by Ben Habegger | Mar 26, 2019 | Eschatology
Post #1 Post #2 Post #3 Post #4 Post #5 Post #6 Post#7
Post #8 “Zechariah 14:20–21: Jerusalem’s
Perfect Consecration to the Lord”
Last
in our series on Zechariah 14, we encounter a description of Jerusalem’s final
holiness.
20 In that day there will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, “HOLY TO THE LORD.” And the cooking pots in the Lord’s house will be like the bowls before the altar. 21 Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the Lord of hosts; and all who sacrifice will come and take of them and boil in them. And there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts in that day.
Why mention the bells on horses?
They are mentioned in order to shock Zechariah’s audience. “Shocking here is
the reference to an item associated with the horse, a ritually unclean animal
according to Lev. 11:1–8. In this new Jerusalem, that which was once treated as
unclean is now not merely clean, but holy.”[1] The
inscription on the bells of the horses is the same as that on the high priest’s
turban! Notice the original context of this inscription:
36 You shall also make a plate of pure gold and shall engrave on it, like the engravings of a seal, ‘Holy to the Lord.’ 37 You shall fasten it on a blue cord, and it shall be on the turban; it shall be at the front of the turban. 38 It shall be on Aaron’s forehead, and Aaron shall take away the iniquity of the holy things which the sons of Israel consecrate, with regard to all their holy gifts; and it shall always be on his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord. (Exod. 28:36–38)
Under the Levitical priesthood, the
high priest bore a seal of holiness which took away the lingering iniquity of
the people’s consecrated gifts; but Zechariah envisions a time when the most
ordinary items used in everyday life would be as pure and consecrated as the
garments which the high priest would wear in the holiest place of the temple
(Exod. 29:29–30)! This should signify even more to New Testament saints. The
high priest’s holy crown (Exod. 29:6) which he would bear before God’s own
presence prefigured the perfect holiness of Jesus our high priest. Christ’s
undefiled holiness renders his people’s spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God;
but one day, every aspect of the saints’ lives will overflow with innate
holiness. Not only will our high priest’s holiness be imputed to us, but it
will have thoroughly transformed us to be holy as he is holy.
Zechariah reinforces his point by also speaking of pots and
pans. “Similarly, the cooking pots in the temple would be as holy as the basins
in front of the altar. Even the most common pot would become holy, so holy that
anyone wishing to sacrifice could readily use them.”[2] Even
a premillennial interpreter like Kenneth Barker fails to adequately harmonize
these verses in Zechariah with a literal millennial temple. A literal temple
would demand a strict distinction between the holy and the common, the sacred
and the profane, as premillennialists should acknowledge if they identify
Ezekiel’s visionary temple with such a millennial temple (cf. Ezek. 42:13–14,
20; 43:12, 26; 44:13, 19, 23, 25–27; 45:1–7; 46:19–20; 48:10–14). Nevertheless,
Barker favorably quotes Perowne in his summary of Zechariah 14:20–21: “All
distinction between sacred and secular shall be at an end, because all shall
now be alike holy.”[3]
These words flatly contradict the entire notion of a literal millennial temple,
but they accurately reflect the thrust of Zechariah’s words. As MacKay puts it,
“Even the smallest and seemingly most trivial details of life are consecrated
to the Lord. This, of course,
would involve the cessation of the Levitical distinction between sacred and
common.”[4] E. B.
