The first book covered in this series, Zephaniah, is a book with references to ancient Judah and their sin of idolatry which God was about to address by sending Nebuchadnezzar to Jerusalem to start a three-part invasion that would result in the destruction of Solomon’s Temple, the killing of thousands of Jews, and the deportation of many Jews to Babylon. Those taken into exile from Jerusalem included Daniel, Ezekiel, and Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednago – their Babylonian names) starting in 606 B.C., then again in 597 B.C., and finally in 586 B.C. when Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. The phenomena of “dual mountain” prophecies is easily seen in Zephaniah because his prophecy refers to the almost immediate fulfillment of Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion in Judah, but also to the prophecy’s applicability to our present day and the revived nation of Israel and God’s promise of God’s judgment against all nations that oppose Israel.

The same phenomena can be seen in the book of Zechariah where his main mission was to accompany Haggai, another Old Testament “Minor” Prophet (minor only because of the length of the text of the book as compared to, say, Isaiah) which we will cover next in this series. God sent Zechariah to Jerusalem to spur Zerubbabel, the soon-to-be-governor of Judah, and Joshua, the high priest, to complete the re-building of the Temple in Jerusalem after the 70 years of exile that Jeremiah had foretold over a hundred years previously. However, Zechariah’s prophecies also have stunning application to our day and time, the End Times, and to the Time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jeremiah 30:7), the Tribulation. It is imperative to be thorough in our Bible Study to see that God has many things to reveal to us if we are excited and determined to be diligent in studying God’s Word. Thus, Old Testament prophecies have application to the Old Testament people, of course, but they can also have application to us today, thus the “dual mountain” prophetic phenomena. To ignore this is to be unprepared for the future, to miss out on blessing direct from God, and to not be motivated to share the Gospel enthusiastically because time is short, Jesus is coming back soon, and to miss the Rapture is to have to endure the Tribulation!

The land of Judah had been very disobedient even after they had witnessed the 10-tribe land of Israel to the North, the Northern Kingdom, fall to the Assyrians in 722 B.C. because of their disobedience to God and their idolatry and unrighteousness all prophesied in Isaiah. The Northern Kingdom of Israel just vanished into the Assyrian Empire leading to what many have called the “lost 10 tribes of Israel”. Zephaniah prophesied to Judah, the Southern Kingdom, that Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians would come and devastate the land of Judah in their near future because of their idolatry, and they did exactly as God had prophesied through Zephaniah. The result was the 70-year exile of Judah to Babylon (Jeremiah 25:12) where Daniel suffered yet, ultimately, prospered until the 70 years were completed as a study of what happened to Daniel in the book of Daniel. Then Cyrus, the Persian, issued his decree that the Jews could return to Jerusalem and re-build their Temple prophesied in Isaiah (Isaiah 44:28) by naming Cyrus by name, 200 years before Cyrus was even born. This occurred in 536 B.C. when Zerubbabel (as governor) and Joshua (as high priest) were appointed by Cyrus to lead the return and re-build the Temple. They began the effort but were stopped by politics from the locals who opposed the effort and questioned both Zerubbabel’s and Joshua’s authority to accomplish their assigned task. After many months and a change in kings in the Persian Kingdom that had overthrown the Babylonians from Cyrus to Darius, plus the arrival of Zechariah and Haggai to add the Word from God that He wanted His Temple re-built, the effort finally succeeded in 516 B.C. Zechariah’s not-so-little book (compared to Haggai) is a strong addition and accompaniment to the book of Revelation as a source of End Times Prophecy because Zechariah’s message applied to the Jews of the fifth century B.C. but also to our future, our immediate future, in the twenty-first century in a very clear “dual mountain” prophecy. This book is second only to Isaiah in the depth and breadth of the prophet’s writings about Messiah. Before delving into the yet-to-be-realized prophecies from Zechariah, some background is appropriate.

