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Zechariah
Chapter Fourteen
Zechariah 14
Chapter Contents
The sufferings of Jerusalem. (1-7) Encouraging prospects,
and the destruction of her enemies. (8-15) The holiness of the latter days.
(16-21)
Commentary on Zechariah 14:1-7
(Read Zechariah 14:1-7)
The Lord Jesus often stood upon the Mount of Olives when
on earth. He ascended from thence to heaven, and then desolations and
distresses came upon the Jewish nation. Such is the view taken of this
figuratively; but many consider it as a notice of events yet unfulfilled, and
that it relates to troubles of which we cannot now form a full idea. Every
believer, being related to God as his God, may triumph in the expectation of
Christ's coming in power, and speak of it with pleasure. During a long season,
the state of the church would be deformed by sin; there would be a mixture of
truth and error, of happiness and misery. Such is the experience of God's
people, a mingled state of grace and corruption. But, when the season is at the
worst, and most unpromising, the Lord will turn darkness into light;
deliverance comes when God's people have done looking for it.
Commentary on Zechariah 14:8-15
(Read Zechariah 14:8-15)
Some consider that the progress of the gospel, beginning
from Jerusalem, is referred to by the living waters flowing from that city.
Neither shall the gospel and means of grace, nor the graces of the Spirit
wrought in the hearts of believers by those means, ever fail, by reason either
of the heat of persecution, or storms of temptation, or the blasts of any other
affliction. Tremendous judgments appear to be foretold, to be sent upon those
who should oppose the settlement of the Jews in their own land. How far they
are to be understood literally, events alone can determine. The furious rage
and malice which stir up men against each other, are faint shadows of the
enmity which reigns among those who have perished in their sins. Even the
inferior creatures often suffer for the sin of man, and in his plagues. Thus
God will show his displeasure against sin.
Commentary on Zechariah 14:16-21
(Read Zechariah 14:16-21)
As it is impossible for all nations literally to come to
Jerusalem once a year, to keep a feast, it is evident that a figurative meaning
must here be applied. Gospel worship is represented by the keeping of the feast
of tabernacles. Every day of a Christian's life is a day of the feast of
tabernacles; every Lord's day especially is the great day of the feast; therefore
every day let us worship the Lord of hosts, and keep every Lord's day with
peculiar solemnity. It is just for God to withhold the blessings of grace from
those who do not attend the means of grace. It is a sin that is its own
punishment; those who forsake the duty, forfeit the privilege of communion with
God. A time of complete peace and purity of the church will arrive. Men will
carry on their common affairs, and their sacred services, upon the same holy
principles of faith, love and obedience. Real holiness shall be more diffused,
because there shall be a more plentiful pouring forth of the Spirit of holiness
than ever before. There shall be holiness even in common things. Every action
and every enjoyment of the believer, should be so regulated according to the
will of God, that it may be directed to his glory. Our whole lives should be as
one constant sacrifice, or act of devotion; no selfish motive should prevail in
any of our actions. But how far is the Christian church from this state of
purity! Other times, however, are at hand, and the Lord will reform and enlarge
his church, as he has promised. Yet in heaven alone will perfect holiness and
happiness be found.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Zechariah》
Zechariah 14
Verse 1
[1]
Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst
of thee.
The day — Of
vengeance, Joel 2:1,2, cometh, or will soon overtake you, O
sinful, unthankful! bloody! Jews.
Thy spoil —
All thou hast, O, Jerusalem, shall become a prey to thine enemy.
Verse 2
[2] For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city
shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the
city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be
cut off from the city.
All nations —
The Romans who at that time had the rule over all the nations of that part of
the world.
The residue —
That small number of the Jews who were spared by Titus.
Shall not be cut off — Were not forbidden to dwell about the city.
Verse 3
[3] Then
shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in
the day of battle.
Then —
After he hath sufficiently punished the Jews.
As when he fought — As
in those days when he fought for his people.
Verse 4
[4] And
his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before
Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst
thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great
valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it
toward the south.
Shall cleave —
Sinai melted, at the presence of the God of the whole earth.
Great valley — So
rich shall be a plain access from the place of the feet of the Lord unto
Jerusalem.
Verse 5
[5] And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the
mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from
before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God
shall come, and all the saints with thee.
The valley of the mountains — A place provided of God for their safety.
O Lord my God — As
if it were said, though it will, O Lord, put us into fear; yet without such
wonderful works we shall not see thy salvation; therefore, O Lord my God come,
and bring thy holy ones with thee.
Verse 6
[6] And
it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
In that day —
While God is fighting with the enemies of his church, the nations that fought
against Jerusalem.
Nor dark —
There shall be some mercy to allay the bitterness of judgment, and some
judgment with our mercy.
Verse 7
[7] But
it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but
it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
One day —
One continued day, no setting of the sun to make it quite night: God will
always act in order to the full salvation of his spiritual Jerusalem.
Known unto the Lord —
The Lord knows when it shall begin, and how, and when it shall end.
Verse 8
[8] And
it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half
of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in
summer and in winter shall it be.
In that day —
When the days of ignorance, and idolatry shall end.
Living waters —
The quickening, saving truths of the gospel, with all its ordinances in purity.
From Jerusalem —
The church of Christ, the true Jerusalem.
The former sea — Or
eastern sea.
The hinder sea — Or
western sea.
In summer and in winter — Perpetually, without intermission, these waters shall never dry away, or
lose their healing virtue.
Verse 9
[9] And
the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD,
and his name one.
In that day —
All men shall agree in worshipping one God, in one way of spiritual worship,
and hearty obedience.
Verse 10
[10] All
the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and
it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto
the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of
Hananeel unto the king's winepresses.
All the land —
The whole land of Judea, a type of the whole earth, shall be filled with the
knowledge of God.
As a plain —
All high, uneven places, all rocky and barren grounds, shall be changed into
fruitful vineyards. So the church of Christ shall be fruitful, humble and
lovely.
Geba —
The north boundary of the land.
Rimmon —
The south boundary of Judea.
Jerusalem —
Which taken mystically, is the church of Christ, and by the repair of all to
this Jerusalem, is shadowed out of the compleat building of the church on all
sides, north, south, west and east.
Lifted up —
Raised out of the dust.
Benjamin's gate —
Benjamin's gate north-east, corner-gate north-west; Hananiel's tower south,
wine-presses north; that is in brief, compleatly around the city.
Verse 11
[11] And
men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but
Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.
And men —
Many for number, eminent for worth.
Utter destruction —
There may be afflictions but no utter wasting of Jerusalem; the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it.
Verse 13
[13] And
it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be
among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and
his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.
A great tumult —
Confusion.
Shall rise up —
From murmurs one against another they shall at last run into civil wars, and so
destroy themselves, and revenge Jerusalem.
Verse 14
[14] And
Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the heathen round
about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great
abundance.
Judah —
The Jews, and possibly Judas Maccabeus might be intended.
Verse 15
[15] And
so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass,
and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague.
The horse —
Those creatures which the enemy in the wars made use of, shall by the hand of
God be suddenly and strangely destroyed.
Verse 16
[16] And
it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which
came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King,
the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
That is left —
That escapes the stroke.
To worship — By
a ceremonial usage which shadowed out a better worship, the prophet foretells
the constant zeal of the converted Gentiles to worship the Lord.
The feast of tabernacles — One solemn festival is by a figure, put for all the days consecrated to
God for holy worship.
Verse 20
[20] In that
day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and
the pots in the LORD's house shall be like the bowls before the altar.
Shall there be —
Written as it were on every common thing.
Holiness unto the Lord — Their persons shall bear the dedicating inscription of holiness to the
Lord, and by their study of holiness they shall make good their motto.
The pots —
Which were used in the kitchens of the temple, and were not accounted so sacred
as the utensils near the sacrifices, and altar.
The bowls —
Which received the blood of the sacrifices, were esteemed more holy; so shall
thy holiness in these days exceed the holiness of those former days.
Verse 21
[21] Yea,
every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts:
and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein:
and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the LORD
of hosts.
Every pot —
The utensils of private houses shall be all dedicated to God's service.
That sacrifice — So
the prophet expresses all religious affections, practice, and worship, which
shall be as pleasing to God, as were the sacrifices of his people offered up
with divine warrant and approbation.
Seethe therein —
That part of the sacrifice which pertaineth to the priests, and to the offerer
to feast on.
The Canaanite —
Any of the accursed nation, or one who makes merchandise of religion. But all
shall know that the Lord hath the greatest pleasure in upright, and sincere
love and holiness.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Zechariah》
14 Chapter 14
Introduction
Verses 1-21
Verses 1-3
And thy spoil shall be divided
A sketch on bad men
Three facts concerning such.
I. They are
capable of perpetrating the greatest enormities on their fellow men. In the
account given by Josephus of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans we have
a record of enormities at which we might stand aghast. The particulars, says
Dr. Wardlaw, here noted are such as usually, it might be said, invariably
attend the besieging, the capture, and the sacking of cities; especially when,
as in this case, the assailing army has been exasperated by a long, harassing,
and wasting defence. The entrance of the unpitying soldiery, the rifling of
houses, the violation of women, the indiscriminate massacre, and the division
of the spoil, are just what all expect, and what require no comment. And never
were such scenes more frightfully realised than at the destruction of Jerusalem
when God in His providence in judicial retribution gathered all nations against
the devoted, city to battle. “All nations,” a correct description of the army
of Titus, the empire of Rome embracing a large proportion of the then known
world, and this army consisting of soldiers of all the different nations which
composed it. And, while such was to be the destruction brought upon “the city,”
the desolation was to extend, and that in different ways, at short intervals,
throughout “the land.” The fact that men are capable of perpetrating on their
fellow men such enormities show--
1. Man’s apostasy from the laws of his spiritual nature.
2. The great work which the Gospel has to do in our world.
II. That whatever
enormities they perpetrate, they are evermore instruments in the hands of the
world’s great Ruler. The period in which these abominations were enacted is in
the text called the “day of the Lord,” and He is represented as calling the
Roman armies to the work. “I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to
battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women
ravished.” God in His retributive procedure punishes the bad by the bad. In
this case--
1. No injustice is done. The men of Jerusalem deserved their fate.
They “filled up the measure of their iniquity.”
2. There is no infringement of free agency. Good men might revolt
from inflicting such enormities upon their fellow creatures, but it is
according to the wish of bad men. This is God’s retributive method, to punish
the bad by the bad.
III. Though
instruments in His hands, God will punish them for all their deeds of enormity.
But where is the justice of punishing men whom He employs to execute His own
will? Two facts will answer this question.
1. What they did was essentially bad.
2. What they did was in accord with their own wills.
He never inspired them or constrained them. He did but use them. (Homilist.)
Verse 4-5
And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives
God in relation to a suffering world
The men in Jerusalem were in great suffering and imminent peril,
and here is a figurative representation of the Almighty in relation to them.
I. He observes
their terrible condition. “And His feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of
Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east.” The idea suggested here is that
God observes men in all their calamities and dangers. His eye is on them. This
is especially the ease with His people. We are assured that His eye is ever
upon the righteous; Job said, “He knoweth the way I take.”
1. He sees what we have to endure.
2. He sees how we behave ourselves in our condition, whether under
our afflictions we are trustful, patient, and submissive or otherwise; whether
in our perils we are making an effort to escape. “Thou compassest my path and
my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.”
II. He makes a way
for their deliverance. “And the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst
thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great
valley.” “These verses,” says Dr. Henderson, “convey, in language of the most
beautiful poetical imagery, the assurance of the effectual means of escape that
should be provided for the truly pious. We accordingly learn from Eusebius that
on the breaking out of the Jewish war the Christian Church at Jerusalem, in
obedience to the warning of our Saviour (Matthew 24:16) fled to Pella, a city
beyond Jordan, where they lived in safety. As the Mount of Olives lay in their
way, it is represented as cleaving into two halves, in order to make a passage
for them.” It is not necessary to suppose that the Mount of Olives was thus
riven asunder. The idea is, that the obstruction to their escape, though
formidable as a mountain, should be removed. The Almighty would give them every
facility to escape to the refuge. This He does for our suffering race. He makes
a way for their escape, from guilt, ignorance, and misery, which has been
blocked up by mountains of difficulties.
III. He provided a
refuge for their safety.
1. The scene of refuge, “Azal.” An unknown place. Some spot to secure
them from danger.
2. The impulse of flight.
3. The necessity for the flight.
“The Lord thy God shall come.” In some great manifestation of His
power. Conclusion. How thankful we should be to know that God has not deserted
humanity in its sins and sorrows. (Homilist.)
Verse 6
It shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be
clear nor dark
The day of the Lord
This phrase denotes not one time, but many.
Any signal manifestation of the Divine government of the world, or any such
event as made men’s hearts quake within them for fear, is described as the day
of the Lord. Though all nature is, in truth, an exponent of the judgment, as
well as the beneficence of God, there are times and places in which His right
hand, as it were, is more manifestly bared. There are times when the fervent
spirit is tempted to wish for one of the days of the Lord. Yet there are many
reasons why, even in the worst times, we should not wish to hasten that day
which will in appointed course come surely and will not tarry. Instead of
encouraging in ourselves impatience for some great day of the Lord, let us
rather engrave upon our minds a conviction that such coming will be at last
inevitable. We may estimate the character of such general judgments as are here
alluded to, by reading the description of those of old. What, then, is the sort
of temper or sentiment with which the idea of any great national visitations
should be blended in our minds? As citizens we should be aware sometimes truth
and righteousness getteth the upper hand, and sometimes the contrary party,
that foment error and unrighteousness. It is a doubtful day in a twofold
regard--because light and darkness are either intermixed or alternate. Or else
because our estate in respect of either is not durable and fixed, but liable to
great uncertainties. There is an intermixture of providences at the same time,
and the Church is in several respects both happy and miserable at once. Here
things go well and there ill. It is a rare case when there is a perfect harmony
between our private condition and public happiness. Successively there is a
vicissitude and interchange of conditions. Good and evil succeed each other by
turns. Human affairs, under God, depend much on the people’s hearts, and how
uncertain are they! Inquire the reason of this, why the day of our conflict is
such a mixed, doubtful day. Consider--
1. The equity of it. It is such a day as is very suitable to our condition
in the world. We are in a middle place, between heaven and hell, and therefore
partake somewhat of both. We have mixed principles--flesh and spirit. As long
as sin remaineth in us we cannot be perfectly happy. The flesh needeth to be
weakened by divers afflictions. As our principles are mixed, so are all our
operations. There is a mixture of good and evil in all our services.
