CRITICAL NOTES.]
Zechariah 2:6. North] Babylon, north of Jerusalem; an address to such Jews as still remained there, through infirmity, ties of property, &c. The urgency of the call denoted by repetition, Ho, ho! Spread] Scattered in violence.
Zechariah 2:7. Zion] i.e. inhabitants of Zion; God’s people dwelling with the daughter, i.e. the people, of Babylon, personified as a woman (Psalms 9:14; Psalms 138).
Zechariah 2:8-9, After] obtaining glory (Zechariah 2:5), the speaker is sent to inflict vengeance upon the enemies. “To get glory upon the heathen, i.e. to display the glory of God upon the heathen through the judgment by which their power is broken, and the heathen world is made to serve the people of God [Keil].
Zechariah 2:9. For] An additional explanation. The angel of the Lord would swing (shake) his hand, as a gesture of menace or symbol of miraculous power (cf. Isaiah 11:15; Isaiah 19:16) over the nations. As a consequence they would be a spoil to the Jews who had been obliged to serve them. Know] here, and in Zechariah 2:11, signifies as frequently, to know by experience [Henderson].
HOMILETICS
THE CALL TO QUIT THE WORLD.—Zechariah 2:6-9
When God had promised to rebuild and enlarge Jerusalem, dwell in it and glorify it, his people should have been glad to return to it. But all did not obey the proclamation of Cyrus and come back to their own land. Many Jews still remained in Babylon. They are urgently called to leave the devoted city, and avail themselves without delay to return to their own country. Apply this generally, and learn—
I. That God calls men out of the world. “Come forth.” Careless and indifferent to their origin and their destiny, they live in ease and forgetfulness of God. Hardened by sin and overcome by the world, they are deaf to entreaty and disobedient to warning. But at length God rouses and restores them to himself. This call to men is—
1. Earnest.
2. Repeated.
3. Effectual.
II. That men are reluctant to obey the call. Through love of the world they are prejudiced against the work and the ways of God. Unwilling to embark in difficulty, they linger in danger. This reluctance springs from many causes.
1. Continuance in sin obliterates remembrance of spiritual good. The Jews forgot their own land, and preferred the wealth of Babylon to Jerusalem their chief joy. Worldly men are concerned for nothing beyond present enjoyments.
2. Present possessions are thought more certain than future good. The present world to them is real. Power, position, and riches are seen and felt. But they disbelieve in future blessings. “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.”
3. Unbelief leads men to disregard all calls to God. The Jews might doubt the power of God, the sincerity of the proclamation, and the benefits of returning to Jerusalem. The commands of God seem unreasonable, the calls to duty prejudicial to selfish interests, to indolent and wicked men. Others may go to the celestial city, but they remain in the city of destruction.
III. That sufficient motives to comply with the call are presented to men. God deals with them as reasonable and intelligent creatures. He does not constrain or force men out of the world. Many reasons are given in the text.
1. Though God has punished yet he loves men. “For I have spread you abroad as the four winds of heaven.” Far and wide had they been dispersed; with violence had they been punished; yet God recalled them, and would have mercy upon them.
2. Though men have disobeyed the call yet they are not forsaken. Call after call is given to the Jews. They had been ungrateful and disobedient, but God invites them again with love and urgency.
3. Though invitations are given to man yet disobedience will endanger their souls. God was about to destroy Babylon and punish the oppressors, to spoil the nations who had persecuted his people. The alarm is given. “Ho, ho, come forth.”
1. In the world is danger. “Flee” like Lot from Sodom. Speed your way and lose no time. “Escape for thy life; look not behind thee.”
2. In the world is captivity. “Deliver thyself.” From sin and sloth, from danger and eternal death. “My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord” (Jeremiah 51:45; Jeremiah 50:8; Jeremiah 51:6).
THE BLESSEDNESS OF ISRAEL, AND THE PERILS OF HER PERSECUTORS.—Zechariah 2:8
That God will avenge his people is a doctrine of the New as of the Old Testament (2 Thessalonians 1:6). For our comfort we shall describe those whom God avenges; in order to excite to adoration, show the intensity of Divine sympathy; for the purpose of warning, refer to the perils of persecutors; and for the fortifying of patience, point out the season of vengeance.
