Zechariah 14
Zechariah 14:1 A day of the Lord is about to come when your possessions will be divided as plunder in your midst.
Zechariah will now give additional details about the Campaign of Armageddon. During the third stage when the Gentile armies are attacking Jerusalem, the Gentiles will plunder the possessions of Israel. Here is a quick review of the eight stages of the Campaign or Armageddon:
The Gentile armies of the Antichrist will gather in the Valley of Jezreel in Galilee.
Babylon will become the capital of the Antichrist, just as Jerusalem is the capital of the Lord Jesus Christ. The enemies of the Antichrist will destroy Babylon.
The armies of the Antichrist will take the city of Jerusalem.
The Antichrist will come against the Jewish Remnant living in Petra.
The entire nation of Israel who survives the Great Tribulation will gain their national salvation by believing in Jesus.
Jesus will return at Petra.
Jesus will fight the forces of the Antichrist beginning at Petra all the way back to Jerusalem, and finishing them off at the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
Jesus will take His victory ascent up to the Mount of Olives, the same place where He descended from His apostles in Acts 1:8.
2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to wage war; the city will be taken, its houses plundered, and the women raped. Then half of the city will go into exile, but the remainder of the people will not be taken away.
All nations, including the United States (if they still exist), will attack Jerusalem. God will energize the Jews to inflict severe damage on the Gentile armies, but the Gentiles will still win the battle. They will take Jerusalem. They will burn the houses to the ground. They will plunder the houses. They will rape the women. Half of the Jewish citizens will be taken into exile. The other half will be enslaved inside of the city.
3 Then the Lord will go to battle and fight against those nations, just as he fought battles in ancient days.
In stage six, Jesus will return to Petra. In stage seven, He will return to Jerusalem. Jesus will protect the Jews and destroy their enemies at both locations.
4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives which lies to the east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in half from east to west, leaving a great valley. Half the mountain will move northward and the other half southward.
This is the eight stage of the Campaign of Armageddon. Many Bible expositors teach that Jesus first turns to the Mount of Olives, but His first actual appearance will be at Petra. When Jesus touches the Mount of Olives with His literal feet, the geography of Israel will supernaturally split into one great valley.
5 Then you will escape through my mountain valley, for the mountains will extend to Azal. Indeed, you will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come with all his holy ones with him.
Half of the Jewish citizens were taken as slaves in Jerusalem by the army of the Antichrist. Before the city collapses, all of these Jews will escape through the mountain valley. Azal is toward the Jordan Valley. During the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah, the Jews escaped using a similar method. Afterwards, Jesus will return with all of His angels and all of His saints. The saints will be those who believed and died, as well as those who believed and were raptured.
6 On that day there will be no light—the sources of light in the heavens will congeal.
This “day” is the day that Christ returns to earth. There will be no natural light on that day. Christ will return in darkness, but His Shekinah Glory will light up the heavens and the earth.
7 It will happen in one day (a day known to the Lord); not in the day or the night, but in the evening there will be light.
There will be no sun or moon in the Millennial Kingdom. God will be the light.
8 Moreover, on that day living waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea; it will happen both in summer and in winter.
During the Millennial Kingdom, a river will flow out of the Millennial Temple. The Millennial Temple will be about 35 miles from Jerusalem. The river will separate into two rivers which go around Jerusalem. One river will flow to the eastern sea and another will flow to the western sea. The eastern sea is the Dead Sea. The western sea is the Mediterranean Sea. Both of these seas, including the Dead Sea (which currently contains no sea life), will become main fishing industries during the Millennial Kingdom.
9 The Lord will then be king over all the earth. In that day the Lord will be seen as one with a single name.
Jesus will be the only God worshipped during the Millennial Kingdom. There will be no worship of the Golden Calf, Baal, or any other false god of any cult or ism.
10 All the land will change and become like the Arabah from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem will be raised up and will stay in its own place from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate and on to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses.
The Arabah is the low, flat land which is extremely fertile. All of the land of Israel will be as fertile as the Arabah flat lands.
Today, Jerusalem is not the highest city of the world. During the Millennial Kingdom, the Millennial Mountain will be the highest mountain in the world. Jerusalem will sit on top of it.
11 And people will settle there, and there will no longer be the threat of divine extermination—Jerusalem will dwell in security.
God will eliminate all of Israel’s enemies. She will live safely in her land.
12 But this will be the nature of the plague with which the Lord will strike all the nations that have fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will decay while they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot away in their sockets, and their tongues will dissolve in their mouths.
God will exterminate all of the enemies of Israel in four different ways. First, God will kill them by a supernatural plague. This plague will cause their flesh to melt off of their bodies, their eyes to rot away in their sockets, and their tongues to dissolve in their mouths.
13 On that day there will be great confusion from the Lord among them; they will seize each other and attack one another violently.
Second, the Gentiles will kill each other in confusion. This was similar to what God accomplished during the days of Gideon.
14 Moreover, Judah will fight at Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered up—gold, silver, and clothing in great abundance.
Third, God will energize the Jews of Judah. These were the Jews who were being supernaturally protected by God at Petra. God will energize them, so that they can help out their Jewish brothers in Jerusalem. The Gentiles wanted to plunder the Jews, but instead, the Jews will plunder the Gentiles.
15 This is the kind of plague that will devastate horses, mules, camels, donkeys, and all the other animals in those camps.
Fourth, God will send plagues upon the transport animals of the Gentiles.
16 Then all who survive from all the nations that came to attack Jerusalem will go up annually to worship the King, the Lord who rules over all, and to observe the Feast of Tabernacles.
Those Jewish and Gentile believers who survive the Great Tribulation will enter into the Millennial Kingdom and worship at the Feast of Tabernacles once a year for the next 1000 years. The Feast of Tabernacles was a type of the Millennial Kingdom.
17 But if any of the nations anywhere on earth refuse to go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord who rules over all, they will get no rain.
If any nation does not attend the annual feast, then God will send a drought upon that nation.
18 If the Egyptians will not do so, they will get no rain—instead there will be the kind of plague which the Lord inflicts on any nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
The Seven Feasts of Israel commemorated Israel’s deliverance from the slavery of Egypt. One year, the Egyptians may decide that they do not want to celebrate a victory of their defeat. They will stay home and miss the Feast of Tabernacles.
19 This will be the punishment of Egypt and of all nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
This attitude of rebellion will cause drought to fall upon Egypt for one year.
20 On that day the bells of the horses will bear the inscription “Holy to the Lord.” The cooking pots in the Lord’s temple will be as holy as the bowls in front of the altar.
During the Mosaic Law, only the utensils in the Jewish temple were considered holy. During the Millennial Kingdom, every utensil in Israel will be considered holy.
21 Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah will become holy in the sight of the Lord who rules over all, so that all who offer sacrifices may come and use some of them to boil their sacrifices in them. On that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord who rules over all.
The Jews were commanded to exterminate the Canaanites, but they never accomplished this task. This disobedience caused the Jews to continually fall into idolatry. Therefore, God removed any remaining Canaanites during the Great Tribulation.
There will be sacrifices in the Millennial Kingdom which look back to what Jesus Christ accomplished at the cross. Everything in the land will be holy, even the bells of the horses. The earth will return to its Garden of Eden conditions when God walked on the earth with Adam.