Supernatural Prophecies That Prove God Exists-Program 2
| July 22, 2013 |
By: Dr. Walter Kaiser, Jr.; ©1991 |
The Bible speaks of many nations who will have and impact on Israel in the last days. In this session Dr. Kaiser talks about Tyre and Iraq. |
Contents
Iraq in Bible Prophecy
Introduction
- Dr. John Ankerberg: The information in this program was taped live at The Ankerberg Theological Research Instituteās Apologetics Conference in Orlando, Florida. Each year we invite laymen, students and pastors to attend this conference and hear seven or eight of the best professors and apologists in Christianity teach on topics of vital interest to all of us.
- Our instructor for this session is Dr. Walter Kaiser. Dr. Kaiser is Academic Dean and Professor of Semitic languages and Old Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. Dr. Kaiser received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University in Mediterranean studies and heās the author of numerous books, including The Old Testament in Contemporary Preaching, Toward an Exegetical Theology, Biblical Exegesis for Preaching and Teaching, A Biblical Approach to Suffering, which is a commentary on the Book of Lamentations, Toward Old Testament Ethics, The Uses of the Old Testament in the New, Hard Sayings of the Old Testament, Back Toward the Future: Hints for Interpreting Biblical Prophecy, and āExodus: A Commentaryā in Expositorās Bible Commentary.
- In addition, he has written a number of other titles for both popular and scholarly audiences.
- Whatās more, Dr. Kaiser has contributed articles to a number of periodicals, including Moody Monthly, The Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, and Evangelical Quarterly.
- Dr. Kaiser is a widely respected conference speaker and an enthusiastic and skilled teacher.
- Dr. Kaiserās topic for this session is: āSupernatural Prophecies That Prove God Exists ā Part 2.ā
- As you listen to this information, it will be my prayer that God will increase your faith and draw you closer to our Lord Jesus Christ. [Note: Since our conference, Dr. Kaiser has become President-Elect at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and Professor of Old Testament. He has an M.A. and Ph.D., Brandeis University.]
- Dr. Walter Kaiser: Thank you and welcome to this session. We want to handle two of the great nations that I think demonstrate that Scripture is that Scripture that speaks about the existence and the truthfulness of the God who has spoken ahead of time.
- Let me take you to a passage, first of all, that I think will be helpful to set the scene for us, and that will be Ezekiel 26. I want to look briefly at the very well-known fulfillment of the prophecy of the nation Tyre, or at least the city of Tyre, and Phoenicia or present-day Lebanon. Then we want to go particularly to Babylon, Iraq and the great appearance of the glory of God at the conclusion of history. So we wander into two very, very special passages.
- First, Ezekiel chapter 26. Here, particularly in the 26th chapter He says bluntly in verse 3: āThis is what the sovereign Lord says: āI am against you, O Tyre. I will bring many nations against you.'ā I want you to note the plural there, because already there is an interpretive clue given to us that says itās not just one nation but there are a series of nations, or at least a plurality of nations that will come.
- Then notice that He goes on to speak of the one who will carry this out in verse 7. Itās King Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar did, as a matter of fact, in 583 B.C. go and set siege to Tyre on the seacoast north of Israel in present-day Lebanon or as it was called in those days, Phoenicia.
- And there in Phoenicia he set the siege to the city and the people of Tyre finally gave up and they said, āWeāre not going to outlast him. We will go in shipsāāand donāt forget they were the great people of the maritime world of that timeāand they went a half mile out into the Mediterranean Sea from where their city had been and they set up a new city there.
- Well, Nebuchadnezzar figured that was good enough and he quit. He stopped at that point. But you should notice in this prophecy in Ezekiel 26, itās not only verse 7 that says the king of Tyre, but it continues with third person singular pronouns.
- Verse 6: āHe will ravage your settlements on the main land. He will set up siege works against you.ā
- Verse 9: āHe will direct blows of his battering rams against your walls.ā
- Verse 10: āHis horses will be so many they will cover you with dust.ā
- And so it continued until verse 11. Suddenly, in verse 11 it switches to the third person plural: āThey will plunder your wealth and loot your merchandise. They will break down your walls and demolish your fine houses, and they will throw your stones and timber and rubble into the sea.ā Precisely. Thatās exactly what happened when Alexander the Great came back in the 330ās. Alexander the Great also attempted to go after them. He used ships. He went out. He was not made for ships. He decided to abandon that. He said, āThe only way weāre going to take it is to march the army out there.ā
- But how to you march an army on water? There are very few that can walk on water and Alexander the Great was not one of them. Nor were his troops. So he decided to take the timbers and the rubble and the stones and he pushed them into the sea. This was before you had bulldozers. And he literally built a causeway out into the Mediterranean Sea for a half mile. Having built this causeway, he marched his troops out and took the city.
- In other words, the Bible is plainly, actually, naturally, literally on the mark. It says here, āThey will throw your stones and timber and rubble into the sea.ā Thatās exactly what happened.
- You say, āBut it wasnāt Nebuchadnezzar.ā
- Thatās true. But this text anticipated that by saying āmany nations,ā first of all, and then switched from the singular to the plural. Thatās the type of thing that you have in these great passages that weāre talking about in Isaiah 13-23; Ezekiel 25-32; and Jeremiah 46-51. Twenty-five chapters, 680 verses that deal with 12 to 14 nations that were neighbors of Israel. That indicates that God, who is the God of not just a chauvinistic pet kind of people like His people Israel, but He is the God of all the nations. He is the One weāre talking about.
