The Unique Day

Zechariah 14:6-9 ESV

6 On that day there shall be no light, cold, or frost. 7 And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light. 8 On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter. 9 And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.

One of the most offensive portions of the entire Bible is found in chapter six from the Gospel of John. In that chapter, Jesus teaches some very hard truths, truths that are so hard for man to accept that even many believers or at least those who profess to be believers find hard to accept some two thousand years later.

But this really isn’t such a surprising development, for when we read that sixth chapter of John’s gospel we see that after Jesus had taught these very hard truths, that nearly everyone who followed Him decided that it wasn’t worth following Him anymore now that this new information had come to light.

But though the majority had gone, Jesus noticed that the twelve, those whom He had personally chosen remained. Seeing them, Jesus asked if they too were going to abandon Him to which Peter, who spoke for all twelve, responded by saying, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life”.

Peter essentially said, “Yes, this is a hard teaching, and we don’t understand either, but we know that if we want to experience the blessings of the world to come, if we want to inherit eternal life, we have to follow You, even when it’s hard to do so.”

This continues to be the rallying cry of the believer, the determination of the born-again child of God; that Jesus has chosen me to follow Him, and I’m not going to stop following Him, no matter what, because I know that in Him alone is eternal life. We know that in Christ alone is our hope found.

Well, in our reading for today, we have recorded for us the fulfillment of this great hope of the believer, the great hope that we as believers who are alive have not yet experienced, indeed, it is a hope that even those believers who have passed on to the presence of the Lord on high are still yet to experience.

What we have described to us today in our reading is a brief yet moving description of the world to come and what we as believers will experience there. And after we speak of this glorious, eternal world to come, I will give you a word of encouragement in light of what we know we have awaiting us.

Ever since man first fell into sin back in the Garden of Eden, he has had an identity crisis of sorts. What I mean is that we come into this world feeling as though we are here for a reason and we are meant to serve a purpose, but we struggle to figure out what exactly that purpose is.

But even though we don’t naturally know what that purpose is, we still instinctually know that our purpose in this world can’t be fully realized in this world as it is today.

And when God is pleased to come to those whom He has been pleased to save, He opens their eyes to what their purpose in this world really is; to worship Him.

That is why we were put here, to worship God as He truly is. But the unfortunate reality is that even after we realize what our purpose in this world is, we quickly realize that the worship that we give Him is not enough, it’s not worthy of His holy, majestic name.

But one day, we will indeed worship God as He is meant to be worshipped, but it won’t be in the world as it is today. No, we won’t worship God in the way that He should be worshipped until the Lord Jesus returns and ushers in the new creation, the New Jerusalem.

As we look to our reading for today, we see what the ushering in of that new creation will be like, when we look first to verses six and seven of our reading, which reads:

Zechariah 14:6-7 ESV

6 On that day there shall be no light, cold, or frost. 7 And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light.

So, we see that the ushering in of the new creation is described here as a “day”. And on this “day”, we read here that “there shall be no light, cold, or frost”. But, in translating the original Hebrew, what may be a better translation for this verse is “Splendid ones shall congeal”.

“Splendid ones” in this context are in reference to the sun, the moon, and the stars. And so, when the prophecy speaks of these “splendid ones” congealing, what it is saying is that “on that day”, the day when the Lord establishes the new heavens and earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars will not shine and give out light.

Now, that’s not typical, is it? It’s not typical for the sun to not shine, after all, that’s what the sun does. When it’s nighttime, it’s not typical for the moon and the stars not to shine, again, that’s what they do. And even if there is clouds covering the sun or the moon or the stars, they are still shining. And so, for there to be a “day” when none of these bodies shines would most certainly mark such a day as an unusual day.

And that is essentially how the prophecy describes it as it speaks of this “day” being a “unique day”. Now, if we speak of something being “unique”, what we mean is that it is the only of its kind; that it is unlike anything else.

So, as we speak of this day being a unique day, what we mean is that it is unlike any other day, it is unlike any other day, the only of its kind.

And to accentuate the uniqueness of this day, we read that it is “known to the Lord”. It is a new creation ordained by God, that none but God can fully understand, and furthermore, it comes at a time only known by God. As much as so many of us love to try to figure out what the very last days are going to be like or when exactly the Lord is going to return, it’s all futile for God alone knows when that day will be.

But one of the many interesting aspects about that day that God has revealed to us that though the sun, the moon, and the stars will cease to shine, there will be light. The very end of verse seven says, “at evening time there shall be light.”

Now, this is something that makes this day especially unique because we typically define evening, not so much as a certain time, but when it becomes dark out, or, when the earth rotates and the sun is hidden and we thus cease to see it shine. Well, the prophecy recognizes this unique day as “evening time” and the reason why, as has already been stated, is because the sun won’t be shining. But though the sun won’t be shining, as we read, there will nonetheless be light… a unique day indeed!

But we see even more how this day is unique in verse eight, which reads:

Zechariah 14:8 ESV

8 On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter.

So again, we see that on that day, that endless day when the Lord returns to establish the New Jerusalem, there will be waters which flow out from the New Jerusalem going to the east and to the west, continuing in summer as well as in winter.

Now, if you know about the water system that flows into the present Jerusalem, you know that they have a pretty poor supply of water. There is barely enough water to supply Jerusalem, let alone water originating from the city and then supplying other places with that water. And in addition to this, the city’s water supply would usually dry up during the summer.

So, because a poor supply of water that often dries up in the summer is a present reality in the world today, it is most certainly “unique” that we read that when the Lord returns, “living waters” will abundantly and consistently flow from the New Jerusalem.

Living waters because they are waters supplied by God Himself. Living waters because when they are drank, they don’t just supply physical sustenance for they also communicate spiritual blessings to the one who drinks of it. And the supply is more than enough as it abundantly flows east and west, providing spiritual nourishment to all those who live in the new creation.

But the most unique part of this day, of this age is spoken of in verse nine, which reads:

Zechariah 14:9 ESV

9 And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.

Ever since the fall into sin, the world and those in it have sought to worship and recognize everything but God as God. And because this is the case, God is constantly dishonored and blasphemed, as basically everything but God is honored as God by the world.

But in this “unique day”, the new age at the establishment of the new heavens and earth, God alone will be recognized as God by everyone who dwells in the New Jerusalem. He will be their God and they will be His people.

No more shall we see the name of our majestic God blasphemed and dishonored, but instead, He shall be worshipped by every last person who inhabits that new creation. And best of all, He shall finally be worshipped the way that He is meant to be worshipped.

Therefore, as we consider what is to come, let us not grow weary. We have a prize set before us that will never perish or fade. We have set before us an everlasting city, built by God Himself Who loves us and carries us there.

Then, beloved we will finally be home!