Zechariah 12-14
“In That Day” is the oft-repeated, characteristic phrase of these last three chapters. It refers to the time of “the great tribulation,” “the time of Jacob's trouble,” to the last efforts of the Gentile power in opposing God in the destruction of His people, to Messiah's personal intervention, and the setting up of His glorious Millennial kingdom.
As Zechariah 11 ends up with the introduction of the idol shepherd—the Antichrist—it is but to be expected that Zechariah 12 should begin with the condition of things in Palestine as seen in “the great tribulation.”
The order of things is clear.
Zechariah 12, verses 2, 3, tells us that Jerusalem is to be a “cup of trembling” [“cup of bewilderment,” JND] to the surrounding nations, when they lay siege to the city: “a burdensome stone” for all peoples, who will only attempt its ruin to be ruined themselves.
Verses 4-5 tell how Jehovah will smite every horse with astonishment, every rider with madness, in order to weaken their power, and thus encourage the hearts of the governors of Judah to realize that God is their strength.
An illustration is well found in the incident of the Midianites, when Gideon, bursting into their camp with the cry, “The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon” (Judg. 7:18) so confounded them that they slew each other—“the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host” (Judg. 7:22).
Verses 6-7 tell how God will raise up brave leaders of His people, who will, under His providential hand, deliver His people, saving Judah first rather than Jerusalem, in order that the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall not magnify themselves against Judah.
Verse 8 is one of the most beautiful and striking verses of the Bible. It illustrates the quickening power of the presence of Christ. “In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”
It is said that the effect of Napoleon's presence on the field of battle was magical. What shall be the effect of Christ's intervention on behalf of His people? The feeble, stumbling, tottering one in that day shall be as David, who stands as an emblem of the greatest strength and courage; and the house of David shall be as God. The Lord will be with His people “in that day,” and will immediately charge the air with a sense of victory.
Verses 10-14 bring before us the repentance necessary on the part of Israel to fit them for the blessing designed for them since the day that God first blessed Abraham, saying that in his seed (Christ) all the nations of the earth should be blessed. The spirit of grace and supplications will be poured out upon Israel. At last the long dark night of Israel's backsliding will come to an end. No longer in bitter hatred of Christ will they continue. The gracious work of the Spirit of God will soften those proud, adamantine hearts and stubborn wills.
And when this awakening shall have taken place, and the nation realize their awful sin in crucifying their Messiah, and in bitter opposition to Him which has been the marked feature of the Jew from that day to this—when they shall have realized that their being scattered among the nations for long centuries has been the direct government of God for their awful sin—when they shall have looked upon Him whom they have pierced, then their repentance will be profound and heart-rending.
They will realize the mercy of God in bringing them back to their own land when in unbelief; they will recognize that but for the intervention of the Lord their enemies must have swallowed them up, and as all this dawns upon their minds repentance will flood their souls.
Their mourning is said to be great, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. In Revelation we learn of Armageddon (the hill Megiddon); here we have the valley of Megiddon mentioned. In the former case judgment and destruction falls on the enemies of the Lord; in the latter, lifting up and blessing flowing forth to those repentant ones. How it fulfills the Scripture, “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low” (Isa. 40:4).
Verses 12-14 emphasize the depth and bitterness of soul that will mark the nation then. It is no general superficial repentance. Families cannot mix in this. Even husbands and wives must go apart in bitterness of soul, and prostrate themselves before their pierced Messiah in contrition, repentance, tears, and cries.
The house of David represents the people generally; the house of Nathan “stands as representative of the prophets”; the house of Levi, of the priests; Shimei [Shimites, see Num. 3:18-21], of the Levites. Thus the whole nation in detail is shown to be affected in deep repentance.
Zechariah 13:1 brings before us the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Consequent on repentance effectual and moral cleansing will take place. It is clearly here not a fountain of blood but of water. Fountains in Scripture are ever associated with water. It is here the moral cleansing of the nation by the Word of God. New Birth will answer to it. A nation shall be born in a day.
Verses 2-4 tell us of the land being cleared of idolatry and lying prophets. What joy for Israel in that day when her heart is turned to her once-crucified Messiah to witness this purging of their land.
