Zechariah 8

Thus saith the Lord; I am returned unto Zion,

and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem

Zechariah 8:3

The words 'Israel' and 'Zion' have been hijacked for about 150 years or more by a group of people that have scanty or zero authentic relation to the land in the Middle East that was once was called Israel, later was named Judea, Samaria and Galilee and for the past 1,800 years has been known under the name of Palestine. For many centuries Palestine has been inhabited by multiple groups of people that however religiously different, are ethnically related. Studies have shown that former Palestinian Jews have more common genes with Palestinian Muslims than with so called European Jews that came to the Middle East on the waves of Zionism. Like so many historical movements, Zionism, from the start, has been an artificial project of a few, that wanted to govern the course of history for the many. And when a few Jewish families had managed themselves in ultimate positions of power, even able to dictate kings, queens, premiers and presidents, they started to steer the course of history in the direction of 'a Jewish homeland', thereby suggesting that all Jews only lived outside of the promised land and that the promised land was taken over by 'Arab aliens'. This suggestion is as false as the suggestion that the promised land would have lain bare for centuries and that the Zionist project sought a land without a people for a people without a land.

All so called Palestinians, either with a Jewish, a Christian or a Muslim religion are more authentically Jewish than the so called Jews that came from Europe, which in the course of almost 2000 years of dependency on the hosting populations had much more incentives to assimilate. Were it not for the few powerful elitists, that with all their might and wealth have forced history in the direction of Zionism, there would not have been a state of Israel, there would have been no turmoil in the Middle East and there would have been no WWI, no WWII and no immanent risk of WWIII. The big problem is that the controllers of Zionism have such immense power, that they have come to determine how people think on the issue of Jewish history, and they even determine how people are allowed to think on this very issue, in case that the truth somehow might come to light. It is only since the start of the genocidal war against the defenseless people of Gaza 19 months ago, that the ugly truth about the state of Israel of and the gruesome face of Zionism slowly began to dawn upon Western minds.

Important are the prophetic words of the Lord in Revelation 3:9 - 'Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.' These words are spoken to the church of Philadelphia, which is a picture of the second to last stage of 2000 years of church history. During this stage of the church (1750-1900), the prophetic word was rediscovered, with the rapture of the church, the great tribulation, the future millennial kingdom and with a future restoration of the people of Israel. Alas, this prophetic notion was very useful to the Zionist enterprise. Therefore, it was hijacked and used to build and defend a state of Israel, that in fact would act as a colonial entity, in the interest of the empire that was the power behind its inception. The mindset of Zionism is totally contrary to what God originally meant his people to be. Therefore Christ calls it 'a synagogue of satan', even denying that they are actually Jews: 'they lie' He says. There we have the great distance of these European Jews from the patriarchs of old - even to the point that they are no longer to be considered Jewish. That is why the focus of 'being Jewish' shifted from ancestry to religion - for everyone could become a Jew by converting to Judaism. And more recently it even shifted to being a supporter of the state of Israel - confounding Judaism with Zionism. That is how the deceiver of mankind works, muddying the waters, filling the words with meanings that suit his purposes best.

All of the above is what one has to bear in mind, when reading the book of Zechariah or else, one does not understand one syllable of what the writer meant. For how do we have to understand verse 2?: 'Thus saith the Lord of hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury'. So, does our Lord side with the cause of 19th and 20th and 21st century Zionism, the cause that has resulted in millions of dead Europeans, Arabs and Jews during the past 130 years? Must we see the Lord as the Protector of the IDF?  The IDF, the most sophisticated army in the world with a yearly budget of billions, supported by the world empire, the USA, and having placed itself at the center of worldwide military intelligence thanks to the use of the terrorized Palestinians as 'test population'? Would that arouse the jealousy of the Lord in order to favor it? Putting such a question is equal to answering it.

