Zechariah 14:1-5
Chapter 14 gives the details, to speak generally, of the result for the nations of the coming of Jehovah as the Messiah (see vv. 9-16); but, when more closely examined, it is seen to fall into two parts, the first of which closes with "Uzziah king of Judah" in the 5th verse. From that point the prophet returns and describes the coming of Jehovah with His saints, and in so doing "takes up the subject of the relationship of Jehovah with the whole earth," showing that His coming for the succor and blessing of His ancient people is but the occasion for the perennial flowing forth of "living waters" to the ends of the earth.
The chapter opens abruptly with the solemn proclamation, "Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee." v. 1. The "day of the LORD" has a fixed significance in the prophets, and is ever connected with judgment; as, for example, in Isaiah, "The day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up." (Chap. 2:12; compare Joel 2 Pet. 3:10.) And the context shows that it has this meaning here, that it is the day when Jehovah will appear for judgment upon His enemies, and for the deliverance of those who have waited for Him. (Isa. 25.) The "spoil" spoken of is probably the spoil taken from the nations (see v. 14), which the prophet says shall be divided in the midst of Jerusalem. In one sentence therefore, before he gives the details, the full result is placed before the reader - the full result of the assembling of the nations against Jerusalem. They will come to despoil it, but they shall be spoiled; and the people who were on the very eve of destruction shall divide the spoil of their enemies.
But before the end is reached, there will be terrible experiences. "For," says Jehovah, "I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city." v. 2. In chapter 12 mention is also made of the siege of Jerusalem, but there in reference rather to the effect upon the peoples who besiege her. Here we have the revelation that at first, before Jehovah appears, the enemy will triumph and capture the city. Jehovah permits this for the punishment of the apostates of Judah under the influence of the antichrist. Isaiah thus speaks, "Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it." (Isa. 28:14-18; see also chaps. 8 and 10.) The scripture makes it also plain that Jehovah will suffer Jerusalem to be taken before He intervenes. Micah may allude to the same thing when he says, "This man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men." Chap. 5:5.
It is in this way that God will teach Judah and Jerusalem that it is an evil and bitter thing to have rejected Christ, to have forsaken the living God; for now in their extremity, if they should call, there will be none to answer. Allying themselves with the enemy of Jehovah, and identifying themselves with his idolatries, they must now pass through these days of vengeance. "And," according to the word of the Lord, "the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity." No city in the world has undergone such frightful sieges. Jeremiah has signalized the sorrows of its capture by Nebuchadnezzar in his Lamentations; and a description of the horrors of the siege by the Romans has been preserved in the pages of Josephus; and, as we gather from this scripture, the sorrows of this chosen city are not yet ended. Does the reader inquire for the reason? The answer is found in the lament of our blessed Lord Himself: "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" Matt. 23:37. And since that day Jerusalem has added to all her sins in crucifying her Lord; and she will aggravate her guilt yet more by receiving him who will deny both the Father and the Son.
A remnant will not be cut off from the city; and the next verse tells us of Jehovah's mighty intervention: "Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle." Whether the Lord appears immediately, or whether indeed this event is subsequent upon the capture of the city, is not evident. The fact is stated, and care must be exercised not to go beyond the fact, that the Lord goes forth against His enemies and the enemies of His people. It is possible that allusions to the same event may be made by Isaiah, when he says, "A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the LORD that rendereth recompense to His enemies." And again, "For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by His sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many." (Chap. 66:6,15,16; compare Joel 3:9-17, and Rev. 16:13, 14.) In such a manner Jehovah will render recompense to His enemies; for He will gird His sword upon His thigh, and His arrows will be sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under Him; and then the nations of the world will have to learn what Pharaoh learned at the Red Sea - the irresistible might of Him against whom they have dared to set themselves in battle array. "The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with Thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters." Exod. 15:9, 10.
In the next verse we have one of the most remarkable predictions to be found in the prophetic scriptures. "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." v. 4. It was from the mount of Olives, as the reader will remember, that our Lord ascended up to heaven (Acts,1:12); and, after a cloud had received Him out of the sight of the disciples, and while they were still wistfully gazing after their departed Lord, two angels said to them, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." Acts 1:11. No words could be more precise or state more definitely that Jesus Himself should return to the earth, and that in a visible manner; and now we learn from Zechariah that He shall return to the very spot whence He ascended, and that the very same feet that once trod Olivet, in company with His disciples, shall once again stand in the same place. No ingenuity whatever can explain away the simple words, "His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives," and in this way, as another has pointed out, "Jehovah identifies Himself, so to speak, with the meek and lowly Jesus formerly on the earth, in order that the identity of the Savior and Jehovah should be clearly acknowledged."
But when Jehovah thus comes, in the Person of the Messiah, He comes with power and great glory; the earth will acknowledge the presence of her rightful Lord, and thus the mountain on which He will stand cleaves in the midst. As we read indeed in the Psalm, "The earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because He was wroth." 18:7. So will it be again on that eventful day. The effect will be that a great valley will be formed by half of the mountain removing toward the north, and half toward the south, running east and west, its western end being immediately opposite to the eastern side of the city of Jerusalem, and its eastern end terminating, it would seem, at Azal. Isaiah cries, "Oh that Thou wouldest rend the heavens, that Thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at Thy presence, as when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make Thy name known to Thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Thy presence! When Thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, Thou earnest down, the mountains flowed down at Thy presence." Chap. 64:1-3. So will it also be in this day of which Zechariah speaks, and the wonders flowing from the presence of Jehovah will strike terror into the hearts of the beholders, for they will flee as they fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah.
The prophet does not pursue this aspect of his subject. Jehovah has come, and His feet stand upon the mount of Olives, and He has thus renewed His relationship with Judah, or at least the remnant, of whom the disciples (who saw their Lord ascend, and who received the promise of seeing Him return) were the representatives. He now recommences (the second part of the chapter beginning at this point) with the corning of the Lord. He says, as if addressing Jehovah, "And the LORD My God shall come, and all the saints with Thee" (v. 5). The introduction of the saints as accompanying, or forming the cortege of Jehovah, is an additional feature; and the instructed reader will see in this a remarkable confirmation of what he has learned of the Lord's coming from the New Testament. Here, as it is His return to Israel, it is His public manifestation - when every eye shall see Him, and when, therefore, as Zechariah states, the saints shall come with Him. If, however, the glorified saints return with Christ, they must have been caught up to be with Him previously; and this is what the New Testament scriptures teach. Thus, in 1 Thessalonians 4, we learn that when the Lord descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, both the sleeping and the living saints will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so will be ever with the Lord. Here there is no question of any being caught up; the Lord comes to His own on the earth for their succor and temporal salvation. This shows the difference between the hope of the Church and the hope of Israel. Believers now wait daily to be caught up to meet Christ, and hence, afterward, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." Col. 3:4. Whereas the believing remnant, in the day of which the prophet speaks, will await the coming of the Messiah in glory, as described in this chapter.
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