment now of Israel’s kingdom here upon the earth. Now, will you notice? and the Lord shall be king over all the earth. In that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one. This, again, is another one of these very marvelous passages of Scripture that we have, and it refers to the day of the Lord, and it refers to the fact that the Lord will be king And that’s none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, of course. Now, I’d like to turn over to Zephaniah and read the third chapter there, verse 9. He says, For then will I turn to the people of pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one consent. And as we said before, I don’t think we can be definite about that language. Language was given as a barrier to mankind. God put that up as a barrier. There was no wall that could be built any higher than the wall of a language barrier. And that was the way that he was enabled to scatter mankind and then, down through the years, to prepare for the coming of a Savior. And today, this gospel is going back into those languages throughout the world. And I think that’s one of the great signs we’re moving toward the end of the age. Now, back again to something else that’s quite wonderful. There’ll be one language in that day, and I’m We’ll be glad of that, and I don’t care what language it is. Everybody, I think, will speak that same language. One language, one Lord. Verse 10, “…all the land shall be turned like the Arabah from Geba to Rimon south.” Now, let’s look at this for just a moment, because this is, I think, very important as we’re looking here at what really is the finale. It brings us to the end. Now, from Geba to Rimon is quite interesting. Actually, what we have here, the Arabah is a geographical name of that deep rift that comes down from above the Sea of Galilee through the Jordan Valley, through the Dead Sea, down into the Gulf of Aqaba, and on into North Africa. For that matter, it’s been called the Great Rift. We spoke of it the other day. It begins at the Dog River at the coast north of Beirut in Lebanon. Well, he’s talking about here’s going to be another great valley that’s going to resemble that. And he says that it will go all the way from Geba to Ramon. Now, we have here Geba to Ramon, and that indicates the hill country of the ancient tribe of Judah to the border of Simeon on the south. And he goes all the way up north because Geba is in the tribe of Benjamin up there. Now, Ramon is 33 miles southwest of Jerusalem. So that you have here a tremendous valley and all of that rugged terrain that is around Jerusalem that we talked about last time is going to be smoothed out. And Jerusalem will be elevated, apparently. We read here from Geba to Rimon, south of Jerusalem, and it shall be lifted up. In other words, Jerusalem shall be elevated and inhabited in its place from Benjamin’s gate under the place of the first gate under the corner gate from the tower of Hananiel under the king’s wine presses. And one commentator years ago said, this couldn’t be literal because nobody could find the tower of Hananiel. The interesting thing is archaeologists have now located it. And this brother is going to have to come up with another interpretation. Verse 11, “…and men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.” Now, this will be the first time in the history of this city that it’s going to be a safe place to live. It’s not today. Never has been. It’s a very tender spot. It’s the most sensitive spot on this universe is there. Now the millennium has come. The Lord Jesus has come. His feet touched the Mount of Olives. These tremendous physical changes have taken place. Now they can dwell in Jerusalem safely. In other words, peace has come to the earth for the first time. Verse 12, “…and this shall be the plague with which the Lord will smite all the peoples that have fought against Jerusalem.” Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet. That’s a living death that will take place. And when we get the book of Revelation, you’ll see that takes place in the great tribulation period. And their eyes shall consume away in their sockets, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. It’s a terrible thing. Verse 13, “…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 neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor.” In other words, the thing that will bring this in, that is, make it possible for the enemy to take the city, is largely due to the fact that there is this tremendous revolution that apparently has taken place in the city. Now, verse 14, “…and Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the nations round about shall be gathered together, gold and silver and apparel in great abundance.” And we’re told elsewhere in prophecy that as they brought out of Egypt great wealth, they will when they return to that land. That is, when God returns them. Verse 15, “…and so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, the camel, of the ass, and all the beasts that shall be in these tents as this plague.” Now we come to the kingdom in contrast to the setting up of it, because the coming of Christ to the earth, he puts down all unrighteousness, all rebellion. Now let me read verse 16. It shall come to pass that everyone that’s left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up, that is, face in, from year to year, to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Now, I’ll not turn to it, but you have this same thing in Isaiah, the 66th chapter, verse 