Zechariah 14
KingCommentsZechariah 14:1
The LORD Consults With Himself
With this verse begins a new part, a new prophetic speech. Probably we can place this part in the time of King Pekah, who by the assassination of King Pekahiah takes control of the government over the ten tribes (2 Kings 15:25; cf. Hosea 6:8; Hosea 7:7). After an ‘in-between sentence’ – which runs from Hosea 5:15-6:3 and deals with the repentance and restoration of Israel – Hosea here again takes up his normal task of warning. The LORD speaks. He asks in holy wrath what He will do with Ephraim and Judah, just as someone in utter indignation asks how He will punish a discovered evil righteous.
This verse shows how God struggles, as it were, with Himself to reach the heart of the people. The message moves back and forth between the affection of the Divine heart and the depravity of man. It seems as if God no longer knows what to do. Of course He speaks humanly (cf. Isaiah 5:4).
Ephraim and Judah now fall under a common judgment. Their love is only volatile and superficial, like the dew that lies over the fields early in the morning. A beautiful sight, that glitter. But how quickly the dew has disappeared again. What a contrast is the dew that disappears quickly with the LORD Who is like the rise of the dawn (Hosea 6:3). The sun rises steadily and continues to shine all day. Thus is the love of the LORD for His people. They may continue to enjoy it. However, their love is short-lived.
When the people declare their love for God at the birth of the nation under Moses (Jeremiah 2:2), it is also only temporary. In their history there have always been certain moments that they want to live with God, but they are only flicks, temporary expressions of love, which have disappeared. Often our love is the same, changeable, up and down. Thank God that His love for us is not like that.
The love that is meant here can be the love for God, but it can also be the love for neighbor. In any case, their expressions of love are merely appearances.
Zechariah 14:2
What the Word of God Effects
Now follows the answer to the question from the previous verse: “What shall I do with you?” God has sent His prophets to His people. They have come with words of judgment instead of comfort. They were conceived by Him to bring the hearts of the people back to Him. The language of this verse shows that God’s Word is a word of power, acting with force upon the hearer.
God speaks using clear language. He does not want to be misunderstood. Every hearer must feel its power. The Hebrew word means beating or hammers out stones in a quarry. It also contains a beautiful thought. It reminds us that God with His Word works on us like a sculptor works on a piece of stone. The sculptor hammers away more and more of the rough stone, so that the image he has in mind becomes more and more visible.
Prophets and other servants are God’s ‘tools’ for working His people. Paul also wants Christ to be formed in the believers (Galatians 4:19). Because with Israel God’s Word does not have the effect that God desires, for them the preaching of the Word means death. Whoever accepts what God says will live through it, but whoever rejects it will be judged by it.
Zechariah 14:3
Loyalty and Knowledge Are Better Than Sacrifice
God does not let Himself be deceived if there are only outer forms and no inner relationship with Him. In serving God it does not come down to outward tribute, but to the mind of the heart. This verse is quoted twice by the Lord Jesus. The first time He quotes this verse to indicate that His grace goes out to sinners and not to people who think they are righteous (Matthew 9:13). The second time He does so to indicate that the innocent should not be judged (Matthew 12:7).
In the same sense as Hosea, some of his contemporaries also prophesied (Isaiah 1:11-17; Amos 5:21-24; Micah 6:6-8). Several prophets have pointed out that God longs for real faith and not for meaningless sacrifices.
This does not mean that God despises sacrifices as such, but He does if they are brought without sincere faith in Him. God desires a heart that goes out to Him and the neighbor. He has commanded His people to sacrifice. But this sacrifice must be brought from a sincere heart, otherwise the sacrifice is meaningless and worthless (Jeremiah 7:22-23; Mark 12:33; Psalms 51:18-19). God wants people to live to His honor. If their sacrifices connect to that, they get real value for Him. In idolatry it is the other way around. The idol wants his altar to be overloaded with sacrifices and then man may live as he wants.
