Zechariah 14:1 Commentary and Bible Study

‘The day of the Lord’ is a signpost term telling us that this is a Messianic prophecy. This prophecy would not have been welcome for most of the Jews, because they liked to think that day of the Lord would be a time of national blessing and prosperity, but it turned out to be the opposite. The chapter opens with trouble as do chapters 12 and 13; the language becomes increasingly dramatic. Three times there is this cycle, and each time it begins with the fall of Jerusalem and the birth of the church, out of which spiritual blessings flow. Zechariah looks at the same period from three different perspectives.Most of the old commentators, right up through the Reformation, interpreted this passage as describing AD 70, the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans. Objection! It was only Rome that attacked Jerusalem in AD 70! Yes, but Rome was the Roman Empire; Rome was all nations; Rome controlled everything, and everybody concurred with Rome. It may have been the Roman emperor, and it may have been the Roman army, but what Rome did, Rome did for all nations. None of the nations defended Jerusalem. One problem in applying this to AD 70 is that verse 2 tells us that the residue of the people will not be cut off from the city. Just as there is a distinction made between two different parties in the land (13:8), so there is a distinction between those that go into captivity and the residue who will not be cut off from the city (though in both cases the proportions are not precise figures). This conflicts with what happened when Jerusalem fell to the Romans, for at that time the entire population of the city was taken into slavery. According to Josephus, when Jerusalem finally fell at the end of the siege and the Romans had killed the fighting men and the elderly, nearly a hundred thousand were enslaved. Hengstenberg quoted by Leupold says that we have a passage that applies ‘to the entire Messianic time from beginning to end’. The fact that this passage is hard to link to any specific event certainly points to it being an idealistic prophecy, similar to many in the Book of Revelation. Many of the prophecies there are representative of happenings which occur again and again in the history of the church. Jerusalem did indeed fall to the Romans and there was terrible suffering inflicted by Rome on the Jews (Matthew 24:21), and this is included in what Zechariah predicts, but there is more to it than one literal historic event. Jerusalem is under attack, and Zechariah speaks of the spoil being divided in the midst of her. This is either the spoil which Jerusalem takes from her enemies, or the spoil which her enemies plunder from her. Some, viewing it as the latter, have tried to link this to the gifts which Christ gives to his church, and refer it to the Scriptures which became the possession of the church. The early church had great teachers – Paul and other apostles. In Ephesians 4:8 he quotes Psalm 68 which foretells the wonderful gifts which Christ will give to his church – just such gifts as these. We do not get the ceremonial law, but we get something far more wonderful – the fulfilment of all that it signifies. Abraham in a sense belongs to the New Testament; the Abrahamic covenant is ratified by Christ. The spoil came over from the law and the prophets, and so the young church gained. That is true, but it is better to see this as the spoil which the enemies of Jerusalem take from her, for this action (verse 3) provokes the vengeance of God on behalf of his people. While Jerusalem suffers greatly and all the nations of the world turns against her, there are those within her whom God will not allow to be hurt. There is a residue that will not be cut off, an elect remnant who believe in Christ and have their sins washed away.