I. The subjects of the Lord’s concern. “He that toucheth you.”
1. A sinful and perverse people. Not a nation of Enochs, Abrahams, nor Johns, but an erring, provoking nation.
2. An afflicted and chastened people. Here is the secret of concern. A father pities his petulant and wayward child if he be wounded and troubled.
3. A chosen people. God could choose no other but a sinful people, for the whole earth was corrupt. He chose them, knowing their future sins—ordained that from them should come the Saviour of the world.
4. A penitent people. God comforts none of his servants until they mourn their sinfulness and perversity. He always loves them, but the beam of his consolation cannot reach them when they wilfully immure themselves in the strongholds of sin.
II. The intensity of Divine sympathy. “He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.” Tears flow at once if the eye be touched. In this figure we see the truth illustrated—
1. That the sufferings of the saints personally affect the Lord. He is far more affected by the malice of our enemies than we are. Our sufferings compared with his are as the striking of the body to the wounding of the eye. When Jesus hung upon the cross they touched the apple of his eye.
2. We learn also that the Lord feels our woes instantly. The idea seems to be that the moment the saints are touched the Lord is. However sudden the attack, he knows and feels.
III. The peril of persecutors. The pronoun his, is understood by some as referring to the subjects of Divine vengeance. Whether it be so or not, this is certain—they stand under condemnation. To touch a king or a king’s son is treason. God accounts indignities offered to Israel as indignities offered to himself. Pharaoh touched them and was destroyed; the Amalekites and Canaanites fought against them and were defeated; Assyrians strove to enslave them and were discomfited. Babylon was laid in the dust; Rome was spoiled, and ultimately ruined.
IV. The season of vengeance “After the glory.” After the return to their own land; after their penitence and purification. It was in God’s own time. When the saints have entered the New Jerusalem, their robes being made white, then the Lord will avenge his own elect in a special and final sense.—Stems and Twigs.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Zechariah 2:7-8. Two classes addressed.
1. The careless and indifferent. Those in the world, living in ease and sin.
2. Those in Babylon who should be in Zion. Christians are out of their place in the pleasures and pursuits of the world. “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you,” &c. (2 Corinthians 6:17-18; Revelation 18:4).
Zechariah 2:8-9. The Messiah, not the prophet nor the angel mentioned (Zechariah 2:4), is here intended. “Observe the evidence of the Divinity of the speaker here, in the terms used by him: ‘I will shake my hand at them.’ This can be the language of no other than Jehovah; and yet it is the language of one who speaks of ‘Jehovah’ as having ‘sent him’ ”—[Wardlaw].
We have here the twofold object of Christ’s mission.
1. To glorify the Church. “After the glory”—in restoring and edifying the Church. Manifesting his glory to his people (John 17:6).
2. To destroy the enemies. He hath “sent me to the nations which spoiled you.” Mark—
(1) The ease with which this is done. “I will shake mine hand upon them.” A mere wave of the hand is sufficient to crush all opposition. What must be the stroke of the hand, if the mere shaking will prostrate the foe!
(2) The power with which this is done. The nations are spoiled of their strength and honour—made slaves to those over whom they tyrannized.
3. To reveal God to men. “And ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me.”
Zechariah 2:8. How admirably adapted to popular instruction and impression is the imagery of Scripture. Who does not in a moment understand and feel the allusion before us? “He that toucheth you,” &c. It reminds us of union: it shows valuation: it bespeaks attention: it expresses sympathy. Let the adversaries of his people learn their danger, Let this encourage us to do anything for the people of God. Let his people also learn to do their duty. If God is so concerned for them, how should they regard and be concerned for his glory [Jay].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Zechariah 2:7. Deliver thyself.
“How vain and poor, and little worth,
Are all these glittering toys of earth
That lure us here!
Dreams of sleep, that death must break,
Alas! before it bids us wake,
Ye disappear” [Manrique].
Zechariah 2:8. Apple. It is a charming image. The eye is one of the most intricate and delicate structures in the human frame; and the pupil of the eye—the opening by which the light of heaven enters for the purpose of vision,—the most delicate and easily injured, as well as important, part of that structure. Nothing can more finely convey the idea of the sensitively tender care of Jehovah for the objects of his love. There are many figures in the Bible expressive of the same sentiment: there is no one more exquisitely beautiful than this [Wardlaw].
Zechariah 2:9. Shake. God is known by his power; that power is known by his works; and how shall we approach to estimate him, unless we examine those works? [Macculloch].