Zechariah's Prophecy and Tammuz 17th's Meaning

"Again, the word of the LORD of hosts came, saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "I am zealous for Zion with great zeal; With great fervor I am zealous for her. Thus says the LORD: 'I will return to Zion, And dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth, The Mountain of the LORD of hosts, The Holy Mountain." Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Old men and old women shall again sit In the streets of Jerusalem, Each one with his staff in his hand Because of great age. The streets of the city shall be full Of boys and girls Playing in its streets." Thus says the LORD of hosts: "If it is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people In these days, Will it also be marvelous in My eyes?" Says the LORD of hosts. "Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'Behold, I will save My people From the land of the east And also from the land of the west. I will bring them back, And they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. They shall be My people, And I will be their God In truth and righteousness." Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Let your hands be strong, You who have been hearing in these days These words by the mouth of the prophets, Who spoke in the day the foundation Was laid for the house of the LORD of hosts, That the temple might be built. For before these days, There were no wages for man, Nor any hire for beasts; There was no peace from the enemy For whoever went out or came in. For I set all men, Everyone against his neighbor. But now I will not treat the remnant of this people As in the former days," says the LORD of hosts. "For the seed shall be prosperous, The vine shall give its fruit, The ground shall give her increase, The heavens shall give their dew. I will cause the remnant of this people To possess all of these. And it shall come to pass, As you were cursed among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, So I will save you, And you shall be a blessing. Do not fear! Let your hands be strong." For thus says the LORD of hosts: "Just as I determined to punish you When your fathers provoked Me to wrath," says the LORD of hosts, "And I would not relent, So again in these days, I am determined to do good To Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Amen. Do not fear. These are the things you shall do: Speak each man the truth to his neighbor; Give judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and shalom. Let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor, And do not love a false oath; For all these are things that I hate," says the LORD.' "Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "The fast of the fourth, The fast of the fifth, The fast of the seventh, And the fast of the tenth Shall be joy and gladness and cheerful feasts For the house of Judah. Therefore love truth and peace." Thus says the LORD of hosts: "People shall yet come, Inhabitants of many cities, The inhabitants of one city Shall go to another, Saying, 'Let us continue to go And pray before the LORD, And seek the LORD of hosts. I myself will go also.' Yes, many peoples and strong nations Shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, And to pray before the LORD. Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'In those days, Ten men from every language of the nations Shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, Saying, "Let us go with you, For we have heard that God is with you."'" In the name and blood of Yeshua, Amen and Amen and Amen.

So my friends, it's pretty obvious that this is a second coming event and millennial kingdom chapter that has not been done yet. The mountain of the Lord, the kingdom of the Lord, all the nations coming, all the Jewish believers there with the Gentile believers as well. None of that has occurred yet. So ultimately, we're seeing foreshadows of that, obviously, with the land producing fruit and all these beautiful things, and we've seen the 4 million Jewish people return since 1948, 4 million plus. But there's a huge aliyah coming here soon, as we've discussed before. But this is a millennial kingdom chapter. And look at what He says: "The fast of the fourth month." If we don't understand the biblical calendar, then we're not going to understand what the prophet is truly trying to say about the fast of the fourth. He's saying, "Remember the fast of the fourth, the golden calf. Remember the fast of the fifth month, the night of when both temples were destroyed because of the 10 spies brought back the bad report. Remember the seventh, the fast of the seventh when the high priest was murdered. Remember the fast of the tenth when Nebuchadnezzar breached the walls." He's trying to get everybody to remember why they were destroyed during this time.

This is a very serious time. Tammuz 17th to the Ninth Day of Av, we'll talk about it in a few minutes, the three weeks of sorrow, the dire straits. That's not saying you have to be sorrowful or in a bad mood, but it's just to understand and to reflect in meditation and prayer and intercession, kind of like Moses did, what we'll read tonight. This is a huge opportunity for the believers to understand why this became a fast day because of the calf, because of idolatry, because of disobedience. And again, this is not to criticize anybody; this is for all of us to understand, each individual and each nation, what the Most High expects of all of us, especially the promised land, Israel, especially if in America, if we believe we're a Christian nation, we've got to understand these things of why they were cursed, why they were destroyed. You see what I'm saying? So again, when I say cursed, they were destroyed, not that they're cursed; they were destroyed twice because of disobedience.

But my friends, it goes back into the golden calf and understanding. After deliverance, after He delivered them of the greatest victory with Egypt, 50 days they went on a journey with Him and got the revelation of Sinai. They were married to Him at Sinai, 50 days after bondage. They said yes, and He said yes as well. They were His people; He was their God, the one new body and the one new man. And what happened? 40 days later, they rebelled. They went into idolatry with the golden calf. Not all of them, you know, but some of them. And again, this is where 3,000 people died. That's a big, huge misunderstanding with people. 3,000 people did not die on Shavuot. They all said yes to Him; it was a marriage; it was a beautiful thing. So again, people are wrong. 3,000 people died on Tammuz 17th when Moses came down and he told the Levites to come with him, and they killed them. So it wasn't during Shavuot where Moses took the sword; it was on Tammuz 17th when he came down on the mountain and they were worshiping the golden calf, sexual parties, all this nonsense. He broke the tablets and he killed 3,000 people, or he, the Levites, killed 3,000 people when he said, "Who's for the Lord?" Only the Levites came. One of the reasons why He chose them for the priesthood.

