Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. That’s the Lord’s Prayer that every Catholic kid had to memorize in catechism class or “religious instruction”. Did we understand what it meant? Nope. Zechariah explained its meaning and what will happen in these last 2 chapters. Let’s dig in…
Zechariah 13 – A Fountain of Cleansing
“On that day a fountain will be opened for the dynasty of David and for the people of Jerusalem, a fountain to cleanse them from all their sins and impurity.
2 “And on that day,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will erase idol worship throughout the land, so that even the names of the idols will be forgotten. I will remove from the land both the false prophets and the spirit of impurity that came with them. 3 If anyone continues to prophesy, his own father and mother will tell him, ‘You must die, for you have prophesied lies in the name of the Lord.’ And as he prophesies, his own father and mother will stab him.
4 “On that day people will be ashamed to claim the prophetic gift. No one will pretend to be a prophet by wearing prophet’s clothes. 5 He will say, ‘I’m no prophet; I’m a farmer. I began working for a farmer as a boy.’ 6 And if someone asks, ‘Then what about those wounds on your chest?’ he will say, ‘I was wounded at my friends’ house!’
The Scattering of the Sheep
7 “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
Zechariah 13 NLT
the man who is my partner,”
says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
“Strike down the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered,
and I will turn against the lambs.
8 Two-thirds of the people in the land
will be cut off and die,” says the Lord.
“But one-third will be left in the land.
9 I will bring that group through the fire
and make them pure.
I will refine them like silver
and purify them like gold.
They will call on my name,
and I will answer them.
I will say, ‘These are my people,’
and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”
Zechariah 14 – The Lord Will Rule the Earth
Watch, for the day of the Lord is coming when your possessions will be plundered right in front of you! 2 I will gather all the nations to fight against Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the population will be taken into captivity, and the rest will be left among the ruins of the city.
3 Then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations, as he has fought in times past. 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem. And the Mount of Olives will split apart, making a wide valley running from east to west. Half the mountain will move toward the north and half toward the south. 5 You will flee through this valley, for it will reach across to Azal. Yes, you will flee as you did from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all his holy ones with him.
6 On that day the sources of light will no longer shine, 7 yet there will be continuous day! Only the Lord knows how this could happen. There will be no normal day and night, for at evening time it will still be light.
8 On that day life-giving waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half toward the Dead Sea and half toward the Mediterranean, flowing continuously in both summer and winter.
9 And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day there will be one Lord—his name alone will be worshiped.
10 All the land from Geba, north of Judah, to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become one vast plain. But Jerusalem will be raised up in its original place and will be inhabited all the way from the Benjamin Gate over to the site of the old gate, then to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses. 11 And Jerusalem will be filled, safe at last, never again to be cursed and destroyed.
12 And the Lord will send a plague on all the nations that fought against Jerusalem. Their people will become like walking corpses, their flesh rotting away. Their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. 13 On that day they will be terrified, stricken by the Lord with great panic. They will fight their neighbors hand to hand. 14 Judah, too, will be fighting at Jerusalem. The wealth of all the neighboring nations will be captured—great quantities of gold and silver and fine clothing. 15 This same plague will strike the horses, mules, camels, donkeys, and all the other animals in the enemy camps.
16 In the end, the enemies of Jerusalem who survive the plague will go up to Jerusalem each year to worship the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, and to celebrate the Festival of Shelters. 17 Any nation in the world that refuses to come to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, will have no rain. 18 If the people of Egypt refuse to attend the festival, the Lord will punish them with the same plague that he sends on the other nations who refuse to go. 19 Egypt and the other nations will all be punished if they don’t go to celebrate the Festival of Shelters.
20 On that day even the harness bells of the horses will be inscribed with these words: Holy to the lord. And the cooking pots in the Temple of the Lord will be as sacred as the basins used beside the altar. 21 In fact, every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. All who come to worship will be free to use any of these pots to boil their sacrifices. And on that day there will no longer be traders in the Temple of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Zechariah 14 NLT
His Kingdom Will Come!
“On that Day” or “In that Day”, depending on which translation you use, either way, it means…
- The Day of the Lord
- The Tribulation
- His Glorious Appearing
- His Kingdom Come
One thing’s for sure, sin will not be allowed there. Therefore, everyone will have to be cleansed of all sin — purified, sanctified — before they’ll be allowed in. Either that, or they’ll be eliminated as a follower of the Antichrist and not Jesus.
Jesus will erase ALL idol worship which covers…
- Mary
- Dead saints
- the Pope (who’s also a false prophet)
- Money
- Power
- Fame
- Things
In addition, all false prophets and teachers will also be eliminated. Those who mislead will do so no more.
