WE ENDED OUR JANUARY ISSUE SPEAKING OF HOW ZECHARIAH 10:3-4, IS BEING FULFILLED RIGHT BEFORE OUR EYES AS WE SIT WATCHING OUR TELEVISION SETS; SO THAT IS WHERE WE WILL PICK UP.

Let us again read those two verses, before making any further comments. (3) "Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats: for the Lord of hosts hath visited His flock the house of Judah, and hath made them as His goodly horse in the battle. (4) Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor together." Truly God has used the Jews that came back to the land of their father's from Europe, (which were basically the two Southern tribes called by the name Judah) to get things ready to receive that element of the ten Northern tribes which would be coming out of Russia and other parts of the world, coming back to the land for various reasons of their own; but for the purpose of God, they are coming back there to prepare for the coming of their Messiah. God does not deal with the Jews as a nation anywhere except in the land of Israel; therefore the twelve tribes must be sufficiently represented in the land, before that last week of years prophesied to Israel by the prophet Daniel can begin, for its end time fulfillment. In Revelation 12:6, John wrote of this woman (Israel) fleeing into the wilderness, to a place prepared of God where she would be fed (and protected from the evil forces of the Antichrist) for a period of 1260 days; which of course is the full duration of the great tribulation period of time. Daniel spoke of it (12:1) as a time of great trouble. "And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: (Daniel's people were Jews.) 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 (Spiritual Jews) shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book." As we have already stated in the first part of this message, the 144,000 servants of God, of Revelation 14:1, will flee to the nations of the world, preaching the everlasting gospel; and the woman element will flee to this place already prepared of God for her; until the time of trouble has ended; but let me add this, In 1948 Israel was in no way capable of flying away. She was in the beginning of first being restored to the land, from where somewhere in future time she would fly away. Therefore let us watch time; and the prophecy; and see how it is applied. To you young people, I realize that when you go to school, they care little about prophecy of the Bible; but you can know what to expect as the days come and go. They (the secular element of modern society) think this Bible is a book of myths; but in my honest opinion, before not too long a time, some of our school professors might have to hang their head and say, Something is going on in Mt. Zion. Hallelujah! They will not be saying it though, until God does something to awaken them to reality.

ZECHARIAH LOOKING TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Notice verse 3, of Zechariah 10, "Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds." That is speaking in past tense. That is how God looked upon the rabbis, the scribes, the priests, the leadership of the people of Israel, that were responsible; and held accountable by God, that caused Him to do to her, (the nation of people) what He did. "And I punished the goats: for the Lord of hosts hath visited His flock the house of Judah." Brothers and sisters, if He punished the goats, we have to look backward to the time when He did it. That does not apply to the Middle Ages, nor anywhere else in time other than when that tribe was carried out of there into dispersion. Therefore we must look back to 69 and 70 A.D., when the Roman army was sent (by God) just like it was prophesied by Jesus. In that time the Roman army came against Jerusalem, tore the city down, demolished that beautiful temple which the Jews thought was so magnificent; and took them away into captivity. That was what fulfilled the words of Jesus, (Matthew 24:2) "And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." From that time, the Jews were there, were scattered. This was basically the Judah tribe that became scattered into Europe and eastern Europe, to remain there for the durations of time until this prophecy would resume its fulfillment. Notice how God said this, as He has punished them, He also follows up and says, "and I punished the goats: for the Lord of hosts hath visited His flock. (As WW2 ended, God began to look upon an element of Jews that were established in the areas of Europe. We are not going to get technical with it; but we are dealing mainly with the tribe of Judah; because it is prophesied that Judah has to be moved first, for this beginning of national restoration, and the eventual climax of what it must come to.) and hath made them (the tribe of Judah) as His goodly horse in the battle." That language structure is very mysterious; because the average person today, knows we do not fight wars with horses any more. That is so far in the past, it is not even written about anywhere in books, to really know how to relate to that; but in here the prophet speaks of Judah being like the goodly horse in the battle. How could Judah