In most cases, the terms Zion and Israel and Judah, used in the book of Zechariah, have to be 180 degrees reversed, because these terms have been stolen and politicized by those serving the world empire with which their own selfish interests are interwoven. At places where the book states 'Judah' and 'Israel' and 'Efraïm', one has to remember that God does not mean the far right religious nationalists in the Knesset that pray in front of the wailing wall in traditional Jewish outfit. With Judah, He does not mean the colonial settlers on the West-Bank, that terrorize Palestinian people in their villages and towns and that vandalize their belongings in order to drive them away and to steal their land under protection of IDF-soldiers. No, with 'Judah' and 'Israel' and 'Efraïm', God's Spirit points to the Palestinian men, women and children that are bombarded while laying in hospitals or in tents. With 'Israel', God means Palestinian children that are shot in the head while searching for their daily meal which is nowhere to be found because no drop of water and no gram of food has been allowed into the Gaza-strip for multiple months.  With 'Efraïm', God means the mother that works day and night in one of the last remaining hospitals and that at the end of one day finds dead bodies of nine of her children, charred and maimed beyond recognition, because they were hit by US bombs, thrown from an Israeli F35. That is the true Zion for which the Lord is 'jealous with great jealousy and with great fury'.

Verse 3 - Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, once the Lord will reside there. Would that be possible with the presence of the tellers of myriads of lies in order to justify the unjustifiable, the historic lies that constitute the present state of Israel? No, it is as Revelation 21 tells us: 'But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and sexually immoral, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.' Any zionist reading these lines should ponder this verse and ask himself if the means he or she is now indulging in, justifies this very end. For the second death is nothing else than the lake of fire, with constant excruciating pains throughout the whole  body until God's righteousness is served. For some souls, that will take more than a thousand years in the hottest of environments. (Rev.19:20, 20:10)

Verse 4 and 5 picture a peaceful environment, with the old and the young enjoying themselves without any fear. In verse 6 the Lord states that for some reason this would be too marvelous for 'this people in these days'. The term 'these days' in Bible prophecy often refers to the Endtime and the decades leading up to these last 3.5 years before Jesus' return. For which people would a peaceful life no longer be thinkable, let alone be feasible? Is it the Israeli's enjoying themselves on the beaches of Tel Aviv? Or is it the Palestinian people, being bombarded, while taking refuge on the shores of Gaza?

Verse 7 - 'Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country'. From which force does God's people have to be saved from 'the East and from the West country'? Which people have been forced to live within tightly sealed area's, with endless rows of checkpoints, blocking them to move from one part to another, sometimes not even able to use their front doors any longer because of the random way boundaries have been drawn across their territory? Which people have for almost eight decades been treated like cattle? Which people are divided into two totally constricted area's that are set up like prisons, one in the East of the land and one in the West? Which force has given such ultimate power to the ones that eight decades ago invaded Palestine and forced hundreds of thousands of the population to be displaced, not only within their own land but also abroad, where they still live in so called 'refuge camps'? Was it not the USA, that has been backing the Zionist project with enormous sums of money and with all kinds of legal and diplomatic protection through their decisive voice in the United Nations? The USA, that little horn of Daniel 7, the last heir of the Roman empire, that would oppress the holy people of God and that would even wage war on this holy people and that would defeat them? (Daniel 7:21,25). The USA always hiding its criminally evil behavior behind other states or institutions, England, Israel, the UN, while it secretly manipulates it agents into the desired direction.

Verse 8 - The Lord will bring his people to their land of origin and they will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, the relationship between the Lord and his people restored, a relationship that was shattered for thousands of years - in trust and righteousness. In light of the behavior of the Zionist state of Israel towards the Palestinian people, we know that this can never be said of what happened since 1948. Those applying these texts to the Zionist state are either deceiving or being deceived or both as part of the great delusion, called Zionism. The Lord did not bring the so called European Jews to the land of Israel. It was the work of satan, steering his instruments that he had endowed with trillions of money, in order to buy up everything necessary to push for a zionist state, with the European Jews at the top, which are genetically at a much greater distance from the patriarchs of old than the former inhabitants of Palestine.

The true history of the Jewish people is laid out in Revelation 12, with a woman, bringing forth Messiah and a dragon that wants to devour Messiah. It is Messiah Who incorporates the sole threat to an eternal hegemony of the dragon over the earth, with humanity as his slaves. Such is the enormity of the threat, going out from Messiah, that the desired earthly hegemony could be turned into an eternity of hellfire. The dragon has 7 heads, each with a crown. The dragon is king of seven successive empires, the sixth of which was the Roman empire and the last of which is the heir of Rome, the USA. Through all of these empires the dragon has sought the downfall of the Jewish people, even toward the extermination of them - in order to address the threat of Messiah. But Messiah was born, was victorious and was caught up to God and his throne. And according to prophecy, Messiah will return and will govern the world through the people, He came from. That is why the dragon changed his antagony from the Child to the mother of the child. He did so in the first century. The Roman legions killed hundreds of thousands of Jews and burned Jerusalem to the ground. He did so in WWII. But being a liar from the beginning, the dragon has used the tale of 6 million Jews in Europe to attack the even more indigenous Jews in Palestine. They are the true and final victims of the devil.