Zechariah 14:4
Transgressed Like Adam
As soon as God gives a man responsibility for something, he fails. That already started with the first man, Adam. And this fact has been repeated many times in the history of man. We find it with the people of Israel, to whom God holds up the example of Adam. But the church did not do any better.
“There” means in transgressing the covenant the people made with God at Sinai. “There” can also refer to the land of Israel and perhaps even more specifically to Bethel. In Bethel they have placed a golden calf and bowed down before it, while God has strictly forbidden idolatry.
Adam is expelled from the garden because of his transgression, Israel is expelled from the promised land because of his transgression. Gentiles are always called ‘sinners’ and not ‘transgressors’. There is talk of “transgressors” when there is a commandment. God has placed Adam under a ‘law’, a certain commandment that He has imposed on him. He violates that commandment. Israel is under the law that God has given them at their own request.
God has clearly written on the two tablets of the law what He wants. But the people have not obeyed it. They have deliberately and consciously broken His law and thereby openly shown their faithlessness against Him. They have personally wronged God to a great extent.
Zechariah 14:5
Gilead
Gilead is a region on the east side of the Jordan. The whole area is a stronghold full of crime. It is assumed that Shallum, the murderer of King Zechariah (2 Kings 15:10), comes from Gilead. Pekah, who murdered king Pekahiah, uses a gang of assassins of fifty Gileadites (2 Kings 15:25) to carry out his plans.
Gilead is known for his balm (Jeremiah 8:22) to heal wounds and soothe pain. They did not honor that name. Instead of bringing enlightenment and healing, they spread death and destruction around them. Instead of blood stemming, there is blood shedding activity.
Zechariah 14:6
Priest Gangs
Shechem is on the route from the capital Samaria to the religious center of Bethel. The idea here is that it is precisely the priests – appointed by Jeroboam from all layers of the population (1 Kings 12:31) – who rob and murder the pilgrims. The priests have become ordinary street robbers.
It is not only the Gilead from across the Jordan that is guilty of crimes, but also in the land itself they commit many crimes. It is one great gang of robbers. The priests operate in gangs. The mutual unity in evil is great. What someone alone would not dare to do, they dare to do together with others. That has always been and still is the case.
They operate in a mean and sneaky way, they are lurking. Once the prey is caught, they also act violently, they murder and commit misdemeanors. They do that “on the way to Shechem”. Shechem is one of the cities of refuge for manslayers (Joshua 20:1-7). On the way to the city where someone can flee to find protection from the manslayer, there are these homicidal people.
Zechariah 14:7
What God Has Seen
If the evil described in these verses would refer to the Gentiles, then that is understandable. But God has seen this horrible thing in His people. And what evil is at stake? Fornication, harlotry. This can be understood both literally and spiritually.
Literally there is a lot of unfaithfulness in the marriages in Israel. Even today it is painful to see that unfaithfulness increases in Christian families. Statistics indicate that the percentage of divorces among Christians is just as high as among non-Christians.
This literal unfaithfulness is a consequence of the spiritual unfaithfulness. Many Christians no longer live their lives according to biblical standards, they live according to what is common in the world. That is spiritual adultery. “Bad company corrupts good morals” (1 Corinthians 15:33). Bad company is the result of not knowing God. Christians should be ashamed of this (1 Corinthians 15:34). They should work hard to undo that ignorance by studying God’s Word with a desire to know His will.
By committing harlotry, Israel has defiled itself (Hosea 5:3). As a result, God cannot have any connection with them. That defilement can only be made undone through confession of guilt and sacrifice. If there is no cleansing, God can no longer acknowledge His people as His people and must judge them. Ultimately, this judgment comes when the Assyrians invade Israel and scatter the people.
