Thru the Bible

Steve Schweitzer: It's a great day to study God's word. I'm so glad you're here as we journey together through the Bible. Our teacher is Dr. J. Vernon McGee, and I'm your host Steve Schwetz. Our study continues in the Old Testament book of Zechariah chapter 12. As we begin, let's listen to another of Dr. McGee's introductions on the Millennium.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And we're talking about now the spiritual aspects of the Millennium, that which characterizes the Millennium. And the thing that will characterize it, or one of the things, holiness. It's one of the characteristics of the Millennium. They will be a holy people there. Israel, as I understand it, will serve as the priests of God, set aside for that.

And this is something today that is not emphasized at all. I've been amazed, and that great conference they had back in Europe on evangelism, I listened to part of it by tape, and only one man mentioned anything about a holy life. The very interesting thing today, there's a feeling that there's a method. If we could all just hit upon that method, it'll solve our problems.

And as a result, we have all these how-to books, or do-it-yourself books. How you can make your marriage work, and how you can be a success in life, and have a radiant personality, and how you can really do great things.

May I say to you that no book yet has appeared about living a holy life. It just doesn't appeal today to Christians. And my friend, that is the goal toward which he wants all of us to move. God says, "Be holy, for I am holy." And therefore, we are to be a holy people, set aside to God.

And if you want to know what I think is the answer to all of these how-to books, it's just simply this: to do God's will for you. Whatever that is, you are to do God's will. And I can tell you part of it. And here it is, "Be ye holy, for I am holy, saith the Lord."

Now, I want to say something today about the holiness of God. And in connection with that, in time we'll get over to the love of God, because I think they more or less go together. They're put together in 1 John, where we see that God is light, and God is love, and God is life.

Now, I want to talk just a little about God is light. James says that there is no shadow of turning in him. That is, God does not cast a shadow. He's absolute holiness. It is said that when Alexander the Great got back from conquering the world, that his great teacher at that time was taking a bath. And Alexander rushed in and said to him, "I've conquered the world, I'll can give you anything that you want. What do you want?"

And this man says, "To get out of my light." That was the thing. We cast shadows. God is holy God. God is light. And you remember the lesson that he gave in that lesson to Moses, at the burning bush, why he told Moses, "Take off your sandals, the ground you're standing on is holy ground." Why? Because God was speaking to him. God is glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders.

This is our God, a holy God. The great thing about the holiness of God is the intransitive holiness that lifts God up and separates him from all of his creation. That's the reason you can't buddy up to God. This idea to mistake familiarity for knowledge of God. They feel like today if they can just make Jesus a buddy, that somehow or another they'll know him.

Never know him that way. There were two men that found out and they saw him, Paul saw him. He says, "Though we've known him after the flesh, we know him no longer after the flesh. He's the glorious Christ." When John saw the resurrected Christ, he fell at his feet as dead.

May I say to you and that's what you and I do if we came into his presence. God says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." And in 1 Samuel 2, verse 2, "There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee, neither is there any like our God."

What a glorious, wonderful picture that gives of the holiness of God. Holiness is not merely a quality of God, or a sideline, it's not an adornment that he puts on like a garment, or a accessory that he wears like a necklace, or an accoutrement that he carries like a handbag. God is holy, that's the nature of God, it's the web and woof of his being. It's not a moral excellence he schooled himself in.

He does not try to be holy. It's no effort, it's not an ideal, it's not a theory, it's not a goal. It's his character, not his conduct, not training, not development, but God, our God is a holy God. My, if we could only get that over today.

Steve Schweitzer: Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to gather with our brothers and sisters near and far as we study your word. Would you reveal to us your holiness, your wisdom and majesty? In Jesus name we ask. Amen.

Now here's Dr. J. Vernon McGee with our study in Zechariah chapter 12.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now friends, as you come to the 12th chapter, we've come to the last division of this last major section. And we had in the first burden the prophetic aspects connected with the first coming of Christ. Now it's the prophetic aspects concerning the second coming of Christ, and that'll take us to the end of the book. And in chapter 12 here, we have the final siege of Jerusalem and the lifting of that siege.

