The Triumph of YHWH (Zechariah 14:1-21).
In this final chapter Zechariah visualises the final triumph of YHWH. The whole world will be subject to Him, and will worship Him (Zechariah 14:16). He will be King over all the earth (Zechariah 14:9). The idea is of the introduction of the everlasting kingdom.
At this point we need to stop and consider what was in the mind of the prophet. He was not, of course, aware of the first coming of Jesus, apart from in the general terms of a coming Servant of YHWH, and a coming of David, and there was no way in which he could have anticipated the New Testament revolution which lifted Jerusalem up into Heaven (Galatians 4:21-31; Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 14:1-6; Revelation 21:1 ff.) and at the same time made his words meaningful to his own generation. To them activities in the heavens meant the activities of the gods, something anathema to the prophets. Thus when he prophesies activities in the heavens he does so in earthly terms, and in terms of the ideas that the people would understand. But we are not intended to take them literally. To him ‘Jerusalem' (Zion) represented the people of God wherever they may be (Zechariah 2:7), whilst the sacrifice of Christ on the cross banished for ever the notion of animal sacrifices. The feasts of the Jews represented the realities to which they pointed. Thus the Feast of Tabernacles is really portraying the pouring out of the Holy Spirit seen in terms of life-giving rain (John 7:37-39). It is surely significant that when the glory of YHWH stood on the mountain east of Jerusalem in Ezekiel 11:23, it was after His promise that He would gather His people and pour out His Holy Spirit on them (Ezekiel 11:17-20).
We may analyse chapter 14 as follows:
· God will gather all the nations against His people (represented as Jerusalem) and only half its inhabitants will survive (Zechariah 14:1-2).
· God will then act and take His stance on the Mount of Olives which will divide in two (Zechariah 14:3-5 a).
· God will come with His holy ones and begin to establish His Kingly Rule and all His people will dwell in safety (Zechariah 14:5-11).
· The punishment is described that will fall on those who have fought against His people/Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:12-15).
· All the nations will celebrate yearly the Feast of Tabernacles, the time of outpouring, and those who do not come will be deprived of life-giving rain (Zechariah 14:16-19).
· The numbers at the feast will be so large that the whole of Judah will be sanctified to YHWH for the purpose (Zechariah 14:20-21 a).
· There will be no more a Canaanite in the house of YHWH of hosts (Zechariah 14:21 b).
Thus here in Zechariah 14 we have a great final apocalyptic scene in which the triumph of God is revealed and the fulfilling of His final purposes is depicted. It can be paralleled with Revelation 12-22 where similar ideas are depicted.
What then are we to make of Jerusalem as mentioned in this chapter? To Zechariah and the people of his day Jerusalem was representative of the people of God (see especially Zechariah 2:7 where ‘Zion' were in Babylon). They could not even have visualised a worldwide gathering of God's people. To them the words of Jesus ‘nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father' (John 4:21) would have seemed like blasphemy. To them Jerusalem was the centre of the worship of the people of God, so much so that those who were true to YHWH in Babylon were spoken of as ‘Zion' (Zechariah 2:7). But Jesus dismissed that idea of the centrality of Jerusalem, and pointed out that in future those who truly worshipped God would do so in Spirit and in truth wherever they may be (John 4:24). This is hugely important for it demonstrates the New Testament interpretation of Jerusalem. As Paul makes clear in Galatians 4:21-31 Jerusalem is now above, and its inhabitants are the true people of God, His church.
That Zechariah himself saw his words as somehow going beyond his own age comes out in that his concentration is on ‘Jerusalem' and not on the Temple, whilst the ‘YHWH's house' that he does mention in Zechariah 14:20-21 would appear to refer to the whole of Judah, for the pots are holy throughout Judah. This would indicate that the whole of God's people are holy.
It is further confirmed by the indication in Zechariah 14:6-7 of the cessation of day and night. There will be permanent day. The light of YHWH will have come (compare Isaiah 9:2; Isaiah 60:1 ff.). Living waters will have gone out in all directions (Zechariah 14:8), and YHWH will be King over all the earth (Zechariah 14:9).