Zechariah 14:8
The Restoration
It is not immediately clear what is meant by “a harvest”. The most plausible thing is to see here again such a sudden ray of hope that becomes visible in the midst of other judgments. The harvest for Judah is then the blessing of the land they will receive after the judgments. This does not mean the return from Babylon, but we can see a reference to the realm of peace in it. Judah is the core and around Judah the whole of Israel, “My people”, will share in the promised blessing.
Whatever “a harvest” may mean, bringing a change in the captivity of God’s people at least refers to the situation that all unfaithfulness and the associated judgments have come to an end. Then the time has come for enjoying all the promises God has made and will give to His people. The people will receive those promises because all conditions have been fulfilled by the Lord Jesus. In Him all God’s promises are yes and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20).
Zechariah 14:10
Introduction
In this chapter, the changing pictures described by the prophet follow each other more and more boisterously. This is due to his indignation about all the evil that his eye perceives. Only Ephraim, the ten tribes, are discussed. Hosea 7:3-7 deal with internal affairs, Hosea 7:8-16 with external politics.
Every attempt by God to heal Israel is answered by them with even greater unfaithfulness. Ephraim (= Israel) has not kept itself isolated from the nations. As a result, his power has disappeared, but he does not see that for himself. And when they cry out to God for help, it is not with their heart. They only need God to come out of misery and then go their own way again. Woe to us if we think we can deal with God in this way.
Healing Manifests Evil
All God’s gracious attempts to heal Israel remain without result. Rather, there is an even greater manifestation of iniquity. These attempts consist of sending His prophets. God wants to reach their conscience, so that the people will see their guilt and confess their sin. But instead of listening to these prophets, their hatred of Him becomes manifest. They reject Him in His prophets. The most obvious example is when the Lord Jesus comes in the midst of His people. His presence brings this iniquity to light in the clearest way possible.
God is always looking for healing, He always offers salvation. But everything is refused, by Israel and also by the sinner today. God wants to heal, but the ailment must be acknowledged. Instead of acknowledging the ailment and letting God do His work, the people aggravate their ailment by rejecting Him. They do not want to see their disease.
If a doctor constantly has to prescribe other medications because the earlier ones do not work, the ailment must be persistent and deep. There is then a very serious disease. The LORD has always given good medicines, but the patient Israel has not taken them. The sins do not remain hidden, but they break out clearly visible to everyone.
The iniquity is described in three forms, in which it takes more and more brutal forms: 1. First there is that “they deal falsely”. This is done sneakily, while the impostor presents himself decently to the outside world. 2. The next, more brutal form is that of the thief. The thief also does something sneaky, but his behavior, he “enters in”, can hardly be called decent. 3. The third and most brutal form of evil becomes visible in the “bandits”. Bandits are not ashamed of anything. These bandits “raid outside”, they commit their iniquity in full daylight. This is how it goes from bad to worse. If a disease is not stopped, there is only deterioration.
This progression of the disease, which is therefore deterioration of health, also characterizes Christianity. Certain sins, which used to be an exception, are now becoming more and more common. This is because some sins are no longer experienced as sins. And, it is argued, if you no longer experience something as sin, it is not sin. The feeling that everyone has, is becoming norm, and the Bible, the only correct norm, is being eroded more and more and finally pushed aside. This means an absolute numbness of natural feelings.
It has been said that we are beyond shame. This means that the feeling of shame, which has come into man through the fall in sin, is disappearing more and more. More and more people are becoming ashamed of fewer and fewer things. As far as the Netherlands is concerned, it has even been noted that it is no longer possible to sin in this country. For there is nothing more that is called sin. Everything is allowed and considered normal. The clear example of same-sex marriage shows that. For something so horrible, a legal basis has been laid in the Netherlands, as the first country in the world.
Zechariah 14:11
Nothing Escapes God
Their shameless attitude and behavior stem from the denial of God’s omniscience and omnipresence. One does not live by faith in the living God. It typifies the wicked that he thinks there is no God. It typifies the apostate that he thinks God does not see it. When God looks at them, He sees only sins; they are completely surrounded, yes, encircled by them. They are in the grip of their sins as in a vicious circle from which they cannot escape.
