Zechariah 12

CHAPTER 12THEME: Second prophetic burden connected with Christ’s second comingIn chapters 12-14 we come to the prophetic aspects connected with the second coming of Christ. This is the second and final division of this last major section of Zechariah’s prophecy. The primary reason that this is such an important section is that it is quite obvious that Zechariah is presenting God’s program here. In chapter 11, the prophet first showed us that the true Shepherd, the One who gave His life for the sheep, is rejected. In fact, He was sold for thirty pieces of silverhow cheap! Our redemption was not purchased with silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ, but what a cheap price He was sold for in that day.

The Lord Jesus said when He was on earth, “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive” (Joh_5:43). That one who is coming some day is the one Zechariah calls the idol or worthless shepherd. That shepherd is identified as being the Antichrist. After the church is removed from the earth, after the interval in which the true Shepherd is presented to the world as the One who gave His life for the sheep, we come to the time when the worthless shepherd will present himself. He will be accepted, and he will bring in the Great Tribulation, not the Millennium. As a result, we see here that Jerusalemwhich will become the capital of the earth where Jesus will reign some day in the Millenniumis under attack by Antichrist, and we see how it will be delivered. The second reason that this section of Scripture is so important is that this area of prophecy is rejected today by many Bible expositors, even by so-called conservative expositors. They will not face up to the fact that God presents here a panoramic program of His purposes with this world and with Israel in the future. That is a sad thing to say, but it is true. We also have some men who are called fundamentalists but who border on the sensational and lift out certain statements from this section. I don’t think that it is honest to lift certain things out of a passage and try to fit them into the events of today when they have to do with the future. Any interpretation must fit into the entire program that Zechariah is presenting. Chapter 12 deals with the final siege of Jerusalem and the lifting of that siege. “Jerusalem” is mentioned ten times in this chapter, and “in that day” is mentioned seven times. These two expressions occur again and again. “In that day” is a reference to the Day of the Lord which begins with the Great Tribulation period and eventuates and goes into the millennial Kingdom which the Lord Jesus will usher in when He comes again. The Antichrist brings in the Great Tribulation; the Lord Jesus brings in the Millennium. I want us to note these expressions"in that day" and “Jerusalem"for they are the subject of this chapter. There is so much confusion today as to the meaning of the Day of the Lord. Even as far back as 1951 when I was participating in several summer conferences, I heard two other Bible teachers present a very hazy, indefinite, and uncertain view of the Day of the Lord. It occurred to me that if the man in the pulpit is so fuzzy and foggy on this subject, what about those in the pew? Is there a clear-cut understanding of what the Day of the Lord is? What do you think of when you hear the expression, the Day of the Lord? Do you have a definite conception of what it means?

Or is it just a nebulous and incoherent expression that is like some sort of umbrella that you can put down over a great many things and it can mean almost anything to you? We hear people use the word glory. What does it mean? When people say amen to something, what do they mean by that? I am reminded of the Englishman who went into a restaurant here in the United States after he had been here for just a short time. He asked the waitress, “What kind of soup do you have?” She started out by saying, “Well, we have bean….” He stopped her immediately and said, “I don’t care where you have been. I want to know what kind of soup you have.” Then there was the preacher in the South years ago who said in the church business meeting, “Now we’re going to call on the president to share his report and let us know the status quo of the church.” One of the deacons got up and said, “Mr. Preacher, I think you ought to explain to us what the status quo is.” The preacher replied. “Well, it’s Latin for the mess we’re in.” My friend, these expressions can mean different things to different people. The Day of the Lord is an important expression. It occurs eighteen times in the Book of Zechariah alone. We find it in both the Major and the Minor Prophets. The Day of the Lord is actually the theme of Joel’s book. Malachi speaks of “…the coming of the great and dreadful Day of the LORD” (Mal_4:5). In one sense it is a theme of the Old Testament and one of the most important themes. It would be helpful for us to break down this expression and take a closer look at it. “The Day of the Lord.” Let’s understand clearly that this does not refer to the Lord’s Day. The Day of the Lord and the Lord’s Day are two different things. Like a chestnut horse and a horse chestnut or like antifat and fat Auntiethey are simply two different things. The Day of the Lord is not a 24-hour day. Peter says, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2Pe_3:8). The events that the prophets include in the Day of the Lord preclude the possibility of their happening in a 24-hour day. In fact the tremendous things which are going to take place during the Great Tribulation have made some men actually reject it and ridicule that viewpoint. They argue that you just cannot have that many crisis events take place in that brief seven year period. But things are different since we have gotten into the twentieth century.