Pusey concludes, “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.”[5]
Zechariah ends by
saying that “there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts in that day.” The
background to this statement may be similar to the situation in Nehemiah’s day
when Tobiah the Ammonite was given storage rooms within the temple courts and
Canaanite merchants from Tyre sold merchandise in Jerusalem on the Sabbath
(Neh. 13:4–9, 16, 20–21). The word for a Canaanite also came to denote a merchant
(cf. the term’s translation in Prov. 31:24 and Isa. 23:8).[6] Given
these considerations, Zechariah may be thinking of the pollution of merchants
(such as those whom Jesus drove out of the temple) more than the pollution of a
pagan intruder. In any case MacKay is right to say, “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’ (Rev. 21:27).”[7]
Conclusion
The glory described in this chapter answers to the prophecy
of Zechariah’s contemporary, Haggai. In a text which Hebrews 12:26–29
interprets as describing the removal of the present creation and the resultant
establishment of God’s eternal kingdom, Haggai 2:6–9 mirrors the thoughts of
Zechariah’s final chapter:
6 For thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land.7 I will shake all the nations; and they will come with the wealth of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts.8 ‘The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine,’ declares the Lord of hosts.9 ‘The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘and in this place I will give peace,’ declares the Lord of hosts.
Even so, come Lord Jesus.
[1] Boda,
Zechariah, 779.
[2]
Gregory, Longing for God, 211.
[3] Kenneth L. Barker, Zechariah, Expositor’s Bible
Commentary, rev. ed., ed. Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland, vol. 8 (Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 2008), 832.
[4]
MacKay, Haggai,
Zechariah and Malachi, 318.
[5] E. B. Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1950), 414.
[6] Boda,
Zechariah, 782.
[7]
MacKay, Haggai,
Zechariah and Malachi, 319.
Ben Habegger first served in full-time pastoral ministry near Detroit, Michigan from 2013-2017 and has now been vocational pastor at Hope Reformed Baptist Church of Aloha, Oregon (formerly Glencullen Baptist Church of Portland, Oregon) since January of 2020. He has a Master of Divinity degree from Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary and a Master of Arts in Reformed Baptist Studies from Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. Ben and his wife Theresa have four children.
by Ben Habegger | Mar 21, 2019 | Eschatology
Post #1 Post #2 Post #3 Post #4 Post #5 Post #6
Post #7 “Zechariah 14:16–19: The Lord
Summons the Nations to His Feast”
Verses 16–19 of Zechariah 14 continue the thought of the
section addressed in the last post. What becomes of the Gentile nations?
16 Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. 17 And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them.18 If the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall on them; it will be the plague with which the Lord smites the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths. 19 This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.
The last post dealt with the horrible fate of the nations
who attacked Jerusalem. There are those Gentiles, however, who survive the Day
of the Lord. Though once strangers and enemies to Israel and her God, this
remnant of Gentiles are now fellow worshipers with the Israelites. This picture
of a remnant from the Gentile nations which engages in perpetual observance of
the Feast of Booths (or “Tabernacles”) beautifully reveals the deep meaning and
eventual fulfillment of this Old Testament feast.
The conversion of the nations is not pictured in terms of their being circumcised, or obeying the Law of Moses, but of worshipping the Lord. It must be noted that ‘go up’ still thinks in terms of pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The language of the Old Covenant is being used to express the reality of the New (Isa. 66:23), and especially in its culmination when John sees ‘a great multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb’ (Rev. 7:9). John’s great multitude also ‘were holding palm branches in their hands’ (Rev. 7:9), and while this may reflect on Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem (John 12:13), it also fits in with what is said here to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. On the first of the seven days of this feast the Israelites were instructed to ‘take choice fruit from the trees, and palm fronds, leafy branches and poplars, and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days’ (Lev. 23:40). But why is this festival singled out for mention? It came at the end of the religious calendar and so in measure summed up all the worship of Israel (note its position in Lev. 23 and Deut. 16.) It was also a festival in which the resident alien was permitted a role (Deut. 16:14). During this time the people lived in booths constructed out of branches to remind them of how they lived during the period in the Wilderness and how the Lord had guided them at that time (Lev. 23:42–43). It was also a time when they remembered the Lord’s on-going bounty to them in the harvest (Lev. 23:39; Deut. 16:13–15). The nations in coming to this feast were therefore making a double acknowledgment: that it was the Lord who had guided them to where they were, and that it was his bounty that they enjoyed in the harvest. In the light of the Lord’s providential and saving goodness, the feast was one characterised by joy. ‘Be joyful at your Feast. … your joy will be complete’ (Deut. 16:14, 15). This is why the redeemed of the nations celebrate it with joy.[1]
What harvest is celebrated by this
eschatological Feast of Booths? Barry Webb answers well. “It is people – formerly enemies, but now
worshippers – gathered in from all the
nations, to worship, at last,
their rightful Lord and King.”[2]
How fitting that the text now contrasts a harvest
celebration with the withholding of rain. “‘Rain’ here stands for all the
blessings that the Lord bestows, particularly in the harvest (10:1). These will
be withheld from those who persist in their rebellion.”[3]
Andrew Hill adds, “The lack of rainfall was one of the curses God pronounced
against Israel for covenant disobedience (cf. Deut. 28:22–24). Here that curse
is extended to the nations by virtue of God’s rule over all peoples.”[4] T. V.
