You can't get around Zechariah 14:4-5, the mount of olives has not been split. And Jesus is returning in those verses to rescue the blood descended Jews in Jerusalem, to escape harm as they did in the days of forefathers when Uzziah was king of Judah.
Zechariah 14:4 says,
“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.”
The prophets frequently intermix literal and figurative language all the time. That makes it difficult to dissect. At the cross there was destruction, after the cross there was destruction. Even in the midst of the most literal of passages in the Bible, mountains are repeatedly used to impress deep spiritual truths. The predicted mountain moving ministry of John the Baptist is a case-in-point. The result of the cross saw by the Gospel go out to both Jew and Gentile alike. The scope of the cross-work reached far-and-wide.
There are about five hundred references to mountains and hills in Scripture. The Bible refers to both the physical reality of actual geographical locations and also equally uses them as spiritual symbols.
Mountains and hills of course refer to literal landscapes in Scripture, but they are also used as symbols to declare the nature of God or divine truth. God and His love are compared to the mountains and hills in Scripture. Psalm 125:2 states: “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever.” Psalm 121:1 declares: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” Psalm 36:6: “Thy righteousness is like the great mountains.” Psalm 76:4: “Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey.”
Mountains and hills can be joyful (Psalm 65:12, 89:12, 98:8), they can skip and leap (Psalm 114:4, 6), they can sing (Isiah 44:23 & 55:12). The prophets Ezekiel and Micah spoke to the mountains and picture God doing the same (Ezekiel 6:3, Ezekiel 36:4 & 6, Micah 6:1–2).
The majesty and power of kingdoms are often identified in Scripture with the magnificent and splendor of mountains.
Luke 3:4-5 records, speaking of that great forerunner of Christ – John the Baptist,
“As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet (in Isaiah 40:3-5),
saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth.”
This prophecy did not in any way insinuate that John was arriving with a great earth-remover in order to flatten “every mountain and hill” around Jerusalem, nor to fill in the natural valleys that surrounded the city. No. Like Luke, Zechariah was not looking for physical change in the geographical terrain of natural Israel. He was simply speaking in figurative hyperbole describing what God wanted to do in the hearts of the people. He was articulating the colossal impact the coming of Christ’s kingdom had upon the earth.
We see the same idea presented in Isaiah 41:14-15:
“Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.”
Commentators see a connection between this and assignment of John the Baptist. They take this as denoting the successful spread of the Gospel by faithful Israel and it conquering of nations and kingdoms. Zechariah is seen challenging a mountain in Zechariah 4:7, declaring: “Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.” The mountain here seems to symbolize a wicked resisting power or powers. The prophet predicts that they will be brought low.
The splitting of the Mount of Olives so that God's people could escape to safety sounds similar to Christ saying faith can move mountains. The references to topographical changes are therefore figurative. This kind of language is common throughout the Old Testament. It’s talking about spiritual things and in fact we know that because John the Baptist was the fulfilment of the one where every mountain shall be brought low and every valley exalted.
Micah 1:3-5 said of Christ:
“For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?”
In Micah 1:3 we are told that God “is coming forth from His place” to “come down and tread on the high places of the earth.” This descriptive language is no different from the Lord standing on the Mount of Olives with the result that it will split. It was not uncommon for prophets to use figurative expressions about the Lord coming down, mountains trembling, being scattered, and hills bowing (Habakkuk 3:6, 10); mountains flowing down at his presence (Isaiah 64:1, 3); or mountains and hills singing and the trees clapping their hands” (Isaiah 55:12).
This passage is portraying the great global expanse of the Gospel. Jehovah God would no longer be limited to one small nation in the Middle East. Indeed “the LORD shall be king over all the earth.” When Christ came He ushered the great evangelization of the nations. Nations that were once hopelessly outside of Christ and outside of hope would now, in this Gospel age, experience God in a very personal and living way. He is now the Lord of the nations. The heathen have been embracing Him in their millions for years. Jew and Gentile are all one in Christ now. There is no longer any division between the two. There is one Lord and Savior of all the earth.
Jesus used similar language in Matthew 17:20-21:
“If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.”
Mountains are shown here to be moved by simple faith. Obviously, they are not literal. This correlates with Isaiah 40:3-5, Micah 1:3-5 and Zechariah 14:4.
Anyway, Christ has already come and set His feet upon the Mount of Olives and established true worship by the working and ministry of the Holy Spirit (as rivers of living water) throughout the earth. Matthew 26:30-31, 27:50-51 says,
“And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives. Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written (in Zechariah 13:7 speaking of Christ’s earthly ministry),
I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad ... Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent."
We can see this great eternal atonement that Christ made caused an earthquake to shake Jerusalem that affected the whole terrain.
Even Tertullian the Early Church Father who was Chiliast recognized Zechariah 14 as an historic passage fulfilled at the first advent, saying, “But ‘at night He went out to the Mount of Olives.' For thus had Zechariah pointed out: 'And His feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives' [Zech. xiv. 4]." ("Tertullian Against Marcion," Book 4, chapter XL)
The splitting of the Mount of Olives so that God's people could escape to safety sounds similar to Christ saying faith can move mountains. It is also like God's people passing through the Red Sea.
