Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Right now humanity is doing its thing and Satan is the prince of this world, the Bible says. But there is coming a time, and I believe the rapture of the church is the event that gets the church out and then the day of the Lord begins when God intervenes on a Christ-rejecting, sinful world. We are watching that formulate even as we speak.

Announcer: Pastor Brett Meador, looking to the intervening of the Lord on the world scene. When that comes to full fruition and the nations actually gather to do battle against Jerusalem, the Lord is going to say, "That is it."

The Old Testament book of Zechariah gives us various details about Jerusalem and how the world's nations will come against it in the last days. Pastor Brett Meador says in our very day we see how the current geopolitical climate is setting the stage for these verses to be fulfilled along with many other end times events, all contained for us in Today’s Word.

Brett Meador: The end of the book of Zechariah is really all about Jerusalem and the future of Jerusalem and what God has in store for the people of Jerusalem, the Jews. It is an important passage and it does affect any one of you that are Christians here today. It is something you should know about according to the Bible. Remember, the Bible says do not be ignorant about several things. One of the things you are not supposed to be ignorant of is God's plan for Israel, especially as it relates to Israel and the Jews in the last days in the end times.

I went over the history of Jerusalem. To me, it is exciting because the city of Jerusalem is a supernatural place. God says that is the city with my name on it and that is where my people are and I am going to rule and reign from Jerusalem for all eternity. This is an amazing thing in the world that we all sit back and marvel at. Why does the world even care about Jerusalem? What is the big deal? The only thing that really makes Jerusalem a big deal is God chooses Jerusalem above all cities of the world. So we have the advantage of the Bible to tell us why there is so much tension around Jerusalem and what is going on there. Today, we would like to look more at what Zechariah has to say about the future of Jerusalem. What is going to happen? How is it going to go down? Why is it important? We will continue that discussion.

I love the Bible for its prophecy, the telling of future events. If you just take the Bible, you will be much more informed than everybody else if you just take what the Bible says the future is going to hold. Now, what should the church be thinking about or talking about? As it turns out, the Bible explains what it is going to look like in the last days of the world and the second coming of Christ and the conditions around God's timepiece. You might call Jerusalem the epicenter of Bible prophecy and that is why it is so important.

But let's review our verses that we looked at last week and then we will dive further into it. Zechariah chapter 12, especially verse 2 and verse 3. Let's take a look. The Lord says there through Zechariah the prophet in verse 2 of chapter 12, "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people. All that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it."

Now, some of you might say, "Brett, I come from a church or a pastor or ministry that does not teach Bible prophecy. They say Jerusalem and all those prophecies have come to pass. The Bible's prophecies are all done and they think you are wacko, Pastor Brett, because you believe the future is still in these Bible prophecies." Here is the thing. A lot of churches have taken that posture, sad to say. They will say all this from Zechariah took place in AD 70. We talked about that last week.

Remember when Titus attacked Jerusalem and crushed Jerusalem in AD 70? A lot of these preterist and amillennial view people say all this stuff has already happened. The problem is that is not really being honest and you will never hear those guys teaching through the book of Zechariah because there are some uncomfortable verses like the ones we just read that make you realize this is not something that happened in history. Question: Has there ever been a time in history where every nation of the world went against Jerusalem as a city? Because that is what our text says.

Let's review this. Look at it. It says in verse 3, "And in that day shall Jerusalem be a burdensome stone for all people." All people. "And all that burden themselves will be cut in pieces." Now, check this out. The last phrase of verse 3: "And all the people of the earth be gathered together against it." Has that ever happened? No, nothing even close to that. When the Romans crushed Jerusalem, it was just Rome. There were not all the nations of the earth. It was just Rome.

By the way, while Titus was crushing Jerusalem, the Romans did not even know it was happening. It was not a big deal at that point. It became a big deal when Titus brought back almost a hundred thousand slaves from Jerusalem into Rome and also a bunch of the gold and spoil from the destruction of Jerusalem. It became an event. They even built an arch, the Arch of Titus, in Rome. It still sits there to this day and on the Arch of Titus you see the soldiers hauling off the menorah of the Jerusalem Temple and stuff like that. So it is definitely a big event in history, but it was not all the nations of the world.

There has never been a time in history where all the nations gathered against Jerusalem. But what is interesting about the days you and I live in is that most of the nations of the world hate Jerusalem. They hate the Jews and really are gathering against it. I want to show you what I mean as far as the future and what the Bible says about this. Now, one thing you have to remember, when it talks about the nation here in our scripture, it says, "I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling." The word "trembling" in some of your margins reads "poison." It is like drinking a cup of poison if you are trying to deal with the issue of Jerusalem in the last days.

