Pushing
the World toward Armageddon
by Gary
DeMar
Hal Lindsey is
once again misapplying the Bible to modern-day geo-political
events. Here is his claim:
You know, I
fear for both President Bush and Secretary Rice. I also fear for
my beloved country. They must be ignorant of a prophecy God made
2,500 years ago through the Hebrew prophet Zechariah. It applies
to this precise time and situation in history. God said,
“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the
surrounding peoples. …” The people surrounding Jerusalem are all
the current Muslim nations.1
Zechariah 12
has its own interpretive historical clues to help us identify
the time of fulfillment: battles are fought by men riding horses
(Zech. 12:4); those in captivity have returned to Jerusalem
after a period of exile (12:7; cf. Jer. 30:10, 18); the southern
kingdom of Judah is the main population center (12:4, 6, 7, 8);
the people are grouped by tribes (12:5, 10, 12, 13); the “glory
of the house of David” is still recognized (12:7, 8, 10; cf.
Neh. 3:15; 12:24, 36, 45); and the death of King Josiah by
Pharaoh Necho (2 Kings 23:29–30; 2 Chron. 35:22–27) is
remembered as a national tragedy (12:11). These historical
events would not be significant to Jews living in Israel in the
twenty-first century. Today’s Jews would recall events related
to the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the founding of the State of
Israel in 1948, the tragedy of the holocaust, the 1967 Six-Day
War, and on-going battles with Muslim extremists, none of which
are mentioned in Zechariah 12.
Understanding
the historical setting for the time Zechariah 12 was written
will go a long way to understand the fulfillment of the
prophecy. There was early opposition to the returning exiles
from the Babylonian captivity and their rebuilding projects. The
resistance groups are described by Ezra as “the enemies of
Judah” (Ezra 4:1). Resentment grew beyond the borders of Israel:
“Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and
frightened them from building, and hired counselors against them
to frustrate their counsel in the days of Cyrus the king of
Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia” (4:4–5).
The resentment extended beyond the borders of Israel: “Now in
the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they
wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and
Jerusalem” (4:6; cf. Esther 1:1). Derek Kidner writes: “For
about sixteen years, to 520 BC, the pressure against them was
kept up, and as verse 24 [of Ezra 4] will show, it was wholly
effective.”2
It was Haggai and Zechariah who “prophesied to the Jews who were
in Judah and Jerusalem” to get busy rebuilding “the house of God
which is in Jerusalem” Ezra 5:1–2). The rebuilding commenced in
518 B.C., two years after Zechariah received and delivered his
prophecies:
“Then the work
of the house of God in Jerusalem ceased, and it was stopped
until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia”
(4:24; cf. Zech. 1:1).
This means
that Zechariah’s prophecies must have circulated in the two-year
interval between 520 and 518 B.C. Nothing would stand in the way
of this God-ordained program of restoring Israel, not even
Haman’s plan to destroy all the Jews in all the provinces of the
Persian kingdom ruled by King Ahasuerus (Esther 3 and 9).
It is my
contention that the failed attempt by Haman to kill all the Jews
throughout the Persian empire is the conflict described in
Zechariah 12. The Bible tells us that the Jews were rescued in
dramatic form. There is no event in history that compares to it
or will compare to it. Dispensationalists make a point of how
God will once again deal with the Jews after the “rapture.” But
their post-rapture scenario has two-thirds of the Jews wiped out
during the “Great Tribulation” (Zech. 13:8). When compared to
Esther, this hardly counts as a “rescue of Israel” since only a
remnant of Jews is actually rescued. Compare the dispensational
view with the actual events of Esther:
First, Haman, “the enemy of the Jews,” is hanged (Esther 7:10;
9:25), and his ten sons are later executed (9:7–9).
Second,
“on the day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the
mastery over them, it was turned to the contrary so that the
Jews themselves gained the mastery over those who hated them”
(9:1; see Zech. 2:9).
Third, we are told that anyone who sought the harm of the Jews
could not stand before them (Esther 9:2).
Fourth, “the Jews struck all their enemies with the sword,
killing and destroying; and they did what they pleased to those
who hated them” (9:5).
Fifth, more than 75,000 of those who hated the Jews were killed
(9:16).3
This was no small battle.
Sixth, what could have been days of “sorrow” and “mourning” for
the Jews were turned into days of “gladness” and celebration
(9:22) because the wicked scheme which Haman devised was
returned “on his own head” (9:25). Israel was indeed a “cup that
causes reeling” and a “heavy stone for all the peoples around”
(Zech. 12:2; cf. 2:3–4, 6).
Seventh, this rescue of Israel was so significant that it was to
be remembered by “every generation, every family, every
province, and every city” so that the “days of Purim were not to
fall from among the Jews, or their memory fade from their
descendants” (Esther 9:28).4
Events in the Middle East today have nothing to do with
prophecies found in the OT. Too many Christians are pushing for
war because they wrongly believe it’s part of some divine
end-time inevitability.
Gary DeMar is the President for
American Vision.
Footnotes
1. Hal Lindsey, “Zechariah’s warning to Bush and
Condi” (October 18, 2007)
2. Derek Kidner, Ezra and Nehemiah: An Introduction
and Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1979),
50.
3. The LXX has 15,000.
4. For a more complete study of this subject, see Gary
DeMar, Zechariah 12 and the “Esther Connection,” (Powder
Springs, GA: American Vision, 2005)
