Israel My Glory In Depth: Interview w/ Bruce Scott | September 27, 2025

Steve Conover: Thank you for joining us for The Friends of Israel Today. I'm Steve Conover, executive director of The Friends of Israel, and with me as always is our host and teacher, Chris Katulka.

Chris Katulka: Steve, I'm so thankful that today we're actually doing our Israel My Glory In Depth episode, which means we're going to be looking at our most recent issue of Israel My Glory. Israel My Glory is our award-winning Christian magazine that teaches biblical truth about Israel and the Messiah and really to engage the Christian world with the importance of supporting and loving Israel from a biblical perspective. So if you would like to get a one year free subscription of our award-winning Christian magazine, I want you to hang on for a moment because we're going to give you those details so that you can get six free issues throughout the year of Israel My Glory magazine. Now, today we're going to have Bruce Scott, he's the director of Ministry Mobilization here at The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry to discuss his article, “Looking to Jesus—For Everything.” As we're actually studying in this most recent issue of Israel My Glory all about the prophet Zechariah, Bruce is going to be speaking specifically with reference to Zechariah chapter 12 and 13. That's Israel's national repentance, a prophetic event we're waiting to see.

Steve Conover: It's always good to have Bruce with us. But first in the news, some sobering news. On Sunday, the United Kingdom, Canada, Portugal and Australia formally recognized a Palestinian state. This is a move they believe could help revive momentum toward a two-state solution and lasting peace with Israel. The decision comes despite strong opposition from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Chris Katulka: Well, Steve, here's my take. Rightfully so, to hear Prime Minister Netanyahu's opposition to this decision that these Western democracies have made. Really these countries just put a huge smile on Hamas' face. What are the boundaries of this Palestinian state that they propose and who's going to govern them? Because the last I checked, Hamas could still win elections if they were held today in the Palestinian Territories. I have to say, this doesn’t advance peace, it rewards terrorism.

Chris Katulka: Hi, I am Chris Kaulka. I'm the host of The Friends of Israel Today radio program and also the editorial writer for Israel My Glory magazine. Now today we're going to have Bruce Scott, who's the director of Ministry Mobilization with Friends of Israel to come on and to share with us about his most recent article called “Looking to Jesus—For Everything” that can be found in our magazine, Israel My Glory. This particular issue is called “They Will Call on My Name: Israel's Glorious Future According to Zechariah.” Now, before we get to Bruce, I want to say if you have never subscribed to Israel My Glory magazine, we want to give you a one year free subscription. So if you hang on for a moment, we're going to share with you ways that you can connect with Friends of Israel and get six free issues of Israel My Glory, either right at your fingertips, digitally or through our print edition. Bruce, great to have you.

Bruce Scott: Thank you, Chris. Good to be here.

Chris Katulka: Well, Bruce, you wrote a fantastic article called “Looking to Jesus—For Everything,” looking specifically as we're going through Zechariah in Israel My Glory here, looking specifically at a passage that I've read for many, many years, Zechariah 12:10 - 13:9 and it's really looking at Israel's salvation. A major moment in not only what the prophet is looking forward to, but still an event that will take place in the future. And so you actually open up your article with a quote from Billy Graham and he says this, “God's forgiveness is not a casual statement. It is the complete blotting out of all the dirt and degradation of our past, present, and future.” How does that quote help us understand how God's going to deal with Israel in the future?

Bruce Scott: Well, it's all about God's forgiveness and his cleansing in this passage. How he brings Israel back to himself. Brings them to a point of repentance. And this is God's character, God's purpose for Israel and for people who put their trust in Jesus, it's all about restoring that relationship with God. And this is how God is going to do this with Israel. He's going to bring them back and forgive them of all the idolatry, all of the evil that they've done in the past, things that are listed throughout Scripture and God is going to forgive them of all of that. And in particular, he's going to forgive them of the ultimate and that is the rejection of the Messiah.

Chris Katulka: I want to read Zechariah chapter 12 starting at verse 10 because that's kind of where your article begins and it says, “And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on Me, the One they have pierced and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.” I can't help Bruce but see that this is an Old Testament text. This is a prophet writing 500 years before Jesus was even born and he's using imagery of the cross. “They will look upon Me whom they have pierced.” Can you give a little context to what's going on there?