- Well, letās go to a second nationāone which is much more contemporary and in the newsāIraq. Turn with me to chapter 50 of Jeremiah. I have been amazed as I watched the events of the Gulf War unfold. I can remember telling students as we began with what I think may be one of the earlier prophets, though Iām not altogether sure, Joel.
- Joel in chapter 3, verse 1 says that āI will bring all nations of the earth up into the Middle East.ā
- And I remember students raising their hand in class and saying, āProf, how is God going to bring all the nations?ā
- Now, prior to August 1990 that was a tough question. You know what I said? āI donāt know.ā I said that because as I warned you, Iām not a prophet. My fatherās not a prophet. He was a farmer. So Iām not a son of a prophet and I work for a ānon-prophetā organization. So I couldnāt really say. There is no way in which I could really predict or prophesy any of this.
- But now that we have had the United Nations resolutions and we have seen how some 28 to 32 nations came together quickly so that by Januaryāfrom August to January we had moved equipment, full armies and representing the main continents of the earthāthey were in place. And, folks, I want to tell you that I donāt think we have seen end-times but we did see a complete mock-up of exactly what is to take place in these chapters. In other words, I think we have been given a prelude and how fortunate we are.
- Look at the chapters with me. Jeremiah chapter 50, first of all. Here, it seems to me, you have some of the grandest statements made in the text. But first, just one or two basic principles for undergirding all prophecies that threaten world powers.
- Number one, God is the God of all nations. As Sovereign, He has the right to speak to all nations, all peoples, all religions, all ethnic groups upon the face of the earth. He owns everything. āThe earth is the Lordās; the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell thereinā (Ps. 24:1). Thatās literally true.
- But secondly, God is a God of righteousness and holiness, too, as we see from that great vision of Isaiah chapter 6 where he saw the Lord high and exalted and lifted up and they were singing, āHoly, holy, holy is the Lord God.ā And He is just and holy.
- Thirdly, Godās judgments are never vindictive. God is not a green-eyed monster who says, āIāve got to get even! Iāve got to have revenge!ā God has no need for getting even. He is God. I mean, once youāre at the top you donāt need to get even or fight for the top. Thereās no need for revenge. But He is One who will be vindicated. He is not vindictive, but He will be vindicated. And therefore it seems to me He will justify who He is and what He has done before the nations, too. Every nation on Planet Earth must know that.
- The judgment of God is not His usual work in the fourth principle we state here; itās His unusual work. His usual work is that of salvation, of blessing, of grace, of mercy, of long-suffering. As a matter of fact, He is so long-suffering most people think He is a paper tiger. āHeāll go away. He doesnāt do anything. He gives such a slow, even, easy count,ā most people say, āHeāll never do anything.ā But they mistake the mercy of God for the fact that He really will come in judgment.
- And fifthly, God is impartial. He can judge Americaās sins just as He judges the sins of Arab nations or also of Jewish nations, too, as well.
- So, here we come to a prophecy in Jeremiah chapter 50 that was not fulfilled when Babylon fell in 539. Iād like to point that out to you because it is so important. I think one of the most important texts here would be chapter 51, verse 6: āFlee from Babylon.ā Run for your lives. āDo not be destroyed because of her sin; it is the time of the Lordās vengeance.ā
- Now, the most interesting thing here is that we do have a man, well, many men on the scene who are captives in Babylon at this time. In that evening in which the empire of Babylon and the city, the capital, fellāalso by the same nameā60 miles sort of south, almost directly south of Baghdad. Not on the Tigris River as Baghdad is, but over on the Euphrates River. Here was this magnificent capital with walls that are a hundred feet high, that are wide enough for four to six chariots to ride all the way around it. It embraces 25 acres. It has the Euphrates River, 600 feet wide, coming right down through the center of the city and underneath the walls of it with river gates to keep the people out. Four hundred towers around this thing above the wall going up for numerous feet Heroditus says, an unusual figure. But weāve had the Greek historian and others tell us what took place that night when they brought out the cups, the silver and gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem that had been destroyed almost 70 years previous to that in 587 B.C. Theyāre toasting Merodach in vessels that are holy, set apart and dedicated to the Lord. Then came that writing on the wall, āMENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.ā āThou art weighed in the balances and found wanting.ā It scared the willikers out of Belshazzar and out of the people. He could not contain himself. I can tell you the expression there in the Hebrew text means he was really scared skinny, I suppose, is the nicest way to tell you. He was really upset.
- But he had reason to be, for it was that night that Cyrus the Great, a Persian, upstream had been digging for quite a while and had diverted the river and it went off into a swamp. And while theyāre having this big banquet and big blast and some of them are stoned out of their senses from alcohol, then in comes the army marching, sloshing down, ducking under the river gates now which were way low and the river level had gone way down. And they came in literally without a shot being fired. Well, without a bow and arrow being pulled. And here they are in town. They took over. That was the end of the empire.
