Zechariah 027 – Insanity of the Nations

Transcript

Zechariah 027 – Insanity of Nations

By Dr Andy Woods – 04/27/2022

Zechariah 12:1b-3

 

Well, someone during prayer time mentioned the need to get out and vote. So you notice I got my little sticker here. It says: I voted today. That was you, right that brought that up? And if you guys pay the right fee, I’ll tell you who I voted for at the conclusion. Alright! Well, let’s take our Bibles this evening and open them to the book of Zechariah chapter 12. I’ve been really excited about chapter 12 since we started in chapter 1, thinking when are we going to get to chapter 12 and we’re here. Just by way of reminder, Zechariah has a four part structure:

Structure

1. Introductory call to repentance (Zech 1:1-6)
2. Eight night visions (Zech 1:7–6:15)
3. Question and answers about fasting (Zech 7–8)
4. Two burdens (Zech 9–14)

Chapter 1 is a call to repentance and then from there through the end of chapter 6 are eight-night visions and then chapter 7 and 8 is a rebuke to the nation for empty ritualism and then what follows are the two burdens, chapters 9 through 14.

1. Two Burdens (Zech, 9‒14)

1. 1. Israel’s postponed deliverance due to her rejection of her Messiah (Zech, 9‒11)
   2. Israel’s future deliverance due to her acceptance of her Messiah (Zech, 12‒14)

So the first burden we’ve completed and that burden revolved around the first coming and it’s everything God wanted to do for Israel, but it’s been postponed because they rejected their Messiah at His first coming. So those blessings await the second advent of Christ and that becomes the focus of the second burden chapters 12 through 14, how Israel is going to come to faith in a time of unparalleled distress and then the kingdom blessings will materialize. So that’s the subject of chapters 12 through 14 and we’re just moving now into chapter 12.

Zechariah 12 (Israel’s Physical & Spiritual Salvation)

1. Israel’s physical deliverance (Zech 12:1-9)
   1. The nations that will attack Israel (Zech 12:1-3)
   2. The God who will protect Israel (Zech 12:4-9)
2. Israel’s spiritual deliverance (Zech 12:10-14)
   1. God’s Spirit: the cause of revival (Zech 12:10a)
   2. Israel’s remorse: the result of revival (Zech 12:11-14)

Chapter 12 has two parts to it: Verses 1 through 9 (Zech 12:1-9) is physical deliverance from the insanity of the nations and so if you look at verse 7 for example, you’ll see the word “save”, “the Lord also will save”, that’s talking about the physical protection of the nation. Verses 1 through 9, but God is not content simply to protect Israel from attack, He wants to save them spiritually and so what’s predicted in verses 10 through 14 is a national revival. National regeneration which is God’s ultimate goal. So those are the two parts of chapter 12 and let’s start here with Israel’s physical deliverance and we can divide that into two. We have a description of the nations that will attack Israel, verses 1 through 3 (Zech 12:1-3) and that’s followed by verses 4 through 9 (Zech 12:4-9), how God is going to protect or save Israel from that attack. So notice if you will verses 1 through 3, the nations that will attack Israel and notice how it begins, we’ve already gone over last time the first part of verse 1. The burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel. So we pick it up there in the second part of verse 1 (Zech 12:1) where it says: Thus declares the LORD who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him… So God here is laying out His credentials and His power, because as you read this chapter you’re going to ask yourself how can God pull this off. I mean, how can God protect His nation physically and spiritually against overwhelming odds and the answer is well, because He’s God, He’s all powerful. So how powerful is God? He stretches out the heavens, so He has authority over the heavenly realm. There it is in Genesis 1:1: In the beginning God created the heavens… So He has authority over the celestial realm. Not only does He stretch out the heavens but He lays the foundation of the earth. So He has authority over the terrestrial earthly realm and that’s in Genesis 1:1-2 as well: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… So God has authority over the heavens and the earth and if God has that authority, the things He’s going to do in chapter 12 are easy. So if you believe what God says about Himself in Genesis 1:1 then the rest of the miracles in the Bible, including the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead are easy compared to what He did in Genesis 1:1: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… If God spoke and the heavens and the earth leapt into existence then I have no problem believing in floating ax heads described in the King’s books. I have no problem believing in Elijah bringing down fire from heaven. I have no problem with Jesus turning water to wine. I mean, all that’s just small potatoes if Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 (Gen 1:1) is true. That, by the way, is why Satan wants you to doubt verse 1 of the Bible, because if he can get you to doubt verse 1, chapter 1 of the whole Bible then, you won’t have any faith in the rest of it. So that sort of explains why early Genesis is under such attack. So God is the head of the celestial realm, He stretches out the heavens, He is sovereign over the terrestrial realm, He lays out the foundations of the earth and He also has authority over the human realm, because it says there in verse 1 (Zech 12:1), the very end of the verse: He forms the spirit of man within Him… 8:20