Their sins are always before God. That goes for the sins of all people. Nothing and no one can escape His eye. God forgets nothing of what a man has done. Everyone, the Bible says, will be called to give account before Him. Without fail, God will confront every man with his words and deeds and judge him according to his works and words (Revelation 20:12; Matthew 12:37). Now is the time for a man to repent to God and accept the Lord Jesus in faith as the atonement for his sins. Of all those who do so, God says: “And I will remember their sins no more” (Hebrews 8:12b).
Zechariah 14:12
Deeds That Bring Joy and Death
Hosea 7:3-7 deal with kings, rulers, how one sees them and deals with them, and ends with their assassination. It seems that these verses describe how the king and his royals are treacherously overthrown. In order to sketch what is happening here, metaphors are used. The people who want to kill the king are compared to a heated oven. They are full of evil and vengefulness and their entire inside glows with zeal to kill the king. The dough represents the king who must be put to death in the oven of their lust for murder. Outwardly they are kind to the king, but in their hearts they hate him.
Here the treacherous nature of sin manifests itself clearly. It begins underground, unnoticed. The fire is stirred up, the dough is kneaded, and the baker sleeps. Then the appropriate moment arrives and the flames flare up high. Unscrupulous people take their chance, kill the king and another sits on the throne. What the baker and the assassin have in common in this imagery is that – after having made the necessary preparations – they both wait until the moment of action has arrived. In all this, there is no thought of God present. There is no one calling to the LORD.
“Make the king glad” (Hosea 7:3) means that they make him happy by giving him wine in order to be able to kill him all the more easily. They use lies to get the rulers at the feast they organize. To celebrate a feast, the rulers always can appreciate that. Whether there is a valid reason for it, does not matter. Even less does it matter if it is a feast where also the LORD can be. If only something can be celebrated. After all, life is one big celebration. But the rulers do not realize how hatred burns in the hearts of those they are invited by.
The metaphor of Hos 7:4 is not so easy to understand. What is clear, however, is that the adulterous behavior of the people is compared to an oven that continues to burn, without new food being given to it. It indicates the attitude, the mind of their hearts, which is aimed at giving in to every lust that arises. We can take their adulterous behavior literally. One can also think of a behavior that is equal to that of the nations around them. They think only of their own advantage.
If the rulers do not provide this, they must be eliminated. The preparation for that can possibly be seen in the kneading of the dough. People’s thinking must be made ripe. The baker, which is he who has prepared his plan, tries to convince the people. He deludes them about how much benefit it will bring if the king is put aside. This is in line with the hatred the people have for their king. When their thoughts have been influenced in this way, “until it is leavened”, the time is ripe to strike.
Perhaps some people even think they are doing God a favor by killing their king. The mixing of idolatry with a service to God is, however, aptly expressed in the mixing of the leaven – in the Bible always a picture of something sinful – with the dough made from the fruit of the land given by God. The Lord Jesus shows with the picture of the leaven that false doctrine will permeate the whole Christianity (Matthew 13:33).
Zechariah 14:13
Deeds That Bring Joy and Death
Hosea 7:3-7 deal with kings, rulers, how one sees them and deals with them, and ends with their assassination. It seems that these verses describe how the king and his royals are treacherously overthrown. In order to sketch what is happening here, metaphors are used. The people who want to kill the king are compared to a heated oven. They are full of evil and vengefulness and their entire inside glows with zeal to kill the king. The dough represents the king who must be put to death in the oven of their lust for murder. Outwardly they are kind to the king, but in their hearts they hate him.
