Godmindbody Part 3, Chapter 7: The Minor Prophets
- robrensor1066
- Sep 8
- 33 min read
Updated: Oct 2
Godmindbody: The Bible, Prophecy, Miracles and TMS Healing Explained
By Robert Ensor
Copyright © 2025 Robert Ensor
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.The author’s moral rights have been asserted.First Published September 2025.
All Bible quotations, unless otherwise stated or referenced, are taken from the online World English Bible, which is in the public domain. It is available at the following link: https://ebible.org/eng-web/index.htm. English language Bibles are translated from Hebrew and Greek manuscripts. I am no linguist, and I don’t know any linguists, so I have had to rely on others’ translations and romanizations of the Hebrew and Greek texts. Occasionally, I have examined the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek of the Bible, zeroing in on key words where the received English translation is debatable or misses the full meaning of the original.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor or a therapist – merely a concerned layperson (!) – and nothing in this book should be considered medical advice. Nor should it be considered a substitute for diagnoses, prescriptions and treatments from qualified doctors. If you have symptoms, I recommend that you see a doctor to rule out anything serious and get proper care.
The full title is available free from this website. The book is available to buy from amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQ6MNZ2N. For part 1, see the link: https://www.robertensor.com/post/godmindbody-a-book-about-tms-and-christianity-part-1
For the entire book see the pdf below:
Chapter 7: The Minor Prophets
The minor prophets will not be treated extensively here, as their prophecies largely repeat those of Ezekiel, Isaiah and Jeremiah. Original and especially important elements that pertain to the eschatological period will however be highlighted in this section.
Hosea was a prophet who was instructed by God to marry Gomer, a prostitute. Gomer committed adultery, and went into slavery, but Hosea bought her out of slavery for 15 pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley (Hosea 3:2). The combined value of these items is 30 shekels of silver, the price for a slave (Exodus 21:32), and the price for Jesus’ life given by the chief priests to Judas (Matthew 26:14–16). The barley represents Jesus’ body, the ‘bread of life’ (John 6) and the ‘first fruit of those who are asleep’ (1 Corinthians 15:20). Hosea is a metaphor for God and Gomer is a metaphor for Israel, pictured in the Bible as God’s ‘adulterous wife’ (Ezekiel 16:32) who will nonetheless be liberated from the Antichrist and the wilderness, by the Messiah and the blood price of his sacrifice. One of Hosea’s children by Gomer was symbolically called Lo-Ammi – ‘not my people’ in Hebrew (Hosea 1:9) – but ‘it will come to pass that, in the place where it was said of them, ‘You are not my people’, they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’’ (Hosea 1:10). This meant that God had disowned Israel because they broke the covenant and that he would eventually restore them. The child’s name was also a prophecy of the Gentiles – who, like Lo-Ammi, were not born God’s people – becoming God’s people and sons of the living God, through Jesus Christ. ‘Come, let’s return to Yahweh, for he has torn us to pieces, and he will heal us, he has injured us, and he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up.’ (Hosea 6: 1–2). In one sense, the ‘days’ here betoken a larger timeframe. Being torn to pieces was the desolation of Judah at the hands of the Romans in 70 AD. Since Hosea was writing in the latter half of the 8th century BC, it probably also foretold the nearer Babylonian sack of Judah. Being revived after two days is the salvation of the remnant, since the Spirit of God that they are prophesied to receive vivifies the flesh with living water. Being raised up on the third day is a prophecy of the resurrection, glorification and ascent of the Jewish people, and saved humanity in general. It is also an allusion to Jesus’ being raised from the dead on the third day after his Crucifixion, that humankind may share in his Resurrection and eternal life.
Joel was a minor prophet. There is considerable debate about when Joel wrote, with dates ranging from the 9th century BC to the 4th century BC. He likened the invasion of the tribulation era to a historical invasion of locusts (Joel 1:4). This suggests that the Revelation (9:7–11) passages about locusts may be referring to a destructive military invasion instead of literal locusts. Joel also likened these invaders to horses and chariots, which is similar to their depiction in Revelation 9:7–10. Clearly, a destroying army is in view, but whether this army is human or demonic is not readily apparent.
Joel also foretold that there would come a time of thick clouds, when there would be no light from the sun, moon or stars (Joel 2:10). This is described as the ‘day of Yahweh’ (Joel 2:11). The sky cannot be darkened in this way for the entire seven-year tribulation; but it can be for a single day, or a few days. Hence the Day of the Lord in this context is the 24-hour period in which Jesus arrives with the clouds to judge the nations. Joel stated that the way out of this situation will be for the Jewish people to ‘turn to Yahweh, your God’ (Joel 2:13) who will respond graciously. ‘It will happen that whoever will call on Yahweh’s name will be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, and among the remnant, those whom Yahweh calls’ (Joel 2:32). Joel promised that this remnant will enjoy an outpouring of the spirit upon the whole nation that is left (Joel 2:28).
