Zechariah 8 is an incredible chapter about God’s love for the Jewish people and Israel (Zechariah 8:2). It is obvious that God is protecting His people that He always promised to love and protect.  And He does this in spite of those who hold to Supersessionism, aka, Replacement Theology, that claim and teach that God is through with the Jewish people in a covenantal way and replaced Israel with the Church.  God never forsakes His people that He promised to bring back into their land, Israel. In Zechariah 7 God showed His wrath to the Jewish people for disobedience.  Zechariah 8:7 proves to all that the Jewish people are the “apple of His eye” (Zechariah 2:8).  And, here in Zechariah 8:8 He again shows His compassion and love for the Jewish people during the millennium.  Eighteen times in this chapter we read, “LORD of hosts.” This description “LORD of hosts” validates His sovereignty over all and as the glorious King of Israel.  For in it He says, “I will save my people.” He is using a possessive pronoun to express for sure that the Jews were His people.

 

Jerusalem will become a place of peace where children can play in safety (Zechariah 8:3, 4).  God tells them that they will no longer be treated as before while under discipline (Zechariah 8:11).  Again in Verse 13, God says that he will “save” His people, even though He destroyed many of the forefathers (Verses 13, 14).

 

The we read in Zechariah 8:23, “Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of the languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.”  Whether the words “ten men” is literal or figurative, the meaning does not change. God will bless the Jewish people, the people that He has chosen. The very people who have been persecuted for so long. The very people that He saved through the Tribulation. The very people that He has punished for years.  He will redeem His own. He will open the eyes of those that He has temporarily blinded (Romans 11:25).  And then in the millennial age the Gentiles from all nations will want to “take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew” (Zechariah 8:23a).  And why?  Zechariah 8:23b tells us, “We will go with you: for we know that God is with you.”  Notice that it says the Gentiles will want to go with the Jews because they see that God is with them.  It does not say that the Jews want to be with the Gentiles because God will be with them. God has a chosen people, the Jews.  The Church did not and will not ever replace Israel. Those who hold to Supersessionism will see one day (soon) that God did not cast Israel aside (Romans 11:2).  Yes, God has His elect in both the Jews and the Gentiles but He is bringing His people back to Israel as promised (Deuteronomy 30:5, Ezekiel 20:34, Isaiah 11:11, 43:5, 6, 12; 66:8, etc.).  He is also fulfilling His promise to make Israel a prosperous nation again (Zephaniah 3:20).  God continues to fulfill other promises to Israel, despite what the Supersessionists’ preach.

 

God still saves His elect from every nation.  Although the Church is still being built today, the Sovereign and Holy God of the Bible never broke His promises to Israel.  His people will still go through the Tribulation for both punishment and redemption. Romans 11; 26 tells us, “And so all Israel will be saved: as it is written, there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness for Jacob.”  God is not through with Israel. So, time will show that it will be the Gentile who will then say to the Jew, “we have heard that God is with you.”