Zachariah
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Zechariah Chapter 9
The Day is coming when all Israel shall turn toward the Lord. What a glorious day that will be. There was a time recorded in 2 Chronicles where Israel had their eyes toward the Lord for help and deliverance:
Until the word of God goes forth and brings forth fruit and the will of God is done, there will be no peace on the earth. Not only will no peace come to the above lands and to Israel but no peace will be in any part of the world until the eyes of man (woman also) are toward the Lord. If we continue to go our own way and do our own thing as a nation or as individuals, there will be no peace. Am I advocating the use of force to make people fear God and seek Him? NO. For that never works. True conversion to Jesus Christ can never be forced. We have to enforce the law of the land in order to have law and order but true conversion to Jesus has to be done by the Holy Spirit and cannot be forced upon any individual. God changes a heart. Man cannot change anything on his own. There is hope coming when Israel's eyes turn toward the Lord. I witnessed a young girl go forth in one of our meetings to seek God and she began to weep. It brought back memories of my own conversion as a child and the real experience of receiving Jesus Christ into my life. It is a real experience and is more than a conversion from one religion to another. It is a life changing experience when one meets the Lord for the first time whether we are adults or children. We may not weep as she did and we may not be saved in a church service but in order to be saved from sin and enter into eternal life, we must have a one on one encounter with Jesus Christ.
No matter how rich, how powerful or how popular a nation becomes, they are nothing in the face of God. At His word nations rise and at His word they fall. We cannot boast even in the United States of our armies, navies and marines. In the hand of God, we are nothing. Ezekiel prophesies of the above:
When God brings judgment upon the nations surrounding Israel the rest of the world will wonder after what they see. In the days of TV and Internet, the whole world will see if everything is working and not knocked out by power failures.
When we pressure the nation of Israel into giving up land for peace, we don't realize who we are dealing with. Can we give away what God had promised to Israel? Can we go against the will of God? We dare not do so. We are nothing in the face of God. Pride turns God off. We must humble ourselves, repent and turn to God fervently seeking His ways and His will.
A day is coming when all oppressors of Israel will be cut off according to the bible prophecies both Old and New Testaments.
Now we come to the prophesies concerning the Messiah. Many times both the first and second coming of Christ are joined together like it is the same prophecy but many years separate the two.
This prophecy is of the 1st coming of the Messiah we know now to be Jesus or Yeshua. His first coming was not to take over the world but to die for the sins of mankind. His death for sins only benefit those that choose to receive and believe in Him as the Messiah and savior but whether or not we believe doesn't change what He did on our behalf. He is the stone which the builders rejected, the Holy One sent from God, God's Son, Jesus Christ. The fulfillment of this prophecy is told of in Matthew 21. John and Luke also tell of this.
Jeremiah tells of the coming king:
The King will rule from sea to sea and to the ends of the earth.
In the Old Testament the prophecy concerning the coming of the Messiah is all one prophecy even though His first and second coming is separated by at least 2000 years. Verse 10 tells us of the second coming in which Jesus Christ rules over the earth. This coming is the one the Jews were looking for the first time. They did not recognize a savior from sin but were looking for a savior to save them from Roman oppression. However, the sin problem had to be dealt with first. We can't expect to enter into the reign of the Messiah and rule with Him if we are still in our sins and unworthy to enter that kingdom. We must repent or turn from sin and believe in Jesus to save us from sin before we can rule and reign with Him. In other words, "We must be born again, by the spirit of God," which is the only true conversion. When Christ comes the second time He will save Israel without using armies of other nations:
The blood of the covenant.
The New covenant requires the shed sacrificial blood of an innocent one before salvation can come upon all who believe. This was fulfilled when Jesus died for our sins and rose again from the dead so that all who believe can be saved. We now await the time when He returns to reign upon the earth. I personally believe His second coming will be first to rapture those who are counted worthy to escape the future tribulation and go to be with Jesus just before He returns to rule the earth for 1000 years. To be worthy one must be saved from sin and be faithful and obedient to God's word. I believe in the pre-tribulation rapture. That is what I see in the word. Others do not see this but see a rapture just before the wrath of God is poured out, others see a rapture at the very end of the tribulation. Others do not believe in any rapture. I do not argue about this, I do not accuse people that believe different than I of being false teachers or evil in any way. We have to study God's word without demonizing each other over differences in bible prophecy. Yet we need to study it because the closer we get to the coming of the Lord, I believe more and more will be revealed as we faithfully seek Him for understanding. Never should we stop seeking, searching and finding. Never fall out with someone over these things.
The tribulation will be such a time of trouble never before seen upon the earth. It will probably make the holocaust seem trivial. The 2nd coming of Jesus will put a stop once and for all time the oppression of Israel. I do not believe any nation will stand with Israel at this time but the Lord Himself will save them from annihilation. The prisoners shall have hope and be eternally set free from all oppression. God will render their enemies double of what they did unto Israel.
Here is a hint of a revived Greece that comes against Israel most probably along with the revived Roman Empire. The antichrist will rule over all for a short season. We know from history that Israel was delivered from the Grecian Empire which was the first fulfillment of this prophecy but all was not fulfilled at that tiem. They faced the rule of the Roman Empire next so that was just a partial fulfillment and a hint of the final fulfillment in the latter days. After that no one or no country will ever destroy or scatter them again.
All bible prophecy shows us who wins in the end. These prophecies go along with the books of Daniel and Revelation showing us the final reign of Jesus and how He saves Israel from being destroyed from upon the earth. No weapon formed against them will prosper. The stone which the nation of Israel rejected will be the only one to save them in the time to come. I don't know what happens to the United States or why we do not help Israel during the tribulation period but I do know that the Lord alone will be their savior. I just hope our country isn't stupid enough to join with the armies of the antichrist and surround Israel in that day. In the battle of Armageddon, the Lord wins. So far starting in the last few presidencies, we see our nation of the United States abandoning Israel and putting pressure on them to give up land for peace. Woe to us for doing that. Since the the election of Donald Trump for president, he has reversed some of that. I do hope he keeps that up. It will bless our nation if we stand by Israel according to the promise given to Abraham way back in the book of Genesis. Those that come against Israel will suffer judgment. Joel also prophesies these things:
Some of the above comments about bible prophecy are my own comments and may not reflect the whole truth. It is my speculation. The part about salvation through Jesus Christ however, is truth. There is only one way for individual souls to be saved and that is by repenting of sin and believing in the one God sent to save them from sin, Jesus Christ. Why do we need to turn from sin? Because sin cannot enter heaven or the coming kingdom of God. Why do we need to believe in Jesus, why can't we just stop sinning? Because Jesus is the savior God provided to die for our sins in our place. He is the only deliverer and there is no other name under heaven whereby we can be saved from the wrath to come and eternal judgment. We have no power in ourselves to overcome the penalty for sin. We have to let Jesus do that for us. If we do not believe in Him, there is no salvation.
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