Here the treacherous nature of sin manifests itself clearly. It begins underground, unnoticed. The fire is stirred up, the dough is kneaded, and the baker sleeps. Then the appropriate moment arrives and the flames flare up high. Unscrupulous people take their chance, kill the king and another sits on the throne. What the baker and the assassin have in common in this imagery is that – after having made the necessary preparations – they both wait until the moment of action has arrived. In all this, there is no thought of God present. There is no one calling to the LORD.
“Make the king glad” (Hosea 7:3) means that they make him happy by giving him wine in order to be able to kill him all the more easily. They use lies to get the rulers at the feast they organize. To celebrate a feast, the rulers always can appreciate that. Whether there is a valid reason for it, does not matter. Even less does it matter if it is a feast where also the LORD can be. If only something can be celebrated. After all, life is one big celebration. But the rulers do not realize how hatred burns in the hearts of those they are invited by.
The metaphor of Hos 7:4 is not so easy to understand. What is clear, however, is that the adulterous behavior of the people is compared to an oven that continues to burn, without new food being given to it. It indicates the attitude, the mind of their hearts, which is aimed at giving in to every lust that arises. We can take their adulterous behavior literally. One can also think of a behavior that is equal to that of the nations around them. They think only of their own advantage.
If the rulers do not provide this, they must be eliminated. The preparation for that can possibly be seen in the kneading of the dough. People’s thinking must be made ripe. The baker, which is he who has prepared his plan, tries to convince the people. He deludes them about how much benefit it will bring if the king is put aside. This is in line with the hatred the people have for their king. When their thoughts have been influenced in this way, “until it is leavened”, the time is ripe to strike.
Perhaps some people even think they are doing God a favor by killing their king. The mixing of idolatry with a service to God is, however, aptly expressed in the mixing of the leaven – in the Bible always a picture of something sinful – with the dough made from the fruit of the land given by God. The Lord Jesus shows with the picture of the leaven that false doctrine will permeate the whole Christianity (Matthew 13:33).
Zechariah 14:14
Drunkenness and Kingship
Talking about “our king” seems to be an indication that Hosea is a subject of the ten tribes realm. “The day” can be a birthday or some other kind of day of remembrance. The fact that they want to get their rulers drunk says a lot about the moral state of the people of God. Whoever makes someone deliberately drunk, certainly a ruler, calls God’s judgment upon himself (Habakkuk 2:15). It also says a lot about the moral condition of the king who allows himself to be drunk. The king himself is responsible (Proverbs 31:3-4).
How can someone who cannot govern himself rule a country? Drunkenness makes people sick and affects their health. In addition, it leads to shameless and unscrupulous behavior, a behavior that one would not normally come to. It brings someone into the company of unscrupulous people. The intoxication of the drink makes him agree with those people. He lowers himself to their level.
Children of God are also kings. They are warned above all to stay sober and not to be intoxicated by the wine. And not only in a literal sense. Also, in a spiritual sense they should not let themselves be intoxicated by the thinking of the world. It is important that they keep a clear view of God’s plan with their lives. Those who constantly allow the influence of TV programs or the filth of the internet to influence themselves will eventually lower themselves to the level of thinking and acting as it is shown there.
Zechariah 14:15
Conscience and Lust
The phrase “their anger smolders” can also be translated as “their baker sleeps” (cf. Hosea 7:4). In this verse we can then see the following picture: the ‘oven’ is the plotting, the ‘heart’ is the dough or the bread, the ‘baker’ is the passion of idolatry and of evil lusts. In the ‘baker’ we can also see the conscience of man. Their conscience sleeps; they follow their own will and imagination. Their hearts are on fire because of their passions. An unclean heart is like a heated oven, and its unclean lusts and desires are like the fuel that makes the fire hot.
Paul uses the same imaginative language when he describes the lewd lusts to which people surrender who do not care about God and His Word (Romans 1:27). The natural feelings are killed when one no longer takes into account what God has said and one simply follows one’s own lusts.
