On That Day - Zechariah 14

3:30Well, after those eight visions, he talks about various issues. Remember, they have questions about whether they should keep up these fasts now that they're back in the land. And so Zechariah has a short ministry, at least what we have recorded in Scripture, and it's almost all about the temple. Zechariah starts out that way, but then they consult him as a prophet about several things in the future. And we read about those in the rest of the book of Zechariah.

4:01But look at chapter 8, verse 20. Thus says the Lord of hosts, people shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one city shall go to one another, go to another, saying, Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts. I myself am going. So there's going to be this time where the people and the nations are desperate to get to the land of Israel, desperate to get to Jerusalem. Jerusalem and Judah aren't going to be the ones who are conquered in battle someday. Look at chapter 10, verse 5.

4:38They shall be like mighty men in battle, trampling the foe in the mud of the streets. They shall fight because the Lord is with them, and they shall put to shame the riders on horses. In chapter 11, we saw the shepherd, how Zechariah is supposed to pretend or supposed to actually shepherd this flock, and it's a symbol of the shepherd who's going to come and be rejected by the people and be sold for 30 pieces of silver, and how that prefigured Christ. And then last week, we studied several things about the end times. One of them was we got our first glimpse of how the nations are going to form a huge alliance and come and attack Jerusalem. We also saw that around that time, Israel themselves are going to look on the one that they have pierced, and they're going to mourn deeply about the one that they have pierced. We also saw that it's going to usher in this time where sin and false prophecy aren't allowed. Parents are even willing to have their own children killed if they're false prophets because they love the Lord so much and everyone is being so strict according to the law. And then finally, we saw that the people during this time, there is going to be a remnant. The end times, and the Lord is going to purify that small number of people. And so I just wanted to run through all of that because we've seen so many things about the future, and none of it has really been kind of synchronized and lined up for us. We're going to do a little bit of that tonight. But it's been a lot scattered throughout this book. A lot about the end times, a lot about the Messiah coming and then coming again to reign and to rule and to reign. And as we get to chapter 14, I'll let you know that Martin Luther wrote a commentary on the book of Zechariah. And it was a bigger commentary. I haven't read it, but I've heard about it. And he covered Zechariah 1 through 13 and then didn't cover chapter 14.

6:59Well, then a couple years later, he does another commentary on Zechariah, and he does the same thing. He covers chapters 1 through 13 and then has a little bit of notes on chapter 14. But he opens that chapter with this statement. Here, in this chapter, this is chapter 14 of Zechariah, here in this chapter, I give up, for I am not sure what the prophet is talking about. That's what he says. So, hopefully, we can do a little bit better than that as we study it tonight.

7:36Hopefully, you won't give up because you're not sure what the prophet's talking about. I don't know if he was going to give up at some point. I don't know how he wouldn't have already given up earlier in Zechariah. But let's pray for the Lord's help. God, we pray that you would help us understand these things. We pray that as we read chapter 14 and we think about that future day, we pray that our hearts would be encouraged as we think about your victory, that we would be sobered as we think about the realities that are going to happen and the judgment that's going to happen.

8:20I pray, Lord, that we'd be amazed at your might and your power. And I pray, Lord, that we would have the discipline to set our minds on these future things, to dwell on them, to not have the world's perspective that what happens in the future, what happens at the end of days, doesn't affect us and we don't care about it, but instead to have the opposite attitude where we are looking forward to those times, where we are searching your word to see what you've revealed about them, what you want us to know about those end times.

9:00The last days. We pray, God, that you would help us tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, in the passage that we're studying, people will say that there are seven views of this passage. And I think that's a little much. Two of the views are kind of atheistic views, that they'll say all of these were about a battle that was about to happen, and none of the promises came true, so we know it's fake, right? Those are two of the views.

