This sermon delves into various prophetic glimpses of the future, focusing on events related to Israel, including unique tribulation, the sealing of 144,000 young Israelis, Israel's protection in the wilderness, a final attack on Jerusalem, and the supernatural revelation of the Messiah. It also discusses the cleansing of the land from idolatry and false prophets, the wounded shepherd referring to Jesus, and the fulfillment of prophetic Scriptures in Jesus' life.

Now, in the previous session my theme was glimpses of the future, taken from the prophetic Scriptures especially as they apply to Israel. And I gave you, which I will briefly mention, three glimpses of the future. The first was a period of unique tribulation that will affect the whole earth. Jew first, then Gentile. The second was the sealing of 144,000 young Israelis who become God's final army to bring the gospel to all nations. And the third was Israel fleeing into the wilderness to be protected there for three and a half years and then brought back to enter her inheritance from there. Now we have five more glimpses. It's going to take the grace of God and your patience for me to go through them. But it will not be complete if I don't go through them. The fourth of these glimpses, I've headed a final attack on Jerusalem. Now all the remaining glimpses will be taken from the last three chapters of Zechariah. And in Zechariah chapter 12, the first verse says, The burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel. And then verse 2 says, Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. Now the word that's translated drunkenness is also translated reeling or staggering. In other words, there's going to be something there like alcohol or drugs that will make people incapable of reasonable action and even steady movement. God is going to do that. And he says, all the nations round about the surrounding peoples will they siege against Jerusalem. Now if you look at the map, you'll see that all the nations round about Israel without exception, are Arab nations whose primary religion is Islam. That's no accident. Both God and the devil have arranged it that way. The devil, who is a student of prophecy, has been aware for many centuries that the climax of the age will take place in the land of Israel and will be the reconciliation of the Jewish people with their Messiah. And so, in my opinion, he built a kind of wall of enclosure round about that land of nations who by their very religion, Islam, are radically opposed to Israel and God's purposes for them. So that's the scenario that God and the devil both had a part in. But God is the one who's going to have the final answer. So all the surrounding peoples are Arab peoples. And it's apparently with them that this first final onslaught on Israel and Jerusalem will be initiated. Then it goes on in the next verse, And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples. All who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations on the earth are gathered against it. Now this is a second stage. It goes beyond the surrounding Arab nations to all nations of the earth. And an obvious way for that to be fulfilled would be for the United Nations to take joint action against Israel. This is not difficult to foresee. In my book, The Last Word on the Middle East, which was published in 1982, and I have to say one thing. Ten or eleven years later I don't need to change a single word in the book. Because it's based on Scripture which doesn't change. But I point out that already on the statute books of the United Nations is a decision to make Jerusalem an international city. That has never been rescinded, it's still there. And if the United Nations at any time were to say, We'll enforce that decision by military power, the situation described here would immediately result. So it's not a remote dream, it's a very real possibility. Incidentally, the United Nations headquarters in Israel is located on a hill called the Mount of Evil Council. I think that's no accident. All right, now, God says at this point I'm going to intervene. Verse 4, In that day, says the Lord, I will strike every horse with confusion and its rider with madness. I will open my eyes on the house of Judah and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. I want to point out something to you. I can't necessarily explain it but it appears that the military forces that come against Jerusalem will not be mechanized. They will be cavalry and other animals. This is again made more clear in Zechariah chapter 14 where it speaks about a plague that will come upon the horses, the mules and the camels, and their eyes will melt in their sockets. Now, you can't make the eyes of a tank melt in its sockets. The whole of this passage and other passages, Ezekiel chapter 38 and 39, all seem to indicate that the means of warfare will go back to the stage before mechanized armies. Now, I don't necessarily have an explanation for that but one possibility is that technology will outsmart itself. And technology will develop a technology that will make the standard contemporary weapons of war useless. Before the desert storm warfare it was announced, I don't know on whose authority, that the United States had a bomb which if they exploded it would automatically render all electronic equipment useless. That's all really you would need because every kind of mechanized warfare today depends on electronic equipment. I'm not saying it will happen that way but I am personally convinced it will happen. What will do it? I don't know. Another possibility is that the Antichrist, in order to maintain his power, will collect all modern weapons of war and keep them under his control. Because it says in the thirteenth chapter of Revelation that people say who is able to make war against him. So he is in some way going to control the primary weapons of warfare. Now I'm not saying that either of those explanations is right but I do maintain from the whole of the Scriptures relating to this final scene that it will be cavalry and that the camps will have camels and other animals, donkeys with them. Which is typical up to 1914 really. My uncle, my mother's brother, was part of a mechanized Indian cavalry unit and he led a charge at El Afula when Allenby moved in and defeated the Turks. And he was wounded at El Afula, which is now Afula. So it's not far away that we have in our lobby in Fort Lauderdale a photograph of Allenby entering Jerusalem. And everybody is on horses, although Allenby