- But these chapters, 50 and 51, talk about a destruction of Babylon. There was no destruction. They took it intact. The whole thing intact. What is this word āfleeā in chapter 51, verse 6? Now, the interesting thing is, hold your finger here and turn to Daniel chapter 9, for one of the characters that was in Babylon at this time and who was one of the captives that had now attained a high position in government and had been there for quite a period of time, almost the whole duration of the Babylonian Empire. He, along with his friends Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego, which is hard for my students in graduate studies to remember, so I popularize them: My shack, your shack and a bungalow.
- Here you had these three people along with Daniel that were in high government and Daniel is having his devotions, chapter 9 of Daniel, verse 2, āIn the first year of Dariusā reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures.'ā What is he calling Scripture? Heās calling Jeremiah the Scripture because he says, āAccording to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah.ā When did Jeremiah write? Just before the exile. That is, he wrote just before the fall of the city. This is, less than 70 years, Scripture is recognized as inspired, as being the Word of God.
- You may say, āWhatās happened? I thought there was a council in A.D. 90.ā
- Yeah, I read that too, but theyāre not waiting. Daniel doesnāt wait around for a church to say, āHow many are in favor of Daniel being in the Bible?ā āOkay. Itās six to five and itās in.ā You know? Itās now one of those books. Thatās not true at all.
- He said, āI understood from the writings, the holy writings, that according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah that the desolation of Jerusalem would last 70 years. Where is he reading from? Jeremiah chapter 25. We know the chapter. We know where he was. Well, if he was reading that, then didnāt he read chapter 51, verse 6, āFlee from Babylon. Run for your lives.ā
- And when Daniel was brought in and saw āMENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSINā he suddenly said, āIs there an El-Al Flight out tonight? I want to get out of here. I suddenly remember a verse.ā āFlee from Babylon.ā
- But he didnāt flee. The fact that he knew Jeremiah but stayed in town is a good indication that chapter 50 and 51 were not talking about 539 B.C. when the kingdom came down the first time. Well, then, when is it referring to? May I suggest to you that itās in that complex of events that belong to the end-time in connection with the coming of our Lord.
- But now, letās see some more things, though. I think theyāre even more dramatic than that. Chapter 50, verse 3 I think speaks of a nation from the North. The nation from the North will attack her and lay waste her land. That couldnāt be the Medo-Persians because they didnāt lay waste to the land. They took the whole thing over: furniture, stuffings, exterior, the whole thing. There is not one record of anything being disturbed in the land. So how could you say it was laid waste? This has to be a northern kingdom that attacks her and no one will live in it, both men and animals will flee away and in those days at that time, Jeremiah 50, verse 4 declares the Lord, āThe people of Israel and the people of Judah together will go in tears to seek the Lord their God.ā
- Thatās an interesting thing. When do you have the people of Israel and the people of Judah, northern and southern kingdoms, saying, āOh, if only we knew where the Messiah was.ā Try that on the Jewish community at the present time. That wonāt fit. But this text says it will in that time. You will find a desperate searching of unusual proportion among the Jewish people.
- And he said that āThey will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces to it and they will come and bind themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.ā Not be forgotten? Itās been forgotten every time since God first made it, but when this takes place, He said, āfrom then on it wonāt be forgotten.ā And theyāre going to come back home, theyāre coming back home.
- By the way, that recent airlift of the Ethiopian Jews is just another straw in the wind where suddenly the nations got together on just a very short notice, on a weekend, tore the seats out of cargo planes and regular passenger planes and brought almost everyone back and they said theyāve got to go back and pick up 200 people that are left. But that completes the exodus from Ethiopia. That was last week or the week beforeās news. Imagine it. Imagine.
- Youāre living in those kind of days. So I tell you, be careful. You say, āWell, Iām still from Missouri. Iāve got to see it.ā Youāre seeing it. Youāre seeing part of it. Itās coming to pass.
- So I take it that is extremely important here. Not only that but notice that later on in verse 35 through 36, 37, 38 there are five swords that are mentioned there. A sword against the Babylonians; a sword against their false prophets, verse 36; a sword against her warriors; a sword against her horses and chariots; a sword against her treasures. So we know that there will be battle damage in the time that this one is being talked about. When is the date, then, for this?
- It will be in chapter 50, verse 4 and verse 20: āin those days.ā Itās at that time. Thatās your future reference. Thatās a common reference in the Prophets to the last day. And therefore itās in those times. Itās a time equated in chapter 50, verse 19 and 20 with the restoration of Israel to her land again.
- Look in 50:19: āI will bring Israel back to his own pasture; he will graze on Carmel and Bashan.ā Bashan is the Golan Heights. āAnd his appetite will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.ā Ephraim is in the center of the country; Gilead is, again, in that east and north of the Sea of Galilee, the Golan Heights.
- So, when you see the restoration and the coming back of 14 million Jews around the world. How many are in Israel now? About four to five million. The rest, 10 million scattered literally on the full face of the earth. But He said, āWhen you see that taking place, in those days, at that time, thatās when youāre going to see what Iām going to do to Babylon.ā Thatās when Iām going to work with Iraq.