9:34Another view is that everything was kind of a symbolic history of, or a symbolic prophecy of what was going to happen during the Maccabean revolt, which we've actually talked about recently. And so it's more symbolic, but it's something historical for us, something still future for Zechariah. Luther believed that it was kind of a symbolic chapter that covered all of human history from the New Testament up until now. And so you can see why he'd be confused if he doesn't know what to do with it, right? So he thinks it's all symbols about human history. Calvin, I just forgot. Calvin has another view. I can't remember it right now. And then there's two views that are probably the most common today. Both of them take this passage, chapter 14, to be about the end time.

10:30And they go in two different directions. One is that it is symbolically about the end times, that the things happening in this chapter aren't actually happening, but he's speaking in symbols and figures, and these things will be taking place in the church or something like that. And then the other is that these things are talking about the end times, and we can read them as they're described as literal events. And that's my view. I don't know if that'll be your view, but as we read through, that's how we're going to study this passage. So look at Zechariah 14, verse 1. Behold, a day is coming for the Lord when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst.

11:19Caught it. All right. Sorry. Okay. Okay. I'll start over. Verse 1. Behold, a day is coming for the Lord when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle. And the city shall be taken, and the houses plundered, and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as well. When he fights on a day of battle. So that's our first chunk. This whole chapter, what I think we could summarize this entire chapter as, is when the Lord returns. When the Lord is on the earth, when the Lord returns. And there's going to be three things that kind of happen in this chapter. One is that when the Lord returns, there's going to be this victory in battle, this security of the city of Jerusalem. That's one effect of the Lord being there. Another is there's going to be these geographical changes, massive earthquakes and changes in the topography of the land. And then the third one is that he's going to usher in this kingdom of peace, this perfectly holy kingdom where he reigns. Okay, so I think we could say about this whole chapter that it's about when the Lord returns, he's going to provide this victory in battle and security. There's going to be geographical changes, and there's going to be this kingdom of peace that gets ushered in. The reason why I bring those up now is because we're going to see those throughout this chapter, and it's not necessarily a three-part outline or something like that. He's going to return to each one at different times. I think you'll see what I mean. The first part, the first, Three verses, I think, is talking about that first effect of the Lord being here, is this victory in battle. So we spoke last week about how there's going to be this alliance of the nations. All of the nations come against Israel, and they are there to fight at Jerusalem, and they're winning. The nations are winning. So, behold, the day is coming for the Lord when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. So, these nations are coming, and they're taking spoil. So, they're winning against Jerusalem and dividing the spoil right there in front of them. They're winning seemingly easily. Verse 2:4 I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken, and the houses plundered, and the women raped. Half the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. And so, the battles, the campaign against Jerusalem is going to be successful. The city is going to be taken. It's going to be horrific until, verse 3, then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. And so, the thing that saves the city is that the Lord Himself comes and fights. He comes and leads the people in a fight, and then the tide turns. And we'll read more about that in a little bit.

15:00But let's go on to verse 4. On that day, his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the mount shall move northward and the other half southward. So when the Lord comes, he is either going to land right on the Mount of Olives or he's going to get there at some point. But he's going to be standing there on the Mount of Olives, and between his feet, the Mount of Olives itself is going to split in half from east to west. And so that a part of the mountain moves north and part of the mountain moves south. Okay, so if you're thinking about Jerusalem, the Mount Zion, the Mount that the temple is on, is right here in our hand map. And then you have the Mount of Olives to the east. This is from your perspective. And so you really have two hills or two mountains in Jerusalem. And so if you're in the temple, you can look out east and you can see the Mount of Olives. And you can still see it there today. And if you're standing on the Mount of Olives, you can look over and see the Temple Mount, even today with the Muslim Dome of the Rock on it.

16:30It's this mountain, the Mount of Olives, that he's saying the Lord Himself is going to stand on that mountain, and the mountain is going to be split in half, east to west, and so part of the mountain's going to move north, and part of the mountain's going to move south, which means what's going to be in the middle? A valley, right? We'll talk about that in a minute. So, just one thing I wanted to, or a couple things I wanted to point out, is we see this Mount of Olives several times in the Bible. Do you remember any of the times we hear about the Mount of Olives?

