Zechariah 12

Zechariah 12:1-14

LATER THINGS OR EVENTS TO THE END OF THIS AGE Zechariah 12:1 to Zechariah 14:21. IN concluding our studies of this prophecy we will attempt the treatment of three chapters,— twelve to fourteen. Any one of these contains material sufficient for many addresses, but inasmuch as the three relate to one general period of time they may be compassed by a single discourse. There is no portion of Zechariah which so effectually approves of our sub-title “The Old Testament Apocalypse” as that contained in the chapters now before us for study. At very many points we have seen this Book parallel John’s great volume—“The Revelation”. But the most marked agreement between Zechariah, the Prophet of the Old Testament, and John, the great Seer of the New, is noted by a comparison of the latter chapters of these Books. In truth, the very best students of the Scriptures,—the men who accept them as verbally inspired, who read them with devoutest spirit, who reckon a literal understanding of their statements as the sanest interpretation of their meaning, who know them sufficiently to compare volume with volume, chapter with chapter, and even sentence with sentence,—are perfectly agreed in regarding the latter chapters of Zechariah and the latter chapters of Revelation as looking to one and the same great period in history, and to the same transcendent events. Our study of these chapters has convinced us of the correctness of these views.The chapters fall into natural study under three heads,—The Tribulation: The Restoration: and The Millennium.THE “The burden of the Word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. “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. “In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open Mine eyes upon the House of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness. “And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of Hosts their God” (Zechariah 12:1-5). I shall pass over the natural suggestions of this text of how Jehovah was really burdened by this Word; how He was also the Maker of heaven and earth, and of how Jerusalem itself is to be the storm center of the world’s greatest and last conflict, in order that we may straightway give ourselves to the discussion of the Tribulation.This is the sad day of Scripture. “That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, “A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. “And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have siwied against the Lord: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung” (Zephaniah 1:15-17). Such is the language that Jehovah put into the lips of Zephaniah His Prophet. When Isaiah was contemplating the Millennium he said of the peoples—“And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4). But when Joel was contemplating this time of tribulation he said,—“Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: “Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong” (Joe 3:9-10). Men have been wont to anticipate with joy the hour when the sword should become the plowshare and the spear the pruning-hook, but who can imagine the awful day when the plowshare shall become the sword and the pruning-hook the spear? And yet that is the day to which the Words of Zechariah look.There are some events upon which even the sun in the heavens refuses to look. When Christ was dying on the Cross,—the Innocent, yet infinitely suffering victim of wicked men,—God threw a veil over the face of the sun, and all nature shuddered to its very heart as it turned from the awful scene! According to Jesus Christ, when this hour of which Zechariah speaks shall arrive,“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. “All these are the beginning of sorrows. “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for My Name’s sake. “And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:7-11). “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” (Matthew 24:21-22). For a teacher of the Word of God to tell people that the world is going to grow steadily better and all human conditions are destined to constant improvement, until by a slow yet sure evolution of human history the Millennium will break, is to part company absolutely with the Prophets of the Old Testament and the teachers of the New, Christ included. According to these there is a day of tribulation ahead, the scenes of which will cause that the “sun be darkened” and “the moon shall not give her light”.When Christ was crucified the earth, as if sickened at heart, shook throughout her form; but when this day of tribulation comes, other planets shall be moved out of their places in demonstration of the awful agony to which God’s universe will be subjected. Read the twenty-fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew and be not deceived. It was an awful thing when wicked men sacrificed Jesus Christ on the Cross; but human history will know one worse day, and that will be when Jehovah offers on the altar of judgment all them who have rebelled against Him! See Ezekiel 39:17-20.In that day Gentile and Jew shall suffer. What shall happen to the Gentile is recorded in this twelfth chapter, verses two to nine; and what shall happen to Jerusalem and the Jew is written into this same prophecy (Zechariah 13:7 to Zechariah 14:2).Is it not significant that the very Prophets who foretold the dispersion of the Jews, the persecutions to which they should be subjected, the great tribulation into which they should eventually be called, were themselves members of this nation?