Joel chapter 3 is about the judgement of the ‘surrounding’ nations (Joel 3:12) in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, to determine who is to be let into the kingdom, based largely upon how they treated the Jews and Christians during the persecution: ‘I will execute judgement on them there for my people and for my heritage, Israel’ (Joel 3:2) and all true Christians in a sense belong to the house of Israel through Jesus’ blood (Galatians). Jehoshaphat is believed to be coterminous with the Kidron Valley between the Mount of Olives and the Temple Mount. Jehoshaphat means, ‘Yahweh has judged’ or ‘Yahweh judges’.[i] This judgement corresponds to the sheep and goats judgement (Matthew 25), because that event is also predicated on how people treated Jesus’ sheep, who are saved Christians, whether their ethnic background is Jewish or Gentile. Treatment of the saved is the yardstick here because Christians and Jews are prophesied to be persecuted by the Antichrist. Joel foretold that ‘all nations’ (Joel 3:2) are to be judged for enslaving the Jews (Joel 3:3) and dividing God’s land (Joel 3:2). Joel continues: ‘Yes, and what are you to me, Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Will you repay me? And if you repay me, I will swiftly and speedily return your payment on your own head’ (Joel 3:4). Tyre, Sidon and Philistia are also charged with having ‘carried my finest treasures into your temples and have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks, that you may remove them far from their border’ (Joel 3:5–6). This indicates a plundering of the Third Temple and the possible involvement of the Mediterranean nations west of Israel in the Antichrist’s alliance or as his trading partner. Javan, Meshech and Tubal were described as trading ‘men’ with Tyre in Ezekiel 27:13. Javan is generally associated with Ancient Greece, but his ‘sons’ have been regarded as dwelling in Anatolia, Cilicia and Kittim.[ii] Tyre and Sidon are still cities in Lebanon. Philistia was a confederation of city states in the ancient Levant, including Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, Gath and Jaffa. The Philistines disappeared from history following the annexation of their territory by Nebuchadnezzar II, which may have been a near-fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy against them, depending on when the prophet wrote.[iii] Tyre, Sidon and Philistia were also part of the Seleucid Empire of Antiochus IV, who plundered the temple treasures, and sold Jewish slaves to other Mediterranean nations, a sequence of events that was typological of the eschatological fulfilment. The main basis for the Jehoshaphat judgement in Joel, however, is that all the relevant nations were gathered together to invade Israel and Jerusalem (Joel 3:9–11), which corresponds to the Antichrist gathering his armies at ‘Harmagedon’ in Revelation 16:16.
After this judgement, God will be ‘dwelling in Zion’ and ‘no strangers’ will pass through Jerusalem anymore (Joel 3:17). This will be the inauguration of the millennial kingdom. The proof that Joel had an eschatological future in view comes from the fact the whole nation of Israel has not yet received the spirit, and the sun, moon and stars have not been darkened preceding God’s arrival to judge the surrounding nations in the Kidron Valley, a fountain (Joel 3:18) does not flow out of the temple (indeed, there currently is no temple), and Israel is not yet the land of milk and honey promised in Joel 3:18.
In Obadiah, the Edomites are warned by God: ‘don’t stand in the crossroads to cut off those who escape.’ (Obadiah 1:14). This could be the reason Jesus urged those in Judea to run for the mountains without pausing to take their things in Matthew 24; after a while, the future Judeans’ escape route may be blocked by the neighbouring Moabites (Isaiah 16:4) and Edomites, possibly due to the Antichrist’s pressure. This judgement on Edom is prophesied to take place on ‘the day of Yahweh’ (Obadiah 1:15): the Day of the Lord. Edom’s blocking the escape route of the eschatological Jews was prefigured by the King of Edom denying the Israelites safe passage through his lands (Numbers 20:18–20).
The prophet Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah, who prophesied between 735 and 710 BC. Jeremiah (26:18) and possibly Isaiah (2:2–4) referenced him in their books. Micah 2:12–13 outlines that Israel’s place of refuge during the tribulation will be at Bozrah: ‘I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah.’ Bozrah means ‘sheepfold’, ‘enclosure’ or ‘fortress’ in Hebrew. There is debate about whether Bozrah is the Arab village Busaira[iv] or Petra, the city carved into the red stone mountains where the finale of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed, and one of the seven new wonders of the world. Both candidate locations are in the Mount Seir region of Jordan. Petra is a very defensible ‘fortress of rocks’, which would fulfil Isaiah’s criterion (Isaiah 33:16). Surrounded as it is by mountains and cliffs and accessible via narrow passes, it is a veritable Thermopylae in the making. Ancient sheepfolds had narrow entrances that enabled shepherds to count their sheep one by one as they came in single file, making Petra even more appropriate for the future remnant.[v] During the tribulation, the remnant could take shelter from the hailstones, ‘locusts’, fire from heaven and other airborne hazards in the many tombs and buildings carved into the cliffs there. Petra is only about 200 kilometres from Jerusalem, making it possible for refugees to travel there, especially if they still have access to vehicles at that time. It is also in the wilderness, corroborating Revelation’s woman (a symbol of Israel) who hides in the wilderness for 1260 days (Revelation 12:6). Situating Bozrah in the Mount Seir region matches with Jesus’ instruction for those in Judea to flee to the mountains. Moreover, a site called Butzeira (not to be confused with Busaira, itself only about 40 miles away) is near Petra.[vi] Petra is in southwestern Jordan, the region formerly known as Edom, which is where Jesus initially appears to deliver the Israeli remnant in Isaiah 63, and Edom is described as escaping the Antichrist’s dominion in Daniel 11:41, which would explain why ‘Bozrah’ will be used as a place of refuge by Jewish refugees.
‘They break through the gate and go out. Their king passes on before them, with Yahweh at their head.’ (Micah 2:13). This verse describes the breakout of the remnant from their fastness, after the Messiah has delivered them. It adds new meaning to Jesus’ parabolic claim to be the Good Shepherd who leads his sheep out of the gate (John 10:3). When he is done rescuing the remnant in Edom, Jesus and his elect will fly to Jerusalem for a reckoning with the Antichrist; hence ‘their king passes on before them, with Yahweh at their head’ (Micah 2:13).
