The Second Advent of Jesus Christ in Zechariah Chapters Twelve and Fourteen (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)

Doctrinal Bible Church

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Wednesday September 11, 2024

The Day of the Lord Series: The Second Advent of Jesus Christ in Zechariah Chapters Twelve and Fourteen

Lesson # 39

The Second Advent of Christ is further described in Zechariah chapter 12.

Zechariah 12:1 This is the word of the Lord concerning Israel. The Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the spirit of man within him, declares: 2 “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. (NIV84)

Zechariah 12:1-3 indicates that this chapter is a prophecy concerning the future of the nation of Israel during the last three and a half years of Daniel’s seventieth week.

The phrase “a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling” is a prophetic phrase describing divine judgment, which in this context deals with the Gentile nations who war against Israel during the last three and a half years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week.

“On that day” refers to the last three and a half years of Daniel’s seventieth week, which corresponds to the Armageddon campaign in which Gentile armies will occupy and surround Israel and Jerusalem itself.

Zechariah 12:4-9 describes the Lord Jesus Christ delivering Israel from the Gentile armies at His Second Advent.

Zechariah 12:4 On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,” declares the Lord. “I will keep a watchful eye over the house of Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. 5 Then the leaders of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the Lord Almighty is their God.’ 6 “On that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume right and left all the surrounding peoples, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place. 7 “The Lord will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah. 8 On that day the Lord will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the Angel of the Lord going before them. 9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem. (NIV84)

In Luke 21:25-28, the Lord prophesied concerning the day He will deliver Israel from her enemies at His Second Advent.

Zechariah 12:10-14 records the Day of Atonement when the nation of Israel will mourn as a nation over their rejection of Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah and will acknowledge as such and will turn to Him for deliverance from Antichrist and the Tribulational armies. At that time, Israel will receive the Holy Spirit.

Zechariah 12:10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. 11 On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be great, like the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, 13 the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, 14 and all the rest of the clans and their wives. (NIV84)

Zechariah also gives us further insight into the Second Advent of Christ in Zechariah chapter 14.

Zechariah 14:1 A day of the Lord is coming when your plunder will be divided among you. (NIV84)

This summary verse announces the last future siege of Jerusalem in the “day of the Lord,’ which is during the last three and a half years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week.

Zechariah 14:2 I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.

3 Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle. 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. (NIV84)

The Mount of Olives will be split in half by the return of our Lord to the Mount of Olives.

If you recall in Acts 1:9-11 upon our Lord’s ascension the angels told the disciples of our Lord that He would return in the same manner to the Mount of Olives in the future.

The statement that the Lord will stand “on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem” is a significant statement and this is not a casual statement.

You will notice throughout Scripture that help for Israel is coming from the east and this is the reason the Jews pay great attention to that eastern gate, which some call the golden gate and the Lord will come through the eastern gate at His Second Advent in the rebuilt Jewish temple.

Zechariah 14:5 You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. (NIV84)

When the Lord lands upon the Mount of Olives at His Second Advent to personally and bodily deal with His enemies and those of His people, the Jews, the Mount of Olives, dislodged by a severe and terrible earthquake, will dissolve into “a great valley.”

Therefore, there will be a vast alteration of the geography in Jerusalem in order that it might be the center of blessing to the world during the millennial reign of Christ.

Jerusalem will be the capital of the entire earth during the Millennium according to Isaiah 2:2-3

Zechariah 14:6 On that day there will be no light, no cold or frost. 7 It will be a unique day, without daytime or nighttime—a day known to the Lord. When evening comes, there will be light. (NIV84)

The Second Advent of Christ will be unique because Jesus Christ is unique since He is undiminished deity and true humanity in one Person forever, the God-Man.

Zechariah 14:7 reveals that the day of the Second Advent of Christ will be utterly different from any day in the history of the world.

It cannot be a day for all natural sources of light upon the earth will have failed, nor can it be light since there will be an awesome display of light reflected from the glory of the Lord, His angels and glorified saints, nor can it be the mixture of day and night for twilight for the same reason.

The Lord prophesied concerning this day in Mark 13:24-27.

Zechariah 14:8 On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and half to the western sea, in summer and in winter. (NIV84)

Jerusalem, who throughout her history has been an inland city, will become a seagoing city, or port town at the Second Advent of Christ.

The great earthquake caused by Christ landing on the Mount of Olives will change the entire central highland ridge from Geba of Benjamin (Josh. 18:24; 2 K. 23:8), located some 6 miles northeast of Jerusalem, to Rimmon south of Jerusalem, located 33 miles southwest of Jerusalem, an inhabited site in Zechariah’s day.

Zechariah 14:9-11 describes the millennial reign of Christ.

Zechariah 14:9 The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name. 10 The whole land, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become like the Arabah. But Jerusalem will be raised up and remain in its place, from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses. 11 It will be inhabited; never again will it be destroyed. Jerusalem will be secure. (NIV84)

All the land of Palestine specified here in verse 10 shall be transformed so as to become, like the Arabah.

The Arabah is the deep depression that extends from the Sea of Galilee, 652 feet below sea level to the Gulf of ‘Aqaba, and only 300 feet above sea level just west of Petra in Edom, making the Arabah the deepest depression on the surface of the earth.

But the depth of the terrain was only one element that prompted the comparison by Zechariah to the Arabah and another was its level character.

Hence, Zechariah used the simile “like the Arabah” to stress the exaltation of Jerusalem in emphasizing the depression of the surrounding hills and their being made as level as a plain.

Jerusalem shall be elevated and exalted instead of being embedded in the midst of mountainous rough terrain that it is presently surrounded by.

Zechariah 14:12-16 parallels Revelation 19:11-21 and describes in great detail the judgment that the Eastern and Western Confederacies will receive from Christ at His Second Advent.

Zechariah 14:12 This is the plague with which the Lord will strike all the nations that fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. 13 On that day men will be stricken by the Lord with great panic. Each man will seize the hand of another, and they will attack each other. 14 Judah too will fight at Jerusalem. The wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected—great quantities of gold and silver and clothing. 15 A similar plague will strike the horses and mules, the camels and donkeys, and all the animals in those camps. 16 Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. (NIV84)

Not only does Zechariah 14:12-16 teach that Christ will personally destroy His enemies but it also reveals that He will cause a great panic to come upon His enemies and those who are born-again from the tribe of Judah will fight while displaying super human valor as a result of being empowered by the Lord to do so.

Thus, in Psalm 2, the Psalmist warns the nations of taking a stand against Christ.