Conscience has been given to man by God after and as a result of the fall in sin. It is a ‘warning mechanism’. This means that the conscience only gives a signal when we think of and do something that is not right. We can ease our conscience by constantly coming up with arguments to make the wrong thing we did not seem so bad after all. If we repeat this often enough, the conscience will eventually no longer respond if something is done that is contrary to God’s Word. The conscience becomes numb, it is as if it is asleep. But lust does not sleep. It burns constantly like an oven.
Zechariah 14:16
Hot Like an Oven
In Hosea 7:6, only the heart is an oven. Here in Hosea 7:7 it seems that the whole person has become an oven, an oven that consumes their rulers and kings. All their thoughts and actions are aimed at killing their leaders. All the actions of a person come from his heart (Proverbs 4:23). If feelings of hatred or lust are cherished in the heart, they will at some point be transformed into actions.
How hurtful all this is to God can be heard in the last words of this verse. God complains that there is no one calling on Him. Nothing would be better for the people than to turn to Him Who not only can give a solution, but seeks the best for His people.
Zechariah 14:17
No Mixing with the Nations
In their personal need, the people try to get rid of their rulers. The people feel the yoke of their king too much. He does not give them the space they want. There is not only internal dissatisfaction, but also danger externally. In the north is Assyria. When danger from that side really threatens, they seek help from southern Egypt. If Egypt becomes a threat, they try to make an alliance with Assyria. In this way Ephraim, that is Israel, seeks help with the nations. They are actively engaged in intermingling. They have forgotten what God has had said of them as a people through Balaam: “Behold, a people [who] dwells apart, And will not be reckoned among the nations” (Numbers 23:9).
How God judges this mixture becomes clear from a second imagery from the baker’s world. Through his action, Ephraim resembles a cake that a baker has forgotten to turn. As a result, the bread is burned on one side and the other side is not yet cooked. This picture represents people who are extreme on two sides: they are zealous in evil, the black baked side, and they neglect the service of the LORD, the side that is not cooked. The underside, directed toward the world, is overheated; the top, directed toward God, is still dough, so disgusting.
Assyria and his idols are served with all diligence, while they forget the LORD. This makes Israel an abomination. It cannot be eaten or sold. You cannot do anything with it. The only thing it is good for is to be thrown away. This is what happened through the scattering.
The Christian is also warned not to mingle with the world: “Do not be bound together with unbelievers” (2 Corinthians 6:14a). In the verses that follow, the absurdity and foolishness of such mingling is made clear (2 Corinthians 6:14b-16).
Zechariah 14:18
He Does Not Know It
The third metaphor is that he “got grey hair”. This indicates that the strength and energy of the past are no longer there. Greyness is often a sign of old age and wisdom, but not here. Here it means diminishing strength, which culminates in the end of their existence as a people. When the first gray hairs become visible in someone, it is immediately noticed. There are mirrors for this. If it is not noticed, it is unnatural. This is the case with Israel. Having gray hair is not a disgrace, but not seeing it is. Twice it says in this verse that he does not know it. How tragic!
In the book of Malachi, we also come across this lack of awareness of one’s own shortcomings. We hear the people asking the question several times that they have done this or that. They are unaware that they have strayed in the things about which they are addressed.
From a spiritual point of view, the first gray hairs become visible in us when, for example, our need to come together with God’s people begins to diminish; or when our interest in God’s house diminishes; or when our commitment and need to bring people the gospel diminishes; or when we no longer take it so strictly in our work and the like. It can also happen to us that we do not notice it. And the cause? Strangers have taken away our strength. Strange thoughts have gained access to our thinking by opening the door to worldly thinking.
The only fruit Israel reaps from its search for help from the worldly powers is dependence. The people end up in a dependent position and are sucked out. We can think of the heavy tax Menahem has to pay for the help he asks from the king of Assyria (2 Kings 15:19-20). Any favor that a believer asks of the world must be paid dearly. The world never gives anything for nothing. Dealing with the world consumes the power of a believer without him knowing it.