17:03Specifically, right? Yeah, the Garden of Gethsemane is over there on the Mount of Olives. If you remember, he is, have you ever heard of the Olivet discourse in Matthew 24 and 25? The reason why it's called that is because that's where they're sitting. As Jesus talks to his disciples about the end times, he's sitting with them on the Mount of Olives. Then, whenever, after Jesus dies and is raised again, the place that he goes with the disciples when he ascends into heaven is the Mount of Olives. And you remember that the angel says to them, You know, why are you looking up? He's going to come down in the same way he left. And then it says they returned from Olivet to Jerusalem. So it's a mountain we see a lot, a mountain that figures in the biblical history a lot.

18:00Of Jesus Christ on earth, that this is where he talked to them about the end times, and this seems to be where he left the earth from, and where the angel said he's going to come back in the same manner. So on this mountain, the Lord is standing there, and it splits in half. Look at verse 5: And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains. For the valley of the mountain shall reach to Azal, and you shall flee as you fled the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come and all the holy ones with him.

18:42Okay, so this is pretty specific, right? He's saying that this city has been sacked, and the Lord is standing on the mountain. The mountain gets split in half and forms a valley, and it says they're going to flee through the valley of my mountain. So either this is the brand new valley that's just been formed, or in Jerusalem, even today, between Zion and the Mount of Olives, is what? Do you remember the name of this valley? Kidron Valley, right?

19:14It gets mentioned in the New Testament also several times as the place that Jesus and the disciples would have had to go through to get to Gethsemane. So, anyways, it could be that valley as well. But either way, they flee out to this valley. From Jerusalem to the east. They flee out to the valley. You shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah. Now, you might not remember what he's talking about, but they certainly would have. This is generations before them, but this was a big part of their history. They would have known about the earthquake and King Uzziah.

19:54The prophecy, the minor prophet Amos, right after Joel, he starts his prophecy like this: The words of Amos, who is among the shepherds of Tekoah, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. And so this prophet, this event, this earthquake, is so important in the history of Israel that a prophet is able to date his prophecy saying, oh, this was two years BE, two years before the earthquake, right?

20:37And they had this marker in their minds of this terrifying time, this terrifying earthquake where everybody fled, and it was terrifying. And that is what the people are doing. They're fleeing as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, then the Lord my God will come and all the holy ones with him. Now, who do you think the holy ones are? What? The saints? Any other answers? Remnant of Israel? Any other answers? Angels. Those are the three answers. So good job.

21:23It could really be either one of those. And honestly, from what we know from other passages, all of those are involved in this battle and in this time, that the Lord does return with his angels, and his elect are gathered to him. His saints are gathered to him. So I personally think he's talking about angels here. So he's there. Then the Lord, my God, will come and all the holy ones with him as this terrifying army from heaven is coming to win this battle. So the mountain's been split. The Lord is there. Verse 6. On that day there shall be no light, cold, or frost. And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light.

22:15I'm going to read that again. See if you can figure that out. On that day, there shall be no light, cold, or frost. And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light. Okay, so something strange is happening, right? Something cataclysmically strange is happening with the light and the weather and things like that. It's like day and night have kind of erased when the Lord comes, and it's this more eerie, there's no light, but there is like this, so there is in verse 7, there shall be a unique day, so it's kind of one of a kind, which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light. And so you almost get the picture, like it's just hard to describe, that it's not like there's the sun's light, but something's light, and it's neither day nor night. And it makes sense to us that things would start to get messed up in terms of this when the Lord returns, because we know that when the Lord is living in his city in eternity, that there doesn't need to be the sun, because he's the light of the city. So it seems like some of that has already started. And if we get a chance, we'll read another passage where that happens too. But something crazy is happening with the light when the Lord returns with his holy ones to win this battle. Also, here's some geographical changes. Look at verse 8. On that day, living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem. What are living waters?