2. Consider the wisdom and justice of God in it. He hath many wise
ends to be accomplished by these mixed providences. That a people worn out with
long misery may be more pliable to God’s purpose. By such mixed providences God
will weaken and waste stubborn nature. To work us from earthly things to things
heavenly. To put a cloud and veil on His proceedings. To prevent the excesses
of either condition, God tempereth and qualifieth the one with the other. To
make way for the exercise of our faith. Faith is neither made void by too great
a light, nor extinguished by too great a darkness. To win the heart by the
various methods of judgments an mercies, and to gain upon us by both means at
first. God doth it to bring His people to a Christian union and accord. When
religious interest is divided, God keeps the balance equal, and success is
sometimes cast on this side, sometimes on that. To prevent contempt and
insolency towards those that are fallen under God’s displeasure. It is also a
ground of patience. Heavy afflictions lack not their comforts to make them
tolerable. He measureth out good and evil with a great deal of wisdom and tenderness.
To show that our comforts and crosses are in His hand; and He doth variously
dispense weal or woe as our condition doth require.
Application. What use should we make of all this?
1. Be sure you do not make an ill use of it. This is done when we are
not thankful for our mercies, because they are not full and perfect. It is an
abuse if we are discouraged in God’s service because of this uncertainty. When
you have any respite, or breathing time, then is the time and season to put
your hand to the work. If there be uncertainties, remember that never a great
work is brought to pass without troubles. And change cometh not until our
condition proveth a snare for us.
2. The right use we should make of it. By way of caution, take heed
of human confidences, and presuming too much on temporal success by means and
instruments. For direction--Walk by a sure rule. Get a sure guide. Encourage
yourself by the sure promise that you have to build upon. A man wrapped up in
the peace of God, and the quiet of a good conscience, and hopes of eternal
life, is fortified against all encounters, storms, and difficulties whatsoever.
(T. Manton.)
Light and solace
These verses present a suggestive description of human
history as a whole, and of each godly life in that history.
I. The mixed
character of our earthly existence, “The light shall not be clear, nor dark”;
“It shall be one day, not day, nor night.” That is, the lot even of a good man
is chequered. Every height has its hollow. And each blessing has its
accompanying affiiction. But no Christian is ever in absolute darkness. If the
rough wind be blowing, God will take care that it be not from the east.
Observe--
1. Through the trials of the past God has disciplined us into fitness
for present duties. Present trials are the prophecies of future efficiency.
2. Trials are frequently connected with our sins. Evil deeds are evil
seeds which produce a harvest of bitterness.
3. Trials lead us to long for heaven, and wean us from the world.
II. The christian’s
support under this mixed experience--“It shall be one day which shall be
known,” etc. This means--
1. Our condition as a whole--not one separate part, but the whole
“day” of light and dark--is known unto the Lord.
2. Our lot is ordered for us by Jehovah, just according as the grand
total demands it.
III. The happy
termination of this mixed state of things--“And it shall come to pass, that at
evening time it shall be light.” All doubts and clouds shall have been driven
away by the Sun of Righteousness. Relief shall come when it is least expected.
Light is the synonym for joy, for purity, for knowledge. In heaven all the
elements of darkness shall be absent. It shall be light. (Homilist.)
Mingled experiences
I. The language of
the text is descriptive of the present mingled state of affairs, both in the
Church and in the world. Darkness is the effect of our low situation. There is
nothing really dark with God--nothing imperfect in the Gospel. The Gospel is to
our perception not so distinct as to be perfectly clear; but it is not so dark
as to be useless and unintelligible. There are clouds and obscurities resting
on the subject arising from our weakness and imperfection of understanding.
Illustrate--
II. The
superintending care of Divine providence during this chequered and mysterious
state of things. This intimates--
1. God’s superintendence of all things.
2. God’s foreknowledge of all things.
3. The harmony of Divine providence.
4. The beneficial tendency of the providence of God.
5. The language is a ground of unlimited resignation and contentment;
and
6. A motive for unlimited confidence.
III. The wonders and
glories of that auspicious day in which this singular state of affairs shall
terminate. This promise contains a reserve of consolation for the feeble
Christian against the hour of dissolution. And a reserve of consolation for the
feeble Christian in seasons of perplexity and difficulty. The promise contains
also an assurance of the final glory, the millennial reign of the Son of God. (Joseph
Beaumont, D. D.)
Dark and bright periods in human life
The word rendered “clear” is in the margin “precious,” and is in
the plural. The word here rendered “dark” is in the margin “thickness.”
I. A period of
unmitigated distress. This period of unmitigated calamity primarily refers, we
have no doubt, to those long centuries of oppression, cruelty, mockery, and
scorn, to which the Jewish people have been subjected ever since the
destruction of Jerusalem. In the predictions of Joel (Joel 2:31; Joel 3:15) referring to the destruction
of the Holy City and breaking up of the Jewish commonwealth, the period is
referred to as a period when the sun shall be “turned into darkness,” and the
“moon into blood.” Three remarks are suggested concerning this dark day.
1. Such a day is the hard destiny of some men. Their life is a day of
darkness. It is so with some nations. The history of some nations and tribes is
little less than a history of crushing oppression, bloody revolutions and
untold cruelties and sufferings.
2. Such a day is deserved by most men. All men are sinners and
deserve this blackness and darkness forever. The very tendency of sin, in fact,
is to quench every light in the firmament of the soul.
II. Here is a
period of uninterrupted joy.
1. Such a day as this is destined to dawn on every good man. Heaven
is a scene of light. No clouds of ignorance or suffering obstruct the rays, nor
will the sun ever go down. “The Lord God is the light thereof.”
2. Such a day as this is destined to dawn on the world in the future.
(Homilist.)
Light and shade in the Christian life
I. The mixed
character of our earthly life. “The light shall not be clear nor dark.” The lot
even of the good man is chequered. No Christian is ever in absolute and
unrelieved darkness. It may be a long twilight with him, but it is never night.
Why does God permit so much of darkness in our lot? Set forth some of the
reasons why we have so much of difficulty and affliction to contend with.
1. Through the trials of the past God has disciplined us into fitness
for the duties of the present. We did not see this at first, but we have
discovered it now. Resistance is needed for the development of physical vigour,
and difficulty is as much required for the formation of strength in moral
character.
2. Our trials are frequently connected with our sins. Illustrate from
the history of Jacob.
3. The shades of darkness in our earthly lots lead us to long for
heaven. If everything here were as we should wish to have it, we should not
desire to go elsewhere; but “God has provided some better thing for us” in the
world beyond, and He takes care that we shall not get wedded entirely to the
concerns of earth.
II. The Christian’s
solace and support. Suggested by the words, “It shall be one day which shall be
known to the Lord.”
1. Our condition is known to the Lord. The world is governed by a
Person, and He under whose eye all things come to pass, is our Father.
2. Our lot is ordered by Jehovah. Our lives are not “by chance.”
There is an order in them, and a plan running through them. Then things that
seem to be working against us must really be working for us.
III. The happy
termination of this mixed state of things to the Christian. Relief shall come,
and that at the time when it is least expected. If the day has been lowering,
we look for a deeper darkness than ordinary when evening comes: but here, when
men usually anticipate that it will be evening, it will be morning. You have
seen this illustrated very often in separate passages of your lives. These
separate chapters are only miniatures of life as a whole, for, at its evening
time there comes to the Christian the dawning light of heaven. (W. M.
Taylor, D. D.)
Mingled light and darkness
The first clause of the text is religious. It does not refer to
the light of the natural heavens. It refers to all there is in the religion of
man, and in the things which affect him in the experience of it. His condition
is to be one of a mixed character, not wholly good, and not wholly evil--not
all light, not all dark. This mixture may be seen in several particulars.
1. In the matter of a believer’s holiness. Therein there is some
light, but it is not clear nor dark. The believer has some true conformity to
God, but it is not a perfect conformity. He often wonders at himself,--at the
inconsistencies and contradictions that he finds in his own experience. In his
poor soul faith struggles to get the better of unbelief--the love of the world
comes up to combat the love of God. His heart is inconsistent, his soul
unsteady, his way devious, and he cannot be ignorant that his holiness is only
of an imperfect character. Whenever God spares a regenerated sinner upon the
earth after the time of his regeneration, such a regenerated sinner will have
this chequered experience.
2. This mixture may be seen in the believer’s knowledge. There is a
mixture of clearness and obscurity in the knowledge of God’s people which
nothing could describe more perfectly than Zechariah has here described it.
They have knowledge, but, in all parts of it, it is limited. Behold a
disciplined believer. He is in the furnace. He knows who put him there. He
knows that the process will stop when the purpose of it is accomplished. But
there are other things he does not know. He attempts to know them, but he
cannot find them out. He asks, For what particular sin am I thus afflicted? He
knows not why God has Sent that particular affliction on him. Behold a believer
examining his own heart. He knows something about it. He very well knows its
deceitfulness. But it is a wonder to him how his deceitfulness will work. When
shall he ever be sure of a heart that has so often wandered? We ought to
remember that the imperfection of our knowledge results from our creature
littleness and the imperfection of our present state; and that so far as we
have any necessity of knowing in order to be saved, our knowledge may be as
clear and definite as our capacities will allow.
3. The comforts of God’s people have in them a wonderful mingling of
light and gloom. It is not all clear day with them, It is not all night: The
alternation of comfort and depression which Christians experience, constitutes
a chapter of facts which shows the mingled character of their life, whether we
can have knowledge of the reasons for it or not.
4. The condition of life. We fail in few things as Christians more
than we fail of fitly noticing the changes we pass through as God is leading us
on. However this may be, there are strange minglings of light and darkness in
our condition. So fluctuating and uncertain is the condition of life here, that
no mortal can be found whose biography has any considerable resemblance to his
anticipations; his life has not carried out the plans of his youth. We are
knocked about in the world. Our condition is shifting, fluctuating, varying.
There is scarcely a believer among us who is not compelled, amid this mingling
of light and darkness, to recognise the immediate hand of his God. Amid all
this mixture of good and evil, we cannot understand why it is so. How needful
is faith! After Zechariah has mentioned the mingled clearness and obscurity of
our state, he immediately points us to One who can understand it. “It shall be
one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day nor night.” Of itself it is
of a mixed character. To us it is mixed. We cannot understand it. God can. We
can turn over the chequered scene into His hands. It is to Him all one day. He
sees no darkness in it. It is all alike light--all “one.” He has one intent in
all the dispensations that affect us. When it is said, “At evening time it
shall be light,” we are not to understand that the evening or night shall be
turned into day. The rain led character of the believer’s experience shall
pass. Light shall come at the end. This may find illustration in all the
features of the believer’s experience. (T. S. Spencer, D. D.)
The mixed experience of the Church
The Church has had a mixed experience, not all dark, not all
bright; now defeat and now success; now joy, now grief; mingled light and
shade, but at evening time light has always come. So with each Christian, the
Church in miniature. Tears and smiles, sighs and songs mingle. Why this
discipline?
1. We need it to correct mistakes of nature.
2. Our deliverance from sin and the development of Christian virtues
are processes which involve this mingled experience.
3. Our hold on God by faith and prayer is made more steady. “But it
shall be one day known to the Lord.” A precious compensation is this assurance
that God knows. God is working out a definite plan. The golden thread of His
purpose runs through all that to us seems mixed and contradictory. He weaves
the warp and woof. Nothing is confused. “It shall be light.” (J. Jackson
Wray.)
Verse 7
At evening time it shall be light
Aged people’s service
Nature’s sunset is beautiful, so beautiful that every painter
strives in vain to catch it and give it permanence on his canvas.
But the sunset of life transcends it; as the reality always transcends the
type, as the spiritual always transcends the material, as the heavenly always
transcends the earthly. What is there more beautiful in itself, what more
interesting to contemplate than snowy age sustained by a living faith, and
moving on toward the end of life’s journey, calm, serene, cheerful, full of
trust in God and the hope of heaven? But why picture a day of storms instead of
a day of brightness and sunshine? Why a life of trials and sorrows and
difficulties? Herein lies the chief beauty of the picture, the preciousness of
the promise. Light is ever most glorious in contrast with darkness; peace most
blessed by contrast with strife. A peaceful, trustful, calm old age in pleasing
always. But best is the peace after strife, the trust after doubt, the rest
after toil. Such an old age bespeaks completeness. It is the maturing of the
human mind, the ripening of a Godlike character, the perfecting of an immortal
soul. Those lines of strength and beauty, those tokens of ripened character,
that quiet patience, that glowing faith and hope, that chastened joy--all have
been imprinted upon the aged face by the hand of experience the most painful.
Sanctified sorrow is an indispensable element of heavenly joy. Spiritual
strength and maturity cannot be attained except through difficulties overcome
by the grace of God. Without strife there can be no conquest, no triumph. The
promise of light at evening time from its very nature implies something of
storm during the day. But is there light? No; not always. Sometimes the promise
seems to fail. Not every troubled and toil-worn life ends in peace and hope.
