Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. 2. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle: and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished: and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 3 Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle, 4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east: and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley: and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal; yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
The wonderful events spoken of in this Chapter, require great grace, and the divine teachings of God the Holy Ghost to understand. Whether the things promised refer to the first coming of Christ only, or whether they respect in part his second coming; it would be presumption in me to speak positively. Those circumstances which plainly respect the days of Christ's flesh, we cannot hesitate to decide upon; since we who live in the present hour of Gospel truth, have seen the fulfillment of them in Christ, and his Apostles. But we may humbly express our apprehensions concerning such also as have their tendencies to the event of Christ's second coming, when we merely send them forth as enquiries, and not as so many determinations. In the opening of this Chapter, the promise is of the Lord's coming in the flesh. This hath been fulfilled. The miseries of Jerusalem follow in the second verse. And the events here recorded, we may very safely refer to the memorable destruction which took place after Christ's return to glory; and which Christ himself foretold. Matthew 24:2-21. A ruin so great, as (according to the great historian of the Jews), was never equalled in all the annals of mankind. The third and fourth verses of the Lord's going forth to battle, and his fast standing upon Mount Olives, must refer to a subsequent history. For though he often visited this Mount in the days of his flesh, yet certain it is, he did not stand there openly and personally to the view of his people, at the siege of Jerusalem; neither indeed did he give the least reason to his disciples to expect he would. It is therefore probable, that the Prophet in those verses, might be looking so far forward as to our Lord's second coming; and if so, there is a correspondence between this scripture, and what the angels said to the astonished disciples at our Lord's ascension. See Acts 1:11-12. See Jude 1:14-15; Job 19:25. In respect to what is said about the days of Uzziah, Amos, the Prophet, gives some account of it, Amos 1:1. And Isaiah talks of the fleeing of the people from the glory of his majesty, when the Lord ariseth to shake terribly the earth. See Isaiah 2:10-22.