A day of the LORD is coming when your plunder will be divided among you.

I will gather the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. You will flee by My mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with Him. Zechariah 14:1-5 Whenever I sit down to reflect upon the message of Zechariahs prophesy the beauty and the complexity of what the prophet has been led to write becomes very clear. In coming weeks we will take a little time to reflect upon the sevenfold vision of the Day of the LORD which is contained here in the fourteenth chapter of Zechariah. There is much here to inform our faith in this chapter. Today I want to spend some time reflecting upon one key point which Zechariah is making here. This is that the prophet confronts the people of Jerusalem and of Judah, as well as each of us, with the fact that in the Messiah we are in fact dealing with the LORD God in all of His Holiness. In Joshua 5:13-14 we read about Joshuas encounter with the Angel of the LORD just before the destruction of the city of Jericho. Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, Are you for us or for our enemies? Neither, he replied, but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come. Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, what message does my LORD have for his servant? The Angel of the LORD is not one to choose sides arbitrarily. He is on His own side. He is working out Gods holy plan to bring restoration to this world which has been completely corrupted by sin. What happens when we encounter this Almighty, Holy God? The first five verses of Zechariah 14 begin to unfold this for us. When the day of the LORD comes it will be a day in which we encounter Gods Holiness in such a way as to fall under His judgement on account of our sin. Recently I came across an ancient proverb which says that if something starts out crooked, it will remain crooked. The meaning is that if we start out a project with a sinful, or fleshly, motivation then it will in due time result in corrupted fruit. We see this constantly in our endeavours, whether personal, or corporate. It seems to be especially true in the big projects which people undertake. Zechariah writes about the city of Jerusalem encountering Gods holiness with the result that the city falls under judgement. However it is a judgement which has as its ultimate purpose the refining, and purifying of the people of God. The LORD our God will come. The promises of the Word of God will be fulfilled. This is a precious promise which is not just for Jerusalem. It is for Gods people everywhere. In coming weeks we will look at this prophesy more fully but today I want simply to reflect upon one point

that it forces us to contemplate. This is how will we stand when we encounter this Living Redeemer? This seems to be the purpose behind a question that the Apostle John asks in Revelation 6:15-17, a question which John intends for us to ask ourselves. Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand? Who can stand? That is the question asked by the Scripture. That seems to be the question which is asked by Zechariah in his prophesy. He has provided the answer for us when He repeatedly portrays the Good Shepherd who is stricken by God for our redemption. Those who cling to the Lamb that was slain can stand. Are you among them?