Zechariah’s name means “whom Jehovah remembers,” and he is identified as the son of Berechiah, which means “Jehovah blesses,” and his father was the son of Iddo, which means “the appointed time.” It is often the case that biblical names and their associated meanings when placed in order as they appear in the Word contain a special blessing or combined message for us to appreciate and link to the Bible verses in context. Certainly, these names with such rich meanings is suggestive of the encouragement given to the remnant that had returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity. The meaning of the names – Zechariah, Berechiah, and Iddo – when linked together say, “God remembers and blesses at the appointed time”. The lesson in this? Remember that names have meaning when reading God’s Word. Skipping over reading names, or not attempting to pronounce the names in the Word, could mean missing a blessing direct from the Lord, so don’t skip reading the names!

Although the name Zechariah was common among the Hebrew people (twenty–eight Zechariahs are mentioned in the Old Testament), there are Bible teachers who identify the Zechariah of this book with the “Zacharias” whom our Lord mentioned in Matthew 23:35 as having been martyred. Many expositors discount this possibility, but it is interesting to note that the Jewish Targum (Jewish interpretation from the Hebrew into commonly-spoken Aramaic) states that Zechariah was slain in the sanctuary and that he was both prophet and priest. In Nehemiah 12:4, Iddo is mentioned as one of the heads of a priestly family. And the historian Josephus recounts the murder of a Zecharias, the son of Baruch (probably Berechiah) happening in the Temple by the Zealots just before the destruction of Jerusalem. Like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Zechariah was also a priest (Nehemiah 12:12–16). According to tradition, he was a member of the Great Synagogue, a council of 120 originated by Nehemiah and presided over by Ezra. This council later developed into the ruling elders of the nation, called the Sanhedrin. He was born in Babylon and joined his grandfather, Iddo, in the group of exiles who first returned to Jerusalem under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua the High-Priest (Nehemiah 12:4). Because he is occasionally mentioned as the son of his grandfather (Ezra 5:1; 6:14; Nehemiah 12:16), it is thought that his father, Berechiah, died at an early age before he could succeed his father into the priesthood.

The historical background and setting of Zechariah are the same as that of his contemporary, Haggai. In about 538 B.C., Cyrus the Persian freed the captives from Israel to resettle their homeland (Ezra 1:1–4) and about 50,000 returned from Babylon in 536 B.C. exactly 70 years of exile as Jeremiah’s prophecy said (606 B.C. to 536 B.C.). From the daily devotional book entitled “A Closer Look at Prophecy” by Richard and Tina Kleiss on the page for December 20^th we see a reference to Ezekiel 4:3-6, “Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel. Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity. For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.” This is how long the Jewish nation would have to wait until God would allow them to re-establish their land as a nation in the last days, really the start of the End Times as we are in today.

What is amazing concerning this prophecy first is that Ezekiel had to lay on his left side 390 days only getting up for necessities. Then he had to lay on his right side for an additional 40 days. These two time periods total 430 days  and signified 430 years that God deemed punishable for both the Northern Kingdom of Israel (the 390 years) and for the Southern Kingdom of Judah (40 years) because of their idolatry and disobedience – really ignoring what God had told them to do in order to please Him. Just as a side note, God never is pleased when we disobey Him or ignore Him or refuse to do as He wants. Leviticus 26 says that God would increase Israel’s punishment seven times if they did not obey Him, so we go to the time of Israel’s return to Jerusalem in 536 B.C. Seventy years had passed which was certainly, in both God’s eyes and the Jewish people’s eyes, years of punishment for the Jewish nation being exiled to a foreign and pagan land of Babylon, subjected to foreign gods, forced labor, and unfamiliar and unrighteous culture. Upon their return to Jerusalem after the 70 years of exile, they still had 360 years left on their ledger that God kept (430 minus 70 equals 360). With God’s decree of multiplying the punishment by a factor of seven based on Israel’s disobedience which we definitely have seen historically covering the over 2,500 years since then, we multiply the 360 years times seven and get 2,520 years. Biblical years were always 360 days long (based on a lunar month), not the 365.25 days of our present time, therefore the 2520 years would be 907,200 days. Converting those days to our present calendar days of 365.25-day years, we get 2,484 years of punishment that Israel must endure before their being able to return to their land and re-establish their nation as an independent and self-governing nation which did not happen in 536 B.C.