Micah then proceeds to outline the idyllic conditions of the millennial kingdom; God will ‘teach us his ways’ (Micah 4:2), Yahweh will judge between many peoples and ‘strong nations far off. They will beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.’ (Micah 4:3). This reversal of Joel’s ‘beat your ploughshares into swords’ (3:10), written of the time prior to the Battle for Jerusalem, obviously means there will be peace in the kingdom, until the end of the thousand years.
In chapter 5, Micah proceeds to describe a siege of Jerusalem. It is also prophesied that a ruler of Israel who is from ancient times will come out of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), a prophecy fulfilled by Jesus, an eternal man who exists before Abraham (John 8:58), is the reincarnation of David (a king considered ancient even in Micah’s time), and was therefore born in Bethlehem twice. Israel is pictured by Micah as a pregnant woman (Micah 4:10), and her child is Jesus and his kingdom.
The Book of Habbakuk was written during the reign of King Josiah (the 7th century BC). Habbakuk was transported in a vision to a time just prior to the Second Coming.
In chapter 2 verse 12, Habbakuk pronounces ‘woe to him who builds a town with blood and establishes a city by iniquity!’ This may refer to the reconstruction of Babylon, which is currently in ruins. It is implied that Babylon will be rebuilt by shady means. In Habbakuk chapter 3 verse 3, God is described as coming from Teman and Mount Paran. Teman is a city in Mount Seir, Edom, just south of Petra, Jordan. The wilderness of Paran is where the Israelites spent part of their 40 years wandering (Numbers 10:12), and Mount Paran is where God is described as having ‘shone’ from in Deuteronomy 33:2. It is believed to be east of Sinai, between Sinai and Edom, because the Israelites scouted Canaan from Paran after they left Sinai and before they approached Edom (Numbers 10:12; Numbers 12:15). So Jesus may initially appear with the clouds at Paran, pass through Teman to save the remnant at Edom and from there enter Israel, headed to meet the Antichrist’s army in battle at Jerusalem. Alternatively, Habbakuk could have been recapitulating Yahweh’s earlier appearance in the Mosaic era, based on Deuteronomy 33:2. But we can be sure about a first military engagement in Edom, followed by a journey to Jerusalem.
‘Renew your work in the middle of years…In wrath, you remember mercy’ may be a call from Habakkuk for God to resume his judgements (Habakkuk 3:2), which appear to relent after the trumpet judgements (Revelation 11), approximately halfway through the tribulation period, around the time of the abomination of desolation and the beginning of the Antichrist’s persecution. The idea behind Habakkuk’s prayer could be that a resumption of divine judgement in the form of natural disasters may relieve the Jewish remnant from their persecution. In its more specific eschatological sense, ‘wrath’ means the wrath of Lord Jesus when he reappears to vanquish the Antichrist during the Campaign of Armageddon and the ensuing ‘sheep and goats’ judgement, an interpretation borne out by Habakkuk chapter 3 and Daniel 9:27, where ‘wrath’ is poured out on the ‘desolate’ until the ‘decreed full end’. The call for God to remember mercy in his wrath is what it sounds like.
‘His splendour is like the sunrise’ is a description of Jesus’ glorified body (Habakkuk 3:4). Plague and pestilence follow in his train, and he causes earthquakes (Habakkuk 3:5–6). These are the final bowl judgements of Revelation 16. They also correspond to the description of the Battle for Jerusalem in Zechariah 14. Fear will take hold of the nations, specifically, ‘Cushan’[vii] and ‘Midian’,[viii] ancient names for people who inhabited the Arabian Peninsula (Habbakuk 3:7). The reason God will cause this destruction is for ‘the salvation of your anointed,’ i.e. for the Messiah to save the chosen ones and the Jewish remnant, physically and spiritually (Habbakuk 3:13).
The Book of Zephaniah begins with God’s promise to ‘utterly sweep away everything from the surface of the earth’ (Zephaniah 1:2). ‘I will stretch out my hand against…the inhabitants of Jerusalem.’ (Zephaniah 1:4). The Day of the Lord is described as ‘a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, a day of the trumpet’ (Zephaniah 1:15–16). Now, there cannot be clouds for the entire seven-year tribulation period. This ‘day of darkness’ must be a single day of wrath associated with the reappearance of Jesus. Note that it is called a day of the trumpet in Zephaniah 1:16, an association continued in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15, and the Book of Revelation, whose last trumpet is shortly followed by the bowl judgements. Pretribulation rapturists would have you believe the Day of the Lord lasts for the entire tribulation, but an angelic trumpet will not sound for the entire seven years of Daniel’s final week, and this same day of the trumpet is also called ‘the day of wrath’, further indicating that ‘wrath’ can mean a 24-hour period, and that the last trumpet and the bowls of God’s wrath occur on the same day. ‘Neither their silver nor their gold’ will be able to protect them ‘in the day of Yahweh’s wrath.’ (Zephaniah 1:18).
‘It may be that you will be hidden on the day of Yahweh’s anger’ clarifies that the remnant, like Noah and his family before them, will not be subject to God’s wrath if they seek humility and righteousness (Zephaniah 2:3), which they will. Zephaniah warns Philistia (2:4–7), Moab and Ammon (2:8–11), Cush (2:12) and Assyria (2:13–15) of judgement. Zephaniah 3:1 descries the ‘rebellious and polluting’ ‘oppressing city!’, which sounds a lot like the Babylon of Revelation. ‘She didn’t draw near to her God’ (Zephaniah 3:1) conversely implies that this may be Jerusalem, frequently characterised as female in the Bible; Yahweh is the God of Jerusalem. Moreover, ‘her priests have profaned the sanctuary’ (Zephaniah 3:3) means that this is almost certainly Jerusalem, as the sanctuary is the Holy of Holies in the temple, and the temples historically were in Jerusalem. Antiochus made the priests profane the temple as a near fulfilment. Regarding the End Times fulfilment, the priests of eschatological Babylon or Jerusalem may participate in the desecration of the sanctuary.
