Zechariah 14:17

s to the utter extermination of the enemies of Christianity in the latter days. God will display his power in behalf of his people in a manner so astonishing and miraculous, that even they themselves, and much more their enemies, shall be struck with terror, Zac 14:4, Zac 14:5. The national prosperity of the Jews shall then be permanent and unmixed, Zac 14:6, Zac 14:7; and these people shall be made the instruments of converting many to the faith of the Messiah, Zac 14:8, Zac 14:9. The great increase and prosperity of the Christian Church, the New Jerusalem, is then described in terms accommodated to Jewish ideas; and the most signal vengeance denounced against all her enemies, Zac 14:10-19. From that happy period God's name will be honored in every thing, and his worship every where most reverently observe, Zac 14:20, Zac 14:21. Verse 1 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh - This appears to be a prediction of that war in which Jerusalem was finally destroyed, and the Jews scattered all over the face of the earth; and of the effects produced by it. Verse 2 I will gather all nations - The Romans, whose armies were composed of all the nations of the world. In this verse there is a pitiful account given of the horrible outrages which should be committed during the siege of Jerusalem, and at its capture. The residue of the people shad not be cut off - Many were preserved for slaves, and for exhibition in the provincial theatres. Verse 3 Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations - Against the Romans, by means of the northern nations; who shall destroy the whole empire of this once mistress of the world. But this is an obscure place. Verse 4 And his feet shall stand - He shall appear in full possession of the place, as a mighty conqueror. And the mount of Olives shall cleave - God shall display his miraculous power as fully in the final restoration of the Jews, as he did when he divided the Red Sea that their forefathers might pass through dry-shod. Some refer this to the destruction of the city by the Romans. It was on the mount of Olives that Titus posted his army to batter Jerusalem. Here the tenth legion that came to him from Jericho was placed. Joseph. De Bello, lib. 6 c. 3. It was from this mountain that our Lord beheld Jerusalem, and predicted its future destruction, Luk 19:41, with Mat 24:23; and it was from this mountain that he ascended to heaven, ( Act 1:12 ), utterly leaving an ungrateful and condemned city. And half of the mountain shall remove - I really think that these words refer to the lines of circumvallation, to intrenchments, redoubts, etc., which the Romans made while carrying on the siege of this city; and particularly the lines or trenches which the army made on Mount Olivet itself. Verse 5 Ye shall flee to the valley - Some think this refers to the valley through which Zedekiah and others endeavored to escape when Nebuchadnezzar pressed the siege of Jerusalem: but it appears to speak only of the Jewish wars of the Romans. Azal - This, as a place, is not known. If a place, it was most probably near to Jerusalem; and had its name from that circumstance. Verse 6 The light shall not be clear, nor dark - Metaphorically, there will be a mixture of justice and mercy in all this; or a bright light and darkness. Mercy shall triumph over judgment. There shall be darkness - distress, etc.; but there shall be more light - joy and prosperity - than darkness. Verse 7 At evening time it shall be light - At the close of this awful visitation, there shall be light. The light of the glorious Gospel shall go forth from Jerusalem; and next, from the Roman empire to every part of the earth. Verse 8 Living waters shall go out - There shall be a wide diffusion of Divine knowledge, and of the plan of human salvation, which shall go out by apostles and preachers, first from Jerusalem, then to Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, the isles of the sea, Britain, etc. The former sea, and - the hinder sea - The Dead Sea and the Mediterranean; see on Joe 2:20 (note). These are metaphors. In summer - In time of drought; or in the countries where there was no knowledge of God, there shall these waters flow. The stream shall never cease; it shall run in summer as well as winter. These are living waters - perennial, incessant, and waters that shall preserve life. See Joh 7:37. Verse 9 And the Lord shall be King - When this universal diffusion of Divine knowledge shall take place. Wherever it goes, the laws of God shall be acknowledged; and, consequently, he shall be King over the whole earth. One Lord, and his name one - There shall be in those blessed days, only one religion, and one form of religion. There shall not be gods many, and lords many. All mankind shall be of one religion, the essence of which is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength; and thy Neighbor as thyself." Verse 10 All the land shall be turned as a plain - Or rather, "He shall encompass the whole land as a