possibly be associated with anything related to by that likeness as spoken in this prophecy? We have to go back to 1948. As I touch this phase of her beginning, do not forget, No sooner did the U.N. say, We will partition that land and give it to these displaced Jews of Europe, did her boats begin to arrive at Haifa and wherever else they landed, and the Arabs in that land began saying, We will not let any more Jews come here. They sensed trouble. As long as it was a few at a time, buying up land, most of the Arabs were not saying very much against it. England was still the controlling power of that area. However when England gave it up, in order to allow the U.N. partition to go into effect, the Arabs took over England's military equipment she left behind, and became possessed with one thing, killing every Jew that landed on shore in the land of Palestine. All you have to do is go back and study whatever histories are now written about it; but You will have to do it by the Jewish writers. When you read of the conflicts that began to take place as those Jews kept coming, you cannot help but thank God for the fact that you were born in a nation where you have not had to grow up under such conditions as those young Jewish people that lived to go from Europe to Israel. Some of those young people never even lived to see their dreams come true. As they landed there, war broke out. That was the war of 1948, you have heard about. Remember though, God said He has made Judah like His goodly horse in the battle; so if He had brought Judah back home eating ice cream and angel food cake, without any resistance, you can rest assured, she would never have known how to survive all the other wars she has had to fight, 1956, 67, 73, 80, 82, and all the other resistance she has had to face. I have read some of what the various writers have written, telling of the hostilities that took place at night. When they heard on the short wave radio, that the U.N. had partitioned a certain amount of land to be turned over to these Jews, that very night Arabs in many major cities throughout the land of Palestine, went on a rampage, shooting and killing. The Jewish underground army was the only thing Israel had, that they could look to for help; as they fought for survival. With that in mind, let us look at this goodly horse in battle, because we have to go back and pick up some story to relate this to. I have in my possession a booklet, that tells about the British occupation in Burma, back in the colonial period, back when they used horse cavalry, and horse drawn artillery. In her records of warfare, they wrote this outstanding article about this one particular horse in a certain unit, and the troops only had this one gun unit being pulled by these two horses; but this one horse had been in Burma for a long time. He had been under fire. He was a horse that knew how to conduct himself under fire. Instead of going mad, crazy, and going every which direction, he seemed to use his horse sense. That is what we have to see in this scripture. God likens Judah to a goodly horse in battle. He could either go wild and carry his rider into a trap, or else he could keep his cool and carry his rider to victory. It told how, as this British unit was moving along the Burma road, naturally it was in jungle like, heavy foliage. All of a sudden they were fired on from both sides of the road. The footmen immediately jumped to the bushes; but it left the riders on this gun carriage, and this gun, and the article stated how there was a bank there they thought was entirely too steep to even try to get the gun carriage to go up. Therefore the troops that were on this gun carriage just bailed out and went up the bank into the bushes, leaving this team of horses with the gun. That one horse, instead of him becoming wild, he had been under shell fire before, the one horse took a look at that bank and that is where you can say God let extra adrenalin come into that horse. Because as he looked at that bank, he made one leap and took the other horse, gun, carriage and all, and climbed the bank into the bushes. The men set the gun up, and the fact that it was saved, enabled them to keep from being massacred. In other words, that one horse was credited with saving those men; so that is what we are looking at, in this scripture pointing to Judah. As Judah came back to the land in 1948, if she would have looked at all this Arab hostility, and given herself over to fear, (because she was so overwhelmingly outnumbered and had so very few weapons) the history books would be telling a completely different story about the rebirth and restoration of Israel. I read one story in the book; called, The Exodus, telling how in a northern city there was a Jewish quarter, where Jews at the beginning of the century came back and settled. It was in that part of the mountain city of Safad. As this Arab hostility broke out in the Arab quarter, they lived in the hill population overlooking the Jewish quarter. As the hostility grew very bad, they knew that somehow or other, if some kind of aid could not be reached from the underground army supply systems, then in all probability