Jerusalem and the Millennial Kingdom

Thus saith the Lord; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the Lord of hosts the holy mountain. (Zechariah 8:3)

This prophecy looks to the future. It has not been fulfilled since then, and it’s not being fulfilled today. God makes it clear that He will return to Zion, and He makes it clear that He is going to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.

“And Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth.” Today it is a city where there are more religions than you can imagine! Every Christian organization has built something there, and there are all kinds of cults and isms there. It is not the city of truth today.

“And the mountain of the Lord of hosts the holy mountain.” I have never seen anything there that I thought you could call holy. It’s just not holy today, my friend. It will be holy when He gets back there, but He is not back there yet. This prophecy looks to the future.

“Thus saith the Lord; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth.” Earlier, Isaiah had made it very clear that Jerusalem is to become the capital of the earth. In the second chapter of his prophecy, we read, “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it” (Isaiah 2:1,2). Zechariah is here looking on toward the last days and is encouraging the people. They have returned to the land, and God has blessed them to a certain degree, but this is a miniature of what is going to come in the future.

There is a glorious day in the future which does not depend upon a ritual or a liturgy or a ceremony or jumping through some little hoop and thinking that will please God. God says that it is the heart which will have to be changed, and He says that He is going to change these people’s hearts. The Word of God will go forth from Jerusalem, and it will be called a city of truth.

Isaiah goes on to say in his prophecy, “And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 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 2:3,4). But we have not come to that day yet. Yet there is coming a day when “Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain [or, kingdom] of the Lord of hosts the holy mountain.” In other words, Zechariah is speaking of the establishment of the millennial Kingdom, which is yet in the future.