Exegesis and Exposition of zephaniah 3: 17-18
Zechariah 14:1 Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. (NASB95)
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| Zechariah 14:1 Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. (NASB95)
This summary verse announces the last future siege of Jerusalem in the “day of the Lord,’ which is during the last three and a half years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week. Zechariah 14:2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. 3 Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. 4 In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. (NASB95) The Mount of Olives will be split in half by the return of our Lord to the Mount of Olives. If you recall in Acts 1:9-11 upon our Lord’s ascension the angels told the disciples of our Lord that He would return in the same manner to the Mount of Olives in the future. The statement that the Lord will stand “on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east” is a significant statement. This is not a casual statement. You will notice throughout Scripture that help for Israel is coming from the east. This is the reason the Jews pay great attention to that eastern gate, which some call the golden gate. The Lord will come through the eastern gate at His Second Advent in the rebuilt Jewish temple. Zechariah 14:5 You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him! (NASB95) When the Lord lands upon the Mount of Olives at His Second Advent to personally and bodily deal with His enemies and those of His people, the Jews, the Mount of Olives, dislodged by a severe and terrible earthquake, will dissolve into “an exceedingly great valley.” Therefore, there will be a vast alteration of the geography in Jerusalem in order that it might be the center of blessing to the world during the millennial reign of Christ. Jerusalem will be the capital of the entire earth during the Millennium according to Isaiah 2:2-3. Zechariah 14:6 In that day there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. 7 For it will be a unique day, which is known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at evening time there will be light. (NASB95) The Second Advent of Christ will be unique because Jesus Christ is unique since He is undiminished deity and true humanity in one Person forever, the God-Man. The phrase “neither day nor night but it will come about that at evening time there will be light” indicates that the day of the Second Advent of Christ will be utterly different from any day in the history of the world. It cannot be day for all natural sources of light upon the earth will have failed, nor can it be light since there will be an awesome display of light reflected from the glory of the Lord, His angels and glorified saints. Nor can it be the mixture of day and night for twilight for the same reason. The Lord prophesied concerning this day. Mark 13:24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, 25 AND THE STARS WILL BE FALLING from heaven, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken. 26 Then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN CLOUDS with great power and glory. 27 And then He will send forth the angels, and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven.” (NASB95) Zechariah 14:8 And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea (Dead Sea) and the other half toward the western sea (Mediterranean); it will be in summer as well as in winter. (NASB95) Jerusalem, who throughout her history has been an inland city, will become a seagoing city, or port town at the Second Advent of Christ. The great earthquake caused by Christ landing on the Mount of Olives that is recorded in Zechariah 14:4 will change the entire central highland ridge from Geba of Benjamin (Josh. 18:24; 2 K. 23:8), located some 6 miles northeast of Jerusalem, to Rimmon south of Jerusalem, located 33 miles southwest of Jerusalem, an inhabited site in Zechariah’s day. All the land of Palestine specified here in verse 10 shall be transformed so as to become, like the Arabah. The Arabah is the deep depression that extends from the Sea of Galilee, 652 feet below sea level to the Gulf of ‘Aqaba, and only 300 feet above sea level just west of Petra in Edom, making the Arabah the deepest depression on the surface of the earth. But the depth of the terrain was only one element that prompted the comparison by Zechariah to the Arabah. Another was its level character. Josephus twice mentions “the Great Plain” in describing the Ghor or Rift, from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea (Wars 8.2; Antiquities 6.1). Hence, Zechariah used the simile “like the Arabah” to stress the exaltation of Jerusalem in emphasizing the depression of the surrounding hills and their being made as level as a plain. Jerusalem shall be elevated and exalted instead of being imbedded in the midst of mountainous rough terrain that it is presently surrounded by. Zechariah 14:9-11 describes the millennial reign of Christ. Zechariah 14:9 And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one. 10 All the land will be changed into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; but Jerusalem will rise and remain on its site from Benjamin's Gate (North wall) as far as the place of the First Gate (Northeastern corner of the city) to the Corner Gate (northwestern extremity), and from the Tower of Hananel (at the opposite extremity of the “corner gate,” in the northeastern part of the city, Jer. 31:38) to the king's wine presses. 11 People will live in it, and there will no longer be a curse, for Jerusalem will dwell in security. (NASB95) Zechariah 14:12-16 parallels Revelation 19:11-21 and describes in great detail the judgment that the Eastern and Western Confederacies will receive from Christ at His Second Advent. Zechariah 14:12 Now this will be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth. 13 It will come about in that day that a great panic from the LORD will fall on them; and they will seize one another's hand, and the hand of one will be lifted against the hand of another. 14 Judah also will fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered, gold and silver and garments in great abundance. 15 So also like this plague will be the plague on the horse, the mule, the camel, the donkey and all the cattle that will be in those camps. 16 Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths (Feast of Tabernacles). (NASB95) The Hebrew term for “plague” is the noun maggephah, which appears in Zechariah 14:12, 15 twice and 18 and refers to the direct judgment that Christ will administer to His enemies at His Second Advent. Not only does Zechariah 14:12-16 teach that Christ will personally destroy His enemies but it also reveals that He will cause a great panic to come upon His enemies and those who are born-again from the tribe of Judah will fight while displaying super human valor as a result of being empowered by the Lord to do so. Thus the Psalmist warns the nations of taking a stand against Christ. Psalm 2:1 “Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!” 4 He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. 5 Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury, saying, 6 “But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain. 7 I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You. 8 Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’ 10 Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth. 11 Worship the LORD with reverence and rejoice with trembling. 12 Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!” (NASB95) Download 360 Kb. Share with your friends:
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