Chapter 10

In chapter 10 we bring together under one chapter God’s blessing on a nation, and divine blessing on a national entity depends upon several principles. It depends upon attitude toward the Jew, but the national entity here is Israel. The second factor is that the believer is said to be the salt of the earth and a preservative. This is the believer with Bible doctrine. The more Bible doctrine you know the more you can help your country, the less Bible doctrine you know the less you can help.

Knowing Bible doctrine is a part of it and especially pertaining to prayer, because in this particular section we have in Zechariah’s day a prophecy which was to be fulfilled almost immediately and a prophecy which will be fulfilled in the future. Our first four verses deal with encouragement to a national entity through a prophet. The encouragement is brought into focus in verse one through prayer. One of the great failures of believers is the failure to pray for our country and a failure to pray for those in responsible positions of authority. A prayer can take two directions: we can pray for their removal; we can pray for their enlightenment.

Verse 1 — a command. “Ask ye from the Lord” .This is a qal imperative. The content of this command is going to be to pray for the economic prosperity of the national entity. The word for “Lord” here, translated literally Jehovah, can refer to the Father, the Son, or to the Holy Spirit. The recipient of prayer is the Father, the revealed member is the Son, the one who empowers is the Holy Spirit. “Lord” here, of course, refers to the Father; “rain” — this must be interpreted in the time in which this passage was written. Rain here refers to prosperity under an agricultural economy; “in the time of the latter rain.” There were two kinds of rain in the agricultural cycle of the Jews. The first they called the “early” or the “former” rain, and this came down after the planting. The latter rain, which we have here, came down before the harvest to guarantee a good crop. So this is a good crop prayer. If they do not get rain in the time of the latter rain they will not make a good crop; if they do not make a good crop their prosperity collapses. So to ask for rain means to ask for prosperity. And the principle is that divine blessing depends upon divine grace. They could not make rain and it didn’t rain because they were good or because they were bad. In other words, the whole point of asking is to indicate that even in the details of their nation everything depends upon who and what God is, including their economy; “bright clouds” — the Hebrew doesn’t say that. The word should be “lightnings.” It means the rain is coming — “give them showers of rain, to every one grass [growth] in the field” .This is the basis of the economy. Everyone is benefited when the crop comes in. When a country is in a jamb there is a principle of doctrine here: under divine institution number four the only way you can ever get out of national trouble is to go to the only one who can help, the Lord. But who can go? Only believers in fellowship. They can help their country where no one else can? This should be encouragement to pray for your country.

Verse 2 — How do we stay out of the grace bracket? How do we stay out of the marvellous thing that is described in verse 1? Get into idolatry, false doctrine, and the status of confused people with no leadership — the three factors of verse two. Idolatry is the devil’s communion table. So behind the devil’s communion table is the devil’s doctrine. And then when false doctrine prevails you have confusion.

“For the idols have spoken vanity.” The word for idol here is the Hebrew word teraphim, which refers to a figurine-type idol in contrast to the gigantic idols in the heathen temples. In Ezekiel 21:21 we have a reference to the teraphim. They were consulted there to find out what to do. In other words, people asked: “Shall I plant here, or here, or here.” And they prayed to these figurines. The purpose of these figurines was to give prosperity to the individual — same idea as rubbing the lamp and getting the genie to work. So instead of prayer, what the Jews had done before they went into the fifth cycle of discipline was to pick up with these teraphim. They were minus doctrine so they were operating under teraphim; instead of going to God and asking for prosperity they forgot all about the Lord and they worshipped these teraphim. “Vanity” — emptiness. The believer under legalism is empty. Notice: grace equals God doing the work [divine good], man simply receives what God has provided; legalism or religion equals man doing the work [human good], and God is supposed to bless [but He doesn’t] on the basis of what man does. Man gets the credit under legalism; God gets the credit under grace; “and the diviners have seen a lie” — false teachers under a system of idolatry have to be able to impress the people with their religion, so they have to come up with something. They have to pretend to perform miracles because they can’t actually perform them. They can get in touch with demons. The word “diviners” is now used. This does not mean they are divine! It means a soothsayer or one who practices divination. Generally this particular verb in the Hebrew is used for practising divination in three ways: by reading arrows, by reading entrails, and by the teraphim. Here it applies to the teraphim. This type of activity was specifically forbidden by Deuteronomy 18:10,12. But divination was widely practised in Israel just before the fifth cycle of discipline — Isaiah 3:2; Jeremiah 29:8; Ezekiel 23:28; “have seen a lie, they comfort with false dreams” — it says literally. The lie is false doctrine. Their comfort: false dreams. When they wake up things are just as bad as they were before. False doctrine is compared here to a false dream. It may give a temporary relief from the pressure but the comfort is in vain.