And while every Jew is a patriot, those who loved Israel best were the very men the Spirit compelled to utter the sentences of her coming judgment. It was Isaiah who prophesied judgment for the Gentiles who oppressed his people (Isaiah 51:22-23). But, as we have seen also, it was the same Isaiah who told his people of the tribulation which should come upon them. They charged Elijah with troubling Israel, but after events proved that Elijah was telling Israel only the truth. John was a Jew and yet when the vision was vouchsafed him he was faithful to declare,—“And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of Heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; “That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great” (Revelation 19:17-18). It is strange how people start back from such a picture as that which is presented in Revelation touching this day of universal tribulation, and yet remain unimpressed by the very shadows that prove this coming event.Yesterday you devoured your newspaper; aye, some have even transgressed the Lord’s Day and have this morning poured over the bloody page to learn whether China or Japan has contributed, in the last twenty-four hours, the largest number of soldiers to the point of the sword.Twenty years ago there were teachers on every side who were saying, “The world has seen its last war. Arbitration has superseded battle”; but the better students of the Book knew “that the blood-red dawn of the twentieth century was the sign of the storm that was to sweep the world.” When Russia and Japan engaged in their first fight men predicted that this was a little difficulty and would pass with a brief day. Months passed and the streams of blood deepened; then the dove of peace was scarcely settled when the World War broke. No man knows when a change in international difficulties may end; but the “God who taketh up nations in His hands” and to whom the whole future is more familiar than is his most recent past to any man, knows what conflicts are to come; and He, by the mouth of His Prophets, has spoken of this great cataclysm of blood. And yet, what believer should question that in it all right will triumph, human happiness will be enhanced, and Divine honor and love glorified!John Watson never said a truer thing than this,— “Progress by suffering * * is embodied in the economy of human history. * * Humanity has fought its way upwards at the point of the bayonet, torn and bleeding, yet hopeful and triumphant. As each nation suffers it prospers; as it ceases to suffer, it decays.

Our England was begotten in the sore travail of Elizabeth’s day. The American nation sprang from the sons of martyrs. United Germany was baptized in blood. * *”Before we have finished with Zechariah we shall find that out of this baptism of blood which shall characterize the end of the age, will come a people, and a reign, of righteousness. A period more glorious than any which has preceded it; a state which shall exceed all the Utopias of which uninspired men have dreamed. And yet before we speak of that some other things must be mentioned if we are to give ourselves to a real study of this text.Out of this tribulation the Church will escape. In the midst of Zechariah’s description of battle the Lord halts the picture to say,— “Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle. “And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. “And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Asal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee” (Zechariah 14:3-5). I shall never forget the first time I ever heard a reference made to that great truth of Scripture with which so few are familiar, namely, that God is dealing with the people of the world in three divisions. It was the lamented A. J. Gordon who, standing before the Baptist ministers of Chicago, said, “Brethren, I will talk to you a little while this morning concerning the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church of God.”1 Corinthians 10:32 becomes the key to many of the mysteries of the Word. After one has heard these three divisions,—the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church of God, he rightly divides the Scriptures, assigning to each that which was surely intended for it; and when the day of travail upon the part of “the Jew” and “the Gentile” shall come, let it be known that “the Church of God” will not participate in the agonies of that hour. (It is perhaps necessary, in passing, to make the distinction between apostate Christendom, as it now exists, and “the Church of God” which is nothing else than “the Body of Christ”. Christendom is made up of church members; the Church of God is made up of true believers.

