The burden of the Word of the Lord
The dark and bright side of God
’s revelation to mankind
I. The dark side of the Divine Word. Notice two things--
1. In this aspect it is here called a “burden.” The word “burden” is almost invariably used to represent a calamity. Thus we read of the burden of Babylon, the burden of Moab, the burden of Damascus, the burden of Tyre, the burden of Egypt, etc.
2. In this aspect it bears upon wicked men. The doomed peoples are here mentioned. They are in “the land of Hadrach.” Whether Hadrach here means the land of Syria or the common names of the kings of Syria, it scarcely matters; the people of the place of which Damascus was the capital were the doomed ones. Besides these, there are the men of “Hamath,” a country lying to the north of Damascus and joining the districts of Zobah and Rehub. And still more, there are “Tyrus” and “Zidon,” places about which we often read in the Bible, and with whose history most students of the Bible are acquainted. “Ashkelon,” “Gaza,” and “Ekron,” are also mentioned. These were the chief cities of the Philistines, and the capitals of different districts. All these peoples were not only enemies of the chosen tribe, but enemies of the one true and living God. History tells us how, through the bloody conquests of Alexander and his successors, this “burden of the Word of the Lord” fell with all its weight upon these people. Observe--
(1) That the Bible is heavy with black threatenings to the wicked.
(2) That these black thrcatenings will inevitably be fulfilled.
All the threatenings here against the land of Hadrach, Hamath, Tyrus, Zidon, Gaza, Ekron, Ashkelon, and the Philistines were fulfilled.
II. The bright side of the Divine Word. There is a beam of promise here (Zechariah 9:7-8). The following is Dr. Keil’s translation of these verses: “And I shall take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth, and he will also remain to our God and will be as a tribe prince in Judah, and Ekron like the Jebusite. I pitch a tent for My house against military power, against those who go to and fro, and no oppressor will pass over them any more, for now have I seen with My eyes.” The promise in these words seems to be twofold--
1. The deprivation of the power of the enemy to injure. The Bible promises to the good man the subjection of all his foes.
2. Divine protection from all their enemies. The Bible promises eternal protection to the good. (Homilist.)
Prophetic fulfilments
1. Every fulfilled prophecy is a distinct proof of the truth of the Bible--of its having been “given by inspiration of God,” Prophecy is a miracle. We generally apply the word miracle to supernatural manifestations of power; but it is equally applicable to supernatural manifestations of knowledge. Knowledge of futurity belongs only to God. Jehovah frequently appeals to such foreknowledge of the future as one of His distinctive attributes. The accomplishment of Divine predictions stands out, incontestably, in the records of ancient history.
2. The true value of the evidences of revelation arises from the value of what is revealed. Were it of trivial importance, that would be itself a strong presumptive proof--almost, indeed, a conclusive one--that what professed to be a revelation had no real title to be so regarded. That which revelation does make known has in it to us a value beyond the powers of man or angel to estimate. It “shows unto us the way of salvation.” This is its great discovery. It is no mere republication of the lessons of nature. It is not a mere volume of precepts. It does confirm all that nature teaches. It does set before us a perfect code of morals. But it does more: it addresses us not as creatures merely, but as sinners. It makes provision for us in this capacity--for our deliverance from the guilt, condemnation, and punishment of sin, and our restoration to the favour, the image, the enjoyment of God; and that for the eternity of our being. It is this that stamps every proof of the divinity of the Bible with such importance,--every species of evidence, and every variety of each species. The investigation of the evidence is what every man in his sane mind should feel to be the most momentous inquiry in which he can possibly be engaged.
3. The past fulfilment of prophecy should establish our “faith in God” regarding all that is yet future; and especially our “faith in God” as still in all His providential administration, having His eye upon the Church. His entire, extensive, and complicated administration is ever working out the development of the plan of salvation.
4. The enemies of God and of His people have cause to tremble. He will not leave either Himself or His people unavenged. He that “toucheth them toucheth the apple of His eye.” It may at times be difficult to see on which side lies His favour; in seasons when “the ungodly prosper in the world,” while “waters of a full cup are wrung out” to the faithful. In such seasons, love seems to be hidden, and even as inverting the order of its manifestations, and tempting the Christian to say--“How doth God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High?” But when the whole comes to be set by God, and seen by men in the light of the final judgment, all will be clear. The distinction, then, between His people and His enemies, will be fully, finally, and irreversibly marked; an everlasting separation made, and the “great gulf, fixed between them.” (Ralph Wardlaw, D. D.)
National judgments
1. The condition of all men is laid open to the eye of God, and He will appoint judgment or mercy according to that condition (Zechariah 9:1).
2. Worldly wisdom is at last greatly inferior to that wisdom, the beginning of which is the fear of the Lord (Zechariah 9:2).
3. However secure nations or men may think themselves in sin, their sin will be sure to find them out. Never has sin more proudly entrenched herself than in godless, but magnificent Tyre. Never has every element of earthly prosperity seemed more completely under control than in her case. And yet they were all swept like chaff before the whirlwind of the wrath of God, when the time for the fulfilment of His threatenings had come. Hence though nations now trample on law and right, and seem long to flourish in their sin, let not the child of God be impatient. Let him remember that two hundred years passed away after the utterance of these threatenings against Tyre, and she seemed stronger than over, and yet when the day of doom had dawned, the galleys that left her on their stated voyages the peerless queen of the seas, when they returned found her but a bare and blackened rock, a lonely monument of the truth, that our God is a consuming fire. If then, God thus executes His threats, even on a mighty commonwealth, in spite of His delay, let not the fact that judgment against an evil work is not executed speedily cause the hearts of the sons of men to be fully set in them to do evil. Let men remember that it is a falsehood to violate a threatening as much as to violate a promise, and that God will not make Himself a liar to save man in his sins (Zechariah 9:3-7).
4. Amidst all the tumults of nations, the true people of God are safe, being guarded by the arm of Almightiness (Zechariah 9:8). (T. V. Moore, D. D.)