Zechariah 14:20 In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD’S house shall be like the bowls before the altar.
21 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 was directed to finish his prophecy with a further look at what life will be like in the Millennium. That time will be unique to the history of the world. It is interesting that the world began for a short time with a perfect creation. Man knew no sin. Man had a direct and open relationship with God. It did not take very long at all for man to ruin that relationship. Adam became a sinner and all his descendants are conceived in sin and born as sinners. God has been gracious and since Genesis 3:15, He has shown us that He will provide the seed of the woman, not of the man, to bruise the head of the serpent. We know that seed is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. He was there in the beginning.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
The J.W.’s corrupted this text and changed the words “the Word was God” to the ‘word was a god’. The Mormons have taught that Jesus Christ is a created being and the brother of Lucifer. Both are wicked ideas and some of the perversions lean to supporting that evil.
However, Zechariah was directed by God to remind us that Jesus Christ will be the King in the Millennium. Rather than that being just a very short time, it will be one thousand years where Jesus Christ will rule. He will not force anyone to believe in Him, however, He will stop evil from being able to be the corrupter that it is in this current dispensation.
God has chosen to give man the options he has in this time. In the last thousand years prior to the end of the world, He will show the world the blessing there can be in submitting to the Lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, God wanted Israel to show the world that. In the New Testament the local church and Christians were to show the world that. Both have failed in their calling. Jesus Christ will personally show the world that there is great blessing in knowing the true God and trusting in the true Saviour.
Sadly, at the end of the Millennium, many of those who have lived during that thousand years, will choose to join Satan in one final rebellion against the Lord. They will lose.
In our opening text we see that the horses will have bells with the words: “HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD” inscribed on them. The pots in the LORD’s house will be like the bowls before the altar. The Jews living at that time, will see what God designed the first Temple to be. That Temple was designed by God to be a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was why there was so much gold in it. That was why it had the brazen altar in it, etc.
They will see a purer picture of that in the Millennial Temple, and they will also see the real Jesus right there all the time.
Verse 21 tells us that not only will the vessels in the Temple reflect the holiness of the Lord, but every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be the same. The people will be exposed to the holiness of God in a great way.
We have said many times, that Christians need to be reminded that our first authority is the Lord, not government, not anyone else. We are Christ’s people. Because of that, we will never be guilty of seeking to destroy peace. Christians are an essential part of society. The world is extremely foolish in seeking to rid itself of true Christians.
The response of our governments to the Tumbler Ridge tragedy has been so sad and so empty. Speeches have been made and flowers laid and candles lit, but no public figure has offered any real hope, because they have none to offer. True pastors need to speak up and keep speaking up and reminding people that the hope of man is still Jesus Christ. We do not need to apologize for that fact. We need to be sure that we present the true Jesus Christ, not the fictitious one that is worthless.
We see as well in our text that there will be no more Canaanite in the house of the LORD or hosts. Who were the Canaanites? They were pagans. They were idolaters. God told the nation of Israel they were not to keep their houses and just move into them. They were to destroy them and build new houses for themselves. The reason was that those houses were dedicated to false gods. God did not want the nation of Israel to have those stumbling blocks before them all the time. God knows an idol is nothing. However, we as people, do not always know that. The Catholics certainly do not know that. They have idols in their religious buildings and they encourage their people to have idols in their homes and in their cars and in their yards. The Bible warns us that covetousness is idolatry. Thus there are many people who have idols that they worship.
Born again Christians are commanded not to love the world, nor the things in the world. The Bible also warns us that friendship of the world is enmity with God. True Christians live in this corrupt world, but we are not to pattern ourselves after the world. We are true children of God and thus we need to pattern ourselves after Christ.
The Canaanite will not be allowed in the house of the LORD of hosts. That should be a reminder to those who are born again today, that the world has no place in the true local church or in the true Christian home or heart.
That means the current trend of using CCM music and the immodesty of the “performers” and of the “facilitator/pastor” is unbiblical. Why is it that so many people are flocking to that type of meeting place? It is because they are in the flesh and unsaved.
A while back I had a conversation with some people as I was witnessing to them. They said they stayed home for church and claimed to be Christians, but they liked the more wild style of Christianity. That was their description, not mine. By their words they admitted they were unsaved. They have proved that in many ways.
We need to listen to what God says and if we are saved, we have no reason to be ashamed of our faith. We will be different for sure, but that difference is a blessing and will be a blessing to anyone who trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
Pastor Bartel