So human beings basically have at least two parts: The material and the immaterial. You know, the physical body and then there’s the part of us that’s designed to live forever called “the soul”, which is the seat of our temperament, personality. You know, all the things about a person that makes a person a person that you can’t see. It’s the seat of emotions, intellect, will, that’s all part of the soul and it’s actually God that puts that into people. Genesis, 2, verse 7 (Gen 2:7) says: Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being… So God is the one that puts the spirit within man. So, I mean, what greater credentials are there? He’s the head of the heavenly realm, He’s the head of the earthly realm and He’s the one that’s in charge of humanity itself, having given us our immaterial component called the soul. So if God can do all of that, what He’s going to do in chapter 12, it’s not hard to believe that He can pull that off.

Zechariah 12 (Israel’s Physical & Spiritual Salvation)

1. Israel’s physical deliverance (Zech 12:1-9)
   1. The nations that will attack Israel (Zech 12:1-3)
   2. The God who will protect Israel (Zech 12:4-9)
2. Israel’s spiritual deliverance (Zech 12:10-14)
   1. God’s Spirit: the cause of revival (Zech 12:10a)
   2. Israel’s remorse: the result of revival (Zech 12:11-14)

So you drop down to verse 2 (Zech 12:2) and now we get into the nitty gritty, because He’s dealing here with the nations that are going to attack Israel in the last days and notice what He says in verse 2 and if you can understand verse 2 and verse 3, you’ll understand everything that’s happening in our world right now from a geo political point of view: Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around… So He’s dealing here with His city called the city of Jerusalem. The word Jerusalem is used eight hundred times in the Bible and guess what it means every single time? It means Jerusalem. Just if you want to find Jerusalem on a map just go to the tip of the Dead Sea and hang a left and you run into it and what’s God going to do with the city of Jerusalem in the last days? He’s going to make it a cup that causes all people to reel. Jerusalem is going to become like a cup of wine that intoxicates the whole world and this idea of a cup causing the nations to reel is the idea of drunkenness. In other words, the nations are going to lose their mental faculties trying to figure out what to do with the city of Jerusalem. It’s going to become an obsession for them. It’s like being addicted to inebriation or intoxication. All they can think about is Jerusalem and they’re going to stumble around like drunk people, is basically what it says. Part of the drunkenness is going to relate to demons, because Satan himself is going to gather the nations against Jerusalem and the last days. In Revelation, 16, verse 14 (Rev 16:14), when it’s describing the gathering of the nations to Armageddon, it talks about the demons working under Satan that are doing this gathering. It says there: For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty… So a lot of the insanity that is going to revolve around the city of Jerusalem in the last days, this drunkenness, this cup that causes the nations to reel and stumble around relates to demonic activity. So we’re living in the time period, I believe, where this prophecy is largely happening. It’s not happening to its fruition yet in complete fulfillment, but certainly you see the stage being set aggressively as you look at the United Nations, the UN. You know, the nation of Israel, you ask them what they think of the UN, they call it the United Nothing, because the UN makes ruling after ruling after ruling against Israel. I think two thirds of all, if I have my stats right, of all UN resolutions, go against the city of Jerusalem, go against the nation of Israel. So that’s an outworking of what Zechariah is predicting is going to happen and a lot of the confusion about the city of Jerusalem relates to Islam, because in Islamic thinking Jerusalem is a holy site, it’s their third holiest site behind Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. Their third holiest site is Jerusalem because that’s where they believe that Mohammed ascended back to Allah on a steed named Barak. I’m sorry but I can’t make stuff up like that. That’s the steed’s name, its name is Barak and Barak allegedly escorted Mohammed back to Allah and so they think that’s where that happened and so to them it’s their third holiest site, which quite frankly is a joke because Jerusalem, although it’s mentioned eight hundred times in the Bible, it’s not mentioned a single time in the Quran. You can go through the Quran and you will not find the word Jerusalem anywhere in the Quran. They take this really obscure reference to the furthest mosque and they try to pretend that that’s Jerusalem. So they really only got interested in the city after it became prosperous again under Israeli control. But this is part of the drunkenness of the nations in the last days. So you’ve got Islam that causes this drunkenness and its inability to think correctly. You’ve got Satan himself through demonic activity that causes this drunkenness and just to show you the insanity of the nations and I have used this map many times, that little red dot there is Israel and that green territory is Islamic territory; and so, what the world community, the United Nations thinks, is if Israel just gavee up a little bit more ground, then there’d be world peace and if you just look at it geographically, that makes no sense. I mean, that’s like an illogical thing to say.

