ZECHARIAH FOR TODAY
Chapters 10 - 11
You will better understand these chapters if I present them to
you from:
The New Living Translation
CHAPTER 10
The LORD Will Restore His People
1 Ask the LORD for rain in the spring, and he will give it. It is
the LORD who makes storm clouds that drop showers of rain so that
every field becomes a lush pasture.
2 Household gods give false advice, fortune-tellers predict only
lies, and interpreters of dreams pronounce comfortless
falsehoods. So my people are wandering like lost sheep, without a
shepherd to protect and guide them.
......
We are in the time frame when Israel and Judah are in
captivity, wandering among the nations. It is the last 42 months
of the end of this age.
......
3 "My anger burns against your shepherds, and I will punish these
leaders.* (Heb."these male goats") For the LORD Almighty has
arrived to look after his flock of Judah; he will make them
strong and glorious, like a proud warhorse in battle. 4 From
Judah will come the cornerstone, the tent-peg, the battle bow,
and all the rulers. 5 They will be like mighty warriors in
battle, trampling their enemies in the mud under their feet.
Since the LORD is with them as they fight, they will overthrow
even the horsemen of the enemy.
......
Indeed we have seen in the other prophets of old, that a
large part of the blame as to why Israel and Judah had to be
punished for their sins and wickedness, falls upon the LEADERS -
both civil and religious. They will not go unpunished; the truth
of their falsehoods and lies and deceit, will be made wide open,
and they will suffer public disgrace, and many of them will
suffer death in the destruction of the government nations of
Israel.
But at the very end, when christ the Messiah comes again,
Judah, the Jews scattered in the region of the Holy Land, will
rise up with the power of the Almighty God, and be strong
warriors to help defeat the Beast Babylon in the Holy Land and
whatever armies are there at that time, from the kings of the
East.
......
6 "I will strengthen Judah and save Israel* (Heb. "save the house
of Israel"). I will reestablish them because I love them. It will
be as though I had never rejected them, for I am the LORD their
God, who will hear their cries. 7 The people of Israel* ( Heb.
"of Ephraim") will become like mighty warriors, and their hearts
will be happy as if by wine. Their children, too, will see it all
and be glad; their hearts will rejoice in the LORD. 8 When I
whistle to them, they will come running, for I have redeemed
them. From the few that are left, their population will grow
again to its former size.
......
The people of Judah will have strength in those days and
Ephraim Britain will be saved. God will hear their cries to Him.
Once more Israel will be HUMBLE and will turn again to their God.
He will hear them, and He will save them and their children. Yes,
from the few that are left when the end of those last 42 months
come on this earth, God will redeem and they will come running
with a true repentant heart when He calls them. They will again
grow into a multitude on the earth, as it was before the days of
the Great Tribulation and Day of the Lord.
......
9 Though I have scattered them like seeds among the nations,
still they will remember me in distant lands. With their
children, they will survive and come home again. 10 I will bring
them back from Egypt and Assyria and resettle them in Gilead and
Lebanon. There won't be enough room for them all! 11 They will
pass safely through the sea of distress, for the waves of the sea
will be held back. And the waters "of the Nile" (is not in the
Hebrew) - will become dry. The pride of Assyria will be crushed,
and the rule of Egypt will end. 12 I will make my people strong
in my power, and they will go wherever they wish by my authority.
I, the LORD, have spoken!"
......
Nothing will hold back the return of Israel, they will come
from Assyria Germany and from Egypt - from the lands of the king
of the North and the king of the South. No water, rivers, sea,
will hold them back. Miracles God will perform so His people will
return to the Holy Land.
......
CHAPTER 11
A Day of Visitation
1 Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire may sweep through your
cedar forests. 2 Weep, you cypress trees, for all the ruined
cedars; the tallest and most beautiful of them are fallen. Weep,
you oaks of Bashan, as you watch the thickest forests being
felled. 3 Listen to the wailing of the shepherds, for their
wealth is gone. Hear the young lions roaring, for their thickets
in the Jordan Valley have been destroyed. This is mainly towards
Judah.
......
Ah, when Jesus Messiah comes there will be fire and
brimstone, earthquakes and lightnings, hailstones, and a mighty
shaking of the heavens above as He descends from the clouds with
the resurrected saints, and battles the tyrant armies gathered to
fight Him around Jerusalem. so it is all recorded in the book of
Revelation.
......