Bruce Scott: Sure. Well, what is in context is Zechariah is looking to the future. A future event toward the end of the 70th week of Daniel's prophecy in Daniel 9. Collectively we often refer to it as the Tribulation period. This is actually the latter part of that when all the nations of the earth will be gathered against Jerusalem, as it says at the beginning of chapter 12. So it looks like that finally Israel is going to be annihilated. But in that very moment that is when the Scripture says in Matthew 24 that the sign of the Son of man will appear in the heavens and the tribes of the earth will mourn for Him, specifically the nation of Israel. Now, it lists the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, but it's not just restricted to that. They are representative of Jewish people around the world. They'll be able to see the Messiah breaking through the clouds and at that moment as they see Him, God is going to pour out on them, actually flood them with the Spirit of grace and of supplication or pleading. And so he is going to enable them by his grace pouring out his Spirit upon them, Spirit of grace and of pleading as they see the promised Messiah, Yeshua Jesus returning in the clouds. So that their response will then be to not only look on Him, but to look to Him. Similar to in the Old Testament when the children of Israel were told, look not just on the bronze serpent and you'll be healed but to the bronze serpent and you'll be healed. And that's what will happen here. It'll be a wonderful time of cleansing that's going to happen following their understanding of what has happened, but God is going to bring them to that point of repentance.

Chris Katulka: I want to highlight that you also had your passage move from this moment, Zechariah 12:10, which we're going to develop more of in a moment. But you also kind of developed Zechariah chapter 13 as well to the point where actually you say that in this moment as in Ezekiel 21, “this sword,” because you do  talk about Zechariah 13:7 where you say, “Awake, o sword against my Shepherd and against the man who is my Companion. Say to the Lord of hosts, strike the Shepherd and the sheep will be scattered and then I will turn my hand against the little ones.” And so you say in light of even Ezekiel 21:3-5, the sword belongs to God. Zechariah actually prophesied about this as we mentioned 500 years before Jesus was born and he speaks futuristically about Zechariah 12, but yet there's also a historical component for us sitting in 2025. Looking back on this moment. Can you highlight Ezekiel 13:7 and really that point of the crucifixion of Jesus?

Bruce Scott: Sure. So, in biblical prophecy you don't always have everything flowing in a linear fashion. So here in Zechariah 12, Zechariah is talking about this latter time of the attack on Jerusalem by the nations of the world and Jesus returning. And then in chapter 13 in verse seven, he jumps from his point of view futuristically, but from our point of view, historically back to the time when the One that they'll look upon whom they have pierced is struck. Where God says, “Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd.” So God is calling for this sword and he's going to strike the Shepherd. Jesus himself called himself the good Shepherd. He's known as the Shepherd in Micah chapter five as well. And so it's looking back to that time of the crucifixion where the Shepherd is struck. Jesus himself quoted this passage to his disciples the night that he was betrayed. He said, this is what's going to happen. The Shepherd's going to be struck and the sheep may be scattered. Now, he was speaking specifically about them that they were going to take off and run away after he was arrested and such. But it also speaks to what was going to happen to the nation. So the promised Messiah was going to be struck. He was going to die. He was going to be rejected. And nationally, the consequence, as even Paul speaks of in Romans chapter 11, this transgression, because of their transgression, speaking of national Israel, they were scattered. Even Moses prophesied in Deuteronomy chapter 28 that if Israel as a nation would fall away from God, then God would scatter them to the four corners of the earth.

Chris Katulka: Which we see today.

Bruce Scott: That’s happened.

Chris Katulka: Yeah, I mean there's Jewish people in Buenos Aires, in Sydney, Australia, New York.

Bruce Scott: There's Jewish people on every continent of the world. The only one I haven't confirmed is Antarctica. But it wouldn't surprise me if there are some Jewish scientists down in Antarctica. Nevertheless, God has scattered them, and this is what is talked about here.

Chris Katulka: So the idea of “the One being struck,” the “my Shepherd who would be struck” would ultimately create the scattering. And you also mentioned the idea, though, of the very end of that verse. It says, “I will turn my hand against the little ones. God seems to go after the little ones. Can you develop that a little bit more?

