God Is The Creator Of All
By Moses Marji
Zechariah 12:1-14
Key Verse 12:1
“A prophecy: The word of the LORD concerning Israel, The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit with a person, declares”
I thank God for his blessings and his mercy; because God is in control of all things and God does not leave his people to their fate. God brings his people back to him. Today we are starting the last and final part of the book of Zechariah. This part includes chapters 12 to 14 which is talking about the last days. It is about the day of the LORD. The day when our LORD finally comes back to the world to take control of all things and put all heaven and earth in check. That day is the day when our LORD comes to rule and completely erase Satan’s rule for ever. It is the day when Satan is with his last breath in his declining kingdom.
Let us read verse one, our Key verse, one more time “A prophecy: The word of the LORD concerning Israel, The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares” In other translations the start of the chapter describes the words of the LORD as oracle or a heavy prophecy. This prophecy will include suffering for the God’s who abandoned God. It will also reveal a great deliverance of the same people and then their great awakening that leads to self and personal reflection. This reflection results in a realization of sin and guilt. They will mourn with great sorrow from that realization. This will finally lead them to a beautiful repentance in the presence of God.
God started this chapter by identifying himself. The major identity of God is that he is the creator God. With deeply understanding God’s identity, our personal perspective of this world changes dramatically. God the creator is the creator of all the universe. God is bigger than everything around us. God is everything. God created the heavens and laid the foundation of the earth. God is greater than anything we could imagine. At the same time, we realize that God is so personal. God took his time to form a spirit within a human. God is so detailed and personal that he knows each one of us as he formed our spirit within us. This identity and introduction about God is so fitting since our God will show us how he will be in control of the whole world’s events. God takes control over the earth and at the same time he is a personal God. Each one of us will have a self and personal reflection to realize who he is to us. Then we reach to a conclusion that God is the personal God that can guide each person to repentance after a great sorrow of realization of who he is.
I divided the next verses in this chapter to two parts, the first part is about the creator God who is a universal God and the second part is about the creator God who is a personal God.
Part One— The Universal God: This part includes verses 2-9. God brings judgement and punishment on nations and peoples. God also bring judgement on his people who turned their hearts away from him. At the same time, in this part we see God bringing deliverance to his chosen people.
Look at verse 2-4a “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,’ declares the LORD.” The Universal God appears here. Our LORD God will come to the world and start his action against the nations. The people of God through out all generations were waiting for the time when our LORD come in his glory to take action. According the prophecy, these nations are intrigued by Jerusalem and have enmity against the people of Jerusalem. These nations became so consumed with Jerusalem that they will be like drunkards who are obsessed with their drinking cup. Jerusalem becomes like their drinking cup that makes them reel or lose control of themselves. Look at the contrast here, while our LORD is coming to take control of the whole universe, the nations are losing control of themselves and become so obsessed with Jerusalem. Their one goal is to destroy Jerusalem. Based on the this prophecy, it seems that the power and control will be with the nations and the fate of Jerusalem seems decided. The nations will besiege Judah and Jerusalem. When that day looks so bleak and hopeless to the people of Judah, God the creator of all the universe and all nations will interfere. That day is the day all believers have been waiting for it. That day when Our LORD comes back with his glory to deliver the whole universe from the rule of Satan and from arrogance of godless nations. That day is the time when we see the powerful hand of God interfering. For thousands of years our LORD was watching and observing what mankind was doing. At a period, God was leading his people directly while he dwelled among them in Jerusalem. But even the people of God abandoned him. God went ahead with his plan for the salvation of the whole universe through our LORD Jesus Christ who came to this world and sacrificed his life on the cross, he died and rose again. But still God did not interfere or act against the nations even though he was always in control. God was hovering and watching over the earth. God was waiting until that day. On that day, God started his act of judgement on all the peoples of the earth. That day is the day when Jesus comes with his glory.