Haggai was a prophet in the post-exilic period, after the return from Babylon. Zerubbabel built the initially modest Second Temple, and Haggai prophesied that ‘in that day’, i.e. in the eschatological period, he will be made ‘like a signet ring.’ (Haggai 2:23). In Exodus 28:20–21, the high priest Aaron’s breastplate was covered in twelve precious stones representing the twelve sons of Israel; ‘like the engravings of a signet, everyone according to his name, they shall be for the twelve tribes’. In other words, Zerubbabel will have a position of authority in the millennial kingdom, probably as one of the princes mentioned by Ezekiel (45:8), who will likely be leaders of the twelve tribal allotments. Given the more than 2,000 years between Zerubbabel’s life and the Second Coming, this will only be possible through two mechanisms: reincarnation or resurrection.
The prophet Zechariah is thought to have lived and worked in the late 6th century BC, during the reign of Darius the Great of the Persian Empire. Zechariah explained that in the future Jerusalem will be without walls, and that God will be ‘a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory in the middle of her’ (Zechariah 2:4–5). Jesus the Word of God will be that glory in the middle of Jerusalem. Zechariah prophesied that God will dwell in Jerusalem and punish the enemies of his people (Zechariah 2:8).
In Zechariah 3:1, the prophet sees the high priest Joshua as a ‘sign’, with Satan standing at his right hand to be his ‘adversary’. Joshua’s dirty clothes are replaced with clean garments, as a symbol of his iniquity passing from him (Zechariah 3:3). What is Joshua a sign of? Again, Jesus is the Latinised form of Yeshua, and Joshua is the anglicization of that same name. Thus Jesus (the adversary of Satan) is clearly in view, named by name in these passages, with the High Priest Joshua as a ‘sign’ of him. Joshua’s clean garments and ‘turban’ represent Jesus’ baptism in the Holy Spirit and his glorified body (Zechariah 3:5). Yahweh promises to ‘remove the iniquity of that land in one day’ (Zechariah 3:9); that is, the day that the Jewish remnant receive the mass outpouring of God’s spirit, for salvation entails the forgiveness and removal of sins.
In Zechariah 4:2–3, the prophet sees a lampstand of gold with a bowl on top of it and two olive trees on either side of the bowl. Zechariah asks what these are, and the angel answers: ‘these are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.’ (Zechariah 4:14). This prophecy was fulfilled when Moses and Elijah stood on either side of Jesus during the transfiguration (Matthew 17), enabling us to identify them as the two witnesses of Revelation 11.
Zechariah was instructed by God to make a crown of silver and gold and set it on the head of Joshua, the high priest, and say to him: ‘thus says the Lord God of hosts, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from this place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord. It is he who shall build the temple of the Lord and shall bear royal honour, and shall sit and rule on his throne. And there shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.’ (Zechariah 6:12–13). Jesus identified himself as ‘the vine’ with his followers as ‘branches’ (John 15:5), and he is known as the branch out of Jesse’s roots (Isaiah 11:1) which is consonant with he whose name is the branch in Zechariah. There is debate about the exact dating of the text, but no matter how you look at it, Zechariah’s prophecy of Joshua the Branch who rebuilds the temple was written centuries before Jesus’ incarnation.
Of more interest to Christians (who are by definition already convinced that Jesus is the Messiah who will rule as king), is the reference to this Joshua – Jesus – building the temple of the Lord. Joshua helped Zerubabbel build the Second Temple (Ezra 4) and standing before Herod’s temple, Jesus promised the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ (John 2:19). In addition to the literal promise to build a new temple in the last days, he was also speaking metaphorically about the persecutors’ destruction of his body, which was resurrected after three days (John 2:21). The Messianic temple of Ezekiel that Jesus will construct is therefore symbolic of the raised body for all of his true followers; preparation for eternity is the purpose of the thousand-year reign.
Now, here’s where things get even more interesting. The World English Bible has ‘He will be a priest on his throne. The counsel of peace will be between them both’ (Zechariah 6:13). The common interpretation of this passage is that the Joshua-ruler will be king and high priest. Jesus is currently the head of the church (Ephesians 1:22; Colossians 1:18), our ‘great high priest’ (Hebrews 4:14) in heaven, since he has given an eternal and ultimate sin offering, making Joshua the high priest an apt sign of things to come. But there are other ways of translating that passage, which cast an additional shade of meaning. An alternative translation reads: ‘And there shall be a priest by his throne.’[ix] But the Hebrew word translated ‘by’ is usually translated ‘upon’. This could also mean that Zechariah was writing about the priest being a priest (a separate individual from Joshua) on his own throne, and therefore stating the existence of two separate thrones, or that the priest and the king would both sit on the king’s throne.[x] The ‘priest’ is not described by Zechariah as a high priest, because that honour belongs to Jesus (Hebrews 4:14), further implying that the priest is another person. Reading Zechariah 6:13, one is reminded of Revelation 3:21 ‘to he who overcomes, I will give him to sit on my throne, as I sat on my father’s throne’, which refers not only to all the chosen, but to one individual in particular who will be this ‘priest’. Indeed, likening the way this person sits on Jesus’ throne to the way Jesus sat on his Father’s throne implies that this individual will be Jesus’ son. God has a throne in heaven and will have an earthly throne during the millennium. According to a literal reading of the Davidic covenant (2 Samuel 7), David/Jesus and Solomon were promised a throne or thrones. The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, translates by his throne as ‘at his right hand’, i.e. the priest is at the right hand of King Joshua (Jesus).[xi] In Matthew 20:21, Salome asked that her sons John and James should sit at Jesus’ right and left hand in the kingdom. The early church father and historian Eusebius wrote that John was a priest[xii] and John described himself as a priest (Revelation 1:6). This is further evidence for John as the son of Christ, since it would make sense for the king’s son to sit at his father’s right hand. Jesus’ response to Salome on that occasion was oblique, but not definitively negative: he just said that honour is not mine to give; it’s up to my Father (Matthew 20:23).
