The Day of the Lord

Zechariah 14:1‑21

     Take your Bible, if you will, and let's look at the fourteenth chapter of the book of Zechariah...Zechariah chapter 14.  I feel that if there's anything that I feel somewhat comfortable with it's the Greek of the New Testament.  I had about seven years of Greek study and so I feel like I really can handle that.  And when I get to the Old Testament, I don't quite feel as capable and consequently it makes greater demands on me in terms of my own study time to draw out of any given passage what's there, trying to deal with the language with which I am less familiar.  And then to compound my own lack of alacrity in Hebrew, Zechariah is an infinitely complex prophecy.  And to make matters worse, I try to cover 21 verses for tonight.  So in the complexity of all of that kind of effort we're going to see what we can do with the whole fourteenth chapter at one shot.  Get comfortable.  We'll see what happens.

     This is our last look at Zechariah's wonderful message.  And I really believe that God has used this in my own life to increase my understanding not only of this book but of much of the Old Testament apocalyptic literature, of much of the heart of a prophet, much of God's attitude toward His people Israel and much of it, of course, carries right on into the New Testament as God doesn't change.  So it's been a refreshing study. 

     The basic theme of the book of Zechariah, just to remind you, is the sweep of Israel's history from the time of Zechariah when the nation returned from the Babylonian captivity right on till the establishing of the millennial kingdom on earth.  That is the subject of this fourteenth chapter, the establishing of the millennial kingdom.  We started out in chapter 1 with Zechariah dealing with the people as they had come back, were endeavoring to rebuild their city which was in rubble, to rebuild the wall, etc.  And Zechariah came along as a great prophet of comfort, a great prophet of hope and his message was to tell Israel that God was going to let them rebuild, God was going to let them restore their city.  But more than that, God had an incredible future for them way off in the distance when all of human history came to its climax.

     Now as we come to the fourteenth chapter, we really come to the climax, the final establishment of the millennial kingdom, the end of human history, as it were.  And it's a tremendous chapter, it's just loaded with prophecy, some of it is very, very amazing.  Some of it is very difficult to understand with our own limitations.  But I do feel this way about it, I want to reaffirm this as we approach it.  I do feel that we must interpret the fourteenth chapter literally.  I read about five commentaries this week on this chapter that do not interpret the chapter literally.  But they make it a symbolic chapter.  They do not wish to have a restored Israel in their theology.  They do not believe that God has anything left for the nation itself.  They do not see a restoration of the people to the land in prophecy.  They do not see an actual setting up of an actual earthly kingdom. And so there's some question about an actual battle of Armageddon, etc.  So they want to make these things figures or symbols rather that literal reality.  And in so doing they are left with some very, very, very difficult problems.  In fact, no less a man of God than Martin Luther himself wanted to approach the fourteenth chapter of Zechariah in a figurative way.  He wanted to approach it as symbol language.  And taking a figurative approach, he confessed after writing this particular chapter in commentary fashion these words, "In this chapter," said Luther, "I surrender for I am not certain of what the prophet speaks," end quote.

     In other words, approaching it from a figurative or symbolic angle, Luther could make really no convincing sense out of it.  He went on in expounding the chapter but didn't think it could have any reference to the end times and related it only to the period of the destruction of Jerusalem and all of the language was somehow symbolically fulfilled around 70 A.D.

     Well, he was not alone, he was followed by many theologians in modern day times, those who are amillennial, those who do not believe in a literal kingdom, those who would take what is known as a covenant view of theology also want to do the same thing.  The problem with it is that it leaves you with some very, very difficult issues to settle which could never be resolved.  A very modern commentary written by a person named Baldwin attempts to take the same approach, very scholarly, very capably done, but hopelessly muddled in trying to interpret the chapter. 

     So, what I'm saying is the best way to approach it is simply to take it for what it says in its clearest literal meaning and leave it at that and let the Spirit of God worry about how He's going to bring it all to pass.  Because when you try to make symbols out of it, your guess is as good as anybody else's, and none of really makes much sense.