Too often advancing years only bring increased darkness. Disappointment deepens
into a perpetual bitterness of spirit. Old age is marked by peevishness,
complaining, and discontent. It need not be so with any life. The promise is to
all a Divine promise. Whence shall this light come? From the shining of the sun
upon the clouds. And from the shining of God’s love upon our trials. It is the
brightness of His love that transfigures life, and fills its closing years with
light and promise. The glory of the evening light comes, not from the removal
of all clouds of evil, but from their transformation. Apart from difficulty and
trial, we could never know the infinitude of God’s love and power. So may it be
with every soul that claims this promise; the darkness of the morning, and the
storm of the noontide shall but enhance the glory of the evening light. If to
any of you the evening time still seems dark and gloomy, let in this light unto
your soul; let it stream through your life, and it will brighten and transform
everything with the likeness of its own glory. (George H. Hubbard.)
The light of evening
Evening is the time for stillness, and low, quiet tones, and
communion with things and persons far away. So deep is the peace, so sweet the
refreshment of that hour to one who, having done his work as a true man, may
rest with a good conscience. Enlarge the range of view. Such as is the evening
hour after a day of honest toil, such ought to be the latter years in every
good man’s life. As comes the evening to each mortal day, so comes an evening,
at last, to all our days together; and with it the evening light, better far
than the growing brilliancy of the early hours, or the set glare of the noonday
sun. When the day of life has been a good and useful day, not idly spent or
wasted, but passed in the fear of God, in piety and honesty, and in the
performance of duty, then must its ending be calm and still.
1. In what does the light of the evening hour consist? In the evening
of life comes the final and distinct realisation of the little value of this
world. A true man outgrows, step by step, what he was; at last, if he live long
enough, he outgrows the world.
2. To pass from this life to that in front, will be to go from
ignorance and imperfection unto a wider knowledge and a deeper wisdom. The
evening brings the time when the servant of God shall see and know many of the
secrets of the universe, and read through and through what had long been dark
mysteries to him. How many things there are which we do not understand!
3. It must bring great peace at last, to look back upon the life, and
consider its moral and its lesson. One thing comes clearer and clearer out; the
steady, never failing presence and providence of God.
4. Many have feared lest they might, somehow, lose their faith. That
is the darkest of all spectres to a Christian. How blessed then to know at last
that, whatever mistakes are made, whatever sins are committed, we are saved
from that gravest error, that heaviest and most hopeless sin, the denial of the
Catholic faith. (Morgan Dix.)
Light at evening time
There are different evening times that happen to the Church and to
God’s people, and as a rule we may rest quite certain that at evening time
there shall be light. God very frequently acts in grace in such a manner that
we can find a parallel in nature. The works of creation are very frequently the
mirror of the works of grace. But sometimes God oversteps nature. In nature,
after evening time, there cometh night. But God is pleased to send to His
people times when the eye of reason expects to see no more day, but fears that
the glorious landscape of God’s mercies will be shrouded in the darkness of His
forgetfulness. But, instead, God overleapeth nature, and declares that at
evening time, instead of darkness, there shall be light. Illustrate--
1. From the history of the Church at large. Especially the time of
the Reformation.
2. This rule holds equally good in the little as well as in the
great. We know that in nature the very same law that rules the atom, governs
also the starry orbs. It is even so with the laws of grace. “At evening time it
shall be light” to every individual. There are our bright days in temporal
matters. After them we have had our sunsets. Times of trouble, but they passed
into times of deliverance. If God prolong, thy sorrow, He shall multiply thy
patience.
3. From the spiritual sorrows of God’s own people. God’s children
have two kinds of trials, trials temporal and trials spiritual. Illustrate from
the scene of Bunyan’s pilgrim meeting Apollyon.
4. To the sinner when coming to Christ this also is a truth.
5. We shall all get into the evening time of life. In a few more
years the sere and yellow leaf will be the fit companion of every man and every
woman. Is there anything melancholy in that? Did you ever notice how venerable
grandsires when they write a letter fill it full of intelligence concerning
their children? The grey-headed man thinks of his children and forgets all
besides. If he has served God, he has another light to cheer him. He has the
light of the remembrance of what good God has enabled him to do. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
Light at evening
It is when the day is drawing to its close that most men have
their hour of leisure. We know, most of us, how nature looks at evening, better
than we know how she seems in the busier hours of the day. In our evening leisure
we have many a time had the opportunity of marking the sun’s gradual
withdrawal, the shadows as they darkened upon the landscape, the mist stealing
upward from the river, and its murmur deepening upon the ear, the leaves so
motionless, the silent fields, the universal hush, and quiet. The one thing
that makes evening is the gradual withdrawal of the light. It is the lessening
light that makes the evening time. “At the evening time there shall be light,”
that is, light shall come at a period when it is not natural, when in the
common course of things it is not looked for. It would be no surprise that
light should come at noonday. If when the twilight shadows were falling deeper
and deeper, with a sudden burst the noonday light were to spread around,--that
would be a surprise. To state the promise in the form of a general principle,
great and signal blessing shall come just when it is least expected. This
special light is promised at the end of a day which should be somewhat overcast
and dreary; not one of unmingled serenity, nor yet of unrelieved gloominess. At
the evening time there should be an end of the subdued twilight. Then there
should be light at last. When the Christian’s little day has drawn to its
close; when the Christian’s earthly sun has set, then there should be to him
the beginning of a day whose sun shall never go down, and whose brightness
shall be lessened by no intrusion of the dark.
1. In God’s dealings with His children, it very often happens that
signal blessing and deliverance come just when they are needed most, but
expected least. Show the prevalence of this law in the Almighty’s treatment of
believers individually. How often the case has proved so as regards the
collective Church. The least acquaintance with the history of the world will
bring before us a host of instances in which the oppressed and persecuted,
sometimes the cold and apathetic Church of God found better days dawn when they
were least looked for, and so found the fulfilment of the promise, that “at
evening time there should be light.” The humble Christian’s life is the best
sermon upon this text, and his own memory the best preacher. Illustrate by
times of conversion and renewal; seasons of great trial--losses,
disappointments, bereavements. Or the time of death--as the evening advances,
as the hours go on in which the light that had lasted through the day might
naturally grow less, how often it is that that unwearied light does but beam
brighter and clearer! It is not indeed always so. Such a thing has been known
as a true Christian dying in absolute despair, but in such a case disease is
unusual and the mind unhinged. Perhaps with many Christians the death is as the
life was: the evening is what the day was, “not clear nor dark.” Is then the
text not true? No, far from that. The light does come; and it comes at evening:
but evening is the close of day; and the light may perhaps not beam forth until
day has entirely closed. Not upon this side time may the blessed promise find
its fulfilment. “At evening time there shall be light,” if not in this world,
then in a better. (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.)
Lux e Tenebris
This old promise has received a thousand fulfilments, is receiving
fulfilments every day, and will to the end of time. Nations that have fallen
under the shadows of evening have often realised this truth. When the foot of
the conqueror was about stamping on their heart, and the night of despair was
settling on them, deliverance has come, light has broken on the darkness.
Churches that have passed into twilight, and about sinking into the night of
extinction, have in unnumbered instances experienced the truth of the promise.
The world at large had a grand fulfilment of it in the advent of Christ.
Evening had settled on the pagan and Jewish world, the lights of the old philosophies
and religions were all but quenched, when the Divine Logos rose like a sun into
the heavens. But we may mention a few instances in individual life where
fulfilments of the promise are abundant.
I. In the process
of repentance. In passing through repentance, through the regions of a godly
sorrow for sin, what darkness gathers around the soul. All the stars of hope,
and the lights of self-righteousness are extinguished, and sometimes deep and
horrible is the darkness that overcasts the heart. But then comes the light,
Christ appears, “thy sins are all forgiven.”
II. In the events
of life. How often the good man in passing through the world is brought into
darkness purposes broken, plans frustrated, hopes blasted, and he knows not
whither to look. Just when it is not only evening with him, but almost
midnight, light breaks forth, his heart is cheered, his path is made clear, and
his energies are renerved.
III. In the article
of dissolution. Death is felt to be an evening with man. “The valley of the shadow.”
Most look forward to it as a terrible night; but the Christly, when the evening
has come and the shadows have fallen densely all around, have found the
breaking of the night. It was so with Dr. Johnson, who through life, it would
seem, looked forward to the last hour with horror and alarm; but when the
evening came, light came, joy seized his withered veins, and one bright gleam
shone all around his heart. All men wish to die in the light. Goethe cried out
in dying, “More light, more light”; and all will have it the centre of whose
soul is the light of the world. (Homilist.)
Light at eventide
What is true of the Church is true also of its individual members.
In reference to the dark days which now and then fall to the believer’s lot in
his earthly pilgrimage, the text suggests--
1. That the day of severe affliction shall be followed by an eventide
of calm and renewed confidence in his Father-God. In our day of trial we are
too prone to centre all our thoughts in the scene immediately around us, and forget
that our greatest affliction may be the harbinger of the greatest blessing.
2. That the day of temptation shall be followed by an eventide of
triumph and repose.
3. That the day of providential bereavement shall be followed by an
eventide of submission. At such times how hard it is to say “Thy will be done”!
4. That the believer generally realises the fulfilment of this
promise in the evening of life. (William Hurd.)
Light at sundown
While “night,” in all languages, is the symbol for gloom and
suffering, it is often really cheerful, bright, and impressive. As the natural
evening is often luminous, so it shall be light in the evening--
1. Of our Christian sorrows. The night-blooming assurances of
Christ’s sympathy fill all the atmosphere with heaven.
2. In the time of old age. It is a grand thing to be young. Mid life
and old age will be denied to many of us, but youth--we all know what that is.
But youth will not always last. Blessed old age, if you let it come naturally,
and if it be found in the way of righteousness.
3. In the latter days of the Church. It is early yet in the history
of everything good. Civilisation and Christianity are just getting out of the
cradle.
4. At the end of the Christian’s life. Life is a short winter’s day.
Baptism and burial are near together. But thanks be to God, who giveth us the
victory. At evening time it shall be light. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
Evensong
So saith the sailor, when tossed about on a rocky coast,
and dark clouds cover the heavens from his view, and the lights of the shore
are shrouded in mist. So saith the star-gazer, when a strange comet visits the
heavens, exciting the fears of the ignorant, and evoking the wonder of the
wise. So saith the man of business, as in the dim and dingy city office he
pores over doubtful debts, or ponders upon bad bargains, sensitive stocks, dull
markets, baffled speculations. We ought ever to keep a sharp lookout for stars
of promise, as we sail over the ocean of chance and change to the undiscovered
continent of certainty. Let us, by the joint light of revelation and
experience, consider heaven’s cheering rays for earth’s darksome seasons. The
promise of the text applies to every stage of Christian experience.
1. At the evening time of retrospect it shall be light. The Christian
often looks back in his pilgrimage to the land whence he has come, not with
feelings of regret at the step he has taken, but of thanksgiving that God has
led him from the regions of death to the realms of life. These meditations on
the past are sometimes disturbed by distressing doubts. But “at evening time it
shall be light.”
2. At evening time of conviction it shall be light. Conviction is the
wrestling of fact with feeling. We do not always feel equally convinced of our
acceptance with God. But God has promised, if you wait patiently on Him, to
renew the strength of your languishing convictions.
3. At evening time of anticipation it shall be light. The Christian’s
home is not below, but above. The future is at best a land of shadows, the
symbol of the uncertain and unreal. When the darkness grows deepest, the light
begins to glow. The application of this balm of Gilead rests with each of you.
(G. Victor Macdona.)
At evening time it shall be light
1. The primary application of these words. The chapter is eminently
prophetic. It refers to Israel as a people, to Canaan as their land, Jerusalem
as their capital, and our Lord Himself as their King. I believe in the literal
restoration of Israel to their own land.
2. The figurative meaning we may attach to these words. The words
“evening” and “light” are expressive of two states: they are opposite terms,
meaning opposite things. “Evening,” or darkness, is figurative for woe or
sorrow, while “light” stands for joy, prosperity. At the time when things seem
to have come to their worst, then prosperity begins to dawn, and the dismal
past be succeeded by a bright and happy future. This is exemplified politically
and religiously in secular and sacred history. Illustrate from experience of
Israel in Egypt. From the condition of England in the time of King John. That
was the darkest moment of English history. The darkness of sin brought forth
the light of redeeming love. Sin gave cause for a Saviour. When the Saviour
came, did the brightness immediately shine forth? No. Again sin darkened the
world’s light. The Saviour’s love only excited the sinner’s hatred, and He who
loved the sinner was murdered by those whom He loved. But resurrection morn
dispelled the darkness of crucifixion night. Learn that it is our duty to cheerfully
expect the future to be happier than the present. (Campbell Fair.)
A surprising glory
The prophet refers to spiritual, not natural light; and his
prophecy is, that in the experience of the believer in Christ, when, in the
natural course of things he may expect spiritual darkness, behold light!
1. A long and fearful sickness overtakes the child of God. A fearful
darkness gathers in his sick chamber. Wife and children are dependent upon him.
As weeks and months painfully wear away the gloom deepens. Sun, moon and stars,
one by one go out. When, in the course of nature, he faces death, suddenly the
clouds disperse and the chastened soul rejoices in a light of peace and joy
full of heaven, and goes forth, as it were, redeemed from the grave.
2. It is true of the whole discipline of life. The reference is to
the end; at evening, etc. A long and weary pilgrimage may have to be taken; a
severe and oft-repeated series of sorrows, losses, disappointments, first be
endured. The light does not flash on him at the beginning; submission does not
come with the first use of the rod. No; he must go through the scene--endure to
the end. And, if he endure, just when the darkness seems to be settling down
upon him, and the last ray of joy and hope seems about to be quenched, at the
evening time it becomes light!
3. Millions of deathbeds bear glorious testimony to this truth.
Instead of a great darkness, celestial radiance! Instead of dismay, a peace
unspeakable! (Homiletic Review.)
Glorious endings
The sacred writers are always true to nature. They never
contradict natural facts.