Many church members will go into the tribulation and perish there, but the members of the Church of God shall be saved out of that awful hour.)A comparison of Scripture with Scripture shows that the coming of the hour to wake the righteous dead with His voice, and to catch up together with them the living saints, as promised in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, precedes the great tribulation which is to come upon the earth. To the church in Philadelphia Jesus, by the pen of John, said, “Because thou hast kept the Word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (Revelation 3:10).The “saints” of the tribulation period will not be churchmen who are alive and upon the earth when that hour strikes, but converts made by the tribulation itself. The “hundred and forty and four thousand [sealed] of all the tribes of the Children of Israel”, and the Gentile multitude which “no man could number, * * [standing] before the throne”;— These “which came out of great tribulation” will present the throng of converts produced by that awful time.Doubtless one reason why many of the Christians of the earth have not been more ardent touching the Return of the Lord is the fact that they have felt that it was to be antedated by this day of tribulation. But let it be understood that the Church,—the Body of Christ,—will spend the tribulation period with its Head in the Heavenlies; and if there is any one season destined to be more festive than another, and worthy to be regarded as the joyous wedding hour, it is this very brief time when the tribulation of the earth, so awful to contemplate, shall only be exceeded by the Rapture of the saints as they assemble about Him whose great heart of love has, like a magnet, lifted them from home and street, and even out of the depths of the cemetery.THE As in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew events which are separated by long stretches of time are so presented as to make them seem practically one, so in the study of Zechariah the references to the tribulation and the Millennium are intermingled. Three things, however, are clearly taught concerning the restoration.In it the city and the land will participate.“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; and the House of David shall be as God, as the Angel of the Lord before them. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem” (Zechariah 12:8-9). We have already seen that Jerusalem is to be rebuilt; that its walls are to be greatly enlarged; that it is to even break out on every side the tents of Judah lying beyond the inclosed city. And now behold this promise that Jehovah shall defend its inhabitants. The feeblest among them “that day shall be as David”—the mighty warrior of the past. “The House of David shall be as God, as the Angel of the Lord before them”. It seems a strained thing to say that some descendants of the House of David will be found who will break forth as captains and leaders in that hour. “The Descendant of the House of David” is none other than Jesus Himself,—the “Angel of Jehovah”,—who shall indeed be “as God.” And when He shall undertake the defense of Jerusalem what powers can stand before Him?Far more wonderful than the return of the Jews to Jerusalem, the exaltation of that city to the place of her first importance, and the manifestation of the power of God in the very overthrow of all them that are against His people, is the promise concerning the land,—“All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king’s winepresses” (Zechariah 14:10). “And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited” (Zechariah 14:11). Visitors to Palestine now find it a hilly country; yea, splendidly mountainous; those who shall tread it in that time shall discover it level,—an elevated plateau. Such indeed is the Word of Scripture as spoken about Palestine. Scientists I suppose would resent this suggestion and claim that it is a physical impossibility. But who that has ever crossed the Rocky Mountains, or the mountain ranges of the Northwest, and studied the upheavals of the past, and seen the power of God to do what He will with the earth, but believes that the same One who lifted our mountains from the level can reduce them again,—and will,—when the exigencies of His infinite purposes require it? No wonder Mrs. E. M. Exton has written the poem published but a few years since:— “Oh, Palestine, sweet Palestine! Our eyes would fain behold The glory of the latter day, By Prophets long foretold.

“When thy fair hills, and lovely vales, Teeming with life, shall sing The praises of Immanuel, Israel’s anointed King.

“When on mount Zion there shall stand A Temple to His praise, Surpassing that which Solomon Built in the former days.

“To which the ancient tribes ascend In throngs to praise their God; With ardent love, and earnest zeal, According to His Word.

“From out that glorious Temple then Rich streams of life shall flow, With healing virtue to restore Where’er the waters go.

“From Thee, as center of the earth, Such righteous laws shall spring, To benefit the earth, and man, Yea, every living thing.

“As man could never formulate, Forceful, yet just and true; Suited alike to every land, To Gentile and to Jew.

“The Prince—Messiah—shall return In righteousness to reign: For He as Heir to David’s throne The title doth retain.

“The cruel oppressor He will break, The groaning earth set free; With universal power will rule The world in equity.

“While they of Tarshish and the isles, With every land, shall bring Their tribute to Jerusalem, The City of the King.

“Thy sons again once more have turned Their longing eyes to thee. Oh, Palestine, sweet Palestine, E’en now they homeward flee.” By it Israel will be restored to Divine favor.“And I will pour upon the House of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me wham 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. “In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. “And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the House of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; “The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; “All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. “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” (Zechariah 12:10 to Zechariah 13:1). Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, reminds the Gentile world of the promises to Israel in these words,“For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: “For this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins” (Romans 11:24-27). It would hardly seem necessary, in view of all that has been said in this volume, to refer at any length to the promised restoration of Israel, but we should not pass over the fact that this restoration comes through their penitence; nor forget how deep their penitence is, as set forth in the concluding verses of this twelfth chapter.Some months ago I saw a Jew under conviction for sin; a Jew convinced that his Christ had been crucified. The bitterness of his grief surpassed anything I have ever witnessed in the form of contrition for sin! When he came to me he had just finished reading the Gospel of Matthew and the Epistle to the Romans, and he had walked the streets in utter agony, questioning with himself whether he were yet in his right mind. Seeing how deep was his anguish, I suggested that he meet two Christian Jews who were in the building at the time, and he cried out as if the thought were unbearable, “No! No! I do not want to meet them; I do not want to meet any one.

