"Here's a fascinating passage that doesn't get much attention. Zechariah 12:
[1] The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
[2] 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.
"The nation Israel is going to be an international problem for the whole earth. They're going to be the focal point of contention until this international conflict develops and breaks out. And so the whole earth is going to be involved in and focusing in on what's going on here in that land," explains Richard Jordan.
"But the verse doesn't just talk about all the nations of the earth coming. Something interesting in verse 2 is when it says, 'I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling.' It's when you get so nervous you can't hold a cup steady. In other words, Jerusalem is going to be a real point of difficulty for people.
"But notice who it's for. Not on all the people of the earth, but 'all the people round about.' It isn't just that all the nations of the earth are going to be focused on Israel; it's also going to be this cup of trembling for all the people round about Israel.
"In Daniel, Revelation and Psalms there are 10 nations around Israel that confederate themselves together. Then there are 10 nations that gather together with the Antichrist. The political structure of that part of the world changes a good bit during that kind of a thing. New lines are drawn.
"But the countries right around Israel are going to be gathered together against Israel. You got to think about that. Those Arab countries around Israel (and then Iran, which is Persian); they aren't friends to one another. Sometimes we don't think about that. These dudes don't like each other.
"You talk about the Palestinian problem. The Palestinians are Arabs; the Jordanians are Palestinians. If you wanted them to have a homeland, where would they naturally go? The Jordanians should say, 'Oh, you guys can come and live with us; we've got plenty of room and you're our kinfolk,' but they don't do that.
"There's two things that unite those people together in this passage. One is their hatred for the nation Israel. What's going to unite them is they're going to be joined together in a united cause against Israel.
"One of the things that fuels their hatred of Israel is the commonality of Islam. They all are Islamic states. There's an indication, especially in Jeremiah, that there will come a point where the Islamic influence is going to be shaken and the back of it will be broken.
"The people out yonder in the world that gather together, gather because the people right here (that's why they're listed first in verse 2) round about them are focusing on it and it grows into this international kind of problem because of the regional burden that it becomes.
"By the way, never before that I can tell you about in history has it been that all those nations in the Middle East have joined together. The only thing that joins them together is that . . . you know the old saying, 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.' So, the precursor for how these chapters are going to be fulfilled is what you're seeing going on over there today."
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