The purpose of this chapter is much the same as that of the 9th, the encouragement of the captives that had returned to their homeland. They have been under the rebukes of the Lord for their negligence in rebuilding the temple. They are surrounded with enemies and dangers. They have been told why all the events that have occurred in the past was the acts of the Lord of hosts.
In this chapter the Lord tells the people He will bless them and make them prosperous at home and victorious abroad. They will receive strength and success from the Lord in all their struggles with their enemies. All they need to do is ask the Lord for His help.
In the past years because of the unseasonable weather, there had been great scarcity of both. In the close of chapter nine Zechariah told the people there will be a great harvest of corn and the fruit of the vine. They are told to, “Ask rain from the Lord at the time of the spring. The Lord who makes the storm clouds; And He will give them showers of rain, vegetation in the field to each man.” They are not to pray to the clouds, nor the stars for rain as their neighbors did, but to the Lord “who makes the storm clouds.”
There were two important rain falls. One occurred in the autumn during the planting of the seed and the second in the spring, between March and May. If either of these rains failed there was a lack of food for both the people and their animals because from the end of May to September they never had any rain at all.
When the rains didn’t come in the time they normally occurred it was viewed as a sign the Lord was displeased with His people. Zechariah told the people they must pray for rain. The people are directed to ask for it in the time when the rains normally came. If they ask in the right time showers of rain in great abundance shall be given to them.
The idols the fathers prayed to and consulted in their distress couldn’t tell them when they could expect the rain to come so how could they command rain to fall from heaven when it was most needed. The diviners, the prophets of the gods, promised the people the gods would send them rain when it was needed. But it never came. The visions of the diviners and the promises were
meant to mislead the people. The biggest problem in the promises of rain which were never
fulfilled was those who prayed to the false gods lost the favor of the true God. This is why they went into captivity, were troubled, and harassed, like scattered sheep, without shepherds. Why they had no king to rule them, no priest to intercede for them, none to take care of them and keep them together. Those that wandered after strange gods were made to wander, into strange nations.
The Lord told Zechariah, “My anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the male goats; for the Lord of hosts has visited His flock, the house of Judah, and I will make them like His majestic horse in battle.” The male goats is a term used to describe the wicked magistrates.
The shepherds are the priests who were not fulfilling their duties. The captivity in Babylon was a sign of the Lord’s anger against them. Though the body of the nation suffered in the captivity, yet it was only the political leaders (goats) and the religious leaders (shepherds) that the Lord was angry with. The afflictions of the body of the nation came from the love of God, and was but a fatherly chastisement, which to them came from His wrath, and was judicial punishment.
We need to remember in troubled times the innocence often suffer with the guilty. Our situations are for the most part our own doing. But there are times when we suffer from the acts of the ungodly and unrighteous.
When things began to change for the better it was the Lord that gave them the blessings. He visited His flock with favor and provides them with what He finds proper for them. He beautified them, took care of them, managed and made use of them, as a man does the horse he rides on. He made them valuable in themselves and formidable to those about them. From them will come a cornerstone and a tent peg.
Zechariah explained to the people all the power that was brought against them was from the Lord. Out of the Lord came all the combined force of their enemies. Every oppressor did what the Lord had decreed would be done before it was done. Nor could they have such power against them unless it had been given them from above. Likewise, all the power that benefited them was
derived from the Lord. Out of Him came forth the power of magistrates, which keeps the several parts of the state together. Out of Him came the military power that defends the nation, and out of Him came every oppressor that had the civil power in his hand to oppress the people of God.
We must never forget, what the Lord gives to mankind that is not used to benefit all mankind came and will be taken from them.
There are promises made to the people of God, which look further than to the state of the Israel in the days of Zechariah. They pertain to events beyond the latter days of Israel’s history. They have reference to the Church and all true believers in Christ. The Israelites will have God’s favor and presence, and shall be owned and accepted of Him. This is the foundation of all the rest: He takes on their cause, takes their part, is on their side. All their social standing and joy will be due to the Lord’s mercy.
They had been cast off and could not pretend to merit anything from the Lord except His wrath and the curse. Yet, it is promised, they shall be as though they had not been cast off. The transgressions of their fathers, for which they had been rejected, shall not be visited upon them, or remembered against them. The Lord will be as perfectly reconciled to them as if He had never contended with them. They shall have such a full assurance of the Lord being reconciled to them
they shall they be reconciled to themselves. This is the favor the Lord shows to all repenting sinners, who are by nature children of wrath. This is the fellowship they are admitted into and the freedom He gives them even though they had been cast off. The covenant they are admitted into is the original covenant made with their fathers.
The communion they are admitted into is the same that their fathers was admitted into. They shall be as welcome as ever to speak to Him and receive from Him an answer of peace, for as He never said before and never will, say to Jacob’s seed, “Seek you Me in vain.”
