A Study of Zechariah 14:1-9
Introduction: What in the world will happen to the world the moment when Jesus Christ returns? I’ll show you today from the final chapter of the prophet Zechariah. If you have a Bible nearby, turn to Zechariah, chapter 14. Today we’re going to talk about the future.
Background
Now, let’s review Zechariah chapters 12 and 13. In Zechariah 12, the prophet described the scene near the end of the Great Tribulation when the armies of the world will occupy Israel and encircle Jerusalem. Just when it seems all is lost, the Jewish people will sense the Lord coming to help them, and they will see Jesus Christ on His way. And they will mourn for Him whom they have pierced. And in chapter 13, the descending Lord will open up a fountain for the forgiveness of sins. And there will be a revival, a national conversion, in Israel. With great mourning and weeping, the Jewish state and the Jewish people will finally embrace their Messiah. Now let’s continue into the first half of chapter 14:
Scripture – Zechariah 14:1-9
A day of the Lord is coming, Jerusalem, when your possessions will be plundered and divided up within your very walls. 2 I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.
3 Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle. 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. 5 You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee 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.
6 On that day there will be neither sunlight nor cold, frosty darkness. 7 It will be a unique day—a day known only to the Lord—with no distinction between day and night. When evening comes, there will be light. 8 On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter. 9 The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name.
1. The Siege of Jerusalem
The scene begins with the siege of Jerusalem. In the New International Version, there is a word missing at the beginning of verse 1. If you read the New King James Version, it says, “Behold….” Some translations say, “Look!” It’s a word of exclamation to convey the intensity of what’s ahead.
Behold, a day of the Lord is coming, Jerusalem, when your possessions will be plundered and divided up within your very walls.
Remember, Jerusalem is surrounded by the armies of the Lord under the command of the antichrist. Judah and Israel are occupied by enemy troops, and Jerusalem is on the verge of falling. In fact, the armies of the antichrist will breach Jerusalem’s defenses and enter the city. There will be house-to-house fighting in the streets of Jerusalem. It reminds me of the 1967 War when combat took place in the very streets of the Old City. At this future moment, half of the city will be captured, but the other half will still be fighting.
That’s when the Lord Jesus will begin His descent to earth, and the Jewish people will somehow see Him whom they pierced. They will mourn over Him, and He will pour on them a spirit of supplication and salvation, even as the enemy is attacking. Verse 2 says: I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.
2. The Return of Jesus
3 Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle.
The apostle John describes this in the Book of Revelation, chapter 19:
11 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.”[a] He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: King of kings and lord of lords.
17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, 18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.”
19 Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. 20 But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 21 The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.
In that passage near the end of Revelation, we have John’s account of the very event that Zechariah is describing here—the Second Coming of Christ. We’re even told where the Lord is going to land when He descends to earth.
3. The Mount of Olives
Verse 4 says: On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem….
He will descend back to the very place from which He ascended following His resurrection. Acts, chapter 1, tell us: “9 He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” 12 Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives….”
Luke 24 gives a bit more detail. The Lord’s ascension was somewhere on the Mount of Olives in the vicinity of the neighborhood of Bethany. That would be on the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives. Jesus loved this little village, which is about 2 miles from the Old City and the temple. Jesus stayed here when He came to Jerusalem (Mark 11:11; Luke 21:37). It was the home of Lazarus, of Mary and Martha, and of Simon the Leper. So Christ ascended back to Heaven from the southeastern slopes of the Mount of Olives, and the angels said to the disciples: “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).
4. The Earthquake
In Zechariah 14:4, we’re told He will return and His feet will rest on the Mount of Olives. As soon as His feet touch the ground, there will be an enormous earthquake that splits the Mount of Olives in two and forms a deep valley allowing the besieged residents of Jerusalem to flee. Verse 4 says: …and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.
What does this remind you of? Our minds go to Exodus 14, when the Lord saved Israel from Pharaoh, a precursor to the antichrist, by forming a valley through the Red Sea. When He returns, He will save them from the real antichrist by forming a valley through the Mount of Olives.
Other passages speak of a great earthquake that will accompany the return of Christ. For example, listen to this passage from Ezekiel 38, beginning with verse 18:
This is what will happen in that day: When Gog [the empire of the antichrist] attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign Lord. In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground. I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign Lord. Every man’s sword will be against his brother. I will execute judgment on him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’
Verse 5 says again this will be an escape route for the besieged residents: You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel.
Scholars have been unable to identify this spot, but it apparently is somewhere in the eastern regions of Israel. The verse continues: You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah.