entered on foot himself. So that's just something for you to think over and if you want to, to pray about it. Now, in the following verses, Zechariah 12, 4 through 9, God says at this point I'm going to join the battle. And He says, verse 5, The governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength and the Lord of hosts their God. In that day I, the Lord, will make the governors of Judah like a firepan in the woodpile and like a fiery torch in the sheaths. They shall devour all the surrounding peoples. That's the Arabs. On the right hand and on the left. Now in the Bible, right hand and left are taken from somebody entering the temple. From the east. So the right hand is the north, the left hand is the south. But Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place. Jerusalem. Then it says the Lord will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall not become greater than that of Judah. That's the Jewish people not resident in Jerusalem. In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, the angel of the Lord before them. It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. Well when God seeks to destroy, He accomplishes His purpose. So God says, I am going to intervene personally at this point in the battle. Now I believe the climax is described in Zechariah chapter 14. But in the meanwhile, in the intervening words, there are a number of other glimpses of the future. And I want to take those before we go on to the final scene in Zechariah chapter 14. So the next glimpse of the future is an exciting one. It excites me. I've headed it, The Supernatural Revelation of Messiah. And it's contained in one verse, Zechariah chapter 12, verse 10. I, the Lord, will pour on the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications. It's plural, ruach chen v'tachanunim. And bear in mind that you cannot supplicate unless God gives you the grace. Grace has to come first. And at this point God will give His people the grace to call upon Him, to call out to Him for mercy and for His intervention. And then it says, now this is one of the most critical Scriptures concerning the identity of the Messiah. It says they, the Jewish people, will look on Me whom they have pierced. Me is the Lord. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only Son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. So in that amazing statement God says, They have pierced Me in the person of Jesus the Messiah. And for two thousand years most of them have not mourned. They have not realized what they did. But at that point of revelation they will suddenly realize what they have done. And the revelation will come only by the Holy Spirit. Bear in mind that nobody but the Holy Spirit can reveal Jesus as He is. When Peter said to Him, You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God, Jesus answered, Flesh and blood has not revealed this. But my Father in heaven, by implication, through the Holy Spirit. And none of us here this morning who know the identity of Jesus know it from any other source primarily but the Holy Spirit. And I think if you have experienced salvation and you think back you will realize that it was the Holy Spirit was the first agent of the Godhead who contacted you. And if you were like me, I sensed the dealings of the Holy Spirit for several weeks before I met Jesus. I did not know what was happening to me. It was rather comical, if I may just say it briefly. I was a soldier in the British Army and I was there reading my Bible dutifully as a philosopher studying a work of philosophy. And one of the chaplains said we're going to have a special service at Whitsun which is, you know, Pentecost. I didn't actually know what it was at that time. He said I want you to read a passage from the second chapter of Acts which is the description of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Well I was pretty arrogant in those days and I thought I really know how to read this and I'll rehearse this and get it right. I'll pause at the right place and so on and so forth. Well, it was a disaster because when I stood up to read something happened to my breathing. I couldn't speak more than three words without pausing to gasp for breath. I mean, it was ridiculous. But you know what was happening to me? The Holy Spirit. I wasn't converted. I didn't know Jesus but the Holy Spirit had come on my case. And oh, it's interesting to see God deal with the Jewish people even today in Israel. Because I say God is sneaking up on their blind side. They don't know what's happening to them. But the Holy Spirit is dealing with them. And He is the one who's going to reveal Yeshua. So, now following on after this, there's a description of a morning. A universal morning of all the Jewish people. It says, In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadadrimon in the plain of Megiddo. That was when King Josiah was killed in battle. And Israel saw that they'd lost their last real hope of a godly king and a prosperous future. And it says, The land shall mourn every family by itself, the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves, the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves, the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves, the family of Shimei, that's Shimon, Simeon, and their wives by themselves. All the families that remain, every family by itself and their wives by themselves. And notice, husbands and wives for this period were separated so that there would be no normal conjugal relationship between them. I'm not an expert in Jewish customs by any mean, but there is a practice amongst the Jewish people, familiar I'm sure to many of you who are Jewish, called the Sheba, after a member of a family has died. For one week the family remain at home. They take their shoes off, they put mattresses on the floor, and they sit on the mattresses. And all the friends and the other relatives come and offer them condolence. And so this is the official period of mourning. And the men will not shave. And I see this as a nationwide Sheba that will last one week. The nation will go into mourning because it never mourned for Jesus before this. I read a fascinating story of a young girl, I think she was about fourteen, a Jewish girl who was the only member of her family in Germany that escaped the Holocaust. The title of the book was Selected to Live. And by an extraordinary series of coincidences, she ended up in the home of a Presbyterian minister in Holland. And they had there a children's Bible. And