- Now, why would I equate Babylon with Iraq? Because Babylon was that site that was between the Mesopotamia, the two rivers, the Euphrates on the west, therefore itās easy to remember: āEā ā Euphrates for west; and then you have the Tigris River on the east, so it went like a straight arrow. Itās mainly that site. Of course, Babylon was mainly the southern part and Assyria was the northern part, later on taken over by Babylon so that on up into Nineveh and where the Kurds are, this was all the duration or extent of ancient Babylon. Now it has flowed over a little bit to the sides of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris so that it goes a little bit further west than east, but thatās generally the area. Thatās present day Iraq that weāre talking about.
- And it was fulfilled when these nations come up against her. Look at chapter 50, verse 9. āI will stir up against Babylon an alliance of great nations from the land of the North.ā I could not believe that when I saw that! An alliance of nations. And they come from the land of the North. Some ask me, āWould that be North America?ā I donāt know in the final thing. But it seems to me that the land of the North usually, though Iām not terribly sure of this, is reserved for not North America but what would be north of the lands here and therefore would be the great Gog and Magog which are the sectors, the republics that are in the southern part of the Soviet Union. And they would be usuallyāwith Muslim influence at the present timeāwould be the ones that would be the land of the North.
- But thereās an alliance of great nations and he says, āThey will take up positions against her from the north. She will be captured and their arrows will be like skilled warriors.ā āArrowsā were very, very skillful recently. We had demonstrations of āarrowsā going down the heating shafts. Thatās skilled, I would think. It qualifies. And so he says, āThey will not return empty handed.ā
- So the text goes on to have stunning kinds of particularity for this future sort of fulfillment. Again, am I suggesting that the Gulf War was the fulfillment? No. Iām suggesting that we were given a privileged kind of mini-screen TV preview of how it is that when again this same thing sort of comes back up again.
- Itās interesting the debate that fell out between Schwarzkopf and President Bush over this and thereās just a little flap for a time of whether they should have gone on and pursued Hussein. But apparently he lives to rise again. Some also have wondered, āYes, but isnāt Babylon more frequently identified with Rome and with the western confederation of which the Antichrist is the head of those ten nations in which three of them are knocked off and he is the head of seven, and he is the one that makes a covenant with Israel, suddenly to break it in the middle of the seven years?ā Yes. Babylon is used politically and therefore does refer to some kind of western European, maybe larger alliance, but certainly European. And that is political Babylon. But thereās an economic Babylon, too, as well.
- The economic Babylon, I think, is ancient Babylon and is indeed Iraq. So itās fulfilled when the nations of the earth come up against her in chapter 50, verse 9. āAnd they come from afar,ā says verse 26 of that 50th chapter. āThey come against her from afar, break open her granaries, pile her up like heaps of grain, completely destroy her and leave her no remnant.ā So I think heās talking about devastation like we did not see in the Gulf War. This is a complete kind of massacre of unusual proportions.
- And verse 41 says of the 50th chapter that an army is coming from the North, a great nation, and many kings.ā In case you didnāt get the point, itās āmany nationsā and itās āmany kings.ā And theyāre being stirred up āfrom the ends of the earth.ā That was never possible under any Medo-Persian kind of thing. That was all Near-Eastern in the days of 539 when the first Babylonian Empire fell.
- But, of course, you know that Saddam Hussein is sort of picturing himself as Nebuchadnezzar the Second. As a matter of fact, before the big celebration he put there for his 50th thing a side facial view of Nebuchadnezzar the First and then his own pressed over top of that. And on some of the coins you will see the same thing as well. Youāll see him with his face and then you will see the other king with it impressed over the top of it. So an army is coming āfrom the North, a great nation, and many kings are being stirred up from the ends of the earth.ā Again, I cannot believe how privileged we are in our day and age to see this.
- And as if to make it plain, chapter 51, verse 2: āI will send foreigners to Babylon to winnow her and to devastate her. They will oppose her on every side in the day of her distress.ā
- And verse 7 of that 51st chapter, āBabylon was a gold cup in the hand of the Lord. She made the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine therefore the nations have gone mad.ā
- Wine? What kind of Mogen David is this? That comes out of Iraq? What kind of wine is this? Black wine, I think. In this case, oil. The nations of the earth have drunk the oil that has come from this nation and indeed, since 1938, when oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia and then in the surrounding countries, the whole history and the whole economies of the world changed. We went from silver, then the gold standard and now weāve gone to oil standard. The nations of the earth have drunk and theyāve gone mad, says the text. Gone mad.
- So it is an amazing text, to say the very least, and I think the conclusion here, it appears that God will end history with a gigantic judgment on Babylon under its new form, Iraq.
- But Iād like to take you to one additional passage, still continuing this same theme of Babylon. Letās go to Zechariah, next to the last book of the Old Testament. I think we particularly should look at chapter 2. Zechariah chapter 2 where I think you have another kind of stunning statement: āNow after they had returned from exile,ā hereās the third vision that Zechariah had in that series of one night when he had eight visions, one after another. And this third vision is about Godās promise to restore and to protect Jerusalem and His personal presence in this particular city. And I think that this text is a great one because it introduces a number of themes here that are exceedingly important and helps us to place the context of Babylon and Iraq into a larger setting or different setting, at least.