     In 1919 there was written a commentary on Zechariah by a man named David Baron...B‑a‑r‑o‑n.  In my judgments, probably the finest work that's ever been written on the book of Zechariah.  And David Baron took a literal approach.  He took a literal approach to interpreting this book when literal approaches to these kinds of things were not really very popular, simply because it looked impossible for these things to happen.  This is what David Baron wrote in 1919. 

     "First of all, we have to suppose a restoration of the Jews into their land in a condition of unbelief, not a complete restoration of the whole nation which will not take place until after their conversion, but a representative and influential remnant will return.  It seems from Scripture that in relation to Israel and the land, there will be restoration before the Second Coming of our Lord, a very much the same state of things as existed at the time of His first coming when the threads of God's dealing with them nationally were finally dropped, not to be taken up again until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled."

     Now let me stop at that paragraph just to say this.  Baron predicted a literal actual return of Israel to the land, a restoration of the nation in unbelief prior to any conversion experience.  He goes on:

     "There was at that time a number of Jews in Palestine representative of the nation but compared with the number of their brethren who were already Diaspora among the nations, they were a mere minority and not in a political independent condition."

     Now this is what he's saying.  He's saying when they come back in the end times, it seems to be the indication of Zechariah's prophecy that the whole nation will not come back initially, but a portion of them will come back and the remainder of them will stay scattered all over the nations as they were in the time of Jesus.  That is precisely what has happened.  There is a remnant that has gone back.  There is a great number that has gone back.  But not comparable to the amount that still remains scattered around the world.  So Baron was exactly accurate in his interpretation literally of Zechariah.

     "So it will be," he says, "they will be at first as compared with the whole nation only a representative minority in Palestine, and," he says, "a Jewish state will be probably formed either under the suscerainty(??) of one of the great powers or under international protection."  Baron predicted the establishing of a Jewish state by virtue of his understanding of prophecy.  Well in 1919 he was still a long ways off but he was right.  And he said it will be done probably by some cooperation of a politically...or rather of an international protection agency.  And you know as well as I do that the basic grant for Israel's existence in 1948 was given by the United Nations.  So he was right again.

     "And what follows after a brief interval of prosperity, there will come a night of anguish.  What occasions the darkest hour in the night of Israel's sad history since their rejection of Christ is the gathering of the nations and the siege predicted in this fourteenth chapter."

     Now in 1919 David Baron then predicted they would go back, only a minority would go back while the rest would remain scattered.  They would go back in unbelief.  They would go back and establish the nation. They would establish the nation under some kind of international protection.  And they would remain there in prosperity for a while, until finally a great holocaust would come upon them from which they would be delivered by the Lord Jesus Christ and at that time they would see Him for His Messiah and they would enter into faith and salvation and the Kingdom.  What he said in 1919 so far has come to pass step by step without missing a button because he took a literal approach.

     Now the only reason I bother to tell you these things is because I want to reaffirm in your minds that you can take a literal approach to the Bible and be vindicated.  And that's precisely what David Baron did and so far he has been vindicated in his interpretation.  So we make no apology for taking this very literally.

     Now as we come to chapter fourteen, I want you to realize what's happening.  In the last days of Israel's history, you and I are seeing Israel regathered.  They've established their nation under a grant given to them by the United Nations, international protection.  They are there in unbelief as would be indicated by the prophets.  They are waiting the time of salvation.  And it can't come until Jesus returns and they look on Him whom they have pierced.  Prior to that time, they will make a pact with a false Messiah.  Remember that?  With the foolish shepherd that Zechariah talked about in chapter 12.  They will make a pact with the Antichrist.  And everything will go along fine during this seven‑year covenant, but in the middle of this seven‑year covenant this beast, this Antichrist, this foolish shepherd, this false Messiah will break his covenant with Israel.  And when he breaks the covenant with Israel, he will require that they worship him and him alone.  And when the people of Israel refuse, he gathers the armies of the world together to march against Israel.  And he comes against Israel under really the command of Satan to exterminate the Jews...the people of God.