Now comes the interesting part since the math is rather tedious so far. Start at 536 B.C., add 2,484 years and you arrive at 1948, the exact year that Israel became an independent nation again which also started the End Times – that time in which we are currently nearing the actual end, the End of Days, the Rapture, the start of the Tribulation which ushers in Christ’s Second Coming. Coincidence? Of course NOT! God’s Timing! Israel finishes their punishment for disobeying God, and they get rewarded with re-establishing their nation even though it is still highly secular – thus the need for the Tribulation (the Time of Jacob’s Trouble) which brings Israel back to Jehovah and introduces them to their Messiah Jesus Christ!

Getting back to Zerubbabel and Joshua, they immediately began to rebuild the temple in 536 B.C. (Ezra 3:1–4:5), but opposition from neighbors, followed by indifference from within, caused the work to be abandoned (Ezra 4:24). Sixteen years later in 520 B.C. (Ezra 5:1,2), Zechariah and Haggai were commissioned by the Lord to stir up the people to rebuild the temple. As a result, the temple was completed 4 years later in 516 B.C. (Ezra 6:15). Zechariah joined Haggai in rousing the people from their indifference, challenging them to resume the building of the temple. Haggai’s primary purpose was to rebuild the temple; his preaching has a tone of rebuke for the people’s indifference, sin, and lack of trust in God (more on Haggai in the next paper). He was used to start the revival, while Zechariah was used to keep the revival going strong with a more positive emphasis, calling the people to repentance and reassuring them regarding future blessings. Zechariah sought to encourage the people to build the temple in view of the promise that someday Messiah would come to inhabit it. The people were not just building for the present, but with the future hope of Messiah in mind. He encouraged the people, still downtrodden by the Gentile powers (Zechariah 1:8–12), with the reality that the Lord remembers His covenant promises to them and that He would restore and bless them.

Zechariah was contemporary with Haggai, but his book is in direct contrast to Haggai’s. They definitely knew each other and prophesied to the same people at the same period of time. Yet their prophecies are just about as different as any two could be. They are literally ages apart even though they were given to the same people at the same time. Haggai was at the building site, getting his hands dirty at the foundation of the Temple measuring it. He was a practical man with great desire to see the work completed and willing to work alongside the other workers. But Zechariah was a man with a different perspective. Zechariah was entirely a visionary, whereas Haggai was entirely practical. Yet they were both speaking for God to the same people at the same time concerning the same problem. Also, they both speak to us today, but each in his own manner. We need to recognize that these two types of men are still needed today because we need both the practical, pragmatic man to go along with the man who is visionary. Too often dreamers are not practical while the practical man can fail to have vision. The combination of the two approaches reaches more people and enables them to see more clearly.

This book of Zechariah has the characteristics of an apocalypse like the book of Revelation whose name comes from the Greek word “apokalupsis” (meaning to reveal or uncover) from which we get our word apocalypse. The visions resemble those in the Books of Daniel and Ezekiel and Revelation. This “apocalypse of the OT” as it is often called, relates both to Zechariah’s immediate audience as well as to the future, another “dual mountain” prophecy, and, in this case, a very significant one. There are 3 major sections in the book of Zechariah where the prophet begins historically and then moves forward in time to the Second Advent or Christ’s Second Coming, when Messiah returns to His Temple to set up His Earthly Kingdom. The prophet reminded the people that Messiah had both an immediate and long-term commitment to His people. That is why the prophet’s words were “good and comforting” (1:13), both to the exiles of Zechariah’s day as well as to the remnant of God’s chosen people in that future day which is our present day. This book has more about Christ, more about tribulation, and probably is the most prophetic book in the Old Testament. Zechariah is a prophecy about Jesus Christ and His coming to be a means of comfort to Israel (Zechariah 1:13,17). While the book is filled with visions, prophecies, signs, celestial visitors, and the voice of God, it is also practical, dealing with issues like repentance, divine care, salvation, and holy living. There was soon to be a silence from God’s Word for more than 400 years, the time between Malachi and John the Baptist. The book of Zechariah was given by God to bring promise for the immediate future of the Jews to sustain the faithful remnant through those silent years as well as provide hope for the very distant future to our day so that the Jews would look forward to their soon coming Messiah.

