Zechariah 13

Zechariah 13:1

God Exercises Justice

With the oppression that has befallen Ephraim, we can think of raids by Tiglath-Pileser (2 Kings 15:29). If God exercises justice, he who does not fulfill that justice will be crushed. God oppresses Ephraim because they have chosen to follow Jeroboam in his idolatry in Bethel and Dan (1 Kings 12:28-33). They followed “[man’s] commandment” i.e. the command of Jeroboam and did not go to Jerusalem anymore.

Zechariah 13:2

Moth and Rottenness

The LORD compares Himself here with a moth and a process of rotting. Both refer to a destructive, corrupting power. A moth eats up the clothes, so that at some point you get naked. The process of rotting happens from the inside and gnaws at the bones. Moth and rottenness represent pernicious influences, which slowly but surely work their way through. A moth gradually makes its way as it eats and a process of rotting gnaws at the inside of the people’s existence.

The most poignant thing is that the corrupting power is the LORD Himself at work! Externally and internally the people are judged by God. Foreign enmity and internal unrest ultimately come from Him as punishment for the sinful people.

How many churches have lost all their strength because of mutual envy and have experienced that “envy is rottenness of the bones” (Proverbs 14:30b, Darby Translation)? Sometimes they have even been ruined. A community suffers tremendously when one leader becomes envious of the influence of another. This is also the case when leaders are played off against each other. Paul warns the church in Corinth about this (1 Corinthians 3:3-4).

Unfortunately, as Christians, we have not listened to this word. Division, also as a result of envy, damages the testimony of God in this world. There is no strength left to make Him great together.

In marriage, too, envy ultimately has a devastating effect. It consumes the strength to build up marriage. Instead of building, it is demolished. If envy is not overcome in the power of God’s Word and God’s Spirit, this marriage will eventually be ruined.

Zechariah 13:3

Wrong Effect of the Discipline

The purpose of the discipline of moth and rottenness is, that the people will become aware of their weakness and will seek the source of strength with the LORD. But what have they done? They went to Assyria.

Certainly, through the discipline that has come upon him, Ephraim has realized that he is sick. But instead of turning to his God for healing, he has turned to humans (2 Kings 15:19). He does not realize that his sickness cannot be cured by humans because the sickness comes from the LORD. Ephraim does not wonder why he is sick and seeks the solution of his problem outside of the LORD.

Many do exactly the same today. If a deviated believer seeks support from the world, he will have the same experience as Ephraim. The world does help, but this is at the expense of his spiritual blessings.

“King Jareb” means ’King Combative’ and is a prophetic term for the king of Assyria. They seek their support where they can only expect death (cf. 2 Chronicles 28:16). This is how it always goes with a people who are estranged from God. Carnal hearts see their sickness or wounds, but do not see the cause. Seeking support from humans instead of from God always leads to disappointment.

Zechariah 13:4

God Like a Lion

Here the LORD presents Himself as a lion. The lion presents a quick, sudden, and terrible judgment. Here too the goal is to bring the people to repentance. If moth and rottenness do not reach the intended goal, God comes with more powerful means, represented in the lion.

This is also how it goes in human life. Sometimes God whispers something into our ears through His Word. He tries to reach our conscience with it. But if we continue on the path we have taken without listening to His soft voice, God has to speak with raised voices, sometimes He even has to roar. God then uses suffering as a megaphone, as has been said. It can then suddenly become very raging and stormy in our lives. God then speaks clearly. Let us listen when He speaks, softly or loudly.

With Israel, He sees no other way than to drag them away from the land that they have so much defiled. No one can prevent that. But He does not let His people go away without going away as well. He also goes and retreats to wait and see what the effect of His meddling will be.

Zechariah 13:5

God Withdraws Until …

God has withdrawn from Israel. His glory has departed from Israel and gone back to His dwelling place, heaven (Ezekiel 10:4; 18-19; Ezekiel 11:22-23). He will only return to Israel when they realize their guilt towards Him. That He has not definitively withdrawn Himself from the people is beautifully expressed in the word “until”. This word gives hope. It indicates a turning point. That turning point depends on the acknowledgment of guilt (Luke 15:20).