24:00Springs, right? Moving water. It's not a dead pool. It's not like a pond. It's living, moving springs of water. On that day, living water shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea, and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter. Okay, so you have this mountain split in half, and now you also have these springs that are open up, and they're going to be really producing. And the water is going to flow east and west. They're going to have this living water. We hear about that in several other passages in talking about the end times. Ezekiel will talk about these rivers coming from the temple of the Lord and going out. We hear about these rivers coming from Jerusalem in several different places. But that's one of the changes that happens. Verse 9. And the Lord will be king over all the earth.

25:07On that day, the Lord will be one and his name one. Verse 9 again. And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day, the Lord will be one and his name one. What do you think that means? The Lord will be one and his name one. Don't we already know that the Lord our God, the Lord is one? Any ideas on what this means as he's talking about this future day? What? Pardon?

25:56I think so. Yeah, I think it's he is he has come and everybody knows it, that he is king over all the earth. And on that day, the Lord will be one, and his name one, I think, is kind of trying to explain that he's the only one. There are no other gods. There's nothing else. All the nations will recognize this is it. This is the Lord as he comes to reign. Verse 10, the whole land shall be turned into a plain, from Giba to Remmon, south of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem shall remain aloft on its sight, from the gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to the corner gate, and from the tower of Hannanel to the king's wine presses. And it shall be inhabited, for there shall never again be a decree of utter destruction. Jerusalem shall dwell in security. Okay, so more geographical changes. You have the mountains splitting, you have the rivers going out, and then you have the land all around it being made into a giant plain. So flat, except for Jerusalem, which is going to be elevated. And this also matches what we have in several other passages about the end times in Isaiah or in Micah about how in the last days Jerusalem is going to be lifted higher than any of the other mountains. And the nations are going to flock to this mountain that's higher than the others.

27:26Verse 11 again, it shall be inhabited, that's Jerusalem, for there shall never again be a decree of utter destruction. Jerusalem shall dwell in security. So, oh, I remembered, by the way, what Calvin's view was. It's that Calvin's view was that Zechariah was constantly talking about something that was in his past, symbolically, describing something that was in his past. And the reason why I bring that up again is because it seems like if that was true, if that first view about it being the Maccabean revolt, or other people's view about it being the temple being destroyed, some of these events from the Romans, or Calvin's view about it being before Zechariah and being symbolic for these things, is we run into a problem in verse 11, right? It shall be inhabited, for there shall never again be a decree of utter destruction. Jerusalem shall dwell. In security, we saw this earlier in Zechariah chapter 2: that there's going to come this day where on a certain victory, Jerusalem's never going to have to worry again about being defeated. And I think that's the issue some of these other views run into: we have to say that this seems to be an end times prophecy because these events are so grand and glorious when we read them about the Lord coming Himself and winning the battle, and then Jerusalem never being touchable again by any of the nations. So we are still waiting for these things. But the Lord will reign there. Jerusalem shall dwell in security. And now we're going to go back to the battle. Verse 12. And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem. Their flesh will rot while they are standing on their feet. Their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. And on that day, a great panic from the Lord shall fall on them, so that each will seize the hand of another, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other.

29:42Even Judah will fight at Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance. And a plague like this plague shall fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and whatever beasts may be in those camps. Okay, so. I think we're back to this battle where the nations have gathered around and the Lord goes out to fight. And what he does to these people is horrific, right? While they're standing there ready to fight, he just speaks the word and they are rotting as they're standing there, their eyes and their tongues and their flesh off their bones.

30:22Then that spurs the people on to be able to go and fight since they know the Lord is with them. So they go out and fight. Even Judah will fight at Jerusalem. There's this panic that we read about in chapter 12 that the people are panicking and they can't see. They just lost their eyes. The animals have been blinded and they're panicking. And like we talked about in chapter 12, there's this mass chaos among all the peoples that Jerusalem is able to go and take advantage of and conquer all of these nations. Okay?