So my friends, this is super important, you know, from a national standpoint, but also from an individual perspective as well, on how quick mankind, all of us, could turn away. It's very crazy how that works, but we've all done that, turned away from the Lord one time or another or several times. And that's where His beautiful grace does come in. But friends, if we can understand this from a national standpoint, from a personal standpoint, of why the golden calf, or why the fast of the fourth is, why the fast of the fifth is, which is next month, these three weeks of sorrow, to understand why did God destroy His city, Jerusalem? Why did He exile His people? Go read what happened. Very bad stuff happened in the past. So we've got to understand those things will happen again. I'm not trying to be negative, but they will happen again from what the biblical prophets say. So what we're trying to do is just trying to do our part, get everybody to wake up who wants to listen to understand these things, that judgment will come once the grace and the mercy and the loving-kindness ends. It will come. It has come before, and we're about to see it again if we're not careful with what's going down, you know, really in the entire world, you know, including Israel, you know, just look around and see what's going down with all of these things, and it's really not a pretty picture.

So, from a biblical perspective, why the prophet wrote it the way he wrote it, this is really beautiful. This whole Zechariah 8, I mean, it's such a hopeful picture of what He's going to do. We'll read some of it here; we're not going to read all of it again, but look at what the prophet has declared what Yeshua, Jesus, is going to do. Look at what He says: "I am zealous for Zion with great zeal, with great fervor. I am zealous for her." That has not happened before; it's going to happen at the second coming events. Look at what He says: "I will return to Zion." He's going to come back; He's going to return again to Zion. The prophet was speaking about the second coming events, not the first coming, the second coming. "I will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, the mountain of the LORD of hosts." It's not called that now. The holy mountain. Look at what it says: "Old men, old women." This is millennial kingdom stuff. They're going to be great of old age. Kids playing in the streets, boys and girls playing in the streets. This is beautiful. And then look at what He says: "If it is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant, only the remnant, everybody, not everybody, only a remnant will come through this, Jew and Gentile, of the people of these days," what the prophet said. "Will it also be marvelous in His eyes?" And then He's going to save His people from the east, save them from the west. He's going to bring them back.

My friends, this is not the final return. For all my Jewish friends, all my Israeli friends, this is not the final return. This is one of the aliyot. And then there's going to be one more exile, and then there'll be the final aliyah. So we all know what Yeshua says; we all know what the prophet Daniel says: there's going to be a time of trouble unlike anything in world history (Matthew 24, Daniel 12). One great more exile, and then He will bring them back one more time. So we've got to get really understanding with eschatology that this is not the final return of the Jewish people to Israel. It's one of the returns, but there's one more after the time of Jacob's trouble.

And then look at what He says here: "But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as in the former days." He's talking about the future as well. "The seed shall be prosperous. The ground shall give her increase. The heavens shall give their due. Cause the remnant of the people to possess all of these." I mean, what a great blessing. This is the millennial kingdom. "Just as you were cursed among the nations, O house of Judah and O house of Israel, I will save you, and you shall be a blessing." That is Jeremiah 31:31-36, the New Covenant. The house of Israel, the house of Judah. Then He puts them together. If you continue to read the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31, Zechariah is going off of the same thing, the one new body, the one new man coming together only during the millennial kingdom because He says, "I will save you, and you shall be a blessing. Do not fear! Let your hands be strong."

Then look what He says: "Just as I determined to punish you when your fathers provoked Me to wrath," okay, "and I would not relent, so again in these days," the future, "I am determined to do good in the millennial kingdom to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah." And then look what He requires: "These are the things you shall do. Speak each man the truth to his neighbor. Give judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and peace." Amen to that. And then here's where He gets down to it. And again, this is a millennial kingdom chapter, everybody. And look at what He kind of ends on: "The fast of the fourth." He says to remember this. "The fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth." Look at what He says: "Millennial kingdom shall be joy and gladness and cheerful moedim." Everybody, that's the word for feast in the Hebrew is moedim. So just like Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Shavuot, Trumpets, Yom Kippur, and Tabernacles are moedim, the seven feasts and the Shabbat of course are moedim in Leviticus 23. Then these are going to be moedim as well because He says, "shall be joy and gladness and cheerful feasts, moedim, for the house of Judah. Therefore, love truth and peace."

So my friends, this is a beautiful passage that we have with Zechariah 8. And it's really important for us to really understand this, you know, because again, it's about going through the understanding of the fast. I say this all the time; I mean, so many people, they just want to enjoy the feast only. They don't want to enjoy the fast that turns into the feast, to understand the hard position of circumcision, to understand why our brothers were judged back then and why they were exiled, and how we could be our temple could be destroyed as well on an individual basis if we don't understand the golden calf story and truly understand the trajectory. Because that's idolatry, and it does not enter the kingdom of heaven, just like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6.

So friends, this is important on a personal aspect as well. It's just not all about the nation of Israel itself; it's about the personal understanding for our temples as well, because we are the temple, right? The kingdom is inside of us as well. So again, there will be a literal temple in the millennial kingdom as well, but He's talking about our inner temples as well, so that we can be purified and cleansed as well.