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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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Zechariah 12:1
Comments
Zechariah now seems to contradict all he had said. He had just told us that God has ended the covenant and now he takes up Jerusalem again as if he had forgotten all. But as the physical is laid in the dust, the spiritual is born, described in symbolic terms, in terms of victory. How do we know? Because it is a feature of the prophets that when speaking of the gospel age, their language always becomes exalted. After having read in chapter 11 about the abandonment of the nation and their final rejection by God, this chapter with all its optimism and promised blessing makes no sense unless it is looking forward to the gospel age when great blessing will come upon the church. National Israel could not be spoken of in such glowing terms after God had so clearly set it aside, but the church which is comprised of Jews and Gentiles can certainly be described in this way, for all who believe are the seed of Abraham (Galatians 3:29). Is there a contradiction with previous chapters? No, because this is God’s covenant with the church not the nation of Israel. That is where people go wrong when they apply chapter 12 to literal Jerusalem.This chapter is about the great period of blessing soon to begin. It will arise out of suffering. God who created Israel in the first place will do a new thing. Not only will blessing come in the midst of judgment, but judgment will be a gateway experience. Here we are reading of the coming of the Lord and the period covering Calvary. This will not be a dismal period, but the beginning of a new age. Calvary marks the beginning of a new age, but so also does the fall of Jerusalem. It is a chapter as amazing as the others in the number and detail of its prophecy. Verses 10 of this chapter is quoted in the Gospel of John and applied to Calvary, so that John confirms that the whole chapter, which is all of a piece, is a prophecy about New Testament times.It is described as ‘the burden of the word of the Lord’. The word burden is usually used in the context of a heavy message or judgment, and yet this chapter is about triumph. The solution is that the message is on two levels. The ending of the old order comes as mentioned in chapter 11, but out of it comes a new Jerusalem, a spiritual people composed of Jews and Gentiles.
Application
Three great attributes of God are listed which show he has the right and the power to do the wonderful things that he says he will do. Always when our faith starts to give way, we remind ourselves of the greatness of our God and all his mighty works, and then faith is enabled to believe his promises again. He is the God who stretched out the heavens. We still cannot measure the universe but what we can see is enough for us to see his power is unlimited. He has laid the foundation of the world and he is Lord over the minutest particles of nature. The earth is stable for as long as he intends it to be, and man cannot overturn his purposes. The spirit of man with which we are so personally familiar is a mystery which only God understands.
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