- Look at verse 7, āCome, O Zion, escape you who live in the daughter of Babylon.ā Very similar to the threefold emphasis in Jeremiah 50 and 51, āFlee from Babylon.ā Get out of Babylon. Which Daniel, who knew the text and was an obedient man, did what God wanted, did not listen to on that night when the city came down. He was there at the banquetā¦or he had to be called. He wasnāt at the banquet as a matter of fact. Itās interesting. He declined to come. But he had to be called in the room to give the interpretation of what was on the wall and he gave the interpretation. And the interpretation was one which did not cause him then to remember chapter 50 and 51, āFlee from Babylon.ā But here we have it in verse 7 and he mentions that again in this context.
- Well, let me sort of trot this out, then, and put this in context. Look, first of all, at Godās protection of the city of Jerusalem, chapter 2, verses 1-9. Here it says that āthe Lord Himself,ā and the key verse to this section would be verse 5, āI myself will be a wall of fire around Jerusalem, declares the Lord; I will be its glory within.ā Here you have the promise of the personal appearance and presence of the Lord and He says youāre not going to need a wall anymore around that city, beautiful as it is.
- I remember the first time that I came to visit that city. We arrived late at night. We had plane trouble. We got in to Tel Aviv and took the bus for about 40 minutes. We got to the outskirts of the old city where we were to stay. We were to stay in the old city with 40 students that night. We got there about 10:30, rounded the corner and here is this city with walls about 40 feet high still and with the big gateway there we were coming in off the west side and with flood lights, orange flood lights lighting up that whole wall all around the city. What a sight it was. I was unprepared for it.
- But the biblical text says thereās going to be no need for that in that day. The Lord Himself will be resident. Heāll be a wall of fire. Talk about flood lights. His presence will make the flood lights around the city. His very presence will make it. Heāll be a wall of fire. It reminds us of the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. Remember? That went before the Israelites through the wilderness. The Lord said, āI was present there. Iāll be present again.ā
- Itās too bad we take that word, āthe glory of the Lord,ā we sort of make that into a religious word. āThe glory of the Lord.ā You need a little bumpsydoodle in there, you know? That explains the whole thing. You donāt have to say any more. You just say, āThe āgloweryā of the Lord.ā Or maybe you throw your hands out like this, āThe āgloweryā of the Lord,ā meaning the out-splashing there, you know.
- But the glory, Kabod, comes from kabod, the verb, which means to be heavy. And the idea is the sheer weight, the gravity, the presence of the Lord. He is there. The God who is there. Every time you see the word āglory,ā you could almost put as the first idea, āThe God who is there.ā Sounds like that ought to be a title of a book. āThe God Who Is There.ā And thatās exactly what Heās talking about here, āThe God who is there, His glory.ā He is the resident One. Well, more than that. There is a stress upon His own person. By the way, itās so emphatic in the Hebrew. You must learn Hebrew, by the way, before you get to Heaven. Shalom. Thatāll get you in. But you need more than that, you know. And the text here says, āI. I myself. I will be.ā Itās emphatic. He repeats the personal pronoun and makes it so emphatic. āI, I, I will be there.ā
- And even signs this with His name, ādeclares the Lord.ā Thatās like signature, āsigned, the Lord.ā I mean, you want room service, you put your signature down. God says, āIām going to be there.ā Puts a name down. āSigned, the Lord.ā So, ādeclares the Lordā is like a signature. Itās the validating thing. I mean, you want any greater proof? There it is. You want proof that I am? My signature. My name. My character. That ought to be good enough for you.
- And then He goes on to speak of the glory in the midst of them. And He said itās going to be a glory that will be a wall of fire around the people. Now, this develops here, it seems to me, in terms of, He said, āLook, the city in that day is going to be so great that a man went out with a measuring line in chapter 2, verse 1. He said, āWhat are you going to do?ā He said, āMeasure Jerusalem to find out how wide and how long it is.ā
- And so the angel who is speaking to me left, and another angel came and he said, āRun and tell the young men Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of men and livestock in it.ā Men, in this case, of course, is generic, unfortunately, for the translation today youāve got to put it in the full form: āā¦because of the number of persons and livestock in it.ā
- And so in verse 6 He says, āCome, come, flee from the land of the North, declares the Lord. For I have scattered you to the four winds of heaven.ā
- And here comes that same line again that we saw in Jeremiah chapters 50 and 51: āCome, come,ā He says. āFlee from the land of the North.ā And so I think weāre being given here the news that Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the multitude and then there comes this word that speaks not only of it being so great with the number of people but also because they ought to get out of the other countries where theyāve been.
- Isaiah chapter 49, verse 19 and 20 says, āThough you were ruined and made desolate and your land is now laid waste, you will be too small for your people and those who devoured you will be far away. The children of bereavement,ā that is, those in place of the children you lost will yet say in your hearing, āThis place is too small for us. Give us more space to live in.ā
- And if youāve watched the news, too, this is one of the current problems that weāre getting into. How can you get living space for people that are continuing to come in. They expect from Russia alone with the new El Al agreement with the Israeli Airlines and the Aeroflot with the Russian Airlines that something like two million Russian Jews will return back to Israel in the next two years. Two million Jews returning back. Because of the new agreement; because of direct flights between them. Before theyāve had to come through Europe or at least Eastern Europe, stopping off usually at Romania or at one of the other places or immigrating to America then coming over to Israel, which is a very, very complicated piece in our day.
