CRITICAL NOTES.]
Zechariah 2:10.] Summons to rejoice over God’s indwelling, and its happy results. Come] at Messiah’s first advent, and more especially in his return in glory (Jeremiah 1:14, and Revelation 21:3).
Zechariah 2:11.] Then many nations will be joined; attach themselves to Jehovah, and become his people (cf. chap. Zechariah 8:20-21; Isaiah 14:1). The restricted kingdom of Israel will be enlarged and glorified.
Zechariah 2:10-11.] (Hebrews 13:15). The Divine residence here predicted must be interpreted of that which took place during the sojourn of the Son of God in the land of Judea. The almost entire identity of the language here employed with that used in chap. Zechariah 9:9, where, in like manner, the daughter of Zion is called to hail the advent of her king, compels to this conclusion (cf. Psalms 40:7; Isaiah 40:9-10). With this appearance and residence of the Messiah are connected, as their consequents, the extensive conversion of the heathen nations, and their being constituted a people devoted to his service and glory. The repetition of the prediction relative to his residence in Zion is designed to express the certainty of the event [Henderson].
Zechariah 2:12. Inherit] Will take possession of Judah, according to Deuteronomy 32:9; they would become the objects of God’s favour and delight.
Zechariah 2:13. Silent] All flesh summoned to wait in reverence and submission to Jehovah coming to work. Already he has risen up] out of heaven his holy habitation (Deuteronomy 26:15; 2 Chronicles 30:27), to avenge his people. “The Divine majesty has seemed to be asleep, but now it is roused up; let men therefore beware” [Lange].
HOMILETICS
THE GLORY OF THE MESSIAH’S KINGDOM.—Zechariah 2:10-13
These words look beyond the Jewish restoration, to the earlier and remoter times of the Messiah. With his appearance and residence are connected the return of his people to his service and glory, and the extension of his kingdom among the heathen. In prospect of this glory, the people are called to exult with joy. The glorification of this kingdom consists in the following privileges:—
I. In the residence of its King. “Lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord.” The greater the resident the more dignified the house. God dwelt with his people in type and shadow, in the glory of the temple and the blessings of his Spirit. Literally, in Christ’s first and future coming; spiritually, in the power of his grace over heart and life. We have not a mere poet, statesman, or prophet, but the great God himself, dwelling with individuals and sections of the Christian community. “God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (2 Corinthians 6:16; Ezekiel 37:27; Zechariah 8:3).
II. In the extension of its dominion. “Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day.” Proud exclusiveness shall cease; the walls of partition shall be broken down; and Jew and Gentile shall become subjects of one King. Hence extension.
1. By the restoration of the Jews. “The Lord shall inherit Judah.” “It was to be on the principle, to the Jew first,” says Wardlaw. “Among that people was he to appear and dwell while on earth. The chosen people were not to be utterly and finally cast off. He would again restore them in mercy; gather from their so much wider and longer-continued dispersions; restore them anew to the land of their fathers and the city of their God (Zechariah 2:12).”
2. By the adoption of other nations. “Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day.” New converts shall inherit the blessings of the chosen people. An abundant increase is promised to the mere handful of Jews. This is the purpose for which Israel existed and was restored (Jeremiah 24:7; Jeremiah 30:22; Ezekiel 11:20; Ezekiel 14:11). Gentiles shall be grafted in with Jews (Romans 11:23); Jerusalem shall become the centre of glory, the throne of God, and one law shall rule the stranger and the homeborn (Exodus 12:49). “At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all nations shall be gathered unto it.”
III. In the grandeur of its achievements. Earthly kingdoms achieve greatness and create happiness by wealth, power, and war. True glory springs from spiritual birth and God’s presence.
1. Great joy will result to this kingdom. “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion.” Those only cm rejoice who have been restored to God and recovered their purity—those with whom God dwells, and whom he bids rejoice and sing.
(1) This joy is abundant. “It is a great jubilee of joy, to which Zion is invited. Thrice besides is she invited with the same word (Isaiah 54:1; Zephaniah 3:14-15; Isaiah 12:6), and all for the restored and renewed presence of God” [Pusey].
(2) This joy is bestowed in circumstances unlikely. Rejoice in trouble and opposition! Yes, it is not unseasonable then. Do we not seek medicine in sickness, music in mourning? “Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.”