Ephraim is a decrepit greybeard, stumbling to the grave. It should be a separated people, as a testimony of God. Nothing comes of this testimony because the people went on the way of the pagans and adopted pagan customs.
Samson is an imaginative illustration of what is said here about Ephraim. When Samson has revealed the secret of his power, which lies in his being a Nazirite – that is, his separation for the LORD – his power is gone. Just as tragically as with Ephraim, we read of Samson that he does not know that the LORD is no longer with him: “But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him” (Judges 16:19-20).
Any fraternizing with the world, under whatever cover, causes the Christian to lose his fellowship with the Lord and therefore all spiritual energy, often without being aware of it.
Zechariah 14:19
Pride Makes Blind
It testifies of pride when people boast about their own qualities, while they are blind to the flaws that make these highly praised qualities fade away. This is how it is with Israel. Blind as they are for the blurring of national fame, they see no reason to repent to the LORD their God. Why should they repent at all? Surely there is nothing wrong with them, is there? What is wrong with them is that they are blind to their own pride.
What the Lord Jesus says to the Pharisees applies to them. They also believe that they see and do everything well, while they are blind to their sins because of their pride (John 9:40-41). Those who think they see, but in reality are blind to their own sins, remain in their sins. Such a person thinks he does not need repentance; there is no search for God. After all, do they think they already belong to Him?
It is an attitude that we also encounter in Christianity. It is presented to us in particular in the message to the church in Laodicea. This church boasts that everything is perfectly in order with them. There is nothing wrong with them. Listen to their language: “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing” (Revelation 3:17a). Do we recognize any of this in our own hearts or in the local church of which we are a part? Then that must be judged.
In reality, the Lord Jesus is outside the door in Laodicea. His reaction is therefore not soft: “And you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.” In His love to win them back, He gives them good advice (Revelation 3:17b-18). Here too, as in Hosea, through pride, there is a lack of awareness of the misery in which the church finds itself. The way out that is still offered, is to open the door of our hearts and let the Lord Jesus enter to have fellowship with Him. That is the repentance He is waiting for (Revelation 3:19-20).
Dear fellow Christians, give Him again all the authority in your life. As long as the Lord Jesus is knocking, there is still hope. For Israel that hope lies in that touching “their God”, as He still calls Himself here.
Zechariah 14:20
A Silly Dove
With ever new metaphors the prophet tries to make clear to the people what position they are in. He uses a fourth metaphor, that of a dove. This animal often represents something positive. We have to be ‘innocent’ or ‘simple’ as doves, says the Lord Jesus (Matthew 10:16). “Innocent” or “silly” is opposed to cunning and unreliability. A dove is rather naive and is easily deceived and captured. A dove knows its home, it almost always goes back there.
But Israel has no sense. They are silly and without sense. Who goes to Egypt or to Assyria to seek protection, peoples who also easily reveal themselves as enemies (Hosea 5:13)? There is a hesitant policy that makes the folly of forgetting God even greater. The inner state of half-heartedness has an effect on entering into these foreign relations. This behavior is as reprehensible as the cake that cannot be eaten (Hosea 7:8). Without sense is literally ‘without heart’. They do not even realize that the danger comes from the side where they seek support.
Zechariah 14:21
The Net Is Spread Out
By “My net,” God means Assyria. Just as a bird moves thoughtlessly into the net, so too Israel, with its policy of unbelief, plunges blindly into destruction. That destruction is caused by the righteous judgment of God on them. The swarm of birds in the sky, the fifth metaphor, seems to indicate a common attempt by the leaders to get help from both Egypt and Assyria. They will be brought down. This punishment of God will come fully upon them when He surrenders Israel into the power of the king of Assyria.
The meaning of the last line is that they will be chastised according to the judgments in the law of Moses (Deuteronomy 27-28), which are to be read to the whole people (Deuteronomy 31:12).