19. You see, no prophecies of any private interpretation. It has to fit into the program, or it’s no good at all. And it means that after the rebellion is put down inside Israel, And the nations that are in rebellion against God, there’ll be many individuals in these nations. In other words, there’s not only going to be a remnant of Israel saved, but a remnant out of each nation of the Gentiles. And that will be the ones that enter in. Now, they’re going to face in to Jerusalem. Now, again, there are great changes taking place, not only physically, not only spiritually and economically and, in fact, in every area of life, but the manner of witnessing for God will be different in the millennium. You see, we were told beginning at Jerusalem to go to the ends of the earth. Here, they had to go up to Jerusalem. That’s what they did before the Lord Jesus came and died on the cross. Then He said, now go to the ends of the earth with this message. Now, will you notice that they’re going up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. That is the feast that they celebrated when they came out of Egypt. Now they celebrate it because they’ve been brought from the ends of the earth back to Jerusalem. Verse 17, it shall be that whosoever 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. Somebody said, I thought this was the millennium. It is. But the millennium is a time of testing of those that have turned to God, this great multitude, a remnant, but a large remnant, I think. But it’s like church members. Not all church members are Christians by any means. And this period of the millennium will be a time of testing. Now we’re told, And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain, there shall be the plague, with which the Lord will smite the nations, and come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, the punishment of all nations, that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. Egypt was used as an example. Now notice, in that day, And Zechariah won’t let loose of that expression. In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses holiness unto the Lord. Even a harness on horses will be holiness unto the Lord. What does that mean? Everything for the service of God. Those vessels in the tabernacle that were called holy vessels. Why? Well, they weren’t unusual. I have a notion they were beaten and battered after 40 years in the wilderness, and they looked like they’d really had it. But they were holy. Why? They were for the service of God. And everything in that day will be for the service of God. A harness on the horses. And the pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Everything for the service of God then. Today we’re living in a world when practically nothing is for the service of God. Verse 21. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts. Just think of that, that skillet that you’ve got, that pot for cooking beans or cabbage. All that’ll be in that day will be for the service of God, everything dedicated to him. And all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them. Somebody says they’re going to have sacrifice. We remember what we had in Ezekiel. Certainly it will look back to the death of Christ as the sacrifices, before Christ look forward to his coming. And all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them and boil in them. And in that day there shall be no more a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. That means all the hypocrites are going to be removed. That means every unbeliever will be removed and there’ll be none in the service of God unless they belong to him. That’s going to be the millennium, friends. What a glorious picture this is. This is a great finale and a climax for the prophecy of Zechariah. Now, next time we go to the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, and it’s a choice little book, my beloved, as we shall see. Until then, may God richly bless you.

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Well, that concludes our study in the book of Zechariah. A great stop on our five-year journey through the whole Word of God. My eyes were certainly opened to many new truths, even though I’ve traveled this road many times before. Well, if you’d like to take more time in this terrific part of God’s Word yourself, you can listen to any of Dr. McGee’s messages again with our app or at ttb.org. And as we all begin to make plans to celebrate the birth of our Savior this month, Let me tell you about a great resource from Dr. McGee. It’s his digital booklet, The Christmas Story. So whether you want to share the real meaning of Christmas with an unbeliever or deepen your family tradition of reading the account of Jesus’ birth together, let Dr. McGee walk you through the pages of God’s Word as only he can. The Christmas Story is available for free download in our app or at ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can help you find it. Now join me next time as we begin our study in what Dr. McGee called The Choice Little Book of Malachi. I’m Steve Schwetz, and I’ll see you then.

SPEAKER 03 : 25:27

All to him I owe. Sin had left the prince unsaved. He washed it white as snow.

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Today’s study is always available, free to stream or download, thanks to the generous and faithful investments from your fellow BibleBus travelers. Just go to ttb.org or download our app to listen again anytime. As always, we’d love to know what’s God teaching you.