Zechariah 8

The words used are so vivid that the writer seems to become an inspired artist; with a few clear strokes and strong colors he paints a fascinating picture of that coming glory of his nation, so that we, standing here so many hundred years afterward, find it as fresh as if the artist’s hand were just moved aside from the canvas. How thoroughly human the figures and impressions of that Bible picture are; and how lifelike they represent our religion to be! We may take these sentences as a graphic outline of what God would have a Christian state of society to be, not in heaven, but in this world. In the scriptural imagery, or symbolism, Jerusalem is a type of the Christian Church. Where the Gospel of Christ has done its perfect work, where Christianity has realized itself in social institutions, and has penetrated all our private and public life with its practical regulation, there the whole of our being will come under its control; all its periods, from childhood to old age, will take the stamp and bear the fruit of this holy and gracious power in the heart; every capacity in us will be invigorated to its best exercise by Christian faith; our common work—the handiwork of the husbandman and mechanic, the intellectual work of the scholar, the housework of woman, the shopwork of the trader—will be better and safer and happier work for being done in the name of Christ, for the sake of Christ, out of that living union of the heart with Him which makes Him the real life and power of all our daily service—done by a Christian will, with a Christian purpose, in a Christian spirit, with Christian hands and brain and feet.

Christianity is too divine and bountiful a blessing to be so hedged in and misapprehended. It intends that every man and woman and boy and girl shall be the better for it, and every corner and instant in the character and life of each shall be the better. It comes to make better workmen as well as better believers, better men for the life that now is and for that which is to come—better citizens and neighbors, better husbands and fathers, better parents and children, better boys and girls. It would make strong men more manly, pure women more pure, light-hearted children lighter-hearted, because the love of Christ casts all fear out. The unseen city it is silently building is a city of truth, the mountain of the Lord of Hosts, the holy mountain. Old men and old women shall dwell in it, and it shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof. It comes down, to be sure, like a bride, out of heaven from God. But although it descends from above, it is human in its adaptations; it is a dwelling-place for just such people as we all are; human feet walk in it; human voices are heard along its avenues; human comfort lights its windows. The Gospel is sent into the world just as the world is. It is not some other race, but ours, in its own flesh and blood, in its habitations and occupations, that the Saviour comes to teach, to purify, to redeem, and to train up for His future service—that heavenly labor which is perfect rest. F. D. H.

6. Though it should seem marvellous and almost incredible in your eyes that I should bestow so great blessings, yet must it be marvellous in Mine? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Is any measure of blessings so great as to be marvellous in view of the great depths of Divine love?

7,8. This is a promise to save His people wherever they were, and to gather them in from their dispersions—two quarters of the heavens, the land toward the sun-rising and the land toward the sun setting being named—a part for the whole. H. C.—This denotes the general restoration of the Jewish nation from their several dispersions (cf. verses 13, 20, 23); an event foretold by most of the prophets of the Old Testament. “The west country” appears to have a particular relation to their present dispersion, great numbers of them being in these latter ages settled in the western parts of the world. W. Lowth.—At the time of the delivery of this prophecy there were very few or no Jews dispersed west of the Holy Land. Wells.

8. God would renew His covenant with them, would be faithful to them and make them so to Him. “They shall be My people, and I will be their God.” That is the foundation and crown of all these promises, and is inclusive of all happiness. They shall obey God’s laws, and God will secure and advance all their interests. This contract shall be made, shall be new made, in truth and in righteousness. H.—In truth and in righteousness. These words apply equally to God and His people, and imply that they shall on both sides truly and faithfully perform the conditions of the covenant once more renewed between them. Blayney.

9-17. God, by the prophet, here gives further assurances of the mercy He had in store for Judah and Jerusalem. Here is line upon line for their comfort, as before there was for their conviction. These verses contain strong encouragements, with reference to the difficulties they now labored under. H.