In one issue of their magazine, U.S. News and World Report took the ten year period from 1960-70 and listed the many crisis events that took place in that brief period of time. There has been a tremendous speeding up of crises in the world today. I do not think that God will have any trouble fulfilling all the prophecies concerning the Great Tribulation period. The Day of the Lord, therefore, is a period of time. It includes the Great Tribulation period.

The Day of the Lord, therefore, is a period of time. It includes the Great Tribulation period and the millennial Kingdom, which means that it is over a thousand years in length. Has the Day of the Lord come? Are we living in it? The Old Testament closes with that day still in the future. The Old Testament pointed ahead to it, and the New Testament still anticipated it. The apostle Paul made it very clear that it was still in the future as far as he was concerned: “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night” (1Th_5:2). The Day of the Lord had not come up to Paul’s time, and nothing has happened since then that would indicate that it has come. Concerning the character of the Day of the Lord, it is a good day and it is a bad day. Good news and bad news can come in one message. It is like the pilot on the Italian airplane who came on the air and introduced himself. Then he said, “We welcome you aboard this flight. I have some good news for you, and I have some bad news for you. First of all, I’ll give you the bad news. We’ve lost contact with the ground. Our entire radar system has gone out, and we have no radio contact. In fact, we don’t know where we are. That’s the bad news. Now for the good news: We’re making good time.” May I say to you, the Day of the Lord is good news and bad news. The bad news first: the Great Tribulation. The good news next: the millennial Kingdom. Both features will be emphasized beginning here in chapter 12. Zechariah will give you the bad news in verses Zec_12:2 and Zec_12:3: “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I 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.” That’s the bad news. But there is also some good news coming in chapter 14, beginning at verse Zec_14:8: “And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem.” There is bad news and good news, and in chapter 12 we will be dealing with the bad news. We have, therefore, presented to us the Great Tribulation and Jerusalem under siege. This is the time that Jeremiah called “the time of Jacob’s trouble.” In Jer_30:5-7 we read: “For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.” Daniel also wrote concerning this time: “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book” (Dan_12:1). The Lord Jesus spoke of this time, He identified it, and He Himself labeled it the “great tribulation”: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Mat_24:21-22).

Zechariah 12:1

THE GREAT TRIBULATIONWe have in chapter 12 a description of this Great Tribulation period, and it is presented to us like this “The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel.” The word burden here means “a prophecy, a judgment.” A judgment is coming to themit is a burden in that sense. This prophecy had to do with the siege of Jerusalem which precedes the Battle of Armageddon. “The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD.” In this section of Scripture which is rejected by so many men today, there is a particular emphasis upon the statement of Zechariah again and again that he is not giving you his idea but “thus saith the LORD.” This prophecy comes directly from God. If you reject this, you are not just a higher critic with a little superficial knowledge who is able to make very intellectual statements about what you do and don’t believebut, my friend, you are making Zechariah a liar. Zechariah says here that this is the Word of the Lord. He is either accurate and means what he says or he is a liarthere is no “in-between.” When you reject thisno matter who you areyou’re making this man a liar. Well, I don’t think he is a liar, but I think you are a liar if you reject him. There are three great statements in this verse which give to us a sublime description of God as the Creator of this universe and of everything that is in it. This is a tremendous and overwhelming statement that we have here:

1. He is the One “which stretcheth forth the heavens.” The psalmist says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Psa_19:1). All of that above us declares His glory, and it shows His handiwork. And it is being stretched out. Quite a few years ago now, Sir James Jeans, an English astronomer, advanced a theory which has been pretty well accepted today among astronomers. I understand that Jeans was a Christian.

