SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/14/2016 11:45 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 The Siege of Israel
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Zechariah 12:1-3
Message of the verses: “1 The burden of the word of the LORD
concerning Israel. Thus declares the LORD who stretches out the heavens, lays
the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, 2 "Behold,
I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples
around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah.
3 “It will come about in
that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples;
all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will
be gathered against it.”
Just a
reminder that we continue to look at the first of four features of Israel’s
coming deliverance and conversion that are described here in Zechariah chapter
twelve.
This
prophecy is toward Israel and it is from God as we have seen in our last SD,
and this may surprise some people who do not know much about the attributes of
God. This prophecy that we are looking
at begins with a siege as we see in the second verse, but we also see that God
says that He is going to make Jerusalem a cup of trembling (KJV), and this cup
will be unto all peoples round about when they shall be in the siege which is
both in Judah and also Jerusalem. John
MacArthur writes the following about these two verses, that is verses 2-3: “Now these two verses are what is simply
called parallels. They both begin the
same way, really, and I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling and verse 3 says
I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone.
Both 2 and 3 say ‘unto all the peoples and for all the peoples.’ So here you have a description of a coming
siege.”
MacArthur
states that this word for “cup” is not the usual Hebrew word, but this word
used here speaks of a very large basin and this basin needs to be large because
it is a cup of trembling for all the peoples as the verse states. Now in the end of verse three we read that
all the peoples of the world will have to drink out of it.
This cup
will make people stumble around and so it is believed that Zechariah is stating
that the effects of one drinking from this cup will be similar to one drinking
some sort of strong drink kind of like saying “I will make Jerusalem a basin of
intoxication to all people.”
When we see
the words “in that day” we have stated that this speaks of the Day of the Lord,
and that day will take place at the end of the tribulation period, something we
looked at when we were studying the book of Revelation, and so the nations will
come to attack the nation of Israel during this time in what is called the battle
of Armageddon. So men will be like in an
intoxicated state, so happy that they can attack Israel, and so we realize that
Satan is behind this attack of Israel trying to kill all of the Jews so that
the Lord will not have any Jews alive to enter the kingdom, but that is not
going to happen. Revelation 17:6 states “And
I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the
witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly.” Drunk with the blood of the saints, and this
shows that there are many people who actually hate the Jews and also hate true
Christians, something that is even going on in our country today.
We will look at the next metaphor in our next SD.
10/15/2016 12:08 AM
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