plain." He shall cast his defence all around it; from Geba, in Benjamin, north of Jerusalem, ( Jos 21:17 ), to Rimmon in Judah, to the south of Jerusalem, Jos 15:32. It shall be lifted up - The city shall be exalted. And inhabited in her place - Jerusalem, shall be rebuilt In the very place in which it originally stood. From Benjamin's gate, which was probably on the north side of Jerusalem, unto the place of the first gate, supposed to be that called the old gate, Neh 3:6; Neh 12:39, placed by Lightfoot towards the southwest. Unto the corner gate - See 2Kgs 14:13. The tower of Hananeel - This tower and the corner gate seem to be placed as two extremities of the city. Unto the king's wine-presses - Near to the king's gardens, southward. - See Newcome. Verse 11 There shall be no more utter destruction - After this final restoration of Jerusalem it shall never more be destroyed; but as this was the first city of the living God upon earth, so shall it be the last; it shall be safely inhabited. It shall see war no more. Verse 12 And this shall be the plague - All her enemies shall be destroyed. Their flesh shall consume away - These are the effects of famine which are described in this verse. Verse 13 A great tumult from the Lord - Among those enemies of his Church, who shall engage and destroy each other. Verse 14 And Judah also shall fight - They shall have little else to do than take the spoil, the wealth of all the heathen round about; gold, silver, and apparel. Verse 15 So shall be the plague of the horse, and the mule - There shall be plagues on the substance of the enemies of the Church, as there were on the cattle and goods of the Egyptians. Verse 16 Shall even go up from year to year - The Jews had three grand original festivals, which characterized different epochs in their history, viz.: - 1. The feast of the passover, in commemoration of their departure from Egypt. 2. The feast of pentecost, in commemoration of the giving of the law upon Mount Sinai. 3. The feast of tabernacles, in commemoration of their wandering forty years in the wilderness. This last feast is very properly brought in here to point out the final restoration of the Jews, and their establishment in the light and liberty of the Gospel of Christ, after their long wandering in vice and error. Verse 17 Upon them shall be no rain - Those who do not worship God shall not have his blessing; and those who do not attend Divine ordinances cannot have the graces and blessings which God usually dispenses by them. On such slothful, idle Christians, there shall be no rain! Verse 18 If the family of Egypt - This may allude to those Jews who, flying from the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, settled in Egypt, and built a temple at Heliopolis, under the direction of Onias, son of the high priest. Josephus Antiq. lib. xiii., c. 6, and War, lib. vii., c. 36. If these do not rejoin their brethren, they shall have no rain, no interest in the favor of God. Verse 19 This shall be the punishment - of all nations that come not up - God will have his public worship established everywhere, and those who do not worship him shall lie under his curse. Verse 20 Upon the bells of the horses - They appear, formerly, to have had bells on horses, camels, etc., as we have now, to amuse the animals, and encourage them in their work. In some very fine Asiatic paintings now before me, I see bells both on horses, mules, and camels; little bells tied to their legs, and larger ones about their necks, particularly in the representation of a caravan passing through the valley of serpents, in the island of Serendib, now Ceylon. The margin reads bridles. Holiness Unto The Lord - As the Gospel is a holy system, preaching holiness and producing holiness in those who believe, so all without, as well as within, shall bear this impress; and even a man's labor shall be begun and continued, and ended in the Lord; yea, and the animals he uses, and the instruments he works with, shall be all consecrated to God through Christ. The pots - "The meanest utensil in the house of God, Neh 10:29, shall be as the vessels of silver, and gold used in solemn sacrifice; they shall be like the bowls before the altar." - See Newcome. Verse 21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem - "The utensils of the Jews shall be treated as holy, and the worshippers shall use them reverently. The idea of preparing food in them (they that - seethe therein) is taken from the custom of feasting after sacrifice. And no trafficker (see Eze 18:4 ) shall pollute the house of God, as was the custom when our blessed Lord cleansed the temple." - See Newcome. This is what is called the Canaanite in the house of God. The Canaanite is the merchant; and where such are tolerated in a place dedicated to Divine worship, that is not the house of the Lord of hosts. In churches and chapels, collections may be made for the simple purpose of supporting and extending the worship of Jehovah; but for no other purpose, especially on the Lord's day. Amen.