- So the return of the personal presence of the Lord and with this He says, āListen. Listen. Come. Come.ā Literally in the Hebrew itās, āHowy, howy.ā But you donāt want to use that these days. It might get you into North Pole talk: āHo, ho.ā
- But at any rate, He tries to get our attention. He says, āHey, hey! Listen here! Flee from the land of the North and from Babylon.ā And thatās what chapter 51, verse 6 and 45 said. āFlee from Babylon. Run for your lives. Do not be destroyed because of her sin. Itās time for the Lordās vengeance. He will pay her what she deserves.ā
- So Babylon was that gold cup in the hand of the Lord that had made the whole earth drunk, says chapter 51, verse 7 of Jeremiah, and the nations drank the wine, therefore theyāve gone mad. Babylon shall suddenly fall, chapter 51 of Jeremiah, verse 8, and be broken and this passage in Zechariah is based upon that passage in Jeremiah.
- The final deliverance and salvation of Israel and the last judgment on Babylon is here declared in Zechariah 2:6. So flee. āFlee from the land of the North, for I have scattered you to the four winds of heaven. Come, O Zion, escape, flee you who live with the daughter of Babylon.ā For this is what the Lord says after He has honored me and sent me against the nations that plunder you, for whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye. I will surely raise My hand against them so that their slaves will plunder them. Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent Me.ā
- āSent meā? Now itās an interesting thing here. The character of our Lord. He displays the glory of God and here, mystery of mysteries, here is Yahweh, yet He is sent by Yahweh. How can you be Yahweh and sent by Yahweh? We had this the other night in the debate there.
- John Chapter 10: āI and my Father are One,ā and yet āthe Father has sent Me.ā There it is. Thatās the whole mystery of the Trinity. āI and my Father are Oneā and yet āIāve been sent.ā How can you be sent if you are He? There has to be a personal relationship between I and the one sent.
- So what is being described here. There is God the Father and God the Son. And so I think He describes it here. He says, āAfter the Father has honored Me.ā Read the first He as the Father. āā¦has honored Me and sent Me.ā The Father sent Me. Thatās just like John 10:30. āI and my Father are oneā and āthe Father has sent Me.ā Thatās your best text for the Trinity. Itās the one used by Augustine in the third century church; itās the one used by Calvin in the Reformation. āI and my Father are oneā and āthe Father has sent me.ā There is the mystery of mysteries, conundrum of conundrums. But itās still true and it still is part of what is being said here.
- So you have, I think, in this text āHe has sent meā just like in Isaiah Chapter 61. There Jesus was handed, in Luke 4, the reading for the day in the synagogue and He came up and He read from Isaiah 61: āThe Spirit of the Lord of Hosts is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.ā Remember that?
- He went on, except He stopped in the middle of the verse where it says āto declare the day of vengeance of our God.ā He didnāt read that. He sat down, which is how you preached in those days. You sat to preach. And He said, āThis day is this text fulfilled in your hearing.ā
- In other words, youāre looking at Him. Youāre looking at the One who is sent.
- And some people say, āYeah, but thatās not what He meant.ā In the Jesus Seminar theyāre trying to figure out whether Jesus really said that or not and how are they figuring it out? Theyāve got this little game where theyāve got different colored stones theyāre dropping in. āHum. I think He did. Hum. I think He didnāt.ā And who cares what any of them thought. It doesnāt mean a row of beansā¦I should say a ārow of stones.ā
- Itās nothing at all what they think, whether itās true or not.
- Watch the Jews. They pick up stones. Theyāre going to stone Him. Why would they stone Him, for saying something that was cute or nice? No. They said He blasphemed.
- They said, āYouāre making yourself Deity! Who do you think you are? God? You had a father and a mother and we know you came from Nazareth.ā
- So you can debate what the commentators think in what He was really claiming but watch the Jews. When they reach for stones, thatās a good commentary. Very, very good commentary. You know what Heās claiming there at that point. Heās claiming to be Deity. You canāt get any better than that. So He said, āThe Father has sent me.ā That was in Isaiah 61. The text in Zechariah 2:8 says, āThe Father has sent me.ā And He said He sent Me āagainst the nations that have plundered you, for whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye.ā
- Funny thing. In this last battle that comes against Iraq, the nations apparently have ganged up like dogs and have jumped in on one thatās wounded. In the midst of that whole thing suddenly they say, āIsrael,ā and that detracts all of them. Which almost happened in the last war. They sent the Scud missiles over. The whole thing was to get Israel involved. If they had gotten Israel involved, Bingo! This class would have been cancelled. I definitely think so. That was the missing ingredient in the whole thing. Because then the alliance would have fallen apart and then the Americans would have been embarrassed. America would have had to jump into it as well.
- As a matter of fact, the first Scud missile, I am informed through, I think it was U.S. News & World Report, scrambled the Israeli jets. They scramble for everything. If you were over there in Israel, anything that goes wrong, a fight in the street and up go the jets. They are totally responsive to any little thing. So they were in the air with the first Scud that came. They are flying north and theyāre wiring back into Washington asking, āGive us the setting so we can identify ourselves as friendly planes and weāre going in.ā
- And our government said, āYou canāt have itā and they came back home. Thatās how close we were! Thatās how close we were! And thatās what I think happens in this final day.