she'd never seen the New Testament, but she started to read it and got into the New Testament and got into the life of Jesus. And immediately she saw, this is our Messiah. But then she got to His death and she was heartbroken. She had a Sheba. She went into mourning for seven days. Then she read on, discovered He was resurrected. That's a wonderful discovery. I wonder if you've all made that discovery. Jesus is alive today. Amen. So that's the picture of the supernatural revelation of Messiah and the ensuing mourning. The next picture I've called The Cleansing of the Land. Now we don't know exactly how all these are going to interrelate in time. And the Bible, I don't think, gives a definite indication. But in Zechariah chapter 13, verses 1 through 5, it says this. In that day, that's the day of the revelation of Messiah, a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. Uncleanness is the word used for a woman when she has her periods. The man is not allowed to approach her. So in a sense it speaks of something that has separated the Jewish people from their God. It shall be in that day, says the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land and they shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land. The land will be purged in one day of three things. Idolatry, the occult and false prophets. And I would like to say, if that were to happen in Israel today, you would hardly recognize the resulting land or people. Because it is so full of idolatry, the occult and false prophets. Now I've heard Christians pray for the land to be cleansed. But God says it won't happen until a certain day and it will all happen at once. Some of the things that happen to Israel have parallels in the church. I wonder what would happen to the church if it were purged of idolatry, the occult and false prophets. There would be a lot of empty seats in some churches. All right, we're going on to the next little glimpse, which I call The Wounded Shepherd. Now this is a very moving passage. I'm not Jewish, as I've said, but when I get into these passages I become so totally identified with the Jewish people. That I think I go through some of their spiritual experiences. So we come to Zechariah chapter 13, verse 6. Now there's an unknown person here. And some of your Bibles are divided that attaches that to the previous verses. I think that's a mistake. I think verse 6 introduces verse 7 and following. And it says in verse 6, Someone will say to him, and we don't know who him is yet, What are these wounds in your hands? Now again, there's a whole lot of different translations. Without going into the problems of the Hebrew, some say the wounds between your arms, etc. But I believe myself that these wounds in your hands is probably the right translation. So the Jewish people are now confronted by someone who has the scars of wounds in his hands. And they say, What are those wounds? And this is such a beautiful answer. If you believe it's Yeshua, He will answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. But the key thing is the word friends doesn't mean those whom I love. It means those who love me. So it's as if Jesus is saying after 19 centuries of alienation, I know you really love me. You really are my people. To me that's intensely touching. The grace of the Lord Jesus. He doesn't accuse. He doesn't condemn. He just says everything is all right now. And then we come to the picture of the wounded shepherd which I believe is the outworking of this. And we have this Scripture in verse 7. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd... It's God who's speaking. ...against the man who is my companion, says the Lord of hosts. Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. Then I will turn my hand upon the little ones. Now that passage is quoted twice in Matthew 26. If you're in Zechariah 13, keep your hand there or your finger. But turn with me if you can to Matthew chapter 26. Jesus Himself quotes these words in verse 31. Just at the end of the Last Supper, Matthew 26, 31, then Jesus said to them, His disciples, All of you will be made to stumble because of me this night. For it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. So that striking of the shepherd refers to Jesus. But notice, it's God who strikes the shepherd. It was not an accident. It was not merely the malice and wickedness of man. It was God's prearranged plan for our salvation. And then in Matthew 26, verse 56, it says, After the arrest of Jesus, but all this was done, that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled. I want to point out to you the tremendous authority of the Scriptures of the prophets. Everything in Jesus' life happened that the prophetic Scriptures might be fulfilled. From His birth, to His death, to His resurrection. Jesus is the perfect pattern of submission to the authority of Scripture. Everything He did, He did to fulfill the prophetic Scriptures. I hope that will give some of you a new attitude toward the prophetic Scriptures. Because unfortunately, the majority of the contemporary church are almost totally ignorant of the prophetic Scriptures. And as I said earlier in this series, they are a light in a dark place, provided by God. If you don't avail yourself of the light, you'll be in the dark when you should be in the light. Now we'll go back to Zechariah 13 and consider a little bit more the implication of those words. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, God's shepherd, the man who is my companion. That's an amazing statement. There is a man who's God's companion. A man who enjoys permanent, intimate fellowship with God. There's only one man who answers to that description. Jesus, the Messiah. And I'd like to take you back just for a moment to another passage in Zechariah chapter 6. This is one of the most clear predictions of the Messiahship of Jesus anywhere in the Scriptures. I'm going to read from verse 11 through verse 13. Now this is a scene after the remnant had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon and were rebuilding the temple and the high priesthood had been restored. So this is a scene after the remnant had returned Now this is a scene after the remnant had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon and were rebuilding the temple. Now this is a scene after the remnant had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon and were rebuilding the temple. Now this is a scene after the remnant had returned Now this is a scene after the remnant had returned