The nations that do that are drinking a cup of trembling. It is an idiom of the Jews, by the way. Remember when Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane? He said, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." The idea of drinking the cup means you are dealing with something often that you do not want to deal with. But the nations will try to handle or drink the cup of trembling of Jerusalem and those nations that do it, the Lord is going to cause it to be a problem. In fact, the people are going to injure themselves. The New International Version of this says, "All who try to move it [Jerusalem] will injure themselves," or the English Standard Version says, "All who lift it will surely hurt themselves." We talked about a massive worldwide hernia for the people that try to lift the issue of Jerusalem.

This is at the end of time, we know that, and I will show you the context of that. So really, this passage tells us a lot about what is going to happen as far as Jerusalem in the last days, the second coming of Christ. I want to show you that. Here are some of the notions you should be aware of. Number one, one thing that we learn here in Zechariah is all nations will attempt or try to deal with the problem of Jerusalem. What is the problem? The Arab-Israeli conflict. The world saying the Jews are occupiers there in Jerusalem, that they do not deserve to be there. The world is saying at least chop Jerusalem in half.

We are watching the nations really turn against the Jews and Jerusalem even though the Jews bought the land, they were given the land back after World War II and the Holocaust, and God gave them the land. I mean, what nation of people can say that? Meanwhile, the world is saying the Jews have no right to parts of Jerusalem. The Arabs are not saying parts, they are saying all of it belongs to the Arabs and they want it all, not just part, not just half. But the nations that try to deal with Jerusalem, they will surely hurt themselves. That is really what we are going to see here.

Why am I saying all the nations are against Israel? It is proven in some facts. Here is a fact: the United Nations. They are constantly passing resolutions against the Jews and against Israel, calling them all kinds of things. One of the things, like here is an example, was a big vote. 129 nations ignored Jewish ties to the Temple Mount, calling it solely Muslim. To say that the Temple Mount is solely Muslim is one of the most ignorant statements or beliefs that anyone could ever imagine. When did the Temple Mount in Jerusalem become a holy site of Islam?

Remember Yasser Arafat, the guy I showed you last week? His granduncle, the Grand Mufti, he was the one who declared Jerusalem the third most holy site in Islam. It was somebody that lived in a time period that some of us were even alive for. It is a new thing. As I mentioned last week, how many times are Jerusalem and the Temple Mount mentioned in the Quran? Zero. How many times is Jerusalem mentioned in the Hebrew Bible? More than 800 times. But the United Nations voted. Is there any Jewish link to the Temple Mount? Anybody with half of a brain and archaeological understanding of what the Temple Mount is knows it is very, very Jewish. It is not Muslim really at all.

The Islamic part of the Temple Mount happened not that long ago in centuries, the last several centuries. They believe that this Temple Mount belongs to them and the Jews have no right to that Temple Mount. Instead of calling it the Temple Mount, the United Nations called it the Al-Haram al-Sharif by its Muslim name as part of the text of the Jerusalem resolution. It is a push by the Palestinian Authority to rebrand Jerusalem from Judaism to exclusively an Islamic site. Now, the United States was one of the 11 countries that voted against that, thankfully. But we still lost.

The United States said this: "The omission of inclusive terminology for the site, the Temple Mount, it is sacred to three faiths: the Christians, the Jews, and the Muslims, and was of real and serious concern." So we voted against that 11 to 129, with quite a few abstentions. Another resolution in the United Nations, 148 countries to nine. 148 countries of the world voted on the peaceful settlement of the Palestine question and it was a resolution that said we demand that the Jews in Israel withdraw to the pre-1967 borders. That the international community refuses to render assistance to settlement activity. It also called for an international peace conference in Moscow. Basically, this resolution passed by 148 to nine. Do you realize there are 148 countries saying Jews get out of that part of Jerusalem, you have no right to be there?

However, Israel is a nation in which Christians, Muslims, and Jews have access to all the holy sites and government services as equal citizens under the law. If anybody actually is prohibited in Israel, it is the Jews from going to the Temple Mount. To them, to go to the Temple Mount is a very sketchy and frowned-upon sort of deal. Arab Muslims and Christians serve as civil servants, as politicians in the Israeli Knesset, which is the Israeli parliament. Arab Muslims and Christians serve as judges on the Israeli Supreme Court. Israel, for the truth of the matter, is the only truly free country in the whole Middle East. But this propaganda that you see out there is causing the world to turn against Israel as the evildoers.

The occupation of Jerusalem. You will rarely see a resolution against North Korea or China or some of these other bad actors, but you constantly see resolution after resolution against those Jews in Israel and in Jerusalem. If you are a Bible-believing Christian and you know Bible prophecy, the Bible talks about how in the Gog Magog invasion of Ezekiel 38 and 39, there is going to be a confederation of nations including Iran, which was called Persia, and Gog and Magog, which is an ancient name of the Scythians who eventually became what we know as the Russians today and some of their states.