Evangelical Predictions; Threatenings and Promises; Encouraging Prospects. ( b. c. 500.) 16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. 17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. 18 And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. 19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. 20 In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the Lord 's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. 21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. Three things are here foretold:— I. That a gospel-way of worship being set up in the church there shall be a great resort to it and a general attendance upon it. Those that were left of the enemies of religion shall be so sensible of the mercy of God to them in their narrow escape that they shall apply themselves to the worship of the God of Israel, and pay their homage to him, v. 16 . Those that were not consumed shall be converted, and this makes their deliverance a mercy indeed, a double mercy. It is a great change that the grace of God makes upon them; those that had come against Jerusalem, finding their attempts vain and fruitless, shall become as much her admirers as ever they had been her adversaries, and shall come to Jerusalem to worship there, and go in concurrence with those whom they had gone contrary to. Note, As some of Christ's foes shall be made his footstool, so others of them shall be made his friends; and, when the principle of enmity is slain in them, their former acts of hostility are pardoned to them, and their services are admitted and accepted, as though they had never fought against Jerusalem. They shall go up to worship at Jerusalem, because that was the place which God had chosen, and there the temple was, which was a type of Christ and his mediation. Converting grace sets us right, 1. In the object of our worship. They shall no longer worship the Molochs and Baals, the kings and lords, that the Gentiles worship, the creatures of their own imagination, but the King, the Lord of hosts, the everlasting King, the King of kings, the sovereign Lord of all. 2. In the ordinances of worship, those which God himself has appointed. Gospel-worship is here represented by the keeping of the feast of tabernacles, for the sake of those two great graces which were in a special manner acted and signified in that feast-contempt of the world, and joy in God, Neh. viii. 17 . The life of a good Christian is a constant feast of tabernacles, and, in all acts of devotion, we must retire from the world and rejoice in the Lord, must worship as in that feast. 3. In the Mediator of our worship; we must go to Christ our temple with all our offerings, for in him only our spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God, 1 Pet. ii. 5 . If we rest in ourselves, we come short of pleasing God; we must go up to him, and mention his righteousness only. 4. In the time of it; we must be constant. They shall go up from year to year, at the times appointed for this solemn feast. Every day of a Christian's life is a day of the feast of tabernacles, and every Lord's day especially (that is the great day of the feast ); and therefore every day we must worship the Lord of hosts and every Lord's day with a peculiar solemnity. II. That those who neglect the duties of gospel-worship shall be reckoned with for their neglect. God will compel them to come and worship before him, by suspending his favours from those that keep not his ordinances: Upon them there shall be no rain, v. 17 . Some understand it figuratively; the rain of heavenly doctrine shall be withheld, and of the heavenly grace, which should accompany that doctrine. God will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon them. Note, It is a righteous thing with God to withhold the blessings of grace from those that do not attend the means of grace, to deny the green pastures to those that attend not the shepherd's tents. Or we may take it literally: On them there shall be no rain, to make their ground fruitful. Note, The gifts of common providence are justly denied to those that neglect and despise instituted ordinances. Those that neglected to build the temple were punished with the want of rain ( Hag. ii. 17 ), and so were those that neglected to attend there when it was built. If we be barren and unfruitful towards God, justly is the earth made so to us. Many are crossed, and go backward, in their affairs, and this is at the bottom of it—they do not keep close to the worship of God as they should; they go off from God, and then he walks contrary to them. If we omit or postpone the duties he expects from us, it is just with him to deny the favours we expect from him. But what shall be done to the defaulters of the land of Egypt, to whom the threatening of the want of rain is no threatening, for they have no rain at any time; they need none; they desire none; the river Nilus is to them instead of the clouds of heaven, waters their land, and makes it fruitful, so that what is a punishment to others is none to them? v. 18, 19 . It is threatened that if the family of Egypt go not up, that have no rain, yet God will find out a way to meet with them, for there shall be, in effect, the same plague wherewith other nations are smitten for their neglect. God can, and often did, restrain the overflowing of the river, which was equivalent to the shutting up of the clouds; or if the river did its part, and rose as high as it used to do, God had other ways of bringing famine upon them, and destroying the fruits of their ground, as he did by several of the ten plagues of Egypt, so that this (that is, the same) shall be the punishment of Egypt that is the punishment of other nations who come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. Note, Those who think themselves least indebted to, and depending on, the mercy of heaven, cannot therefore think themselves guarded against the justice of Heaven. It does not follow that those who can live without rain can therefore live without God; for not the heavens only, but all other creatures, are that to us that God makes them to be, and no more; nor can any man's way of living enable him to set light by the judgments of God. This shall be the punishment —margin, This shall be the sin of Egypt, and the sin of all nations, that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. The same word signifies both sin and the punishment of sin, so close and inseparable is the connexion between them (as Gen. iv. 7 ), and sin is often its own punishment. Note, Omissions are sins, and we must come into judgment for them; those contract guilt that go not up to worship at the times appointed, as they have opportunity; and it is a sin that is its own punishment, for those who forsake the duty forfeit the privilege of communion with God. III. That those who perform the duties of gospel-worship shall have grace to adorn their profession by the duties of a gospel-conversation too. This is promised ( v. 20, 21 ), and it is necessary to the completing of the beauty and happiness of the church. In general, all shall be holiness to the Lord. 1. The name and character of holiness shall not be so confined as formerly. Holiness to the Lord had been written only upon the high priest's forehead, but now it shall not be so appropriated. All Christians shall be living temples, and spiritual priests, dedicated to the honour of God and employed in his service. 