Zechariah 10

Chap. 10. This chapter is a continuation from the close of chap. 9, and hence has for its ground idea the wars of the Maccabees against the Syrian power. Verse 1 stands immediately connected with 9 : 17, indicating the external prosperity that succeeded those wars; verse 2 falls back to note the apostasies which brought on this Syrian scourge; verse 3 the zeal and jealousy of the Lord kindled against the corrupt Jewish leaders, and the remedy for their mischiefs; in verse 4 men rise up capable of filling positions of responsible trust; in verse 5 they fight valiantly, because the Lord is with them, and confounds their foes. In verses 6-12, on the basis of this great deliverance wrought for His people, the prophet predicts that in times more remote the Lord will work similar but yet more glorious achievements for His Zion. H. C.

This chapter connects itself so obviously with the preceding one, that they should properly form but a single chapter. The vision of temporal prosperity just revealed—peace and security from external oppression—suggests to the prophet’s mind a warning that such blessings are God’s gifts, to be sought from Him by prayer; and not to be obtained by resorting to idolatrous intercessions and to false teachers. B. C.—The same line of thought is continued, but with the warning that they are to seek their blessing from Jehovah, and not from idols or diviners. And as in old time their shepherds—i.e., their kings, had been their ruin, Jehovah will now be Himself their Shepherd, and under His rule they shall become like a glorious war horse; and out of Judah shall proceed the corner—i.e., the corner stone, upon which the whole building of the State depends, the nail or bracket which supports the most precious articles for use and adornment, the weapons of war for defence, and (not the oppressor, as the Authorized Version renders the word, but) the captain or ruler, who shall win for the Jews dominion (verse 4). In the rest of the chapter the happy effects of the union of Ephraim with Judah are described; and whereas in old time they had been scattered among the heathen in punishment, they are now to be sown among them as a blessing, and also because their own land can no longer contain their increasing numbers, though they are to recover their former boundaries, and possess Gilead and Lebanon as in David’s days. R. P. S.

1. Ask ye of the Lord rain.** The promise of future plenty suggests the mention of the means by which it might then be procured—viz., supplication to Jehovah, and not to idols. Abp. Newcome.—Under the ancient dispensation the Lord gave timely rains and abundant harvests to His people when they were obedient and trustful, and sought Him in prayer. He took care to have them understand this from the outset. (See De. 11 : 13, 14.) “And it shall come to pass that if ye shall hearken diligently unto My commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all your heart, and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn and thy wine and thy oil.” Hence the prophet says here, “Ask of the Lord rain,” it comes for the asking, for the Lord your God hears the prayer of His obedient people. Rain “in the time of the latter rain” was especially useful to perfect the maturing crops. “So the Lord shall give,” not “bright clouds,” but “lightnings,” always portending rain. The Hebrew words translated “showers of rain” imply abundance, “the rain of great rain.” H. C.

Zechariah said nearly five hundred years before Christ, “Ask ye for rain in the time of the latter rain.” God had promised to give His people the early and the latter rain. But He wanted them to pray for it nevertheless. And sometimes He withheld it because they did not ask for it. And it is so in the spiritual kingdom. He waits to be gracious. He is anxious to bless and to save. He would not have His word return unto Him void, but accomplish that whereunto He has sent it. But He “will be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.” If, then, we would have showers of blessings upon our congregations, if we would see thousands converted in a day, we must hold pentecostal prayer meetings. We must ask earnestly, unitedly and perseveringly for the outpouring of the Spirit. Interior.

2. All the light that came from these gods and diviners was only darkness; their guidance only misled the people; the hopes they inspired were worse than vain; consequently the whole people were led off in a wrong and ruinous way, going en masse, as a flock of sheep follow the lead given them. They were in great affliction (the sense of the word rendered “were troubled”), because there was no competent and real shepherd. Therefore the Lord comes to the rescue.

4. When the Lord visits Judah in mercy, He gives her the very blessings she needs—good leaders in place of the bad who had been so sore a curse upon her. Hence out of Judah now come forth the “corner-stone” men, good for bearing the weightiest responsibilities: the “nail” men, to hold things in their right place, or to bear great burdens. “The battle bow” are the men skilful in the line of war, but the word rendered “oppressor” does not in this passage imply any injustice, but only an active, vigorous and capable ruler.

