Sermon Tone Analysis

It seems that these folks had become bored with worshipping God and were looking for a way to cease from the very fasts they had ordained for themselves.

It seems, however, that God had also grown bored with their "worship" and with them!

The same has to be true today in Christian worship, with all the man-made rules and regulations that people get bored with.

God is bored with them too.

Do we further the kingdom of God or hinder it with food?

().

How should we view food?

()

What we learn about God:

He created the heavens and the earth (cf.

; ; ; )

He formed the spirit of man ()

If God can create the heavens and the earth and put the breath of life in man (), then He can do what He promises to do in v. 2. Verse 1 therefore overviews God's great power in the past in order to set the stage for how that power will be displayed in the future.

A "cup that causes reeling" sounds like alcohol making drunk.

Reeling means to "stagger, totter, wobble."

The gathering against Jerusalem is the campaign of Armageddon in which the nations’ armies will gather against Jerusalem (cf. ; ; ).

The defeat of the Armageddon armies is therefore likened to someone who gets drunk and someone who attempts to move something heavier than he can handle.

They will thus be ruined!

As God went before Joshua and his armies to defeat the Canaanites, God will also fight the final battle for Israel and for His own glory.

This future battle not only has precedence in Joshua but also in the modern day following Israel's statehood in 1948, 1953, and 1967.

Possibly the inhabitants of Judah will be on the wrong side but will later recognize that God is empowering the residents of Jerusalem.

An easy fire is set when that which is to be consumed is dry.

So too for Israel, for at the right time God will allow her armies to defeat her enemies, and it will be as simple as when one lights a match and puts it onto dry wood or grass.

The priority of Judah’s deliverance over that of Jerusalem will assure the entire nation’s unity with the inhabitants of the capital city.

Is “the house of David” a personal reference to Christ at His Second Advent?

Not likely since “the house of David” in verse and likely refers simply to the political leaders of Israel.

So is a concluding summary regarding the defeat of the nations gathered against Jerusalem.

Hadad Rimmon, identified as a village near Jezreel in the plain of Megiddo (cf.

), was the place where Josiah was killed.

As the people mourned there over their king, so too will they mourn over their King, Jesus their Messiah.

In other words, the mourning will be as great as has ever been or ever will be.

12-14

Note the universality and intensity of Israel's future mourning.

Though David had a son named Nathan (), it is probably Nathan the prophet who is in view ().

Also, Levi had a grandson named Shimei ().

David was a king, Nathan was a prophet, and Shimei was a priest.

The mention of all three may therefore refer to the repentance (and guilt) of kings, prophets, and priests.

Now if David's son Nathan is in view, then only the royal and priestly families are specified.

Each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves may indicate the individuality and thus the sincerity of the mourning rather than a mere outward conformity of corporate mourning.

The phrase “on that day” occurs 16 times in these three closing chapters (, , , ; , ; , , , , ).

On the day of Christ’s crucifixion the fountain was opened potentially for all Israel and the whole world.

At the Second Advent of Christ, the fountain will be opened experientially for the Jewish nation.

This spiritual cleansing of the nation is associated in other passages of Scripture with Israel’s spiritual regeneration and the inauguration of the New Covenant (e.g., ; ; ).

By the time Christ returns, there will be many forms of idolatry ().

The most obvious form will be the worship of the image of the beast in the temple in Jerusalem (; ; ; ; ).

God cutting off all these evils, along with the people, sounds a lot like what Joshua and Israel were supposed to do in Canaan.

Of course they failed.

This speaks of the millennial reign of Christ when false prophets will not be tolerated.

Even parents will kill their children who prophesy falsely -- the death penalty exacted against false prophets ().

4-6

Knowing that they can be killed for giving false prophecies, false prophets will deceive people about their true beliefs.

Some true prophets did wear a garment of hair (e.g., Elijah, , and later John the Baptist, ), but these prophets will forego wearing anything that might cause them to be detected.

They will claim to be simple farmers and lie about the source of wounds or scars on their bodies.

These scars no doubt will be from self-inflicted wounds associated with idol-worship.

To answer the accusation that they were involved in idol-worship, the false prophets will claim they were disciplined by those who love them, either loving parents or brawling companions.

Recalling that this is a prophecy given to Zechariah in 518 BC, God is speaking of the future where He will direct the death of His Shepherd, namely Jesus.