A Prophecy already Fulfilled
The Scattering of the Sheep happened when Jesus was crucified — they struck down the shepherd and the sheep were scattered. Jesus predicted this just before His death…
31 On the way, Jesus told them, “Tonight all of you will desert me. For the Scriptures say,
‘God will strike the Shepherd,
Matthew 26:31 NLT
and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
Two-thirds
In Revelation 9, two-thirds of the people of the earth are killed. One-third by four angels and another third by 3 plagues. That one-third that remains — Jews — will be refined by fire. That’s in the Great Tribulation. Pastor Sandy Adams explains…
The final seven years of God’s judgment, or what we call the Great Tribulation, has a two-fold purpose – to punish the world, but to purify the Jews. It’s through these horrible sufferings that God will refocus the Jews. They’ll turn from the Antichrist to Jesus Christ.
Sandy Adams
Ultimately, all nations who ever attacked Israel and Jerusalem will not survive Jesus’ final showdown. When Jesus lands on the Mount of Olives, the earth will split apart. The Mount of Olives is where Jesus ascended into Heaven…
6 So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?”
7 He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9 After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. 10 As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”
Acts 1:6-11 NLT
Pastor Sandy Adams comments…
The very spot where He lifts off, is where He touches down. Jesus ascended from the Mount of Olives, and it’s there that Zechariah tells us the living Lord will return. He’ll set his foot on the mountain and it’ll split in two, radically altering the topography of today’s Jerusalem.
It’s interesting that before the Six Day War of 1967, Jordan decided to build a hotel on the Mount of Olives. They were going to build it directly across from the east gate, but when they did their seismic studies they discovered a fault running through the Mount of Olives from east to west.
A major fault runs north to south, along the Jordan Rift, but the geologists discovered a hairline fault running east to west through Mount Olivet.
They built their hotel, but not according to the original plan. They moved it south, away from the fault. Today, this Arab hotel, the Seven Arches, sits on the Mount of Olives. But it’s construction proved that the mountain’s geology is unstable. It’s awaiting the pressure of one foot, the foot of Jesus, and then it’ll split wide open.
The seismic upheaval this earthquake causes cuts an unexpected valley in the mountain that allows an escape route for the Jews.
Sandy Adams
Living Waters and the End of Darkness
This river is mentioned in several places…
By the way, there, in the New Earth, we won’t need any lamps, nor the sun, moon or stars for light…
5 And there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever.
Revelation 22:5
A Few More Points to Ponder
- 14:5 at the end it says, “Then the Lord my God will come, and all his holy ones with him.” That’s us — the true born-again believers. See, we will be raptured before the Great Tribulation starts and then we’ll come back with Him. That’s so cool!
- Furthermore, there will no longer be “traders” in the temple. Remember the traders and the money changers that Jesus cleared? In Hebrew, the word used for “traders” here is Canaanites — pagans — unclean people — idolaters.
- In His Kingdom, in THAT DAY, there will be no such thing as an idolater, atheist, or even an agnostic. No one will question the sovereignty of King Jesus Christ — Yeshua Hamashiach — the Messiah.
Where will YOU be?
Jesus is coming back to establish His Kingdom here on earth as it is in Heaven. The question is where do YOU fall into the picture?
Here are your choices…
- Best one — a born-again believer, with Jesus!
- Bad choice — in hell, because you died before the Rapture thinking that Mary or religious rituals could save you.
- Bad choice 2, but with a 2nd chance — you were alive at the Rapture and were left behind. Here you get a 2nd chance, but you have to got through the Great Tribulation which will not be fun at all.
- Bad choice 3, similar to 2, but you blow the 2nd chance by sticking with the false prophet and the Antichrist. You end up in the lake of fire.
If you’re not sure if you’re saved or not, if you truly want to be born again and have the assurance of salvation, receive the Holy Spirit, feel His Shalom — a peace that surpasses all understanding, and get a 1-way, non-stop ticket to Heaven after you die, or that you won’t be left behind at the Rapture, which can happen at any moment, this is what you have to do…
Believe. Repent. Be Baptized. Receive the Holy Spirit.
- Believe — have Faith — that Jesus is the Christ and He died taking your sins away forever and that He rose from the dead 3 days later.
- Repent of your sins — stop sinning! Do a complete 180-degree turn in your life and surrender your life to Him. When you ask Jesus to forgive you He will. ALL your sins will be wiped clean — past, present, and future! And All means ALL!
- Be Baptized by water baptism — show the world and yourself that you have died to your old life and are born again in Christ.
- Receive the gift of Holy Spirit in your heart.