The people were scattered like sheep without a shepherd. This is the fifth cycle of discipline administered. “They went their way” means they went into captivity. Why? They were like a flock that was scattered, they had no shepherd to gather them. They were confused because they had no spiritual leadership to teach the Word, to encourage the people to turn to the Lord, and so on. They went into the fifth cycle of discipline for a very simple reason: false doctrine led to false practice. They got further and further from the Lord.

Verse 3 — the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. Often in a passage such as this one you have one or two words that demand some reconstruction of the life of the ancient world. “Mine anger” is divine judgement and refers to the fifty cycle of discipline. Remember that in 586 BC the fifth cycle of discipline was administered to the southern kingdom of Judah. It resulted in the destruction of the temple and the complete destruction of Jerusalem. In 516 BC, after 70 years, the 5th cycle, categorised by the scattering of the Jews out of the land, came to its conclusion. The 5th cycle of discipline could not be terminated until the temple was reconstructed. The reconstruction of the temple is a very simple principle: no temple, no doctrine. All doctrine for Israel centred in the temple. Beginning in 323 BC there was a decline of interest in doctrine — apathy to apostasy. When the apostasy became great God again put them under the 4th cycle, and this is the period of Antiochus Epiphanes. And in our passage we are going to see the Jews under the 4th cycle of discipline, under the domination of Antiochus Epiphanes, and we will see a breakout based upon Bible doctrine in the frontal lobes of one family, the house of Hashmon, the Hasmonaeans, led by Judas Maccabaeus.

Now, when God says “Mine anger” He is not really expressing a hostility toward the believer at all. God is really expressing a hostility toward things that are contrary to His own person, to His essence; “was kindled against the shepherds” — who are these shepherds? Shepherds are people who are the leaders in Judah after 516 BC. They are the people who came along and mistaught the people. They were the false teachers. They were on negative volition toward Bible doctrine and, therefore, had religion which advocates anti-biblical concepts. God does not tolerate in His plan any religion. When you exclude from your life the things whereby you can be blessed — Bible doctrine, then you suck into the vacuum of the mind mental attitude sins, religion or legalism, and an emphasis on the details of life. And these things not only exclude God’s plan, they accept all these other things as a substitute and automatically come under divine laws of pressure and disaster — not only individually but collectively; “and I punished the goats” — refers to the oppressors of Israel. And once we get to the word “goats” we now go from 516 BC to 323 BC, the golden age based on doctrine, down to 167 BC when the 4th cycle of discipline came into operation, and the goats are people like Antiochus Epiphanes — the Seleucids are the goats. These are the people who oppressed the Jews. And why? Because individual believers in Judah excluded Bible doctrine. Therefore the marvellous things that God had for them had to lie fallow like a field. They could not be used. In one generation they changed everything from the glorious golden age and they went from apathy toward doctrine to apostasy. In apostasy they have loaded up the mentality of the soul with things that are false, and consequently God is going to have to pull them out. And when it says “I will punish the goats” he is saying that there comes a time of rebound. It means that some Jews have got back on doctrine; they have recovered. So all in one small sentence here we have the failure of the Jews, the recovery of the Jews, and God’s intervening on their behalf; “for the Lord of hosts hath visited his flock of the house of Judah.” The word “visit” means to visit with blessing and it refers to that day in 167 BC when Antiochus Epiphanes put a gold statue of himself in the Holy of Holies and the Jews objected. Things were so bad in Judah that they had to fight to regain their liberty, but before they could fight they had to have Bible doctrine; “hath made them as his goodly horse.” The word “goodly” isn’t there at all. There is no such thing as a “goodly horse.” The word in the Hebrew is a “majestic charger,” a war horse. Here are the Jews beaten down by their apostasy, feeling sorry for themselves, all under the 4th cycle of discipline, their own children slaughtered before their eyes. And then all of a sudden there is a nucleus, there is a man who on the basis of Bible doctrine is like a charging war horse, and he goes into action. And his five sons go into action and they gather an army around them. Finally, on 25 December of 164 BC, the temple is cleansed, Jerusalem is free, and they started a feast called the feast of lights — Hanukkah.