Through all of history, the dragon uses his empire, Rome in 70AD and the USA in recent history. Zionism is nothing but the shield of the empire, the shield it hides behind in order to keep up a face of righteousness. This is the reason behind the narrative of Netanyahu with his court cases and his right wing government, compelling him to continue the war on the population of Gaza. Can anyone be so gullible as to believe that the USA, who has brought down tens if not hundreds of governments all over the world, is standing powerless toward a ruler of a very small country, who has been indicted for many crimes, who is dependent on two of his extremist ministers, who was raised and groomed in the USA in the past century and whose war is daily dependent on weapon deliveries from the USA? Yet many mainstream and alternative journalists and so called historians have argued that this would be the case. It is not. The war on the Palestinians is a war that is waged by nothing else than the US-empire, however much it wants to shield itself against public attention for this fact. It is as Daniel saw in his dream: 'As I watched, this horn was waging war against the holy people and defeating them'.  'This horn' was a horn coming from the fourth beast, the Roman empire, from among ten of its horns, the nations of Europe, nations which were subdued by the USA and were compelled by the USA to serve its interests.

Verse 9 refers to the time of prophet Zechariah, who lived during the rebuilding of the the temple in Jerusalem: 'ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built'. The Lord knows that the words of Zechariah would once be read by his people while they would go through very troubling times, hence 'let your hands be strong'. In verse 10 the Lord acknowledges that a longer time of suffering would have preceded the short period of complete affliction (which will only last 3.5 years):  'or before these days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction: for I set all men every one against his neighbor.' Here the Lord refers to the enmity of the European zionist Jews against the original Palestinian population of the land, which is known as the Nakba (catastrophe) and the Palestinian resistance which followed. This internal strife within the land has been going on since 1948 and because of the total support of Zionism by the US-empire, the Zionists have been victorious, while the Palestinians are on the verge of being ethnically cleansed, as was stated by Daniel: 'As I watched, this horn was waging war against the holy people and defeating them' (Daniel 7:21) - the horn being the US-empire. We are now (May 2025) very close to the start of the last 3.5 years of total war against the Palestinian people.

Verse 11 - Because of the Lords intervention, things will totally change for the better 'But now I will not be unto the residue of this people as in the former days, says the Lord of hosts.' The residue of this people - Many will die because of the totality of the affliction brought upon the people of the Lord. From other parts of Zechariah, we can tell that this residue of survivors will mainly consist of Palestinians, former inhabitants of the land, and that possibly no Zionist will survive the terrible things that are to come. Verse 12 states that 'the remnant of this people' will possess 'all these things'. With 'all these things' one might think of a creation from which the curse of Genesis 3 will be lifted and that will bring forth everything necessary in abundance, without the need of genetically modified plants. That the oppressed holy people, the Palestinians, will be the heirs of the earth is also stated by Daniel: 'Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the Most High.' (Daniel 7:27)

Verse 13 - When and how were Juda (2 tribes) and Israel (10 tribes) a curse among the heathen? These two houses of God's  people have existed since the kingdom had been divided after the death of Salomo and instead of being examples for the nations around them, they took over the bad practices of idolatry and greed. In the end, God had to abandon both Israel and Judah and the rule of the world came in the hands of the empires, with behind them the dragon, the angelic creature that had been deceiving humanity from the beginning. Satan had succeeded in the downfall of God's elect people and he could fill the world with his own principles. The rule of empires was a rule by war and destruction and not of peace and prosperity. It was the rule of absolute power of a ruling elite, turning the life of the population into a harsh existence. That was all because of the failure of Israel and Judah. 