God’s first act was a protective act. God will make Jerusalem immovable rock for the nations. Only God the creator can do this. Once God interferes, right away the power balance shifts to the side of Judah. Who can stand against God? No one. When anyone from the nations try to move Jerusalem, they will be cut to pieces. The nations will go in panic that they will be confused wondering who is with them and who is against them. They will start striking each other and killing each other instead.
Look at verses 4b-6 “I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the LORD Almighty is their God. “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the surrounding peoples right and left, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place. God promised that he will protect Judah every moment at that point and cause the nations to be blinded. The nations at that point will be in complete panic and shock. How would a small and weak people like Judah stand against all their might. God Almighty was not in their calculations. In fact, they dismissed God as they did over the history of mankind for thousands of years. God did not interfere or act before and was watching and waiting. So, they even forgot about God and were full of themselves that they have the power to do what pleases them. But God interfered now because it was the day. That day when God will transform his control and sovereignty over the universe into action. What is interesting here, is that Judah will clearly see the hand of God. Judah will see how the people of Jerusalem become strong because the LORD Almighty is their God. Amen. Now they can see the creator God who is in control of the whole universe. Now they can see the creator God who is in control of all nations and who has all the glory and power. That is the day when the people of Judah can say confidently that God Almighty is their God and that they have the power not because they are powerful people but because God is with them. With that confidence in God, God will make the clans of Judah like a fire pot and like a flaming torch. The common characteristics of both objects is that they consume their surroundings very swiftly. This is the power that God gives to his people to consume all the surrounding peoples right and left. Despite all the hostility and the attempts to take Jerusalem, at the end of it, Jerusalem will remain intact in her place because God our LORD wanted to keep Jerusalem and protect it.
Look at verses 7-9 “The LORD will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah. On that day the LORD will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD going before them. On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.” Before discussing these few verses, I wanted to point out that there are different interpretations regarding Jerusalem and Judah. Some talk about the actual Jerusalem on earth and Israel now, and others talk about the spiritual Jerusalem. There are so many events that can direct in the last days towards Jerusalem as a city in the middle east and how the events are shaping towards that day of the coming of our LORD. How the nation of Israel was established in 1948 and then how other events took place after that. But also, when I look the people who form the current state of Israel, they are not purely descendants of Abraham as the old Judah. So, with that I came to a conclusion that even though events will be happening towards the actual city of Jerusalem and the battle of Armageddon, I am truly convicted that God is talking about his people the Christian believers and the church. And I am convinced that Jerusalem represents the Jews who will accept Christ at the end and the country part of Judah represent the Gentile who will come to Jesus. God will convict both the Jews and the Gentiles at that time to come to him. Saying that, let us discuss our verses here. God promised that he will save the Gentiles first, and then the Jews. Or for those who take Jerusalem literally, God saves the descendants of David after the rest of the clans. This is fine but the main point here is that God works without favoritism. God sees all his people as his children and there is no difference being a Jew or a Gentile. So, God established that all his children are the same in his eyes. This will keep his children humble and focused at him. The next step, God gives his children power like the power of king David. If you recall in old testament, David was a young shepherd and the youngest in his father’s household. He was not even first among his father’s children. His father completely forgot about him when he presented his children to Samuel. But what happened to David? God chose him and he became the anointed one of Israel. With the Spirit of God in him, David grew to become a great king and after God’s own heart. On that day, every child of God and the least of them becomes that David, the anointed by God. All God’s children become like God. At that point, the whole battle turns upside down and all the nations that attack Jerusalem will be destroyed. This will become the final victory to exalt the people of God.
Part Two— The Personal God: As I mentioned earlier, God identified himself as the creator God who is both universal and personal. In the next part of this chapter we will explore the personal God who comes to each person individually.
