Zechariah was a member of a prominent priestly family that returned from Babylon in 537 BC.
In 520 Zechariah spoke of a final battle that would take place in Jerusalem before the Lord’s appearance to establish his earthly kingdom.  The invasion of Jerusalem at this future time
occurs because God “will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it.” In the early
stages of this future battle it appears that the invasion by the nations will be successful since
half of the city quickly falls to the conquering nations. It is clear for several reasons that Zechariah refers here to a future event that has not yet occurred:

1. It cannot refer to the Babylonian destruction since:
1. This text was written in 520 BC and Babylon’s invasion has already occurred in 586 BC.
2. Babylon took the first half of the city and also the second half of the city. The Lord
   did not intervene. Jerusalem was totally overrun
2. It cannot refer to the Roman destruction in 70 AD since:
1. Jerusalem of 70 AD was completely destroyed.
2. The Lord did not appear and fight in defense of Jerusalem
3. There was no earthquake and no splitting of Mount Olives
4. To allegorize these locations (Jerusalem, Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem)
   and these events (gathered nations,  fighting, exile, taken from city, the people,
   the Lord will go out, his feet will stand) in order to find some spiritual meaning
   makes this text senseless and its meaning the victim of personal interpretation.
3.  It cannot refer to a historical event during church history since it is clear from world
   history over the last 150 years and current events that Jerusalem is not in a state that
   could be described as a kingdom ruled and controlled by the Lord seated in Jerusalem.

This future day is unlike the Babylonian captivity from which the Jews had recently returned.
In 586 the whole city was taken into exile, but during the invasion Zechariah refers to the
second half of the population “will not be taken from the city.” This time there will not be exile,
but instead there will be deliverance.

On this day the Lord’s “feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem” and a new
age will have begun. At Jesus’ ascension into heaven in Acts 1 the angels referred to this
future event when they spoke to the disciples who were watching Jesus rise into the air.
The angles said to the disciples on the Mount of Olives in 30 AD as Jesus ascended:

”Two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee, they said, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
– Acts 1:10-11

"God is not silent. It is the nature of God to speak. The second person of the Holy Trinity is called "The Word."
– A.W. Tozer