from WL Worcester (H Blackmer, ed.), 
The Sower.  Helps to the Study of the Bible in Home and Sunday School
 
(Boston: Massachusetts New-Church Union, n.d.)

Table of Contents
 

 

Lesson 69

Zechariah 14: The Lord to be King

Contents

The first section of this prophecy (chapters 1-8) clearly deals with the great event of the rebuilding of the temple. The second section (chapters 9-14) is entirely devoid of historical references. Commentators have sought to assign a date to it mainly from the names of places and words used in it. They have endeavored also to identify certain obscure utterances as having reference to specific historical events. Thus 12:11 is supposed to refer to the national mourning for the death of Josiah at the battle of Megiddo. (2 Chron. 35:24-25) But all such identifications are merely hypothetical. The date for determining the age to which this section belongs and the circumstances under which it was written are very uncertain. "They elude us by their indefiniteness and baffle us by their inconsistency. The didactic element gives way almost entirely to the apocalyptic." The last six chapters are full of symbol and allegory or parable, and are with one exception not intended to be taken literally. That exception is the well known passage in chapter 9:9. (See Matt. 21.)

It is impossible to construct any connected statement of the parts of these chapters. They are not related to each other in any way in the letter. For this reason they are little read, and it is difficult to remember their contents.

The fourteenth chapter presents a vision of a day of judgment and redemption. Jerusalem is destroyed. Half her inhabitants are taken into captivity. Then the Lord comes to perform judgment. That day shall be a gloomy one - "not day nor night" - but "at evening time it shall be light." Living waters shall proceed from the city, and the Lord shall be made king over all the earth. "In that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one." Jerusalem shall be exalted, and people shall dwell safely therein. The enemies who fought against her shall perish by the plague and internecine warfare. But all who come to worship the Lord at Jerusalem shall be preserved. Everything within the temple shall be consecrated to the Lord: nothing that is unclean shall enter therein.

Spiritual Study

"Behold the day of the Lord cometh." It is the time of judgment. The Lord fights against those who are in evil and disperses them. (P. P.; E. 405) That day is known only to the Lord. The state when humanity is ripe for judgment is known to the Lord alone. That day is "not day nor night: but it shall be that at evening time it shall be light." The time when the Passover was prepared was "between the evenings." (Exod. 12:6, marg.) That was a time of judgment. Likewise the cloud that preceded the children of Israel out of Egypt gave light by night to them but was darkness to the Egyptians. (Exod. 14:20) At eventide it is light means that "it is evening to the evil [their last state], but light to the good." (E. 405) When living waters proceed from Jerusalem, Divine truths proceed from the Lord. And He "shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one." This is one of the forcible passages in the Old Testament respecting the unity of the Lord the Savior as the only God in heaven and in earth. (L. 45) "In that day," when evil is subdued His Sole Sovereignty is clearly recognized.

The bells of the horses upon which were inscribed the words "HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD" present an interesting and beautiful picture. "The bells of the horses signify scientifics and knowledges and thence preachings, which are from the understanding of truth: and since all understanding of the truth is from the Lord, and thence the knowledges and preachings themselves, therefore it is said that upon the bells of the horses will be Holiness to Jehovah." (E. 355) On the hem of Aaron's garment, there were pomegranates and bells of gold. "And it shall be upon Aaron to minister: and his voice [i.e., the sound of the bells] shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not." (Exod. 25:33-35) The bells "signify all things of doctrine and of worship passing to those who are of the church, and this because by means of the bells the people heard and perceived the presence of Aaron in ministering." (A. 9921) When the Lord comes, all knowledges from the understanding of truth, and every lowest form of truth (every pot in Jerusalem) shall be consecrated to His service. And no Canaanite or merchant shall enter the house of the Lord. His house shall be a house of prayer and not frequented by any moneychangers, any self-seeking spirit. (Matt. 21:12) "There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." (Rev. 21:27)

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