2. Real holiness shall be more diffused than it had been, because there shall be more powerful means of sanctification, more excellent rules, more cogent arguments, and brighter patterns of holiness, and because there shall be a more plentiful effusion of the Spirit of holiness and sanctification, after Christ's ascension than ever before. (1.) There shall be holiness introduced into common things; and those things shall be devoted to God that seemed very foreign. [1.] The furniture of their horses shall be consecrated to God. " Upon the bells of the horses shall be engraven Holiness to the Lord, or upon the bridles of the horses (so the margin) or the trappings. The horses used in war shall no longer be used against God and his people, as they have been, but for him and them. Even their wars shall be holy wars, their troopers serving under God's banner. Their great men, who ride in state with a pompous retinue, shall reckon it their greatest ornament to honour God with their honours. Holiness to the Lord shall be written on the harness of their chariot-horses, as great men have sometimes their coat of arms with their motto painted on their coaches; every gentleman shall take the high priest's motto for his, and glory in it, and make it a memento to himself not to do any thing unworthy of it. Travellers shall have it upon their bridles, with which they guide their horses, as those who desire always to be put in mind of it, by having it continually before them, and to guide themselves in all their motions by this rule. The bells of the horses, which are designed to quicken them in their journey and to give notice of their approach, shall have Holiness to the Lord upon them," to signify that this is that which we ought to be influenced by ourselves, and make profession of to others, wherever we go. [2.] The furniture of their houses too shall be consecrated to God, to be employed in his service. First, The furniture of the priests' houses, or apartments adjoining to the house of the Lord. The common drinking cups they used shall be like the bowls before the altar, that were used either to receive the blood of the sacrifices or to present the wine and oil in, which were for the drink-offerings. The vessels which they used for their own tables shall be used in such a religious manner, with such sobriety and temperance, such devotedness to the glory of God, and such a mixture of pious thoughts and expressions, that their meals shall look like sacrifices; they shall eat and drink, not to themselves, but to him that spreads their tables and fills their cups. And thus, in ministers' families especially, should common actions be done after a godly sort, however they are done in other families. Secondly, The furniture of other houses, those of the common people: " Every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness to the Lord. The pots in which they boil their meat, the cups out of which they drink their wine ( Jer. xxxv. 5 ), in these God's good creatures shall never be abused to excess, nor that made the food and fuel of lust which should be oil to the wheels of obedience," as had formerly been, when all tables were full of vomit and filthiness, Isa. xxviii. 8 . "What they eat and drink out of these shall nourish their bodies for the service of God; and out of these they shall give liberally for the relief of the poor;" then are they Holiness to the Lord, as the merchandise and the hire of the converted Tyrians are said to be ( Isa. xxiii. 18 ); for both in our gettings and in our spendings we must have an eye to the will of God as our rule and the glory of God as our end. Thirdly, When there shall be such an abundance of real holiness people shall not be nice and curious about ceremonial holiness: " Those that sacrifice shall come and take of these common vessels, and seethe their sacrifices therein, making no distinction between them and the bowls before the altar. " In gospel-times the true worshippers shall worship God in spirit and in truth, and neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem, John iv. 21 . One place shall be as acceptable to God as another ( I will that men pray every where ); and one vessel shall be as acceptable as another. Little regard shall be had to the circumstance, provided there be nothing indecent or disorderly, while the substance is religiously preserved and adhered to. Some think it intimates that there should be greater numbers of sacrifices offered than the vessels of the sanctuary would serve for; but, rather than any should be turned back or deferred, they shall make no difficulty at all of using common vessels, as the Levites in a case of necessity helped the priests to kill the sacrifices, 2 Chron. xxix. 34 . (2.) There shall be no unholiness introduced into their sacred things, to corrupt them: In that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. Some read it, There shall be no more the merchant, for so a Canaanite sometimes signifies; and they think it was fulfilled when Christ once and again drove the buyers and sellers out of the temple. Or though those that were Canaanites, strangers and foreigners, shall be brought into the house of the Lord, yet they shall cease to be Canaanites; they shall have nothing of the spirit or disposition of Canaanites in them. Or it intimates that though in gospel-times people should grow indifferent as to holy vessels, yet they should be very strict in church-discipline, and careful not to admit the profane to special ordinances, but to separate between the precious and the vile, between Israelites and Canaanites. Yet this will not have its full accomplishment short of the heavenly Jerusalem, that house of the Lord of hosts, into which no unclean thing shall enter; for at the end of time, and not before, Christ shall gather out of his kingdom every thing that offends, and the tares and wheat shall be perfectly and eternally separated.