The Going Forth of YHWH (Zechariah 14:3-5 a).
The description of the fall of ‘Jerusalem' is then followed by a scene which is portrayed in vivid and unforgettable colours. YHWH Himself will go forth to do battle with the nations, as He had in other days of battle, and He will stand astride the Mount of Olives on the East of Jerusalem, and that mountain will as a consequence divide in half, leaving a gulf between which will go from east to west, providing a way for men to flee from Jerusalem at the time of the coming of YHWH with all His holy ones with Him. Such apocalyptic descriptions occurred earlier in the prophets. In prophesying the destruction of Nineveh in 612 BC Nahum said, ‘YHWH has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet --- the mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt, and the earth is upheaved at His presence, yes, the world and all who dwell in it --- the rocks are broken asunder by Him' (Nahum 1:3-6). But it did not happen literally, although it must have felt like it in Nineveh as the invading hordes broke in. It was depicting the tumult of the nations. Or again when prophesying the enveloping of the nations by Babylon Habakkuk could say of YHWH, ‘He stood and measured the earth, He beheld and drove asunder the nations, and the eternal mountains were scattered, the everlasting hills did bow --- you cleft the earth with rivers, the mountains saw you and were afraid --- the sun and moon stood still in their habitation --- you marched through the land in indignation -- you went forth for the salvation of your people' (Habakkuk 3:6; Habakkuk 3:9-13). It was not intended to be taken literally except in an invisible way.
‘And YHWH will go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet will stand in that day on the mountain of olive trees, which is before Jerusalem on the East. And the mountain of olive trees will cleave in the midst of it towards the east and towards the west, and there will be a very great valley. And half of the mountain will remove towards the north, and half of it towards the south.'
This scene does not necessarily follow the previous one time wise, and the Hebrew does not require it. It is simply seen as another event in the day of YHWH. And indeed the suggestion that the resultant valley will be a way to flee along (Zechariah 14:5) may be seen as occurring prior to the destruction of ‘Jerusalem' to enable men to flee from the disaster that is coming.
We see here a powerful contrast. On the one hand defeat for ‘Jerusalem', and its rifling and humiliation, and on the other the picture of YHWH going forth triumphantly against the nations. When His people are most hard-pressed YHWH triumphs. It would appear that what happens to ‘Jerusalem' has not prevented YHWH's triumph, and indeed may be seen as a part of it. This was to be very true of subsequent history. The church would constantly face persecution and travail, and yet through it all God would march triumphantly forward accomplishing His purposes and providing for His people a way of escape.
In fact the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD as a consequence of the cutting off of the Anointed One was not a catastrophe for the church (although certainly the Jewish Christians saw it in that way at the time) it was rather the continuing of the new assault, the assault that had already gone out from Jerusalem to the world with the good news of the Messiah. For YHWH had come and taken His stand on the Mount of Olives in the person of the Son of God (Luke 22:39 and parallels), and from it He had made a way for His people to ‘flee'. And flee they had done with great success, proceeding against the nations with the sword of the word, and conquering them in the name of the Messiah (Acts 8:1-4). Thus when the nations proceeded against Jerusalem proper they found there only a disobedient people. The true people of God, the real Jerusalem, had fled.
It is significant that YHWH ‘appears' on the Mount of Olives and not on the Temple Mount. The Mount of Olives was also where He had appeared when Jerusalem had previously been rejected (Ezekiel 11:23). As there, it was an indication that Jerusalem itself had been rejected and was doomed. YHWH was no longer ‘in His Temple' He had forsaken the city. But it was also accompanied by the promise of the coming work of the Spirit.
To a world without understanding the standing of Jesus on the Mount of Olives as a man may not have appeared a very significant thing. But from an eternal point of view it signalled both the coming destruction of Jerusalem, and the beginning of the momentous events which were to shake the world. From there He would go to the cross, defeating all the powers of darkness, and then to the throne of Heaven. And from that moment the invasion of the world by His forces driven on by the Holy Spirit would begin, even while the people of God were regularly facing devastation.
We may also see another significance in what happens to the Mount of Olives. It divides in two, one half to the north and the other to the south. Thus the olive trees are propelled some in the one direction (towards the north - Syrian Antioch and beyond) and some in the other (towards the south - towards Egypt). Both Antioch and Egypt would become bastions of the people of God.