There’s another map of how small Israel is in this sea of Islamic theocracies that threaten to drive Israel into the Mediterranean Sea and you say, you know, what is wrong with everybody? Why do they think this way? Well, they’re not thinking rationally. They’re not thinking logically, they’re thinking like someone that’s stumbling around inebriated and that’s exactly what Zechariah said would happen. So the whole Middle East scenario, in terms of the craziness of it, is actually predicted by the prophet Zechariah, right here. 16:46

So what are these drunken nations going to do? Well, you have a description of it in the second part of verse 2 (Zech 12:2), well, I’ll just start at the beginning of verse 2, just to get the context: Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah… So the nations are actually going to lay siege to Jerusalem. You know, all this talk is eventually going to lead to a global attack against Jerusalem. If you have been following us in our Middle East Meltdown series in Sunday school you know all about this attack. It’s mentioned in Ezekiel, 38, verses 10 and 11 (Ezek 38:10-11) which says: This is what the Lord God says, it will come about on that day that evil thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil plan and you will say I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will go up against those who are at rest that live securely, all of them living without walls and having no bars or gates… And you’ll notice what it says there when they attack Jerusalem, they’re going to be attacking Judah. So Judah is one of the twelve tribes of Israel and Jerusalem is in the tribal territory of Judah and so when this attack comes against Jerusalem, you’re also attacking Judah simultaneously and when you attack Jerusalem, you’re also attacking the land of Israel simultaneously, because God says, the city of Jerusalem is the center of the nations. Ezekiel, 5 and verse 5 (Ezek 5:5), says: Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her… And in Ezekiel, 38, verse 12 (Ezek 38:12), it talks about Jews living in Israel, in Jerusalem in the last days as those who live at the center of the world. So, the way to understand this is you have to think the way God thinks. If you think the way the world thinks, you don’t understand what all the commotion is about. But if you think the way God thinks, you understand why he has to act to protect His city in the last days, because as far as God is concerned, Jerusalem is the center, which is the translation of the Hebrew word for navel or belly button. Just as the belly button is the center of the body, the city of Jerusalem is the center of the whole world, because that’s the part of the world that God entered into the covenant with Abraham, called the Abrahamic Covenant and I’ve used this quote many times to show God’s thinking on this. 20:18

Charles Feinberg writes:

Charles L. Feinberg – The Prophecy of Ezekiel: The Glory of the Lord, Paperback ed. (Chicago: Moody, 1969; reprint, Chicago: Moody, 1984), 223.