Zechariah was both a priest and a prophet which is sort of an anomaly simply because many prophets took major issue with priests down through the history of Israel. Priests tended to be focused on ritual, sometimes losing their first love, God. The priests had a lot to do to comply with God’s commands like sacrifices daily, the feasts, fasts, sabbaths, and much more, all images of the reality of Heaven and Israel’s future, the Millennium. So, to have a priest that is also a prophet means that the writings of that priest/prophet would be God-centered, highly relevant, abundantly meaningful, and applicable to Zechariah’s day as well as all future events in the life of the nation of Israel. Zechariah received his first prophecy “in the eighth month, in the second year of Darius” (Zechariah 1:1), which was sixteen years after the decree of Cyrus (536 B.C.) allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem after their 70 years of exile in Babylon.

As a “young man” at the time of his first prophecies (Zechariah 2:4), his life more than likely extended into the reign of Xerxes I (485–465 B.C.), the king best known in the Bible for making Esther the queen of Persia (Esther 1:1). Zechariah’s dated visions and messages in chapters 1–8 all take place in the same general time period as Haggai’s, beginning in October/November 520 B.C. with a call for the people of Judah to repent (Zechariah 1:1). He then received ten visions on the restless night of February 15, 519 B.C. (1:7), followed by four messages that he preached on December 7, 518 B.C. (7:1). Though his final messages in chapters 9–14 go undated, the mention of Greece in 9:13 suggests the prophecies came much later in his life, presumably sometime in the 480’s B.C., before Ezra (458 B.C.) and Nehemiah (444 B.C.) arrived to again revitalize the Jewish people.

The book of Zechariah contains the clearest and the largest number of messianic (about the Messiah) passages among the Minor Prophets. In that respect, it’s possible to think of the book of Zechariah as a kind of miniature book of Isaiah. Zechariah pictures Christ in both His first coming (Zechariah 9:9) and His second coming (9:10–10:12). Jesus will come, according to Zechariah, as Savior, Judge, and ultimately, as the righteous King ruling His people from Jerusalem (14:8–9). His book gives the Jews the hope that God would remember His promises to His people, even after all the time they spent outside the land either in exile or in banishment. The prophet used a simple structure of ten visions (Zechariah 1:1–6:15), four messages (7:1–8:23), and two oracles (9:1–14:21) to anticipate the completion of the temple and, ultimately, the future reign of the Messiah from Jerusalem. Like many of the prophets, Zechariah saw isolated snapshots of the future; therefore, certain events that seem to occur one right after the other in Zechariah’s prophecy actually often have generations or even millennia between them, thus the “dual mountain” prophecy. For a people newly returned from exile, Zechariah provided specific prophecy about their immediate and distant future—no doubt a great encouragement. The time of Zechariah saw that most Jews had remained in Babylon (only about 50,000 returned out of possibly millions in Babylon after 70 years in exile), but their nation would still be judged for sin (5:1–11), but they would also be cleansed and restored (3:1–10), and God would rebuild His people (1:7–17). Zechariah concluded his book by looking into the distant future, first at the rejection of the Messiah by Israel (9:1–11:17), and then at His eventual reign many centuries later when Israel will finally be delivered (12:1–14:21).

To look at all of the prophecies in Zechariah would take many, many lessons. Just describing the highest level of the prophecies and their relationship with both the time of Zechariah and also to our time as well will demonstrate just why we, as 21^st Century Christians on the very brink of the Rapture, need to wake up to the immediacy of what God has presented in His Word. This waking up, this revelation to our modern minds is essential so that we can: one, be ready for our “taking up”; two, know the details of God’s Plan of Redemption so that we can explain it when the Lord presents opportunity to share the information to others; and three, to be ready with the Gospel of the Good News of Christ at all times because the time is very, very short!