Verse 4 — the source of blessing and discipline. “Out of him came forth” — here is the promise of grace. This is (verse 4) actually what they are going to think through that glorious week of the feast of Hanukkah. This is a week of the greatest happiness that could be imagined. People had totally and completely recovered their freedom, and that freedom is on a true basis — Bible doctrine. So, what do they think? They attribute it to where it belongs — the grace of God. Verse 4 describes the thinking of the people after they had won their freedom through fighting. “Out of him” — God the Father. God the Father had a plan for their life and it was fulfilled because they came back to Bible doctrine. Principle: God the Father has a plan for your life and it will be fulfilled only as you link up with Bible doctrine; “came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor together.” God the Father designed something that converted the cowed, cowardly, weak, apathetic, apostate Jews into a majestic horse. What motivated them to suddenly fight for their freedom? Bible doctrine. When everything else had failed Bible doctrine recovered them from the 4th cycle of discipline and brought them back into prosperity. This is a grace passage and therefore this means that God provides the action.

First of all, the cornerstone. Before these people could be motivated by doctrine they had to have a cornerstone and the cornerstone refers to the cross — phase one. The cornerstone refers to the fact that Jesus Christ is the head of Israel, Jesus Christ is the head of the Church. Israel and the Church meet at the cross. The Jews recovered from the 4th cycle of discipline but it had to have a starting place. God the Father provides the corner stone.

In phase two we have the next factor, the nail. The cornerstone refers to phase one, entry into the plan of God. The nail is used to describe the use of doctrine in time, phase two. The nail wasn’t really a nail at all, it was a wooden peg. It was used in tents, in homes, and it was used for hanging things on. And the wooden peg is a picture of putting everything your life in His hands — Psalm 55:22, etc., the faith-rest technique. It also connotes assurance based on Bible doctrine, confidence with regard to the will of God and the plan of God. A nail is something upon which you hang something of value. Everything of value must be tied up with Bible doctrine. A nail is something on which you hang burdens. You take them off of yourself and you hang them on this peg. This again is the concept of casting your cares on Him.

“The battle bow” — after salvation, after Bible doctrine, now we have the battle bow. The battle bow speaks of fighting. They were not motivated to fight until they were born again, until they had Bible doctrine — then they were motivated to fight for freedom. So the battle bow did not come first. Once you get with the plan of God then doctrine will motivate what has to be done. With the Jews, they were under the slavery of the Seleucids, they were under the 4th cycle of discipline. And the Seleucids brought the issue to them. The Greek army marched into this little town where the house of Hashmon were the priests. They said to the Greeks: “You sacrificed a pig, and that is contrary to Bible doctrine.” And then because of Bible doctrine the Maccabean revolt was begun. That was the battle bow. But the battle bow didn’t come apart from doctrine and apart from the plan of God. And because the battle bow was light Judas Maccabaeus defeated four great Greek armies from the Seleucids. And it was always the grace of God. It started with the corner stone — salvation. Next was the nail, phase two provision. Next, application of doctrine at the point of crisis called for the battle bow, and so the battle bow came from the Lord.

Finally, one other factor: “out of him every oppressor.” Why were they oppressors? Because they had a whole generation of believers who had rejected Bible doctrine. They had created in the mentality of their souls a vacuum into which had been drawn religion, mental attitude sins and emphasis on the details of life. So there was a desperate situation brought on by a previous generation and now the situation was corrected.

That then is the story of the first part of this chapter. But in verses five and following this has an application to a more desperate situation which will exist at the second advent.