2. Universal submission will result to this kingdom. “Be silent (hush), O all flesh, before the Lord.” Unbelievers among the Jews are not to doubt God’s promise, and enemies in all nations are to fear his power. All opposition will be subdued. Willingly or unwillingly men must submit in the day of God’s power. How foolish to measure wisdom and compare strength with God, to “contend with him that is mightier than they!” Learn to reverence God’s authority, to hear providential warnings, before he is roused for the last act of justice, to pronounce the doom, and fix the eternal condition of millions. “Thou, even thou, art to be feared; and who may stand in thy sight, when once thou art angry?”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Zechariah 2:10-12. The joy of the Church springs from three sources.
1. The presence of Christ.
2. The increase of Numbers 3. The gathering together and possession of God’s people [cf. Hutcheson].
Zechariah 2:11. (First clause.) The formation of national brotherhood by Christianity.
1. Christianity alone affords a basis for it. Socialism, communism, &c., do not. Society built upon any other foundation will fall, and great will be the fall.
2. Christianity alone can cement it together. Education, science, and philosophy useful, but not sufficient.
3. Christianity alone guarantees it. “Nations shall be joined.” “I will mention Rahab and Babylon as knowing me. Lo, Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia. (To each of which it shall be said), This nation was born there” (in Zion) (Psalms 87:4.)
“Mark ye well Philistia’s legions,
Lo, to seek the Lord they come;
And within the sacred regions
Tyre and Cush have found a home.”
Thou shalt know, &c. The manifestation of the unity of the Church a proof of the Messiah’s commission. When nations know God, the world will know saving truth (John 17:21-23).
1. The inheritance. “Judah.” The joining of nations did not destroy God’s covenant with his ancient people. Hence this assurance that he would “again” be the portion of Israel (Jeremiah 10:16; Jeremiah 51:19; Deuteronomy 32:9). “Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.”
2. The place. “In the holy land.” The land is again made holy by God, and sanctified by his presence. So he calls the place where he revealed himself to Moses holy ground (Exodus 3:5). “It is not one technical expression, as people now by a sort of effort speak of ‘the holy land.’ Everything which has reference to God is holy. The land is holy, not for any merits of theirs, but because God was worshipped there, was specially present there. It was an anticipation and type of “thy holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee” [Pusey].
Zechariah 2:13. Three reasons for silence implied.
1. They are but “flesh,” weak and ignorant.
2. He is Jehovah, all-wise and all-powerful.
3. He is already “raised up out of his place,” and who can stand before him? [A. R. Fausset.]
If God do but awake for us, all is presently well with us. Therefore, when the Church was in her return from Babylon the prophet concludes with an exultation of spirit. Be silent, &c. “All flesh, ye that are wicked of the world, ye that are enemies, be ye silent; leave your boasting, your reproaching, and blaspheming, for the Lord is awaked; now he begins to stir for his people, he will stop your mouths shortly. All flesh takes in the Church and people of God too. O be ye silent, in regard of your fears and doubtings, murmurings and distracted complainings: silence all these, why? The Lord is awaked, he is raised up out of his holy habitation; that is, he that seemed before to confine himself to those higher regions, as atheists speak in Job, to walk in the circle of the heavens, not intermeddling with the earth: this God is now awaked, raised out of his holy habitation, and now ye shall know that he orders all things here below; therefore be silent, all flesh” [Caryl].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Zechariah 2:10-12. Rejoice. To be happy we must be blessed with the presence of the Holy Spirit. In adversity, in prosperity, in sickness and in health, our joys will be pure, our sorrows will be lightened, with this holy emanation of the Deity in our bosoms. Natural evil we must feel; moral evil and its effects we shall often experience; but there will still remain in our hearts, if regenerated, a cordial drop, a source of sweet enjoyment, of which no external circumstances can utterly deprive us [V. Knox].
Zechariah 2:11. Nations. The Jews’ unbelief was a step whereby the Gentiles arose to the knowledge of the gospel; as the setting of the sun in one place is the rising of it in another [Charnock].
Zechariah 2:13. Silent. The prophet, like a crier in a court, commands or proclaims silence. The Hebrew word means hush, inhibiting speech. Yield all reverence, respect and fear, stand in awe. Let the wicked silence their vain boasts and the godly their vain fears. Let neither the one nor the other utter a word before the Lord [Caryl]. How readily can Jehovah command an audience! It may be that in the latter days he will, by some such miracles of power in the realms of grace, constrain all earth’s inhabitants to attend to the gospel, and submit to the reign of his all-glorious Son [Spurgeon].