Some commentaries of the prophecies included in the visions of Zechariah Chapters 1 through 6 say there are eight visions when there are clearly ten. Vision One is of Four Horses (Zechariah 1:7-17) at a time when the Gentiles controlled world affairs and the Jews were a conquered people. The prominent horse is red in color with a man riding it with three other horses standing in the myrtle trees. The man on the red horse is Jesus Himself (The Angel of the Lord, as Jesus in pre-incarnate appearance is often called in the Old Testament) who is sending out the other horses and angelic riders to survey all the Earth. They found Jerusalem “trodden down of the Gentiles” which caused a response from Yahweh, the Lord of Hosts, Lord Sabaoth, that He is zealous for Jerusalem and He will comfort Zion. But notice that verse 17 says that the Lord will “yet” or “again” comfort Jerusalem indicating that He will do so in the End Times as He did in Zechariah’s Day. Today, Israel is still loved by God and anti-Semitism is disgusting and dangerous as it has always been. Those who discriminate against Israel, or support the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) Movement, are the very targets of Genesis 12:3, “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” We, as Christians must never curse Israel but support Israel because God loves Israel and always has, plus God promises to curse those who curse Israel. On top of that, just as a very small example of the benefits the world has gotten from Israel, 203 out of the more than 900 Nobel Prizes since 1901 have gone to Jews in one of the fields of chemistry, or physics, or literature, or economics, or medicine. As to the latter, digitalis to fight heart disease was from a Jewish scientist as was insulin for diabetics. Vaccines for polio, diphtheria, and tuberculosis came from Jews. Yet Jewish people make up less than 1% of the population of the world.

Vision Two is when Zechariah saw four horns (Zechariah 1:18-19) that he asked the angel about. He told him that the four horns were the four world powers that over the centuries had much to do with the scattering of Israel throughout the Earth. These four horns correspond to Daniel 2:31-45 which describe the powers as the Babylonians, the Medo-Persian Empire, Greece, and Rome. Throughout the Bible, horns represent power because they derive their significance from horns of bulls or other wild beasts that use them in a destructive manner. The Babylonians took Judah into exile; the Persians at Haman’s instigation planned to exterminate all of Israel; the Grecian Empire under Antiochus Epiphanes persecuted Israel mercilessly; and the Romans killed, uprooted, and scattered the Jews. In our day, we see the Jews being persecuted once again, hated by virtually all nations except the United States (or should I say supported by the President and his Administration for the most part but not by the opposition party). We also see that Zechariah’s prophecy for the Jews of old certainly applies to our time with anti-Semitism rampant and the specter of the Antichrist looming in the End Times, specifically the Tribulation. We must keep the Jewish people in our prayers for their salvation, as much as the Lord will allow, BEFORE the Rapture because that will keep those saved from experiencing the Wrath of God in the Tribulation.

Vision Three is four carpenters or craftsmen or ironsmiths, and Zechariah again asked for an explanation. God has His own instruments for bringing world empires down to size. These four craftsmen symbolize God’s instruments of judgment against those world empires. Each empire was brought down, sometimes overnight as in the case of the Babylonians, with God’s weapons of destruction – probably the succeeding conquering empire only to see each one of them brought down as well. All four worldly empires were brought down but the fifth, the one in our future, the Revived Roman Empire is yet to arise for the Antichrist to reign and rule over. It would take too long to fully explain this coming sequence, but, in short, Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 38 and 39 prophecies eliminate many of Israel’s enemies and also enable the Antichrist to rise to power in a re-born Roman Empire (meaning it is centered in the same area as the old Roman Empire or Europe) so that he can dominate in peace for three and one-half years, and then despotically rule for the last three and one-half years of the Great Tribulation. (The Book of Revelation) The Antichrist’s Empire will be destroyed by Christ at His Second Coming thus ending the cycle of dominate empires ruling over Israel. Jesus then reigns and rules over the whole Earth for a thousand years from Jerusalem – the Millennial Kingdom.