     This leads then to a great siege of the city of Jerusalem and the land of Palestine as we know as the battle of Armageddon.  So what do we have to look forward to?  We've already seen Israel beginning to be regathered.  We've already seen them establish their state.  We've already seen some of these things come to pass.  They're there in unbelief.  Some are still scattered.  We know that their mentality is such as would be looking for someone who could offer them international protection, and there is coming that individual.  When he comes for three and a half years, everything will be fine.  And then he will cause them to go into chaos literally when he desecrates their worship, demands worship of himself and in response, when they don't do it, he calls the armies of the world to come and storm Israel.

     Now it is precisely at the siege of Jerusalem that we pick up the fourteenth chapter.  Here are the armies of the world gathered against Jerusalem.  Now we've already learned from chapter 13 that when the siege begins, it's basically successful to start with.  There is tremendous blood shed.  There is tremendous devastation.  The book of Revelations says the blood will be to the depth of the horses' bridles for an area of 200 miles.  There is going to be blood shed like the world has never seen.  There is going to be a holocaust in the land.  There is going to be a seeming victory on the part of Antichrist and his hosts. And precisely at the point where this victory looks secure is when Christ returns.  And that's exactly what we have in the fourteenth chapter.

     The chapter opens then with the defeated Jerusalem, stripped of its possessions, stripped of its honor, conquered by the world's armies.  And the conquerors in fact are revelling in their spoils, having a great old time thinking they've won their battle just precisely when Jesus returns to turn the tide of battle totally.

     Now as we look at the chapter, I want you to notice four major parts: the coming of the day of the Lord, the crowning of the Lord as King, the conquest of the nations and the character of the kingdom.  And there is a sense of sequence in these points.

     First of all, the coming of the day of the Lord.  Let's begin at verse 1.  We're going to move very rapidly, so stay awake.  Verse 1, "Behold," that's to get your attention...hey you, listen...is what he's saying..."The day of the Lord comes and thy spoils shall be divided in the midst of thee."  Now the opening phrase "the day of the Lord comes" is kind of an announcement all by itself.  You can almost put an exclamation mark at the end of it and start the next phrase as a new paragraph..."the day of the Lord comes..."  We have now reached a climax.  Now what is the day of the Lord?  Well, the day of the Lord as a term, mark it in your mind, refers to not one day but a period of time.  We use the word "day" in the same way.  We say this is the day of...this is the day of space travel, or this is the day of existentialism, or this is the day of alcoholism, or this is the day of marital breakup, or this is the day of whatever.  We use it in that sense and that's the way it's used in this reference.  This is the day of the Lord.

     In other words, man has had his day, man has had his fling and now it's God's time.  And the Lord is going to begin to do some things.  And so the day of the Lord is a period of time beginning with the rapture of the church and extending through the millennial kingdom.  It covers all kinds of events.  It covers the Tribulation time when the Lord takes back the earth.  It covers the conquering of the nations at Armageddon.  It covers the judgment of the nations.  It covers the establishment of the Kingdom.  It covers the reign of Jesus Christ on earth for a thousand years.  It covers the vanquishing of Satan.  It covers this whole great eschatological time block from the Rapture to the end of the Kingdom.  That whole era of the end of history is the day of the Lord.

     In other words, man's day is ended and the Lord begins to take back His earth...the day of the Lord.  A great period of time when God sets up His own reign and takes the dominion away from unregenerate man.  And so it is the day of the Lord.