9. Of the prophets—i.e.,** Haggai and Zechariah. The reference is to the time when the building of the temple was being proceeded with, as related in Ezra 5: 1, 2 (where it is said that Zerubbabel and Jeshua rose up and began to build the house of God which was at Jerusalem), and not to the actual laying of the foundation of the house of the Lord in the second year of Cyrus, as related in Ezra 3: 8-13. This latter became, as Keil remarks, an eventful fact through the continuation of the building in the second year of Darius. B. C.

10. When the Lord says, “I set all men each one against his neighbor,” He refers to what He let men do, in the sense of not preventing it—as a judgment on them for their sins. H. C.

11,12. What encouragement they shall now have to proceed in the good work they are about, and to hope that it shall yet be well with them: “Thus and thus you have been harassed and afflicted, but now God will change His way toward you (verse 11). Now that you return to your duty, God will comfort you according to the time that He has afflicted you; the ebbing tide shall flow again.” They shall have great plenty and abundance of all good things (verse 12). The seed sown shall be prosperous, and yield a great increase; the vine shall give her fruit, which makes glad the heart, and the ground its products which strengthen the heart; they shall have all they can desire, not only for necessity, but for ornament and delight. The heavens shall give their dew, without which the earth would not yield her increase; which is a constant intimation to us of the beneficence of the God of heaven to men on earth, and of their dependence upon Him. It is said of a sweeping rain that it leaves no food (Prov. 28: 3); but here the gentle dew waters the earth that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. And thus God will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. This confirms what the prophet’s colleague had said a little before (Hag. 2: 16, 19), “From this day will I bless you.” God’s people, that serve Him faithfully, have great possessions: “All is yours, for you are Christ’s.” H.

12. To the life and beauty of a Judean or Egyptian landscape an abundant supply of dew was absolutely necessary; if it were withheld, beneath the fervor of a summer sun everything would wither and die. The dew in those climates falls so rapidly and abundantly that it may be collected in a shallow vessel, like water from a shower of rain; and the want of rain in the day-time is thus gently and constantly supplied by the bounty of the night; were it otherwise the most distressing droughts must be the consequence. “Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit,” God says, describing the retributive consequences of the continued sins of His people. But again, when God will renew His mercy and fulfil His promises He says, “The seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew.” G. B. C.

13-15. This passage relates to the captives who had been carried away upon the destruction of the Israelitish kingdom, as well as to those of the captivity of Judah in Babylon. The punishment had been inflicted at two different times; but both nations were invited to participate in the blessings of the return to Zion. B. C.

14,15. The antithesis here is this: As I thought to punish your fathers for their great provocations, and did not swerve from My thought, but carried it into execution; so have I now thought to bless Jerusalem, and I shall not fail to do it! Fear not!

16,17. The usual and always pertinent exhortations to practise righteousness and truth. The last clause of verse 16 enjoins upon them to administer law in the courts according to justice and truth. This would promote real peace and prosperity. Such decisions are decisions of peace. H. C.

16. Speak the truth.** The essence of lying consists in formal falsehood or a voluntary enunciation of what is not true. If any one, consequently, utters a falsehood, believing it to be true, he himself is not guilty of lying, though the thing itself be materially false, as he had no intention of falsehood. What is beside the intention of the speaker cannot enter into the specific difference of the act. In like manner, if a man should utter a truth believing it to be a lie, he would be chargeable with the moral guilt of falsehood, that being the purpose of his will which determines the character of his utterance, though accidentally it happens to be true. This pertains to the species of falsehood. But the purpose to mislead another by deception does not pertain to the species, but to the perfection of lying. It is falsehood having its perfect work. Thornwell.

You cannot overthrow falsehood by negation, but by establishing the antagonistic truth.

The refutation which is to last must be positive, not negative. It is an endless work to be uprooting weeds; plant the ground with wholesome vegetation, and then the juices which would have otherwise fed rankness will pour themselves into a more vigorous growth; the dwindled weeds will be easily raked out then. It is an endless task to be refuting error! Plant truth, and the error will pine away. F. W. R.