Moore remarks, “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.”[5]
Why does Egypt receive special mention? Again, Andrew Hill
is helpful. “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.’”[6] Elsewhere
Egypt is envisioned as sharing in future worship with God’s people, signifying
the conversion of former pagans (see Is. 19:19–25).[7] Here,
Egypt stands for those who refuse to so worship. It is also noteworthy that the
Book of the Revelation uses Egypt as a type of the Satanic world system which
persecutes God’s church. The trumpet judgments and the bowls of God’s final
wrath all point back to the plagues which God sent against Egypt when their
king refused to let Israel go. The city where the two prophetic witnesses are
slain is symbolically named Egypt (Rev. 11:8). Why does Egypt slay the
witnesses? It does so because of the divine plagues with which these prophets
strike Egypt, including the plague of drought (Rev. 11:6, 10). Even now, the
prophetic witness of the church painfully reminds the unrepentant world that already
“the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness”
(Rom. 1:18). In the future day of which Zechariah speaks, Egypt as well as all
the unrepentant nations will forever suffer the unmitigated plagues of God’s
wrath (cf. Rev. 14:10–11; 15:1; 18:8; 21:8; 22:14–15, 18–19).
[1]
MacKay, Haggai,
Zechariah and Malachi, 316.
[2] Webb,
Zechariah, 181.
[3]
MacKay, Haggai, Zechariah
and Malachi, 317.
[4] Hill,
Haggai, Zechariah and
Malachi, 270.
[5] Thomas V. Moore, A Commentary on Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, Geneva Series of Commentaries (Carlisle, PA: Banner
of Truth, 1993), 313.
[6] Hill,
Haggai, Zechariah and
Malachi, 270.
[7] Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets, Keil and
Delitzsch’s Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1971), 457.
Ben Habegger first served in full-time pastoral ministry near Detroit, Michigan from 2013-2017 and has now been vocational pastor at Hope Reformed Baptist Church of Aloha, Oregon (formerly Glencullen Baptist Church of Portland, Oregon) since January of 2020. He has a Master of Divinity degree from Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary and a Master of Arts in Reformed Baptist Studies from Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. Ben and his wife Theresa have four children.
by Ben Habegger | Mar 12, 2019 | Eschatology
Post #6 “Zechariah 14:12–15: The Lord Does
Battle Against the Nations”
Post #1 Post #2 Post #3 Post #4 Post #5
Next in
this last chapter of Zechariah comes a description of the Lord’s final dominion
over the nations. The nations will either willingly submit to the Lord or else
be subject to punishment. We will break down this larger section (verses 12–19)
and address it in two separate posts. For now, let’s look at verses 12–15.
12 Now this will be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth. 13 It will come about in that day that a great panic from the Lord will fall on them; and they will seize one another’s hand, and the hand of one will be lifted against the hand of another. 14 Judah also will fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered, gold and silver and garments in great abundance. 15 So also like this plague will be the plague on the horse, the mule, the camel, the donkey and all the cattle that will be in those camps.
