Things Which Must Shortly Come to Pass
Zechariah xiv.
It is impossible to regard this mysterious and sublime prophecy as having been already fulfilled. There is nothing in the story of the Maccabees, nor in the fall of Jerusalem beneath the arms of Titus, which at all adequately fulfills the conditions of the prophet’s words. When have all nations been gathered together against Jerusalem in battle? When has the Mount of Olives rent in twain for the flight of the besieged? What day that has ever broken from the East has fulfilled the description of verses 6 and 7? At what time of their chequered history have the Jews gathered the spoils of their enemies in battle; gold and silver, and apparel, in great abundance? Of course, it is possible to put metaphorical and spiritualizing interpretations on all these touches. But to do so is to jeopardize the whole force and value of prophetic Scripture. If the predictions of the Advent. of our Lord in the days of his humiliation were so literally fulfilled, why should we suppose that the predictions of his Second Advent in great glory must be treated as
4? metaphor and trope? Surely we are justified by the minute accuracy of the former fulfillment to expect as exact a fulfillment of prophecies which are still awaiting accomplishment. When it is built, the new Jerusalem shall comply with every line of the Architect’s plan, as communicated to the prophet. —
Following, then, the successive features of the prophet’s delineation, we learn that a time is coming when the nations of the world — which, to adopt a modern phrase, may indicate the concert of European powers — will be gathered against Jerusalem in battle, that city being held by the Jews, as yet in unbelief. And we can hardly doubt that Zechariah is here anticipating the same events as are described by Ezekiel, when the great nations of the north come against “the land that is brought back from the sword, and gathered out of many peoples, upon the mountains of Israel, to take the spoil and to take the prey” (Ezekiel xxxvili., xxxix.).
At first this invasion shall be completely successful. “The city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished”’: hell let loose, and no restraint exerted.on the excesses of the infuriated soldiery. Then will the Lord appear to his people, as He did to the typical Jew on the road to Damascus. “Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle.” “Behold,” says John, referring to the same event, ““He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they which pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him.”
“In that day,” to quote Ezekiel’s vivid and striking imagery, ‘“‘said the Lord, when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, my fury shall come up into my nostrils. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his hordes, and upon the many peoples that are with him, an overflowing shower, and great hail-stones, fire, and brimstone. And I will magnify Myself, and sanctify Myself, and I will make Myself known in the eyes of many nations.”
It is impossible to doubt that, at that time, there will be a literal appearance of the rejected Saviour. Where his feet often stood in the days of his flesh, they shall stand again. “His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the East. The Lord my God shall come, and all the holy ones with Thee.” In other words, there shall be a glorious and literal fulfillment of the reassuring words of the two men, who, clad in white and glistening raiment, stood beside the apostles on Olivet.
“Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? This Jesus, which was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld Him going into heaven” (Actsi. 11). “And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. For in this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest, and Moab shall be trodden down in his place, even as straw is trodden down in the water of the dunghill” — (Isa. xxv. 9, IO).
It was when his brethren were in their greatest straits that Joseph made himself known unto them; and when the Jews are in their dire extremity, they will cry aloud for help and deliverance from Him whom they rejected. That memorable scene in the ancient land of the pyramids will be reproduced in all its pathos, when the long-rejected Brother shall say to his own brethren after the flesh, “I am Jesus, your Brother, whom ye sold unto Pilate: and now be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye delivered Me up to be crucified; for God did send Me before you to preserve a remnant in the earth and to save you alive by a great deliverance” (see Gen. xlv. I-15).