The Good and Evil Shepherds
4 This is what the LORD my God says: "Go and care for a flock
that is intended for slaughter. 5 The buyers will slaughter their
sheep without remorse. The sellers will say, 'Praise the LORD, I
am now rich!' Even the shepherds have no compassion for them. 6
And likewise, I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of
the land," says the LORD.
......
The Beast Babylon power and the kings of the East have done
whatsoever evil on many nations of the earth, they had no mercy
or compassion; so now it is time for God to have no mercy or
compassion on them; Judah shall fall in destruction.
......
"I will let them fall into each other's clutches, as well as into
the clutches of their king. They will turn the land into a
wilderness, and I will not protect them."
7 So I cared for the flock intended for slaughter - the flock
that was oppressed. Then I took two shepherd's staffs and named
one Favor and the other Union. 8 I got rid of their three evil
shepherds in a single month. But I became impatient with these
sheep - this nation - and they hated me, too. 9 So I told them,
"I won't be your shepherd any longer. If you die, you die. If you
are killed, you are killed. And those who remain will devour each
other!"
......
Zech is acting out the situation of the last days, the very
end of this age, when as Jesus said, if they were not cut short
no flesh would be saved alive. The three shepherds to be
destroyed are the evil "political" "military" and "false
spiritual" leaders. There was blood spilt by these leaders, so
what is left of their world will come to the state of devouring
each other. The time has come for Judah to be destroyed.
The staff "beauty" and "bonds" - peace, prosperity, and a secure
home for the Jews in the Holy land, will be broken.
......
10 Then I took my staff called Favor and snapped it in two,
showing that I had revoked the covenant I had made with all the
nations. 11 That was the end of my covenant with them. Those who
bought and sold sheep were watching me, and they knew that the
LORD was speaking to them through my actions. 12 And I said to
them, "If you like, give me my wages, whatever I am worth; but
only if you want to." So they counted out for my wages thirty
pieces* of silver.
13 And the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potters" - this
magnificent sum at which they valued me! So I took the thirty
coins and threw them to the potters in the Temple of the LORD.
......
Not much value left in the world by the time Christ returns,
all will seem lost, worth nothing, to the big powers of the world
- the Babylon Beast of Europe will have been destroyed by the
mighty kings of the East. The last TWO woes - the 5th and 6th
TRUMPETS will have blown. The battle between East and West would
be the battle to destroy all flesh IF Jesus did not come and stop
it.
This is also the great prophecy of Jesus being betrayed for
30 pieces of silver by Judas Iscariot.
Also Judah will be in the eyes of the enemy, worth very little.
Note the nature of prophecy at times; it can have a
fulfilment from one verse a few thousand years out of the
CONTEXT. For the context of this prophecy is for the VERY END of
this age, when Christ will come as a fighting warrior.
......
14 Then I broke my other staff, Union, to show that the bond of
unity between Judah and Israel was broken. There will be no helping
each other; Israel will no longer be able to help Judah. From many
other prophecies we know that BOTH Israel and Judah will fall
together into destruction.
......
The bond of unity that NOW exists between Judah and Israel
(chief of which is Britain and the USA) will not exist in the
last years of this age. It must for a while be broken.
......
15 Then the LORD said to me, "Go again and play the part of a
worthless shepherd. 16 This will illustrate how I will give this
nation a shepherd who will not care for the sheep that are
threatened by death, nor look after the young, nor heal the
injured, nor feed the healthy. Instead, this shepherd will eat
the meat of the fattest sheep and tear off their hooves. "Doom is
certain for this worthless shepherd who abandons the flock! The
sword will cut his arm and pierce his right eye! His arm will
become useless, and his right eye completely blind!"
......
At the end of time, this age, there will arise a "false shepherd" -
man shepherd, who, the bottom line, will not really care for any of
the sheep, any Jews in the Holy land or inhabitants of the world,
in general, only himself and his power and desire to rule the world.
He will do whatever it takes in the situation he is in. Those who
knew a destruction was coming and were sitting by not caring for
the sheep but leaving them while they fled or were looking after
themselves first....the sword shall come upon them. What they
saw, with the eye; what they could do with their arm; whatever
they had to escape and not care for anyone but themselves, it
will be of no avail; they will also have the sword come on them.
Chapter 11, 12, 13, 14, is one CONTINUOUS prophecy. Judah will
fall and Jerusalem will indeed be a cup of trembling to the nations
now gathered in the Holy land.
......
CHAPTER 12
Future Deliverance for Jerusalem
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To be continued
Entered on this Website the Feast day of Atonement 2008
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