Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: We’ve got the Lord intervening as all the nations go to attack Israel, hate Jerusalem. Jesus is going to intervene. But that’s when we shift gears, when they realize that Jesus really was the Messiah, the very Jesus that they rejected.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador with a glimpse of the one who came to save.

Brett Meador: I wonder if you and I, when we see him, we’re going to see him as a lamb that had been slain and we’ll think, "What have we done?" because our sin put Jesus on the cross. Even in his resurrected, conquering king form, we’re still going to see the wounds and the scars in his hands.

Guest (Male): To the nation of Israel, though God may seem distant at times, he was and is actively accomplishing his purposes while calling his people to recognize him. In today's word, as Pastor Brett Meador turns to the prophecy contained in Zechariah chapter 12, we see God lovingly pouring out a spirit of grace and supplication on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Brett Meador: Zechariah chapter 12. Let’s do a quick review of the previous chapters. In section one, we had chapters one through six, we had the visions, the eight visions of Zechariah. And then section two, we saw the questions by the people, chapters seven and eight. But that third section is the first and second coming of Jesus, including the millennial kingdom, the tribulation, all those things are included in chapters nine through 14.

These last chapters tell us so much about the future of Israel. The list is actually long. Somebody went through and made a list of all the things Zechariah tells us that some of the other books don't tell us. We learn so much, like that the world confederacy will be against Jerusalem. This one-world government is going actually to hate Jerusalem; that comes from Zechariah. The victory of the Jews that are going to be empowered by the Lord. Even though they’re going to hang by a thread, the Jews will ultimately be victorious. That comes from the book of Zechariah.

The conviction of Israel nationally by the spirit of God. God’s going to convict their hearts. They’re going to see the presentation of Jesus as their rejected Messiah. We’re going to see the national Day of Atonement reinstituted in Zechariah. And on and on. Even stuff about the crucifixion of Christ, that he’d be pierced in his side. There were prophecies Zechariah gives about the first appearance of Christ, but also his second coming. There’s a huge list of things Zechariah gives us. So don’t neglect Zechariah in your reading when you’re studying Bible prophecy because there’s so much we learn here.

So let’s take a look, Zechariah 12, starting in verse one. "The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens and layeth the foundation of the earth and formeth the spirit of man within him." We’ve looked at this briefly, but haven't really talked in depth about this. For you science brains, Albert Einstein types, the language here of Zechariah is really fascinating because the word "stretching" is an interesting word. It means to extend, but it’s also the word that they would unroll a scroll. If you unroll a scroll, that’s the language we’re using.

When Albert Einstein was doing his theory of relativity, dimensionality, and the idea of the universe, Einstein formally believed that there was a static universe. Then with working with other calculations, he came to the conclusion that the universe has to be continually expanding. The language of the Hebrew Bible is shockingly accurate when it comes to the description of the universe when it says, "the Lord which stretcheth forth." It doesn’t mean that he did it past tense. The idea is he is stretching forth actively right now. The universe is still being unrolled like a scroll.

So God is in this statement setting the stage to say you should probably listen to me on this one because I am stretching forth the universe. But notice that last phrase in verse one, "and formeth the spirit of man within him." We know that John the Baptist had a spirit even in the womb of Elizabeth. I love that scripture in Luke chapter 1, verse 41. This should make anybody who had an abortion think that was the wrong thing to do because it’s not just a blob of fetal tissue; it’s a spirit.

The Bible talks about how we’re made up of body, soul, and spirit. The spirit is formed within man, that is within humanity. "It came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost." John the Baptist hears the news of Jesus coming, and the baby leaps in the mother’s womb. That’s pretty cool. So basically, that’s an interesting statement here. The spirit of man is formed within him.

Verse two: "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people. And all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it." In that day, the Day of the Lord that we’ve talked about is going to come. The Day of the Lord begins with this scene, the stage being set where the world’s going to come against Jerusalem. We spent the last couple weeks talking about this verse pretty thoroughly.

"In that day," verse four, "saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment." I’m not sure what an astonished horse looks like, but I’ll strike every horse with astonishment and his rider with madness. "And I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah and I will smite every horse of the people with blindness." There are some key things here that you should know about in verse four. It’s an interesting thing because you and I say, "Well, who rides horses anymore in the world in battle or military?" The truth is there are a few armies that still have a mounted cavalry.

