Zechariah 13

Zechariah 13:1-6

In this chapter we have, 1. Some further promises relating to gratifi-

ations; here is a promise of the remission of sins, vers. 1. and of the

reformation of manners, vers. 2. and particularly of the conviction and planning of false prophets, vers. 2—6. 2. A clear predilection

of the sufferings of Christ, and the dispersion of his disciples there-

upon, vers. 7. and of the destruction of the greater part of the Jewish

The following table is a simple diagram of the number of elements in the matrix. The number of elements in the matrix Isaiah 100.

any shall yet prophesy, then ‘his father and his mother, that begat him, shall say unto him, Thou shall not live; for thou speaketh’ lies in the name of the LORD: and his father and his mother, that begat him, shall throft him through when he propheseth. 4. And it shall come to pass in that day, that ’the prophesy shall be allamed every one of his vition, when he hath prophesed: neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive’. 5. But he shall say, ‘I am no prophet, I am an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth. 6. And are shall say unto him, What are these wounds in those hands? Then he shall answer, Thay with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

The subject of the former chapter is here continued, and the great blessings arising from the gospel of Jesus are set forth.

1. The guilt of sin shall be done away through his atoning blood. In that day of the crucifixion of Jesus, there shall be a function opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to all sinners of every rank and degree, for sin and for servile, and to all need this cleansing, being defiled with guilt, and altogether as an unclean thing before the God of purity; nor can any thing wash out the shams but this function opened, where there is all fulness of merit, and to which all are freely invited, that they may wash and be clean. They who neglect to greet a salvation, ignorant of their pollution; or too proud, like Naaman, to flop to this humbling method of salvation; must perish in their sins.

2. Idolatry shall be rooted out, and the names of their idols be never again mentioned as objects of worship, which was the cafe with the Jews after their return from captivity. But the promise seems here to look farther: either to the destruction of the idols of paganism, which fall before the gospel; or to the rooting out the image-worship that remains in the antichristian church.

3. The false prophets shall deceive no more. I will cause the prophets, and the unclean spirit, by which they were actuated, to pass out of the land; so that when any pretender to prophecy shall arise, his nearest relatives, Deut. xiii. 6, 11. Shall soar, accuse, and execute judgment upon him, v. 3. yea, do allamed shall they themselves be of their former pretensions, that they shall strip off the rough garments which they had worn out of forming facility and authority, and say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman, and from my youth was bred to this occupation, unwilling to own he was ever engaged in any other, v. 5. and when questioned concerning the wounds in his hands, he will reply, to evade the truth, that they were wounds received in the house of his friends, not as the rebukes for affuming the prophetic character, as they really were, but correction he received for some neglect in his secular business, v. 6. Note, (1.) Our dearest relations, who would turn us away from God, must be rejected with abhorrence. (2.) Pretenders to guilmen’s will sooner or later be detected; the demure look and rough garment of the hypocrites will not always deceive. (3.) Parents must use the red of correction; their wounds show the true affliction to their children.

Some suppose the last verse refers to Christ, upbraided by the Jews as a false prophet; and from the wounds in his hand they suggest he suffered justly as a deceiver. To which he replies, that he was so treated indeed among those who should have been his friends; but that the wounds were not for any crime he had done, but in consequence of the satisfaction he had undertaken to make to divine justice as the fursy of his people; as is implied in the following verse.

7. ¶ Awake, O sword, against my * Shepherd, and against the man * that is my fellow, saith the LORD of both: * smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon * the little ones. 8. And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, * two parts therein shall be cut off, and die, but * the third shall be left therein. 9. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will * refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: * they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: * I will say, It is my people; and they shall say, The LORD is * my God.

Zechariah 13:7-9

That the Messiah should be cut off was before prophesied: we have here the execution of that decree.

1. God the Father commissions the sword of justice to pierce the Redeemer: Abude my sword against my shepherd, even against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of both. In essential dignity he was God’s fellow, and counted it no robbery to be equal with God; in office he was God’s shepherd, appointed to be the great covenant-head of his redeemed flock, who should lay Vol. II.

down his life for his sheep. This sword our sins had provoked; it had long flumbered; but now awakes, according to the eternal purpose, against the Son of God, since upon him are laid the iniquities of us all: he who bears our sins must carry our forrows.

2. The sheep hereupon are scattered. Which the great shepherd himself quotes, Math. xxvi. 31, as fulfilled on that dismal night when he was apprehended, and all his disciples forsook him and fled. But he promises soon to recover them: I will turn mine hand upon the little ones. They were now like children, timorous, affrighted, and weak; but soon were brought back, and endured with power from on high; to that they went forth bold champions in his cause, and God mightily supported them, and gave them wonderful sacreds in their labours.

3. The impenitent Jews shall perish, but a remnant shall be saved, two parts being cut off during their war with the Romans. A third, the remnant according to the election of grace, shall escape, as through the fire, getting out of Jerusalem to Pella before the Romans formed the siege: and third, refined in the furnace of affliction, and proved faithful, shall be a people for God, calling upon his name, and universal to all their requests; he will own the relation they claim to him as their God, and give them every blessing they can ask or need. Some refer this to the world and church in general, nor think of which will scarcely be found faithful amidst the far more numerous herd of professors, the hypocrites, formalists, and his righteous. Note, (1.) Those whom God saves he first refines in the furnace of affliction. They who were never thus exercised have reason to fear they are ballards, and not sons. (2.) They are gracious troubles which serve to purge us from the remaining drots of corruption. (3.) God’s people are all ceaseless in prayer; and they find the blessedness of being so employed, in the answers of grace and peace he beflooms. (4.) They who have taken the Lord for their God, will never have cause to repent their choice.