Zechariah 14:8 Commentary and Bible Study

Our interpretation of the prophets must be checked against the prophets; the word of God is consistent with itself. If we would expect as much from a secular writer, how much more from God who knows all things! In verse 5 we have read of those who flee from Jerusalem with great urgency, but now we read of blessing going out of the same Jerusalem during the same period. How can both be true? The language is highly figurative, and we are expected to be able to cope with a figure and not read like a child who wants everything to be literal. Clearly these are not literal waters, for they are called living waters. What goes out from Jerusalem is the apostolic doctrine and the accompanying enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. God calls himself ‘the fountain of living waters’ (Jeremiah 2:13; 17:13) and Christ speaks of what he has to give the Samaritan woman – if only she knew to ask – as living waters (John 4:10). The believing soul who drinks of Christ, finds that ‘out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water’ (John 7:38). This is the consistent Biblical use of this symbol. They will go out from Jerusalem because that is where God willed that the message would begin to be sent out into all the world, to show that it was his truth delivered to Israel that is fulfilled in the gospel of Jesus Christ.These living waters form two great rivers, half of them going to towards the Dead Sea (or Persian Sea) and half towards the Mediterranean Sea. This is a figure very similar to that used in Ezekiel 47:1-12, where easterly flow is definitely towards the Dead Sea, for it is a sea which needs healing and the waters bring life wherever they go. Zechariah adds that these waters will never fail: they will flow at all times of the year, in summer and winter, and not simply in the rainy season when the wadis are filled. The gospel will go out into all the earth – that is how the dispersion of the rivers should be interpreted – and bring life wherever it goes. The blessing of God will not be limited by geography anymore, but will go to all lands, tribes and peoples, Christ having removed his temporary earlier restriction (Matthew 10:5; 28:18-20).‘And the Lord shall be king over all the earth.’ This message is about Jesus Christ as Lord, as King of heaven, exercising his influence over the hearts of men and women. Wherever the living waters flow, they have a spiritual effect in bringing people to submit to the rule of Christ and call him Lord. There will be much evangelism in the day of the Lord, in that coming gospel age, but in AD 70, after only about 30, 35 years life of the church’s existence, there will be the Roman destruction of the city, and that will add such an impetus, as there is a massive dispersion of believers from Jerusalem all over the world.