Zechariah 9:13 Commentary and Bible Study

From the perspective of Zechariah’s own generation, the rise of Greece as the predominant power in the world was yet future. But because this chapter speaks very specifically of Alexander’s conquests, the prophecy picks up on this situation and uses it as a figure for what will happen in the gospel age. When Greece will come down with overwhelming power to destroy Syria and Philistia, Israel in her weakness will look to the Lord and he will deliver her. But then something more surprising will happen which is also of the Lord. That worm Jacob will become the instrument of God to conquer armies and empires far greater than itself. God will turn Judah into a bow, and Ephraim into arrows, and will make the sons of Zion to triumph over the sons of Greece. How can that be, when Greece is so strong and Judah so weak? It will happen because the gospel will be sent out into all the world and will conquer, not with a sword of steel but with the sword of the Spirit as the Spirit of God takes his word and applies it to the hearts of men and women out of every tongue, tribe and nation. The gospel will go out from Jerusalem when the apostles are clothed with power from on high. They will begin the work and others will continue it throughout the gospel age.There is surely a reference to Psalm 18:14 and indeed to the whole of that psalm. God is seen as accompanying his people and ensuring their victory. God ‘bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind … Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them’ (Psalm 18:9-10, 14). It is the same embellished and triumphant language which scorns all enemies as powerless to prevent God’s purposes coming to pass. In the New Testament the new Jerusalem will not be like the old: split and quarrelling. It will be a spiritual city with a great purpose to conquer the world for Christ. God will inspire the winning of souls.God’s people will be defended, but more than that; they will go on the offensive and make advances into the whole world. Their weapons will not be anything special – battering engines or chariots and cavalry (in the terms of the day) – but simple hand-held weapons: sling stones as used by a shepherd to defend his flock, and by David to defeat Goliath. They will be filled with the Spirit and therefore full of joy. They will be filled like bowls, probably, as Gill mentions, a reference to the blood of the sacrifice poured out on the altar, a picture of the comfort of the atonement of Christ to God’s people. God himself will be their Shepherd and protect them from the wolves that threaten them. His people will be very precious to him and be regarded as jewels in a crown. They will be a spiritual people with a testimony to the whole earth so that people see them and hear them and are drawn to their message like those drawn to an ensign, a flag raised to rally troops together, for those who join them will have common cause with them: the promotion of Christ’s kingdom.‘His goodness’ and ‘his beauty’ (verse 17) does not refer to God but to Zion or to the flock of God. It is again a picture of an idyllic rural community in which there is much rejoicing and thanks to God at the time of harvest. They will be characterised by genuineness and meekness of spirit.