- Have you ever watched that phenomena? I remember as a boy we went out and we were near Philadelphia and we used to get all the stray dogs and pets that no one could take care of any more in the city.
- We were just outside near the airport on a farm and many a day a car would come down the road going slowly and the door would open, a foot would come out and out would come Fido. And weād say, āWeāve got another one.ā And there were about 25 sort of stray dogs. We were trying to feed them a little bit and care for them. But they would get out of hand, especially when nature took over and a female would come across and one evening we had just sown many acres and I was looking out over the field while we were having dinner and there were 25 dogs all fighting apparently over one prize. And it was an enormous thing. They were kicking up sand, going after each other where we had sowed in. And I didnāt know what to do. I jumped up from the table without saying anything, rounded the old country farm house, looked around for something. I picked up two small brick bats. I donāt know why. I felt like I needed some kind of armor. If I had thought, Iād have probably stopped to get the shotgun to shoot over their head, get their attention.
- But nothing would get their attention. I yelled, āStop that!ā I couldnāt get their attention at all so I heaved in the midst, I hope, one of these small pieces of brick and it hit one of the dogs. The one that the help called Heeber Hobber. I donāt know where he got his name, Heeber Hobber. I donāt know what the etymology is, but thatās what he called him. I think he went on kind of three legs. And so they called him, āHeeber Hobber.ā Hit Heeber Hobber. He went over and went crazy. Threw his feet in the air. I thought, āOh, no.ā And with that, all the dogs stopped.
- They looked at Heeber Hobber. Forgot all about their main prize. Now theyāre looking at this one. And as if on clue, do you know what they did? All of them jumped in! Theyāre going to kill Heeber Hobber. I felt responsible now. I called for help to the neighboring farm. My brothers and sisters came out. We each had two dogs by the tail holding them suspended toward Heaven. They trying to come up and get our hands, you know. But itās a little hard. And weāre holding them up until we had 25 dogs in the air suspended. Only then did they come to their senses and cool off. We put them down. By that time Heeber had recovered and kind of went off sideways, you know, but he was functioning and was going there.
- And so frequently Iāve thought of that as the nations here too as well. They see one down. āAh ha! Vrooom!ā and thatās how they come. That will be a picture of the final day. The apple of Godās eye and suddenly they say, āAh ha, that God whom we hate. Heās got some people here and weāre going to get them.ā And down it goes.
- Look, itās either that or oil. Itās either that or the economy. And so the nations will be forced to make a decision. But our text says, āThen you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent Me.ā Youāre going to find out. A lot of people say, āI want proof.ā Youāll know. Youāll know. Wait till you see.
- Because the text goes on to describe and look at it as we go to Zechariah 13 and it says hereās what will take place in verse 8, āThe whole land of Israel, declares the Lord, two thirds will be struck down and perish.ā Thatās a lot. Two thirds of the nation down. Yet one third will be left.
- And He says in chapter 14, verse 3, āThen the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as He fought in the day of battle.ā
- And when will that be? Verse 2, āWhen I gather all nations to Jerusalem.ā Godās going to permit all nations to come to Jerusalem to fight against it. The city will be captured, the houses ransacked, the women raped. Half the city will go into exile but the rest of the city will not be taken. Two thirds of the land already gone. One half the city of Jerusalem.
- The Lord says, āThatās enough. Fine! End of history! Iām stepping into time.ā
- And thatās the point where He touches down on the Mount of Olives. The old Mount of Olives, it says here, comes unglued.
- Verse 4, āIn that day when His feet touch down, she splits east and west right across. Not down the fault line which runs north and south but it goes east and west.
- And he said, āItāll go right across there. Jerusalem will be elevated. There will be fresh water coming out of a spring out of Jerusalem running to the Mediterranean Sea and running to the Dead Sea. Living water. Fresh water out of Jerusalem. Out of Jerusalem. Unknown at the present time except for the little Gihon spring. Thatās all we know of at the present time. Well, I take it that this is a marvelous text.
- But go back as I finish up and then weāll take some questions here in Zechariah chapter 2. Look what happens in verses 10 through 13 of Zechariah 2. For here I think He goes on to describe four beautiful things that take place in the Millennium, that is, during the Thousand Year Reign of our Lord. We know thereās a Thousand Year Reign because Revelation 20 talks about that; and also 1 Corinthians 15 talks about it too. It says, āAs in Adam all die.ā And whatās your proof for that? The cemetery. I mean, everybody but everybody is dying. I donāt know of any exception. Oh, Enoch. Oh, Elijah. Thatās all though. And our Lord Himself. But everybody else ever known on Planet Earth has died. āAs in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.ā Should you stress both āallsā? Yes. Sometimes we do it in teaching or in pulpit. Thereās a sermonic way for italicizing. Victor Borge had his own phonetic punctuation. But we need italics too. Victor Borge never had italics. Preachers do though. They waiver their voice. āAs in Adam, a..l..l die.ā Thatās italics. āEven so in Christ shall a..l..l be made alive. But!ā¦ā Not a period there. āBut each in his own squad,ā squad number one, Christ the firstfruits. Easter Sunday morning, āUp from the grave He arose.ā Christians greet one another: āHe is risen!ā and the response is, āHe is risen indeed.ā Second one, Those that are Christās at His coming. Third resurrection: Then comes the end. These are the dead-end kids.