I. The
ambiguousness of prophecy. Many of the prophecies have been literally
fulfilled. But there is not a fulfilled prophecy on record which, prior to its
accomplishment, was not more or less dark, obscure, or enigmatical in its
meaning. What idea could the guilty pair in Eden form of their promised
deliverer from sin and guilt? From the nature of prophecy it could have been
but a sort of twilight knowledge of the Christ which ancient believers derived
from it. The entire Old Testament dispensation was a day, known it is true to
the Lord, but to His people it was “not day nor night.” But as with all other
days of nature, providence, or grace, that also had an end. The clouds that had
covered the horizon of the moral world for long centuries broke at last. The
evening of the Old Testament day, which witnessed the coming of the Son of God,
was the brightest period of time that the world had seen since the fall of man!
Turn to unfulfilled prophecy. How will it be realised; and when? The twentieth
chapter of the Apocalypse has given occasion to hundreds of conjectures and
theories of the millennium. But the Gospel dispensation, in regard to
unfulfilled prophecy, is “neither clear nor dark,”--it is “not day nor night.”
But “at evening time it shall be light.” Presently all will be clear, and the
Divine idea and purpose will be fully revealed.
II. God’s general
administration of human affairs. It is often unintelligible. The government of
an empire is too intricate to be understood by any but the emperor himself. We
are confused and perplexed when we attempt to trace out and explain God’s
government of the world from its beginning to the present day. We do not know
often what He intends or means in His dealings with our race. The light is
neither clear nor dark,--the light of providence. But the revolution of years
is silently bringing nearer and nearer the evening time of the moral world.
Then there will be adjustment of contrary things. Then we may well be patient,
and trust in God. (W. H. Luckenbach.)
Light at evening tide
In recalling the incidents of his last year’s ministry at
Walton, Mr. Pennefather often spoke of the fact that during that time he had
been called to attend the dying beds of thirty of the most attached members of
his flock, all in blessed hope of a joyful resurrection. “Do you call it a dark
valley?” said one aged believer; “it is a very sweet valley to me! All praise!
all praise!” “It is one thing to speak of Jesus,” said a dying woman, “but it
is another thing to have Him in full view.”
Light at evening time
It is said that Mirabeau cried out frantically for music to soothe
his last moments; that Hobbes, the deist, said as he gasped his last breath, “I
am taking a fearful leap into the dark”; that Cardinal Beaufort said, “What! is
there no bribing death?” Men with the Christian light have met death in another
way. When Melanchthon was asked if there was anything he desired, he said, “No,
Luther, nothing but heaven.” Dr. John Owen said at last, “I am going to Him
whom my soul loveth, or rather, who has loved me with an everlasting love.”
John Brown of Haddington could say, “I am weak, but it is delightful to feel
one’s self in the everlasting arms.” George Washington could say, “It is all well.”
Walter Scott, as he sank in the slumber of death, “Now I shall be myself
again.” Beethoven, as he could almost catch the melody of the mystic world,
“Now I shall hear.” Wesley could cheerily meet death with the words, “The best
of all is God is with us.” Locke, the Christian philosopher, exclaimed at
dying, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the goodness and knowledge of God!”
Stephen said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Paul, “having a desire to
depart”; and, “to die is gain.” (F. Hastings.)
The sunset glow
In the thought and in the speech of the world night is made
the symbol of the dark experiences of human life. It is common to speak of the
day of prosperity and of the night of adversity. Both of these symbols are
frequently used in the Bible, the day standing for the bright experiences and
the night standing for the dark experiences of life. But the Bible studs the
night of darkness with stars of hope and suns of promise. “At evening time it
shall be light.” That is grace overstepping and going beyond Nature. Nature’s
evening time is darkness. When the evening time comes in the experiences of
God’s people, and they fear that there shall be no more day, then God steps in,
introduces a principle beyond Nature, and declares, “It shall come to pass that
at evening time it shall be light.”
1. This is a promise for the evening time of the world. The morning
of the world was a bright and glorious sunrise. In the beginning God said, “Let
there be light,” and there was light. And when He had finished His wide and
wise creation, “God saw that it was good.” But soon the dark cloud of man’s sin
overspread the earth. Light was shut out. Darkness reigned. Out of that
darkness the world has been gradually emerging, until, through all the tears
and tyrannies of the centuries, it has come into the noonday splendour of the
Christian civilisation of our century. And it is distinctly Christian. It was
the historian Froude who said: “All that we call modern civilisation, in a
sense which deserves that name, is the visible expression of the transfiguring
power of the Gospel.” Our highest literature is swayed by the purest influences
of Christianity. The scientific spirit of research and investigation, so
conspicuous a fact and so important a factor in our modern life, owes its
stimulation to the encouragement of Christianity. Christianity has created the
laboratory as well as the library. Christianity is the parent of education. It
has founded schools, established colleges, endowed seminaries. To benighted
lands and to blighted homes Christianity has sent the teacher with the
preacher. Our civic liberties and our social order are based upon Christianity.
Burn the Bible, proclaim “there is no God,” write over your cemetery gates
“Death is an eternal sleep,” and there is no power in all this land that will
stay the ravages of that beetle-browed hag--infidelity’s twin sister in every
age and in every land--Anarchism. I know that there are historians of
discontent and prophets of calamity who cannot enjoy the splendour of the world’s
midday, and who are ever telling us that the former times were better than
these. They discount all inventions and all advancement by claiming that the
morality of the present, if as strong, is no stronger than the morality of the
past. They are right in holding that all advancements go for naught if the
people are not better than they were. The test of the world’s advancement and
strength is not that the grandson rides today in the Pullman ear, while the
grandfather rode yesterday in the stage coach. The test is, Is the grandson a
better man than the grandfather was? This world has not seen a brighter era
since the gates of Eden were closed upon man than the last days of the
nineteenth century. And the twentieth century will be better. Christ Jesus is to
reign in this world. He has not yet ascended His throne. He is now on His
Father’s throne. When He went into Heaven He sat down at His Father’s right
hand, “henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool.” When His
enemies shall be subdued, then, rising upon them as upon His footstool, He
shall ascend His throne and reign. And it shall come to pass that in the
evening time of the world it shall be light.
2. The promise pertains to the Church of God. The Church of God has
had two organisations in the world--the theocratic organisation of the Old
Testament dispensation, and the spiritual organisation of the New Testament
dispensation. Through all the Old Testament we can trace a gradual unfolding of
the Church’s life and power. This unfolding was not in a continuous advance.
The whole history of the Old Testament Church shows a succession of onward
marches, and then of quick retreats--progressing, retrograding, standing still
for a while, then progressing once more, and again falling back. But in no
instance did she fall back as far as she had been, and so her history was, on
the whole, one of advance and growth. So with the Church of the New Testament
dispensation. The Church was born on Pentecost--that was the sunrise of the
Church, and it was glorious. From Pentecost the disciples went forth to tell
the story of Him who had been crucified, who rose and ascended into heaven, and
as the story spread the Church grew. Then came opposition and hatred and
persecution, but the Church advanced through all until she entered the darkness
of the Dark Ages. The heavens were shut, and a black cloud of superstition
spread over the earth. Rome sat upon her ebon throne and stretched her rod of
cruelty across the nations. It seemed as if the evening time of the Church had
come. In that time every lamp of prophecy had ceased to shine He who thundered
in the streets of Rome had been burned at the stake, Savonarola had received
the martyr’s crown at Florence, the black clouds of ignorance, superstition,
and vice shut out the sunlight of God’s love from the world. It was evening
time, but God said, In the evening time it shall be light. He kindled a beacon
in the soul of a young monk in the monastery at Erfurt. As the monk mused the
fire burned, and out from Erfurt went Martin Luther to proclaim God’s message;
and Rome shook, the Vatican trembled, the gates of brass were opened, the rod
of cruelty was sundered, Germany was delivered, and civil and religious liberty
were secured to the world. There came a time in England when religion became a
formality, and when all good men trembled for the Church and longed for the
mighty Puritans, who would crush the giant forces of evil beneath their onward
progress. It was evening time, and God had said, “It shall come to pass that at
evening time it shall be light.” Four young Oxford students--William Morgan,
Robert Kentham, Charles and John Wesley--met for prayer and Bible study. They
were called by their fellow students “Bible Moths,” “the Holy Club,” and
“Methodists,” because they were so methodical in all studies and their work.
One resistance after another the Church has overcome; at times pressed back,
but ever pushing onward, multiplying her victories and extending her dominions.
No more hospitals, for there are no more sick; no more asylums, for there are
no orphans; no more prisons, for there are no criminals; no more almshouses,
for there are no poor; no more tears, for there is no sorrow. The long dirge of
the earth’s lamentations has come to an end in the triumphal march of the
blessed redeemed Church; the New Jerusalem is with men, her children are
gathered home, and across that city of a redeemed humanity earth’s grandest
outburst of hope and welcome breaks antiphonal from wall to jasper wall. The
sunset glow; the evening time of the Church, and at evening time it shall be
light.
3. This promise is for all human experience. The great promises of
God, which apply to the whole kingdom of the redeemed, may be appropriated by
each individual member of that kingdom. In Nature the laws which control the
great forces direct the minute elements. The law that rules the grain of sand
on the seashore governs the planets in their course. It is so in the realm of
grace. “At evening time it shall be light” to the Church; “at evening time it
shall be light” to every individual believer. In the matter of the experience
of the believer in Christian service it is true that “in the evening time it
shall be light.” The majority of the men who have lived and laboured to make
this world better have received the scorn and obloquy of the world. John Wesley
was howled down by the mob to whom he preached; they threw bricks at him, they
spat upon him, but where is there a more honoured name today? Light at evening
time. Wendell Phillips was scorned and spurned for his advocacy of the slave.
Boston would not hear him, but in less than a generation afterward Boston built
a monument to his honour, and men who would not defile their lips with his name
taught their children the pathway, to his tomb. “At evening time, it shall be
light.”
4. The promise brings its helpful message to every believer in his
season of adversity and trouble. Very few people in this world escape the time
of adversity. The bright, sunshiny day of prosperity is pretty certain to have
a nightfall. “It was good that I have been afflicted,” cries David. “The Lord
gave and the Lord hath taken away,” exclaims Job. “Sorrowful, yet always
rejoicing,” says Paul. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,”
exclaims John in apocalyptic vision. At evening time it shall be light. Ten
thousand saints of God have found it so in the evening time.
5. The text has a message for old age. Sometimes men look forward to
it with trembling. It is a mistaken notion that youth is the time of gladness
and old age the time of sadness. America’s beloved artist, Horatio Greenough, a
few days before his death, said: “I have found life to be a very cheerful
thing, and not the dark and bitter thing with which my early days were
clouded.” At evening time it was light. At eighty years of age Albert Barnes
stood in the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, and said:
“The world is so attractive to me that I am very sorry I shall have to leave it
so soon.” Dr. Guthrie, past eighty, said: “You must not think, that I am old
because my hair is “white”; I never was so young as I am now. At evening time
it was light. New lights shall burn when the old lights are quenched; new
candles shall be lit when the lamps of life are dim. At the evening time of his
life the Christian has many lights that he did not have before. There is the
bright light of experience; the pleasing light of sweet memories; the cheering
light of service done for God and humanity. The scientist tells us that no
physical force is ever wasted. We whisper into the telephone, and the
vibration, though it be less than one one-hundred-thousandth part of an inch,
affects a diaphragm a thousand miles away, and our exact voice is heard by the
listening ear in Chicago. So they tell us that the light from the farthest
fixed star has been travelling steadily undiminished for more than a million
years to greet our upturned eye tonight, and to reassure us that “the hand that
made it is Divine.” If it be true of physical forces, how much more is it true of
moral and spiritual forces, that they are never lost! What a halo of glory this
casts about the old age of a man, out from whose life have poured forth the
streams of holy and sacred influences! At evening time it shall be light. John
Bunyan was right when he located Christian old age in the land of Beulah, in
full sight of the ripe fruitage and the ravishing, prospects of the Celestial
City. The infirmities of old age are only the land birds lighting on the sails,
telling the weary mariner that he is nearing the haven.” “And it shall come to
pass that at evening time it shall be light.”
6. This promise is for the time of the death of the believer. “It is
a dark passage through which you are passing now,” said a young man as he sat
beside his dying mother. And her whole countenance lighted up as she said: “Oh
no, my son; there is too bright a light at the other end to have it dark,” and
she passed out, and up, and into the palm and to the crown and to the throne.
At the evening time it was light. Paul drew near the end, and he said: “The
time for the weighing of the anchor has come. I have fought a good fight; I
have finished my course; I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for
me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me
at that day.” Take the promise with you into the future. Remember that if
sorrow camps with you overnight, joy cometh in the morning. (J. F. Carson,
D. D.)
Verse 8
Living waters shall go out from Jerusalem
The living waters
Like all his predecessors, Zechariah speaks much of Christ.
Some of his prophecies, owing partly to the predominance of figurative and
symbolical language, are difficult and obscure. In the text he refers to Gospel
days and to the Gospel blessings. He speaks of the Gospel under the figure of
living, springing, running waters; and under this figure he indicates to us the
beginning, the progressive course, and the perpetual extension of the Gospel,
together with its ultimate triumph, as seen in the universal dominion of the
Messiah.
1. The character of the Gospel. We must think of the world as a
desert, a vast moral waste, void of spiritual beauty and of moral life; and
this is in strict accord with the actual condition of peoples apart from the
Gospel. The land, the home, the heart, unvisited by the Gospel, is cursed with
spiritual barrenness and moral death. If we caused a rivulet of living water to
flow over a barren land, what would be the result? The desert land would soon
cease to be barren. Let this land be ploughed, let the seed be cast into it,
and what is the result? The desert becomes a garden; the wilderness a fruitful
field, and the barren land a forest. So let the Gospel waters flow through the
desert wastes of a sinner’s heart, or through the moral wastes of a country,
and what a blessed transformation is the result! Death gives place to life,
depravity to beauty, and barrenness to fertility. It was so in the beginning of
Christianity. The power of the Gospel has been strikingly proved in the
missions to Fiji.