They shall be victorious over their enemies, that would draw them from either their duty to the Lord or their comfort in the Lord. They shall be men that are both strong in body and bold in spirit, men of vigor. Those of Ephrain as well as those of Judah, shall be like mighty men. They will be men that will go about a difficult project and will be is able to finish it. They shall, as mighty men, tread down their enemies in battle as the dirt that is thrown out of the houses is
trodden with other dirt in the streets. They shall fight because the Lord is with them. Some will argue that they may sit still, and do nothing, because the Lord is with them, who can and will do all. This is not the case. The Lord’s gracious presence with us is to help us help ourselves and we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling, because it is the Lord that works in us both to will and to do.
They shall fight with readiness and resolution because, if God be with them, they are sure to be
conquerors. The cavalry of the enemies shall be routed, and put into disorder, by the infantry of
Israel. The preachers of the gospel of Christ went forth to war. They charged bravely, because the Lord was with them; and those that opposed them were confounded for the Lord chose the weak and foolish things of the world to confound the wise and mighty. Where did they find all this might? Why were they so able, so active? It is in the Lord, and in the power of His might. He will strengthen the house of Judah, and bring them back, because He has compassion on them; and they will be as through He had not rejected them.
The Lord saves us by strengthening us, and works out our happiness by working in us so that we are able to do His calling. And we are to use the strength the Lord gives us and when the battle is over the Lord must have the glory. The Lord is our strength, and becomes both our song and our salvation.
Those that have been scattered shall be gathered together into one body. The Lord will bring them from other lands to place them in their own land. This will be a sign of their being perfectly restored to all their other ancient privileges. They shall be restored to the possession of their own land. In order to this the Lord said, “I will whistle for them to gather them together, for I have redeemed them; and they will be as numerous as they were before.”
The Lord will whistle for them as the shepherd with his pipe calls his sheep together and they gather around him. There are scholars who think this was literally fulfilled when Ptolemaeus Philadelphus king of Egypt sent 120,000 Jews out of his country into their own land, as was the gathering of them out of Assyria by Alexander the son of Antiochus Epiphanes. But it has its spiritual accomplishment in the gathering in of precious souls out of a bondage worse than that in Egypt or Assyria, and the bringing of them into the glorious liberties of the children of God and their enjoyments, which are as the beautiful fruitful pastures in the land of Gilead and Lebanon.
All the land of promise is theirs, even Gilead, the utmost border of it eastward, and Lebanon, the utmost border northward. But how shall this be? How shall a people so dispersed be brought together? How shall those that are set at such a distance from their own country be brought to it again? It is true the difficulties seem insuperable, but they shall be got over as easily, as effectual as those that lay in the way of their deliverance out of Egypt and their entrance into Canaan.
He will pass through the sea of distress and strike the waves in the sea, so that all the depths of the Nile will dry up; and the pride of Assyria will be brought down and the scepter of Egypt will depart. He will give them all the strength they will need, in His name they will walk.
The Lord’s chosen shall greatly multiply. They shall increase as they increased in Egypt and a great number shall be added to their numbers, as in the days of David and Solomon. When the Lord gathers His redeemed ones to Himself they shall help to gather in others with them, and their moving homeward shall be like a snow-ball.
The church of Christ is a growing body, as long as it is in the present state of minority, till it comes to the measure of the fullness of Christ. There are added to it daily. It shall spread to distant places. It shall fill Canaan, even to the lands of Gilead and Lebanon
The scattering the Israelites shall be like the scattering of seed in the ground, not to bury it, but to increase it, that it may bring forth much fruit. It is a fact the Israelites were scattered into every
nation under heaven (Acts 2:5) and it was the problems they faced in their homeland caused some of them to move into other nations. Others transplanted themselves into colonies because the land of Israel was too strait for them; and many were natives of other nations proselyted to the Jewish religion. This transplanting among the nations contributed to the spreading of the gospel. The Jews that came from all parts to worship at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost took the gospel message to their own countries, as those in Acts 2 and the eunuch in Acts 8. And their
synagogues in the cities of the Gentiles were the first places the apostles and their preaching, where heard. Thus the Lord sowed them among the nations that they might not get hurt by the Gentiles, but do good to them. He took care that they should remember Him and make mention of His name in far countries and, by keeping up the knowledge of God among them as He had
revealed himself in the Old Testament, they would be the more ready to admit the knowledge of Christ as He has revealed himself in the New Testament.
This shall last into future ages. The church shall not be a temporary thing in the world but a seed in it. Converts to Christ shall have their children whom they shall teach the knowledge of the Lord, and bring with them when they turn again to the Promised Land the way of holiness. It was said to those to whom the gospel was first preached, “The promise is to you and to your children (Acts 2:39). Christ’s family upon earth shall never be extinct, nor his purchased possession lost for
want of heirs. The Lord, Himself will be both their strength and their song. In Him they shall be comforted, and shall have abundant satisfaction. Their heart shall rejoice because of Christ’s love in their hearts.
How are they enabled and invigorated for their duty:? Zechariah said the Lord said, “I the Lord will strengthen them” in other words in the Messiah. Strength is treasured up for us in Christ, and from Him it is communicated to us. It is through Christ that we can do all things, and without Him we can do nothing. If the Lord strengthen us, we must be active and busy in the work of the Lord. We must be industrious men and women, losing no time, and letting slip no opportunity.
Whatever we do in word or deed we must do the name of our Lord Jesus.