Now, we're in a very important section as we come here to the 12th chapter of Zechariah for several reasons. The primary reason that this is such an important section, number one is that we must fit these prophecies into a program, because it's quite obvious that Zechariah is presenting a program here. In the 11th chapter, he first showed us that the true shepherd, the one that gave his life for the sheep, he's rejected. And in fact, sold for 30 pieces of silver. How cheap!

But our redemption was not purchased with silver or gold, but the precious blood of Christ. And what a cheap price he was sold for in that day. And we have that the true shepherd is rejected. Then there comes along the worthless shepherd. Now that shepherd we identified as being the antichrist. That after the church is removed, after this interval in which the true shepherd is being presented to the world as the one who gave his life for the sheep, why we come now to the time when the worthless shepherd will present himself and he will be accepted, and he brings in the great tribulation, not the Millennium.

And we find that Jerusalem, which is to become the capital of the earth where Jesus will reign someday in the Millennium, why we find this city under attack by antichrist, and how it will be delivered. Therefore, that makes this important. Now the second reason that this section is so important.

That this prophetic area right through here is rejected more today by the expositors, even some so-called conservative expositors. They won't face up to it that you have a panoramic program presented here of God's purposes with this world and Israel in the future. It's a sad thing to say, but it's true.

And then we have some men that are certainly called fundamentalists, but they border on the sensational, and they lift certain statements out of this section here, which I don't think you can do. I don't think it's honest to just lift out a passage and try to fit it into today when it has to do with the future. It's in this program that he's presenting.

Now we have therefore the great tribulation presented to us and Jerusalem under siege. And this is the time that Jeremiah called it the time of Jacob's trouble. And Daniel wrote concerning it in the 12th chapter of Daniel. And by the way, the reference in Jeremiah is the 30th chapter, and you ought to read all of that section, especially verses 5 through 7.

And Daniel in the 12th chapter of verse 1 wrote, "A time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time." And the Lord Jesus himself spoke of this. He identified it. He himself labeled it the great tribulation. He said there had been nothing like it before, there would be nothing like it after it, and except those days were shortened, no flesh would survive.

All right, you have here the description of that particular period that's given to us. And it's presented to us like this. Verse 1 now, of chapter 12 of Zechariah, "The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord." Now you notice all the way through here, especially in this section that is rejected today, you have a particular emphasis upon the statement of Zechariah again and again, that he's not giving you his idea, but this is what "Thus saith the Lord."

This comes directly from God. And when you reject this, you are not a high critic with a little superficial knowledge, and you are able to make certain very intellectual statements, and say you don't believe this and you don't believe that. But my friend, Zechariah says here that this is the word of the Lord. Now he's either accurate, he either means what he says, or he is a liar. There's no between. And when you reject it, and I don't care who you are, you've made this man a liar. And you know what? I don't think he's a liar. I think you are if you reject this.

Now, there's a program presented. Now it's the burden of the word of the Lord for Israel. It's the burden of the word. It's a prophecy. It is a judgment. And it goes on, "Saith the Lord." It's the word of the Lord, saith the Lord. Now that certainly is coming down hard on this. But notice he's not even through with it. He says, "Who stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him."

Now there are here three great statements. And these three great statements give to us a sublime description of God as the Creator of this universe and of everything that is in it. It's a tremendous statement that we have here. It's an overwhelming statement.

Now, first of all, he says, "He's the one that stretcheth forth the heavens." Someone said, "The heavens declare the glory of God." And all of that above us that declares his glory and it shows his handiwork. And it's being stretched out. Several years ago, quite a few years now, Sir James Jeans, an astronomer in England, advanced a theory that I think has been pretty well accepted among astronomers as far as I understand.

And that is that this universe is expanding. And he wrote the book, *This Expanding Universe*. And I understand he was a Christian, by the way. And that this universe, even since I've been talking today, is probably several million miles bigger than it was when we started. That's really stretching things, and there's no stretch like this.

Well, I want to tell you that you and I are living in a universe where these tremendous creations of God are moving away from each other, and they're streaking across the universe. He stretcheth forth the heavens. How great God is! "And he layeth the foundation of the earth." He's taken particular attention, he's given actually, to this little earth that we live on.