When the Lord Jesus describes the rebelliousness of Jerusalem and, as a result, has to leave it, He uses the same conditional “until” as Hosea (Matthew 23:37-39). Until they feel guilty of idolatry and also feel guilty of their rejection of their Messiah, God cannot have compassion on His people. This was also discussed in Hosea 1. There we also saw that there is a future for the people because they will be accepted as God’s people again (Romans 11:25-32).

If God’s face and protection are withdrawn, it means for Israel the scattering from the land. If they walk with God, nothing can harm them. But sin separates them from God. If God withdraws, we have lost everything. The right distinction between good and evil is gone. Above all, love is gone. When God leaves, He takes everything that is valuable and precious, all good.

God only leaves man when man has first left Him and He has tried everything to bring man back into the right relationship with Him. He does this by being for them like a chastiser (Hosea 5:2), like a moth and a rottenness (Hosea 5:12) and finally like a lion (Hosea 5:14).

“The affliction” will take place during the great tribulation. That time is called “the time of Jacob’s distress” (Jeremiah 30:7). The Lord Jesus speaks of the same period in His great prophetic discourse in Matthew 24-25 and says: “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will” (Matthew 24:21).

At the end of that period, which will last three and a half years, the people, i.e. the faithful remnant, will feel guilty. They will come to confession and longing for God Who will save them from their need. God will do this by sending the Lord Jesus to earth for the second time. He will not come to suffer and die for sin, but to judge evil and to reign (Zechariah 12:10; Zechariah 14:3-5; Hebrews 9:28).

When God returns to His place in Israel, it is to bless His people. He waits in grace for their conversion. When that moment finally comes, He will rise from His place and help His people in their need. He will do this by judging His enemies: “For behold, the LORD is about to come out from His place To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity” (Isaiah 26:21).

Zechariah 13:7

Introduction

The last verses of the previous chapter tell us that the discipline of the LORD will finally have the effect desired by Him. Every member of the people who acknowledges his guilt will let hear the call with which Hosea 6 begins: “Come, let us return to the LORD” (Hosea 6:1). Then they will be blessed. These individuals are a remnant who have confidence in God. He does not shame that confidence.

Unfortunately, the call will not be heeded by the majority of the people. That part is only externally religious, but has no real love for God. The loyalty of the people is compared to a promising cloud, but which dissolves into nothingness (Hosea 6:4). God is not concerned with outer forms, but with a goodness that comes from the heart. That is still true today.

A Call Full of Confidence

When we have left God, we have to go back to where we left Him. There we can find Him back, there He has stayed and is waiting for us. With the call to return to the LORD, Hosea appeals to the conscience of the people. It is also possible that the faithful in the people speak those words to each other. They express acknowledgment and trust. Acknowledgment that the judgments are justified, that they have deserved them, and trust that the LORD heals and bandages. The call also means that they no longer go to the Assyrians for help.

Hosea, or the faithful of the people, connects with these words to the words of the LORD Himself in the previous chapter (Hosea 5:15). By adopting in faith the words of the LORD they also acknowledge the truth of them.

It speaks of spiritual maturity when things that happen in our lives are accepted from the hand of the Lord, and are not attributed to people or circumstances. Job has accepted all the suffering that has befallen him out of the hand of God: “For He inflicts pain, and gives relief; He wounds, and His hands [also] heal” (Job 5:18; Job 1:21; 1 Samuel 2:6).

After the experience of God’s wrath, faith also sees the greatness of His compassion and lovingkindness. They will acknowledge that His judgment is righteous. They will also express their faith as well as their hope for His mercy and the promised blessing of restoration. They will now see that they are sick and that only the LORD can heal them. To Him they go. They go in the confidence that God never ‘strikes’ to alienate His children from Himself, but rather to bring them to Himself.

God “tore” and “wound” the ten tribes when the Assyrians took them into scattering, and the two tribes when the king of Babylon took them into exile. The word “torn” is the word used for tearing them apart like a predator does (cf. Hosea 5:14).