2. The progress of the Gospel. The living waters go out from
Jerusalem. Christianity was not a new religion. It was the development, the
outgrowth of Judaism. But the waters were to flow in every direction, carrying
spiritual fertility with them: everywhere turning the desolate heritages of the
Gentile world into the garden of the Lord. Note also the constancy with which
the living waters flow; “in summer and winter shall it go.” The summer heat
usually dries up the rivulet. The host of winter congeals it; but these living
waters shall flow on through summer and winter. How strikingly has this been
illustrated all through the Christian centuries. Nothing has proved able to arrest
or stay the progress of the Gospel.
3. The triumph of the Gospel. From the beginning the Lord Christ has
indeed been King over all the earth, but in the text there is associated with
the idea of kingly authority that of willing submission. He shall then be
universally acknowledged Lord, every knee to Him shall bow, and every tongue
confess Him. The day will surely come when men shall be blessed in Him, all
nations shall call Him blessed. (Walford Green.)
The course of the Gospel
I. The designation
of the Gospel. Here called “living waters.” It points out the purity of the
Gospel. Not the stagnant pool, but the running stream. Holiness to the Lord is
stamped on all its principles, commandments, and rites. It is a dispensation of
mercy, but it gives no indulgence to the least sin. It points out the
refreshment which it yields. How sweet are its offers of pardon to the awakened
conscience! It points out also the fertility which the Gospel produces.
Christianity aims at forming the love of God in the heart and conduct.
II. The place from
which these waters issue. When Christ ordered repentance and remission of sins
to be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, the banks
within which these living waters had flowed were broken down, and the stream
began to rush over the Gentile world. These waters flow from Jerusalem, as it
is by the Church that they are communicated. They are brought to the Church not
only that they may be improved, but diffused.
III. Mark the course
of these living waters. The statement seems to intimate that the Gospel should
bless the nations of the Eastern and of the Western world. There are various
circumstances which indicate that a more extensive diffusion of the Gospel will
soon take place.
IV. The continuance
of the course of these living waters. Their flow shall neither be impeded by
the drought of summer nor the frosts of winter. The effects of the Gospel on
the souls of disciples are perpetual also. The knowledge it gives is
everlasting light; the peace it yields is everlasting consolation; the love it
inspires is a charity that never fails; and the holiness it forms is a well of
living water, springing up unto everlasting life. (Henry Belfrage, D. D.)
The Gospel river
I. Its nature and
its rise.
1. Its nature. It is “living water.” Water is precious, but not so
precious as the Gospel. That is the river of life, the pure water of life.
2. Its rise. “It shall go out from Jerusalem.” The Gospel might be
said to have commenced at Jerusalem. “Beginning at Jerusalem.” In Peter’s
sermon on the day of Pentecost, the river might be said to have broken forth.
II. Its diffusion
and continuousness.
1. Its diffusion. “Half of them toward the former sea, and half of
them toward the hinder sea.” It is to go from the east and from the west, from
its rising to its setting. The Gospel is for all climes. It is world-wide in
its provisions, adaptations, and claims.
2. Continuousness. “Summer and winter.” In all seasons of human life
individually and corporately.
The changeful and the constant in life
I. The changes in
this scene of our earthly life. Suggested by summer and winter. The changing
seasons of nature may be regarded as only symbols of the constant mutations in
our mortal life.
1. Human life has its changes. The man who reaches his three score
years and ten, has run through all the seasons; the freshness of spring, the
luxuriance of summer, the ripeness of autumn, and the dreary desolations of
winter.
2. Human institutions have their changes. These changes are useful.
II. The constant in
this scene of our earthly life. “In summer and in winter shall it be.” What is
the “it” here, that is to remain so constant amidst the changes? The preceding
part of the verse answers the question: “living waters.” The reference is
undoubtedly to Christianity, which is the “water of life.” But our point is its
constancy. In “summer and winter” it flows the same. The changes of the world
have no influences on it: it continues the settled amongst the unsettled, the
permanent amongst the transitory, the immortal amongst the dying. “Though all
flesh is as grass the Word of our God shall stand forever.”
1. It is constant in the fitness of its supplies for human wants. Men
through all changes, in all places, and through all times want Divine
knowledge, moral purity, heavenly forgiveness, fellowship with the Eternal.
2. It is constant in the fulness of its supplies for human wants. It
is an inexhaustible river.
3. It is constant in the availableness of its supplies for human
wants. (Homilist.)
Summer and winter
I. The changeful
in human experience. There is as much variety as in the difference between July
and December; between all that is summerly and all that is winterly in our
English climate.
1. There is this changefulness in the experience of individuals. In
the difference of differing age: Robustness of youth, decrepitude of age. In
the difference of differing health: Buoyancy of strength, feebleness of
disease. In the difference of differing circumstances: Prosperity, anxiety,
poverty; success, failure; popularity, neglect, or scorn. In the difference of
differing moods: Joy, sadness; doubt, faith.
2. There is this changefulness in the experience of families.
Unbroken home circles, and desolated hearths. Wedding days, and funerals. The
cradle the centre of the household, and anon the coffin.
3. There is this changefulness in the experience of nations.
Commercially there is a summer and a winter. So politically; so religiously.
Rome, Greece, Spain, etc., have had summer and winter. We seem getting towards
winter. But though all, whether individuals, families, or nations, thus have
“in the changes and chances of this mortal life” their bright, genial, glowing
summers, and their chill, gloomy, cruel winters, we notice--
II. The
unchangeable provision God has made for man’s needs. The prophet is telling of
a river of blessing that, though it roll through winterly and summerly
landscapes, is itself unchanged, perpetually the same. In summer and winter it
shall be. That river is surely the revealed love of God in Christianity. What
else fulfils what the prophet declares about--
1. The fountain,
2. The progress,
3. The winter of this river?
God’s love in Christ does. And that is the sublimely unchangeable
it, which remains the same in all the summers and winters of human experience.
(Urijah R. Thomas.)
Christianity
The Bible is full of promises. Some of them refer to
temporal and some to spiritual things. Some relate to the prosperity of the
Redeemer’s kingdom.
I. The
dispensation of Christianity. Here are four things.
1. Its representation. It is called--“living waters.” This softens,
purifies, refreshes the soul. It fertilises. It is described as “living
water,”--water that springs up. Rising, or springing, up in thought, desire,
prayer, pursuit, until it even reaches heaven. All is vitality where this
living water is. It is the all-healing balm. It produces a principle of life
which strengthens amidst bodily debility, and grows amidst bodily decay.
2. Its origin. “Go out of Jerusalem.” Our Lord was of Jewish parents;
the apostles were Jews; and most of the first disciples were Jews. In the Acts
of the Apostles we discover how these “living waters,” issuing from the land of
Judea, spread abroad in every direction. In this we see--
3. The directions of these “living waters.” “Half of them toward the
former sea; and half of them toward the hinder sea.” The meaning is that these
living waters were to spread all abroad. The Jewish Church was a local
stationary witness for God. The Christian Church is not local and stationary,
but is to go to the world. No dispensation of God can be final, but that which
is universal. The blessings procured by our Saviour’s death, are offered freely
to all men.
4. Its perpetuity. “In summer and in winter shall it be.” The most
unfavourable seasons for rivers are here mentioned: yet they are not able to
hinder the flow and efficacy of these “living waters.” earthly rivers may be
frozen by the cold of winter, and dried up by the heat of summer; not so with
the river of life.
II. The glorious
results of Christianity. “The Lord shall be King over all the earth.” It is
impossible to think of the introducing of Christianity, without expecting great
results. The effects of Christianity are described in two ways.
1. By universal subjection. At first sight this seems to announce no
more than what He is already. But we must distinguish between right and
acknowledgment. The design of Christianity is to make men feel their
obligations to God. There is a difference between God’s providential and God’s spiritual
government. The great thing to be attained is, for God to reign in us, by His
grace; for Christ to reign in the heart, in the conscience, and in the
affections.
2. By uniformity of homage. “One Lord, and His name one.” Here the
image changes, and the prophet leads us from the palace to the temple. “Our
Lord” does not exclude personal distinctions in the Divine essence. Now there
are lords many and gods many. Many have idols in their hearts. The time is
coming when all these idols shall be utterly destroyed. “His name one.” The
Lord shall be known by all the tribes of mankind, and in all places of His
dominion. (Timothy Gibson, M. A.)
Verse 9
The Lord shall be King over all the earth
The Second Advent of Christ
That the passage Job 19:25-27 has reference to Jesus
Christ, and to His coming to judgment at the last great day, I think there can
be no dispute.
Unless, then, we look to the reappearing of the Son of Man upon this earth, we
stultify the expectation of the patriarch, we impugn the inspiration of his
prophecy, virtually esteeming his declaration as little better than words of a
mere sound. That we may arrive at some knowledge of wherein the reward of the
Son, after having made His soul an offering for sin, consists, let us search
the Scriptures. In Psalms 2:1-12 Jesus is invested with
supreme and absolute authority in the administration of His inalienable
sovereignty. But has Jesus, the Son of Man, ever occupied the earth as here
represented? “His own received Him not.” Has He ever dashed in pieces like a
potter’s vessel the heathen, either the baptized or unbaptized portion of them?
It may be said that, in His spiritual dominion, He may be said to occupy the
earth by subjugating the hearts of His people, making them willing in the day
of His power. We need not make light of Christ’s spiritual government; but we
are compelled to look for something more than a spiritual sovereignty as the
result of the Father’s grant, even to the personal occupation of the earth as
the seat of His kingly power. And the attitude of expectation naturally excites
watchfulness, watchfulness producing prayer, and prayer holiness. (M. J.
Taylor, M. A.)
Meat out of the Eater
One day; one entire period and joint of providence. Described by
its beginning and progress; and by its end and close. The comfort and happiness
of this glorious evening is set forth in three things. The propagation of the
Gospel; the reign of Christ; the unity of the Churches. Doctrine--That in the
latter days there shall be great unity in the Church of God. And that this
unity shall spring from their acknowledging of the right Lord and the right
way. As to the unity, observe--
1. This will suit best with the quiet and happy estate of those
times. God will usher in the glorious and everlasting estate by some preparative
degrees.
2. God will then make some visible provision against the scandal of
dissensions.
3. The misery of these times doth seem to enforce the greater unity.
For use of consolation, consider your hopes; and know the reason of such
providences. For use of exhortation. It serveth to exhort and press you to
hasten, and set on these hopes. Promises do not exclude action, but engage to
it. The promises hold forth unity; strive after it, by prayers, and by
endeavours. Let everyone of us mortify such ill affections as may any way
engage us to a disturbance and vexatious bitterness. Keep yourselves pure from
ill opinions. You must as carefully avoid an error in judgment as a vice in
conversation. Do not impropriate Christ to any one party or sort of professors.
Never serve a faction or party to the prejudice and detriment of truth and
religion. As far as truth and conscience will give leave, there should be a
profession of brotherhood, a condescension and yielding to one another in love;
a walking together, or at least, a Christian forbearance. Abstain from
reproaches and undue provocations, and dispense all civil respects with
meekness. Let me entreat you to mind a few things. Beware of passion in your
own interests; though they may be much shaken and endamaged in the present
controversies, yet self-denying patience will be the best way to settle them.
Press doctrines of Christ, and the main things of religion. When you deal with
the errors of the time, do it with a great deal of caution and wariness. Take
heed of aggravating and greatening matters, making them of more importance than
indeed they are. Former ages were possessed with this spirit, every lesser
dissent and mistake was made a heresy or error in the faith. Let me entreat you
to improve your interests for brotherly and friendly collations. Rational and
friendly conviction will do much, at least it will beget a sweet and brotherly
correspondence, and it is to be hoped we shall find more meekness where things
are not carried in the way of a set disputation. (T. Manton.)
The coming moral reign of God on the earth
Physically, God reigns everywhere. Morally, His reign depends upon
the will of men, and that will is hostile. The coming moral reign is--
I. To be
extensive. “All the earth,” or “land,” may mean the land of Judea, but we are
authorised to believe that He will one day reign over all the earth, that all
souls will bow to His influence, as the ripened fields of autumn to the winds
of heaven.
II. To be
exclusive. He will be regarded as the one King whose laws all study and obey.
The great question of all souls will be, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?”
No other power will rule the soul where He becomes the moral monarch.
III. It will be
beneficent. “All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south
of Jerusalem.” Taking Zechariah 14:10; Zechariah 11:1-17, we gather at least two
beneficent results of His moral reign.
1. The removal of all obstructions to the river of truth. “The land
shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon,” etc. That is from the northern
to the southern boundary of Judea. The levelling of this land would not only
leave Jerusalem conspicuous but allow the “living waters” to have free flow.
2. The elevation and establishment of the good. Jerusalem is here
represented not only as being razed and made conspicuous, but as settling down
and dwelling securely. “It shall be lifted up and inhabited in her place.”
There shall be no more utter destruction, Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.
Conclusion: Who will not pray, Let Thy kingdom come and Thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven? (Homilist.)
The kingdom of Christ upon the earth
I. The
incalculable importance of this prophecy.
1. To the world at large.
2. To the Church in particular.
3. To every individual of mankind.
II. The blessedness
of the period to which it refers.