And today, man just can't be satisfied that he lives in a universe, that he's the only human being that's around. And so we've been sending out missiles, guided missiles, not to another nation, but out to these other worlds. And we're not bugging them with taping anything they might say, but we're sure looking in their front window to see if they might be there. And there's been nobody there. It's God who laid the foundation of this earth.

And then the most remarkable thing, "He formeth the spirit of man within him." Man's a little different creation than anything that's on this earth. He's above anything that's on this earth. But he's not up to the created intelligences that we call angels. And I think the universe today is filled with God's created intelligences. I don't mean that they are the men from Mars. They're finding out now, Mars is a place if you lived, you'd want to be moving right away.

And you and I are living in a universe where it looks like it's not inhabited. But I don't think God has a "Vacancy" sign hanging out anywhere. And I think you move out of our solar system, that you'll find God's created intelligences are in this universe. They are spiritual creatures, and our cameras are not apt to pick up any of them, I can assure you.

What a glorious picture this gives of God as the Creator. Men years ago that were called deists believed that there was a Creator, they were none of them evolutionists, and that God created the universe, and that he went off and left it. He just forgot about it. He wound it up, started it off, and then he walked off. They were called deists.

Well, this verse reveals that God didn't walk off and leave it. That God actually is immanent in his universe, as well as being outside of it. And it reveals that there is the great activity of God, not only out yonder in the heavens, that's great, of course, tremendous as he's moving this great universe that we are in. And you talk about filled with energy, you and I are living in a universe that's filled with energy.

It's man that's depleted the energy on this little world that we live on. I don't think God put but just enough of it down there to last us until he's ready to move in and take it over again. It looks like our filling station is running out of gas, the one we live on down here. That's another reason, I think we're moving to the end of this age.

Now, we find that God is working with a very definite and positive action as far as this universe is concerned. And he is the one therefore that has formed the spirit of man. He is our omnipotent, all-powerful, omniscient, all-knowing God. He is wisdom and knowledge. May I say to you that this has been called one of the most magnificent eschatological vistas to be found in the word of God here.

And yet it is disbelieved today by even a great many who call themselves conservative or evangelical. That's a word that covers a multitude of sins also. Now will you notice, he says verse 2, "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the peoples round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and Jerusalem."

Now here we go and here we have mentioned in just one verse Jerusalem twice. And as we indicated last time, Jerusalem is mentioned 10 times in this chapter. And here we have Jerusalem becoming the very center of the activity that'll take place when Antichrist takes over. And it becomes the center of attack and judgment. And he says here, "I'll make it a cup." And this thing's a little bigger than a cup, by the way.

And I think that probably the better word that we could use is probably a bowl, or a goblet, or a mug or something like that. Because God says, "I'll make it a bowl of trembling unto all peoples roundabout, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem." Now let's identify this. When will that take place?

Well, it'll take place when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and Jerusalem. When? In the last days, in the time the Lord Jesus called the great tribulation period. So the interpretation of this entire section is not for today. Now it's going to have a message for us today and I think a tremendous lesson for us also.

And we need to understand here that God will make Jerusalem a goblet of intoxication for those that are concerning themselves with it. They'll be staggering because of it. And we're told here that he will make it a goblet of staggering and all those lifting it shall grievously injure themselves. You're going to get hurt fooling with Jerusalem, God says.

Now verse 3, "And in that day will I make Jerusalem." And apparently, we're talking about Jerusalem. And it doesn't has anything in the world to do with Rome or Paris or London or Washington or New York or Los Angeles or your town. When he says Jerusalem, and he has to say it even 10 times, and somehow or another that doesn't get through to even some of the commentators don't quite get the message.

Jerusalem means Jerusalem and when he puts Judah with it here, you can't miss it. And this just doesn't mean Jerusalem, California and it doesn't happen to be a place like that. Although we used to have a place, and I think it's still in existence called the Holy City. Last time I went through there, they had a bar room in the Holy City. Well, anyway, he's not talking about that one in California. He's talking about Jerusalem that's in Judah.

Now, he says here that he will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all peoples. Now that seems strange, doesn't it? It's a rather isolated place, has been now, old city, and actually not very attractive today. It's the fact that it has so many places that are to us sacred today and meaningful. And I know a lot of places I like better than I like Jerusalem. I always enjoy staying there. Why? Well, there's so many things for you to see that are identified with the Bible. But why should this place be so