Vision Four is a vision of a man with a measuring line (Zechariah 2:1-13). This man was probably an angel who came to measure Jerusalem to give perspective to Zechariah and the Jews of the smallness of Jerusalem at that time compared to where they had come from, Babylon. But there is coming a day when Jerusalem would be large and prosperous which has come to pass in our day. God encourages all Jews to flee from “the land of the north”, Babylon, because the Lord will destroy, “become spoil” (verse 9), that evil land. And what has become of that land today? It is Iraq which is desert and constantly in turmoil from war and terrorism and tyrannical governments. Then in verses 10 through 13, God foresees to the Millennium when Christ will reign over the whole Earth from Jerusalem when all Israel will be returned to God and be His people. We should all take great comfort that God has blessed us with what is to happen in our immediate future despite the 2,500 years that have passed since Zechariah was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write his words. Comfort, assurance, and peace come from this knowledge to all Christians today that know Jesus as Lord and Savior because we know beyond all doubt that Jesus is God, that He will reign, and we shall reign with Him!

Vision Five is a vision of Joshua, the High Priest (Zechariah 3:1-7). This ties into Vision Six of the Coming Prince since Israel must be reigned over in the Millennium by both Priest and Prince. Joshua is seen dressed in filthy garments representing our filthy righteousness in God’s Eyes. Our enemy, Satan, loves to slander and accuse and proclaim our faults before God, but we have “an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). This advocate spoke for Joshua and was successful so that Joshua was given new garments as High Priest and a new ministry to the returned Jewish people from Babylon. This is all symbolic of the believer in our day and also of Israel in our immediate future. Israel will experience a rebirth and be given a spiritual ministry to the nations (Zechariah 3:5) with Joshua (Yeshua in Hebrew, the very name of Jesus Christ) as reigning King. What a comfort to know this will come to pass in our future where we all are participants in the Divine Plan, the culmination of the ages, God’s redemption of men and of Israel.

Vision Six is that vision of the Coming Prince (Zechariah 3:8-10). Jesus is to be both Priest and Prince, a “priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 5:5-6), priest as well as king of Salem, the “Branch”, and Old Testament title for Christ (Isaiah 4:2; Jeremiah 23:5, and others). Jesus will remove Israel’s iniquity and their unclean garments replaced with robes of righteousness. What a promise to the Jews of Zechariah’s day in the form of the Governor Zerubbabel and the newly established and returned-from-exile Jewish people. But, looking into even our future, the promised Jewish Messiah Who will reign over the whole Earth in the Millennium!

Vision Seven is the vision of a golden candlestick or menorah that is fed oil continuously by the two olive trees standing by it (Zechariah 4:1-14). This vision has been described as the revival of Israel both in the time of Zechariah as well as in our future after the Rapture. The menorah represents the nation of Israel and the oil is the Holy Spirit giving spiritual awakening as a light to all of mankind. In Zechariah’s day, the Temple needed finishing and that is why God sent both Zechariah and Haggai to Jerusalem to spur on Zerubbabel and Joshua, the governor and the high priest, to finish the Temple. So, in that day the two olive trees are Zechariah and Haggai feeding the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to Zerubbabel and Joshua to finish the Temple. In our future, after the Rapture, the unbelieving Jews of Israel will be ministered to by a pair of witnesses and 144,000 Jewish evangelists for the first half of the Tribulation. Those two witnesses are the future manifestation of the two olive trees of Zechariah’s prophecy, the far mountain top of the “dual mountain” prophecy written so long ago. The first two olive trees spurred the completion of the Temple back in 516 B.C. and the second two witnesses minister to the Jews in Jerusalem during the first half of the Tribulation at the Millennial Temple urging repentance and acceptance of their Messiah Jesus Christ. The actual identities of the future witnesses is in contention, but it seems clear that they are either Elijah and Moses or Elijah and Enoch. The reason for the choices is what Revelation 11:6 says about them being able to withhold the rain and turn waters into blood which Elijah and Moses did in the past. But, Hebrews 9:27 says “it is appointed unto men once to die…” and both Enoch and Elijah did not die “for God took” them. In other words, He raptured them, so they could be the two witnesses since they die at the hand of the Antichrist and rise to their feet after three and a half days and rise into Heaven in front of all the Earth (Revelation 11:12). Regardless, the effect on the unsaved people of the Earth when those two men, after lying in the street dead for three and one-half days, suddenly rise to their feet, are seen by the entire world through satellite and cell phone technology, then rise into Heaven in a cloud just as Jesus did when He rose from the Mount of Olives. It seems certain that many if not all will be supremely shocked, perhaps enough to cause many to turn to Christ.