An interesting phrase is employed to define the place where God’s people will be dwelling. It is called the middle (literally, the navel) of the earth as explained in Ezekiel 5:5. The land of Israel is in the center of the earth as far as God’s purposes for the world are concerned. Rabbinic literature states: As the navel is set in the center of the human body, so the land of Israel is the navel of the world. Situated in the center of the world, in Jerusalem in the center of the land of Israel, and the sanctuary in the center of Jerusalem, and the holy place in the center of the sanctuary, and the ark in the center of the holy place, and the foundation stone before the holy place, because from it the world was founded… And it’s quoting there from the Midrash, demonstrating that that’s Hebrew thought concerning the city of Jerusalem. In other words, the nation of Israel is the belly button of the world. The city of Jerusalem is at the center of the belly button. In other words: The city of Jerusalem is at the center of the land of Israel. The temple, the Temple Mount and the temple is at the center of Jerusalem and then the center of the Temple Mount is the most holy place. The holy of holies. So it goes Israel’s at the center and at the center of Israel is Jerusalem and at the center of Jerusalem is the temple and at the center of the temple is the most holy place, that’s Jewish thought concerning what we’re speaking of here. The world doesn’t think that way, but the Hebrews thought that way and more importantly than that, that’s our God thinks about it, because He clearly says, I have set Jerusalem at the center of the nations. So that’s why Zechariah says, look when the nations come against Jerusalem, they’re coming against Judah, because Jerusalem is within Judah and they’re also coming against the land of Israel, cause Judah is within Israel and they’re actually coming against God Himself, because as far as God is concerned, Jerusalem is the belly button of the entire earth, she is the navel. I don’t think they think this way on CNN or MSNBC. They look at Jerusalem as just some nation and city that’s in the way of progress, but this is the way God thinks and this is why God is going to act when these nations, in their drunken state, come against Israel and Jerusalem; and then you come to verse 3 (Zech 12:3) and it says: in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it… Now notice what it says here “in that day”. If you look at verse 3, it says “in that day”. If you look at verse 4, it begins by saying “in that day”. You look at verse 6 how it starts, “in that day”. Verse 8, “in that day”. Actually says it twice in verse 8 “in that day” “in that day”. Verse 9, and “in that day”. Verse 11, “in that day”. So this is not here a panorama of world history that we’re being given. In fact, this particular passage here, it’s not even a description of the whole seven year tribulation period. You know, you can read about that in other parts of the Bible. What this is a description of is what God is going to do on that specific day. When the nations in their drunken state come against the city of Jerusalem. So what exactly is going to happen? Notice what it says, it says Jerusalem. So we’re not dealing here with any other city on planet earth, because as I said before, Jerusalem is used eight hundred times in the Bible and it always means the city of Jerusalem. 25:22

So what is God going to do in that day regarding these nations, who in their drunken state, in their inebriated state, when they don’t have their full mental faculties, you know, when they’re hoodwinked by false religions like Islam or, you know, when they are being influenced by demons and they’re reeling, because Jerusalem has become this cup of trembling, what is God’s going to do to these nations? Well, He tells you exactly what He’s going to do: He’s going to make Jerusalem a heavy stone. A heavy stone for who? For all the peoples. That’s the world coming against Jerusalem. Now, watch this very carefully: All who lift it, will be injured. So Jerusalem is like this giant rock. God is going to make it an immovable stone, like a giant rock and the more you try to move a giant rock, you know, the more you hurt your body trying to do it. You know, you hurt your hands, you hurt your arms. You can even get a hernia, I guess, doing stuff like that. I mean, you get involved in moving something that’s immovable. The only person that’s going to come out the loser is you. So the more the nations will try to move it, that’s Jerusalem, the more they will injure themselves. Now, this word injured is very, very interesting in Hebrew. The word is cut. God says, He will cut the nations that come against Jerusalem. When you track this word down and how it’s used elsewhere, you’ll find it used of cuts in the body, as in Leviticus 19:28: You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead. Nor make tattoo marks on yourselves, I am the Lord… You’ll find it in Leviticus 21:5: They shall not make any baldness on their heads nor shave off the edges of their beards nor make any cuts… That’s our word for injury here… Cuts in their flesh… So essentially what God is saying is, if you try to move Israel, I will cut you… The more you try to move Jerusalem the more you’re going to injure yourself and that injury is going to take the form of a cut. Now, this is an outworking of Genesis 12:3, which is a promise that God gave to the patriarch Abram two thousand years before the time of Christ and He says to Abram, the one who curses you, I will curse. So Abram was given many, many promises from God and one of those promises is a promise of cursing to the cursers.