His proposal suggests that this universe has growneven since you have started reading this chapterand is now several million miles bigger. That is really stretching things! You and I are living in a universe in which these tremendous creations of God are moving away from each other, streaking across the universe. He “stretcheth forth the heavens.” How great God is! 2. “And layeth the foundation of the earth.” God has given particular attention to this little earth that we live on. Man just isn’t satisfied that he lives in a universe in which he is the only human being around. So we have been sending missiles out to the other worlds. We aren’t electronically bugging them in order to tape anything they might say, but we are sure looking in their front window to see if they might be there. There’s been nobody there. God made this earth the habitation for human beings. 3. This is the most remarkable thing: He “formeth the spirit of man within him.” Man is a little different creation from anything else that is on this earth. He is above anything that is on this earth, but he is not equal to the created intelligences which we call angels. I think that the universe today is filled with God’s created intelligences. I do not mean that there are men from Mars. (They have now found Mars to be the kind of place that if you lived there, you would want to move right away!) Although we live in a universe that looks as if it’s not inhabited, I do not think that God has a “Vacancy” sign hanging out anywhere. I believe that if you moved out of our solar system, you would find that God’s created intelligences are in this universe.

They are spiritual creatures, and our cameras are not apt to pick up any of them, I can assure you. What a glorious picture this verse gives of God as the Creator! Men years ago who were called deistsnone of them were evolutionistsbelieved that there was a Creator, and they believed that God created the universe but that He went off and left it. He just forgot about it. He wound it up, started it off, and then He walked away. However, this verse reveals that God did not walk off and leave the universe. It reveals that God is immanent in His universe as well as outside of it. This passage portrays the tremendous activity of God out yonder in the heavens as He moves in our great universe.

We live in a universe that is filled with energy. It is man who has depleted the energy on this little world on which we live. I think that God put just enough energy down here to last us until He is ready to move in and take it over again. It looks as if the filling station which we live on down here is running out of gas. This is another reason I believe that we are moving on to the end of this age. We see here that God is working with a very definite and positive action as far as this universe is concerned. He is that One who has formed the spirit of man. He is our omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing) God. He is wisdom and knowledge. As Dr. Unger expresses it, this “comprises one of the most magnificent eschatological vistas to be found in the Word of God”; yet it is disbelieved by even a great many who call themselves conservative or evangelical.

Zechariah 12:2

Jerusalem is mentioned twice here in this one verse. As we have already indicated, it is mentioned ten times in this chapter alone. Here we have Jerusalem becoming the very center of the activity which will take place when Antichrist takes over. Jerusalem becomes the center of attack and of judgment. “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about.” Better words for “cup” are bowl or goblet or mug. Let’s identify when this will take place: “When they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.” When is that? In the last days, in the time that the Lord Jesus called the Great Tribulation period. Therefore, the interpretation of this entire section is for a future day. But it is going to have a message and a tremendous lesson for us. In Dr. Unger’s words, God will make Jerusalem “a goblet of intoxication,” “a goblet of staggering” for those who are concerning themselves with it. In other words, they will be staggering because of it.