I’m not sure that’s what the Bible’s talking about. You have to go to the Hebrew words here that are translated to be horse and rider because that would have been the machinery of war back when the Bible was written, but also even when it was translated by the King James. The Hebrew word for horse is "sus," which can be any number of things. It can be a horse, it can be a chariot horse, but it’s also a leaping creature or a swallow or crane or something that flies. That’s the Hebrew word, this vehicle of speed that can fly or run really fast. It doesn’t just limit itself to just the word horse.

The word rider is "rachab," which just means something that’s mounted and ridden. You could say "rachab" Harley-Davidson. You’re riding it, you’re mounting and riding is the idea. Another thing is these words madness and astonishment. The words are fascinating because basically, you can picture people that are military in nature, soldiers, armies. "Shiggaown" is the Hebrew word for craziness, furiously madness, wild, helpless panic is the idea that’s going to happen. When it says his rider will be stricken with madness, the horse will be the vehicle of whatever they’re riding.

Something unexpected will happen, a stupefication, numbness, or senselessness, like you’ll be almost stopped in your tracks. When somebody freezes up, that’s the idea of this word "timmahown" in the Hebrew word. So "shiggaown" and "timmahown," madness and astonishment, are the words that Zechariah uses here. Maybe along with blindness used here, the vehicles will be acting up or not work correctly. Maybe they’ll all stop. Those electromagnetic pulse weapons that detonate a few miles above the atmosphere disable anything with circuitry in it. That stuff exists. It would probably disable so many types of military vehicles.

People will probably wish they had a horse right about then. But there’s going to be this astonishment, madness, and blindness. By the way, the same words here, those big three, blindness, madness, and astonishment, are used talking about those who disregard God’s word in Deuteronomy 28:28. It says, "The Lord shall smite thee with madness and blindness and astonishment of heart." The people who say "whatever" to God’s word, that’s going to happen. So it’s interesting to me that those two things are correlated.

Basically, the armies that come against Israel, and specifically Jerusalem, are going to go mad, blind, and astonished. By the way, this sounds to me a little bit like the supernatural intervention of God. If you think of the Bible stories and some of the battles of the Old Testament that were supernatural in nature, battles like Gideon where the enemies, Gideon has 300 guys, they smash some pitchers and flames and say, "the sword of the Lord and of Gideon!" The enemies look up and they see these 300 lights up on the cliffs. They flip out and they go crazy. They turn their swords one on another and they hack each other up and kill each other. That’s a crazy story.

But you get a sense that in the last days, when the nations turn against Israel, Gideon-level battle miraculous intervention of God is going to happen where people are going to go crazy. Even like when Rabshakeh was trashtalking around Jerusalem when the Assyrians came. Remember that story? Remember the angel that comes, this big angel comes and slays 185,000 men in one night? That’s when God says, "I think I’m going to crush that army." And it’s over. 185,000 guys dead in one night. So I think that’s what this is talking about, how the Lord is going to intervene. That’s what we’re seeing here in verse four.

By the way, even some of the modern wars of Israel, 1973, Golan Heights, Syria writes about the Syrians. Remember the tank battles I’ve told you about in the Golan Heights where the tanks are rolling up and trying to come up over Golan Heights and down into Galilee in the Yom Kippur War, Six-Day War, also in 1973? Some of the biggest tank battles in history. One of the battles, there are stories where the tank drivers literally reported that they saw soldiers that weren’t dressed like any other soldiers, but they looked like angels.

They couldn’t break through the army of angels or these, it’s on record. These Syrian tank people said we couldn’t break through. Remember when I told you about the one little tank that kept shooting? There were probably some other things going on there other than just the one tank being brilliant. God was intervening. By the way, there’s another tank battle where there were so many tanks in the field, Israeli and Syrian, that they were literally bumping into each other. Whoever could turn their turrets, but their turrets and their barrels, the cannons, were bumping into each other. It was at nighttime and they were just bumping into each other.

So one of the Israeli tank commanders did something that was shocking. The Israeli tank commander said, "Israeli tanks, turn on all your lights and then just shoot in the darkness." Shoot at the darkness, and that’s what they did. All the Israelis suddenly flipped on all their lights on their tanks and then they just started picking them off like fish in a barrel. They were very underpowered compared to the Syrian tanks but had some amazing victories there. Tank battles, if you want to study tank battles, check out some of the biggest tank battles that ever happened in the world were on the Golan Heights with the Syrians.

