The Pulpit Commentary — Zechariah — Section 158

power against his enemies, "11s in the day of battle" (2 Pet. i. 16; 2 Thess. ii. 8; Josh, x. 14, 42); parUy, also, because he is then to a.ppear in person in the neighbour- hood of Jerusalem (ver. 4), as though in fulfilmeat of Mat.t. xxiii. 39; Acts i. 11, 12; and po.rtly, o.ga.in, because of those who are mentioned here ( end of ver. 5) as then to appear in his suite (comp. Matt. xxv. 31; Dan. vii. 10; Jude 14, 15; Rev. xix. 11- 16). Unrlerstood thus of tha.t stupendous event, the prophecy seems to describe (1) its immediate antecedents ; and (2) its primary results. I. 1TB IMMEDIATE ANTE0EDENTS. 'fhese appear to be described here only so far as "Jerusalem" is concerned-whether we understand thereby, as some do, the literal city inhabited again and besieged (see above, eh. xii. 2) by the rest of the nations, or that great" spiritual city," the Christian Church (Gal. iv. 26; Heb. xii. 22; Rev. iii. 12). In either (or both) of these senses we see the condition of" Jerusalem" at the time intended (note "then" in ver. 3). For example, we see: 1. The city itsel,j wholly subdued. Its bulwarks are all "taken," its separate "houses" "rifled," its choicest treasures boldly divided by the secure and triumphant enemy in its most central posi- tions, and every refuge against ihe deepest indignities utterly gone. 2 Its popula.tim half destroyed. When the inhabitants of a. neighbourhood a.re decimated by disease it is awful enough. Here we have a. proportion of lost ones just fives times as great! Every second house uninhabited ! Every fe.mily less by one-ha.If l What all this exactly points to it is hard to say; but there a.re passages connecting such unexampled excess of trial with the very eve of the Saviour's coming, in Dan. xii. 1; Matt. xxiv. 12, 13; possibly, also, in a. spiritual sense, in Luke xviii. 8. II. ITS PRIMARY RESULTS; viz. as might be expected, very great na.tura.1--or else spiritual-convulsions (comp. Hag. ii. 6, and beginning of 7; Ma.I. iii. 1, 2). Three things to be marked about these. 1. How mighty they are in nature! To divide t-he tideless waters of the upper Red Sea. in old days had been much. To do the same by the flowing waters of Jordan (Josh. iii. 16) perhaps more. To separate, as prophesied here, into two districts, and far-removed portions, the solid range of Mount Olivet, more again. At any rate, nothing less. 2. Bow momentous in results! Jerusalem, with Mount Olivet practically gone from" before" it" on the east," where it had stood for so long the most conspicuous object all round about (comp. Ps. cxxv. 2), would be no longer the same place as before. Where once had been a mountain was now a. valley; where a barrier, a way of escape--a way of complete escape to "Azal;" either, i.e., as far as needed (so some), or else'close at hand (as others). Certainly, if we may judge from the case of Zedekiah (2 Kings xxv. 4, 5), the "way of escape" in previous sieges had been by a very different route. 3. How easily wrought! viz. immediately on the Master's arrival, by the mere force of that arrival itsel.t:_by the mere touch, as it, were, of his feet! Compare-itself not improbably another prediction of the same occurrence-the striking description of Hab. iii. 6 ; also 2 Thess. ii. 8, "Whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming " ( or " presence," see margin of Revised Version), as darkness is destroyed, and that instantly, by the mere presence of light. Observe, from all this, the inevitable consequences of every manifestation of Christ, specially, of course, of the le.test of e.ll. 1. .Amazing changes to all, " Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill brought low." These will be partly, of course, in the world of feeling and thought. "Then shall the righteous shine forth," as they certainly do not at present (see also Matt. xx, 16, and elsewhere; and Acts iii. 20, 21). Partly, also, it is far from improbable, in the world of matter and sea~e. (See such passages, on the one side, as PH. lxvii. 6 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 25, 26 ; Amos ix. 13; the very ground which was cursed for the first Adam's sake being blessed then for the sake of the second, See, on the other, 2 Pet, iii. 10, etc.) 2, Eueeding fear to some. Many then will be found fleeing as though for their lives, even in such a way as they did on the occasion of that appalling earthquake in the days of Uzziah, the terror of whic;h had engraved itself so deeply on the national mind. Never before had there been greater fear than there will be at "that d11y" (Matt. x.xiv. 30; Isa. ii. 19; Rev. vi. 16-17). 3. Corresponding triumph to others. How many things which now divide Christ from his people-how many whioh now separate his people from one another-shall then be things of the past! All his "saints" shall be with him then (ver. 6), and with him for ever (1 Thess. iv. 17). Consequently (1 John iii. 2; 1 Cor. xv. 49), they shall be fully " like him " at last; and therefore, also, like one another; ZEOHARIAH, M 162 'IRE BOOK OF ZECHARIAH. [OH, XIV, 1-21,