1. 8 New Promises – Genesis 12:1-3

1. 1. 1. Land (Gen. 12:1b)
      2. Great nation (Gen. 12:2a)
      3. Personal blessing (Gen. 12:2b)
      4. Great name (Gen. 12:2c)
      5. Blessing to others (Gen. 12:2d)
      6. Blessing to blessers (Gen. 12:3a)
      7. Cursing to cursers (Gen. 12:3b)
      8. Blessing to the world (Gen. 12:3c)

Now, I guess what I want you to see is how literal this is. In plague number ten in the book of Exodus, God killed, all over the land of Egypt, the first born. The only people that He didn’t kill the homes with their first born are the ones that had the blood on the door post, the Hebrew homes in Passover, because God’s judgment passed over those homes when he saw the blood on the door post. But if you didn’t have the blood on the door post, every one of those homes, their first born all over the land of Egypt, was killed. Now you’ve got to ask yourself at some point, why did God do that? Why did God in plague number ten kill the firstborn? And you will find an answer to that in the book of Exodus chapter 4, verse 22 (Exo 4:22), where God says, Israel is My firstborn. In other words, Egypt you came against my firstborn, Israel, and so I’m coming for your first born. Now, that’s response in kind that’s very literal. An outworking of Genesis 12, verse 3 (Gen 12:3): Those who curse you, I will curse and then when the nation of Israel leaves Egypt and they pass through the Red Sea and the Egyptians are pursuing them through the Red Sea, the two walls of water, we know what happened to the Egyptians when the Hebrews got to safety on the other side, God closed the Red Sea and He drowned the Egyptians. They drown and you have to ask yourself at some point, why did God choose the mechanism of drowning to wipe out the Egyptian army? I mean He could have killed them any number of ways, hurricane, lightning bolt, but He chose the vehicle of drowning, why did He choose drowning? And you’ll find the answer to that in Exodus 1:22, it says there: So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, Every son who is born you are to be cast into the Nile and every daughter you are to keep alive… What was Pharaoh doing? He was drowning God’s people in the Nile in Exodus chapter 1 and Genesis, 12, verse 3 (Gen 12:3) means what it says and says what it means. God says, you drown My people, I’m going to drown you. You come after my first born, I’m coming after your first born. 32:00

So this is extremely literal. I have many people telling me today this is just Old Testament stuff, God doesn’t work that way today and when I look at Genesis, 12, verse 3 (Gen 12:3), I’m sorry, I don’t see a statute of limitations on this. I mean, there’s no sunset provision, this is good until whenever. I mean, this is an immutable principle and it’s so vital to understand this, to understand why God says, if you move Jerusalem in the last days, you’re going to injure yourself through a cut. So what are the nations of the earth going to do with the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem in the last days? Zechariah doesn’t tell you, but Joel does. Joel, 3, verse 2 (Joel 3:2) is a description of why God is going to bring His judgment on the nations in the end times. It isn’t because of homosexuality. It isn’t because of abortion. It isn’t because they’re teaching evolution in the schools. I mean, all those things are very serious issues. But that’s not the straw that breaks the camel’s back and brings the wrath of God to planet earth. So what exactly is going to trigger the wrath of God? You know, we talk today about people being triggered. Don’t say certain things, so and so will be triggered. What triggers God? Well, Joel, 3, verse 2 (Joel 3:2) tells you. He says: I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, then I will enter judgment with them there on behalf of my people, my inheritance Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and there it is, they have divided my land. That’s what triggers God. Once the nations of the earth move into a mindset where they actually try to divide God’s land, God is triggered and He brings His wrath to the earth. So do you understand what the cutting is then? Jerusalem becomes an immovable stone, anyone that tries to move it will injure themselves in the form of a cut. Why would God cut people? I gave you the examples for that word cut is used to describe cuts in the body. Why is God cutting people? He’s cutting people because the nations of the earth in the last days cut His land. Just like He brought the plague, killed all the firstborn in the tenth plague, because they tampered with God’s firstborn. He drowned the Egyptians because they were drowning His people. So in the same way, in the last days, the nations of the earth will try to cut, they will try to divide, the land of Israel and God says, when you do that you’re injuring yourself because I, in kind, will cut you. 35:26

So this really is a wakeup call to foreign policy, because the whole name of the game in foreign policy in the world community is that brown area there, called the West Bank, flippantly called the West Bank.