Concealment is not always a wrong, as a lie is. One of the prime duties of man is the concealment of that which is his own, and to a knowledge of which another has no right. Toward those who have a right to know the whole truth, a man must not conceal any portion of the truth. Toward those who have no right to the whole truth, a man may properly conceal that measure of the truth which is his alone, by any proper means; but lying is never a proper means. At all times concealment without falsehood is right toward those who are not entitled to know the whole truth; but concealment may be practical falsehood toward those who have a right to know all the facts in the case. The first obligation of truth is Godward. A man ought not to lie, because a lie is a sin against God. Even apart from the question of his obligation to his fellow-man, man ought to refrain from lying, because to lie is to detach himself from God and to put himself in the devil’s service. The suggestion of lying for the good of man or for the glory of God is an absurdity, inasmuch as a lie has no place or part or possibility in the plan or service of God. Hence a “system” of Christian ethics that admits that a lie may be justifiable is not a system of Christian ethics, because the one all-dividing line between truth and falsehood is ignored in it. H. C. T.

There is a real though subtle distinction between concealment of truth for the purpose of deceiving, and concealment (from those only who have no right to know the facts in issue) without intention of deceiving, even though with moral certainty that some one will be self-deceived; and the solution of the ancient puzzle of casuistry lies in the detection of this fine but valid distinction. We are under obligation to God to use our wits in concealing facts of which Providence has made us stewards, from those who have no right to these facts; and so to use our wits as merely to conceal, and to conceal merely the things we are in duty bound to conceal, without any effort to deceive; and this, irrespective of any conjecture as to possible or probable self-deception on the part of the curious. The stewardship of facts is as sacred as that of wealth. We are not responsible for mistakes people stumble into through improper curiosity. We are responsible in the premises for four things and four only: (1) strict adherence to truth; (2) painstaking concealment of facts which others ought not to know; (3) use of our God-given wits (“Be ye wise as serpents”) in devising means of concealment—as when Rahab hid the spies; (4) absolute elimination of intention to pervert the intelligence or warp the minds of others. Having made sure of these four things, in all cases where the inquiring party has no right to the facts, our responsibility ends. W. W. Faris.

18,19. Here we find the explicit answer to the question sent up from the people by the hand of Sherezer and Regem-melech. Those fasts shall be changed to seasons of joy and gladness, and to cheerful feasts—only the Lord still enforces that which is evermore essential to their abiding prosperity, “Love the truth and peace.” H. C.

19. The fast of the fourth month was a memorial of the capture of Jerusalem in the eleventh year of Zedekiah. (See Jer. 39:2; 52:6, 7.) The fast of the tenth month was a memorial of the commencement of the blockade of Jerusalem. (See Jer. 39:1; 52:4.) B. C.

Therefore love truth and peace. God values an upright conversation more than the exactest care of outward performances. (See verse 16.) These instructions prepared men’s minds for receiving the Gospel, the laws of which chiefly recommend purity of heart and life. (See Jer. 31:33.) W. Lowth.

A sort of spurious peacemaking consists simply in “letting things alone,” “not meddling,” “being sure that all will come right,” “taking things easily,” “minding one’s own business, and letting one’s neighbors mind theirs.” Now this “let alone” sort of peacemaking makes—if it can be said to make anything—a very shabby sort of peace. It leaves vice unchecked, it leaves ungodliness rampant, it leaves ignorance untaught, it leaves secret grudges to fester in people’s hearts: I know not whether selfishness or cowardice have the greater part in it; for selfishness and cowardice are both very largely present in it, and selfishness and cowardice are the very opposites of Christian peacemaking. And such miserable peace is no peace at all; for though it may be quiet for a time, yet there is no security whatever that it may not blaze out at any moment into the wildest excesses of strife or evil. Dale.

