This verse, my dear friend, is found in Zechariah 14:4 where we read: “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.” As you might already know, this verse is a very exciting prophesy of the end times, and I believe it to be referring to that “great and terrible Day of the LORD described in Joel 2:31. If you will allow me, I’d like to expand on the meaning and implications of this prophecy.

As I’m sure you realize, the Lord Jesus will return to the earth one day, and when He comes, He will come in power and in glory, to judge the unrighteous (Acts 17:31), and to defeat all His enemies, to restore Israel, and to rule the world in righteousness from Jerusalem (Acts 1:11; Zechariah 14:1-9; Revelation 19). Now, this second coming of our Lord to this earth will take place at the end of the Great Tribulation that we read about in Revelation 6-18. This will be a fierce time of judgment on the earth, but if you are a born again Christian, you need not fear this period of judgment since the Lord Jesus will come in the clouds before the tribulation actually begins, to receive all true believers, whether alive or dead at the time, to be with Him forever (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18; Revelation 3:10).

But now, of the time which we read about in Zechariah 14 (see also Joel 2, Malachi 3, Isaiah 66:15-24; Micah 4:1,2), let me now describe in a bit more detail. In Zechariah 14:5-9 we read: “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. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and His name one.” 

Here, I believe, we see that the Mount of Olives, where our Lord Jesus shall return in that latter day, will be split in two, forming a deep valley in the midst. Here, the Lord will call His faithful people to come and be protected from all the enemies who at this time are destroying Jerusalem; and the Lord will then turn on those enemies and destroy them. When that is done, He will heal the land of Israel, making streams to flow in desert places (Isaiah 35:6), turning the great sea and the Dead Sea from salt to sweet, and the land will become productive once again. The faithful of Israel will at that time receive their Messiah and King (Isaiah 53), and the Lord Jesus will occupy the throne of David in the temple which will have been rebuilt in glorious fashion, and Christ will rule the earth from there for 1000 years.  The kings of the earth will come to Jerusalem to worship and to learn of the Lord (Micah 4:1,2), and Israel will shine forth to the world as God’s people.  (SF)  (568.1)