the Jewish quarter in Safad, could possibly be overrun by the Arabs. One man volunteered to travel through hostile territory by night and make his way to Jerusalem, to the Haganah people, asking if they had any kind of weaponry, supplies, explosives, or anything. When he got there, he was completely refused, because the Arabs at Jerusalem had caused the Jews there to have to expend so much of their supplies, they had nothing to spare. In that book it tells how they were left with so many sticks of dynamite. That was about all the weapons they had. Well that man went back; and there is where God took a little and made a lot out of it. You know the song, little is much if God be in it. The Jews in that Jewish quarter of the city of Safed said, Then we have to take what we have, and devise some way to frighten these Arabs it. They gathered up all the nails, and all the small pieces of scrap they could find, and devised a contraption they named Goliath. They fixed up a launching instrument of some kind. Then they fastened knives onto the end of sticks, like spears. They had a few old rifles with just a few rounds of ammunition left. They were saving them for the last go around. They were mainly depending upon that one giant explosion to do something for them though; and in the book it says that when the Arabs started their attack, the Jews launched this Goliath contraption. When it went off, the Arabs began yelling, They have the atomic bomb! That broke their spirit, and they fled. Has not that always been the strategy God has used on behalf of Israel? Read it in the Old Testament. He will take a simple little something, and put fear in the heart's of the enemy; and then just multiply it. I am bringing all of this in, just trying to explain how this scripture applies. Verse 5, says, "And they shall be as mighty men, which tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle: and they shall fight, because the Lord is with them, and the riders on horses shall be confounded." Judah started out as she was being brought back into the land to start the reconstruction of this nation that would eventually be recognized, with very little to protect themselves with; but having the favor of God made the difference for them. God has always used strange devices to make His power known to Israel.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A GENERATION MAKES

Before we read Zechariah 10:6, I just want to refresh your memory on what verse 4, says. God likens Judah as His goodly horse in the battle. In other words, Judah has been through it, he is experienced. After all, where did those Jews come from? Out of Europe. They had already been through a living hell. They had nothing to lose. Therefore verse 4, is talking about Judah. "Out of him came forth the corner." What is a corner? It is a beginning point. That is what the tribe of Judah is. It is God's beginning element, which He would use to start rebuilding that nation. If you are erecting a building, you must have a beginning point. You must have a corner to start with. That is why God referred to Judah like that. "Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail." In other words, if there is something to be held together, Judah is going to be the tribe that God will use to do it. "Out of him the battle bow." We are talking about a military instrument. Judah came back with no military equipment to speak of. No nation wanted to sell to those Jews going back. They were willing for the Jews to go back and be settled there; but no one ever stopped to think of all the hostilities they were facing when those Arabs had threatened to kill every last one of them. I have read in various writings, that through underground means, they bought obsolete rifles from any source that would sell them. That was their way of surviving, holding on, and establishing a foothold back in the land of their father's. It was the beginning of God's restoration and rebirth of a nation that one day would climb to be the fifth greatest military power in the world. That is what she (Israel) is today. Israel today, does not have to purchase her arms through the underground system. She is making many of her own weapons. Well we ought not be surprised; it is right here in prophecy. She brought the French Mirage fighter. She used to buy some of the British Spitfires. Finally Britain and France cut that off. Then it was the United States alone that would sell to them the various jet fighters. Finally, as the United States began to sell them the more sophisticated models, Israel and the United States launched a program of working together. The United States began to realize, that if some of her own military equipment was ever going to be tested, it should be tested in the fields of future Middle East warfare. Therefore we sold them the Phantom jets. Then Israel took them, modified a little of this and that; and now you know what they are capable of doing with them. They did the tanks the same way. She modified everything to fit desert warfare. Out of that, Israel began making a tank all of her own. While all other conventional tanks have to be entered from the top, Israel has her