I cannot! I must be alone until this anguish passes and I find pardon and peace!”There are places and dates at which, and on which, the Jews wail now. But the wail is largely perfunctory. The time will come, however, when their wailing will be the result of breaking hearts, in answer to the conviction of a crucified Savior; “And 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” (Zechariah 13:1).John Bunyan gives us a vivid pen picture of what it will mean when Peter’s call, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins”, shall become effective with the Jews. He imagines their answers to the overtures of the Apostle:—“But I struck Him on the head with the rod: is there any hope for me?” “Every one of you”, saith the Apostle. “But I spat in His face: is there any forgiveness for me?” “Yes,” is the reply, “for every one of you.” “But I drove the spikes into His hands and feet, which transfixed Him to the Cross: is there cleansing for me?” “Yes,” cries Peter, “for every one of you.” “But I pierced His side though He had never done me wrong; it was a ruthless, cruel act, and I am sorry for it now: may that sin be washed away?” “Every one of you”, is the constant answer.Meyer also justly comments, “As it was at the beginning of this era, so it shall be at its close,— with this difference that whereas then only some few thousand souls stepped into the fountain, at last a whole nation, the House of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, shall wash there and be cleansed. Then the words of the Apostle Peter, spoken centuries ago in Solomon’s porch, will be fulfilled when Israel repents and turns again; her sins will be blotted out, and there will come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and the restoration of all things, “Which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy Prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21).Then idols and false prophets shall come to an end.“And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of Hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. “And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the Name of the Lord: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive: “But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am cm husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth” (Zechariah 13:2-5). One of the strangest movements of modern times is the going after false prophets. The worship of idols is no new thing. From the earliest days the faithful of Jehovah, and even Jehovah Himself, have been in battle against these. The false prophet is no new thing, but his multiplication and his exaltation through great followings surely characterize the times in which we live. When one thinks of all the claims that Dowie put forth and remembers that a million people accepted him as the actual embodiment of every pretension, and of the scores of smaller boasters since, he is impressed with the language of Timothy,—(1 Timothy 4:1-2)—“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron”.When one studies the claims of Sanford and understands how large was his following, how abominable his behavior, how cruel even his customs, according to the reports of those who came from the inside, he must feel that 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 is witnessing fulfillment:—“And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the Truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness”.We have seen boys playing a game called “Following the Leader.” One is the leader and whatever he does, where he steps or jumps, the rest must follow. The Devil has adopted it.

Beware of following either a man or a woman claiming to be a great leader. Christ says, “Follow Me”.And the false prophets of the present hour foreshadow that great leader—“the Man of Sin”. “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory”. This leader also shall be made ashamed, yea, even destroyed by the brightness of His Person upon whom we have fixed our hopes, and whose personal return to the earth shall seal the doom not only of his agents but of the very adversary himself.THE “But it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. “And it shall be in that day, that Living Waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. “And the Lord shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His Name one” (Zechariah 14:7-9). “And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. “And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. “And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. “This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. “In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the Lord’s House shall be like the bowls before the altar. “Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of Hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the House of the Lord of Hosts” (Zechariah 14:16-21). Three remarks:Then Jehovah—Jesus—shall be King of the whole earth. Zechariah is only resounding the statements of his predecessors concerning the Kingship of Jesus. That supremacy has been the prediction of every Prophet, and is reaffirmed by every Apostle. The promises of it are so oft repeated that pages would be required even for their quotation. Suffice it now to remember “All nations shall serve Him”. Yea, “The world, and they that dwell therein”.

The stone that smote the image is to become the great mountain and fill the whole earth. Only a half century ago Strauss alarmed the Christian world by declaring that no such Person as Jesus ever lived except in the minds of His Apostles; He was but an imagined Christ. And yet He who conquered more hearts and controls more thought and affection today than any other person who ever trod the earth will, when He walks it again, command all men and they shall obey Him.Then all the inhabitants will join in Jehovah’s worship.“And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. “And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. “And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. “This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles” (Zechariah 14:16-19). The Millennium is not to be a time of willing submission upon the part of all; but it is to be a time when all who refuse to worship the King shall be visited by His fury. Now the wicked flourish as the green bay tree; then they shall know only the blight of God’s judgment.Holiness unto Jehovah shall characterize all custom and conduct.“In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the Lord’s House shall be like the bowls before the altar. “Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of Hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the House of the Lord of Hosts” (Zechariah 14:20-21). In reading Dr. Lorimer’s volume “Christianity in the Social State” he speaks of that good time to come when in the new civilization there will be no necessity for any statutes against strong drink. “The people will be so educated, their lower nature so completely under control that it would be equally an insult to their intelligence and morality for the legislature to pass an enactment against drunkenness!”But alas for the vain reasoning of men! Lorimer sleeps with the dead, education is almost universal in the greater governments, and yet iniquity deepens! In man there is no help. “Salvation is of the Lord”. Holiness awaits His glorious reign!