Zechariah 12:2-13:6. God is going to use Jerusalem as a "cup of reeling to all the peoples round about," and all the nations of the world will come together against it. Judah will even be against Jerusalem during the siege against it, but God will give victory to Judah first and then Judah will take on the battle against the rest of the nations and God will use Judah to "destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." Then God shall give the people of Jerusalem and the House of David a spirit of compassion and they shall be sorrowful for all the people who were killed in the battle; the land itself shall mourn. The end result will be that all of the idols will be cut off from the land, as will all "prophets and the unclean spirit." If anyone presents himself as a prophet, his parents will stop him, even to the point of piercing him through. The prophets will all be ashamed of their vision and will realize they were false prophets. They will go back to farming, or their other jobs. When people ask them about the wounds on their backs, they will say they received those wounds in the house of their friends.

I was drawn to the last part of this reading, the part about the prophets. Clearly the people of Israel and Judah had gone wrong, and thus God is going to use Jerusalem to bring them back in line. I am guessing that both places were resting on their laurels, feeling like all is well when it truly was not. Societies like this have a tendency to raise up false prophets - yes men who will tell the people and the religious leaders what they want to hear: "You are doing the right thing!" "You're doing great!" "No need to change anything, you're on the rigt side of history!" 

God, though, knowing things must change, will bring that change about. When he does, the prophets will be properly chastened. Once they acknowledge it was a friend who chastened them will be happiest - they can go about their lives with comfort that God loves them enough to stop their false prophecy. But the ones who continue to spread words that are not from God will be punished greatly, even by their own parents.

The lesson here is not to be so certain that you know what God wants or what God thinks so that you that you begin leading others astray or feeding their complacency. God makes it very obvious who and when he is calling someone to be a prophet. If you are not hearing his unmistakable call, then keep your thoughts to yourself. Time and Truth may make you very glad you did.