own model, that is entered from the back. That way, if the front end is blown off, the crew does not have to escape from it in view of their enemies. They can escape out the rear. She realized it is to her betterment, to save the crew rather than the hunk of iron. I am not going to dwell too long on these things; but I want to show you, that out of her (Judah) has come the battle bow. From nothing, Judah, in the forty some years she has been back there, has become a competitor, now manufacturing weaponry to sell to other parts of the world. She has made one of the best automatic rifles in the field of warfare. With that, she has made a pilotless plane. She tested it; and it proved successful in the war of 82. She has what they call a drone plane, maybe about six feet long. It has a TV scanning camera in it. She can fly it 100 and some miles away from base. She can fly it over enemy territory. One article told how a camera in it could pick out a spot on the top of a car, and show it back. In the 1982 war, they could spot an enemy moving through heavy foliage and so forth, and it would send the data back to a ground base; and from a ground to air rocket launcher, they would fire that rocket and hit that tank right where it was spotted. The United States was also working on building some of these type planes; but according to the article I read, the United States had not brought hers to a successful test. She wound up, if I remember correctly, she wound up buying approximately two thousand of those drone planes from Israel. Then Israeli technicians along with our native technicians, would experiment with these things together. There are many other things in the military line I could bring in right here; but I feel that this is enough for us to realize, that here is a prophecy right here in Zechariah, that we have seen fulfilled in the last forty years. Judah come from nothing, you might say, to where she is today; and now she is able to make way for the ten Northern tribes to come home. Verse 5 shows us that by the time Judah has reached a potential of being the precise instrument God wants to use, she is in a place to be used. Let us read it again. "And they shall be as mighty men, which tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle: and they shall fight, because the Lord is with them, and the riders on horses shall be confounded." That of course, is talking about her enemy, if they were on horses. We know modern day warfare has no place for horses. It would be foolish to bring horse flesh against all the gunfire of modern day weapons; but it takes that language to give the thought God wants us to receive, because it lets us know God will put such bravery, and such a strong gallant fortitude in the people of Judah, that her enemies, when they would try to oppose them, would be like foolish people on untrained horses in battle. In such cases everything goes berserk. With this little view of what has already taken place, we can see that verse 6 brings us to the time we are living in right now. Notice, "And I will strengthen the house of Judah." He has already done that. She is there in her homeland; and she is not to be taken lightly. Let us just look back twenty some years. When we look back to 1967, the Jews had only been back in that land nineteen years. They were constantly harassed by the Arabs, because the Palestinian motto was, no concessions, no giving in. Israel must be destroyed. King Nasser of Egypt, in June 1967, along with the other Arab states, was bent doing that one thing. They threatened to drive Israel out of that partitioned land into the sea. An Israeli general we were privileged to meet in 1968, on a flight to Israel, was in the armored corps that went through the Sinai, that helped push the Israeli line to the sea. He said to us, Before the war started, we were contemplating ten thousand citizen casualties. We were in the process of building wooden boxes to bury our dead in. Yet when the war started, in six days it was over. There was not one civilian casualty in the whole six day war. All casualties were military casualties; and that was very few. I have said all of this to show how God has strengthened Judah. From that time, look what she did. She pushed the borders from the U.N. partition, all the way to the Jordan River. She even pushed all the way to the Golan Heights in Syria, where she has built settlements. Syria does not like that; but she is there anyhow. She pushed on down into the Sinai Desert on the other side; and she is building villages there. Bro. Jackson, they have no right to do that. If you disagree with what they are doing, maybe you had better talk it over with your heavenly Father; for verse 5 says, "And they (Judah) shall be as mighty men, which tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle: and they shall fight, because the Lord is with them." God is enabling them to reestablish their old borders; and it is very unique, the way it is being done. Their enemies attack them; and when they repel them, they just end up with a little more of the land they are supposed to have; and God is with them. God is reestablishing the outer