Zechariah 12:3

In effect God says, “You’re going to get hurt fooling with Jerusalem.” Again, this hasn’t anything in the world to do with Rome or Paris or London or Washington, D.C., or Los Angeles or your town. When He says Jerusalem, He means Jerusalem. Although He says it ten times, somehow or another it doesn’t get through to us. Some of the commentators don’t quite get the message. Jerusalem means Jerusalem, and when He puts Judah with Jerusalem, He is talking about Jerusalem which is in Judah. “And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people.” Now that seems strange, doesn’t it? Jerusalem is a rather isolated place, an old city, and actually not very attractive today. Despite the fact that it has so many spots which are sacred and meaningful to us, I know a lot of places I like better than I like Jerusalem. I always enjoy staying there because there as so many things to see that are identified with the Bible. But why should this place be so prominent and significant in the last days? How do you explain that?

Well, that city even today has become a burdensome stone, but we have not seen the fulfillment of prophecyit is nonsense to talk like that. This prophecy fits into a program that is yet future, but God just wants you to know that He was not making an exaggerated statement when He said that Jerusalem can become a burdensome stone. I believe that what we have seen is nothing compared with what it will be in that day. It almost broke up the Common Market, it almost wrecked NATOJerusalem became a burdensome stone. Consider the list of the nations of the world which have captured that city and have tried to rule it. For example, at the time when General Allenby took Jerusalem and delivered it from the Turks, Great Britain was the number one power, and the sun never set on the British Empire.

But, my friend, today the British Empire’s sun has set. It went down because they got involved with that city. Frankly, I hope that the United States doesn’t get too involved. God says, “Keep your hands off. I am the One running that place.”

Zechariah 12:4

Again God says, “In that day"this is going to get monotonous before we finish this book. The horse represents warfare, and when a horse goes blind and the rider is mad, you are certainly going to have confusion. God says here that when the enemy comes against Israel, He is going to make them ineffective.

Zechariah 12:5

In that day Jerusalem will become a refuge for God’s people on the earth. This siege of Jerusalem in which the enemy comes in from every direction is the result of the activity of Antichrist, but God will intervene on their behalf. When they have rejected Him, why in the world does He intervene on their behalf? We will find the answer in this section of Scripture.

Zechariah 12:6

Again I remind you that we are talking about Jerusalemnot about Rome or Washington, D.C., or Geneva, Switzerland. We are talking about Jerusalem, the geographical spot located in Judah. He has already identified both Judah and Jerusalem, and He will do that again here

Zechariah 12:7

In other words, Jerusalem would be looking down, as it were, on the rest of the country. People today in one section of our country have a tendency to look down upon people from other sections of the country. I have been very much amused at the reactions which people have to my accent. Many of them very frankly write letters and say, “When I started listening to you, I thought you were just some wild-eyed ignoramous.” Well, there are some people who still think that, but the letters go on to say, “But we kept listening and saw beyond that accent.” They realized that I had been to school or at least had finished the sixth grade! My point is that this is a tendency we all have. We folk who have been born in Texas have been given the impression that there is nothing beyond the borders of Texas, that the chosen people are in Texas. There are some of my fellow Texans who still believe that, and such is human nature. Zechariah is saying that if the Lord manifested Himself first to Jerusalem and to the house of David, then they would look down upon the rest of Judah. They would say, “These are country rubes and hillbillies. After all, the Lord didn’t manifest Himself to them first.” Remember that the Lord Jesus said, “But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first” (Mat_19:30). We are going to get many shocks when we get to heaven. I think that one of the greatest surprises is that we will find people up there whom we didn’t think were going to be there. And there are going to be some missing whom we thought were going to be there. That’s the number one shock we will get. Then we are also going to find out who really are the people that God recognizes as those who were His servants and who were doing faithfully that which He wanted done. And they are not going to be the ones we would have chosen. God makes it clear here in Zechariah, “I am going to manifest Myself to Judah first,” and that will give Jerusalem and the house of David something to think about.