30:58Let's stop there because we've covered a whole lot. And I just want to ask, are there any questions or did I lose anybody along the way? The Lord has returned. There is this battle. There is this battle where he conquers the nations, but also the Lord's return also brings in these geographical changes that he kind of pauses to describe and that we see in other prophetic passages in the Old Testament. And then he goes back to this battle and says, this is what's going to happen. To the men who are standing there fighting against Jerusalem is these horrific things. Eliu? Question. This is situated before the millennial kingdom is inaugurated. Was it Armageddon or whereabouts? I'm not going to let you ask that yet.

31:51Okay. Good to know. Matt, did you have a question? Okay. Okay, so we are going to talk about timeline in just a minute. I know I didn't talk about it last week. I'm still not talking about it yet, but just a minute, okay? Just a minute, if we have the time. Any other questions? All right, let's hurry so we can get to the timeline. Okay, so the last, so I told you that when the Lord returns, they're going to have this victory in battle.

32:37And we might say, duh, right? Obviously, if these nations are gathered and God comes to fight against them, they're going to lose, right? That's what we would all expect. But I think it was a definite warning to all those nations and a reassurance to the people of Israel that this was going to take place. So there's this victory in battle, this security. There's also All these geographical changes. Last is there's this kingdom of peace that gets ushered in. So look at verse 16. Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of booths. That's pretty clear, right?

33:24That these nations have sent this army, this massive army that's winning easily against Jerusalem but then gets destroyed. Well, there's other people in those nations. And survivors of those nations, now that the Lord has won the battle, now year after year after year, they send their people to Jerusalem to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of booths. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them.

34:01Seems pretty clear, too, right? That if someone in a nation decides, no, I'm not going to go this year, I'm too tired, I'm not going to go worship and go to the Feast of Booths, the Lord is just going to turn off the rain over their country and bring famine on their land. Verse 18, and if the family of Egypt, there's an example, if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain. There shall be the Plague with which the Lord afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booth. This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booth. So after this grand battle, we're still not doing timeline quite yet, but after this grand battle, it says that the survivors in these nations are going to, all of the nations, all over the world, are going to start sending people to worship year after year at the Feast of Booth, a yearly festival.

35:08There were three of the pilgrimage festivals, Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Booths. And for some reason, this is the only one that gets mentioned here. Some people think that it's because we don't need the Passover anymore because Christ has already fulfilled that. And so this is just a feast to remember the Lord's provision or remember the Lord taking care of the people. Yeah. Yeah. And so the are you, oh, so right. And so the connection T was making was that if the Lord is here tabernacling among us, then this Feast of Booth could change to be like celebrating that, the Feast of Tabernacles.

36:00We're not sure. We see also that there seems to be this community in Revelation that has the palm branches that were involved in celebrating this feast. And so this seems to be mentioned more than once of an event in the end times that even though they don't keep all the festivals, they do still keep this one. And it's not just Israel, it's the whole earth. And they have to come and keep the feast of booths year after year. And if they don't, there's no rain on their land. Okay?