There is going to be a confederation of Russia, Iran, Turkey, and a few other nations that are going to come and attack Israel and especially head toward Jerusalem. But there will be a war like no other, the Gog Magog war. We are not going to go into that fully today. But that, in conjunction with what the Bible says about the last days, shows we are seeing these nations sort of posturing very much like Zechariah says. This is where I think it is important for us to know what the Bible actually teaches.

As Israel is readying themselves, one of the things you have to commend the Israelis for is their defensive weaponry. They spend a ton of money on defense rather than more of an aggressive sort of thing. For example, one of the most impressive things that the United States helped Israel create was the Iron Dome system. That is high tech, but it is a digital shield. When rockets come over, there is a dome that targets whatever flies through that dome space and it takes the rocket out before it hits the ground. The Jews have over 90 percent effectiveness. The other part that is not effective are rockets that are going to land in a field and so they just let them through.

With the Iron Dome system, it is very expensive. Did you see Israel has unveiled their newest thing? It is called Iron Beam. According to the Defense Post article, Israel’s laser-based air defense system is mounted on a big truck. This laser beam, you cannot see it in the daytime, but it shoots from the truck and will hit the missile before it hits the ground. This thing can target that and shoot it out of the sky. It hits anti-tank missiles, mortars, rockets, and drones. It can shoot all that stuff. The Iranians have a whole army of drones, by the way.

Now, you say, "Brett, whatever, I am not into weapons." The reason this one is cool is I told you the Iron Dome costs all kinds of money every time they use it, hundreds of thousands of dollars every time they use the Iron Dome system. This thing, this laser that they are shooting, costs $3.39 every time they use it. True story, $3.39. Now, to get it set up was very expensive and the truck and all that was expensive, but once the truck is in place, it is $3.39. That is pretty amazing. The Jews have been quite creative when it comes to all this stuff.

The point that I am making is one of the things that the Bible says is a characteristic of the end times is all the nations will try to deal with the problem of Jerusalem. My point last week was who cares about Jerusalem? What is the big deal about Jerusalem? But as it turns out, all the nations are voting against Jerusalem. They are voting that the Jews leave Jerusalem. The world is mad at Jerusalem. This is a sign of the times. Point number two, not only will all the nations try to deal with the problem of Jerusalem, but number two, we learn from our text here in Zechariah all nations that go against Israel will ultimately be destroyed.

Fast forward to Zechariah 12, verse 9. Speaking of that time, it says, "And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." This is the Bible. God saying when this comes down and all these nations, verse 3, are gathered against Jerusalem, when that happens, the Lord says I will seek to destroy those nations. Question: when God seeks to destroy a nation, what is going to happen? The nation is going down.

This is what the Bible says. All the nations that come against Jerusalem, he says I am going to take them down. This is pretty clear. This does not mean, by the way, that between now and the second coming of Christ, Israel will always be successful and that all the nations that are going against Israel right now are going to be destroyed. It just means there is coming a day, the day of the Lord. In that day will I destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. These are the requirements of these last day scenarios. All the nations of the earth have to be against Jerusalem and then the Lord says, "I am going to come and I am going to seek to destroy all those nations."

Point number three, and this gets supernatural and some of you might even think we are weird to even suggest this, but point number three, Jesus will personally come and fight those nations. How big of a deal is what I am talking about? Well, this is the event that is going to bring the second coming of Christ. The second coming of Jesus is when the world is against Jerusalem, hating Jerusalem, wanting to destroy Jerusalem. In fact, the Bible tells us even more exactly how that is going to come down as you flip the page here to Zechariah chapter 14. Turn the page to Zechariah 14.

The Bible spells out what is going to happen and the reason this is important to you and me is we are witnessing the precursor. We are seeing the nations of the world, like no other time in history, hate Jews, hate Jerusalem, and are against the Israelis in Jerusalem. We are watching that formulate even as we speak. So pick it up in Zechariah 14, verse 1. It says, "Behold, the day of the Lord." Now remember, the day of the Lord is defined in the Bible. It is the day when God intervenes in humanity.

Right now, humanity is doing its thing and Satan is the prince of this world, the Bible says. But there is coming a time, and I believe the rapture of the church is the event that gets the church out and it begins with the tribulation all the way through the millennial kingdom. That is the day of the Lord when God intervenes on a Christ-rejecting, sinful world and he starts whooping countries. Check it out. "Behold, the day of the Lord comes, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem," Zechariah 12, "and they will be there for battle and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city."

