As Iran becomes more aggressive every day towards Israel, that country is setting the stage for the Gog-Magog war.
The LORD…declares: “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. “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…. On that day the LORD will shield those who live in Jerusalem. 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. And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have 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.
Zechariah 12:1-10
The Book of Zechariah, written 2500 years ago, predicts that in our times the tiny nation of Israel will become a stumbling block for the entire world. The above quote speaks of Judah, another name for the Jewish homeland in Old Testament times. The name of the capitol, Jerusalem, remains the same. We are all daily witnesses to the rising international tide of anti-semitism. This is the beginning of what the Bible predicts will be worldwide enmity towards the Jewish state.
Zechariah predicts two wonderful outcomes to all the blood and horror of the coming Middle Eastern war.
Jerusalem and Israel will be saved by divine intervention. And the Jewish nation will come to a bittersweet conversion to Jesus Christ as their Messiah and Lord. Bitter, due to natural remorse. The Jewish nation will know that, 2100 years ago, their own leaders rejected and killed Jesus. By piercing him, on a Roman cross. But the conversion will also be sweet. Christ, King David’s direct descendant, will prove faithful to his human Jewish roots. The Son of God will save His people when the entire world turns against them.
