Sabbath Message

Sabbath Message by Wade Cox

Sabbath 19/5/29/120

Dear Friends,

The Book of Zechariah deals with the restoration of Judah and of Jerusalem. Chapter 1 deals with the establishment of the prophecy and the time-frame over which the city was to be restored but did not have peace, and the Temple could not be built. God was displeased with Judah because they had not taught the statutes and the laws of God correctly, nor had they followed them. The earth was at rest but the House of Judah did not have rest for seventy years. God was displeased with the heathen nations that felt secure. He was a little displeased but they added to the punishment and affliction, which God did not ask them to do. Then the four horns that conspired to scatter Judah, Israel and Jerusalem were to be dealt with, and the four carpenters who are the servants of God have come to disperse the four horns that conspired to scatter Judah.

Chapter 2 shows that Judah is to be populated and God will be a wall of fire around about her and the glory in the midst of her. The text shows that God, Yahovah of Hosts, sent Yahovah of Israel to Jerusalem to protect her (Zech. 2:8). Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day and shall be God’s people and Yahovah will dwell in the midst of them. The Lord will inherit Judah which is his portion in the Holy Land and shall again choose Jerusalem.

In Zechariah chapter 3, The Lord God shows how the sequence of the establishment of the end days occurs in that the High Priest carries the name of Joshua, as did the Messiah who was the Branch. Satan is placed at his right hand to resist him and not to support him. Joshua is given clean garments and his old garments are taken away. The followers of the High Priest that sit before him are men to be wondered at. The Lord God states that He will bring forward the Branch who is Messiah. The Lord God says that the stone laid before Joshua has seven eyes on the one stone, meaning on every stone, and we know from Scripture that they are the seven spirits of God that also represent the seven angels of the seven churches.

It is God that engraves the stones with the seven eyes, which are the seven spirits. God removes the iniquity of the land in one day. He did that through the Messiah and enshrined the seven spirits in the seven churches.

Verse 10 says: “In that day said the Lord of Hosts you will call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig tree.”

This sequence reflects the establishment of the churches over time and brings us to the Day of the Lord, which is the day referred to in verse 10 as: “In that day”.

Chapter 4 goes on to deal with the Witnesses who stand on either side of the seven lamps on the great lampstand. God declares through Zechariah that: “It is not by might, nor by power but by my spirit says the Lord of Hosts”. These are the Two Witnesses that stand beside the Lord of the earth and the seven eyes are the seven spirits of God that run to and fro throughout the earth. This is not Satan “the god of this world” (2Cor. 4:4) but Messiah who is to replace him. This is the section dealing with the Day of the Lord and the triumph of the Witnesses in the Last Days. The scroll of the Lord, which is the Law of God, will go forth into the houses of the thieves and liars and will bear witness against them and separate them and cut them off and destroy their houses to the stones and the bricks. The witness of the Lord was corrupted and made as an ephah of lead and placed in the mouth of the woman who works iniquity, and the ephah was taken to the land of Shinar, which is Babylon.
Thus, the false religious system was given lead and taken to the system of Babylon and dealt with in the Last Days.

Ezekiel 6:1-8 is the period of the four angels referred to in Revelation 7:1-3. The four sets of horses are Red, Black and White horses and the fourth chariot is bay and greys (grisled from Fr. gris or iron-grey).
The blacks go forth to the north-country, the whites go forth to the west, and the grisled go forth to the south country, and the bay walks to and fro on the earth.

The term quieted my spirit in the north-country means: “to cause [my anger] to rest upon in my spirit (cf. Bullinger, Companion Bible). God is thus to deal with the North Country. The Temple of the Lord is to be built and will be built by people who come from afar (cf. Isa. 60:10) and it is the branch, named Joshua, the High Priest that builds the Temple. Thus we had to have the Messiah named Joshua, meaning salvation. It shall come to pass if we diligently obey God.

In those seventy years Israel did not fast and mourn for the Laws of God. In the fasts of the Fifth and Seventh months they did not fast to obey God. Note that the fast of 10 Ab for the destruction of the Temple had been instituted in Judah by this time (cf. Jer. 52:12,13) The word of the Lord is to execute true judgment and to show mercy and compassion every man to his neighbour, to not oppress the widow and the fatherless, nor the stranger or the poor, and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in his heart (Zech. 7:9-10). But they would not listen and pulled away the shoulder and stopped their ears so that they would not hear. They made their hearts as adamant as stone, like flint, so that they could not hear the Law of God and the words that the Lord of Hosts had sent by the former prophets. Because of that, a great wrath came from the Lord of Hosts (Zech. 7:11-12).

God says that it will come to pass that as they closed their ears and would not hear the Law of God and the former prophets that God closed His ears and would not hear, and God scattered them abroad throughout all the nations so that the land was desolate. So too will God deal with those who refuse to hear the Word of the Lord and the Laws of God in the Last Days.