Those were supernaturally altered battles that the Jews have enjoyed even in modern days. So we shouldn’t be shocked when the Bible says the Lord’s going to cause the armies that are going against Israel to be astonished and blind and go mad. That’s going to be the way the Lord’s going to fight. Back to Zechariah 12, verse five: "And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, 'The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts their God.'" Basically, the Lord’s going to empower Israel in warfare, but he’s also going to devour their enemies.

God’s going to do that. Verse six: "In that day will I make the governors of Judah like a hearth of fire among the wood and like a torch of fire in the sheaf, and they shall devour all the people round about on the right hand and on the left. And Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem. The Lord shall also save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah." Basically, the battles will unify the Jews, and no one area of Israel’s going to be able to take credit over the other. But actually, the Lord is going to get credit.

But listen to this next verse. This is pretty amazing, especially if you know the stories of David in the Old Testament. Verse eight: "In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and he that is feeble among them in that day shall be as David. And the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them." Wow, this is amazing. Basically, it’s saying the weakest of the soldiers will be like David, which is basically the Old Testament Rambo.

Remember David, the women sang in the streets, "Saul has killed thousands, but David has killed his ten thousands." David was a guy who went and slew giants and killed groups of men. I can’t even go into all the details of some of the stuff he did; it might offend some of you guys, especially the girls maybe. It’s really a crazy thing. David was like the military genius, but he was also a warrior’s warrior. Here in these days, it says that even the most feeble will be like David from the Old Testament. That’s going to be something to see.

By the way, one of the best militaries in the world continues to be the Israeli Defense Forces. Even watching how they take our technology and improve on it, it’s kind of an amazing thing. I told you about those wars of Israel. In one of the wars of Israel, some Syrian jets went against Jewish fighters. The fighters that the Jews had were from America. We sold them some of our older, outdated jets. The Syrians had some more modern-day, kind of they were from Russia, kind of jets.

The Israelis had some air battles and they still study these battles to this day. There was one battle where more than 70 Syrian jets were shot down and the Jews only lost one of their jets in these dogfights. In this era of everybody talking about Top Gun, somebody should do a movie about this. How did the Israelis in that war shoot down more than 70 more improved aircraft, and why did they lose one? The one that they lost was mechanical failure. It wasn’t actually shot down.

How did they improve? We know what they did. They added an improvement on the jet of that day that the Americans sold to them. Their big technological improvement was they actually stuck a rearview mirror in a certain place on the jet so you could actually see where the jets were. There’s an amazing story about the Jews sticking a mirror somewhere. But I don’t think it was the mirror. I think it was the Lord just saying, "I’m going to protect my people." We see that in modern battles, technology advancements in military power, the Israelis are at the top of that. We’re still trying to learn from the Israelis how to fight certain types of battles.

But more operatively than having all these great Israeli fighters, the biggest thing is what we read there at the end of verse eight. "The house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them." The angel of the Lord. Who’s the angel of the Lord? It’s Jesus. He’s going to go before them and fight. If you recall, the Bible says stuff about this all the time. When it talks about the angel of the Lord going before them in battle, you might jot these scriptures down in your notes because these are all scriptures that deal with that: Exodus 23:20, 32:34, 33:2.

But maybe the most important mention is also Joshua chapter 5. Remember the story of Joshua getting ready to go into Jericho, and he’s kind of freaking out, wondering what’s going on? Remember this conversation in Joshua chapter 5, verse 13? It says, "And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him with a sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him and said, 'Art thou for us or for our adversaries?' And he said, 'No.'"

I think that’s one of the funniest scriptures in the Bible. Here’s this big huge sword. "Are you for us or against us?" "Nope." Which one? Yes or no? "Are you for us or against us?" The answer is no. Sometimes I think we have to remember that about the Lord, by the way. Because we say, "Lord, are you on America’s side or are you on Ukraine’s side or Russia’s side or Israel’s side?" I wonder if the Lord would just say, "No," just like this. "But we think, Lord, you’re on Joshua’s side," but he doesn’t even say that. That’s an interesting statement that he’s like, "Nope, I’m not for any of your sides."

But as captain of the host of the Lord, I am now come. And Joshua fell on his face to earth. Notice this, this lets us know who this is, by the way. It says, "and he did worship." Question: whenever you see somebody fall down and worship someone who shouldn’t be worshipped, that’s someone sent from God, whether it’s Paul or Barnabas or Peter, when somebody falls down and worships someone, what does that person say right out of the gate? "Get up, don’t worship me! I’m not—" But here, not only does this soldier with a sword drawn allow it, but check what he says.