Bruce Scott: Yeah, I understand that to refer to, the little ones, the sheep. So you have the Shepherd and you have the little ones. You have the sheep. And God's going to turn his hand against them. There was a turning of his hand against them. Again, we see the judgment that came as a result of the Jewish leaders of Jesus' time rejecting the Messiah. There were thousands of Jewish believers in Jesus as the Messiah, but the religious leaders who represented the nation as a whole, they turned against Him, as was prophesied. The stone which the builders rejected. The leaders of the Jewish nation at that time, they rejected that. But of course we know that God turned that rejected stone into the Cornerstone, the chief Cornerstone. So here God says because of this, he's going to turn his hand against the little ones. And so again, in fulfillment of Deuteronomy 28, Jewish people have been scattered. They've suffered. At night they wish it was day, at day they wish it was night. And so it's just they've been persecuted. They've suffered tremendously, but even the worst is yet to come.

Chris Katulka: Yeah, develop that because you talk about the idea of a time called Jacob's trouble. I believe that's what the prophet Jeremiah calls the Tribulation period.

Bruce Scott: Correct.

Chris Katulka: And you had mentioned a little bit earlier this 70 weeks of Daniel from Daniel chapter 9. There seems to be a moment where God begins to move his attention back to Israel again in the future, and it doesn't start with all joy. It actually starts with a time of Jacob's trouble. You want to share about that a little bit?

Bruce Scott: Sure. So we live in the church age now, and at some point in the future, we can't set a date, we don't want to set a date. We don't know when it's going to happen, but at some point, God is going to return to his program with Israel because 483 years of the 490 year prophecy in Daniel chapter 9 have been fulfilled, but not the last seven years. So those last seven years are again collectively known as the Tribulation period, but specifically the last three and a half years are referred to as the Great Tribulation or the time of Jacob's trouble. Because as Jesus forewarned in Matthew 24, when you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place where it shouldn't be, let the reader understand, He's referring back to the book of Daniel. He tells the Jewish people at that time, flee for the hills, run to the mountains, run for your life because the antichrist is going to start an unprecedented time of tribulation, persecution against the Jewish people.

So much so that in verse eight of Zechariah 13, it says, “It will come about in all the land,” and I take that not just restricted to the land of Israel in the Middle East today, but all the world, “declares the Lord that two parts in it will be cut off and perish, but the third will be left in it.” He's referring to the little ones, the sheep, the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That two thirds will be cut off. So this will be even worse. As it's hard to imagine this, it's hard to wrap our minds around this, but this will be, the Bible says it's the time of Jacob's trouble. Jesus said that it'll be worse than any other time in human history.

Two thirds of the Jewish people will be killed by the antichrist during this time. One third will be the survivors and God promises, I'm going to bring that third through the fire. I'm going to refine them as silver is refined and test them as gold is tested. The purpose of God's testing and God's refining process when he brings affliction. In fact, Moses says in Deuteronomy 4 of this latter time that when, speaking to Israel, “When you are in distress, then you will return to me.” So this is what's going to happen at this time. They will be in such distress that two thirds, sadly tragically will be killed, will perish during this time. One third will be refined. Then the purpose of God's affliction is to refine and to restore, and so this is what's going to happen. And so this is actually going to prepare them for going back to chapter 12 verse 10, when Jesus breaks in on the scene.

Chris Katulka: Yeah, and you even mentioned in your article too, you speak about the fact that that's a situation that will happen with Israel, but you also even mentioned from Zephaniah a global catastrophe, a global wrath that will come down where not only will be Israel that suffers the entire world will be refined and judged for the sin that has been brewing over the millennia. God will finally deal with it once and for all when he sends his Son. That's the image that you show ultimately that yes, it's time of Jacob's trouble, but as the book of Revelation paints, the entire world will be under God’s wrath.

Bruce Scott: The entire world will suffer God's wrath during that time through the series of judgments, the seal judgments, the trumpet judgments, the bowl judgments—that's not just on Israel, that's on the whole world.

Chris Katulka: Can I ask, I kind of want to close with this concept here. It says that when they look upon Him whom they have pierced, they begin to mourn. And “On that day, the weeping,” verse 11, “in Jerusalem will be as great as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land will mourn, each clan by itself with their wives by themselves: the clan of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of the house of Shimei and their wives and all the rest of the clans and their wives.” What we're seeing here is that Zechariah is showing us when it says that, like you had mentioned earlier, “when they look upon Him whom they have pierced,” we're seeing that the King, the ruling class looks upon Him, whom they have pierced. The priests and the prophets look on Him whom they have pierced all the way down to the average Joe Israelite looks upon Him whom they have pierced, and not only the men who represent their families, but even their wives are repenting, which Zechariah seems to be highlighting a national repentance that takes place.