Now, pause for a second. This is what the Bible says. That day is coming when all the nations are going to gather against Jerusalem and they are going to successfully divide Jerusalem in half. That is going to be a successful endeavor. But what is going to happen? Look at verse 3. "Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle." When the nations of the world are getting up the guts today to hate Jerusalem and the United Nothing is voting over and over again to give up half of Jerusalem and the 1967 borders, that stuff we are watching right now. When that comes to full fruition and the nations actually gather to do battle against Jerusalem, the Lord is going to say, "That is it. I am going to intervene and I am going to take over." Then shall the Lord go forth and fight as he did in the day of battle.

By the way, concerning the military intervention of the Messiah, Zechariah announced that the Lord will go and fight against these nations. The word "go out" there in a military term in the Hebrew Bible, to go out, is a technical term for a king to go out to battle, interestingly enough, which is the clear meaning here. The Lord is going to go out and fight as a warrior. You say, "Brett, I do not know, man. I have watched Jesus movies and I see Jesus in these skinny hippie looks, like he was smoking weed and he is a little bit depressed and wearing just a robe. Are we supposed to be scared?"

Well, that is just the movie pictures of Jesus. In the first coming of Christ, he came as a humble servant, made himself of no reputation, took upon the form of a servant, and went to the cross, dying on the cross for the sins of the world. That was his first coming. But do not forget, the Lord has been a warrior from the very beginning of time. God is a warrior. Jesus the Messiah is not just the lamb who was slain; he is the lion of the tribe of Judah. Do not mistake that.

Remember what Moses said in Exodus 15, verses 3 and 4, right after the Egyptians were wiped out? Moses sang this song. He said, "The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea. His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea." Can you imagine the Egyptians for a second? They were the most powerful nation in the world at that time. Nobody could defeat the Egyptians. So Moses comes along, says let my people go, the slaves of Egypt, the Jews.

Do you remember what Pharaoh's response was? He says the Lord says let my people go and Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord and who is your God that he could move my hand?" Moses basically said, "Well, let me introduce you to him." Pharaoh was introduced by the plagues of Egypt. Can you imagine how totally destructive those plagues would have been? First of all, you get the Nile River that is your life flow of water turned to blood. That is a problem if you are in the desert in Egypt and there is blood for water.

Then you got all the plagues. We could talk about the locusts that came and ate up all the crops. That was their food. If there were any crops after the locusts, they were destroyed by hail and the fire that was left by the hail. Well, then let's have steaks from our cows. Remember the animals all were killed by the murrain. So you got the crops, the herds, the flocks dead. Now, Pharaoh lets the people go because of that. He is finally like that. But then he gets mad and says, "Let's go get them," and goes after the Jews. You know the story: they go through the Red Sea and the Red Sea closes over the Egyptians and the whole Egyptian army, like Moses says here, were drowned in the Red Sea. You could not more soundly defeat an enemy than what God did to Egypt that day. He is a defender of his people and he is going to come against those nations in the last days that come against Jerusalem.

Announcer: Pastor Brett Meador, anticipating the coming day when Jesus, the lamb who was slain, is coming again as the lion of the tribe of Judah. Another revealing study of Zechariah's prophecy concerning Jerusalem that we will be continuing next time on Today’s Word. I trust you will stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me in a moment to talk a little bit about the history of the Bible. But first, Today’s Word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church, just south of Portland, Oregon, where Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor. Our vision is to proclaim the hope of salvation and help people know Jesus their savior through careful study of the Bible. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. If you have missed any portion of this study, you can also find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com.

Well, Pastor Brett has joined me now. Brett, I know you have been to Israel many times, which for many really brings the Bible alive to them. It did when I was there. But for many years there were skeptics who questioned the accuracy of the Bible. So when the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in a cave in Israel in the 1940s and 50s, how did those scrolls match up with our current Bible?

Brett Meador: I love the story there at Qumran in Israel. The thing that the Dead Sea Scrolls really did that was probably most powerful in my opinion is the so-called scholars in those days, in the 1930s and 40s, were having a field day saying, "Well, the Bible we have today is nothing like the original text. It is so unreliable because it has just changed so much." Well, when they found these really old Dead Sea Scrolls, what they found was that the Bible that you and I read today has almost zero variation. Our scriptures line up. The book of Isaiah completely, Daniel. What I love is the most controversial books that people like to bash were the most perfectly carried through all the ages exactly the way they were written millennia ago. So the Dead Sea Scrolls only reaffirmed the reliability of scripture for us.

Announcer: That is very encouraging to know how accurate and reliable the Word of God really is. Thank you, Pastor Brett. If you would like more information about Athey Creek Church, Pastor Brett Meador, or Today’s Word, you can visit our website at todayswordradio.com. That is todayswordradio.com. Next time, Pastor Brett will share how the nation of Israel has endured ongoing conflict from neighboring aggressors through history, but Jerusalem's enemies will one day encounter the return of Jesus, intervening for his people as a conquering king. Today’s Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.