Regardless of your position on John’s status, the king and the priest are clearly implied to be two separate figures. This is further borne out by ‘and the counsel of peace shall be between them both’, in which the existence of two distinct figures working together in harmony is more linguistically obvious. Their relations will be amicable presumably because the priest will simply do as he is told by King Jesus! Moreover, in Ezekiel 43 and 45, Yahweh is also prophesied to take the form of a glorified man, with a figure serving him called ‘the prince’. The prince is the individual with the greatest access to Yahweh in Ezekiel’s temple, since he is described as entering and leaving via the porch of the east gate that Jesus himself will enter by (Ezekiel 46:8), presenting the sacrifices and offerings to King Jesus (Ezekiel 46), and giving voluntary sacrifices (Ezekiel 46:12). Indeed, the prince plays a mediating role between Yahweh and the people of the kingdom. Because of this unique proximity to Jesus, he is the most likely candidate in those temple ordinances to be permitted to sit on Jesus’ throne, or beside his throne. Therefore, Ezekiel’s (44) prince is Zechariah’s priest.
Extrabiblical prophecy may shed further light on this ‘priest’ figure. John of Vitiguerro foretold that after many tribulations, a pope will be elected who survived the persecution of the Church (the 3.5-year persecution Daniel wrote of).[xiii] Likewise, John of the Cleft Rock prophesied from the depths of the 14th century that during the last days, the Pope will be driven into exile by the persecution of the Church, before dying a ‘cruel death’. Then God will raise a ‘holy pope, and the angels will rejoice. Enlightened by God, this man will rebuild almost the whole world through his holiness. He will lead everyone to the true Faith.’[xiv] This would obviously be done thanks to Jesus’ power and at his direction. The venerable Bartholomew Holzhauser, a German priest writing in the 17th century, predicted that the fifth period of the Church will be characterised by moral laxity and will mock Christian simplicity (this part of his prophecy has undoubtedly already come true, especially since the 1960’s). It will end with the ‘arrival of the holy Pope and of the powerful monarch who is called “Help from God” because he will restore everything.’[xv] Again, the name Jesus literally means, ‘Yahweh saves’, which contains the meaning of help from God.
Zechariah 8 encompasses a prophecy about the millennial Jerusalem, which God will rename ‘the city of truth’ (Zechariah 8:3). Elsewhere in Isaiah the Messianic Jerusalem is renamed ‘God is there’, but a city can have two names. For instance, New York is known as New York and unofficially as The Big Apple. Jerusalem will be the city of truth because it will be all about the preaching of truth and learning the truth. The city will be inhabited by God, children and the very old (Zechariah 8:4–5). This is another allusion to the increased lifespan of mortals in the Messianic kingdom, but also to the glorified elect, who will have immortal bodies and live for the entirety of the 1,000 years of the kingdom. God makes it plain through Zechariah that the fasts invented by the Jews in Babylon will be turned into feasts (Zechariah 8:18). In the Messianic kingdom, Jews will be highly respected and sought out (Zechariah 8:23): ‘ten men out of all the languages of the nations will take hold of the skirt of him who is a Jew, saying, “we will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’
‘Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you! He is righteous and having salvation; lowly, and riding on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ (Zechariah 9:9). This was a prophecy of the first coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, fulfilled when he arrived in Jerusalem on a donkey, a fact attested to by all four evangelists (Matthew 21; Mark 11; Luke 19; John 12). The next part is about the Second Coming: ‘The battle bow will be cut off; and he will speak peace to the nations. His dominion will be from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.’ (Zechariah 9:10). The River in the context of Israel is most likely the River Jordan. The earth here has a double meaning: the Promised Land is larger than the current State of Israel, but that area will merely be the centre of a wider dominion spanning the entire earth, as Daniel 7:27 clarified.
‘As for you, because of the blood of your covenant, I have set free your prisoners from the pit in which there is no water.’ (Zechariah 9:11). This is the Father speaking via Zechariah to Jesus, whose blood is the new covenant of Christianity (Luke 22:20). The pit in which there is no water is Sheol, Hades, the underworld, a place away from God’s living water for those souls without the living water of the spirit in them. This is one of the best scriptural evidences for the Harrowing of Hell, a theological concept which posits that Christ descended to the underworld after his Crucifixion and freed the souls of the patriarchs and prophets who preceded him. Further evidence is found in Matthew 27:52–53, when after Jesus’ death on the cross, dead saints were raised and came out of their tombs, because it means that their souls were freed from Sheol by Jesus.
God speaks of empowering the sons of Zion against the sons of ‘Greece’ (Zechariah 9:13), implying a conflict between the descendants of the ancient Jews and the descendants of the ancient Greeks, who had colonized southern Italy and western Anatolia by Zechariah’s time. This is the second biblical reference to the sons of the Greeks being somehow opposed to the Jewish people on some future occasion. The Jews or Judeans ‘will be as mighty men’ in the battle against the Antichrist (Zechariah 10:5). They are called mighty in this conflict because the elect – who in some way belong to the tribes of Israel (Revelation 7) – will be glorified at this time. They will be immortal, and invulnerable in battle, fighting with power delegated to them by God. A sword thrust in the back will go right through them without leaving a scratch, just as Jesus passed through a wall after his Resurrection (John 20:26). The Jerusalemites and the remnant will have the Spirit of God in them, enabling them to fight with abnormal strength and valour. More importantly, God will personally intervene to defend his people (Zechariah 9:15).