It’s biblically called Judea and Samaria. But the whole name of the game is to take that land from Israel and give it to the Muslims, give it to the Palestinians, make it some kind of international zone and the whole name of the game is supposedly once this happens, there’s going to be peace in the region and if you want to see the insanity of this, cause this is insane, this is not logical, this thought process. This doesn’t make any sense, because Zechariah said, the nations will be drunk when they’re doing this. It’s illogical. The reason it’s illogical is because of that dark brown area in the southwest part of the map there, called the Gaza Strip which was relinquished by the Israelis in 2005. That little chunk of land there called Gaza had one and only one election, they elected Hamas to power and that becomes the beachhead for all of these rocket attacks into the land of Israel that you see on your news feeds constantly. That’s where it comes from. They build, actually, these tunnels, that go into the land of Israel and they’ll actually kidnap people. We were in Israel when some youths coming home from school were kidnapped through this tunnel of terror thing that I’m describing here. So the Gaza Strip and the relinquishing of it in 2005 has been a total disaster for Israel. They should have never relinquished it. It would be like taking part of Sugar Land or part of an area where we live and turn it over to terrorists and then they use that as a beachhead to attack us. That’s what they did with the Gaza Strip, because they were put under pressure to do it from the international community. So if the whole thing completely and totally filled with the Gaza Strip, who in their right mind would ever think that giving up that larger chunk called Judea and Samaria, is going to lead to peace. I mean, nobody but a drunk person would think that and yet, that’s what everybody wants, because they’re not in their rational mind. They’re stumbling around in an inebriated state and God says, when you cut my land up, I’m going to cut you up.

Now, this picture here and I want you to just take off your political hat. Can you can you guys do that for me? We all have strong political feelings. You’ve got to just take it off to understand this. You have to look at this biblically. This is the Trump administration, their so-called peace plan and once this plan, brokered by Trump’s son in law Jared Kushner, was crafted and it was a closely guarded secret for a long time, but once it was publicized this is immediately what went up on to the White House Twitter feed and what you see there is a division of the land of Israel and I’m a Republican and I’m a Trump voter but the truth of the matter is, you can’t spin this. This is just basically the same old two state solution mindset. It’s relinquishing, you know, there’s all this spin machine that’s trying to make it sound like something it’s not but it is what it is. A lot of the so-called prophecy ministries that are out there, big names of people, if I mention them you don’t know who I’m talking about, in my opinion, completely and totally lost credibility when this came out, because they spent all of their time trying to spin it to defend the Trump administration, because they wanted Trump to win reelection. Now, I wanted Trump to win reelection too, but the truth of the matter is there weren’t a lot of ministries telling you what this is. I mean, at some point you got to figure out are we a Trump ministry? Are we here to protect the president to see him get reelected or are we a Bible ministry? And there’s a lot of them out there that call themselves Bible prophecy ministries, the only thing they were doing at the end of the day is that they are running interference for the Trump administration. So if you go back into some of our pastors points of view, when this came out, you’ll see us and we got a lot of pushback from a lot of people when we did it, but you’ll see us just calling a spade a spade. We said this is no good. We said this will not fare well for the Trump administration and Trump’s reelection and you have to understand that when this hit the Twitter feed in social media, the economy was roaring, right? Trump’s popularity was off the charts. Nobody ever suspected that Trump would go down into defeat electorally and look, don’t take my word for it. Go back and review what happened when this came out. Suddenly you got the COVID situation, the mask mandates leading to the voter fraud, leading to something unthinkable happening where Donald Trump doesn’t return to the Oval Office. I watched the exact same thing happen with someone else I voted for and supported. A man named George Herbert Walker Bush. I mean, the exact same thing happened to him. George Herbert Walker Bush returned victorious from the Gulf War, your remember. This would go back to 1992, roughly and his poll numbers were like ninety one percent and then he turned around and he started to, through then secretary of state James Baker, pressure Israel to give up land, divide Israel’s land in exchange for loan guarantees and you’ll see the exact same pattern that’s why I was certain that something similar would happen to Trump cause I watched it happen to George Herbert Walker Bush and he goes from like ninety percent in the polls and suddenly this guy Ross Perot emerges, remember him? And he stole a huge chunk of the Republican constituency, I guess I should say, and suddenly what happened in 1992 is the unthinkable happened. Some guy from Arkansas becomes the leader of the free world and of course, you know who I’m talking about, I’m talking about our president and her husband. Oops! I shouldn’t have said that. The Clinton administration. 43:47