These verses return to the earlier scene when the Lord comes
down to fight Jerusalem’s foes. He will destroy their bodies and the bodies of
their beasts so rapidly that they are consumed while still standing.[1]
Although swift, the destruction is also gruesome. The plague consumes portions
of the armies while the remaining combatants are so terrified that they turn
their weapons on each other in the confusion; this hearkens back to various Old
Testament battles in which God fought for his people by turning their attackers
against each other. The rotting disease and the victory of little Judah over
her mighty enemies may also allude to the covenant curses which God promised
disobedient Israel (Lev. 26:16–17, 25, 39; Deut. 28:21–22, 25, 27–28, 59–61);
in this context, however, those same curses turn to consume Israel’s enemies.[2]
Given the military imagery of this and other apocalyptic
texts, many people expect a very literal gathering of the world’s militaries in
the Middle East just before the Second Advent. Such an interpretation would
tend to overlook the deeper significance of the relevant prophecies.
As has been stated earlier in this blog series, Jerusalem
here stands for the church at the end of this age of tribulation. It is the
church on earth, surrounded by her enemies. Therefore the armies sent against
her need not be the sorts of forces deployed in earthly warfare, though
physical force will doubtless be involved. Far less need they be gathered in
one geographical location. Everywhere the church is, there the nations will
assault her. John saw these nations as they “came up on the broad plain of
the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved
city.” (Rev. 20:9) The camp of the saints, God’s people preserved in the
wilderness of this world (Rev. 12:6, 14), are identified as the beloved city. In
order to oppose her, the Satanically-deceived nations will tread “the breadth
of the earth” (nkjv, csb). Furthermore, this warfare should
be compared to that of the beast against the two witnesses in Revelation 11:7,
that of the beast against the saints in Revelation 13:7, and that of the beast
and his ten kings against the Lamb and his people in Revelation 17:14.
The picture here in Zechariah 14 is that of total
disintegration and terror among the attacking nations. They and their wartime
resources are struck by the sword of Christ’s mouth (Rev. 19:15, 21), and the
confusion is such that they begin to destroy one another. Verse 14 adds, “Judah
also will fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding
nations will be gathered, gold and silver and garments in great abundance.” In
that last hour, we know that the church militant will face her last battle (see
the near context in Zech. 12–13); but whereas they were momentarily overrun in
verse 2, now the glorified church—the church triumphant—joins her Lord in this
battle as his victorious heavenly army (Rev. 19:8, 14). And as was promised
them, they will share in the spoils. They will plunder the Egyptians. They will
inherit the earth.
[1] Boda,
Zechariah, 772.
[2] The
description of rotting flesh also seems similar to that of leprosy (cf. Num.
12:12). It is interesting that King Uzziah is referenced earlier in the text,
since God struck him with leprosy when he attempted sacrilege.
Ben Habegger first served in full-time pastoral ministry near Detroit, Michigan from 2013-2017 and has now been vocational pastor at Hope Reformed Baptist Church of Aloha, Oregon (formerly Glencullen Baptist Church of Portland, Oregon) since January of 2020. He has a Master of Divinity degree from Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary and a Master of Arts in Reformed Baptist Studies from Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. Ben and his wife Theresa have four children.
by Ben Habegger | Mar 9, 2019 | Eschatology
Post #5 “Zechariah 14:6–11: The Lord’s
Reign from Jerusalem,” Part 2
Post #1 Post #2 Post #3 Post #4
Continuing our discussion of verses 6–11, we pick up with
the prophecy of the holy city being raised above the now leveled land
surrounding it. The exaltation of Jerusalem in verse 10 reflects a common
prophetic theme. Perhaps the clearest parallel appears in Isaiah 2:2–3:
2 Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. 3 And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
The words of this same prophecy are
also found in Micah 4:1–2, where they follow and contrast the Babylonian
desolation of an impure Jerusalem (Micah 3:11–12). God removed his presence
from the temple because of Jerusalem’s iniquity; but one day, God’s presence
will eternally dwell in a purified Jerusalem, and the city will nevermore be
put to shame. Zion will tower over all the earth, and all nations will be under
its dominion. The kingdom of the heavenly Zion will become a great mountain and
fill the whole earth (Dan. 2:35).