36:32Look at verse 20. And on that day, there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, holy to the Lord. And the pots in the house of the Lord shall be as the bowls before the altar. And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the Lord of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifices in them. And there shall no longer be a traitor in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day. Okay, so kind of a unique way to end the book that we've been studying for so long. He's saying, in the city, all the pots everywhere are going to be holy. Everything is going to be so holy in Jerusalem that when these other nations come, it's not like they have to go to the temple district. And you can remember maybe in Jesus' day that they would have to travel, Israel would have to travel to Jerusalem, and then they would have to go into the temple quarters, and everything they had needed to be clean and pure. And approved by the priests. And so then there were these temple traders that would sell things there at a high rate that everyone knew was pure, that the priests had already approved, so that the travelers wouldn't have to bring their own lambs that were maybe unpure or something. And then maybe even after they lug them all that way, they still have to, they're still told, oh, those aren't good lambs. Does that make sense? And so there are these traders that were a nuisance because they raised the prices on these things that you needed, these holy utensils you needed, or the sacrifice. And God is saying, in that day, when all the nations are coming to keep the Feast of Booths, the whole city is going to be perfectly holy during this time. And so any pot in the city that you can find is good to use. You can go ahead and use it. There doesn't need to be a trader in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day. Okay, so it's this picture of this future time where all the nations are coming, they're sacrificing, they're worshiping the Lord in the temple, and they're keeping the Feast of Booths. If they don't, they're punished. And when they get there, the whole city is holy, and everything's clean, and as it should be, and they can easily do these sacrifices and not have to. Go through the hassle of dealing with the traitors and those kinds of things. All right, any questions about that last part?

39:19That's a good question. Most people think that he's trying to draw a connection between the Canaanites in Tyre and Sidon and the traitors there, and how that profession doesn't need to be in the temple. If that makes any sense. Good question. Any other questions? No, in the NASB translation, it says instead of traitors, it says, and there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts in that day. Yeah. That's where yours says traitor. Yeah. Yeah, so mine takes more of an interpretive, like, why would it say that? And the point is, all these nations are coming. And so if all the nations are coming, it doesn't make sense to say, but not this one nation, and say they're never going to be there. And so it seems like that word for the Canaanites seemed to become synonymous by the The end of the Old Testament for a traitor because of the connection with Tyre. And so they could use that ethnicity. I don't know if we have a parallel today or something to just mean traitor, if that makes sense. Yeah.

40:45Okay, so the Lord has returned and He causes them to have victory in battle and total security, decisive victory in battle. And there are these topographical changes in the mountains and the rivers, and things have changed in the city, and he ushers in this kingdom of peace. Now, James, did you ever get the slide I sent you? It's okay if not. Okay, that's fine. We didn't need it, anyways. But let's talk for a little bit about timeline, okay? And it's something that we don't often talk about at this church. It's not something that we campaign about or something like that. But when we think about the end times, there are several different views. And the way that you view the end times might dictate how you come to a passage like this. So if you think the end times can only be something spiritual, there's no bodies there, there's no more Israel because Israel has been replaced by the church and everything is spiritual, then when you come. To the text, you're going to interpret all of these things that we've just read as very figurative pictures that aren't describing real events, but that are standing as symbols, like we might see in other prophetic passages, of end times realities that aren't end times events. I don't know if that makes sense to any of you. But I wanted to share with you a little bit about timeline as I see it in the Old Testament and New Testament, that we get several of these passages that give a timeline. One of the most specific is Daniel. And we mentioned him a few weeks ago that he had his vision of the 70 weeks. And the first 69 of those have already happened. And then the anointed one was cut off. And then there is this church age that was a mystery in the Old Testament. This church age, well, that last week, the 70th of the 70 weeks, is still coming. And each of those weeks was a week of seven years. And so what we know, one thing we know, is that there is this chunk of time at the end of days that is this last week. And in other passages, we refer to it as the tribulation, and it's seven years long. And the reason why this is confirmed so often as something that's an actual length of time and not something symbolic is that it's called, it's referred to the same length of time. In a lot of different ways.

43:33So those seven years are split into half. And so the second half is called the Great Tribulation. And right down in the middle of it, there is the abomination of desolation that Daniel talks about and Jesus talks about in Matthew 24. And then that initiates this second half. Well, that second half is how long? How many years? Three and a half. Well, and elsewhere in some prophecies, it's called 42 months. That works right. Yeah, 42 months is how many years? Three and a half, right? And elsewhere, it's called 1,260 days, which is three and a half years if you count with the 360-day Jewish calendar. And so we have in different prophecies by different prophets, you have these amounts in Revelation, or in Daniel, it can also be called a time and times and half a time, right? So a time and times and half a time. I can't do it, but that's three and a half, right?

