Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.
Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord - before Yahweh (H3068). Language derived from Habakkuk 2:20. 'Let all, in silent awe and reverence, await the Lord's coming interposition in behalf of His people!' This address is both to the Gentile foes, who prided themselves on their power, as if irresistible, and to the unbelieving Jews, who distrusted God's promises as incredible. Three reasons why they must be silent are implied:
(1) They are but "flesh," weak and ignorant;
(2) He is Yahweh all-wise and all-powerful. He is already "raised up out of His place," and who can stand before Him? (Pembellus) (Psalms 76:8-9).
He is raised up out of his holy habitation - i:e., out of heaven (Deuteronomy 26:15; 2 Chronicles 30:27; Isaiah 63:15), to judge and avenge His people by "punishing the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity" (Isaiah 26:21). Or, "out of his holy" temple, contemptible and incomplete as it looked then, when Zechariah urged them to rebuild it (Calvin). But the call to all to "be silent" is rather when God has come forth from heaven, where He has dwelt so long unseen, and when He is about to inflict vengeance on the foe, before taking up His dwelling in Zion and the temple. However, Psalms 50:1-2 ("Out of Zion God hath shined"), Psalms 50:3 ("Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before Him," etc.; cf. Habakkuk 2:3, "The vision at the end shall speak, and not lie"), Psalms 50:4 ("He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge his people"), favours Calvin's view. God is now "silent" while the Gentile foe speaks arrogance against His people; but "our God shall come and no longer keep silence;" then in turn must all flesh "be silent" before Him.
Remarks:
(1) The "man" Christ Jesus is the Master Builder of the Church, and shall, with exactest proportions, as the architect with his measuring line in his hand (Zechariah 2:1), at last complete perfectly the spiritual temple of God. The Gospel "line," which now reaches to but a limited extent, shall at last "go out through all the earth" (Psalms 19:4).
(2) Jerusalem, first of all, shall be restored (Zechariah 2:2). It shall then need no wall of stone, for Yahweh shall be "a wall of fire round about" (Zechariah 2:5). Whereas earthly walls, while they defend, straiten a city as to room, Jerusalem shall be extended as freely as if it had no walls, yet shall be as safe as if it had the strongest walls.
(3) While it shall have much of earthly riches and honours, its preeminent glory shall be Yahweh, "the glory in the midst of her." So the Church's true glory is not her gorgeous ceremonial, harmonious music, and showy vestments, but God by His Spirit now dwelling, unseen yet realized, as the glory in the midst of her; and her future glory shall be God manifested visibly as the everlasting light and glory of His redeemed, (Isaiah 60:19; Revelation 21:23).
(4) Angels "run" (Zechariah 2:4) with joyful alacrity to announce the glad tidings of Jerusalem's coming enlargement. Shall not we imitate them in the energetic zeal wherewith we announce to all, so far as our ability extends, that Christ, who is "our peace, hath broken down the middle wall of partition" which heretofore, through "the law of commandments contained in ordinances," limited the extension of the Church (Ephesians 2:14-15).
(5) Yahweh, who scattered His ancient people because of their sins, shall gather them because of His grace and mercies (Zechariah 2:6).
(6) Zion's part, therefore, is to cease to "dwell with the daughter of Babylon" (Zechariah 2:7). Believers are altogether out of their place when they are mixed up with the world, so as to identify themselves with its God-forgetting tastes, pleasures, and pursuits. Our high calling of God is, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:17-18).
(7) Messiah fulfils a two-fold mission from the Father (Zechariah 2:8): First, He comes again to glorify His Church; secondly, to "spoil the nations which spoiled" His people (Zechariah 2:8-9), and to make the nations servants to His people, who have hitherto been made to be servants to them. For Yahweh has as tender a concern for the safety of His Church as a man has for guarding from hurt "the apple of his eye." We feel the least touch upon the pupil of the eye, and carefully avoid it: so God regards a wound to His Church as a wound to His own honour in the sorest point, and jealously avenges it. A mere waive of God's "hand" is enough to discomfit utterly all our foes, if we be His people. We are so when the Spirit has taught us that "Yahweh of hosts," the Father, hath "sent" the Son to be the Saviour (John 11:42; John 17:3; John 17:25). Then we may confidently pray (Psalms 17:8), "Keep me as the apple of the eye; hide me under the shadow of thy wings."
(8) Unless there be two distinct Yahwehs, the one divine, the other only human, Messiah must be divine. For the one Yahweh is represented (Zechariah 2:10-11) as sending the other, and at the same time the unity of the Sender and the Sent is implied; because He who comes and dwells in Jerusalem names Himself "Yahweh," and at the same time declares that Yahweh hath sent Him.
(9) When Zion shall know that the Father "hath sent" the Son (Zechariah 2:11), then shall also "the world know" that saving truth (John 17:21; John 17:23). The manifestation of the unity of the Church shall be the necessary forerunner of the manifestation of the unity of the glorious Triune God. "Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day" (Zechariah 2:11), when the Lord shall again manifest that He hath "chosen Jerusalem" as "His portion" (Zechariah 2:12). Let us hasten the blessed time, by "endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:3).
(10) Because God seems now to be silent, and not to pronounce the immediate doom of transgressors, the (10) Because God seems now to be silent, and not to pronounce the immediate doom of transgressors, the enemies of the Church speak proudly, and even blasphemously; but God will soon "come, and not keep silence" (Psalms 50:3) any longer. And when once "He is raised up out of His holy habitation," all flesh must "be silent," in reverent awe, "before Him" (Zechariah 2:13). Let us learn to reverence and love Him now betimes, before the day of His wrath is come: so shall we know experimentally the blessedness of all "that put their trust in Him."