Now, you know, if someone had said early in 1992 this guy is going to become president of the United States, it would’ve been insane. I mean, George Bush was cruising to reelection with a ninety one percent favorability rating and the whole thing tanks and you can track it almost to the day when he started to tamper with Israel and divide Israel’s land. You can see the exact same thing happening to Donald Trump. I know I’m giving you some private personal analysis of all of this, but how do you explain it other than God says, if you cut my land, I will cut you and George Bush’s constituency was cut, because of Ross Perot. It was divided because of Ross Perot and I’m suggesting, I think, the same kind of thing happened to Donald Trump and it will happen really to anybody that starts to do this, because God says, if you divide me, I will divide you. God doesn’t care if a Democrat does it. He doesn’t care if Republican does it. You tamper with the nation of Israel in terms of a division, Genesis, 12, verse 3 (Gen 12:3) kicks in, which as I’ve tried to explain is very literal, it’s an actual cut and that’s how you can explain a lot of things that are happening in politics and almost nobody out there will tell you this what I’m telling you. Even the Bible prophecy ministries won’t tell you this, because they’re trying to get their guy reelected, whoever their guy happens to be. God is nonpartisan. Going back to Jimmy Carter, essentially what the United States of America has done is it’s been one of the leaders in this division of the land of Israel. President after president, Republican, Democrat, has pushed for this as a solution. Do you not think it’s somewhat interesting that the United States of America, probably more than at any other time, probably since the civil war, is completely divided. I mean, you got red state, blue state. You know, you’ve seen all the maps. You’ve got Americans against Americans. People with one set of values against people with another set of values, what is that? That’s a division of the country. Is that not an outworking of America’s ambition to lead the charge in dividing Israel’s land. God says, if you divide my land, I’m going to divide you. If you cut my land, I’m going to cut you. You divide Israel, I’ll divide your country. If this administration over here divides my land, I’ll divide their constituency and so that’s why I find this so interesting here, because this is exactly what God said would happen. It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured… They will be cut. So the nations in their drunken state are going to try to do this and God won’t tolerate it. Of all the political issues to be thinking about, if what I’m saying is true, I mean, everybody is exercised about abortion, about, you know, all these different things, of all the things to be exercised about, it would be this, because Blinken of the Biden administration just said, on March 28th, that the two state solution is back on the table. You can go to YouTube or wherever you watch your videos and you could see him saying it. What  he is saying is United States is going to be involved in trying to divide the land of Israel and that won’t bode well for our country or anyone who tries to do this. 48:22