Verses 5-7 come in abruptly. Passing from the judgment pronounced upon the false prophets, we have the Messiah Himself presented to us in a deeply touching way. The One who indeed could claim rightfully to be the Prophet of the Lord makes no such claim. He was refused as such by His own. But He goes on with His own blessed work. He says, “I am an husbandman [a tiller of the ground].” He came to cultivate men for God. He came to give, to sow the good seed of the Kingdom in the hearts of men. He says, “Man taught me to keep cattle from My youth [that is, man acquired Me as bondman from My youth, JND].”
In lowly grace He took the place of being a slave to the needs of men.
What did He get? Wounds! He was wounded in the house of His friends. Israel was taught in Old Testament prophecy to wait for and expect their Messiah, and when He came they rejected Him. In this expression, “the house of My friends,” we see His unalterable love for His people. How often a flood of light comes out in a single word.
But there is something deeper. It is not only the wounds inflicted by His friends we are bidden to contemplate, but Jehovah's sword is called upon to awake against the Man that is His Fellow. How remarkable is this prophecy! How it presents to us the glory of Messiah's person, that He who was a Man on earth was indeed Jehovah's fellow, that is God.
The awakened sword brings before us the solemn mystery of the Cross, that atonement lies in God's judgment on sin. This is more implied in the consequences that follow than directly stated. How could Jehovah's hand turn upon the little ones for blessing unless He could do it righteously? Hence the necessity for the atonement.
The result of the smiting is that the sheep are scattered. God's governmental wrath falls upon the nation, which has rejected His sending of Messiah, and for over eighteen centuries the last remnants of the nation have been scattered, the people of the weary breast and the wandering feet, as they have been so aptly described. Jehovah's hand would turn upon the little ones, He would bring back His people to their own land. And He will do this in righteousness and in mercy.
Between the stroke of the sword (fulfilled on the Cross) in verse 7 and the events prophesied in verses 8 and 9, we must interpose the whole of the present dispensation, which is not taken account of in Old Testament prophecies.
Two parts of the nation being cut off speaks of “the great tribulation,” the last fiery trial that God must put His people through, whilst one third being left, refined as silver, tried as gold, will form those who shall call on Jehovah's name, and be publicly acknowledged as His people.
Zechariah 14 sheds light on how this shall come to pass. Verse 2 gives a graphic description of the siege of Jerusalem, of its capture, houses looted, women ravished, and half of the city captured. The remaining half in their sore distress will behold the Lord fighting on their behalf.
In Revelation 19:11-21 we get the intervention of the Lord in the great battle of Armageddon, when the beast and false prophet will be taken and consigned to the lake of fire. This battle receives its typical name from the hill Megiddo, which is situate in the territory of Ephraim. But the events of Zechariah 14 are not detailed in Revelation 19, nor are the events recorded in Revelation 19 detailed in Zechariah 14.
Armageddon is detailed as the expression of God's judgment upon the Gentile power; whereas the battle of Zechariah 14 gives us in the destruction of the Lord's enemies the deliverance of the Jew.
Armageddon evidently precedes Zechariah's nameless battle, and the siege of Jerusalem. It is like two battles in one campaign, first the Lord appearing from heaven and destroying the Gentile power at Armageddon, then appearing actually on the Mount of Olives, for the succor and deliverance of His people there.
In Armageddon evidently the breath of the Lord is sufficient sword for the slaughter of His enemies, just as His breath slew one hundred and eighty-five thousand of Sennacherib's army of old. In the siege of Jerusalem the Lord in His wisdom does not deal in the same summary way, but comes down to the Mount of Olives. His feet touching the Mount is the signal for it to cleave in two, thus making, for the sore-pressed remnant, a way of escape to the valley of the mountains. The Lord fights “as when He fought in the day of battle,” and there is no need to record the finish of the fight. VICTORY, full and final, the enemy destroyed and His people completely delivered, can alone be the result.
It may be the terrible earthquake that happened in the reign of King Uzziah, and that evidently formed a painful landmark in the history of Judah (see Amos 1:1), was allowed as a picture of what will happen when the Lord comes back to earth. The earthquake that will cleave the Mount of Olives is evidently the same as is referred to under the seventh trumpet (Rev. 11:19) and under the seventh vial (Rev. 16:18).
The terrible conflict over, verse 6 introduces us to the blessedness of the personal reign of Christ. “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” (vss. 6-7).