If we are to see the olive trees as His anointed ones in terms of chapter 4, then it would indicate that His servants (His anointed ones, the olive trees, compare Zechariah 4:3; Zechariah 4:12; Zechariah 4:14) were despatched with His word both north and south, while those who flee through the valley go eastwards and westward, driven on by the divine earthquake which sent them forth, fleeing from a doomed Jerusalem with the good news of Christ (Zechariah 14:4-6). And the way is made level before them to facilitate their task.
The subsequent verses confirm this interpretation. These servants of God took with them into the darkness of the nations the light of the world, a continuing light that would never cease (Zechariah 14:6-7; Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 49:6), and living waters went out from Jerusalem to a thirsty and needy world (Zechariah 14:8; Ezekiel 47; John 7:37-39). And the result would be that YHWH would become King over all the earth, over His invisible kingdom.
Here then has begun the final great confrontation between man and God. Two sides drawn up for battle (as in Revelation 19) and ‘Jerusalem' in the midst, a confrontation which has taken place throughout history and will intensify in the last days. It began with the Messiah standing on the Mount of Olives, it will end with Him coming with His angels (Revelation 19).
‘Jerusalem'. We are faced here again with the meaning and significance of ‘Jerusalem'. As we have already observed, to the prophets the future apocalyptic Jerusalem was an idea. To interpret it as simply meaning Jerusalem as inhabited at some period in history is to miss the grand idea here, and to ignore the definitely apocalyptic nature of this passage. Consider for example the cessation of day and night (Zechariah 14:7) and the cessation of the curse (Zechariah 14:11). In Revelation no night and no curse indicates the eternal kingdom (Revelation 22:3; Revelation 22:5). Here it has in mind God's permanent light shining on His people and their deliverance from the curse put on Adam. So half of ‘Jerusalem' is to suffer the indignities of captivity. The other half is to continue unharmed. It pictures both the Jerusalem judged by God as in 70 AD, and the Jerusalem that would take God's message out to the world as in Acts 1-12, suffering yet triumphant (just as it portrayed the exiles in Babylon - Zechariah 2:7).
The prophet thus here has in mind ‘the end battle', commencing in the time of the Messiah, as it goes on for two thousand years. YHWH against the great enemy, the world (and the one who lies behind the world - 1 John 5:19). The fact that it is ‘all nations' that are gathered together as one against Jerusalem is further evidence of that (‘you shall be hated of all men for My name's sake' - Mark 13:13). This end battle commenced with the first coming of Christ and will continue to the end.
There was no way Zechariah could represent this in his day except as centring on Jerusalem, for to him it was Jerusalem that was the centre of God's revelation to man and of man's approach to God. To him if man was to attack God and His people it could only be by attacking Jerusalem. But what this really meant to him was that it was what represented God in the world that was subject to this attack.
As we have pointed out already, the prophets, who had nothing to say of an afterlife (with rare exceptions - and even then it was minimal - Isaiah 26:19; Daniel 12:2), and could have no conception of a worldwide people of God established around the world in large numbers, looked ahead to a world divided into two, Jerusalem, representing the people of God, both false and true, and the truth of God, and the worship of God, and the nations of the world representing those who were against God. Here then Jerusalem depicts the true people of God, and all that stands for God against the world. It could indeed be seen as ‘God's kingdom' at odds with the world. We can compare how God's people are depicted as a city in Revelation 21:2 (as the bride of Christ).
Had they known Jesus' teaching of ‘the Rule (or kingship) of God' over His people, in the world, but invisible to the world, the prophets might have spoken differently. We, who can see the deeper significance of the Kingly Rule of God in the world, an invisible kingdom made up of all those who are truly His, battling with the world around, can the better understand what the picture is depicting. But the prophets had to portray it in semi-apocalyptic terms.
So the picture is of the great battle for the world's soul. God and His people and His kingdom on one side and the world on the other. And we have in this verse the clear warning that suffering and conflict will endure right to the end.