As in Ezekiel 34, God is angry against the future ‘shepherds’ (Zechariah 10:15), false prophets and the general lack of leadership in the future Israel, which may refer to the Antichrist who is prophesied to dominate Jerusalem, and/or the Israeli leaders whose mistakes will enable him to take over the city. Zechariah predicts that the Jews will return to Zion from Egypt, Assyria, Gilead and Lebanon (Zechariah 10:10), echoing Isaiah 11:11. These places are prophesied to attack Israel (Joel 3:4; 3:19; Isaiah 30), with the exception of Gilead, an ancient name for what is now a part of northern Jordan, and will therefore probably be a place of refuge outside the Antichrist’s dominion (Daniel 11:41). It sounds as though the next restoration of the Jewish people will largely, but not exclusively be from the Middle East, which raises the question: if the Antichrist’s empire is to be truly worldwide, why would he send the Jews – some of whom are prophesied to be sold as slaves (Joel 3:3) – mainly to the surrounding nations? It is possible of course that he will do so for logistical reasons, but it is also possible, nay probable, that the Antichrist’s domain and wars will be quite regional, rather than what modern people would consider to be truly global.
God threatens to ‘dry up’ the ‘depths of the Nile’, humble Assyria and remove the ‘scepter’ of Egypt (Zechariah 10:11), thus specifying the Nile as the Egyptian ‘river’ that Isaiah (19:5) warned would dry up. The fact that the Nile has never completely dried up in recorded history is further evidence for the future realisation of these prophecies.
In Zechariah 11:11–13, the prophet wrote, ‘so they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver. Yahweh said to me, “Throw it to the potter – the handsome price that I was valued at by them!”’ This prophecy was fulfilled when Judas was given 30 pieces of silver by the chief priests in exchange for betraying Jesus (Matthew 26:15), Yahweh in the flesh. There are two versions as to what happened next. In Matthew 27, Judas returned the money to the priests, who bought a potter’s field in which to bury foreigners. Then Judas hanged himself. In Acts 1:18, Judas bought a potter’s field with the money and his intestines burst open. Either way, Judas’ money was used to buy the potter’s field, as Zechariah predicted. God promises to raise up a bad shepherd for the Jewish people with a withered arm and a blind right eye, who may be the Antichrist (Zechariah 11:16–17).
Zechariah 12 describes the eschatological siege of Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be a ‘cup of reeling’ to ‘all the surrounding peoples’ (Zechariah 12:2). The image here is that the surrounding countries will try to sack Jerusalem and will be left staggering, as one who has drunk too much. ‘All the nations of the earth’ will be gathered against Jerusalem (Zechariah 12:3), our first clue that this is an eschatological siege, since all the nations have never besieged the Holy City together before.[xvi] But all the nations of the earth or ha’aretz does not necessarily mean that every nation on earth will attack Jerusalem; it is more likely to mean that all the nations occupying the land of Israel at that time, or all the ‘surrounding’ (Zechariah 12:2) nations, will be gathered to attack Jerusalem. This alliance of Israel’s historical enemies was one aspect of what John was getting at when he gave the ‘beast’ the characteristics of several of Daniel’s symbolic world-empire animals (Revelation 13:2).
Zechariah prophesied that not only Jerusalem but also Judah would be involved in this battle. ‘Yahweh also will save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of David’s house and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem not be magnified above Judah.’ (Zechariah 12:7). The ‘tents of Judah’ implies that the Judeans will be exiled from their homes and reduced to living in tents in Bozrah (Petra, Jordan). The remnant will be saved along with the Jerusalemites, because the former will not be ‘magnified above’ the latter. God will relieve the remnant at Bozrah first, before proceeding to ‘defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem’ (Zechariah 12:8) from the Antichrist’s alliance. Ultimately, the remnant and the Jerusalemites will be glorified like Jesus, who belongs to the ‘house of David’, though this must wait until the mass resurrection at the end of the millennium. ‘In that day’ (Zechariah 12:8) locates the events of Zechariah 12:7 in the eschatological period, specifically, the literal day of the Second Coming and the Campaign of Armageddon. The horses of the Antichrist will be struck with terror and blindness, and their riders will be driven mad by God (Zechariah 12:4). It will be a rout.
‘He who is feeble among them at that day will be like David, and David’s house will be like God, like Yahweh’s angel before them.’ (Zechariah 12:8). ‘God’, also called ‘Yahweh’s angel before them’ is Jesus, who in his preincarnate state was known in the Bible as the Angel of the Lord, or ‘Yahweh’s angel’ (Genesis 16:7;22:12), and as God: Jacob was called Israel, meaning ‘he who struggles with God’ after their wrestling match in the desert (Genesis 32:28).[xvii] It is written that God will seek to ‘destroy’ all the nations who come against Jerusalem in that day (Zechariah 12:9). Again, Jesus belongs to the house of David. The elect all have the blood of Jesus so they all belong to ‘the house of David’ whether they are biologically descended from David or not. Moreover, the elect will be in their immortal bodies – hence they are like the glorified ‘God’, who in this passage is Jesus – helping to relieve Jerusalem. The elect and the saints, the cream of the crop, are God’s special forces, his vanguard in this battle. While I believe that the ‘house of David’ in the context of Zechariah 12:8 is code for at least some of the elect, there will also be non-glorified Jews of Davidic lineage at the Battle for Jerusalem on that day. The ‘feeble’ are those still in mortal bodies, the Jerusalemites, who will nonetheless have the Spirit of the Lord upon them, enabling them to fight like King David. David was not invincible like Jesus and those who will be glorified, but he was an excellent warrior.