Look at verse 10a “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication.” The people of God realized at that point that God is Almighty and that God is powerful. They realized that God is great, and that God is in control. They realized that God is a sovereign God. And why did they realize that? Because they met the creator God. It is time for each one of them to meet God personally and deal with their own issues with God. The universal God protected them at this point and destroyed the nations that surrounded them. Now it is the time to deal with their own inner person and their personal relationship with God. The giving God is still giving as he pours out a spirit of grace and supplication. What is that? To start a personal journey with God, a person needs to realize the tremendous grace of God in his or her life. This realization happens based on two understandings, first a person needs to deeply understand the identity of God. At that point, the people understood that God is the creator God and God is the savior God. So, the person needs to deeply realize who God is in their lives. The second understanding is that the person needs to understand who he or she is before God. Once the spirit of grace is poured out on a person, he or she can see themselves and see how sinners they are. God opens the person’s eyes to realize their own sins before God. Once these two understandings happen in a person’s life, he or she completely get to know the grace of God. They realize how God is so gracious to them. What would a person do with this grace that he or she just realized in their lives? There is only one reaction, to fall in a spirit of supplication. What is that? Let me describe it. When a realization hits a person, then that person falls on his or her knees before God praising God for who he is, the creator God, and thanking God for his grace in his or her life. That person starts begging God for forgiveness with tears of joy to be with God and tears of sorrow over a person’s sins that were committed against God. It is a moment when God starts forming that person to a new creation. It is the time when a newborn spiritual body is in place and is yearning to please God and worship him. This is the spirit of supplication.
Look at verses 10b-11 “They will look on me, the one they pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be as great as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.” Throughout the history of the Jews, they did not realize what they were doing to Jesus Christ and they were confused to what they were looking for. They have their own image of the Messiah. Their own obstacles blinded them from seeing the truth of God. Their own habitual traditions and duties led them to become like old wineskins. They were not able to see God on a personal level and as a result, were not able to recognize Jesus. On that day, they really realized and understood the identity of God and with humility came to God. Their realization led them to a deep mourning stage. They mourned because they discovered their sins towards God. They were very sorrowful because of their sins. Let me give you another example about the spirit of supplication, when Jesus was in the boat with Simon Peter, he asked Simon to go fishing again during the heat of the day, Simon obeyed out of respect, but not out of conviction. But then he got plenty of fish, he realized who Jesus was. He was shocked and understood that he was in the presence of God. He knelt with the spirit of supplication before Jesus and said I am a sinner. He felt that he was not even deserving to be in the presence of Jesus. Also, on that day, these people were mourning because they were ashamed to be in the presence of God after their deep realization of the grace of God in their lives. Each one on these people was weeping. The beauty in that time is the collective awakening of a nation on a personal level. So, each person was personally mourning and repenting their sins.
God related the type to their weeping to a story about one of the Judean kings. There was a time during the declining stage in Israel as a nation belonging to God. At that time a new king, Josiah, ruled Judah. Idolatry was in every house all over the land of Israel. Josiah was the last hope for the nation to turn back to God. He did all he could and removed all idols from Israel. He even started celebrating the Passover on his 18th year as a king. Many generations past before him without celebrating the Passover. The word of God was lost, and dust cover the bible scrolls. People completely abandoned God and God’s anger was burning against his people. That King was a godly king who wanted to follow God. But his time came when the king of Egypt came up to the land, and Josiah met him in a battle in Megiddo where he was killed. He was a great king, and his people loved him. His people realized that they lost a God-fearing king and a shepherd so the wept bitterly. They were weeping because they lost a shepherd and a king who led them to God again. He touched their hearts personally and each one of them felt the loss. On that day the people are weeping and mourning the king of kings Jesus Christ and they came to God personally pouring their hearts.
Look at verses 12-14 “The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves, the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, and all the rest of the clans and their wives.” Here the royalty and the religious and the common sections of Judah are represented. Men are mourning separately from their wives and women are mourning separately from their husbands. This mourning was so deep and personal that it even went beyond the unit of marriage. We come to God as a church family, we come to God as a house church, husband and wife. But here, we are coming to God as individuals with a personal mourning and personal time with God. It is my time with my God.
May God lead each one of us to a deep personal relationship with God as we identify our creator God and realize that God is our God. God is my God. May God lead you to his grace with a spirit of supplication. Amen