The geographical markers here mentioned by Zechariah had
symbolic meaning which we might easily miss. Bryan Gregory explains:
Before the exile, Geba and Rimmon denoted the northern and southern boundaries of Judah during the days of Josiah’s reform. In other words, the land will be restored to her preexilic, pre-disaster state, and being ‘leveled out,’ will provide a geological setting for the crown jewel of the new creation, the city of Jerusalem…. The city itself will then be defined by distinct boundaries, stretching from the Gate of Benjamin (on the city’s northern side) to the place of the First Gate (the location of which is now lost but possibly denotes an old gate on the east side of the city), down to the Corner Gate (on the western side), and from the Tower of Hananel (probably near the northwest corner) down to the king’s winepresses in the south. The boundaries are not only a way of tracing the city’s limits but are more importantly an allusion to Jeremiah 31 where the Lord had promised that the city would be rebuilt from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate (Jer. 31:38). Part of the promise to Jeremiah was that the whole city would once again become holy, never again to be uprooted or demolished (Jer. 31:39–40; cf. Zech. 14:20–21). In other words, the boundaries paint a picture of Jerusalem as a city entirely safe from the threat of violence.[1]
In terms the contemporary
inhabitants of Jerusalem understood, Zechariah echoed Jeremiah, promising that
the holy city would remain intact from one end (or wall) to the other, and that
it would be exalted above the whole land.
Verse 11 pointedly states that “people will live in it.” “In
the period after the return from the Exile,” says MacKay, “there seems to have
been an ongoing problem with population in Jerusalem. Many of those who
returned preferred to live in the countryside and had to be forced to come to
the capital (Neh. 7:4; 11:1–2). But there will be no problem about getting
people to live in the capital when the king has returned to it.”[2] The
absence of a curse, as MacKay goes on to explain,
refers to the ‘ban’ which the Lord imposed on the cities of Canaan because of their great wickedness (Josh. 6:17–18; see also Mal. 4:6). The fate of God’s people for their rebellion had been understood in similar terms (Isa. 43:28). But when the Lord returns to the city, ‘no longer will there be any curse’ (Rev. 22:3). His people will have been purified and will be ready to enter into his presence.[3]
Given the factors we’ve discussed in the last post as well
as this one, Zechariah’s prophecy fits better within the context of the new
Jerusalem which “will dwell in security” in the new creation than it fits with
a millennial Jerusalem which continues to experience day and night and the
(lightened) effects of the Adamic curse and is eventually surrounded by a
Satanic coalition of nations bent on her destruction (Rev. 20:9).
[1]
Gregory, Longing for God, 208–209.
[2]
MacKay, Haggai,
Zechariah and Malachi, 311.
[3] Ibid.
Ben Habegger first served in full-time pastoral ministry near Detroit, Michigan from 2013-2017 and has now been vocational pastor at Hope Reformed Baptist Church of Aloha, Oregon (formerly Glencullen Baptist Church of Portland, Oregon) since January of 2020. He has a Master of Divinity degree from Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary and a Master of Arts in Reformed Baptist Studies from Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. Ben and his wife Theresa have four children.
by Ben Habegger | Mar 6, 2019 | Eschatology
Post #4 “Zechariah 14:6–11: The Lord’s Reign from Jerusalem,” Part 1
Post #1 Post #2 Post #3
We now come to verses 6–11, a
section which will require two separate posts. Once the Lord arrives to rescue
Jerusalem, the Lord remains to forever reign from Jerusalem; and as the apostle
John would later note, “there will be no night there” (Rev. 21:25).
6 In that day there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. 7 For it will be a unique day which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at evening time there will be light. 8 And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter. 9 And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one. 10 All the land will be changed into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; but Jerusalem will rise and remain on its site from Benjamin’s Gate as far as the place of the First Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses. 11 People will live in it, and there will no longer be a curse, for Jerusalem will dwell in security.
Several items here require
attention, including the light without luminaries, the living waters, the
universal worship of Yahweh, the exaltation of Jerusalem above the surrounding
land, Jerusalem’s secure population, and the absence of a curse.