There was a massive earthquake when Uzziah was king. The prophet Amos dates his ministry that way, saying, “The words of Amos…concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah…two years before the earthquake” (Amos 1:1). Well, that earthquake was a minor rumble compared to this one.
5. The Angelic Armies
Next, we’re told that Jesus is not coming to earth alone. Verse 5 continues: Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.
All the Lord’s holy ones will be with Him. This could refer to the people who are with the Lord now in Heaven. But I tend to think it’s a reference to the Heavenly Hosts. Second Thessalonians 1:7 and 8 say: “…the Lord Jesus [will be] revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God.”
Jesus said, “For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels” (Matthew 16:27)
A bit later, He said, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne” (Matthew 25:31).
So to review, the armies of the world will besiege Jerusalem, but as the Lord Jesus Christ leaves Heaven to return to earth, the people of Israel will see Him, recognize Him, and embrace Him. He will pour His forgiveness out on them. His feet will land on the Mount of Olives, causing a tectonic shift in the geography, an earthquake that will split the Mount of Olives and provide a valley as a route of escape for the besieged residents of Jerusalem. The Lord and His angels will execute vengeance on the enemy. And the entire system of nature will convulse. Look at verses 6 and 7: On that day there will be neither sunlight nor cold, frosty darkness. 7 It will be a unique day—a day known only to the Lord—with no distinction between day and night. When evening comes, there will be light.
The reason for this, I think, will be the supernatural light radiating from Jesus, similar to what the disciples saw on the Mount of Transfiguration and to what Saul of Tarsus saw on the Damascus Road. The entire climate and atmosphere of earth will be affected.
6. The Unleashed River
Another topographical change is described in the next verse. The earthquake that splits the Mount of Olives will cut so deeply into the earth that underground rivers will gush upward and start flowing down toward the South, toward the Negev. Verse 8 says:
8 On that day living [or running, flowing] water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter.
The prophet Ezekiel devotes the first part of his forty-seventh chapter to this river. I simply don’t have time to read it, but it’s a glorious description of the river that will flow southward into the Negev Desert, turning the wilderness into a paradise and the Dead Sea into a refreshing, living lake.
9 The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name.
This is the beginning of the reign of Christ on earth, the period we call the Millennium, based on the information in Revelation 20 that this period will last 1000 years. Jesus will reign as King. This is the fulfillment of so many promises. For example, Isaiah 9:7 says about the child that has been born to us and the son that has been given, whose name is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace: “Of the greatness of his government and peace there shall be no end. He will. reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness.”
The book of Revelation gives us a fascinating detail. When Jesus comes back to the Mount of Olives and the earth is rattled, all the Tribulation martyrs—those who were true to Christ during the horror of the Tribulation—will be resurrected and will reign with Christ. Revelation 20:4 says: “And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”
This is an intriguing period of time during which God will fulfill all the promises He made in His covenants to Israel in the Old Testament. Dr. J. Dwight Pentecost wrote, “A larger body of prophetic Scripture is devoted to the subject of the millennium, developing its character and conditions, than any other one subject.”
Next week we’ll conclude our study of Zechariah. That will make twenty entries on this little book, but I think Zechariah deserves it. The last part of Zechariah 14, which we’ll look at, talks about what will happen to the enemy when Jesus returns, and what will happen to the survivors. We’ll cross reference what Zechariah tells us with Ezekiel again, and with various other Scriptures.
Conclusion
I memorized Psalm 46 several years ago and still recite it to myself every day or so. I have studied and preached from it. And I’m sorry to tell you that until I prepared this message, I had missed the millennial implications of Psalm 46. But I saw it cross-referenced in one of the commentaries; and as I went back and re-read it, nearly everything I’ve said today is found in Psalm 46—the earthquake, the mountains shaking, the river, the city of God, the nations that are raging, the Lord who is coming to bring war to a conclusion, His being exalted among all nations and being near and dear to Israel.
I’m not going to take time to point these things out as I quote it. But see if you can picture this as a description of the Return of Christ and His coming Kingdom:
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed,
And the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.
Though its waters roar and are troubled,
though the mountains shake with its swelling.
There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God,
The dwelling place of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved.
God will help her at the break of day.
The nations raged, the kingdoms shuddered,
He uttered His voice, the earth melted.
The Lord of hosts is with us, The God of Jacob is our refuge.
Come, behold the works of the Lord, the desolations He has wrought on the earth.
He makes wars to cease to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear.
He burns the chariot with fire.
Be still and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.