The Day The Lord Comes

Zechariah 14: 1-21

This is what God told Zechariah about the Day of the Lord, to fill in some interesting details. 
 
As the Day progresses, the Antichrist will extend his rule during the first 3 1/2 years, and then he will take over the world and God will let him have power to murder the Jews and Christians during the second 3 1/2 years.

(1) Behold, a Day is coming for the Lord when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. 

He says that whatever goods have been stolen from Israel by other nations conquering them, they will retrieve and get it all back again.

(2) For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, 

This is at the end of the 7 years, the end of the second 3 1/2 years of Great Tribulation, when the whole world has been deceived by the Antichrist and his False Prophet, and they are going to take care of the "final problem" of the existence of Israel. 

and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half the city exiled, 

God will allow them to get so far toward victory over Jerusalem, that they will think that they have won! 

but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. 

This is the remnant of the Jews who are trapped in the city, being surrounded by all the military units from every other nation in the world.

(3) Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle.

Just like the hero who takes the stage at the last minute, when we think it's too late! But right in the nick of time Jesus will appear, and the world will go from fighting Israel to fighting the Lord God Almighty, Himself! 

And Isaiah gives another detail: And every blow of the rod of punishment, which the Lord will lay on him, will be with the music of tambourines and lyres; and in battles, brandishing weapons, He will fight them (Isaiah 30: 32). No one, not even Hollywood, can out-dramatize our God!

(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. 

When the clouds roll up like a scroll (Revelation 6: 14, the sixth Seal), King Jesus will come riding through on His white horse, followed by His heavenly army on white horses; and when He lands on the Earth, His feet will stand on this mount and it will split in half. 

This is probably at the end of the world-wide great earthquake that shatters every square inch of this whole planet.

(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 the king of Judah. Then the Lord, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him! 

This will give the escape route to God's remnant of Jerusalem, as the Lord appears with all the holy ones with Him, which includes not only His resurrected saints, but also all the angels and other heavenly beings. This is why the seventh Seal is that there is silence in Heaven for about a half an hour (Revelation 8: 1), because they all came with the Son for the Battle of Armageddon.

(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. 

This has never happened before. This is probably connected to all the anomalies in the sun, moon and stars when the fourth Trumpet blasts, and especially to the breaking of the sixth Seal, when the sun became as black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the Earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind (Revelation 6: 12-13). 

(8) And in that Day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter. 

While Jesus is reigning over the whole world, this river will be running to the Mediterranean Sea, and the Dead Sea to bring it to life, too. 

(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. 

Jesus is our only Lord God, because God the Father put Him in charge of all creation before He created it. The Son probably volunteered so the Father let Him have charge of it all, and when everything is finished and cleansed and renewed, He will give it back to the Father.

(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 to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king's wine presses. 

This is from the world-wide earthquake just before His return. And Jerusalem will be raised, as the seat of His government.

(11) People will live in it, and there will no longer be a curse, for Jerusalem will dwell in security. 

King Jesus is our Lord God, and as such, He will immediately know whenever anyone even starts to think about doing something that would be harmful or destructive, and He will take care of that person before any negative action can be taken. So we won't even need to lock our doors.

(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. 

The Indiana Jones movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark" showed the Nazis opening the sacred relic, and it caused their eyes to melt, their skin to melt, their bodies to rot away in a horrific mess. George Lucas and Philip Kaufman wrote the story that was adapted by Lawrence Kasdan for the movie, and at least one of them must have read this verse! 
 
This will probably happen during the Battle of Armageddon, when He slices them up with the sharp, double-edged sword that comes out of His mouth--His Word!

(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 up against the hand of another. 

God will also cause them great confusion to slaughter one another.

(14) Judah also will fight at Jerusalem; 

The Judeans also will be fighting even as they are escaping. But the King will prevail, and win the battle.

and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered, gold and silver and garments in great abundance. 

Then He will let the Jerusalemites gather all the valuables from the battlefield and the camps.

(15) So also like this plague will be the plague upon the horse, the mule, the camel, the donkey and all the cattle that will be in those camps. 

The plague of rotting on their feet will also be laid on their animals that served them.

(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. 

Anyone who is left in all the nations of the world who were attacking Israel must submit to the conquering hero who won the war over them, and acknowledge that He is their Lord God, Creator and King.

(17) And it will be that whichever of the families of the Earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, there will be no rain on them. 

If there is any nation who has surviving citizens who are still rebellious against our Lord King, then He will not let their crops be watered and grow.

(18) If the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall on them; it will be the plague with which the Lord smites the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths. 

For example, if Egypt refuses to worship Him, their crops won't grow. Any nation that refuses to accede to His Lordship will be treated the same. 

The Feast of Booths was originally given to Israel to remember how they lived in tents in the desert after God rescued them out of slavery in Egypt. Now that Jesus is reigning as King, they are to honor and worship Him as the one who rescued the world from the slavery of sin.

(19) This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths. 

This will be the consequence for every nation who will not give Him His due. 

(20) In that Day there will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, "Holy to the Lord." And the cooking pots in the Lord's house will be like the bowls before the altar. 
(21) Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the Lord of Hosts; and all who sacrifice will come and take of them and boil in them. And there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of Hosts in that Day. 

There will no longer be any delineation between "holy" and "secular." It all belongs to our Creator, so it will all be holy. All of this material world. The Canaanites were the idol worshipers when Israel entered the Promised Land. This tells us that there will be no one in the land who will even mention any other supposed deity or idol; the Lord will be the only one worshiped. 

O my Father God, thank You for all the details You have given us concerning Your plan for this planet. You have loved us more than we could ever imagine, but so many have let the enemy deceive them that You had to make sure they would be judged righteously and not interfere with the paradise Your Son will bring to our world. 

Father, send out Your children to share with every living being how much You love us all, and give them understanding so that everyone will have an informed and clear choice, to accept Your gracious and generous gift or to let themselves be seduced by the enemy's deceptions. 

And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is our Christ, our Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!