The Lord then promises to pour his spirit out on the people of Jerusalem and the house of David (Zechariah 12:10), part of the mass absorption of the Holy Spirit by the Jewish remnant that Isaiah wrote about, and a prelude to their glorification.
‘They will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for his firstborn.’ (Zechariah 12:10). After ‘me’, the Hebrew has Aleph Tav, the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, which clarifies that Jesus is the one delivering this message, because he stated in Revelation 22:13, ‘I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.’ Technically, the ones who pierced Jesus, God’s Son – on the cross, with nails and the spear – were the Romans, but Judas and the chief priests obviously had a hand in the affair (Matthew 26:4–5). This passage, therefore, is a prediction that David’s house and the Jerusalemites will recognise Jesus as the Messiah and will mourn that he was killed in their city. Perhaps there will also be European soldiers there who will mourn for the same or different reasons. The fact David’s house is one of the two groups who will mourn and look to Jesus, implies that some, if not most, of them are in mortal bodies at that juncture; the raptured elect looked to Jesus and mourned him long before the Day of the Lord. This is the national turning to God of the Jewish people that Moses predicted from the depths of antiquity. There is debate as to whether the correct English translation of the Hebrew al in Zechariah 12:10, translated ‘to’ in the World English Bible, should read ‘upon’ or to/unto.[xviii] Upon implies that the Jerusalemites and the house of David only mourn Jesus when they see him coming to their relief in glory, but to or unto would make more sense here, in that Jesus will come to the aid of the Jerusalemites and the house of David, and pour his spirit upon them, in response to their request for help from him and their recognition of his Messianic status.
Zechariah states that the false prophets will ‘pass out of the land.’ (Zechariah 13:2). Zechariah clarifies that the attitude towards prophets will be starkly negative in the kingdom, doubtless due to the glut of false prophets they will endure during the tribulation (Zechariah 13:3–4; Matthew 24:11). This means that there will still be false prophets in the millennial kingdom, but they won’t convince a significant number of people, as indicated by the prediction that the erroneous prophet’s parents will ‘stab him’ (Zechariah 13:3). Zechariah concludes with the solemn prophecy that two thirds of the people in the land will be ‘cut off and die, but the third will be left in it.’ (Zechariah 13:8). The third is the remnant that will survive the tribulation. This third part is to be tested ‘like gold is tested’ and refined in the fire of suffering and tribulation, until ‘They will call on my name and I will hear them.’ (Zechariah 13:9). This verse tallies with the translation of al in 12:10 as to or unto. The name of God they will call upon is Jesus.
In chapter 14, Zechariah describes the eschatological Battle for Jerusalem. ‘Behold, a day of Yahweh comes’ (Zechariah 14:1) in this case probably means a literal 24-hour window of time, given the context. What follows is the most detailed biblical description of the climactic battle (and the events leading up to it) in which the Antichrist is defeated. ‘I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city will be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go out into captivity…’ The Antichrist already conquered Jerusalem in the war against the three ‘horns’ (Daniel 7:8), in order to commit the abomination in the temple, then out of desperation he treacherously sacked his own capital Babylon for supplies (Revelation 17), before gathering his armies together at Armageddon (Revelation 16:16), and proceeding to attack Jerusalem again, as Antiochus did before him. When Antiochus returned to Jerusalem in anger, it was ostensibly to put down a Jewish revolt.
‘Then Yahweh will go out and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. His feet will stand in that day on the Mount of Olives…and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, making a very great valley. You shall flee by the valley of the mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azel. Yes, you shall flee, just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah.’ (Zechariah 14:2–5). The fact Yahweh has feet means he will take human form as Jesus for this battle. During the Olivet Discourse, therefore, Jesus was occupying the position he would take during the Battle of Jerusalem, on the day of his return. But from elsewhere in Scripture (e.g. Isaiah 63; Zechariah 14) we know that he will only arrive there after fighting at Bozrah and saving the remnant. The Campaign of Armageddon takes place within a 24-hour period because Jesus and the glorified elect will fly from Bozrah to Jerusalem. The massive earthquake Yahweh creates on the Mount of Olives is the earthquake in the bowl judgements (Revelation 16:18). The people fleeing to Azel down the newly created valley will most likely be Jerusalemites escaping the earthquake and/or the Antichrist’s forces; in the days of Uzziah the Judeans fled Jerusalem during a massive earthquake (Amos 1:1). The fact these eschatological Jerusalemites will have to flee further indicates that although they will have the Spirit of God, their bodies will still be mortal, i.e. they won’t have participated in the rapture. Regarding ‘Yahweh my God will come and all the holy ones with you’, the ‘holy ones’ are the raptured saints and the angels of the heavenly host. The Day of the Lord will be a unique day in that there will be no light, cold or frost, corresponding to Jesus’ description of that day (Matthew 24:29). The prophet Zechariah wrote: ‘it will come to pass at evening time there will be light’ (Zechariah 14:7). Again, these climatic descriptions argue in favour of the idea that the Day of the Lord is a 24 hour period or a few days at the most in some contexts, including Zechariah 14, because it is unlikely there will be no sunlight for the entire seven year tribulation or even the final half of it.
Then ‘in that day’ ‘living waters’ – salvation via the Holy Spirit – will go out from Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:8). In that day here is used in a broader sense, further illustrating the ambiguity of the biblical phrase and the context-sensitivity of the Hebrew word yom. ‘Yahweh will be king of the whole earth’ (Zechariah 14:9) and ‘Jerusalem will dwell safely.’ (Zechariah 14:11).