The
text and translation of verse 6 are difficult, but when taken along with verse
7, the larger point seems clear.[1] The
“luminaries” are probably the heavenly bodies. The failing of these heavenly
bodies has both literal and figurative significance throughout the prophets,
especially in connection with “the great and awesome day of the Lord” (Joel 2:31; cf. also Isa. 13:9–13; Joel
3:15; Matt. 24:29; Mark 13:24–25; Luke 21:25; Rev. 6:12–13). Bryan Gregory also
observes, “The disruption to the normal cycles of day and night is significant.
In God’s promise to Noah, he had promised that the normal rhythms of seasons
and days would not cease for as long as the earth endures (Gen. 8:22).”[2] Thus
Zechariah indicates that, although he speaks in terms of the old city of
Jerusalem and land of Judah, this holy city and promised land will be part of
the new creation. The earth as his readers know it will have passed away.[3]
MacKay helps to illumine the significance of the “living
waters”:
Jerusalem was always poorly provided with water, but the renewed city is the source of a divinely provided supply. Zechariah here resumes the picture presented by Joel and Ezekiel of the Temple as a source of water (Joel 3:18; Ezek. 47:1–12). This is not just typical of physical change, but of the spiritual blessings that water represents. It is ‘living’ water flowing freshly from a spring or fountain, and symbolic of true spiritual life given in salvation (Jer. 2:13; John 4:10; 7:38). This looks back to the river of Paradise, when ‘a river watering the garden flowed from Eden’ (Gen. 2:10), and it looks forward to Paradise restored…. Truly ‘there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells’ (Ps. 46:4).
Unlike Ezekiel’s river which flowed only to the east (Ezek. 47:1, an embarrassment for those who take both prophecies to refer to the same literal future event), the water splits half to the eastern sea, that is the Dead Sea, and half to the western sea, that is, the Mediterranean. In this way it is available for all the land. And it is available all the time, in summer and in winter. Many streams in Palestine were only winter torrents which dried up in the heat of summer, when the need for water was at its greatest. Not so this source of supply. It is available all the year round. There is no disruption of the bliss of the new creation ‘for the old order of things has passed away’ (Rev. 21:4).[4]
Verse 9 expresses the consummated, universal submission and worship given to the one true God in the age to come. “And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one.” Night forever gone. The river of living water. All the earth serving and worshipping the Lord. If these things do not point us to John’s vision of the eternal state in Revelation 21 and 22, I doubt much will.
[1] Boda,
Zechariah, 760–61, fn.b., 762.
[2] Bryan R. Gregory, Longing for God in an Age of Discouragement: the
Gospel According to Zechariah, The Gospel
According to the Old Testament, ed. Iain M. Duguid (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R
Publishing, 2010), 207.
[3] Boda
also suggests an allusion in the Hebrew text to Genesis 1:3–5, implying a
recreation. “This suggests that 14:7 refers to a day of recreation, with 14:6
returning the earth to a state prior to the creative activity in Genesis 1, and
14:7 initiating the process of creation in Genesis 1. This recreation day, just
as the original creation day, is known only to Yahweh, in whose hands are the
times and seasons (see Ecclesiastes 3). However, the fact that the light
appears now in the evening suggests a clear shift in the cosmos, so that there
is perpetual light and no night. This is a feature of texts envisioning a
future idyllic age (cf. Isa. 60:19, 20; Rev. 21:25; 22:5).” See Boda, Zechariah, 762–63.
[4]
MacKay, Haggai,
Zechariah and Malachi,
308–309.
Ben Habegger first served in full-time pastoral ministry near Detroit, Michigan from 2013-2017 and has now been vocational pastor at Hope Reformed Baptist Church of Aloha, Oregon (formerly Glencullen Baptist Church of Portland, Oregon) since January of 2020. He has a Master of Divinity degree from Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary and a Master of Arts in Reformed Baptist Studies from Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. Ben and his wife Theresa have four children.
