Editorial: 2 Sep 2024

“Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling …”

Difficult times lie ahead of the nations of the world. The day will come when the U.S. finally withdraws its support from Israel, with the result that “all the nations of the earth” will pile on her. The dream of the Muslims will finally be realized—or so they will assume at that time.

However, as the old saying goes: “It will get much worse before it gets better.”, for the nations of the earth as well as for Israel.

The text that is the heart of this dire prediction is this:

Zec 12.1b-3
Thus declares the Lord who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, “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. 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. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.

When this scenario begins to play out, there are several divine actions that occur, apparently in fairly quick succession:

• the LORD causes bewilderment upon the horses of the attackers (v12.4a);
• the peoples who attack Israel will be struck with blindness (v12.4b);
• the house of Judah will gain military ascendancy in Israel, even over the house of David (v12.7);
• the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem (v12.8a);
• even the feeblest in Israel will be strong for battle (v12.8b);
• the LORD begins to destroy the nations that come against Jerusalem (v12.9).

The LORD will pour out a much-deserved wrath on the nations of the earth for their aggregated treatment of the Israels. And, as magnificent as the divine actions above are, they are not the most remarkable. It is at this point that the LORD begins to apply the New Covenant of Jer 33:

Jer 31.31-34
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

We will see this happen before our eyes as national Israel finally recognizes her Messiah, the Lord Christ whom she crucified 20 centuries ago in a display of unparalleled obstinance and rebellion—and which was culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies in A.D. 70:

Zec 12.10-14
“I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves; all the families that remain, every family by itself and their wives by themselves.

We will see, in real time, a national repentance at a level and in such depth as the world has never seen. Although national Israel will be in the fight for its very survival, the LORD will protect and strengthen her through this process.

But, as I asserted above, it is about to get much worse also for Israel:

Zec 13.8
“It will come about in all the land,”
Declares the Lord,
“That two parts in it will be cut off and perish;
But the third will be left in it.

For simplicity’s sake, let’s assume that the prophet is referring only to those Israelis who live in Israel (rather than globally), and that we also assume the current population. As of this Wikipedia article, the current (2024) estimated population of Israel is 9.9 million people. This means that the “nations of the earth” will succeed in killing:

9,900,000 * 0.666 = 6,593,400 Jews,

an amount roughly equivalent to those who perished at the hands of the Nazis in WW2. Or, in other words, what took place on Oct 7 2023 will be barely a "blip" in light of a slaughter that will be roughly 5500 times larger!

But, the LORD has special plans for the remnant of that terrible time:

Zec 13.9
“And I will bring the third part through the fire,
Refine them as silver is refined,
And test them as gold is tested.
They will call on My name,
And I will answer them;
I will say, ‘They are My people,’
And they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”

Theirs will be a special destiny. The LORD protects His people.

I won’t here attempt to guess when these events will take place, only to assert that the time grows shorter until they do take place. Will the current tensions in the Middle East finally ignite this global time bomb? The U.S. appears to yet stand with Israel, but if Harris is elected that support may wane and/or disappear.

No one knows when. We are only to continue watching and waiting, as the Lord Christ told us:

Mar 24.32-33,36
“Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door.
…
But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.