Zechariah 12:8

“In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David.” David was quite a soldier. If you don’t believe that, read the account concerning his son Absalom, or read how he took that nation which was scattered and divided and brought it together and how he dealt with the Philistines. David was a great administrator, a great soldier, a general of great strategy, a man of tremendous ability. In that day, even the weakest man will be like David. “And the house of David shall be as God.” To me this is one of the most thrilling statements in Scripture: David will be like God. I want you to know that there came One in David’s line who is God. David is going to be like God. That One is the Lord Jesus Christ who was born to Mary of the household of David. He was born in the city of Bethlehem. Mary went down there to be enrolled because she belonged to the house of David.

And Joseph also had to be enrolled for he was of the house of David, but he had nothing to do with the birth of the Lord Jesus. They went down to Bethlehem, and Jesus was born into the family of David. Matthew writes: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Mat_1:1)that is the way the New Testament opens. That He is the Son of David is the first thing that is mentioned. He is also “the son of Abraham,” but David is mentioned first.

Zechariah 12:9

There will be a converging of all the nations against Jerusalem, which we see in a great deal of detail in the Book of Revelation. All of these great prophecies are like trains or planes coming into a train station or airport. All of these great themes of prophecy which originate elsewhere in the Bible converge into the Book of Revelation like a great airport or Union Station.

Zechariah 12:10

ISRAEL’S DELIVERANCEThere is coming against Jerusalem in that day the enemy from the outside. Why is God going to protect them, and why is God going to deliver them? The reason is given here in verse Zec_12:10 “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications.” This is another reason why I do not believe the present return to the land is a fulfillment of any prophecy of Scripture. The Scriptures make it clear, not only here but also in Joel, that God is going to pour out upon them the Spirit of Grace, that is, the Holy Spirit. He will pour out the Holy Spirit upon these people during this period. Because of this effusion of the Holy Spirit that is to come upon them, they will be His witnesses, and He will protect them during the Great Tribulation period. Revelation speaks of the angel who seals these people: “And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel” (Rev_7:4). This 144,000 means the people that we know as Israel who live in that land.

It does not refer to any people who arbitrarily claim it for themselves without any basis at all. This has to rest upon facts, and the Book of Revelation makes it very clear that it Isaiah 12,000 out of each of the twelve tribes (see Rev_7:5-8). If you are going to claim to be one of the 144,000, that means that you are unsaved today and that if the Rapture took place, you would not leave the earth but would go into the Great Tribulation period when they are to be sealed. Therefore, the 144,000 does not mean any group that we have today, but it does mean a certain group among the people of Israel. There is another large group of people who are to be sealed, but we are not given the number of them. They are Gentiles who are to be sealed during that period. They will go through the Great Tribulation period, and they will stand for God in that time. When the church is removed from the earth, the Holy Spirit, as I understand Scripture, does not leave the earth, but He will be on a different mission. He then will return to what He was doing before the Day of Pentecostthat is, He will come upon certain people. Zechariah tells us that there is to be a pouring out of the Spirit upon the remnant that will be back in the land. I do not think that, in what has happened over there since they became a nation in 1948, there has been any time that you could say there has been the pouring out of the Spirit of God. When that pouring out of the Spirit takes place, they are going to recognize Christ as their Savior. “And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” This will be the fulfillment of the great Day of Atonement when they are going to look upon Him. Chapter 13 will develop this a great deal for us. It opens with this: “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness” (Zec_13:1). Then verse Zec_13:6 in chapter 13 reads, “And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.” In that day they are going to look upon Him whom they pierced, and the question will be asked of Him, “What do these wounds mean? We didn’t expect our Messiah, our King, to come with these wounds that You have in Your hands and feet and in Your side.” He will say to them, “I got these wounds in the house of My friends. I came before, but you didn’t accept Me or receive Me, and now I’ve come back.” They will then mourn because of that. The explanation is given here as to why God is going to defend Jerusalem. He will pour out the Spirit of grace upon them. My friend, that is the only way today that you and I are indwelt by the Spirit of God. You don’t have to seek and groan and grunt and think that you become a super-duper saint in order to have the Holy Spirit. All you must do is to come as a sinner to Jesus Christ and accept and receive Him as your Savior. Then you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God.

