Tag Archive Zechariah 14

Today is our final look at Zechariah 14 (read parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), in which we see the holiness of the Jerusalem to come. Verses 20–21 read:

And on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, “Holy to the LORD.” And the pots in the house of the LORD shall be as the bowls before the altar. And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day.

(Zechariah 14:20–21)

This passage has the peculiar reference to bells on horses, a strange thing to mention. It would have been strange to Zechariah’s audience as well. According to Leviticus 11, a horse was ceremonially unclean. Yet in this new Jerusalem, things that were once regarded as unclean are now not only clean but holy. The inscription on the horses’ bells is the same as that on the high priest’s turban. Consider the original giving of this inscription:

“You shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet, ‘Holy to the LORD.’ And you shall fasten it on the turban by a cord of blue. It shall be on the front of the turban. It shall be on Aaron’s forehead, and Aaron shall bear any guilt from the holy things that the people of Israel consecrate as their holy gifts. It shall regularly be on his forehead, that they may be accepted before the LORD.”

(Exodus 28:36–38)

The high priest in the Levitical priesthood wore a seal of holiness, which took away the lingering iniquity of the people’s consecrated gifts. Now, Zechariah sees a time when the most common everyday items would be as pure and consecrated as the garments that the high priest would wear in the holiest place of the temple (Exodus 29:29–30).

Clearly, this has implications for new covenant saints. The high priest’s holy crown, which he would bear before God’s own presence, prefigured the perfect holiness of Jesus, our High Priest (Exodus 29:6). Christ’s undefiled holiness makes the spiritual sacrifices of his people acceptable to God, but one day all our lives will overflow with radiant holiness. We will have not only the imputed righteousness of Christ, but we will be transformed to be holy as he is holy.

Zechariah then drives the point harder by bringing up pots and pans. The cooking pots in the temple are going to be as holy as the basins in front of the altar. Even the most common pot would become holy—holy enough for us in sacrifice.

If this is all speaking about a literal temple, why then is there no demand for the strict distinctions between holy and common? If this is what Ezekiel saw in his vision, why is it not a restored temple per the law? The notion that all things are alike holy (as Zechariah is driving home) totally contradicts the idea of a literal millennial temple. E. B. Pusey writes well when he says: “In this priestly-levitical drapery the thought is expressed, that in the perfected kingdom of God not only will everything without exception be holy, but all will be equally holy.”¹

Zechariah ends by saying, “And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day.” (Some translations have “Canaanite.”) The background of this is probably from Nehemiah’s day when Tobiah the Ammonite had storage rooms within the temple courts and the Canaanite merchants from Tyre sold merchandise in Jerusalem on the Sabbath (Nehemiah 13:4–9, 16, 20–21). With these considerations, Zechariah could be thinking about the pollution of merchants just as Jesus spoke against in the temple courts. MacKay explains,

The mention of the Canaanite is not to debar any on racial grounds, but on ethical and spiritual. “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27).²

Through this series, I hope you can see that Zechariah’s prophecy is describing the removal of the present creation and the resultant establishment of God’s eternal kingdom.

Today is our penultimate study of Zechariah 14 (follow these links for Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4),  and we come to vv. 16–19. This passage speaks about what happens to the Gentile nations after the climactic events of the previous sections.

Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain; there shall be the plague with which the LORD afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths.

(Zechariah 14:16–19)

Yesterday, we saw the terrible end of the nations who attack Jerusalem. There are Gentiles that are around after the Day of the Lord. Even though, previously, they were strangers and enemies to Israel and Yahweh, these remaining Gentiles now become worshippers with the Israelites. These Gentile surviving nations participate in a newly formed and ongoing celebration of the Feast of Booths. This pictures for us how the Old Testament Feast of Booths is wonderfully fulfilled and the depth of meaning behind it.

What does conversion of Gentiles to the new covenant look like? It is not circumcision or the mosaic law’s ceremonies, but rather the worship of the one true God. The phrase “go up” in v. 16 is a term used of pilgrimage to Jerusalem. What new covenant reality is this old covenant language being used to express? If we take it in a literalistic fashion, it is a going backwards from what Jesus taught (John 4:23). No, it is expressing the same thing John sees in Revelation 7:9: a great multitude that no one could number from every tribe, tongue, and nation standing before the throne and worshipping the Lamb. John also notes that the multitude were holding palm branches in their hands, which echoes Christ’s triumphal entry in John 12. However, it also fits in with what is written in Zechariah 14:19 about the celebration of the Feast of Booths. On the first of this seven-day feast, the Israelites would “take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days” (Leviticus 23:40).