These verses are undoubtedly difficult of explanation. Many have been the explanations. That some physical and marked change may take place as to night and day, light and darkness, is quite possible, just as God intervened for Israel when Joshua commanded the sun to stand still. As to any explanation on those lines we do not feel competent to proceed, but if we take it morally it might mean that in this world there is mingled moral light and darkness, but when the Lord shall reign, His day will be characterized altogether by His wonderful presence. At evening time when darkness would be naturally expected, it would be light. That is to say, in this world, even morally, things move in cycles. Take the life of a ruler: it is first light, that is vigor, intellect, will, and as old age creeps on darkness sets in, powers slow down, hands that once held the reins of power lose their grip; but when the Lord comes this order of things shall cease, and in His presence things will pursue their way apart from the vicissitudes and frailties that characterize us now.
Then again we may find in the rule of kingdoms light and darkness, as for instance today, comparatively speaking there is light where rulers are more or less governed by the fear of God, treaties are observed, the sanctities of life respected, laws made on a righteous basis; darkness, where men are refusing God's laws, and substitute for them the horrible doctrine that might is right, and all the terrible evils that follow in its train.
Or, for instance, we find now on the one hand the light of evangelical teaching; on the other the darkness of Christian Science, Theosophy, Spiritualism, Millennial Dawnism.
But in that day the moral effects of Christ's presence and rule will bring about uniformity for that which is according to God.
So we read that “living waters,” starting from the “east gate” of the sanctuary (Ezek. 40:44), shall go out from Jerusalem, half towards the former sea (the Dead Sea) and half towards the hinder sea (the Mediterranean), and that the drought of summer will not hinder its perennial flow—“in summer and in winter shall it be.” Deuteronomy 11:24 proves that “the uttermost sea” (the hinder sea, JND) is the Mediterranean, the well-known western boundary of the land.
Whilst this bifurcated stream brings untold agricultural wealth to the country, enabling it to bear the large population that must be the result of a high birth-rate and practically no death-rate during the Millennium, it undoubtedly has a moral significance that “in that day” spiritual blessing will flow from Jerusalem, the city of Messiah's presence and rule.
So the blessing widens out, “The Lord shall be King over all the earth.” Happy prospect for this sin-cursed death-ridden earth, with its sorrows. Once God is given His true place, how different everything will be.
Well might the phrase, “In that day,” be the subject of many a glowing prophecy, as we have seen.
Then we are informed of great physical changes to take place in the land. It is to be “turned as a plain, from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem.” Hills will disappear and give way to lands easy of cultivation. The Dead Sea is to be healed and to be full of fish (see Ezek. 47:6-10). En-gedi and En-eglaim are on opposite shores of the Dead Sea. The land is to be prosperous—Jerusalem a place to be safely inhabited.
Two things are predicted as happening to the Lord's enemies. They will be affected by a fearful plague, consuming their flesh as they stand on their feet, their eyes eaten out of their sockets, and their tongues consumed in their mouths.
How striking is the judgment! Their whole body coming under God's judgment. Their feet employed to carry them to fight against the Lord, their eyes used in directing their munitions of war, and their tongues in blaspheming God's Christ, shall all be affected.
Further, they are to be troubled by a tumult (panic, JND) from the Lord, so that in their blind fear they will destroy each other.
Evidently this will take place at the time of the siege, and be so striking and signal a punishment from God that it will be acknowledged to be an intervention of the divine hand in judgment.
Judah is to enrich herself by the spoil of the Lord's enemies, whilst even the horses, mules, camels, and beasts used by the enemy shall be visited by the same plague as their owners. Thus strikingly will the Lord vindicate His name.
All the Gentile survivors will go up from year to year to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles, whilst those who may refuse shall find the rain withheld from their land, meaning their destruction. If Egypt should be found refusing the claims of God's House, as theirs is a rainless country, depending upon the Nile and its irrigation for its prosperity, the plague shall visit them.
Finally, we close the book with a glowing description of the scene of blessedness. Even the bells upon the horses shall have “HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD” marked upon them, and the very pots of the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar; yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord.
Thus concludes a deeply interesting and instructive prophecy. It ends with the Lord's triumph, the joy of His presence, and the happiness of holiness.