There may also be in it the idea that even to the end His people will not have an easy time, for even to the end the people of God will see their ‘spoil' taken from them and divided up, and many of the people of God will be subject to attack and will face vile treatment. Their property will be subject to seizure and destruction, their womenfolk will be treated as the prey of the world, and they will be subject to bondage and servitude.
But the fact that ‘the residue will not be cut off from the city' reveals the symbolic nature of the description. All will suffer, but not all will suffer equally. Some will live in countries where they are in bondage and struggle to maintain their faith. Others will live where God is at least externally honoured and will enjoy the blessed atmosphere of ‘Jerusalem'.
History has revealed the truth of these words. Many have suffered and endured dreadful things for the name of Christ and of God. The world has ever been their enemy, and they have as it were been taken into the enemies' camp. Others have had a much more pleasant and undemanding time, although enduring their own battles. And we have reason to believe, as Paul had, that things may well get worse before the end (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
But in the face of it all the people of God can hold up their heads for in the invisible world God has already triumphed, and this triumph will now be depicted. And in the end God will triumph in the visible world too when He comes to judge the world.
‘Then will YHWH go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet will stand in that day on the mountain of olive trees, which is before Jerusalem on the East. And the mountain of olive trees will cleave in the midst of it towards the east and towards the west, and there will be a very great valley. And half of the mountain will remove towards the north, and half of it towards the south.'
‘And YHWH will go forth--'. Note the comparison. Just as His people have ‘gone forth' into captivity so YHWH ‘goes forth' to fight on their behalf. He sees their need and their slavery and their weakness and He marches forward to deliver them.
This vivid picture sees YHWH Himself as coming on behalf of His people to fight against their enemies (compare Zechariah 9:14-15). It is reasonable to assume that this activity connects with the coming of the Messiah and the pouring out of the Spirit in Zechariah 12:6 to Zechariah 13:1. That is how He goes forth. We have no real grounds for transferring this picture to the second coming of Jesus Christ. The prophet intends us to see here YHWH in all the fullness of His being.
‘YHWH will go forth and fight.' The crucifixion of Jesus and His resurrection is regularly set forth as a fight and a battle. By it He led a host of captives (Ephesians 4:8), He made a show of principalities and powers, triumphing over them in the cross (Colossians 2:15). (‘Principalities and powers' means ‘the authorities', both in heaven and on earth (Ephesians 3:10; Ephesians 6:12; Titus 3:1). And YHWH was with Him. And that fight would continue through His church. We are to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 2:3). We are to stand firm clothed in the armour of God (Ephesians 6:10-18).
‘As in the day of battle.' This looks back to all the times when God has delivered His people. It includes the victory at the Red Sea and subsequent ‘battles' in possessing the land, the victory of Joshua when the sun ‘stood still', the victories of David including the vanquishing of Goliath, the slaying of the Assyrians at the siege of Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah, and many others.
‘His feet will stand in that day on the mountain of olive trees.' This is a powerful anthropomorphism to denote His personal presence in a new way. He no longer rides His chariot throne in the heavens as in Ezekiel but has come to earth in order to act powerfully and effectively. YHWH Himself is here, not enthroned but standing ready for action. It is interesting to recognise that He is not seen as on the Temple Mount. The Temple has been abandoned. In Zechariah's mind may have been the time when the angel of YHWH appeared at the threshing floor of Araunah (2 Samuel 24:16). But there the anger was against Jerusalem, here it is against the nations of the world.
‘The mountain of olive trees.' Reference to the mountain of olive trees may well have in mind the two olive trees in Zechariah 4:3 which represented the two anointed by God. But now instead of just two olive trees (‘anointed persons') there are a multitude, a whole mountainful of olive trees, surrounding YHWH, ready to go forth in the service of YHWH, bearing the living water to the world (Zechariah 14:8).
This mountain may also have been chosen specifically to avoid suggestion that there is reference to the Temple mount. The Temple is no longer significant. Where God acts is thus described as ‘before Jerusalem on the East' (compare Ezekiel 11:23). It is surely significant that the prophet who so emphasised the rebuilding of the Temple in his own day (chapter 6) does not mention the Temple in his eschatological references, except by possible inference and even then with a widened meaning (Zechariah 14:20-21). Here he has a wider view of God's activities. He does not want us to see YHWH as descending into His Temple or restricted to the Temple but as descending to act in the world through His olive trees, His anointed people.