Zechariah 13:8

Revived, Raised Up, Live

When God’s people have honestly acknowledged that there is no longer any right to blessing because they have forfeited everything, He will go to work. That is why in Hosea 6:1-2 it says “He will” four times. He brings life into death. He is God and no one else (Deuteronomy 32:39). The third day in the Bible usually speaks of the resurrection from the dead. Just as Jonah is spit out by the fish on the third day (John 2:10), so for Israel there comes a third day of life and glory. It is important to also connect this verse with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). He is the true Israel (cf. Hosea 11:1; Matthew 2:15).

Hosea 6:2 holds a promise for the future. God will raise His people from the dead. This will happen in phases. Ezekiel gets to see this in his prophecy. He sees a valley full of dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-6). This represents Israel in the time of scattering. But he also sees how the bones join together, without any spirit in them (Ezekiel 37:7-8).

This is the situation Israel has been in since May 14, 1948. There is a national existence, but not yet a connection with God. It is a state established by its own effort and maintained in trust on its own military strength and with the help of allies. God is not taken into account. Only when God pours out on them the spirit of grace and supplications and confessions of guilt (Zechariah 12:10-14) will the relationship with God be restored. Then the people will “live before Him”, i.e. live in His favor.

This can also be applied to the life of the Christian. A Christian only truly lives if he lives from confession of guilt and the certainty of forgiveness. Then there will and may be an awareness that he is living in God’s favor. That life is, so to speak, connected with the third day, with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. His resurrection is the proof that God no longer sees all the sins of those who believe in His Son. They are gone forever. Whoever really experiences this will enjoy real life in God’s favor and will no longer want it any other way. How to enjoy that life is made clear in the following verse.

Zechariah 13:9

Knowing and Going Forth

After the resurrection there is new life, a life that fits the resurrection. That new life has only one desire: To get to know Him. But, could one say, once you have new life, you already know Him? That is true. Yet it is only partly true, because in that knowing only one aspect of the Lord Jesus has come to the fore. The people of Israel will be redeemed by the Lord Jesus in the end time. They will get to know Him as Savior. This also applies to everyone who, as a sinner, now gets to know Him.

But the Lord Jesus is so much more than Savior. The richness of His Person is infinite. Well, every person who has come to know Him as Savior will long to discover more and more glories in Him. This longing is a proof of the new life. And the more knowledge we gain of God and His Son, the more the foundation will be laid for a life of faith and obedience.

If there is the desire to know the Lord, there will also come the effort to know Him. Without effort there will be no increase in knowledge. Truth must be ‘bought’ (Proverbs 23:23). A price must be paid for it. That can be a price in the form of time to study God’s Word. That is why it is added in this verse that they want to press on to know Him.

This is reminiscent of the desire of the apostle Paul. In his letter to the Philippians he also writes about getting to know the Lord Jesus and pressing on to it (Philippians 3:8; 10; 14). We could say: But Paul already knows the Lord very well, doesn’t he? He does. Yet Paul also knows about the infinite glory of his Savior and Lord and he wants to discover more and more of that. He does anything for that. How is that with us?

But there is something additional. Precisely the lack of knowledge is the cause of their downfall (Hosea 4:6). If, however, there is a longing for the true knowledge of God, the result will not be downfall and that God withdraws, but just the opposite. Instead of the night that had to come over the people, “the dawn” will come. The desire of the people will be answered by the fact that the Lord Jesus goes forth as the rising Sun at the dawn, which is the dawn of the millennial realm (Malachi 4:2; cf. Psalms 19:6a).

The result is an abundant rain, through which the land will produce an abundant fruit. A renewed outpouring of the Spirit will take place for the people that ‘came to life’ nationally in 1948 (Joel 2:28-30). Then the stone heart will be taken from the people and instead God will give them a heart of flesh and also His Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26-27). From then on they will live under the blessing and grace of God in Christ Who will reign as King (Proverbs 16:15).