But here we are faced with a dilemma. Are we to see the descent of YHWH Himself on the Mount of Olives as occurring at the beginning of the last days, that is, at the time when the Messiah Himself, standing on the Mount of Olives in Luke 22:39 and parallels, faced up to the battle that lay ahead, thus referring to the great spiritual battle that took place in the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Or are we to see it as His final coming in judgment to bring in the everlasting kingdom as depicted in the end Chapter s of Revelation? Certainly the latter part of this chapter may have the latter in mind, although we may also see it as indicating current worship, but ‘the last days' began with the first coming of the Messiah. Thus this chapter may well be seen as a foreshortened view of two thousand years and more. And as we have seen Ezekiel 11:23 connects His standing on the mountain to the east of the city with the coming of the Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 11:19).
We need, however, to recognise that Zechariah is not here speaking of events literally. This is clear from the fact that night will cease, and there will be perpetual day (Zechariah 14:6-7). Such a depiction is clearly symbolic. A world with perpetual day would be an impossible place for humans to live in. They would lack proper sleep. Indeed, Revelation 21:23-24; Revelation 22:5 see it as a depiction of the eternal state. It rather here indicates that the permanent light of God has come. Nor are we to see God as literally going forth to fight, except in the fact that He goes forth in His people. As in the depiction in Revelation 19:11-16 the fire of His eyes, and the sword of His words would be all that was required to accomplish victory. ‘His feet will stand in that day on the Mount of Olives' (Zechariah 14:4) need only be an indication of His divine activity in bringing about what occurs. Strictly speaking YHWH has no feet, unless He takes on human form. His feet here are like ‘the arm of YHWH', a depiction of YHWH's power and sovereignty, and they especially depict His taking possession of what He stands on (compare Joshua 1:3). We may certainly see in it an interesting ‘coincidence' in that when the king came at Jesus' first coming He did literally and regularly stand on the Mount of Olives, but it certainly did not bring about major geographical disturbance. What it did portend in was spiritual disturbance throughout the world.
In contrast Jesus at His second coming is never depicted as standing on earth. His activity is seen as heavenly (Matthew 24:30-31; Mark 13:26-27; Luke 21:27; Revelation 14:14-16; Revelation 19:11-16). Nor could all nations gather at Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:17). There simply would not be enough room for billions of people in the whole of Palestine. And as the idea lying behind it is the past gathering of the people of Israel to the Sanctuary for the feasts, we cannot speak of it as simply occurring through representatives, for the whole idea of the feasts was that all the men of Israel would gather. Anything less would not be a literal fulfilment.
That the whole of Judah would become a holy sanctuary, with all its pots being holy vessels (Zechariah 14:21) is theoretically feasible, but it does not tie in with other descriptions of end time Jerusalem. Indeed it means that Jerusalem itself would have become relatively undistinctive, with the distinction of being God's sanctuary applying to the whole of Judah. If taken literally this contradicts other prophecies. Furthermore there cannot be literal sacrifices of a type that would be in Zechariah's mind, for he would have seen them as including an element of atonement. That was the significance of the shedding of the blood which was of prime importance with sacrifices. But that necessity has been done away in Christ. Indeed, the idea of atonement was central to the feast of Tabernacles, which was preceded by the Day of Atonement, for all the many sacrifices mentioned included an element of atonement. So the atonement achieved by Jesus' death on the cross, makes any such sacrifices invalid. Note the specific sacrificial requirement in respect of it (Leviticus 23:36-37 with Leviticus 14:27; Numbers 29:12-38). Nor can we legitimately speak of ‘memorial sacrifices', for such sacrifices would not be what Zechariah was speaking about. They would be a spiritualising of sacrifices, not a literal fulfilment. Once we spiritualise them why have them at all? And that is especially so as in the future ideal kingdom there was to be no death (Isaiah 11:6-9).
So whatever view we take of Zechariah 14 it cannot be taken literally. The portrayal is based on the views of that day, in order to be intelligible to his hearers, but it requires things which lie beyond the possibility of literal fulfilment in our present world. If anything it requires the new heavens and the new earth in which dwells righteousness (2 Peter 3:13).