In chapter 8 Zechariah shows that God forces the return to Zion and gathers His people from the East Country and the West Country. They will dwell in Jerusalem in truth and righteousness. Before the final restoration there was no peace and God set every man against his neighbour. But in the Last Days He will make the earth give its fruit and God will do well to Jerusalem and to Judah. God will also restore Israel with Judah so that they are no longer a curse among the nations (Zech. 8:10-15).

This is what we are to do. We are to speak the truth to our neighbours and to execute judgment in truth and peace in our gates. We are to love our neighbours and to make no false oath. Judah will execute the fasts of the Fourth month (on the 9th when the city was broken up); Fifth month (10 Ab, when the Temple and the Houses were burnt); Seventh month (3 Tishri when Gedaliah was slain by Ishmael son of Nethaniah (Jer. 40:8; 41 1-3, 15-18) and Tenth month (10 Tebeth) when the king of Babylon set his face against Jerusalem (Ezek. 24:1-2)) (Zechariah 8:19). These are man-made fasts and not the fasts of the Lord.

In those days, at the end of this age, men shall take hold of the robes of Judah out of all the languages on the earth and go to Jerusalem to pray to the Lord of Hosts (cf. Gen 26:28; Isa. 2:3; Mic. 4:2). God’s people (Israel) will be restored.

In Zechariah chapters 9 to 11, the fate of Tyre and Sidon and Gaza, Ekron, Ashkelon and Ashdod, and Damascus and the lands adjoining it in Syria, and the whole country of Lebanon, are mentioned and dealt with in explicit terms.

They will worship God in Jerusalem with Judah, and will be as governors in Israel. They will face destruction and conversion and rehabilitation. God will encamp about Jerusalem against the army that is brought against it (Zech. 9:1-8).

At this time it is written: Rejoice greatly o daughter of Zion; shout o daughter of Jerusalem: behold thy king cometh unto thee: he is just and having salvation; lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass (Zech. 9:9). The events in bold were quotes in the NT and are prophesied in Micah 5:2 and examined in Matthew 2:1 and 21:5. These are dual aspects. Verse 10 goes on to establish the prophecy of the Second Advent where Messiah, in justice and salvation, cuts off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem and the battle bow. Messiah shall speak peace to the heathens and his dominion shall be from sea to sea and from the river even to the ends of the earth. God states that He will take Zion and establish the blood of His covenant and take their prisoners out of the pit where in there is no water (Zech. 9:11-12). This is the conversion of Judah and Ephraim. The text shows they will be sent against the sons of Javan, which is rendered as Greece in the LXX but the Hebrew says yavan, which was understood to be the ancient Ionian Greeks, not the modern Greeks. They are not simply the residents of modern Greece who are not sons of Javan in any quantity (cf. Gen. 10:2,4; Isa. 66:19; Ezek. 27:13; Dan. 8:21; 11:2; Joel 3:6; see also the Genetic Origin of the Nations (No. 265) and War of Hamon-Gog (No. 294)).

They will all be strengthened and the Lord will make them strong and they will subdue their enemies in the Holy Spirit of their conversion.

Lebanon and the pride of Jordan are brought down. The Lord says feed the flock of the slaughter. In chapter 11 God shows how it is He that intervenes and feeds the flock. In that chapter God warns of the idol shepherd and the punishment for leaving the flock and the destruction of the unity of the people. This is reversion to the First Advent when the staves of Beauty and Bands were broken and the shepherds that grew out of the apostate church rendered the poor to the hooves.

Zechariah chapter 12 deals with Judah and Jerusalem in the Last Days. Jerusalem will become a burdensome stone for ALL people. Everyone that burdens himself with it shall be cut in pieces even though all the people of the earth are gathered together against it. God says that in that day He will smite every horse with astonishment and every rider with madness. In that day God will open His eyes on Judah. That is, He will regard them with favour and strike the horses of the people with blindness, which seems to indicate that it is an advantage at this time for Judah. That may indicate the armies attacking it are unable to determine their bearings and establish sound strategy and tactics (Zech. 12:3-4). In the last days the leaders of Judah shall be like a devouring fire to all people on the right and left of them. They will rely on the inhabitants of Jerusalem who will be with Messiah and in the strength of the Lord of Hosts their God. Thus the attacks on Jerusalem will continue up until and after the Return of the Messiah. The elect shall inhabit Jerusalem with him and be the strength of Judah around them.

Zechariah 12:7 shows that Judah is saved before Jerusalem so that Jerusalem does not magnify itself against Judah. God defends Jerusalem. Zechariah 12:8 states that: In that day he that is feeble shall be as David and the house of David shall be as God, [as elohim] as the angel of Yahovah before them [or at their head]. In other words they shall become Elohim as Christ, at their head, is an Elohim (see the paper The Elect as Elohim (No. 001))

God then says (in v. 9) that: “It shall come to pass that in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.”