Verses 5-12 — encouragement with regard to the second advent. The activities of the Maccabaean revolt studied in the previous verses are to act as an encouragement to the believers who find themselves facing similar pressures at the time of the second advent of Christ. Just before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth Jerusalem will be under a very heavy siege and the believers there are going to have to apply some doctrine, and they are going to have to apply it in a way so that they will fight and resist the enemy against hopeless odds. Israel’s victory at the second advent is the promise of verse 5.

Verse 5 — “And they” — the Jews who resist in Jerusalem. They have accepted Jesus Christ as their saviour, they have learned a great deal of doctrine in a short time, and the result is that they resist with whatever weapons they have in the siege of Jerusalem; “shall be as mighty men” — they have great personal courage in battle and even though they face hopeless odds they are effective. The basis of their effectiveness is their mental attitude produced by Bible doctrine. Their great personal courage is described in Revelation 16:13-16 and in Zechariah 14. Application: Bible doctrine gives a proper mental attitude for any situation in life; “which tread down in the mire of the streets” — a Hebrew idiom for killing effectively and efficiently. So these are born-again believers with maximum knowledge of Bible doctrine, applying doctrine to the situation and shooting down the troops of the king of the north as they attempt to take their section of Jerusalem; “tread down in the mire of the streets” is an idiom for street fighting and the slaughter which is involved; “they shall fight” — in the first half of the Tribulation the command is not to fight. The Jews of the first half of the Tribulation get their instructions to run, to flee to the mountains — Matthew 24. But the last half the command is to fight. So these people are to fight at the siege of Jerusalem. “They shall fight” is a niphel perfect stem which is generally passive. It means in this case that they received the impetus to fight, they received the motivation from Bible doctrine. The perfect tense means that even though this is future it is an accomplished fact, this is the prophetum perfectum of the Hebrew, and it is used in connection with prophecy to show that something is very certain and very definite; “because the Lord is with them” — this phrase goes back to Old Testament times. Today we do not pray “the Lord be with us” because the Lord is in us. When something is in you, you don’t invite it to be with you! With you is Old Testament, it is the previous dispensation; in you is this dispensation. Notice here: “the Lord is with them.” The Tribulation is the end of the Jewish Age, the end of the dispensation of the Age of Israel; “Because the Lord is with them” — cf Isaiah 41:10; Deuteronomy 31:6,8 which are specific promises for Old Testament saints. They have definite application to us except for one phrase: “with you” .In the Church Age it is “in you", that is the only difference; “the riders on horses” — speaking of mobile forces. These are the same horsemen as found in Daniel 11 where the king of the north is the invader and who comes with horsemen, which would be armoured forces; “and shall be confounded” is literally, shall be confused. In other words, the thing that confuses them is the day in which the Lord returns to the earth. The confusion is caused by the fact that there is total darkness, the same kind of darkness that was at the cross. The armour of the king of the north cannot function in this type of darkness. It is a darkness that excludes all light and it is in this total darkness that the Lord shall come.

Verses 6,7 — as a result Jesus Christ returns to the earth and we have the deliverance of these people at the second advent.

Verse 6 — “And I will strengthen the house of Judah.” This is again the Lord giving a promise for this great disaster period. God always has in His Word X-number of promises for disaster situations. This is a promise for maximum catastrophe. Verse 6 means everything to the believer at the end of the Tribulation, the Jewish believer in Jerusalem. “I will strengthen” is a piel perfect. The piel stem means I will give the mental attitude necessary for the catastrophe. The piel stem is intensive and it has to do here with intensive thinking or concentration. To have this concentration there has to be Bible doctrine in the mentality and then there has to be the ability to apply it under pressure. To apply it under pressure you have to be up on your techniques for doing so. It all adds up to a person who can think clearly under maximum disaster conditions; “I will deliver the house of Joseph” — the northern kingdom, the ten northern tribes. Judah is the southern kingdom. This means that all thirteen tribes will be represented in the siege of Jerusalem; “I will bring them again to place them” .It should be: “I will cause them to dwell in a place of blessing.” This word “dwell” is the hiphil of yashab, and it means to dwell in blessing. This is the blessing which God provides in the perfect environment of the Millennium; “for I will have mercy” — again the piel stem and it means grace in action. Because of propitiation God is free to love us whether we fail or succeed; “upon them” — these Jews; “I had not cast them off” — the regenerate Jews who are alive at the second advent are going to be all regathered. Why? Because of those few Jews, the remnant, who resisted in Jerusalem; “or I will be their God” — “their God” means regeneration. Regeneration means relationship.