1. It will be a season of temporal prosperity.
2. Spiritual blessings will most richly abound. It will be a season
when God will manifest Himself on earth. Then
One heart and one way
The Lord forewarns His people of greater sufferings that they were
to undergo in the last times. Here we have the judgment itself denounced. A
description of their miserable condition at this time. The assurance of
deliverance, and that by divers agents. Though the trial were sharp, it should
be short. The issue should be happy for the evening should be light. The author
of their deliverance shall be Jehovah. As to the manner of doing it, God will
make it appear to be His work. Look at the glorious condition of this Church
after this deliverance, and that in these particulars--after this Jerusalem
shall be made eminent and honourable. Jerusalem shall be exalted, as the mother
Church. The blessed and glorious government of this state after this
deliverance. Here is the fruit and consequence of this government, “Jehovah
shall be one, and His name one.” The name of God is diversely taken in
Scripture; but here is meant the religion that God has set forth in His Word,
and the worship that He hath set up in the Church. The meaning of the promise
seems to be this, whereas before they worshipped many gods, now they should
turn from dead idols and serve only the living God. The Lord promises that as
all the idols shall be taken away, so all idolatrous and superstitious worship
also. Jehovah one, the rule of His worship one, and His worship according to
that rule one. Doctrine--When a people turn to God by repentance, and He
returns to them in mercy, He will give unto them one name, that is, He will
free them from all superstitions, and human mixtures in His worship.
1. In all ages it hath been the main labour of Satan and all the
enemies of the Church, when they could not root out the worship of God wholly,
then to corrupt the simplicity of it by human inventions, traditions, and
superstitious mixtures.
2. When they turn unto God, and God unto them, He will free them from
all these. (W. Strong.)
Verses 12-14
And this shall be the plague
The punishment of God’s enemies
This is a figurative description of the punishment of sin.
The first element of the punishment is corruption, which is set forth by the
terrible image of a living death, a fearful anomalous state, in which the
mouldy rottenness of death is combined in horrible union with the vivid,
conscious sensibility of life. The soul of the sinner, in its future
consciousness of sin, shall feel its loathsome corruption as vividly as now it
would feel the slow putrefaction of the body that rotten piecemeal to the
grave. The second element is--mutual hate and contention (Zechariah 14:13). The image is that of a
panic-struck army, in which man clutches and strikes in frantic fury his
nearest neighbour. Hell shall be hate, in its fiercest and hatefullest forms.
Sin is now the cause of all the quarrels on earth; it shall be the cause of
endless quarrels in hell. The third element is--loss of the blessings
previously enjoyed (Zechariah 14:14). This is represented by
the image of spoil. The wealth of the nations that besieged Jerusalem shall be
taken by Judah and Jerusalem, which are here combined in the triumph, as they
were combined in the struggle described in chap. 12. A fourth element is--the
infectious nature of sin. It defiles all that it touches. It has defiled the
earth and all it contains, so that it must be burned up; and it will hereafter
transform the dwelling place of its possessors into a hell, and their
companions into fiends, and make it necessary that the very instruments of
enjoyment they have possessed in life should be taken from them and destroyed.
Learn that the most fearful punishment of sinners is simply to leave them to
themselves. Sin is but hell in embryo, hell is but sin in development. (T.
V. Moore, D. D.)
The elements by which the Divine government punishes sin
I. Physical
diseases. “And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord shall smite all the
people that have fought against Jerusalem. Their flesh shall consume away while
they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,
and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.” “This description of the
plague-stricken people,” says a modern author, “is shocking, but it is not more
than what actually occurs.” See Defoe’s Plague of London. Kingsley says,
“What so terrible as war? I will tell you what is ten times and ten thousand
times more terrible than war, and that is outraged nature. Nature, insidious,
inexpensive, silent, sends no roar of cannon, no glitter of arms to do her
work: she gives no warning note of preparation Man has his courtesies of war
and his chivalries of war, he does not strike the unarmed man, he spares the
woman and the child. But nature . . . spares neither woman or child;. . .silently
she strikes the sleeping child with as little remorse as she would strike the
strong man with the musket or the pick axe in his hand.” One could scarcely
imagine a more revolting condition of humanity than is here presented, a living
skeleton, nearly all the flesh gone, the eyes all but blotted out, the tongue
withered. Physical disease has ever been one of the instruments by which God
has punished men in this world, pestilences, plagues, epidemics, and so on. But
it is not merely a plague amongst the people, but also amongst the cattle, as
we see in Zechariah 14:15.
II. Mutual
animosity. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the
Lord shall be among them, and they shall lay hold everyone on the hand of his
neighbour.” The idea is, perhaps, that God would permit such circumstances to
spring up amongst them as would generate in their minds mutual
misunderstandings, malignities, quarrellings, and battlings. “They shall lay
hold every one on the hand of his neighbour.” “Every man’s sword shall be
against his brother.” Sin punishes sin, bad passions not only work misery but
are in themselves miseries. Another element of punishment here is--
III. Temporal
losses. “And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem.” Not against Jerusalem. “And
the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together, gold and
silver, and apparel in abundance.” Earthly property, men in their unrenewed
state have always valued as the highest good. To attain it they devote all
their powers with an unquenchable enthusiasm, and to hold it they are ever on
the alert, and their grasp is unrelaxable and firm. To have it snatched from
them is among their greatest calamities, and how often this occurs in society!
(Homilist.)
Verse 16
Shall go up from year to year to worship the King.
The genius and inner heart of Christianity
1. It brings us into the possession of a new life. We are Christians,
not because we avow a certain creed, or conform to certain outward exercises;
but because we have received the life, the Eternal Life, which was with the
Father, and was manifested to us in Jesus. And is it possible to restrict the
manifestations of life? Is not God's life always the same in its abundant and
infinite variety? So surely the life of God in the soul should, and must,
express itself in all the outgoings of our existence,--in speech, act,
movement--equally on the six days as the one day; as much in the kitchen, or
the shop, as the Church. If you are possessed by the life of the Holy One, it
will as certainly appear as the idiosyncrasy of your character, which
underlies, moulds, and fashions your every gesture.
2. Christianity is consecration to Christ. It may be questioned if we
have a right to call ourselves Christians unless we regard Him as our Judge,
our Lawgiver, and our King, and are deliberately obeying and serving Him. But
if we are going to reserve our religion to certain days, places, and actions,
we necessarily exclude Him from all that is not contained within the fences we
erect. What right have we to suppose that our Master Christ will be satisfied
with an arrangement which asks Him to accept a part for the whole, a
composition for the entire debt?
3. The needs of the world demand an entire and unbroken religious
life. The world does not see us in our religious exercises, whether in our
private retirement or our public worship. It has no idea, therefore, of the
anguish of our penitence, the earnestness of our desires for a right and noble
life, the persistency of our endeavours. And if we do not give evidence of our
religion in dealing with matters that the men of the world understand, they will
naturally and rightly consider that religion is an unpractical dream, the child
of superstition and emotion. We should,” therefore, refuse to maintain the
false distinction between things that arc sacred, and those that are secular. (F.
B. Meyer, B.A.)
The public worship of Jehovah
I. It is a duty
binding on all people. “The feast of tabernacles was meant to keep them in mind
that, amidst their abundant harvests, and well-cared-for fields and vineyards,
that as in the desert, so still it was God who gave the increase. It was
therefore a festival most suitable for all the nations to join in, by way of
acknowledging that Jehovah was the God of Nature throughout the earth, however
various might be the aspects of nature with which they were familiar. Besides,
there can be little doubt that by the time of Zechariah, and probably long
before, this feast had become a kind of symbol of the ingathering of the
nations” (John 4:35).
Dr. Dods. Whilst the thousands neglect public worship, not a few
argue against it, they say it is uncalled for and unnecessary. In reply to this
we state, where there is genuine religion--
1. Public worship is a natural development. The Being we love most we
crave an opportunity for extolling, we want that all shall know His merits.
2. Public worship is a happy development. What delights the soul so
much as to hear others praise the object we love the most? This at once
gratifies the religious instinct and the social love.
3. Public worship is a beneficent development. There is nothing that
tends so much to quicken and ennoble souls as worship, and nothing gives such a
vital interest in one soul for another, as public worship.
II. Its neglect
exposes to terrible calamities.
1. The greatness of the punishment. “Upon them shall be no rain.” Now
the absence of rain involves every temporal evil you can think of, famine,
pestilence, loss of physical enjoyment, loss of health, loss of life.
2. The fitness of the punishment.
(a) Loss of the highest spiritual enjoyments.
(b) Hereafter, by the reproaching of conscience, and the banishment
from all good. (Homilist.)
The worship of God a duty and a privilege
Though it is generally admitted that Zechariah is the most obscure
of all the minor prophets, yet there were two topics on which we may safely
affirm that he was as luminous, or more so, than the rest. The first respected
the public worship of God. He and Haggai were conspicuously active in urging
the Jews, on their return from their captivity, to rebuild their temple; and
when the sanctuary was erected, we find him not only administering to the
tribes themselves, but to the strangers and foreigners who had mixed themselves
up with them to frequent the house of God, lest renewed judgment should break
forth upon them to their injury and ruin.
I. Press it upon
you as a duty and privilege.
1. It is founded in the relation in which we stand to God. He is our
Creator, Preserver, Benefactor; He is our Father. We are the families of Israel
here addressed; and has not God dealt fraternally with you as His children?
Show your filial gratitude, etc.
2. It is suggested by the appointment of Divine ordinances.
3. It is enforced by the commands and exhortations of the sacred
Scriptures. The books of Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Joshua issued
these precepts. They are echoed by the prophets (Psalms 95:1-4; Psalms 95:7; Psalms 100:2-5).
4. It is recommended by the example of the best of men who ever
lived. We are to be followers of “all those who through faith,” etc., and ought
we not to copy them in this feature? Read the histories of
Moses--Joshua--Nehemiah--of the prophets and apostles--or select one
conspicuous example, David; what was his principal wish? “One thing have I,”
etc. What his chief affliction? “The sparrow,” etc. What his chief joy? “I was
glad,” etc. What his prayer for others? “O send out Thy light,” etc. This was
his testimony, this his appeal--“Lord, I have loved the habitation.” “They
continued daily in the temple,” etc.
5. It is urged upon us by the advantages connected with its
observance. It is the house of God which He has promised to keep with His
especial presence. Of Zion He says, “This is My rest; here will I dwell,” etc.
It is through His institutions that light, grace, and comfort are imparted to His
Church.
II. To show you the
consequences of the neglect of that worship which God requires. “Even upon them
there shall be no rain.” No doubt there was a literal meaning attached to this
menace. But we must not satisfy ourselves with this comment. In making a
spiritual application of this part of the text, observe that rain is often
employed as a metaphor to denote the abundant communication of spiritual
blessings--thus, the coming of the Messiah, and the bestowments of His grace;
the influences of the Spirit; the instructions and consolations of the Word of
God. “My doctrine shall drop as the rain.” (Evangelical Preacher.)
Verse 20-21
In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness
unto the Lord
Universal holiness
This text may be a prediction of the latter-day glory, when the
knowledge of Christ shall cover the whole earth.
But at all times, and in all places, “holiness becometh the house of the Lord.”
It is His royal will and pleasure that all who name His name should depart from
all iniquity. This holiness, which we call universal holiness, because it
extends to the whole man, and to his whole conduct, is described in the text in
a remarkable manner. The prophet foretells that holiness to the Lord shall be
written on the bells and bridles of the horses. It was originally engraved on a
plate of gold, and fixed on the mitre or turban of the high priest. In wearing
this, he was a type of Christ, our great High Priest. The meaning of writing
this on the trappings of the horses is, that religion shall not be confined to
sacred persons, times, and places, as this inscription originally was to the
high priest; but that all real Christians, being a holy priesthood, shall be
religious at all times and in all things; that true holiness shall extend
itself to the ordinary concerns of life. The proposition we enforce is, that
universal holiness becomes the profession of the Gospel. To be holy signifies,
in Scripture, to be set apart from a common or profane use, to God and His
service. Holiness is the renovation of our nature by the Spirit of God. The
holiness required by the Gospel is something far superior to what is called
morality. Holiness supposes the renewal of the heart. There is a universal
change made in a real Christian, which is far superior to mere morality. God
Himself is the author of holiness; there is nothing in our fallen nature to
produce it. The principal instrument employed by the Spirit of grace in
effecting this holy change, is the Word of the Gospel. “Sanctify them through
Thy truth.” The holiness of the Gospel has for its grand objects, God and our
neighbour. Religion is to influence the common concerns of life. Holiness is
not to be confined to sacred things, but mingled with our ordinary affairs. We
see little practical religion among many nominal Christians and unstable
professors. Even the most exemplary have cause to lament their deficiencies.
I. What should be
the Christian’s temper and views with regard to himself? Let the Christian
remember that he is “the temple of the Holy Ghost,” and that the temple of the
Lord must be holy.
II. Holiness to the
Lord is to be exmplified in the relative duties of social life. In general, the
Christian has two things to regard,--to do no harm, and to do much good. Active
benevolence is a necessary fruit of holiness. There are certain situations in
life wherein persons, being mutually related to each other, are expected more
particularly to manifest the holiness of the Gospel The conjugal state. The
relation of parents and children. Of masters and servants. Then are we holy? A
soul unsanctified can never gain admittance into heaven, the residence of a
holy God, holy angels, and holy men. (G. Burder.)
Holiness
1. The holiness here predicted is evangelical.
2. The holiness here predicted is conspicuous and attractive.
3. The holiness here predicted is exemplified in the lives of the
ministers of the Gospel.
4. The holiness here predicted embraces the transactions of ordinary
business.
5. The holiness here predicted reaches to the social enjoyments of
Christian professors.
6. The holiness here predicted pervades religious worship.
7. The holiness here predicted purifies the communion of the
Christian Church. (G. Brooks.)
Holiness unto the Lord
The prevalence of sin in the world is a subject which the
Christian daily reflects upon with unfeigned sorrow and humiliation. In every
place iniquity abounds. Divine things are continually treated with presumptuous
irreverence and disregard. The mind, however, is relieved from its depression,
occasioned by the present gloomy state of things, while it contemplates the
prospects of a brighter day, which in God’s good time will arise. The sure word
of prophecy unfolds to our view the most glorious representation of the Church
prospering in the latter times. Zechariah foretells the general sanctification
of men, and the consequent establishment of true religion in the world.