44:45So all of these different ways, it keeps referring to this period at the end of times that is this great tribulation, this three and a half year period. So at the end of that is where. I believe this battle is. At the end of that seven-year chunk, which is also the end of this last three and a half-year chunk, the nations gather to make war on Jerusalem. And the Lord comes and he defeats those nations. But there are survivors in the nations, maybe the ones who didn't come to battle or something like that. And of those survivors, we can insert a part of Matthew 25. There seems to be this, there is a sheep and goat judgment where the Lord takes the nations, is what he calls it, and divides between them the sheep and the goats. And the sheep are able to enter into his kingdom, and the goats are not. And I think that kingdom is a 1,000-year kingdom, a reign of Christ on the earth, where the nations, those who are survivors, who are the sheep who come into this kingdom, those who are survivors, are year after year bringing this feast of booths. And if they don't, they'll be punished. And so they're able to make these decisions, and they make wrong decisions. They make sinful decisions, and they're punished for it. And this is happening year after year, that the nations are still there. Jerusalem is still there, and they're coming there to sacrifice.

46:23In the Old Testament, we just hear about this period as being this kingdom where Jerusalem is in charge of all the nations. And the Lord is there ruling and reigning. And we don't hear how long it is, but we know it's going to happen, that after this time of judgment and after this great battle, the Lord is going to reign on the earth for a thousand years, or for a time. And that kingdom is going to last forever and ever and ever. Well, when we get to the book of Revelation, I think we get a little bit more of a timeline on that. That this same battle that we've been hearing about in Zechariah and that we read last week in Joel chapter 3, and I believe that we read about in Ezekiel 38 and 39, we also read about in Revelation, that the nations gather to a place called Armageddon in the New Testament, which is an adapted form of the mountain of Megiddo. So the Hebrew word for mountain was har, and so it was harme. And so in the Greek, they just smushed it together and called it Armageddon. And so it's this place that they would have known where it was. There is this battle. There's some legend that Napoleon visited there and said, this is the greatest battlefield or something like that. I don't remember. So anyways, there's this big plain there, and that's where all the nations gather to wage war. And the Lord destroys them, and it's the wine press of his race. And it's gruesome. So we hear about that in Revelation 16. They gather. 17, it says their purpose, that they're going to war against the Lamb. And then we have the battle in the Lord coming in in Revelation 19. Well, after that battle in Revelation 20 is where we hear about this millennial kingdom. And that's probably where you've heard, if you've ever heard about the views of the end times, that's probably the buzzword that you've heard is, what do you believe about the millennium when you read Revelation? Do you believe that there is going to be a millennium? Do you believe that that millennium has already happened figuratively in history? Or do you think that millennium is going to happen someday in the future? If you think it's going to happen someday in the future, do you think it's going to involve the people of Israel, the actual people of Israel? Or do you think that the church has replaced Israel and that's who's in that millennial kingdom? So those are all the different views, and they all have different names about the millennium. But what I think that Revelation is doing, all it's doing is saying what we already had heard a thousand times in the, not a thousand, what we already heard a lot of times in the Old Testament that the Lord, after he comes and he defeats the nations, he sets up a kingdom to rule. I think that the detail that we get in Revelation is that during that rule, Satan is bound and it's going to last a thousand years.

49:25Does that make sense? At the end of that thousand years, um Satan is released again, and there's another battle. It's also referred to as Gog and Magog, because I think it's a throwback to this battle that was right before the thousand years that was also called Gog and also referred to as Gog and Magog. But then, so there's a thousand years, Satan is released, there's another battle, he's defeated, and then the Lord ushers in the eternal state on earth, I believe. So, yes, T.