territorial, rural settlements of Judah first, before He does very much of anything about bringing the other ten tribes back home. Therefore when we read here, "He will strengthen the house of Judah," and we see what happened in the six day war the tribe of Judah was forced to fight, we can very well see what these prophecies were pointing to. As we have already said, the tribe of Judah, is the tribe we see back in the land, doing the fighting that is fulfilling these prophecies. When she pushed the borders to the Jordan River, she took the old city Jerusalem, which is called eastern Jerusalem; and three fourths of its population is Arabs. There is only one Jewish quarter, which Jews actually live in. Everything else around the old city is called new Jerusalem. Keep in mind though, that is not the New Jerusalem that is to be the capital for the Messiah. We have to look at old Jerusalem for that; because that is where God put His name. That is where God's eye is looking to; and that is where we have got to look to in the next few months, as prophecy is in the process of being fulfilled. As we watch developments in the Middle East, we need to realize that Judah stands ready to do her God ordained part. Yet through all of her trials, she has done her best to work favorably with the world. She realizes the world gave her that partitioned land; but she also realizes she does not have all of the land God Gave her forefathers; so when the world is saying, Israel, if you want peace, you have got to give up so and so, I say, Israel will never give it up. Let me say it like this, Judah will never give it up. She was the beginning. She knows why she is there. Why should she give it up? You must realize though, she does not want any more outside hostility toward her, than what is absolutely necessary; so she is trying her best to weigh the issues, play it cool diplomatically, and try to go along as far as possible, with what western negotiators are saying. Let us try to follow this prophecy, and see what else the Lord says. In verse 6, God says, "And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the Lord their God, and will hear them." Joseph is one of the names the ten northern tribes were known by. One of the offspring of Joseph was the father of the tribe of Ephraim. That tribe became a major tribe, in the north. It was a major tribe in the north, just like Judah was in the south. Rather than the ten northern tribes being referred to as Simeon and Ephraim, they were basically called by the name Ephraim because of its outstanding characteristics, just like Judah in the south. One time it says Joseph, and another time it will call it Ephraim; but whichever it is called, it is talking about one and the self same thing, the ten northern tribes. First it is Judah, then Joseph. "And I will bring them again to place them: for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the Lord their God, and will hear them. And they of Ephraim (notice now, He brings in the word Ephraim) shall be like a mighty man." God has opened the door in these Communist countries, so those Jews that have been there for centuries may have the opportunity to go home. He is not going to make them mighty men in Russia. No. That is not where he is going to make them mighty. It is when they come into the land of their father's, that He will make them mighty. That is where the mighty part comes into the picture. Just as soon as Russia began to allow those Russian born Jews to go home, the Palestinian Arabs began doing exactly what they did in 1948, when Jews were given that partitioned area of Palestine for a home land. They immediately set up a protest. They sent word to Russia, Don't let any more of them come here, until we get this statehood question settled. Well I have news for them; This is a work of God. Gorbachev cannot stop it until God gets His quota out of there. That door of opportunity is like every other door God opens up, He is the only one that can close it. I will say this though, That door will not stay open for one hundred years. God has it marked. However as God creates the conditions and sets the agenda, and determines the pace and magnitude of this thing, do not think the Arabs at home are going to set back and wait until they all get there, before they start their campaign of hostility toward them. They are going to do exactly like they did in 1948. We are already seeing it in the News; but it will get worse. Let me read the rest of verse 7, and verse 8, then I want to show you something in chapter 12. Notice this, "And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the Lord. I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased." God said He would hiss for them, and gather them; and this is the very hour that prophecy pointed to; so no matter what the Arabs do, and regardless of what the United Nations may try to do, God is gathering His quota from all twelve tribes of Israel, getting them ready to hear the message of the two prophets that will soon come upon the scene in Israel. Saints, this is a work of God; so do not be surprised at what you may see take place in that area of the world very shortly.

