Behold, the Day of the Lord Is Coming
Zechariah Lesson 32
Chapter 14: 1(a)
This may seem odd that I am only using a part of the first verse in Zechariah 14, but I want to make it clear that the language is very simple and easy to understand. God says things very clearly here. The day of the Lord is coming.
Now there was a day of the Lord about 2,000 years ago when Jesus came the first time. At that time the Jews were under the oppression of the Roman government, and they wanted out. But Jesus came not to rescue the Jews physically, but to rescue them and us, the Gentiles, spiritually. God in the flesh, Jesus, came and lived among us, walked and talked, ate like us, slept like us and eventually died on our behalf to pay for our sins. He then resurrected from the dead and today lives in Heaven, preparing for the second Day of the Lord promised to us here.
In another lesson, we will get into the specific details of why this warning was not about the first coming of Jesus. There are specific things we will see that remind us that this day of the Lord is yet in the future.
Why only look at this one statement? Well, sadly a lot of the Lord’s churches are not preaching that the Lord is returning and that it is an imminent event. We think that the world as we know it will go on and on and that nothing will change. We are so wrong. In Matthew 24: 37-39 we see these solemn words:
“As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. And they were oblivious, until the flood came and swept them all away. So will be the coming of the Son of Man.”
The people of Noah’s day were eating and drinking, marrying and living in the very presence of the Ark, right up until the day that the rain started falling. The Lord let Noah in the Ark (Genesis 7: 1-10) and He kept the door open for 7 days, waiting for someone to come in. Oh, what a gracious God He is! But no one came into the Ark, and they all died. The door closed, the rain came, and God was shown to be truthful. In a similar manner, the world around us moves on as if nothing is happening and no fear of God is in their minds. But God could not be clearer in this statement; the day of the Lord is coming.
In Zechariah 8:3, the Lord says this: “I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.”
Notice, the Lord will return. To return to somewhere, you have to have been there before. Jesus was in Jerusalem and He promises to return and DWELL there in the midst of the people. The Presidency of Mr. Trump is to me one of the greatest signs of the soon return of our Lord and Master. He is not a Christian as far as I know; God knows. But it is clear that He is an instrument in the hands of God.
Just yesterday, I was reading in Daniel 6. We meet Darius, a Persian King, the new king of Babylon, and he is working with Daniel. In this account of Daniel being thrown into the lion’s den, the king recognizes the God of Daniel, that He is an all-powerful God (Daniel 6: 25-27).
“Then King Darius wrote to all the nations and peoples of every language in all the earth: ‘May you prosper greatly! I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. For he is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.”
This pagan king knew who Daniel’s God was; he knew the attributes of God and that He is a living God who endures forever. Mr. Trump clearly states who God is, he speaks about the Bible, and most recently he has proclaimed Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel. You may think I am harping on this; I am. Just like Noah harped about the coming flood. Just like Jeremiah harped about the coming captivity.
Zechariah harped about the Second Coming of Jesus to occur at a time when Jerusalem is the capital city of Israel once again, a time when the powers of the world will come against her to fight her. Notice in the verse from Zechariah 8 that the Lord will dwell in Jerusalem. Why? That is where the kings of Israel dwelt.
Jerusalem being declared the capital of Israel should have set the hairs on the back of every Christian’s neck on end. Goosebumps should have formed on our arms and sent a shiver down our spines. The end is near. We are literally witnessing the beginning of the end.
In June of last year, Prophecy in the News magazine published an article quoting the Pope as calling for a ‘new global political authority.’ Every President since Bush Sr. has called for a ‘new world order’ except Mr. Trump. He is pushing the ‘America First’ agenda. This flies in the face of the globalists, and so they must get rid of him. Look, he is a man, just a man. He is sinful like all men, but make no mistake; God tells us in Daniel 4:25,
“That they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.”
Look at the last line; the Highest rules the kingdom of men, and He gives it to whomever He will. No one becomes a political leader except with God allowing it. This includes Mr. Putin in Russia, Her Majesty in England, and even our Mr. Trudeau here in Canada. These persons are in place to do God’s will and to prepare the way for Jesus to return. The day of the Lord is coming; are you ready to meet Him?
In 1 Thessalonians 5: 1-3 we see these ominous words:
“Now about the times and seasons, brothers, we do not need to write to you. For you are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘Peace and security,’ destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”
It is not that we cannot see that a woman is pregnant – we cannot determine when the baby will come. One of the ladies in my family just had a baby a month early. The baby decided when it was time. All the doctors in the world could not stop the birth; they just had to manage it. Well, just like a pregnant woman is visible to most, so are the signs of Jesus’ return, and we ignore them at our peril.
We get caught up in our earthly, temporal kingdoms and lose sight of Jesus’ kingdom that is coming to earth very, very soon. We are like people who live next to a volcano and seem surprised when it explodes. It rumbles and trembles, it spits out smoke, and yet people still build homes there – and they are astonished when the inevitable comes. A lot of people will think we are nuts; they thought Lot was nuts. We see this in Genesis 19:14.
“So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, ‘Get up, get out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city!’” But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.
Lot’s own sons-in-law thought he was joking about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. They laughed at him. Last week I was accused of being an ‘elitist’ because I teach that Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to God. I was called confused, misled, and basically that my God was not the real God. Phooey, I say!
You cannot get onto a plane without the proper paperwork, a passport and a boarding pass. You have to go through extensive security to even get to the door of the plane. BUT, somehow if God requires us to come through Jesus, He is intolerant. You should fall on your face and thank God that He even gave you a way to be saved. He could have walked away in the Garden in Genesis 3 and left us to decay and die on our own. But He did not.
He paid for our redemption in His own blood, carried our scars in his own flesh, and had to lie in a borrowed grave for 3 days and nights to redeem us – and He is intolerant? No sir!
Jesus will be intolerant when you spit on the grace that was offered freely. Then you will want grace; but when the day of the Lord arrives, and it will, you will be too late. You will be destroyed, judged for your sins and cast away from the presence of God. You will not be able to argue with God, you will not mount a defense, and no jury will be on your side. There will only be judgment and suffering.
Repent! The day of the Lord is coming. I hope this is clear enough for you.
Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca