Based on Zechariah 14:1-19 (New King James Version)
“Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south. Then you shall flee through My mountain valley, for the mountain valley shall reach to Azal. Yes, you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Thus the Lord my God will come, and all the saints with You. It shall come to pass in that day that there will be no light; the lights will diminish. It shall be one day which is known to the Lord—neither day nor night. But at evening time it shall happen that it will be light. And in that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the western sea; in both summer and winter it shall occur. And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be—“The Lord is one,” and His name one. All the land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be raised up and inhabited in her place from Benjamin’s Gate to the place of the First Gate and the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses. The people shall dwell in it; and no longer shall there be utter destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, and their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths. It shall come to pass in that day that a great panic from the Lord will be among them. Everyone will seize the hand of his neighbor, and raise his hand against his neighbor’s hand; Judah also will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be gathered together: Gold, silver, and apparel in great abundance. Such also shall be the plague on the horse and the mule, on the camel and the donkey, and on all the cattle that will be in those camps. So shall this plague be. And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.”
Today, we read about a prophecy that has not yet been fulfilled—and one whose fulfillment may still be some time off. The most important aspect of the matter is not necessarily trying to understand “when” these things will occur—important though that may be—but rather “why” they will happen and how this applies to us today; for the Word is always for the present, even when it speaks of the future. God always speaks to us in the here and now, using both the written accounts of the past and the revelations of what is to come. That is why it is not merely important, but urgent, to study the Word in its fullness—to see how it applies to us and what we must do about it today.
The first concept we must grasp—and the most important one—is the matter of the fulfillment of His Word. It is written: “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaias 55:10-11. Many interpret this passage to mean that if a person is exposed to the Word of God, they will sooner or later be touched by the Lord. However, that is not necessarily the case, as we can see in the world today. One prophecy that has indeed been fulfilled is the one stating that the Gospel would be preached throughout the world. Thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit and the efforts of many faithful believers, the Gospel has reached the ends of the earth, and practically everyone knows about the Lord and His deeds. Even Islam—the religion with the second largest number of followers worldwide—teaches as part of its doctrine that Christ did exist and that He died for the sins of mankind. Their issue is that they do not believe the Lord Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, regarding Him instead as merely a prophet; nevertheless, they are well aware of the Lord's deeds and, consequently, know of the Gospel. This proves the point: if it were true that everyone exposed to the Word of God would be saved, then the entire world would have converted by now. Sadly, that is not the case. We must never forget the existence of free will, as taught in His Word. Yet the Word is fulfilled in every detail depending on how it is received. And this leads us to the next point.
God will never force anyone to love Him. He will provide circumstances to persuade a person and expose them to His Word to offer them an opportunity; He will even allow the Holy Spirit to bring conviction of sin—something that goes beyond what a person's conscience alone might feel—but He will never force a human being to love Him. It is all a matter of free will. This is what the Word says, and it explains very clearly how this comes to pass: “But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. ‘See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing...” Deuteronomy 30:14-19a. Quite simply, the entire Word is fulfilled, yet this hinges on the decision of an individual.
Thus, God permits everything that happens today—and all that will occur in the future—in order to deal with mankind; this applies both to the sin that still remains within His people (for the purpose of cleansing them) and to those who refuse to accept the Lord. We owe everything to the Lord—our existence and all that it entails, as well as our salvation—we who have chosen to follow Him as Lord. God deals with many matters simultaneously so that what has been ordained—His Word—may ultimately be fulfilled. So, will you follow the Lord unto eternal life, or will you fail to treat Him as He deserves, thereby incurring just and eternal punishment? Lord bless! John. God bless Israel!