- They have said, āWho me? Believe? Over my dead body. Never will I believe.ā And the Lord keeps chasing and chasing with goodness and kindness all his life. Now, two little words that are in between: epeita eita, āthen and then.ā He says, āChrist the firstfruits and then those who are Christās at His coming and then comes the end.ā Those little words always go together. Love and marriage. Horse and carriage. epeita eita, then and then. They always go together. And they imply time difference between. Resurrection 1, Easter Sunday morning; resurrection 2, when our Lord comes back; resurrection #3, at the end of a period of time thatās in between there.
- How much time? John told us a thousand years. So when is it going to take place? He says in verse 10, look at this, āMessiah will live in Jerusalem.ā He says, āShout and be glad, O daughter of Zion, for I am coming and I will live among you.ā I will live among you.
- Thatās like John 1:14: āThe word became flesh and dwelt among us.ā God was here for 30 years. Walked in our midst.
- And Thomas said, āLord, I donāt know. Are you really God? And can you really demonstrate that?ā
- John 14, you know. And Jesus said, āOh, how long have I been with you?ā And He said the same thing to Philip, too, āAnd yet you have not known me. He that has seen me has seen the Father and how come youāre saying show us God?ā
- Thatās a clear, clear, clear claim to be Deity; claiming to be God. āHe that has seen me has seen the Father.ā
- I remember a little boyā¦I was teaching in the south side of Chicago, Freddie Wilson, and he said to me, he said, āWhat will Jesus look like when we get to Heaven?ā And I thought, āBoy, my theology classes donāt prepare me for these kind of questions.ā Then I remembered John 14, āHe that has seen me has seen the Father.ā I said, āFreddie, Heāll look like Jesus.ā
- I remember afterwards he said, āMr. Walt, I want to take Jesus into my heart.ā
- We had a bad day that day. I said, āThereās too much going on, Freddie. You probably donāt want to do it today.ā I tried to talk him out of it.
- And he said, āYes I do. Yes I do.ā
- I remember we had two twins, Nehemiah and Jeremiah. They were fighting. One picked up the seat, ripped off the upper seat, came down over the top of his head. I had discipline problems. And he had knocked him out cold. There he was right in front of me. The fellow said,
- āDid you see that? Did you see that?ā Did I see it? There he was right at my feet. I had a Bible in one hand and a flannelgraph in this hand and Iām trying to teach this lesson here. And hereās this corpus delicti right in the midst of it here you know.
- And so I said, āBoy, this is no time,ā but he convinced me. I had prayer with him. He was gone. Do you know, Wednesday night News, Chicago, Iām watching the news and they say, their final wrap-up story, human interest story: āFreddie Wilson, hit and run victim this week. Ten years of age.ā That Sunday was the time for him.
- Well, the theme here of his question and his question is, āWhat will God look like?ā āHe that has seen Me has seen the Father.ā So why are you asking for Him? Jesus the Messiah will live in Jerusalem. Then verse 11, āThe gentile nations will be joined to the Lord. Many nations will be joined with the Lord in that day and will become my people and will live among you and you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent Me to you.ā
- Do you understand weāre in the midst of one of the most fantastic revolutions on our day with regard to the number of people coming to know Christ. The only cold spots in the world are Europe, Canada and the United States. Everything else is hot. Hot. And people are coming to know the Lord at fantastic rates. Guatemala in Central America. Over 33% pressing 50% at the present rate if it continues until the year 2000. Fifty percent will be converted. The same thing, you could go to countries like Singapore. Thirty-five percent of the intelligentsia in Singapore are believing Christians in Jesus Christ. Thirty-three percent when you go to South Korea are professing Christians. You go to Seoul, Korea and you come in on the plane or you look out from a hotel window. What you see over the city is a sea of red crosses. What are they? Christian churches. Christian churches.
- Number two profession in that country: minister. Whatās the largest ethnic enrollment in seminaries in the United States out of the 52,000 people preparing for missionary, pastor or evangelist? Korean and Korean American in the United States at the present time. We could go on with that.
- Third thing here is, Jerusalem will again be designated the holy land.
- Verse 12, āThe Lord will inherit Judah as His portion in the holy land.ā By the way, thatās the only time in the Bible that word is used. Most people refer to the Holy Land. Hereās the only time in the Bible it ever occurred. Holy Land.
- And then the fourth one is, worldwide judgment at the Second Coming. āBe still.ā He uses the word there, our word āHush.ā āHush.ā Thatās what the Hebrew says. āHush, before the Lord, all mankind, because He has roused Himself from His holy dwelling.ā Wait ātil you see, O nations of the earth, He has gathered you together against Babylon and you will come finally then against Jerusalem but be careful. Be careful. Heās in charge. Well, what a great prophecy about what God has already done and what Heās going to do.
[ā¦] Iraq in Bible Prophecy By: Dr. Walter Kaiser, Jr. [ā¦]
[ā¦] Read Part 2 [ā¦]