6. This conception carries us onward into the Messianic age, and could have its fulfilment in nothing short or less. The recall of the Ten Tribes, in any age subsequent to Zechariah, must, of necessity, be regarded as Messianic, and to be fulfilled only in the New Testament sense. With these principles of interpretation before the mind, this entire passage (verses 6–12) becomes not only clear and free from its otherwise insurmountable difficulties, but rich in Gospel significance and in the fulness of glorious promise for Zion in her latter days.

7–9. “Ephraim” contemplates in its literal sense the Ten Tribes; but in its real prophetic outlook, the ingathering of the nations to Jesus Christ in the Gospel age. A Jew in the time of Zechariah could conceive of no state of things more desirable than the reproducing of the good times of David and Solomon. Hence language and figures are drawn from that state to represent the best condition possible for God’s earthly kingdom—the sublimely glorious conquests of peace and victories of love in the latter days. In verse 8 Ephraim comes back with heart full of joy; the Lord lifts up His shrill cry for them, as the keeper of bees whistles for them, and they come to His call. They multiply as of old (Ephraim took His name from the idea of being prolific in population). In verse 9 God will scatter them abroad among the nations, and there, under the moral influence of this affliction, they shall remember the Lord their God and repent of their great sins. So the Lord said by Hosea (2:4), “I will allure her into the wilderness and speak to her heart.” H. C.

I have redeemed them. In its entire scope and spirit, from Genesis to the Apocalypse, one leading fact is disclosed in this Book of God; one grand idea is affirmed, illustrated, interwoven throughout its extended warp of history, prophecy, psalm, evangel and epistle

—a voluntary redemption by a Divine Redeemer, a deliverance for man, fallen and condemned, by an appointed and accomplished Deliverer. This is the single key-thought of all inspired revelation. This gives unity, order, consistency, attractiveness to the whole and to all its parts. Herein is exhibited one and the same Divine Person, the sole Representative of the Godhead in all dispensations represented as the Jehovah of the Old Testament, the Christ of the New, the one sole actor for the Godhead in all forms of Divine working, the actual Achiever of every purpose of the Godhead in creation and Providence, in all deeds of judgment and of mercy. But the leading character in which this Divine Person appears through all the revelation is as the Deliverer—the great transaction of the inspired records, to which everything beside is tributary, is the deliverance. Preeminently is this one and the same Being, the Jehovah of the Old Testament and the Christ of the New exhibited in both testaments as set apart to work deliverance for sinners, and, through preparative and final steps, as actually achieving such deliverance. And in the Apocalypse (Rev. 19:10) the sole surviving apostle, John, affirms this fact with great plainness: “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Uttered at the very close of the inspired canon, at the close of the mystic volume, that recites in outline the remaining events of time, it reaches forward as well as backward and covers with its meaning all history yet to be. “The spirit of prophecy”—i.e., the intent and meaning of all inspired disclosure, is to testify of, to make known Jesus, the Christ of God. B.

9. I will sow them among the peoples. Their scattering shall be like the scattering of seed in the ground, not to bury it, but to increase it, that it may bring forth much fruit. The Jews are said to be dispersed into every nation under heaven (Acts 2:5); and as it was their troubles that dispersed some of them, so perhaps others transplanted themselves into colonies, because the land of Israel was too strait for them; and many were natives of other nations, but proselyted to the Jewish religion; now these were sown among the people (Hosea 2:23). And this contributed very much to the spreading of the Gospel. The Jews that came from all parts to worship at Jerusalem fetched thence the Gospel light and fire to their own countries, as those (Acts 2), and the eunuch (Acts 8). And their own synagogues in the several cities of the Gentiles were the first receptacles of the apostles and their preaching, wherever they came. Thus when God sowed them among the

people, that they might not get hurt by the Gentiles, but do good to them, He took care that they should remember him and make mention of His name in far countries; and by keeping up the knowledge of God among them as He had revealed Himself in the Old Testament, they would be the more ready to admit the knowledge of Christ as He has revealed Himself in the New Testament. H.