Why this festival, though? Why is it singled out so? It is the last of the religious festivals of the Israelites, so in a way summed up the worship of the nation (cf. Deuteronomy 16 and Leviticus 23). It was also one of the festivals which aliens were permitted to participate in (Deuteronomy 16:14). At this time, people would live in booths made out of branches to remind them of the period Israel spent in the wilderness and how God preserved them and kept them (Leviticus 23:42–43). It was also a time to remember the Lord’s ongoing preservation of them in the harvest (Leviticus 23:39; Deuteronomy 16:13–15). Thus, this celebration was a rejoicing in what God had done and what he is doing now.

Considering this double rejoicing, it was a feast characterised by joy (Deuteronomy 16:14–15). That’s why the redeemed nations celebrate it with joy. We see here an eschatological significance of this festival as the former enemy nations now become worshippers and come together to give honour to their rightful King.

Most appropriately, the text puts a harvest celebration in juxtaposition to withholding rain. In 10:1 we see it is a blessing and Christ himself uses it as an example of kindness (Matthew 5:45). These things are withheld from the rebellious. In Deuteronomy 28:22–24, withholding of rain is named as one of the curses God would give for covenant disobedience. Here that same curse is made over the nations since God rules them all.

T. V. Moore comments, “In this future condition, the present mingled state of reward and punishment shall end. Now God sends rain on the just and the unjust, then he will separate the good and the evil, and render unto every man according to his works.”¹

To say that the nations who do not celebrate the feast of Booths will not receive rain is simply another way of saying that those who will not follow Israel’s Lord will not receive his blessing. Why is Egypt mentions especially? Andrew Hill helps:

Egypt is singled out for mention, perhaps because it was the origin of the Hebrew exodus (of which the Feast of Tabernacles was to be a reminder, Lev. 23:43), and in the past it was a nation that ‘had suffered the most from the plagues at God’s hands. If it did not participate in the future, it would suffer again.²

In Isaiah, however, we see Egypt as sharing in worship with God’s people in the future. These pagans must then be converted (19:19–25). In our text in Zechariah, Egypt represents those who refuse to worship. In must be noted that Revelation uses Egypt as a type of Satanic world system, which persecutes God’s people. The trumpet and bowl judgements of God’s wrath all hearken to the plagues God sent on Egypt when Pharaoh refused to release the Israelites. In Revelation 11:8, the city where the two witnesses are killed is symbolically named Egypt. Why would Egypt kill the witnesses? It is because of the plagues which come against Egypt, including drought (Revelation 11:6, 10). Today the prophetic witness of the church is a painful reminder to the unrepentant that already God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness of men who supress the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18). In the future day that Zechariah sees, Egypt, as well as all unrepentant nations, will forever suffer the unmitigated plagues of God’s wrath (cf. Revelation 14:10–11; 15:1; 18:8; 21:8; 22:14–15, 18–19).

If, however, this feast is speaking about a literal reinstitution of the Feast of Booths, Lanier comments:

Are these interpreters ready to accept the restoration of the Old Testament feast with its offering of animal sacrifices? During the feast of tabernacles, which began on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, daily offerings of animals were made by fire, 199 animals of all kinds were offered, “besides the continual burn-offering, and the meal offerings thereof, and the drink offerings thereof” (Num. 29:12-38). Among these daily offerings was “one he-goat for a sin-offering.” Jesus is our sin-offering, and if we go back to offering he-goats for sin-offerings we must reject Jesus as a sufficient offering for our sins.³

It is a reading of Scripture as if Hebrews 9:10 was never written and the new covenant had never come: “They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings—external regulations applying until the time of the new order.”

This post marks the start of a series through Zechariah 14. I hope to show a biblically faithful and hermeneutically coherent way to handle this passage over the next few days. So join me on this journey through an exciting passage.

Behold, a day is coming for the LORD, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.  Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle.  On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.

(Zechariah 14:1–5)

The second verse of this passage puts the text into a helpful perspective: God will himself gather the nations together for battle against Jerusalem. This prophecy is repeated throughout Scripture in passages like Ezekiel 38:1–23; 39:1–6; Joel 3:2; Revelation 16:12–16; 19:19; 20:8–9. But Zechariah was not merely wasting space in the pages of Holy Scripture; he had a particular perspective in his prophecy.

The nations gathered to attack Jerusalem, and it seemed that, at first, they were successful. They captured half the city, plundered the houses, raped the women, and carried away half the inhabitants. The other half of the city, though, seem to have been spared. The reason for that is that the Lord himself appeared on the scene and caught the nations in their wicked act. God came in full battle array.

When he touched the ground outside the walls of Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives split to form a valley—a way of escape for the besieged inhabitants of Jerusalem.

This genre of Scripture is called “apocalyptic” literature. It is not narrative, nor is it didactic text. Apocalyptic literature is symbolic literature. One only needs to read the understanding given to Daniel of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream-vision in Daniel 2:31–45: The prophecy was entirely couched in symbolic imagery. Tomorrow, I will make a post about why I believe there is good internal evidence in the immediate chapters to see this as symbolic language.