When this final reconciliation shall have taken place; when the mutual blessings and embracings have effaced the memory of the bitter past; when the chosen people shall have recognized their great Deliverer — He will set Himself to deliver them. It may be that they will recognize Him in the act of their deliverance. The cleaving mountain shall make a way of escape, as of old time the cleaving sea. On that memorable day — “one day, which is known unto the Lord, not day, and not night”; when the cold and frost (ver. 6, R. v., marg.) shall mingle with the throes of earthquake (ver. 5); when the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood; when atmospheric and cosmical convulsions, accompanying the crisis, give evidence of its momentous character, as the pangs of the travail-hour in which the new age is being born — God will destroy the face of the covering that is cast over all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people shall He take away from off all the earth; for the Lord hath speken it. How touching and significant are the prophet’s words: “It shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.” The day of Israel’s history has been long and stormy. For the most part, heavy storm-clouds have brooded over her national life, emitting from age to age thunder and deluges of rain; but already there is a rim of light on the horizon, and this is destined to grow until it dispossesses the brooding darkness. The sun shall yet break out and bathe the whole landscape with warm and glowing radiance. “At evening time it shall be light.”
Whether we shall live to see that evening we cannot tell. But during these latter years many signs have been giving evidence that we are approaching one of those epoch-making moments in the history of our race which may be called the hinges of the ages. The despair which is settling down on some of the noblest spirits; the excessive devotion to pleasure which engrosses the light and vain; the descent of empire from the gold of imperial autocracy to the iron and clay of the rule of the peoples; the lawless disregard of family ties and sacred institutions; the bitter hatred of the Jewish people, known as anti-Semitism, which, like a contagious — fever, has befallen most of the European nations; the interesting movements among the Jews themselves, that known as Zionism, that identified with the name of Rabinovitch in South Russia, and those which are attempting the decolonization of the land of their fathers — all these announce the near approach of the fulfillment of these words. It seems, as we study contemporary history, that, in all likelihood, we are watching the first stages of scenes destined to culminate in the public reconciliation of the Jews with their Messiah.
The calculations of the most careful students of prophecy also indicate that we are approaching the time at which the times of the Gentiles run out, and at which the chosen people must be restored to their national prerogative and reinstated as God’s representatives before the world. “Now from the fig-tree learn her parable. When her branch is now become tender, and putteth forth its leaves, ye know that the summer is nigh; even so ye also, when ye see all these things, know ye that He is nigh, even at the doors. * * * Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.”
Apparently the land of the Jews is destined to pass through considerable changes, dating from the time of the Lord’s interposition on their behalf. The issue of living waters east and west; the depression of the surrounding country to the level of the Arabah, from Gibeah of Saul on the north to Rimmon on the south: the elevation of Jerusalem, as though to a level plateau; and the removal of the curse — are, of course, capable of metaphorical and figurative treatment: but there is no precise reason for doubting that the volcanic action, which is so clearly referred to in the fifth verse, will produce great modifications of the present landscape.
That the Jews shall be entirely victorious in that: last great struggle is abundantly enforced. We learn from Ezekiel’s visions of the same event that they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth to make fires of the weapons of their foes, to burn them, so that they shall have no need to gather the wood of the forest for fuel; and that men will have to be set apart for the work of burying the multitudes of the dead. Here, too, we are told that when Judah fights at Jerusalem (not against, see R. V., marg.), the Lord shall smite the opposing hosts with a great plague, before which they shall be consumed; and that there shall be vast spoils of gold and silver, and apparel in great abundance.
This, surely, is the scene which the beloved apostle depicts in marvelous phraseology, thrilling with the splendor of his rich and glowing eloquence:
“I saw the heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He that sat thereon, called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. And his eyes are a flame of fire, and upon his head are many diadems; and He hath a name written, which no one knoweth but He Himself. And He is arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood; and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure. And out of his mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations; and He shall rule them with a rod of iron; and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on his garment and on his thigh a name written — KING OF KINGS, AND LorD OF LORDS.: “And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in mid-heaven, Come and be gathered together unto the great supper of God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit thereon, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, and small and great” (Rev. xix. 11-18).
So all Israel shall be saved. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. The mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and all nations shall flow unto it. The holy city shall arise and shine, because her light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon her; and all the glowing words of Isaiah’s sixtieth chapter shall be gloriously fulfilled.
Behold the Lord, by many a prophet, and especially by his servant Zechariah, has proclaimed to the end of the earth: “Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh!”