I. What is implied
in these encouraging words--“In that day there shall be upon the bells of the
horses, Holiness unto the Lord”? This appears to be a prediction of the general
prevalence of pure and undefiled religion. It teaches us that holiness shall
become universal in its extent, entire in its influence, and unveiled by shame
or fear.
1. Holiness shall hereafter become universal in its extent. It shall
be written upon the bells or bridles of the horses. It shall not be limited to
persons of any particular order or profession; it shall extend to all who are
engaged in secular occupations and pursuits. Men shall then become, as it were,
priests unto God. In God’s good time, the things of God will be exalted to
their just preeminence; and as they deserve, will occupy the attention and
influence the hearts of men. Religion will be everywhere regarded as the one
thing needful.
2. Holiness shall then become entire in its influence. It shall not
be partial and defective; but perfect and complete. It shall govern the whole
man, and regulate all that pertains to Him. As all men will make a profession
of religion, so all who profess it will become truly and completely religious.
Their piety will not be limited to particular occasions. They will walk in the
fear of the Lord all the day long. They shall be influenced by a continual
sense of His presence, and actuated by an habitual reverence for His laws. But
not only shall the personal holiness of men be entire, their possessions, and
everything pertaining to them shall, as it were, be holy too. “The pots in the
Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar.” At present we have to
lament that sacred things are most shamefully abused and profaned, but
hereafter the case will be reversed; things of a worldly nature shall be
sanctified to the purposes of religion.
3. Holiness shall be open and unreserved in man, free from any false
feeling of shame, or fear of reproach.
II. What
instruction may be deduced from these words. The prophet says, “In that day.”
The period has certainly not yet arrived; nor can it be expected till the
mystery of iniquity has ceased to work. It is, however, even now in its
progress towards fulfilment; for it has a reference to the whole period of the
Gospel dispensation. Then what manner of persons ought they to be who make a profession
of that Gospel? Surely holiness becomes the house of God. Everyone that nameth
the name of Christ should depart from iniquity. All who are privileged to bear
the Christian name are required to cultivate extraordinary purity and holiness.
1. You are required to be holy by the very relation which you bear to
God.
2. This is according to the express command of heaven: “for this is
the will of God, even your sanctification.”
3. This is the very end for which the Redeemer died.
4. The Scriptures represent this aa an indispensable qualification
for heaven. “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” Are you then living
as persons truly devoted to God, and letting your conversation be in all things
as becometh the Gospel of Christ? These questions are of supreme importance to
us all; they are, as it were, the turning point on which life and death, heaven
and hell, depend. (E. Whieldon, M. A.)
Universal holiness the object of Christian hope
The words “Holiness to the Lord,” were written on the mitre placed
on the head of the Jewish high priest. They were intended to point out the
sacredness of the office, and the peculiar sanctity of the priestly character;
but they referred to a greater than he, even the High Priest of our profession,
Christ Jesus.
I. Earthly
employments sanctified.
1. This is not the ease at present. Even the people of God find
themselves in much danger of being careful and troubled about many things.
There is not now on the bells of the horses, “Holiness to the Lord.”
2. There is a time when it shall be so. It will be evident, by the
way in which common duties shall be discharged, that holiness to the Lord is
the governing principle. All the intercourse of society shall be under the
influence of Christian principle. In conducting the concerns of business, there
will be no fraud or deceit--no taking advantage of the ignorance, the
necessities, or the liberality of another--no tempting others to sin, in order
to make gain by their iniquity. Many are the temptations necessarily arising
from being associated with those who fear not God.
II. Spiritual
services beautified. This embraces religion in the Church and in the family.
1. The services of the sanctuary. Things which have been deemed of
small importance shall be attended to with a spirit of elevated piety. There is
a prevalent error in undervaluing the devotional part of the service. The day
is coming, may God hasten it on, “when the pots in the Lord’s house shall be
like the bowls before the altar.”
2. The religion of the family. In private dwellings a spirit of
devotion shall run through all the engagements of the family. Look how much
this is neglected. How many who wait on God in His house, do not serve Him in
their own.
III. The professing
Church shall be purified.
1. Charity in circumstantial matters shall be exercised. There are
now often more disputes about the way of worship than endeavours to attain the
right spirit of worship. Love of party destroys the love of Christ.
2. Agreement in fundamental truth. There shall be none to broach heresy,
or to lessen the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ; but dependence on His
righteousness shall be universal. Applying this subject to ourselves we see--
2. A source of important instruction. See here a standard for your
daily conduct. Pray, and try to attain to it. No Christian man is so happy as
he who sees and enjoys Christ in everything.
3. A subject for fervent prayer. Pray that you may exhibit in your
lives the power of grace in the soul. We see the principles on which we ought
to act, in order so to pass through things temporal, as not to lose the things
which are eternal. We may have the world, and we may use the world, but let us
not forget that “if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in
him.” Let it be our constant prayer that God may be our guard and our guide in
our religious intercourse with our families, with His Church and people, and
with our own hearts in our prayer chambers. And may the Lord Jesus Christ
fulfil in us all the good pleasure of His will, and the work of faith with
power. (J. G. Breeny, B. A.)
Religion and business
How to retain the spirit of serious piety in the busy activities
of life, is a question vital to Christian character. The practical divorce of
religion and piety in our daily affairs is fraught with peril. Too many regard
religion as out of place in the thoroughfares of trade, as a fabric of too fine
a texture, or as an exotic transplanted from a tropical to a polar clime. The
easy quietude of the sanctuary or closet befits it: “Holiness to the Lord” may
be lint on the Bible, but not on the ledger; on the mitre of priest, but not on
the bells of horses. How can religion and business be properly blended?
1. By having all actions constrained by holy motives. We do not,
indeed, have God as a distinct object before us every moment, but we do the
work which He has appointed us, in our special sphere, as a service to Him:
“Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” The blood
circulates silently in our veins, and so religion is a silent, but vital, force
in our hearts.
2. We are to remember that religion is being good and doing good. It
is not quietism or asceticism, but a dominant principle that guides our thought
and speech and action. It is a reflection of Christ’s life in the flesh. It
shows itself in minutest details--the soft step, the gentle voice, the
courteous demeanour; in honest speech, in nobility of dealing and truthfulness
of disposition. True religion, someone says, puts no sand in sugar, alum in
bread, water into milk, or otter into butter; it keeps the wife from ill-temper
when her husband’s dirty boots soil the floor, and keeps him from having dirty
boots; it prevents him from fretting at a late dinner, and keeps her from
having late dinners.
3. Religion is doing secular acts from sacred motives oftener than it
is doing merely sacred acts, so called. When piety stamps our life, all our
acts are religious. It is wrong to separate toil and worship, and to forget
that motive gives character to deeds. An automaton may do many of our acts, but
it, has no moral character. The heart makes the work of the workman holy. “An
anvil may be consecrated and a pulpit desecrated.” A religion that is not
fitted to week day work never had a Sabbath day origin. (C. H. Buck.)
The true Christian holiness
These words indicate that the great design, and ultimate
result, of the diffusion of the Gospel is to promote holiness. In the view of
many, salvation is simply deliverance from punishment. But salvation is a
character as well as a condition, and the two can never he really divorced.
Christianity is a life as well as a creed. The bestowment of forgiveness is not
the great end of the Gospel, but only a means to the higher end of lifting men
from their degradation and making them in heart and in conduct, as well as in
name, the sons of God. To rest in pardon is a mean and contemptible thing,
displaying a disposition of the grossest selfishness. When salvation is really
possessed, it is a living character, produced by the grace of the Holy Spirit,
and rooted in the simple faith which the soul is exercising in Jesus Christ.
I. What holiness
is. What precisely do we mean when we say of a man that he is holy? We imply
not simply that he is virtuous, but rather that his virtue has a special and
peculiar quality. In our common speech there is a recognition of the
distinction between virtue and holiness. The virtuous man regulates his conduct
by moral principles alone, while the holy man maintains a close and constant
fellowship with the living God. The one gives you a lofty idea of his own
excellence, the other makes you feel the greatness and purity of God. The
scriptural significance of the term is “consecrated to Jehovah.” Holiness, so
far as it is an inward principle, is the maintenance of close communion with
God: and so far as it is an outward manifestation, it is the consecration of
the life to God. Holiness is a disposition lying back behind all virtues, and
giving to each of them its own distinctive peculiarity. Holiness is an inward,
all-regulating principle.
II. How this
holiness is to be attained. Clearly, it is not possessed by every man. No man
has it naturally, and as a thing of course. Indeed, the very reverse is true.
Men do not like to retain God in their knowledge. How is all this to be changed?
Not by the individual himself. From an unholy soul nothing but that which is
unholy can proceed. By no mere process of development, or natural selection,
can the unholy man train himself into holiness. Neither can this change be
accomplished by means of external rites. The Scriptures state with the utmost
explicitness that we are regenerated by the power of the Holy Ghost. If we
inquire into the mode of His operations, we get no reply. If we ask how He can
work in and upon a man, while not infringing on his free agency, we are not
told. Though silent as to the mode, Scripture repeatedly asserts the fact. The
other element of holiness is consecration to God. But the essence of sin is
self-will, and so it is impossible that a man can dedicate himself to God until
sin within him has been crushed. In order to holiness, the sinner needs to be
reconciled to God, and to he made like to God. But these are the very things
which are to he accomplished through his belief on the Lord Jesus Christ, by
the power of the Holy Ghost. As to consecration to Him, the sight of the means
by which his guilt and depravity have been removed, produces in the believer’s
soul a deep feeling of personal indebtedness to God. He cannot lay claim to
himself after God has redeemed him to Himself by the precious blood of Christ.
His gratitude takes the form of self-dedication. It follows, also, that we must
seek to have faith, strong and abiding, in the Lord Jesus Christ as our
Redeemer, and in His death as the propitiation for our sins. This is a view of
the Cross which is too seldom before our eyes.
III. Where this
holiness is to be manifested. It is to characterise the believer’s life in all
occupations and under all circumstances. Under the New Testament we have no
holy places, or holy persons. To the Christian there should be nothing purely
secular. Wherever piety is genuine, and our consecration unreserved, we shall
seek in all things to glorify God. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Holiness on the bells of the horses
The period to which these verses refer is still future. Piety is
to be almost universal, extending generally to all persons and acts. Gather
from the text what real piety is. Use the text as a standard.
1. On the bells of the horses, “Holiness to the Lord,” not on the
priest’s mitre only. Common occupations are to be performed with an eye to God.
We are to serve God indirectly in our callings, as well as directly in our
ordinances; secular things are to be conducted on the same holy principles of
faith and obedience as our sacred services. Horses are used for state
occasions, for recreation, for journeying, for merchandise. And bells on the
horses give notice of their approach And wherever a Christian comes, holiness
to the Lord should attend him.
2. “And the pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before
the altar.” Lesser things in the service of God should be attended to, as well
as the more important; earthen pots, as well as golden bowls, should be held
sacred. Where there is real holiness people are not nice and particular about
ceremonial holiness. The true worshipper seeks to worship in spirit. This is
the main thing. At the same time, he does not disparage sacred persons, places,
days, and things, because he can make ordinary persons, places, days, and
things, conducive and helpful to his spiritual growth. You should carry your
religion into your ordinary affairs, but you should not carry your ordinary
affairs into your religious worship, except for the sake of guidance and
blessing, and that you may go forth to conduct them in a right manner and with
a proper spirit. (H. C. Mitchinson, M. A.)
Holiness to the Lord
Jerusalem and Judah are referred to in a literal sense, but, as is
common, they are ultimately referred to as a type of the universal Church of
the latter day. In its real scope the prediction extends to the whole world.
Everything in prophecy and providence unites, to prove that the entire
fulfilment is at the door. The term “holy” signifies “set apart,” “devoted.” To
be holy to the Lord is to be consecrated to Him. But “holiness to the Lord” is
a still more forcible expression, and denotes consecration in the abstract. Men
will write “holiness to the Lord” on all that they are and have. This implies
that they will go through and reexamine all their habits, and bring all to the
touchstone of Scripture. They will consecrate to Him all their powers of body
and mind, all their time, influence, and possessions. You have come upon the
stage at a time when Christendom is teeming with projects and institutions to
meliorate the condition of man, and to advance the kingdom of Christ. See that
you give these institutions firm and unwearied support. Fall in with the spirit
of your age. You ought to be wholly for God, because He made you what you are,
and built the world you inhabit, and furnished it for your use, and placed you
in it, and commanded you to serve Him with all your heart and soul. You are not
your own. You ought to be wholly for Christ, because He died to redeem you from
eternal fire and raise you to immortal happiness. You must devote your lives to
the interests of His kingdom if you would most promote the happiness of men.
You must be wholly devoted if you would wish for a life of comfort. A divided
mind is an uneasy mind. Many people have just enough religion to make them
wretched. A heart and life consecrated without reserve to Christ, would bring
peace of conscience, the strong exercise of benevolent affection, the
satisfaction of a delightful employment, and crown all with ecstatic communion
with God, and an assured hope of immortality. (E. Dorr Griffin, D. D.)
Holiness to the Lord
The prophets and apostles often speak of a glorious day, which is
to dawn upon the Church in the latter ages of the world. Respecting this
glorious day two things are predicted in the chapter before us. The true
religion shall then universally prevail. Christians shall make much greater
attainments in religion, and its sanctifying influence shall pervade all the
common concerns and employments of life.
1. These expressions of the text imply that, when the day here
predicted arrives, all the common business, employments, and actions of men
shall be performed with as much seriousness and devoutness, as the most pious
Christians now feel when engaged in the most solemn duties of religion. The
meaning of the prediction evidently is that, while persons are engaged in all
the common business and concerns of life, whether at home or abroad, whether in
the house or by the way, they shall feel as serious, as devout, as much engaged
in the service of God, as did the Jewish high priest, when he wore that sacred
inscription upon his forehead.