He is the True Shepherd, the Messiah (cf. )

The Good Shepherd ,

The Great Shepherd

The Chief Shepherd

God added that this Shepherd is His Associate, a term found elsewhere only in Leviticus (; ) where it refers to a "near relative."

Here God is claiming identity of nature or unity of essence with His Shepherd, thus strongly affirming the Messiah’s deity.

God turning His hand against the little ones may refer to His allowing the persecutions against Jewish Christians in the Book of Acts.

The scattering of the sheep may also refer to the scattering of the Jews when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in a.d.

70.

8-9

Verses 8 and 9 probably will see its final and complete fulfillment in Israel’s dispersion in the Tribulation (cf.

, ).

At that time two-thirds of the Jewish nation will be struck down and perish, but the surviving remnant will be restored, at least for the most part, to their covenant relationship with the Lord.

By faith, they will call on the Lord's name () and be restored as a nation ().

Israel's renewed covenant relationship with the Lord (; ; ) will be reflected in God’s words, "They are My people" (cf.

), and the people’s response, "The Lord is our God" (cf. ).

This is the fulfillment of eschatological psalms—such as ; ; —which envision the universal earthly reign of the Lord.

This is when Jesus takes the Davidic throne in the city of Jerusalem and reigns as King forever ().

These events clearly portray the premillennial return of Christ.

By this time in the Tribulation, Jerusalem will be inhabited with the AC's people, desecrating all that is holy (much like it is today!).

Note it is the Lord who fights this battle, described in .

Where Christ returns is also the place where He departed ascending into heaven ().

This is , and what follows is the sheep/goat judgments (.)

When Christ returns, He comes with His "holy ones" (; ; ; ; ) which will include both angels and previously raptured saints.

Azel is an unknown place, possibly the Valley of Jehoshaphat, spoken of in , , where God will judge the Gentiles.

This event is previously prophesied in aiah; emiah; iel, ; , ; , .

Although the day was without light in v. 6, the nigh will be full of light; hence, it is a "unique day" (; ).

A perennial spring of water will appear between the eastern sea (Dead Sea) and the western sea (Mediterranean).

This year-round provision apparently will promote unsurpassed fertility throughout the land (cf.

; , ; ).

Note this reign of Christ is not just over Israel but "over all the earth."

How can anyone actually believe that this has already taken place or that it will be a spiritual fulfillment?

How disappointing if that were the case!

10-11

The Benjamin Gate (cf. ; ) may have been near the east part of the northern wall; the site of the First Gate is unknown; the Corner Gate was on the west wall; and the Tower of Hannanel (cf. ) was on the north wall.

Now Jerusalem will be eternally secure!

12-15

This is the description of how God fights the battle by Himself (cf.

v. 3)

16-19

After Jerusalem becomes secure and Messiah’s worldwide reign has been established (vv.

), then the survivors from all the nations will worship annually in Jerusalem.

“The survivors” are not the Jewish remnant that had been scattered among “all the nations,” for the Jewish remnant will already have been regathered to the land at the time of the Second Advent.

Rather, these survivors are from nonmilitary personnel of those nations whose armies were destroyed by Messiah in the attack on Jerusalem (vv. ; cf. ).

The armies in the Campaign of Armageddon will be destroyed, but not the people of the nations they will represent.

Furthermore, they will be the survivors of the divine judgment on the Gentile nations who will enter the kingdom of Christ as “sheep,” the “goats” having been barred from entrance into the Millennium ().

That Gentiles will go to Jerusalem (cf. ; ; ; ) to worship does not mean they will become Jewish proselytes, as in Old Testament times.

Millennial religious worship will not be a restored Judaism but a newly instituted worldwide religious order embracing both Jews and Gentiles.

It will center in Jerusalem and will incorporate some features identical with or similar to certain aspects of OT worship.

One of these aspects is the annual celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles (cf. ; ).

The need to go to Jerusalem is partially explained by the presence there of the object of worship—the King, the Lord Almighty, that is, Jesus Christ who will be ruling on the throne of David (, ; ) in Jerusalem ().

.

Worshiping annually in Jerusalem will be necessary for the people to enjoy fertility of crops.

Those nations that neglect or refuse such opportunities for worship will forfeit their water supply.

For most nations this simply means they will have no rain.

But Egypt, whose irrigation depends not on rain (at least not directly) but rather on the flooding of the Nile, will still experience the plague of drought as punishment from the Lord, as will all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.

20-21

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In that day holiness will characterize millennial life (cf.