Verse 7 — “And they of Ephraim” — the word “Ephraim” is used to describe the cowards; “shall be like mighty men.” Ephraim often has the connotation of cowardice — Psalm 78:9 — even though they had all of the equipment necessary they ran away in the day of battle. What can convert a coward into a hero? Bible doctrine. But Ephraim is converted through Bible doctrine — Zech. 10:7; “and their heart [mentality of the soul] shall rejoice as through wine.” “As through” is an analogy, the same as we have in Ephesians 5:18 where it says “be not drunk with wine.” The analogy here is simply emphasising that wine or something on the inside changes the overt behaviour pattern. And the point is that doctrine on the inside changes the overt behaviour pattern of Ephraim, formerly cowards, as per Psalm 78. This is an analogous idiom. It is what they are thinking that changes them; “their children” — as a result of being courageous they will preserve their families. These men have families in danger of invasion; “shall see it” — they will see the second advent. Why? Because their parents fought. Why did they come in and fight? Because doctrine changed their mental attitude; “and be glad” — because they too are saved and have doctrine; “their heart shall rejoice in the Lord” — they are going to see Him coming. In other words you have families who are believers all standing on Bible doctrine — fathers fighting, the children are protected, they see the coming of the Lord, the rejoicing of the father and the children, everyone is rejoicing in this.

Verse 8 — we have a regathering. There will be Jews all over the world under the fifth cycle of discipline. “I will hiss for them” is literally, “I will whistle for them” .This is Christ after His return — “and gather them” — this is the gathering of the Jews from all over the world. They have been out under the fifth cycle of discipline and at this point the fifth cycle is terminated; “for I have redeemed them” — those who are saved will go into the Millennium. This is depicted by the feast of atonement which brings together then two advents. The first advent is the cross; the second advent is the crown.

Verse 9 — a retrospective verse. It goes back to the administration of the 5th cycle of discipline in 70 AD, which will be the subject of the first half of the next chapter. “And I will sow them among the people” — the Jews after 70 AD are scattered among the Gentiles; “and they shall remember me in far countries; and they shall live with their children, and come again.” So he is saying that there will be saved Jews throughout the world at the time of the second advent. Verse 9 really answers a question which is inserted by the syntax between verses eight and nine. Why does the Lord whistle? Answer: verse nine. Believers are scattered all over the earth, the 5th cycle is over, He will bring them in to Jerusalem.

Verse 10 — “I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt” — used as an analogy. As in the past they were delivered in the Exodus, so they will be delivered in other countries. The second analogy: “out of Assyria” — specific because Assyria took the ten tribes in the northern kingdom in 721 BC, when with the fall of Ephraim the ten tribes of the north went under the 5th cycle of discipline to the second advent. In 70 AD the southern kingdom went under the 5th cycle which terminates at the second advent. (The 70 years of the Babylonian captivity is not in view at this point. We are taking up only the 5th cycles which end at the second advent) This is Ephraim and they were taken out under the 5th cycle of discipline by Assyria; “and I will bring them into the land of Gilead [Jordan] and Lebanon; and a place shall not be found for them [an idiom meaning a fantastic population explosion].”

Verse 11 — “And he shall pass through the sea with affliction” — literally, “the sea of affliction.” The people getting back will have gone through much affliction but they will pass through unscathed because of the faithfulness of the Lord. They shall come back in spite of the pressures against them, pressures which are comparable to Egypt and Assyria; “and [the Lord] shall smite the waves and the sea, and all of the deeps of the rivers shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down [so that this does not hinder the regathering], and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away” .In other words, there is no nation that is anti-Semitic that is able to hinder this regathering.

Verse 12 — Israel’s restoration at the second advent. “I will strengthen them in the Lord; and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the Lord.” The believing Jew will be regathered by the faithfulness of the Lord, will be protected against any type of anti-Semitism, will be restored to his proper place, only when the Lord comes back.