Through the grace of God, the world has also seen positive developments but the Jewish people have often played a negative role. That is especially true since some Jewish banking families grew exorbitantly rich and started to influence European and later American society. Since then we have seen much turmoil in the form of wars and revolutions. Both the first and the second world war were fomented from American soil, as well as the Russian Revolution and the Chinese Cultural revolution. The Jews that came from Europe played an immense role in the rise and the growth of the USA into a world power. That explains the enormous influence of the zionist lobby in the USA. Since 9/11/2001, the Arab populations in the Middle East are being targeted through the zionist state of Israel. The war on the true holy people of the land has caused massive trouble for the complete Middle East. In the end will the war on God's people will set the world on fire for a third time. 

After the salvation that only the Lord God can accomplish, through the work of Jesus Christ, the houses of Juda and Israel will become a blessing. That will start directly after the rapture of the church, at the actions of the white horse and thereafter. The 144,000 evangelists will bring the message of hope for Jesus' return throughout the world in the darkest of times. That message will bring an innumerable mass of people from all nations to repentance and to eternal bliss. (Rev.7) The admonition to have strong hands, is followed by a total change in the thinking of the Lord about his people. The Lord's thoughts of punishment were provoked by the bad actions of the people. But the Lord's thoughts of doing well arise from his own heart. For nothing in human behavior can awake the Lord's love. As John writes: 'This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.' (1 John 4:10). His well doing is especially focused on Jerusalem and the house of Judah, for of all his peoples, they are the closest to his heart, as Jesus once exclaimed: 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing' (Mathew 23:37).

Verse 14 paints a picture of Israel that is almost opposite to that with which God's earthly people once begun. As a prophet of the Lord, Moses saw this coming. A much quoted verse from his prophetic discourse in Deuteronomium 32 is that Israel is 'the apple of God's eye. But reading further, we see that Israel would lose that privileged position.  God would be very angry with them. He would severely punish them. Looking back at the history of his people in Zechariah, God speaks of punishment and wrath, without Him repenting - as if He closed his heart to them. That has been the core of Israel's history for the past 2,600 years, a history that the champions for present day Israel are apt to forget. The days of wrath and punishment will not be over until the people of Israel will repent of all their wrongdoings throughout history, especially the most horrible of them all: their total rejection of Messiah, in Whom God Himself had come to them. That repentance has not yet come and therefore the wrath of God still rests on them. As John the baptist said: 'he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him.' That is true for Jew and gentile alike.

Verse 15 shows the future attitude of the Lord. He will do well unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Therefore they must not fear. Who are in a fearful situation? The Zionists or the Palestinians? Who will turn to the Lord and who will thereby trigger the blessings of the Lord? Those who are backing genocide or those who are the victims of genocide?

Verse 16 and 17 show the human behavior that the Lord seeks in his people: truth, righteous judgment and love. They are characteristics that are completely the opposite of everything that is found in the modern state of Israel, which is that which the Lord hates: imagining evil in their hearts against their neighbors an continuously in love with false oaths, which are necessary to keep the genocide of the Palestinians going.

Verses 18-19 are a clear reference to the preceding chapter 7, in which the people of Israel asked the Lord the following question: 'Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?' It was as if they were tired of fasting and wanted to get rid of it. The Lord searched their hearts with a counter question: 'When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto Me, even to Me?' Much observance of laws comes from the flesh - the self esteem it gives. Then the Lord penetrates even deeper towards the true observance of the law - an observance that for long had been abandoned: 'Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassion every man to his brother. And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart. But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.'

The stubbornness can still be seen in those pertaining to the state of Israel, in their evil treatment of the Palestinians for almost 80 years. But this state of affairs will come to an end. The Palestinians will turn to the Lord and they will be saved by Him and they will serve Him, totally cleansed by the many sufferings of the previous century. Therefore their fasting will become an event of joy, gladness and cheerfulness.

Verse 20-23 tell us the complete change in human priorities once the Lord will have done with all evil that has enslaved man for thousands of years. While the love for truth and peace descends upon humanity because of the work of the Spirit and the return of the Lord, people will seek to serve the Lord, who set them free. Complete cities will arouse each other in the seeking of the Lord, resulting in entire nations going up to Jerusalem in order to worship the Lord. At the center of this worldwide admiration for the Lord is a people that once was totally disregarded but which was appointed as the special people of the Lord by his intercession on their behalf: the Palestinian people, the true descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. How this intercession will take place is the subject of the next chapters of Zechariah.