Returning to the battle, Zechariah foretold that the ‘peoples who have fought against Jerusalem’ will be seized by ‘great panic’, they will turn on each other and be struck with a horrible plague (Zechariah 14:12–15). This is a description of the final bowl judgements of Revelation, which will be so catastrophic that they must hit in quick succession over a short time period or no one on earth would survive; ‘unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved. But for the sake of the chosen ones, those days will be shortened’ (Matthew 24:22). A similar plague will beset the enemy’s animals (Zechariah 14:15). It is understandable that the Antichrist’s armies will be reduced to pack animals – donkeys, horses and camels – by this point in the tribulation. Because of the onslaught of disasters that will have beset the planet, it is feasible that there won’t be many or indeed any usable tanks, armoured personnel carriers and jeeps to do battle with, and the armies will be reduced to a quasi-medieval state, reminiscent of the German army’s use of pack mules in the retreat from Russia during World War Two; the Antichrist’s army will be shambolic and desperate. The enemies of God who besiege Jerusalem are described as having their eyes melting in their sockets and their flesh melting away (Zechariah 14:12). These verses could be where George Lucas got the idea for the death of the Nazis who gaze upon the Ark of the Covenant at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. In any case, movies and culture often unconsciously anticipate eschatological events, as will be discussed at greater length in the Epilogue.
When he is victorious, ‘Yahweh will be king over all the earth’ (Zechariah 14:9). This is one of many obvious descriptions of the physical, earthly, worldwide nature of the initial phase of his reign…Everyone who is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem (i.e. those who survived the tribulation, Jesus’ wrath and the first throne judgement) ‘will go up from year to year to worship the king and to keep the feast of booths’ (Zechariah 14:16). Whoever neglects this duty will suffer drought (Zechariah 14:17). Yes, the Feast of Booths (also known as Tabernacles) will be mandatory for all the nations that attacked Jerusalem in the End Times. It is suggested that one of the purposes of this festival is to worship the king, meaning that Jesus will be king of the nations that attacked Jerusalem. Egypt was warned they will be punished by 40 years of drought if they don’t attend (Zechariah 14:18); it is implied that the Egyptians will be tempted at some point in the kingdom age not to observe this Jewish holiday that celebrates the Jewish people’s historic exodus from their country. Zechariah concludes his book with the prediction that everything in the Messianic kingdom will be holy, even the pots (Zechariah 14:21).
Malachi was the last Hebrew prophet, writing as he did in the 5th century BC, after the dedication of the Second Temple in 516 BC. His book contains a few eschatological references. ‘Behold, I send my messenger, and he will clear the way before Me,’ said God (Malachi 3:1). This messenger was Elijah/John the Baptist, who will return to prepare the way for the Second Coming, as Jesus said in Matthew 17.
Malachi foretold that the Israeli remnant ‘will tread down the wicked’ (Malachi 4:3) when they ‘go out and leap like calves of the stall’ (Malachi 4:2); a clear reference to the remnant’s escape from their defensible place of refuge in Petra after Jesus delivers them, which suggests that they will have been cooped up in the ‘sheepfold’ for quite some time – 1260 days, to be precise (Revelation 12:6). The fact they are compared to calves emerging from the stall, and the elect are elsewhere likened to birds of prey, implies that the remnant will be saved in their mortal bodies while the elect will be raptured and glorified at that time.
Read the next chapter: https://www.robertensor.com/post/godmindbody-part-3-chapter-8-the-olivet-discourse
[i]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_Decision#:~:text=The%20Valley%20of%20Decision%20is,judgment%20on%20all%20of%20them.
[v] Hindson, Ed. LayHaye, Tim. 2011. Exploring Bible Prophecy From Genesis to Revelation PB: Clarifying the Meaning of Every Prophetic Passage. Harvest House.
[vi] Ibid.
[x] Ibid.
[xi] Ibid.
[xii] Eusebius. 2019. History of the Church. Beginning and End Press.
[xiii] Prophecy of the Saints. https://catholicmystics.blogspot.com/p/prophetic-warnings-phrophetic-warning.html
[xiv] Ibid.
[xv] Ibid.
[xvi] Several Middle Eastern countries besieged Jerusalem in 1948, but the context, especially the subsequent verses, establishes that Zechariah was not talking about 1948.
[xvii] He came to Abraham in human form, with he and two angels being described as ‘men’, yet this figure is nonetheless called by Abraham ‘Yahweh’ and ‘my Lord’ (Genesis 18:1–3). God the Father, who is in heaven, did not take human form; it was his Son that appeared to Abraham. Further Old Testament support for the existence of the preincarnate Word/Son of God comes from ‘Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky’ (Genesis 19:24) with the first Yahweh being the one who had previously spoken to Abraham. The second Yahweh implied to be in the sky is the Father. In addition, Proverbs 8:22 is written from the perspective of wisdom: ‘Yahweh possessed me in the beginning of his work, before his deeds of old.’ It was to this proverb that John was alluding when he wrote, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ (John 1:1). There is also: ‘Your throne, God, is forever and ever. A scepter of equity is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.’ (Psalm 45:6–7). The God whose throne is forever (Christ) has a God who anointed him with oil, making him Mashiach, the anointed one. Therefore, I rest my case that the Son/Word of God was described in the Old Testament.
[xviii] Hindson, Ed. LayHaye, Tim. 2011. Exploring Bible Prophecy From Genesis to Revelation PB: Clarifying the Meaning of Every Prophetic Passage. Harvest House.
Comments