Jerusalem and Zechariah 12: 3

All Scripture references are to the King James

(Authorised) Version, unless noted otherwise.

In that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

Q How will this prophecy be fulfilled?

A The stone of this passage is not one designed for building with.

Nor does it fit the standard English definition of a stone that of a fist-sized chunk.

ʻBurdensome stoneʼ used only in this text suggests it is large, heavy and jagged.

That it is sharp-edged is implied by the warning that those who try to shift it (ʻburden themselves with itʼ), shall be ʻcutʼ or ʻlaceratedʼ in the effort.

Compare this with Lev. 21: 5, in which the Tabernacle priests are forbidden to ʻshave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings [sarat; ʻlacerationsʼ] in their fleshʼ, obviously referring to the use of a cutting, razor-like implement.

‘Jerusalem’ is synecdoche for the state of Israel, the city standing for the nation.

Over the centuries, many civilisations and nations have attempted to humiliate, scatter and annihilate the chosen people of God, as if to say God was wrong in His choice, and that He ought to have picked a more congenial tribe of nomads to anoint.

Now there is a discernible rise in anti-Jewish, anti-Israel sentiment. This is true even in Britain, the nation which may be credited with having been the early champion of a ʻJewish national homeʼ, a prospect offered by the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Balfour, in his Declaration of 2 November 1917.

As the birth of Israel in 1948 was accompanied by bloody violence, so will the onset of the kingdom of God in the earth come about through a passage of pain and upheaval.

At some point, society’s hatred of and exasperation with Israel will result in concerted action against her possibly in the form of an international representative force in an endeavour to ʻshiftʼ this obstinate rock that blocks the way forward to ‘world peace’.

However, the fulcrum of effort will be too great to accomplish their intention, and God promises He will oppose her enemies and throw them into disarray (Zech. 12: 9):

‘And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Israel.’ Exactly how this will be accomplished we cannot know.

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