2. In that day, every house, every shop, and the whole world itself,
will be a house of God, a temple consecrated to His praise. A temple is a place
consecrated and devoted to God for religious purposes. But in that day every
house will be such a place.
3. Every day will then be like a Sabbath.
4. Every common meal will be what the Lord’s Supper is now.
5. When this day arrives, there will be no insincere worshippers
found in God’s house, no hypocritical professors in His Church.
Application. Learn--
1. Our great and innumerable deficiencies.
2. Whether we have any religion or not.
3. What pleasures, pursuits, and employments are really lawful and
pleasing to God. (E. Payson, D. D.)
Holiness to the Lord
Zechariah describes, in the last chapters of his book, great
troubles coming on the world. All the world gathered round about Jerusalem to
destroy it. The Lord Himself coming down from heaven to deliver the sacred city.
There was no thought more pressed upon the mind of the Jew than that of
holiness. It was the motto of the national life. The same conception of
universal sanctity was carried forward from Judaism to Christianity.
I. The highest
state of man, the most blessed condition of the world, is here set before us.
The first meaning of holiness is separation. Separation looks two ways, to the
past and to the future. There is something from which we are separated, and
something to which we are separated. When we think of holiness practically, in
respect to our present life, we are apt to regard it as representing an
unattainable height. Holiness is absolute purity. Sanctification is ever
represented in Scripture as though it were equivalent with a positive perfection
already attained in this life. Holiness describes, not a realised height of
nature or life, but a law or condition of life,--a process, a growth, springing
out of faith, going on with us to our eternal future. Holiness is consecration.
II. This Divine idea
of holiness is universally applicable. There is nothing which cannot be
consecrated. The first thing in true consecration is the act of the inner self.
We have none of us altogether conquered our old selfishness: we battle with it
still. But holiness is the renunciation of all for Christ. And we have all an
outside life to bring under this law of entire surrender. Holiness is not the
condition of human nature, left to itself, it is the gift of God. There is a
spurious holiness into which we are invited. Outside sanctities will never
quicken the soul into new life. (R. A. Redford, LL. B. , M. A.)
The holiness of the gospel church
These words describe the purity and holiness of the gospel church
in such terms and notions as are proper to the Old Testament dispensation.
Notice the inscription, or impress,--“Holiness to the Lord.” The things
inscribed are particularly enumerated, the horse bells; the bowls, the pots.
What was used in the kitchens of the temple; and the utensils of every ordinary
house and family. Notice the time. “In that day.” The whole state of things
under the Gospel, which is as it were but one day. But where is this universal
holiness to be found? Prophecies of things belonging to our obedience are to be
often understood of our duty, rather than of the event. As to the event, it is
to be understood comparatively, not absolutely. And the Gospel state hath its
ebbs and flows in several ages. Doctrine--God in and by the Gospel will effect
an eminent and notable sanctification both of things and persons.
I. That degree of
holiness which is here prophesied of.
1. All such things as were before employed against God should be then
employed and converted to His service, for the horse bells shall be inscribed.
2. Upon all the utensils of the temple there shall be “Holiness to
the Lord,” whether pots or bowls.
3. The expressions imply a proficiency and growth in holiness; for
the pots of the kitchen of the temple shall become as the bowls of the altar
for purity and holiness.
4. As it is a progressive holiness, so it is also a diffusive
holiness, which spreadeth itself through all actions, civil and sacred; in
things which belong to peace and war.
II. Of holiness in
the general. Consider it--
1. Relatively. Four things are in it. An inclination towards God.
From this tendency towards God ariseth a dedication of ourselves, and all that
we have to the Lord’s use and service. From this dedication there results a
relation of the persons so dedicated to God, so that from that time forth they
are not their own, but the Lord’s. There is another thing, and that is the
actual using of ourselves for God. We are vessels set apart for the master’s
use.
2. Positive holiness may be considered either with respect to our
persons or actions. Our persons, when we are renewed by the Spirit, or there is
an inward principle of sanctification wrought in our hearts. As a person is
holy by his principle, so an action is holy by the rule, when it agreeth with
it as to manner and matter and end.
III. Reasons why
this eminent holiness, both of persons and actions, should take place in the
Gospel, above the times of the law.
1. Because of our principle, the new nature wrought in us by the
Spirit of God, which is suited to the whole will of God.
2. Because of the exactness of our rule, which teacheth us how to
walk in our several businesses and employments.
3. Because of our pattern and example, Jesus Christ, who was exact in
all His actions.
4. Because of our obligations to Christ; partly because of His
dominion as the Lord and Redeemer by right of purchase. In all conditions and
states of life He hath a right in us, therefore in every state of life we
should glorify Him. Partly from our gratitude to Christ as Saviour as well as
Lord. Use--To persuade us to this universal obedience. None enter upon God’s
service but with a consecration. Sundry directions.
The bright future of the world, the reign of holiness
Holiness will be the salient feature in the future of the world.
The holiness will be universal.
I. It will embrace
the affairs of common life. “Upon the bells of the horses.” It was common
amongst ancient nations to have bells on horses for use or ornament, or perhaps
for both. It is said that in Alexander’s funeral procession the horses had gold
bells attached to their cheek straps.
II. It will embrace
all domestic concerns. “Every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness
unto the Lord of hosts.” The idea is that holiness will extend even to the
minutest concerns of domestic life, the members of families will be religious.
The very pots in which the priests cooked their food should be as sacred as the
bowls that caught the victim’s blood. Observe--
III. It will embrace
all religious characters. “In that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in
the house of the Lord of hosts.” “By Canaanite,” says Dr. Henderson, “is meant
merchant. The Phoenicians who inhabited the northern part of Canaan were the
most celebrated merchants of antiquity. The word may fairly be regarded as
standing for mercenary men, men animated by the mercenary spirit.” Such men are
ever to be found in connection with religion. The old prophets bewailed this
spirit. It was found in the earlier ages of the Christian Church. Men who
considered “gain as godliness,” the Canaanite or the merchant do not necessarily
belong to mercantile life but to other avocations as well and even to the
priestly life. Perhaps the mercenary spirit is as rife in priests and ministers
now as ever. But in the coming age there will be no more the Canaanite--the
mercenary man--in the house of the Lord, all will be holy. (Homilist.)
Holiness has to do with every part of our life
Religion is one of the colours of life which mingles most
intimately with all the other colours of the palette. It is that which lends
them their appearance of depth, and the best of their brilliance. If by a
subtle process it is taken away, all become tarnished and discoloured. (W.
Mallock.)
Holiness applies to common things
I pray my friends not to be so spiritual that they cannot do a
good day’s work, or give full measure, or sell honest wares. To my disgust, I
have known persons professing to have reached perfect purity who have done very
dirty things. I have been suspicious of superfine spirituality since I knew one
who took no interest in the affairs of this world, and yet speculated till he
lost thousands of other people’s money. Do not get to be so heavenly minded
that you cannot put up with the little vexations of the family; for we have
heard of people of whom it was said that the sooner they went to heaven the
better, for they were too disagreeable to live with below. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Holiness in the common things of life
There is a legend of an artist who sought a piece of sandalwood
out of which to carve a Madonna. At last he was about to give up in despair,
leaving the vision of his life unrealised, when in a dream he was bidden to
shape the figure from a block of oak, which was destined for the fire. Obeying
the command, he produced from the log of common firewood a masterpiece. In like
manner many people wait for great and brilliant opportunities for doing the
good things, the beautiful things, of which they dream, while, through all the
plain, common days, the very opportunities they require for such deeds lie
close to them, in the simplest and most familiar passing events, and in the
homeliest circumstances. They wait to find sandalwood out of which to carve
Madonnas, while far more lovely Madonnas than they dream of are hidden in the
common logs of oak they burn in their open fireplace, or spurn with their feet
in the wood yard.
Holiness unto the Lord
Holiness stands for three things--first, and in its deepest
conception, separation from sin or common use, as the one day in the week, the
one mountain of Zion amid the hills, and the child Samuel in his mother’s home,
dedicated to the service of God. Secondly, holiness stands for consecration or
devotion to God; that which is not used for sin is set apart for His holy
service; that which is not used for ordinary purposes is dedicated, like the
communion plate, to one most holy and sacred purpose. Just as you would not use
the chalice or paten of the communion for any common meal, however urgently you
were pressed to it, so the holy thing is set apart for God. Thirdly, holiness
implies growing capacity for the likeness of God. The nature which is yielded
to God receives more of God, and, by receiving God, becomes changed into the
likeness of God. So Holiness unto the Lord was engraven as a sacred motto upon
the golden plate, on Aaron’s forehead, and everyone that saw the high priest so
arrayed felt that there was a rightness, a holy fitness, that a man who was set
apart for the service of God’s house should wear such a tablet. Probably, if
you were told that you should dally wear a similar badge, you would exclaim,
“No, not so. I am quite willing to be a Christian. I believe in Jesus Christ as
my Saviour. I am looking one day to stand before Him, rid of all imperfections
and impurity, in the Temple of God, but I dare not assume that title now. I am
not holy. I know it myself, and those that know me best would confess it too.
That inscription and that golden plate are not for me.” Then you are missing
the point of Zechariah’s conception of this dispensation. Anticipating the time
in which we live, he said, “The Holy Spirit will be so brought within the reach
of ordinary people that the sacred inscription which had been reserved for the
high priest will be inscribed upon the very bells of their horses’ gear, while
the utensils and vessels which are devoted to common use will become, as it
were, dignified and sanctified, as much so as altar vessels; while those which
the priests employ for common purposes will be as bowls in which the blood of
the victim is received, and into which the priest dips his hand to sprinkle the
blood on the Day of Atonement.” Three words will indicate our line of thought,
namely,--Abolition, Inclusion, Elevation.
I. Abolition.
There is an abolition in our present dispensation of the old distinction
between sacred and secular. Many people live in two houses--of their sacred and
of their secular duty; and though they pass from one to the other yet there is
a distinct demarcation between what they are at sacred hours and at other
times. People seem to suppose that religion can be put on and off as a dress;
that it is separate from their real life; that it resembles undigested food,
which is taken into the body but does not become part of their nature, and is
therefore a burden and inconvenience. Now, this cannot be right. If you
consider the genius of our religion the idea of such a partition cannot be
admitted for a moment. What is the Christian religion? A creed? A performance?
A donning of a certain outward behaviour or habit? It is a life; and surely
life must express itself by speech and act, and in all the various outgoings of
doing and suffering. The life of a flower must always exhale sweet fragrance;
the life of a bird must always pour itself forth in carol and song; the life of
a fish must always show itself, whether it flashes up from the surface of the
water or buries itself in the depth. So the life of God always expresses
itself; it is not located in certain acts, but it pervades a man as the spirit
of selfishness might do. A student’s knowledge will affect his life at every
turn. An artist cannot find enjoyment at one time in that which jars on his
well balanced tastes at another. So when we receive the new life of God it must
pour out through the channels of our whole being; or, ii ever we are
inconsistent with it, it will rebuke and call us back, through confession and
prayer, to the old standard. You cannot be religious there and irreligious
here; if you have life it will show itself as much on Monday as Sunday.
Religion is also a recognition of Christ’s kingship, the presenting Him with
the keys of one’s whole being. But if you are only going to serve Christ on
certain occasions, and on Sundays, there are six-sevenths of your time taken
out from His holy government. How can you call yourself a slave of Jesus Christ
if you are only serving Him in certain specified duties and acts, whilst the
residue of your life is spent according to your whim? Is not that the way in
which the wandering tribes of Siberia acknowledge the Tsar of Russia, whilst
they assert a good deal of autonomy of their own? Is not that detrimental to
all consistency, all true devotion and consecration? Does the planet ever leave
the sphere of the sun’s influence? Religion is a testimony to the world. The
world does not come to our places of worship or see us at our best; the world
does not intrude upon our domestic privacy, and overhear our prayers. The world
can only judge us when we cross its track, when we are engaged in the same
duties as it is familiar with, or undergoing privations and discipline it can
appreciate.
II. Inclusion. The
Jews were forbidden to buy or own horses. Horses were identified with war, with
proud display and show. But here we note that instead of the horses being kept
outside the national life, they are permitted, and, instead of their being under
a ban, Holiness unto the Lord is written upon their bells--Calvin says upon
their blinkers. In the old times men said that religion consisted in their
attitude towards God, and that therefore everything which could not be directly
used for His service must be viewed with suspicion, Hence the relationships of
family life were carefully abjured by monk and nun; and through the Middle Ages
especially, when the ascetic idea dominated men, we have hardly any reference
to natural beauty. The Christian idea is infinitely preferable. You may have
your horses, but they must be consecrated. You may have the horse bells to make
sweet music, but see to it that they are inscribed with Holiness unto the Lord.
You may have the vessels and implements of daily service, but mind that every
one of them is handled as the bowls of the altar. Of course, if you feel that
certain things, which are innocent in themselves, are getting too great a hold
upon you, or are influencing other people wrongly, then you are bound to put them
away. Whatever you may do rightly you may do for Him, and whatever you may do
for Him you are right in doing.
III. Elevation.
Zechariah says that there is to be no distinction between sacred and secular,
but he does not say we are to level down the sacred to the secular. He does not
say that the holy bowls in which the victim’s blood was caught are to be levelled
down to that of the other vessels of the Temple; but that the ordinary vessels
are to be levelled up to these. He does not say that the priest is to take off
his plate, and have no more reverence for the worship of God than he felt when
he went to saddle his horse for an afternoon’s excursion, but that he is to
saddle his horses for his pleasure ride with the same reverence and devotion to
God as when he entered the temple at the call of sacred duty. The whole
tendency of the present day is to make everything equally secular, but we must
take care to make everything equally sacred. You must have your church, that
your workshop may become imbued with the spirit of your church; you must have
your Bible reading, that all books may be read under the light that shines from
your Bible; you must have the Lord’s Supper, that you may eat and drink always
to the glory of God. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》