He falls down to his face and did worship and said unto him, "What saith my Lord unto his servant?" And the captain of the Lord’s host said unto Joshua, "Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy." And Joshua did so. So I think we kind of know who this is. When was the last time somebody had to loose the shoe off their foot? Moses at the burning bush is where he met God, who called himself the "I Am that I Am." You see, that’s how we know this is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. This is God who’s going before Joshua. He’s the angel of the Lord who’s going to go and fight in battle with Joshua.

That’s the Lord that we know and love and serve. People forget this part of God, that he is the Lord of battle, mighty in battle. Zechariah chapter 12, verse eight reminds us of that. Verse nine: "And it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." I’ve got that verse marked in my Bible because this is what we’ve got to keep our eye on. Verse 10: "And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. And they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness of his firstborn."

Basically, if you’re following the way things are going here, we’ve got the Lord intervening as all the nations go to attack Israel, hate Jerusalem. Jesus is going to intervene, and in that day, the Day of the Lord, I will destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. But that’s when we shift gears in verse 10. They’re going to suddenly receive the spirit and they’re going to see; their eyes are going to be opened. Verse 10 is basically showing that they’re going to have mourning and bitterness.

By the way, the finishing out of this chapter is that of mourning because they’ll realize, what have we done? When they realize that Jesus really was the Messiah, the very Jesus that they despised and rejected, they’re going to see that. "They shall look upon whom they have pierced." They’ll look on him and realize their mistake. And just like the Jews, I wonder if you and I, when we see him, if we’re going to be sobered up as well. We can’t just say the Jews are guilty of the crucifixion of Jesus.

I wonder if you and I, when we see him, we’re going to see him as a lamb that had been slain and we’ll think, wow, what have we done? Because our sin put Jesus on the cross, not just the Jews. I wonder if that’s going to be one of the more shocking things when we see Christ, even in his resurrected, conquering king form, we’re still going to see the wounds and the scars in his hands. But anyway, all that to say, don’t be shocked how much you’ll be shocked when you see the Messiah.

Verse 11, more mourning here: "In that day there shall be great mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo." In the valley of Megiddo, there’s going to be mourning. That’s where the battle’s going to be. You know that from other passages. By the way, the valley of Megiddo or Megiddon, it’s the same thing as Megiddo. If you say the valley or the hill of Megiddo is actually the word Har Megiddo or Armageddon. So the word Armageddon occurs only in Revelation 16:16, basically designating it as the place where the great Day of the Lord, the battle of that day is going to happen.

You say, "Got it, Brett, but why bring up Megiddo here in this place?" Because this is right after this battle of Armageddon and the Jews are going to be standing there in the valley of Armageddon after having the Lord intervene and saving their souls, saving their lives.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador has been providing a verse-by-verse account of Zechariah chapter 12 in today's word, describing the prophetic deliverance of Israel and the spiritual restoration of the people to God in the coming end times. And I invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in just a moment. If you've missed any portion of our time today, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com.

Our vision on Today's Word is to proclaim the hope of salvation and help people know Jesus through careful study of the Bible. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. I also want to mention that Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church just south of Portland, Oregon. In addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, we also have locations in Hillsboro and McMinnville, Oregon. For more information, just go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link "Locations". That's todayswordradio.com and click the link "Locations".

Alright, Pastor Brett is with me now. Brett, I know your church, Athey Creek in the Portland, Oregon area, has seen tremendous growth over the years. Why is it so important to expand via this Today's Word Radio program to a lot more places around the United States?

Brett Meador: Well, as grateful as we are for what the Lord’s done at Athey Creek here in the Portland area, we’ve never really wanted to keep it just local if God was opening a bigger door. We really sense that that’s what the Lord has done recently. One of the things that’s marked our church from the beginning is just simple, consistent verse-by-verse teaching through the Bible. We really know that people are hungry for that. So as we just do what the Lord’s called us to do, expanding through Today's Word Radio wasn’t really about growth for growth’s sake. It was about stewardship really, just using what the Lord’s entrusted to us, teaching people the word, helping people to grow. Radio really allows us to go beyond geography and reach into a broader sense everyone who wants to hear.

Guest (Male): Right, and helping more people grow through God's word. Thank you, Pastor Brett. Well, next time Pastor Brett shares that though the children of Israel were once scattered, the Lord has made good on his promise to restore their land with an additional divine regathering yet to come. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.