Vision Eight is the vision of the flying scroll which was a very large scroll measuring thirty feet by fifteen feet (Zechariah 5:1-4). In Scripture, a scroll contained God’s written Word, and this scroll contained the curse that is over the entire Earth, a rebuke of sin, a reference of the Law to show mankind just what God considers to be sin and worthy of His Wrath and condemnation. The scroll was condemning those that steal on one side of the scroll and those that take the Lord’s Name in vain on the other, also symbolizing the two tablets of the Law of Moses. God never changes and this vision condemned those that stole and sweared in Zechariah’s day as well as those of today and in the future. God does not tolerate sin, but especially these displays of utter selfishness. God gave us the Law so that we would know exactly what sin was. God does not change, so He holds all people today to the same standards He gave the Jews on Mt. Sinai. Those that choose to remain in disobedience will not choose, by faith, to accept Jesus Christ as Savior and make Him Lord of their lives, so an eternity in the Lake of Fire awaits them. Those accepting Jesus as Savior and Lord will spend eternity in His presence and experience overwhelming joy.

Vision Nine is the vision of the ephah which refers to a measure of volume roughly equivalent to a large basket in which a small person could fit (Zechariah 5:5-11). A lid to the ephah made out of lead is placed over the ephah after a woman called wickedness is placed in it. Then two winged creatures with wings of storks lifted the basket and took it to Shinar or Babylon. Israel had been exiled to Babylon because of her idolatry to foreign gods and foreign women. After 70 years in exile and allowed to return to Jerusalem, the Jews no longer had idolatry as a problem probably because of the blatant idolatry of the Babylonians, but they then fell into the idolatry of commercialism, made that their new idol, and again forgot their God. This vision to Zechariah is to show him and his priest Joshua that commercialism, which was also a great sin of the Babylonians, belonged back where it came from – Babylon – not Israel. In the far future prophetic view of the vision, we can see the woman of Revelation 17 corresponding to the woman in the ephah that represents all that God condemns and representative of the Revived Roman Empire of the Antichrist with his headquarters in Babylon. God wants all evil and spiritual uncleanness removed from His people the Jews not only back in Zechariah’s time but in the distant future (our time) which the Tribulation is designed to accomplish and will do so in our very near future.

Vision Ten is the vision of the four chariots which we could spend a lot of time covering (Zechariah 6:1-8). These four horses and chariots resemble the four horsemen of the Apocalypse from Revelation 6 as well as possibly the number of the four seasons, the four points on the compass, the four earth elements (earth, air, fire, and water), or the four angels imprisoned near the Euphrates River to be released under the sixth trumpet of Revelation 9. The first horses were red, the next black, the third white, and the last dappled and strong. The angel answered Zechariah about the horses by saying, “These are the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the Earth.” (Zechariah 6:5) The chariots we can assume to be war chariots and red represents war, black represents famine and death, white represents victory achieved by other questionable means other than war, and dappled means various judgments. This vision seems to point directly to the End Times with special emphasis on the North and Russia since Russia is to Israel’s far North seen in verse 8. This is corroborated through the vision of Ezekiel 38 where the coalition of Russia, Iran, and Turkey invade Israel from the North. It is certainly NOT insignificant that in our present day for a variety of circumstances and reasons that these same three countries have numerous positions that they have established in Syria to Israel’s immediate North.  All three of these rogue nations are economically unstable and are looking for ways to bolster their economies. Could this fact be the “hook” spoken of in Ezekiel that God uses to bring them to invade Israel and be destroyed by God Himself? Could this portend the nearness of the Rapture and God’s judgment against Gog and Magog? Seems strongly to be true most likely to occur in the “In-Between Times” which happen after the Rapture and before the start of the Tribulation because of the fact that the militant Muslims worldwide will be almost completely destroyed in that brief and entirely God-dominated battle (see King James Version of Ezekiel 39:2 where but a “sixth part of thee” will be left referring to the mostly Islamic attackers of Israel).