Paul called the Corinthian believers babies, he called them carnal, he called them fleshly; yet he could say to them, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (1Co_6:19). He is the Spirit of grace. He does not indwell me or fill me because I’m super-duper or because I’m a little ahead of somebody elseI’m not, I’m way behind most. It is because of His grace that He does these things. And that is the way that He is going to do this for Israel. Since He’s been so gracious to me, I’m not going to object to His being gracious to these people. Israel will know Him when the veil is lifted from their eyes, as Paul put it in 2Co_3:13-16. That veil doesn’t mean that they are not responsible. Any time any one of them will turn his heart to Christ, Paul makes it very clear that the veil will be removed, and he will see Christ as his Savior. My friend, this is true of any sinner today. You are not lost because you haven’t heard the gospel; you are not lost because of this, that, or another thing. You’re lost today because you have made a definite decision to reject Jesus Christ.

This is a false idea today that somehow or another we are not responsible. Although it is by grace, you and I are responsible to respond to the marvelous, infinite, wonderful grace of God. Therefore, God saves us not because of our ability, not even by our faith, but He saves us by the precious blood of Christ. This is a wonderful passage of Scripture.

Zechariah 12:11

“In that day"aren’t you getting just a little bit tired of hearing Zechariah talk about “in that day”? Well, you haven’t heard anything yet. All the way through the very last chapter and the last verse, he is going to talk about “in that day.” By now we ought to know what “in that day” means. It is that period of time known as the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord begins when the church leaves at the Rapture and the Great Tribulation period begins, and then it will continue right on through the millennial Kingdom, to the time when all rebellion is put down and the eternal Kingdom begins. The eternal Kingdom simply continues the thousand year Kingdom, except that it is no longer a time of testing but everything is then fixed for eternity. “In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem.” This is the real Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement in the Mosaic system was the only day Israel was to weep. It was the day that atonement was made for their sins. “In that day shall there be a great mourning.” May I just pause and say that there is today a great deal of so-called gospel preaching that says, “Come to Jesus. He will make you over. You are going to be a new personality, and you are going to attain your goal.” All kinds of attractions are offered to you. But may I say, what do you really think about your sins?

Have you ever mourned about them? Has it ever broken your heart that you have been a sinner? This is the one thing that this poor preacher right now can say to you: When I look back on my life and see some of the things that I did in the past, I tell you, it breaks my heart. It is for that that my Savior died. There ought to be that mourning, that repentance in the Christian life. The one thing that is missing today is that which used to take place at the Methodist altars in the old days.

In those meetings men and women would come weeping down to the altar to accept Christbut I see very little of that today. They come down smiling, thinking they’re going to get a new personality. My friend, the truth is that you’re an old, rotten, dirty, filthy sinner in His sight, and even your good things are bad to Him. He says that our righteousness is as filthy rags in His sight. And if my righteousness is filthy rags, think what my filthy rags are! If you and I could see ourselves as God sees us, we couldn’t stand ourselves.

We would get rid of our conceit and our self-sufficiency. Oh, how the church needs a real baptism of repentance! This is the thing that is needed todayrepentance on the part of believers, a repenting of their sins. “As the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.” This refers to the Valley at Megiddon and to the time of Josiah. Josiah was a king greatly loved of the people, and when he died there was great mourning for him. Jeremiah wept over Josiah as he wept over no one else.

Zechariah 12:12

They shall mourn “apart.” That is, it will be done in a private manner. Such repentance is something that many of us even today need to do privately.

Zechariah 12:13

This will be a real mourning. What great sin have they committed? They had rejected their Messiah when He came the first time. Think what it will be like when He comes the second time and there are those who have heard the gospel message but have turned it down. May I say to you, that day is coming on this earth when He will come again. Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart. Open up your heart and receive Christ as your Savior.