One Name, One King, One People: What Zechariah’s Vision of the Kingdom Means for Us Today
A Prophet Who Remembered
In this newsletter, you will read the stories of Jewish men and women whose lives have been transformed by the Messiah of Israel. We have a website, ifoundshalom.com, with a hundred testimonies of Jewish followers of Jesus (Yeshua) the Messiah, so we have written about some of what they have experienced in their process of coming to know the Lord. I hope this will encourage you! There are so many ways to share the gospel with your Jewish friends, and we want to help you become more effective in Jewish evangelism.
I also want to set these testimonies and the work of sharing the gospel with Jewish people—and Gentiles as well—within a larger biblical frame and lean on the words of the prophet Zechariah.
Zechariah’s name means “God remembers”. It is the theme of his entire prophetic ministry. He wrote to a people who feared they had been forgotten as the first Temple was destroyed and lay in ruins.
One of the great passages in Zechariah is found in chapter 14, verse 9. In this passage, he reminds the Jewish exiles that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will not forget His promises. The gifts and the calling of God, as Paul would later write, are irrevocable (Romans 11:28–29).
He writes of history’s destination: one King and one name. One undivided humanity will be gathered under the reign of the God of Israel. In this passage, and in all of chapters 12–14 in the book of Zechariah, he describes the end-times prophetic journey ahead.
The Day That Is Coming
Zechariah 14 describes the final act of history with stark, unsparing vividness. All the nations of the earth are gathered against Jerusalem. The city falls into distress. It is the darkest hour. Then, everything changes.
The Lord Himself goes forth to fight. He stands on the Mount of Olives, and the mountain splits in two—a geological transformation that creates a valley of escape for the remnant of His people. Signs appear in the heavens. Living waters flow out of Jerusalem, and the Messiah King takes His throne.
This is not a metaphor. This is the literal fulfillment of every promise God made to Abraham and King David, and through the voices of the prophets. In chapter 12, Zechariah describes the great outpouring of the Spirit upon the house of Israel, a national mourning, and a recognition of the One who was pierced.
“I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son.”—Zechariah 12:10
“Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.”—Zechariah 14:3–5
As Paul writes in Romans 11, Israel has experienced a partial hardening in this age until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. Then all Israel will be saved. The Deliverer will come from Zion. This is not a footnote in God’s plan—it is the climax.
This was my experience as well. I well remember the day when, at 19 years of age, my eyes were opened to the truth of Yeshua . . . my King and Messiah, who died for my sins, rose from the dead, and will return at the time appointed by the Father. Zechariah is describing this great day and the dramatic, all-transforming moment of His return. Additionally, the prophet is detailing the role of the Jewish people in the second coming of Jesus.
Unity Is Our Destiny: The Reversal of Babel
When Yeshua returns and establishes His kingdom, Zechariah tells us that all the nations of the earth—nations that were enemies (Zechariah 14:16–21)—will come up to Jerusalem year after year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts. Peoples divided by language, blood, history, and hatred, both Jewish and Gentile people, will join one another around the throne of the Lamb of God who was slain for all people.
This is the reversal of the curse of Babel.
“‘Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’ So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.”—Genesis 11:7–9
At Babel, God scattered a humanity that had united in rebellion against Him. Languages fragmented. Nations dispersed. The human family, already fractured by sin, was divided further still. Every ethnic conflict, every national rivalry, every wall between people traces its roots back to that catastrophe.
But at the return of the King, Babel is undone. Every knee bows. Every tongue confesses. Paul captures this in Philippians 2: that at the name of Yeshua, every knee will bow in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. Every tongue will confess that Jesus the Messiah is Lord, to the glory of God the Father—the name above all names.
The curse of sin will be lifted, and we will enter the blessings and joy of a re-unified humanity, united in worship of the one true God who created us, redeemed us, and has never once forgotten His covenant promises. The times of the Gentiles will be complete, and all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:25–27).
The Prayer of Jesus Answered
On the last night of His earthly life, Yeshua prayed:
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”—John 17:20–21
He did not pray for the safety or success of His disciples. He prayed for their unity because our unity reveals Him, the Triune God, in all His glory!
Consider this: when a Jewish person embraces Yeshua, as I did, we carry centuries of painful history—the Crusades, the Inquisition, forced conversions, and pogroms carried out under the sign of the cross. We have every reason to ask whether the community that bears His name reflects His character.
The testimonies you will read are powerful, as a changed life is a compelling witness. But something even more powerful than a changed individual life is a changed community—Jewish and Gentile people of every background and nation, loving one another with a love that the world cannot explain and cannot manufacture. It is living proof that Yeshua does what He said He would do.
One of the most well-known prayers of the Jewish people is found in Deuteronomy 6:4 and is called by the first word of the verse, the Shema…the word for “hear,” or better even, “to pay attention,” is as follows: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. The unity that characterizes the Godhead is the unity Jesus prays for in John 17. The community of believers then becomes a living unity that mirrors the Trinity, and the prayer that Yeshua prayed in the garden will be answered at last.
I Found Shalom
What you will be reading in this newsletter are the stories of Jewish men and women who have found in Yeshua the fulfillment of Israel’s hope. They are a foretaste of the day when all Israel will be saved, and the whole earth will recognize the One whose name is above every name.
But the testimony of individual lives is not complete without the testimony of a community. The watching world needs to see not only changed individuals, but a community of Jewish and Gentile people who love one another across every division that has torn the human family since Babel. What others see when they look at the way we treat one another will show them a glimpse of the coming Kingdom. We look forward to welcoming the One whose reign will bring true peace and unity among all races, all nations, all ethnic groups, between Jewish and Gentile people, and all the divisions that have torn humanity apart since Babel.
Until then, let our love and unity show in the way we treat one another. Our unity adds power to our personal testimony. We are—and will be—one community forever . . . in our beloved Messiah.
Yours in our One Glorious Lord,
Mitch