Zechariah 14 (Updated)

(I wasn’t quite at peace with the first attempt, so after getting a better write-up, I’m posting it as an update.)
Zechariah has been presenting in deeply symbolic language what God could and would do for any people who make Him truly Lord of their lives. Had we dragged it all down to literalism, we would have missed the best part. Sadly, we know the most influential teachers of the Scripture among the Jews did this very thing. Worse, we have today a vast horde of professing Christians who perpetuate this error. When reading this chapter, understand it as pure symbolism. There isn’t any particular logical order; it is not sequential or chronological, but soaring far above mere words to drag our weak minds into the Realm of the Spirit to taste just a bit of the truth.
The Day of the Lord is coming. Even if Judah does lay claim to all these marvelous promises, there will finally come a day when it will all end for this earth. What can we say about the End of Time?
Characteristic of every prophetic description of that Last Day of the Lord, we are warned mankind will rise up against the message of God. Jerusalem symbolizes the place on earth from which God’s revelation flows out. That message was meant to be incarnated in His people, but the point is the message itself. Whomever it is walking in His Word at The End will face a vigorous global attack. The world at large will finally be united in one thing, this final act of defiance against the Creator. They will attack and it will seem they have succeeded, because they are depicted as collecting the spoils of war. Roughly half of this People of God will die or be captured and abused in this seeming victorious attack. The rest will somehow manage to survive this siege.
Right when it seems all hope is lost for those who love the Lord, He will come to end the whole charade. Zechariah describes a scene where the mere touch of the Lord’s feet on the earth would change the whole landscape. The mountain ridge east of Jerusalem would be parted like the sea at the Exodus. Don’t get lost in the details of the imagery, because it seems the Lord allows His people to escape even as He rescues them in place. How would you explain something for which there is no equivalent human experience so far? This highway symbolizes how the Lord with gather the survivors at His coming. (The New Testament adds the concept we’ll be gathered to Him in the air.) Zechariah describes this scene in familiar terms, echoed in the words of other prophets. For example, he mentions the endless fountain flowing from the Temple to the seas east and west, seen previously in Ezekiel. There is also an end to the current cycle of day and night, because time will be no more.
In our minds we have to understand he describes both the days after Christ and Eternity at the same time. What we experience in these Last Days brings a taste of Eternity, so the symbolism applies in some ways to both.
God will take the throne of all Creation and change everything, a new heaven and earth will replace the old. But in those final moments, he describes how the enemies of God’s Word will destroy themselves. Because they rejected His Word, they will never make any more noise. Because they refused to see His truth, their eyes will be gone. They’ll turn on each other, because their prey will be out of reach. Zechariah draws a picture of the rural residents of Judah coming in to attack the rear of the enemy formation. The enemy camp will be plundered, but all their lives, even their war animals, would die. At the moment of human triumph against God’s revelation, it all comes apart on them.
Think of an age when God rules directly on the earth. How easy to live in a land where all is relatively flat and lush like the Lower Jordan Valley, yet the Dead Sea will be fresh water. It won’t be necessary to discuss a Trinity any longer, because God Himself in His own form will be there, personally present in an Ultimate Reality no longer divided. There would be no way to resist His divine rule. The images of God punishing the nations who don’t celebrate His reign is perhaps more easily understood as applying during this Messianic Age. Anyone unwilling to serve Him would receive none of His promised blessings. Instead, they’ll face all the curses. Those who do not celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, when the rituals symbolized the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, would be punished severely. Everything — every little detail of life, such as the decorative items on a horse’s bridle — would be stamped as Property of God Almighty. There would be nothing He didn’t own directly, including us.
Were this meant literally, it would be a confusing jumble, not entirely consistent with other prophesies of the End Times. However, we rightly understand this as parable, symbolism of how God does things. The coming of Christ as Savior was down payment for Eternity. How would someone describe the joys of walking in the Spirit in the Last Days before the End of All Things?