The end of the ten visions is a logical one concerning the crowning of a name we may or may not have seen. Of course, it is significant that the name is capitalized. That name is the Branch (Jeremiah 23:5) who will come to occupy David’s throne and build the Millennial Temple (Zechariah 6:12). He will be a priest forever (Psalm 110:4), our eternal Priest-King. In Zechariah’s day, that person was Joshua (verse 11) who should never be a king since he was a priest. Zerubbabel would be the candidate since he was in the lineage of David, but he was banned from ever being king because of the curse God set on Jeconiah (Jeremiah 22:30). So, who will be both Priest and King at the same time? Jesus, whose name in Greek is Joshua and in Hebrew Yeshua all meaning “Jehovah is salvation”. Jesus will become King-Priest “after the order of Melchizedek” (Genesis 14:18-20; Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 5:10; 6:20 – 7:17) All of this will take place when Jesus returns with His Church to stop the “Battle” (it won’t be much of a battle!) of Armageddon, sets His foot on the Mount of Olives, and assumes His reign as King of kings and Lord of Lords as well as High Priest for a thousand years – the Millennium.

Zechariah goes on with still stunning prophecies that relate exclusively to our immediate future. Chapter eight covers the future time when Israel and Jerusalem will have peace and prosperity (“…the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets…” Zechariah 8:5) with promise of prestige of the Jews, something so foreign to our time as well as virtually all the time of the Jewish Nation (“Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.” Zechariah 8:23) The world will be completely different than today with any vestige of evil removed at the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom – something to look forward to with great anticipation even though we will be in our immortal bodies at that time observing the humans that have been blessed to enter the Millennium.

Chapter 12 is a familiar prophecy to those familiar with the End Times, but very easy to see in its truthfulness in our day. Zechariah 12:2 and 3 says, “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.”  We do not have to struggle to understand this prophecy due to all the Anti-Semitism displayed today, not to mention all the nations of the Earth with the exception of part of the United States that fully supports Israel. God will defend Israel (verse 8), God will “seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem” (verse 9) [does this mean that God will selectively take out His vengeance against those in the United States who oppose Israel?], and the result will be God pouring out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of Grace, they will mourn for the One they have pierced, and a national conversion of the Jewish people to Christ, but still a remnant since many unbelieving Jews will have perished in the wars fought and in God’s Wrath in the Tribulation.

Zechariah Chapter 14 is a direct prophecy of the Second Coming found in this Old Testament book. Jesus defeats all enemies arrayed against Israel (verse 2 and 3), then He will touch down with His feet on the Mount of Olives – the exact place his feet left the Earth on the day of his ascension to Heaven. A great earthquake will occur, splitting the Mount of Olives leaving a great valley from the East to the West. Living Water will flow toward the East and toward the West from Jerusalem, and the Lord will reign over all the Earth from Jerusalem for a thousand years. Realize that all of this will happen in our immediate future, perhaps the beginning of everything, the Rapture, could happen today. There is nothing preventing this since it is in the Will of God to cause it to happen as an imminent event with nothing to announce it, nothing to usher it in, nothing required for it to begin. Look forward to this, you who believe in Jesus Christ, Son of God, Lord of Creation, King of kings and Lord of lords. The King is coming! Praise God! Hallelujah! Maranatha! Even so, Come Lord Jesus!