This prophecy is a message about the future people of God and foretells a time when they will be surrounded by enemies and overwhelmed by them. Zechariah uses the name “Jerusalem” because, at this time in God’s revelation, it was what the audience understood the people of God to be: Israel, the people of Jerusalem, where the temple of God was. This was an apocalyptic (symbolic) mention of Jerusalem, not a didactic or historical account.

Now, we are not free to make “Jerusalem” mean anything we want, but within the text of Scripture, as God progressively reveals himself, we are given the key to this apocalyptic use. Hebrews 13:14 reads, “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” This clearly points beyond the earthly city of David. So who is in this city? Well, the New Testament church has already “come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22). We do not belong to the old Sinai covenant, which “corresponds to the present Jerusalem”; we are of the new covenant, corresponding to “the Jerusalem above” who is “our mother” (Galatians 4:24–26).

James pointed to the prophecy of Amos and confirmed that God had rebuilt and restored the ruined tabernacle of David so that the Gentiles may seek the Lord and be called by his name (Acts 15:13–18). The nations were now joining themselves to Zion, the redeemed city of God, the New Testament church of Jesus Christ.

If James and the other apostles could confidently use this hermeneutic with apocalyptic texts, so can we, and so should we. This, and other prophecies like, it are realised by the heirs and successors of the Old Testament Zion, Jerusalem, and Israel. None of this means we rewrite the prophecy or promise, or that the original audience was lied to, but rather that this prophecy is satisfied in a far fuller and proper extent.

If this Jerusalem is pointing to the church, it means that the church is the future people of God who are surrounded by enemies and seemingly overwhelmed. This picture then, of an ancient city being plundered, represents the church suffering terribly at the hands of her enemies—and yet there is always a remnant left.

Verse 4 mentions the return of the Lord to rescue his people and speaks of the Mount of Olives being the place of his arrival. This ought to remind us of the words in Ezekiel. The words “his feet” suggest that this is a theophany (appearance of God). It also mentions the the mountain that is “on the east” of Jerusalem. It would be a strange way to mention the location of a well-known hill, unless it is meant to connect in our minds with Ezekiel’s vision, when the Lord’s glory left Jerusalem and stopped “on the mountain that is on the east of the city” (Ezekiel 11:23).

The Lord, whose visible presence with his people had left, now returns in power, as prophesied in Ezekiel 43:2. But it doesn’t return to some reconstructed Jerusalem; it comes to the New Jerusalem, which, as I have pointed out above, is the reality of these visions—the city that bears the name, “The LORD Is There” (Ezekiel 48:35), a city made of saints who have conquered per Revelation 3:12: “I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.”

Verse 4 goes further is that it pictures the Lord making an unexpected way of escape for his people. Verse 5 pictures them using it.

Now, there are other details, like the earthquake and the valley leading to Azel. If this is symbolic, should we expect Jesus to come to a hill called the Mount of Olives? After all, if Jerusalem is just an apocalyptic reference to the New Testament church, why the emphasis on geographical markers?

It seems most likely that these descriptions about earthquakes and a palace called Azel refer to the historical details of an earthquake during the reign of Uzziah. The prophet is drawing on those past details and the incredible power of that event to create a picture of what it will be like when the Lord returns to defend his city. The warrant for this is in v. 5: “And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah.” So the prophecy is drawing on historical facts to paint pictures of future realities and feelings. That historical event is called up to compare something of what the Lord’s coming will be like, yet it will shake the entire earth (cf. Haggai 2:6–7; Hebrews 12:26–27).

If, however, this chapter refers to the literal return of Christ (i.e. the second coming) upon the mount of Olives, exactly who is it that will make that escape flight to the east when the mountain is cleft? It cannot be the wicked, for the Bible plainly teaches that they will be destroyed when the Lord returns (Matthew 25:31–46; 2 Thessalonians 1:7–9). Moreover, it cannot be the righteous, for they will be “caught up … in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Will the believing Jews be caught up in the air or flee through an earthquake valley? Is it unbelieving Jews that the Lord is rescuing or does he return to destroy unbelievers?

With this beautiful imagery, we must remember that the literal Mount of Olives may have a prominent role in the second coming of Christ. In both Matthew and Mark, Jesus taught about the second coming while sitting on the Mount of Olives. Luke records that Jesus ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives, at which time two angels declared that he would return in the same way they saw him leave (Acts 1:1–11). We have a precedent for this kind of fulfilment in that the Messiah came out of Bethlehem and Judah symbolically since it was David’s ancestral town and Jesus is David’s seed—but Jesus was also literally born in the city of Bethlehem.

A great summary of this text is found in the words of Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg:

It is very obvious that the whole account is figurative, and that the fundamental idea, the rescue of believers and the destruction of their enemies, is clothed in drapery borrowed from the local circumstances of Jerusalem.¹