So at the end of verse 3 (Zech 12:3), it says: And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it… Do you see the repetition of “all”? Back to verse 2 (Zech 12:2): Behold, I’m going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples… And then you see it there at the end of verse 3 and all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it. In my opinion, all means all. In other words, what Zechariah is predicting is every single nation on planet earth in their inebriated state will get involved in this attempt to divide Israel’s land, come against the city of Jerusalem, etc… So the big question everybody asks is where is America in Bible prophecy? Well, if I was going to find America in Bible prophecy, I’ll probably say I’ll find it right there in verse 3 cause America is one of the “all”, right? America just like any other country, will turn against Israel in the last days. I think we see signs of that already starting to happen and will join this inebriated group of nations to try to divide Israel’s land. So here’s a news flash folks, God doesn’t need America. God has used America, God has blessed America, but if America goes the wrong direction on this issue, God will take His hand off America because God doesn’t need America, right? Do you realize that God got along just fine before America was around? I mean, we think that you know, poor God what’s He going to do without America? The same God who did his work before America ever existed. God doesn’t need America and let me tell you something else, Israel doesn’t need America either. See, I read my Bible and Israel is going to be just fine. God has a plan for Israel. I don’t see anything in the Bible about the United States. I don’t really worry about Israel. I worry more for our own country. Israel doesn’t need the USA but the USA needs Israel, because we need to be under the protective care of Genesis, 12, verse 3 (Gen 12:3), which by the way is what George Washington did as our federal head and you can go to Newport, Rhode Island and they have a big display there. He visited the Touro synagogue which is the first synagogue built in the USA and then in early America and he actually went to one of their worship sessions and he wrote to them the same day as the acting federal head of the United States and he wrote them a famous letter. It’s actually been cited in several religious freedom Supreme Court cases and in this and you can find it online. It’s very easy to find. If you go to Newport, Rhode Island, they have a big display, a big museum there where you can see all of this and he basically says in that letter that the stock of Abraham, so he’s speaking of the Jews, are going to dwell securely in this land and none shall make them afraid. I don’t have the exact line memorized but that’s pretty close to what he said and what he did is he gave to the Jewish people something that they’ve never had, because everywhere they’ve gone in their two thousand years in worldwide dispersion, they’ve been persecuted and George Washington said, it will not be that way here in the United States. You can worship however you want, you can worship your God the way you want to worship him, no one ‘s going to persecute you and Genesis, 12, verse 3 (Gen 12:3) doesn’t just say, those who curse Israel will be cursed. It also says, those who bless Israel will be blessed and God from heaven reached down, I believe this from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet and there’s a lot of space in between there by the way, God from heaven reached down and He touched the United States and he blessed it from sea to shining sea because of what George Washington did, because everybody sits around today and they try to figure out what has made America so great. What has made America so successful and there’s all this pontifications about the free market and all these kinds of things. Well, really it relates to what George Washington did in Newport, Rhode Island and everybody today is wondering what’s wrong with our country? Why is it falling apart? Why is it divided? Why is it that you go on social media and you’re immediately fighting with everybody out there. Why are people turning against each other? It relates to what’s been happening ever since Jimmy Carter, Republican and Democrat presidents trying to divide the land of Israel and God says, if you divide the land of Israel, if you come against the city of Jerusalem, you’re only going to injure yourself and if you cut my land, I will cut you. 54:27

So with all that being said. By the way, this idea that all means all. You also find it in Zechariah, 14, verse 2 (Zech 14:2). It’s not just in Zechariah 12:3, all the peoples, all the nations against Jerusalem, it’s in Zechariah, 14, verse 2 (Zech 14:2), which we haven’t gotten to yet in our verse by verse study, but it does say there: I will gather all the nations. All means all, doesn’t it? Against Jerusalem to battle. The city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished, half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city, but there again it’s talking about a worldwide drunken coalition of nations doing something insane that doesn’t even make any sense from a geo political level coming against the nation of Israel in the last days.

Zechariah 12 (Israel’s Physical & Spiritual Salvation)

1. Israel’s physical deliverance (Zech 12:1-9)
   1. The nations that will attack Israel (Zech 12:1-3)
   2. The God who will protect Israel (Zech 12:4-9)
2. Israel’s spiritual deliverance (Zech 12:10-14)
   1. God’s Spirit: the cause of revival (Zech 12:10a)
   2. Israel’s remorse: the result of revival (Zech 12:11-14)

So verses 1 through 3 (Zech 12:1-3) is a description of the insanity of the nations that will attack Israel. Verses 4 through 9 (Zech 12:4-9) is a description of the God who will protect Israel. Will God protect Israel? Psalm, 121, verse 4 (Psalm 121:4) says: But he who keeps Israel, will neither slumber nor sleep… Have you seen Israel’s iron dome?

You know, this iron dome they have, they could knock down missiles and all of that, the iron dome is God’s hand over Israel. So we’ll read about that protection next time. So congratulations! We made it through two and a half verses tonight. Praise the Lord and I’m going to let you out two minutes early. So if you got to take off that’s good, if you guys want to do Q&A, we could stick around for that.