Zechariah 13:7-9 (U)

[Josh]

I just want to post this one here so I don't forget to comment on it. If anyone wants to go ahead, feel free.

Zechariah 13:7-9

7 “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
against the man who is close to me!”
declares the LORD Almighty.
“Strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered,
and I will turn my hand against the little ones.
8 In the whole land,” declares the LORD,
“two-thirds will be struck down and perish;
yet one-third will be left in it.
9 This third I will bring into the fire;
I will refine them like silver
and test them like gold.
They will call on my name
and I will answer them;
I will say, ‘They are my people,’
and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’”

[Josh]

This prophecy predicts that the Messiah would be striken (presumably killed) and that a great disaster would befall the people of Israel through which only a fraction would survive.

The only candidate for such a catastrophe would be the Jewish war of the late 60's culminating in the destruction of the Temple- the most horrendous ordeal the Jews of the ancient world ever faced. Jesus himself prophesied this destruction in the gospels (some of which are reasonably dated before the destruction in AD 70).

It is also recorded in the history of the early church that the Christian believers in Jerusalem escaped the city before it's final seige precisely because they were warned by the prophecy.