50:03Jerusalem is around, but our comes from heaven. Right. So, all of that to say, where I would place this battle and this battle that we've been reading about, Armageddon, where all the nations come against Israel. And we can, later, if we have time someday, we can read more about the Antichrist and why we think everyone in the whole world turns against Israel and things like that, clues that we have from other passages. But what we saw tonight is that all the nations have gathered, and it is this epic, huge force. And they are winning against Jerusalem. They've basically won against Jerusalem. They've already seen. The city, they're already taking the people. There's still some people left over. And then finally, the Lord comes and he's on the Mount of Olives, and the mountain splits, and he destroys them, and they rot as they're standing there. And all the nations fall. And Judah and the Jerusalemites go out to finish them off. And it is this massive devastation, but there are survivors in the nations, and those survivors are going to be able to come into the kingdom and year after year sacrifice to the Lord while he's there, reigning, while the Lord reigns over the earth.

51:43Any other thoughts or questions? I have a question for you. How would you think about this passage this week, or how would you apply this passage this week? How would it impact your life, even if those are just mental applications or something like that? Young adults, what are the principles we would take away from this passage, and how would we apply those passages? Any of those kind of thoughts? We've seen that when the Lord comes, he'll provide this victory and security. There will be all these changes in the Land and he will usher in this perfect kingdom. So, how would you apply those things, or at least think about those things this week?

52:44Right. Yeah, the people that are hearing this, if the temple still hasn't been finished yet, or even if it has already been finished by the time they get this, he's reminding them of who's going to win in the end. He's reminding them of the future and sharing these things with them. And so, they don't have this, they can't have this idea of just copying out on the things that he's asked them to do. They need to stay active, they need to know that their Lord is the true Lord and He's in control of the future, of all of the future. And I would say that principle applies pretty well to us, right? That we also can have that same confidence of we know how this is going to end. We know that the Lord is going to win. We can look forward to that. And in the meantime, we can be sure to obey the one who's going to win and have victory. We can stay active in the things that he's commanded for us and be obedient in those things. Any other thoughts or principles? Pat?

53:56Right. Right. I agree. Agree. He will have his way. Everything he says always comes true. We think, as fallen men, that we can get around it or we can be an exception or something like that. And it's just not true. He's the Lord. Well, yeah. Maybe we need to form a feast of booths committee because we need some practice. Yeah, practice. Practice getting ready for that day. All right. One more thought is just an encouragement that we have read the entire book of Zechariah together. We've studied it together, and you've seen that there is a lot packed in there, right? There is some end times prophecy. There's specific prophecy about the Messiah coming that the Lord fulfilled while he was on earth. And there's a lot of Old Testament history there that I hope you got to learn and see. And so I just encourage you to maybe while the book is still fresh, at least relatively fresh, read it again. Engrain these things in your memory before you move on to your next Bible reading or something like that. But read it again. Think about these things. Let the book of Zechariah challenge you in the way that it keeps pointing back to other Old Testament passages. And maybe take the time to slow down. And look at some of those cross-references and become familiar with them, things like that. So, I just encourage you to read this again. Think through these prophecies. And for chapter 14 specifically tonight, I encourage you to get your mind fixed on the things above and look forward to these days when the Lord is coming to reign. The Lord shared them with us for a reason, He wants us to know, He wants us to know what He said. And so, I just encourage you not to dismiss them as saying, Oh, I'm never going to understand what's going on in the end times, anyways, or something like that, and to have that kind of attitude. I just encourage you to read it and try to understand it. The Lord wants you to try and be encouraged and remember that He's in charge of all things. All right, pray with me, Father. We are amazed at your power, we're amazed that you remember your people and that you know all things, even things to come. We look forward to the day when the Lord returns with His holy ones and reigns on His throne and defeats the nations and rules over them.

56:41We pray that we would look forward to that day with eager hearts as we wait for Christ to return. And we pray that you'd help us understand these things. In Jesus' name, amen. You're dismissed.