     And what's happening as we come to chapter 14, what facet of the day of the Lord are we dealing with?  We've already seen some earlier in the book of Zechariah.  At this particular point in the day of the Lord, we are at the time when Israel is under siege by the armies of the world.  Now if you'll remember Daniel's prophecy and you remember the book of Revelation, you will remember there are four armies that gather against Israel...the army of the north which probably would involve the Russian nations and some Arab confederacy, according to Ezekiel 38, there is the armies coming from the south, the armies from the west, the revived Roman Empire, the armies of the east, perhaps some kind of Red Chinese confederacy, or whatever, and all of this converging on the land of Israel.  And this is what we see as we begin the chapter.

     And there seems to be a victory.  They seem to have won their day.  They seem to have accomplished their goal because it says in verse 1, "Thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of the thee."  Now the "thee" here is Jerusalem, and the "thy" is Jerusalem.  We know this because of the form, the feminine form, in the Hebrew.  That is the antecedent, Jerusalem, which appears in the next verse. 

     Now it is very uncommon, now watch this, for an enemy to come in and conquer a place and then divide the spoil right in the middle of town.  Usually they'll haul it off, they'll escape with their booty, they'll flee with their riches that they've gained.  But they have such a sense of victory and such a sense of overwhelming confidence that they plop right down in the middle of Jerusalem feeling very smug and very secure and they begin to divvy up the booty right there on the spot because they feel so confident that the victory has been gained.

     So, there they are sitting there seemingly accomplished the conquering, leisurely going about the dividing of the spoil and the booty as if they were taunting the inhabitants that were remaining in Jerusalem.  And it is that...it is at that very moment that God begins to turn the tide of the battle.  And Jerusalem's extremity becomes God's opportunity.  Verse 2, "For I will...I'm just going to read the first part of the verse...for I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle."  Now stop there.

     Now we get a little hint here of something that's going on that might be a little surprising to the nation and that is that they are there because they have been gathered by whom?  By God.  In other words, they are not their own.  They are not their own agency, they are not even really at this point accomplishing Satan's task, they are there under the sovereign control of God.  And God has gathered them for two reasons.  Reason number one, God is going to use them as an agency to purge out the rebels among His people.  When that great battle of Armageddon comes and when those nations come and when they slaughter the ones they do, they're going to be dealing with the rebels in the nation Israel.  They're going to be cleaning out and chastening and judging those that have been unbelieving.  And so, God has gathered these nations with a Jewish purpose in mind and that is to act in judgment against unbelieving persons in Israel.

     Secondly, He gathers them there in order to ultimately punish them as well.  So God gathers them to act as a judgment agency against Israel, even as there was a time in history when Israel was used as a judgment agency against the nation, and secondly, to bring them to the place of judgment also.  Now notice, he says in verse 2, "I'll gather all nations."  Now there are going to be representatives from all over the world.  And as I told you, the east, the west, the north, the south, they'll all be represented there.  The armies of the world literally are going to converge on that little area. 

     And that doesn't seem so remote anymore, frankly.  Everybody in the world is very concerned. The Arab world is concerned about it.  Russia is concerned about it.  The west is concerned about it because of the tremendous resources that are there.  The east, Red China and so forth, for the first time in history over the last ten years has showed great interest in the Middle East.  So it's not an impossibility by any means.

     In Revelation chapter 16 we get a further look at this.  It says in verse 13, "I saw three unclean spirits like frogs...and I guess in his vision they looked like slimy creatures coming out of some kind of muck...came out of the mouth of the dragon, the mouth of the beast and the mouth of the false prophet, they're spirits of demons working miracles that go forth to the kings of the earth and the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God almighty." 

     In other words, these demons are going to gather the kings from all over the whole world to amalgamate in these great armies and they're all going to come against Israel.  And God will use them as agencies of judgment and God will gather them there to be judged themselves.

     Notice that it's going to happen at Jerusalem.  This will be the focal point of the battle.  We call it the battle of Armageddon because the Bible calls it that in Revelation 16.  They will extend from the plain of Megiddo on the north, clear down really to Jerusalem and beyond to the south, and cover the whole land.  Much of the battle will occur on the Plain of Megiddo, much of it will occur in the cit