To give no offence, and where possible take none; to stand clear of strife; to look on when hearts are torn and lives are spent in a mad contention with the laws of God; to let human nature fret itself to death, out of peace, hateful and hating, rebellious and proud: this is not to be like the Eternal Father. Had He done so of old, the Son had kept His pure and peaceful heaven; no angels had sung peace on earth at His birth; no sweet message, like an olive leaf, had grown out of His cross. Pacification at His own cost and pain is the supreme idea of our Christian God: His name is Reconciler. They who have been born of Him, and are so like Him that they can see Him, are in this world as He was in it—the world’s reconcilers. Dykes.

20-22. “It shall come to pass that there shall come people and the inhabitants of many cities; and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of Hosts; I will go also. Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord and to pray before the Lord.” Churches shall come to adore Him, cities to consult Him, nations to surrender to Him, all the kindreds of the earth to fall down before Him. They shall not be content to praise Him alone; they shall feel as if they wanted help—the help of the world—to raise a song adequate to His praise, and a prayer equal to the ardor of their desires. “And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord.” Then man will have found his only proper place; will have returned to the only spot in the universe which becomes him—at the feet of God. And, having found his proper place, his ultimate end, there will be rest and peace; going out of himself, and losing himself in God. Then God will have recovered His proper glory; every idol will be abolished, every rival power cast out, the eyes of all will wait upon Him, all flesh will be seen staying themselves upon Him; He will be seen by the universe as the centre of a lapsing creation, the support and stay of a sinking world. Then the design of the whole Gospel constitution will be completed, “that no flesh should glory in His presence;” everything will have redounded to the glory of His grace. And when all flesh shall thus be seen in effect, prostrate before God in prayer, what will it be but a prelude to the worship of heaven? What will remain but that the whole should be transferred to the employment of praise above! Infinite love, ascending the throne, and putting on the crown, shall sit down and enjoy an eternal Sabbath of love! While the myriads of the redeemed and glorified, casting their crowns before Him, shall ascribe their happiness to Him, and the jubilee of eternity shall begin. J. Harris.

23. Each of the ten representative men stands for one nation, since they are each of different language, and taken together represent “all languages of the nations,” indicating that people of every tongue and clime shall come to Zion for the law and the light of God. Those glorious conversions of Gentile nations which are to take place far down in the ages of the Gospel dispensation, if foretold at all by Jewish prophets and for Jewish readers, must be presented in thoroughly Jewish language and in harmony with Jewish conceptions. So we ought to expect to find it throughout the Old Testament prophets; so we do find it. On this principle the “Jew” is any one with whom God is. Under the Gospel system “he is not a Jew who is one outwardly” (Rom. 2:28, 29). This passage, therefore, is a prediction that “the inhabitants of many cities,” “yea, many people and strong nations,” yea, nations so diverse that they speak all the languages of the earth—shall come to those who have the Gospel and beg to be led to the Lamb of God. H. C.

The reply regarding fasts closes with the assurance that the fasts shall be turned into feasts, that days of uninterrupted gladness are approaching, days in which God shall so manifestly bless Israel that all nations shall observe and turn toward Jerusalem. “We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” This is the ultimate attraction, the presence of God. This gradually approves itself as the most powerful determining influence in the life of nations and of individuals. It is this that secures the well-being and felicity here described. And the prediction that the Divine presence among the Jews would attract men to the race has been fulfilled so far as the Western world is concerned. It is as manifested in the history of the Jews and in the person of Jesus of Nazareth that God has been recognized and worshipped by Christendom. In Christ we find one who is as personal as ourselves, and as Divine as we can conceive or as our needs require. In Him we find one whom instinctively we worship; one able to respond to and satisfy our faith; the Master of nature, unappalled in presence of its most terrific moods, overcoming its most overwhelming ills; one who is transcendent also in the moral world, alone upon earth unsullied by temptation, in the world and yet

neither weakened, misled, nor lowered by its tone, and stretching His hand as from a position above all possibility of failure to all who

crave His help. Whatever God is, that is God as we have to do with Him, God in human nature revealing Himself personally. Dods.