Nor must we be unmindful that it was on the Mount of Olives that Jesus sat and taught His disciples of the times to come leading up to the end of time (Matthew 24:3; Mark 13:3). It was a favourite place of His to which He went often to commune with His Father (John 8:1; Luke 22:39), including on that last fateful night when He prayed in His agony and won His battle against evil. Was this because He saw it as symbolising, as here, the triumph of God's truth, and the place of God's victory? Can we not say that when Jesus agonised on the Mount of Olives it was the prelude to YHWH Himself coming in His mighty power to act to change the world?
‘And the mountain of olive trees shall cleave in the middle of it.' The valley that results goes from east to west, and the mountain moves towards north and south. Is this not an example of the mountains being made low and the valleys exalted (Isaiah 40:4) preparing the way for YHWH? Or is the aim to demonstrate that the olive trees, the anointed ones of YHWH, will go both north and south, in the directions of Mesopotamia and Egypt, the most prominent nations in their world.
But the rending of mountains can be seen as a sign depicting His great anger, see, for example, Nahum 1:5-6; Ezekiel 38:19-21 and His great power (Habakkuk 3:6). So here God demonstrates His anger and power to the nations who are ‘gathered against Jerusalem', depicted in the rending of the mountain and in the sending out of His messengers thereby. He is angry because of their sin and rebellion.
There is no suggestion that this valley reaches as far as the sea. Only the mountain of olive trees is described as being affected. It is a symbol not a description of geological effects.
So we are probably to see the splitting of the mountain of olive trees as a parable and sign, and therefore as picturing the spiritual earthquake that took place at the first coming of Christ, when He defeated the powers of darkness. It was a time of earthquakes. A great physical earthquake did tear the Temple curtain in two, connected with the resurrection of many ‘saints who slept' (Matthew 27:51-52). And the shape of the world was certainly transformed.
Zechariah 14:5 which follows has difficulties in translation for two possible translations are feasible depending on the meaning of the word ‘nstm' which is repeated three times.
First Option.
(1) ‘And the valley of my mountains will be stopped up. For the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel (or ‘reach the side of it'). Yes, it shall be stopped up as it was stopped up from the face of the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah.'
The verb nstm can be translated ‘flee' or ‘stopped up' depending on the pronunciation in the original (and thus on the pointing, i.e. the providing of vowels which took place in written form long after the time of Christ). The meaning ‘stopped up' may be read here. This was the reading that lay behind the rendering in the Septuagint, the major Greek Old Testament. The point would then be that the rending of the mountain is under YHWH's control and the subsequent valley is stopped up at His behest before it tears apart the whole world. We should note that in Isaiah 40:4 the way was to be prepared for the Gospel by valleys being filled in and mountains being brought low.
The limit is set at Azel, an unknown but clearly limited destination. Alternately ‘will reach Azel' may be translated ‘will reach the side of it'. The assurance is then given that the split will not be much greater than occurred in the earthquake in the days of Uzziah. Thus YHWH's anger is revealed as being under tight control. There are of course now two mountains, which explains the plural for mountains.
Josephus refers to the earthquake in the time of Uzziah and its effects as follows: ‘And before the city, at a place called Eroge, half the mountain broke off from the rest on the west, and rolled itself four furlongs, and stood still at the east mountain, till the roads, as well as the king's gardens, were spoiled by the obstruction' (Antiquities 9:10:4). Thus there was clearly a Jewish tradition of such an event which Zechariah probably calls on.
Second Option.
Alternately we may read:
(2) ‘And you will flee by the valley of my mountains. For the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel. Yes, you will flee, just as you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah.'
This alternative could indicate a flight which brings out the awe and majesty of YHWH. All flee before Him. Or it may mean that a way of passage had been made for the dwellers in Jerusalem so that they may flee, taking the Gospel with them. For this compare Acts 8:1. The fleeing from Jerusalem may then indicate the going out into the world with the truth of God caused by God's action. Compare previous references to such flight (Zechariah 2:6; Isaiah 48:20) although those were from Babylon.