Zechariah 12:10 is a prophecy of type and antitype. At the return of Messiah they will look upon him whom they pierced; in other words, the Messiah whom they placed on the stake and thrust through with a spear. There was bitterness in Jerusalem at the sacrifice, and there will be again when the full realisation of what they did comes upon all the families of Judah and Levi, and especially upon the house of David through Nathan, in Judah, and of the priestly house of Shimei in Levi, for their firstborn who was Messiah. The previous great mourning was at Hadadrimmon (now Rummaneh) west of Esdraelon near Meggido where King Josiah was killed and the mourning was unprecedented. In other words, this is the most significant mourning in the history of Israel, and it is caused by the realisation of what they had done and on what they had missed out on over time.

Chapter 13 states that in that day a fountain will be open to the house of David and to Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness. When that happens the idols will be removed from Jerusalem and all Israel and the prophets will be cut off because the Holy Spirit will be poured out in such quantity that prophecy will no longer be needed, and those that pretend to prophesy in the name of the Lord will die (Zech. 13:3).

Then prophets shall claim husbandry. Zechariah 13:7 refers back to the killing of Messiah and the scattering of the elect in fulfilling Isaiah 53:5-10. The sheep will see two-thirds dead and one third scattered and refined in the fire (13:8-9).

Zechariah 14 then goes to the Day of the Lord (see the paper The Day of the Lord and the Last Days (No.192)).

Just before the Messiah comes, the city of Jerusalem is taken and half the city shall go into captivity, but the other half shall remain there and not be cut off from it. Then the Lord shall go forth and fight against those nations. Messiah shall stand on the Mount of Olives and the mountain will cleave in two going both north and south forming a valley running east-west and the valley will have a new limit called Azal (SHD 682 from 680 atsel meaning noble). The mountains referred to in verse 5 are the two mountains formed from the Mount of Olives. This earthquake is mentioned in Amos chapter 1. In that day the elohim of Israel will come and all the saints with him (Zech. 14:5).

The massive underground lake system discovered in Israel will form the basis for the waters going out to the seas to the West and to the South East.

The Messiah will be king over the earth and his name shall be one. The city of Jerusalem will be a plain from Geba some six miles north of Jerusalem to Rimmon which is Khan Umm er Rumamin (cf. Neh. 11:29). The town is Ain Rimmon (En Rimmon, Josh. 15:32). It was first assigned to Simeon (Josh. 19:7; 1Chron. 4:32). It is in Southern Judah in the Negev district near Beer-sheba. Eusebius identified it as a very large Jewish village, sixteen Roman miles south of Eleutheropolis in the middle of the Darome (southern part of Judah). Khirbet er-Ramin is nine miles NNE of Beer-sheba. Beer-sheba lies twenty-eight miles SW of Hebron and Hebron is nineteen miles South of Jerusalem, and thirteen and half miles SSW of Bethlehem. Thus, the valley that comprises the plain of Jerusalem is some forty-four miles in length and covers the southern hill country of Judah. The geological event is thus quite dramatic.

The people who fight against Jerusalem will suffer a plague where their flesh and eyes and tongues will simply be eaten away as they stand. They will all rise up against their neighbours and kill one another. The wealth of the nations doing this will flow to Jerusalem.

After this event, everyone who is left of the nations that came against Jerusalem over the whole world will send their representatives to Jerusalem from year to year to worship the Lord of Hosts and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. Those that do not go up of the families of the earth will get no rain in due season and they will suffer the plagues of Egypt. Thus, disobedience to the Laws of God and His festivals will result in death. The bells on the horses will read holiness to the Lord and the pots in the Lord’s House shall be like bowls before the altar. Those sacrificing will cook the meat in them in holiness (Zech. 14:16-21).

Ezekiel chapters 26 and 27 also deal with Tyre and the fate that awaits the city. It was attacked by the Babylonians, and again by the Macedonians and Greeks. It was made into a fishing headquarters for centuries, but the texts say it will disappear under waves and water. Here we see that the ships of Tarshish were the seafarers of their merchant navy. Javan, Tubal and Meshech were the merchants of Tyre, thus they were more predominately Japhethite rather than Hamitic and that is why their YDNA is predominantly K2 and not E3. Ezekiel 28 relates directly to Satan as King of Tyre.

Any of these nations that call for the destruction of Israel is to be cut in pieces. And that includes all those who seek to aid others in its destruction such as the nations we now see supplying others to attack it. Iran and Iraq will pay the price also. These nations that concern themselves in this matter will be deluded into attacking Jerusalem. The religious war that is shortly to escalate into World War III will be truly horrific.
From the war in 1967 to 2007 is forty years and there has been no repentance to date, and nor is any likely to occur. Scripture cannot be broken. However, these people can repent, but they choose not to do so. The seventy years ends in 2018. Between 2006 and 2018 the entire structure of the wars will develop. 2006 is dealing with Lebanon, and Iraq. The war will expand into Syria and Iran.
The actions against Israel over this period are militarily unsound. The armies are unable to tactically and strategically wage sound war operations.
The UN, acting in condemnation against Israel, has placed itself in this category and will suffer the same fate, as its structure seeks to occupy the places reserved to Messiah and his people.
It is not too late to repent and be restored.

Wade Cox

Coordinator General