Zechariah 12:1-3 The word of the Lord concerning Israel. The Lord who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the spirit of man within him, declares: “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.”

The prophet Zechariah was used by God to warn his people Israel of the need to listen to God’s messages which had been given by earlier prophets so they would avoid further judgment.  They were being called to obedience. As they were in the process of re-building the temple they needed encouragement. The Lord provided that encouragement by giving Zechariah visions not just of the mercy He would extend to them in their immediate future but a picture for the distant future which would include  the coming of the Messiah, judgment of their adversaries and the establishment of the final kingdom.

We are now in the 21^st century and we have seen the re-establishment of Israel as a nation and the ongoing re-gathering of its people. Jerusalem has once again taken center stage. I am neither a historian nor a scholar. I am just a believer that God’s word is the measurement of all things. Because of our short life-span and finite minds, we might be tempted to think that God’s promises to Israel are over and done with but that is not the nature of God.  The Israel we know today is small and has more powerful enemies now than at any other time in her history. But God has covenanted himself to his people and will never take his eyes off them anymore than he will abandon men and women from every tribe and tongue who honor the Lord Jesus. I believe Israel’s destiny and that of every believer is eternally linked. Some years ago, as I read Zechariah 12:1-9, the Holy Spirit spoke:

“Think not for a moment that I have forsaken Jerusalem or my people Israel. For now she is rejected and in confusion but soon and very soon the hands of time will spring forward and the nations of the earth will consider her the enemy and shall rise against her with one voice and attempt to undo her. But I the Lord God will not allow it. I will intervene to deliver her and take back the reins of power as in the days of old. I will deliver her, for she is mine, my beloved. She is mine and no one shall ever again humiliate her. Instead men will know that every word I have spoken in the Living Word is true and will be fulfilled. I the Lord have spoken.”