JERUSALEM A BURDENSOME STONE

I want to read a few verses from Zechariah 12, to let you see how vain it is for other nations to try to negotiate a settlement between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. In verse 2, just think for a moment what that actually means. "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. (3) 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 any negotiating process between the Middle East nations, Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians, let us just watch this prophecy, how it speaks out. Judah is there. They took the old city in 1967. It is true that even though the Israelis control the police force, and they do the governmental administrative chores, three fourths of the population of the old city is Arabs. Therefore since three fourths of the old city of Jerusalem is Arabs, those Arabs are not going to stand idle, and allow Jerusalem (the old city) to become the prophetic spotlight the word of God speaks of, and them not do something about it. There has been much said, and Israel is being pressured to give those Palestinian Arabs living in the occupied areas voting rights. That puts Israel in a very tight spot with all the others who think they have a say in the matter. Will they allow the eastern Jerusalem Arabs to vote? If they do, Israel is faced with the possibility of defeating their own purpose. As long as three fourths of the population are Arabs, you can rest assured that this three fourths element is not going to let Jerusalem be the Messiah's capital in the Millennium. Now some may say, What does that have to do with prophecy? It has a lot to do with prophecy. There are other prophecies that tell us the rest of the story. Isaiah spoke of how God will remove the inhabitants of it, afar off. I wonder why God talked that way such a long time ago? It was because He looked right down through the twentieth century and saw this very hour. He saw how hostile the world would be, and it is even mentioned right here in Zechariah, how it will be. The point is, sooner or later old Jerusalem will become a focal point, as we get closer to the time when old Jerusalem must be peopled by Jews. Why is that necessary Bro. Jackson? Because in Isaiah you have a prophecy, how the city of Jerusalem is talking, as she sees the immigrants in the last days coming back to possess her place, the city of Jerusalem will cry out, Whence came these? That is not the Arabs crying out, whence came these? The children of the later shall be greater than the former. The old city remembers when her children were taken away from there in 69 A.D. That is a prophecy of how Jerusalem will feel when the Arabs have been far removed and the Jews are coming from the ends of the earth to resettle her dwelling places. The hour is coming when God will cause old Jerusalem to become a trouble spot, right in the spotlight of international world affairs. That is why He said, "Behold I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about." Right now that is the Arabs; they are the ones who want to keep the land for themselves. They are the ones who want to live there. They are the ones who do not want prophecy fulfilled. No, they want Mohammed. That is why we preached the message asking, Is it Isaac or Ishmael, Jesus or Muhammed? They want Muhammed. It is not going to be Ishmael and Muhammed. It is going to be the descendants of Isaac that God will place in that promised land; and Jesus will one day soon be recognized as their Messiah they have longed for down through centuries of time. What does God mean, "I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about?" What is a cup of trembling? Did you ever see a cup in the hands of a drunk person? Such a person reminds you of someone who is scared half to death. When this issue of what is to be done with Jerusalem gets so hot, so important, anyone who sticks his hand out to get involved in it, God will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling for them. Would that not be embarrassing, to reach out and take hold of something that has already become a hot potato, too hot to hold? It comes your turn to make your assessment and you hear these words, What do you say about it? You stick your nervous hand out and take it, but oh how humiliating. It becomes obvious to everyone, that you are scared too. Sure you are. You are scared. That is why God likened it to a cup of trembling to them round about. That is the Arabs. They are the ones that are round about. They are the ones that are kicking up the fuss. Just listen, "When they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem." This combines the two together, Judah and Jerusalem. Keep this in mind, and watch my illustration. Jerusalem is right here. (Bro. Jackson is pointing to the chart) See that dot? Jerusalem is right there. That is the ancient capital of the entire nation of Israel. Jerusalem was also the major city of the tribe of Judah; so you have two things that stand out as important. As we look at this city, it lets us know that when the time comes that the city becomes an important issue, so also will the ancient territory of Judah become an important issue. "And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: (this is pointing to the international picture) all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it." Politically the cry is Give it up; but God says keep it. In the past forty years it has not been the major issue. Israel has played it along. Every time it has come up for discussion, they have always been able to shove it on a little further on out into future time; but time is running out. Prophecy must be fulfilled. Immigrants are coming home; and they are going to need to go somewhere. The Arabs say, Do not put them in there. The Arabs could not care less if they stacked them end on end; just as long as they do not put them in what they call occupied territory. I see a different picture in God's word though. In the prophecy of Isaiah, concerning this great influx of Joseph or Ephraim that comes back, the immigrants coming in will get so crowded, the prophecy brings out the cry that the people will begin to have, It is too straight here for me. In other words, it is too crowded. In the past, through the years of normal immigration procedures, that has never occurred. Everything has been absorbed in a slow gradual process, as God built Judah up, saved her, and established her as a tribal territory first. Now comes the time to bring the other tribes home; so we see the issues that are at hand. I want to read a few verses from Isaiah 49, before we continue with these in Zechariah 12. Here is the picture as it was shown to Isaiah. (Isa. 49:17-22) "Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee. Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth. For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been? Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders." I just wanted to refresh your memory on this prophecy; because it is already being fulfilled; and it will necessitate the fulfillment of these others very soon.