SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/31/2016 9:49 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Intro to Zechariah 14
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Zechariah 14
Message of the verses: What I will be doing in this introduction to
Zechariah 14 is similar to what I have been doing in all of the introductions
to the different chapters in Zechariah and that is give some quotes from John
MacArthur’s sermon that he did and in this case chapter 14.
“The basic theme of the book of Zechariah, just to remind you, is the sweep of Israel's history from the time of Zechariah when the nation returned from the Babylonian captivity right on till the establishing of the millennial kingdom on earth. That is the subject of this fourteenth chapter, the establishing of the millennial kingdom. We started out in chapter 1 with Zechariah dealing with the people as they had come back, were endeavoring to rebuild their city which was in rubble, to rebuild the wall, etc. And Zechariah came along as a great prophet of comfort, a great prophet of hope and his message was to tell Israel that God was going to let them rebuild, God was going to let them restore their city. But more than that, God had an incredible future for them way off in the distance when all of human history came to its climax.
“Now as we come to the fourteenth chapter, we
really come to the climax, the final establishment of the millennial kingdom,
the end of human history, as it were. And it's a tremendous chapter, it's just
loaded with prophecy, some of it is very, very amazing. Some of it is very
difficult to understand with our own limitations. But I do feel this way about
it, I want to reaffirm this as we approach it. I do feel that we must interpret
the fourteenth chapter literally. I read about five commentaries this week on
this chapter that do not interpret the chapter literally. But they make it a
symbolic chapter. They do not wish to have a restored Israel in their theology.
They do not believe that God has anything left for the nation itself. They do
not see a restoration of the people to the land in prophecy. They do not see an
actual setting up of an actual earthly kingdom. And so there's some question
about an actual battle of Armageddon, etc. So they want to make these things
figures or symbols rather that literal reality. And in so doing they are left
with some very, very, very difficult problems.
“So, what I'm saying is the best way to approach it
is simply to take it for what it says in its clearest literal meaning and leave
it at that and let the Spirit of God worry about how He's going to bring it all
to pass. Because when you try to make symbols out of it, your guess is as good
as anybody else's, and none of really makes much sense.
“In 1919 there was written a commentary on
Zechariah by a man named David Baron...B-a-r-o-n. In my judgments, probably the
finest work that's ever been written on the book of Zechariah. And David Baron
took a literal approach. He took a literal approach to interpreting this book
when literal approaches to these kinds of things were not really very popular,
simply because it looked impossible for these things to happen. This is what
David Baron wrote in 1919.
“"First of all, we have to suppose a
restoration of the Jews into their land in a condition of unbelief, not a
complete restoration of the whole nation which will not take place until after
their conversion, but a representative and influential remnant will return. It
seems from Scripture that in relation to Israel and the land, there will be
restoration before the Second Coming of our Lord, a very much the same state of
things as existed at the time of His first coming when the threads of God's
dealing with them nationally were finally dropped, not to be taken up again
until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled."”
“Now let me stop at that paragraph just to say
this. Baron predicted a literal actual return of Israel to the land, a
restoration of the nation in unbelief prior to any conversion experience. He
goes on:
"There was at that time a number of Jews in
Palestine representative of the nation but compared with the number of their
brethren who were already Diaspora among the nations, they were a mere minority
and not in a political independent condition."
“Now this is what he's saying. He's saying when
they come back in the end times, it seems to be the indication of Zechariah's
prophecy that the whole nation will not come back initially, but a portion of
them will come back and the remainder of them will stay scattered all over the
nations as they were in the time of Jesus. That is precisely what has happened.
There is a remnant that has gone back. There is a great number that has gone
back. But not comparable to the amount that still remains scattered around the
world. So Baron was exactly accurate in his interpretation literally of
Zechariah.
"So it will be," he says, "they will
be at first as compared with the whole nation only a representative minority in
Palestine, and," he says, "a Jewish state will be probably formed
either under the suzerainty(??) of one of the great powers or under
international protection." Baron predicted the establishing of a Jewish
state by virtue of his understanding of prophecy. Well in 1919 he was still a
long ways off but he was right. And he said it will be done probably by some
cooperation of a politically...or rather of an international protection agency.
And you know as well as I do that the basic grant for Israel's existence in
1948 was given by the United Nations. So he was right again.
"And what follows after a brief interval of
prosperity, there will come a night of anguish. What occasions the darkest hour
in the night of Israel's sad history since their rejection of Christ is the
gathering of the nations and the siege predicted in this fourteenth
chapter."
“Now in 1919 David Baron then predicted they would
go back, only a minority would go back while the rest would remain scattered.
They would go back in unbelief. They would go back and establish the nation.
They would establish the nation under some kind of international protection.
And they would remain there in prosperity for a while, until finally a great
holocaust would come upon them from which they would be delivered by the Lord
Jesus Christ and at that time they would see Him for His Messiah and they would
enter into faith and salvation and the Kingdom. What he said in 1919 so far has
come to pass step by step without missing a button because he took a literal
approach.
“Now the only reason I bother to tell you these
things is because I want to reaffirm in your minds that you can take a literal
approach to the Bible and be vindicated. And that's precisely what David Baron
did and so far he has been vindicated in his interpretation. So we make no
apology for taking this very literally.”
We will continue looking at this introduction from
MacArthur’s sermon in our next SD on Zechariah.
10/31/2016 10:04 PM