And I have to say lately, since October 7th, especially since Israel launched a preemptive strike against Iran, that 12-Day War, I have seen within the church this rising up of people saying, ‘I don't know why we're looking to Israel so much. They don't play a role anymore. There's no more national need for Israel.’ But yet here in Zechariah it seems that there's a national repentance. Why does a national repentance for Israel matter to me, Bruce? Why?

Bruce Scott: Well, you either have to deal with the text or you ignore the text or you have to explain it away somehow. But if you take the text in its normal fashion, then you'll understand that God does still have a plan and a program for Israel. It's not sometimes as people say wrongly, that there are two gospels, that Israel gets saved in a different way than we do. It's all by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, he is the promised Messiah. So this is going to be a significant event in Israel's history and this will change everything. This is why Jesus is coming back. He's going to not only deliver them and rescue them physically, but he's going to rescue them spiritually and it will be a national repentance. But because it goes into such detail about the different clans and the different families and such, it's going to be an individual repentance as well. So they are going to be mourning as if one mourns for their only son, their firstborn son, which in Jewish culture was very important because the firstborn received everything, received the inheritance. So imagine you have that son and then he's dead. They're going to just be heartbroken over this. I use the illustration of the Apostle Peter when he remembered all of a sudden what Jesus had said just a few hours before, “you're going to deny me three times before the rooster crows.” Peter did that, and when he heard the rooster crow, he remembered what he had done and he went out and wept bitterly. Our Jewish friends during this time, God's going to bring them through this time of refinement, and when they see Yeshua the promised Messiah, they will look to Him for their deliverance, but they'll remember the thousands of years that they have denied that He was the promised Messiah, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son, and God will bring them to that repentance and that cleansing that's going to happen in chapter 13.

Chris Katulka: And as you mentioned so perfectly in your article, the idea that God's forgiveness is not a forgiveness of just the present sins that we deal with, it's the past sins, it's the present sins, it's the future sins all wrapped up in what Christ has done for us. And that's what Israel, just as we experience that, Israel will experience that in the future as well.

Bruce Scott: Amen.

Chris Katulka: Well, hey, thank you so much, Bruce. Thank you. Hey, you know what? If you haven't had an opportunity yet to get your one year free subscription of our award-winning Christian magazine, Israel My Glory, then I want to encourage you right now to go to israelmyglory.org/subscribe, and when you go there, you're going to have two options. That's right. We give you more than one. We give you two. You can either get six issues of our print edition, you'll get this right to your mailbox where you can read Bruce's article from Zechariah 12:10, or you can get our digital subscription to Israel My Glory, where you can get not only this subscription, but also the last 40 plus years of Israel My Glory content right at your fingertips on your cell phone, tablet, computer, whichever you like. Again, go to israelmyglory.org/subscribe to receive your one year free subscription to Israel My Glory. Thank you very much.

Steve Conover: Thank you so much for joining us for today's episode of The Friends of Israel Today. Our special thanks to Bruce Scott for being our guest. Where are we headed next week, Chris?

Chris Katulka: Yeah, next week we're actually going to be looking at the Jewish Festival, Sukkot, which is also called The Feast of Tabernacles. The reason we're doing that is because the Jewish people have just started their three festivals of the Fall Feasts of Israel. That's Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and the Feast of Tabernacles. So we're going to highlight the Feast of Tabernacles next week and see the biblical significance of it and really the depth that it brings in knowing that Jesus tabernacled among us.

Steve Conover: We love hearing from our radio listeners, so I want to give you our contact information as we close. Our web address is foiradio.org. Again, that’s foiradio.org. Our mailing address is FOI Radio PO Box 914, Bellmawr, New Jersey 08099. Again that’s FOI Radio PO Box 914, Bellmawr, New Jersey 08099. You can call our listener line. That number is 888-343-6940. Again that’s 888-343-6940. Today's program was engineered by Bob Beebe. Edited by Jeremy Strong, who also composed and performs our theme music. Lisa Small is our executive producer. Sarah Fern is our associate producer. Chris Katulka is our host and teacher and I’m Steve Conover, the executive director of The Friends of Israel. The Friends of Israel Today is a production of The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. Passion for God's Word. Compassion for God's Chosen People.