8 A. Prophecy:
“Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand,” Revelation 1:3.
I. See chart of Prophetic Time Line of the Bible, (Lesson Outline 8). Note that:
(1) Prophecies of “return to the land” were literally fulfilled after the Babylonian captivity:
Read: Ezra 9:8, 15.
(2) Only a “remnant” returned and became the “elect”, AMP “chosen”:
Read: II Kings 19:30, 31:
Read: Isaiah 10: 20-22; fulfilled in Romans 9:27-29.
Read: Jeremiah 23:3-4.
Read: Romans 11:1-7, the “remnant” are the “elect”.
(3) Daniel’s prophecies of the coming Kingdom of God were fulfilled in the Inter-Testament period, during the era of the Roman Empire, not a “revived Roman Empire” some time in the future. Some commentators say that the fulfillment was so precise that unbelievers think that the Book of Daniel was written after the events had occurred.
(4) Daniel’s prophecy of the end of the Jewish nation, people and city after “seventy weeks of years” and a “time, times and an half” were fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD: Daniel 9:24-27; 12:6-7.
(5) The promises of “return to the Lord” remain intact to Christ and those in Him, that is, the faithful remnant, the elect, the Israel of God, the New Jerusalem:
See Jeremiah 23:3-4 as above; they are “gathered” by the good shepherd, Jesus.
Read: John 11:52;
Read: Ephesians 1:9-10.
(6) Jesus is the “Holy Seed”: Read Galatians 3:16;
Read: Isaiah 6:9-13;
Read: Isaiah 45:25;
Read: Isaiah 65:9, the “Elect”, the “Heir”;
Read: Jeremiah 31:31-37, (the New Covenant in Christ, I Corinthians 11:25.)
(7) Jesus is “The Branch”: Read: Isaiah 11:1, 10-12, “in that day”.
Read: Jeremiah 23:5-6.
Read: Jeremiah 33:14-16, “the Lord our righteousness” I Corinthians 1:30.
II. The Prophet Zechariah’s Visions, (520-510 B.C.), of the Future of Israel:
A. The future Jerusalem:
Zechariah 2:4: “Jerusalem as a town without walls”. The measuring line cannot measure the future Jerusalem, for it will be a “town without walls”, that is, a universal City, not just a parochial, tribal town.
2:7, 10: Zion, vs. “Daughter of Babylon”. Zion represents the spiritual City; the “Daughter of Babylon” represents the city influenced by the culture of pagan Babylon.
2:11-12: “In that day” (when the Lord will be in her, (verse 5), “The Lord shall choose Jerusalem”.
3:8-10: “The Branch” will remove iniquity in one day. “In that day….”
6:12-15: “The Branch” will build the Temple, see also Ephesians 1:19-22.
Verse 13: He will be both King and Priest.
8:3, 6, 11, 12: “The Remnant”: God returns to Zion, the spiritual Jerusalem, and dwells with the “remnant”.
8:23: “In those days”, when the Lord dwells again with His people.
9:9-11: “Thy King cometh…”: Description of the coming of Jesus in peace.
16: “God will save them” in that day.
11:10: God breaks the Old Covenant, (the staff ‘Beauty’), when Christ is crucified, because there remains no one who has kept the Covenant.
Verse 12-13: Christ was sold for “thirty pieces of silver’, which was “cast unto the Potter in the house of the Lord”.
11:14: God cuts asunder “Bands” to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel: Judah is no longer ‘Israel’, the Prince of God.
11: 3-17: “Woe to the idol shepherd”, condemnation of tyrants.
Chapter 12: The siege of Jerusalem: “In that day”, vss. 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11.
Chapter 13: “A fountain opened”; vs. 6: “Wounded hands”; God’s people will be brought through the fire.
Chapter 14: The siege, and the Coming of the Lord; vs. 4 “In that day”.
Verse 8: “In that day living waters shall go out from Jerusalem.”
Verse 9: “And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one.” See Ephesians 4:5, 6.