ZECHARIAH: GOD’S PRESENT DIRECTIVES AND FUTURE HOPE

XXIV: Christ’s Millennial Kingdom

(Zechariah 14:16-21)

I. Introduction

A. Zechariah along with Haggai called the returning Hebrews back to rebuilding the temple, and he gave God’s directives and future hope. (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, “Introduction to the Book of Zechariah,” p. 1310)

B. Zechariah chapters 9-14 present two “burdens” or oracles, with Zechariah 9-11 predicting Messiah’s first advent and rejection by Israel and Zechariah 12-14 foretelling His second advent and acceptance by Israel.

C. Zechariah 14:16-21 predicts the Millennial Kingdom of Christ, what we view for our insight and edification:

II. Christ’s Millennial Kingdom, Zechariah 14:16-21.

A. God will enforce the worldwide worship of the Lord in Jerusalem during Christ’s reign, Zechariah 14:16-18:

1. After Christ at His coming delivers Jerusalem from hostile Gentile armies at Armageddon, His Kingdom will begin and “the survivors of all the nations will worship” Him “annually in Jerusalem,” Zechariah 14:16a; B. K. C., O. T., p. 1571. These survivors will be believers who survive the Great Tribulation who were not part of the military units that were destroyed at Christ’s coming. (Matthew 25:31-46; Ibid.)

2. “Millennial religious worship will not be a restored Judaism but a newly instituted worldwide religious order embracing both Jews and Gentiles,” and one characteristic of the world’s worship will be “the annual celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles (cf. Lev. 23:33-43; Zech. 14:18-19),” Ibid.; Zech. 14:16b.

3. This feast prophetically anticipates Christ’s Millennial reign. Though God directed Israel to live in booths during this feast to commemorate His provision for Israel’s livelihood needs in the wilderness during the Exodus, this feast also anticipates God’s livelihood provisions for Israel and the world in Christ’s future Millennial Kingdom. (J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee, 1981, vol. I, p. 432)

4. The Lord will require the people of the world’s Gentile nations to come to Jerusalem to worship the Lord at this feast as a requirement for God’s sending them rain for crop production, Zechariah 14:17. Those who live in Egypt “whose irrigation depends not on rain (at least directly) but rather on the flooding of the Nile, will still experience the plague of drought as punishment from the Lord, as will all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles,” Zechariah 14:18-19; Ibid., Bible Know. Com., O. T.

5. (These survivors of the Great Tribulation will still have sinful natures since they will still be in unglorified bodies, explaining the possibility of their sinning and requiring God’s discipline in the form of a drought.)

6. God’s dealings with the nations will correct errant theology in Israel’s past: she had long worshiped Baal, the false god of fertility who was thought to bring the rain that produced crops (Z. P. E. B., v. One, p. 431-433), so in Christ’s Kingdom, God will prove that He and not Baal is the true God of fertility by His either making nations who disobey Him suffer drought or giving rain and crop bounty to nations who obey Him.

B. God will enforce holiness in Judah and Jerusalem in Christ’s reign, Zechariah 14:20-21; Ibid., p. 1571-1572:

1. In Christ’s reign, every part of life will be marked by “holiness,” that it, separation from sin, Zech. 14:20-21a, and this may imply “the removal of the dichotomy between secular and sacred,” Ibid.:

a. In public life, the bells on the horses will be marked with the words, “Holiness unto the Lord,” v. 20a.

b. In religious life, the cooking pots in God’s temple will be like the sanctified bowls before the altar, v. 20b.

c. In private life, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holiness unto the Lord of hosts “so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them,” Zech. 14:21a ESV; Ibid.

2. When Zechariah added that no Canaanite would be in the temple of the Lord in Zechariah 14:21b, he used a figurative expression: “In the Old Testament a Canaanite had become symbolic of anything ceremonially unclean and ungodly (the dishonest “merchant” in Hosea 12:7 is lit., “the Canaanite”),” Ibid. Zechariah thus meant that there would be nothing ceremonially unclean and ungodly in the temple, Ibid., p. 1572.

Lesson: In Christ’s Millennial Kingdom, He will enforce the worldwide worship of the Lord in Jerusalem particularly with regard to the observance of the Feast of Tabernacles, and He will enforce holiness in Judah and Jerusalem in public life, religious life, and private life as a seamless way of living.

Application: (1) In preparation for life in Christ’s coming Kingdom, may we now worship the Lord, aware that all of our livelihood blessings come from Him alone! (2) May we live in “holiness,” that is, separate from sin in every realm of public, religious, and private life. (3) Indeed, may we live a life that is separate from sin as a seamless, unhypocritical way of life in every realm of life.