Day 276. Zechariah 11-14

Day 276     Zechariah 11-14

The Book of Zechariah ends on a truly apocalyptic note. The destruction accompanying the ultimate triumph of the Lord and his chosen people begins with ecological disaster. The famous cedars of Lebanon, a natural wonder and a primary source of building material for important buildings in the ancient world, will be devoured by fire (11:1) and the "oaks of Bashan" will be felled (11:2). When their habitat is destroyed dangerous wild animals will descend upon the human world—"Listen," the prophet exclaims, "the roar of the lions, for the thickets of the Jordan are destroyed!" (11:3).

The world of human relationships suffers together with the natural world. The LORD commands the prophet to act out a drama to illustrate the woeful state into which society has fallen. He is called upon act out the role of a shepherd--not a caring shepherd—the Good Shepherd--but "the indifferent shepherd of a "flock doomed to slaughter" (11:4)—a selfish hireling. God is about to bring a terrible judgment upon those rich and powerful people—the indifferent shepherds--who oppress the poor and exploit the weak without pity, "who buy them" to "kill them." They care only about realizing a profit. They have gotten away with this callous behavior heretofore, but now the Lord is determined to treat them in the same manner they have treated others.

So the prophet, "on behalf of the sheep merchants," takes the job of callous and uncaring shepherd (11:7), as the Lord has commanded him. He comes to the task armed with  two symbolic staffs—one called "Favor" and the other called "Unity." He deposes the other—better--shepherds and adopts the principle of the survival of the fittest—"What is to die, let it die; what is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; let those that are left devour the flesh of one another" (11:9). Very Darwinian!

The prophet then intentionally breaks the staff called "Favor," symbolizing the annulment of the covenant God has made with "with all the peoples" (11:10). (By now we are used to the symbolic actions performed by Israel's prophets. They serve to communicate the will of God when mere words are insufficient.) Zechariah now asks the "sheep merchants" for the wages of his unfaithful service and is given "thirty pieces of silver" (11:12). This is the price demanded to buy a person out of slavery in Exodus 21:32. Christians are bound to remember this sum as that paid to Judas for his betrayal of Jesus.  It is not completely clear from our text whether we are to understand that this is a measly salary or an extravagant one. In either case, the prophet is outraged by "this lordly price" —Is he being ironic here?  The LORD commands that the money be thrown in total into the temple treasury (11:13). And then the prophet is commanded to break the staff called "Unity," annulling forever the family ties between Judah and Israel--the northern and southern kingdoms. So the covenant is broken and the unity of the people is finally scattered. The prophet is once more commanded to take up his job as a worthless shepherd, signifying that such a shepherd has already appeared--or soon will. This uncaring leader is, however, cursed and destined for destruction—"May the sword strike his arm and his right eye!" (11:17)—and he will fall as previous unfaithful leaders have.

The oracle that follows looks toward the day when Jerusalem will be "a cup of reeling for all the surrounding people" (12:2)—they will lose their judgment in besieging it, as if they were stoned drunk. In this united act of ill-judgment, they "shall grievously hurt themselves" (12:3). Their war horses—the symbols of military power--shall be terrified and struck with blindness, and their riders maddened (12:4). Seeing their enemies' confusion, the clans of Judah—those Jews living in the Land of Promise but outside Jerusalem--shall acknowledge the LORD as their strength and their protector.  The LORD will make these "clans of Judah" a boiling pot and a flaming torch to "devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples," and the holy city of Jerusalem will again be established firmly and "inhabited in its place" (12:6).

The "tents of Judah" and the "clans of Judah" refer to Jews who live in the rural districts outside the city—they will look at Jerusalem and be encouraged by its strength. To these rural people on that day the LORD will "give victory" so that the city of Jerusalem and the "house of David"—the descendents of King David—will not take precedence over them. They will not be overshadowed by the urban center. Nevertheless, on that "day"—the day when those neighboring nations attack them-- the Lord will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem and strengthen them so that the weakest will be as mighty as King David and the descendents of David will be "like God" or "like gods." (12:8).  This does not mean that any human being will or could be divine—this is outside the mindset of the Old Testament prophets—it means that instead the house of David will be given the overwhelming glory and strength attributed to the LORD.  But the LORD alone will be the true ruler of the restored nation and the rebuilt city.

This next passage, the mourning over "the one whom they have pierced" (12:10) is a puzzling one. It was used by New Testament writers as a prophecy pointing to the crucified Jesus--especially to the piercing of his side. The events of the crucifixion are explicitly connected to this passage--see John 19:37.  But originally it refers to a wounded prophet, perhaps Zechariah himself or some other prophet who has suffered. The mourning of the people for the wounded prophet knows no measure. The mourning families explicitly mentioned include both royal—"the house of David"—and priestly—"the house of Levi"—clans. Women are singled out for their special role as mourners as in funeral rites—see Jeremiah 9:16-25. Clearly the house of David and inhabitants of Jerusalem are guilty of the murder of the prophet (12:10), but the LORD mercifully opens a fountain so that they will be cleansed "from sin and impurity" (13:1). For early Christians this was a clear reference to the death of Jesus and his life-giving blood sacrifice.

"On that day," the day of the LORD's ultimate triumph, the names of the false gods who had been heretofore worshiped in Israel will be "cut off" and the "prophets and the unclean spirit" that have flourished among them shall be finally and completely removed from the land. Here we are talking not about the prophets who authentically speak the word of the LORD—prophets like Zechariah himself-- but those pagan prophets who deceive with false information derived from their own imaginations. Indeed prophecy will fall into such disrepute "on that day" that prophets' own parents will repudiate and "pierce them through" (13:3). The "hairy mantel"--part of the prophetic "uniform" since Elijah (1 Kings 19:13)--will be abandoned. Visions and dreams will be a source of shame rather than a mark of distinction and source of profit (13:5). Pagan prophets were known to cut themselves so that blood flowed as part of their ecstatic rites. But "on that day" prophets will seek to hide the scars of their self-mutilations, claiming that they had gotten them in a knife fight "in the house of [their] friends" (13:6) rather than wounding themselves in the pursuit of prophetic ecstasies.

The faithful shepherd of verse 7—as opposed to the unfaithful shepherd Zechariah impersonates-- suffers through no fault of his own, but for the nation. He is a priest or a king, who, as an "associate," stands next to God. Early Christians saw the expression "strike the shepherd, and the sheep may be scattered" as a prediction of his disciples' abandonment of Jesus. The prophet, however, sees this as part of the necessary purification of God's people, thinning them out by two-thirds, and then refining the remainder "by fire," testing those who remain "as gold is tested, until the remnant is able to say without dissembling, "The LORD is our God" (13:9). Suffering produces authentic faith and obedience.

The Book of Zechariah ends in true apocalyptic style with an account of the "day [that] is coming for the LORD" (14:1), a final war from which God emerges as the overwhelming victor. The city of Jerusalem is not spared in this struggle. The city will be besieged by "all the nations" and taken; its houses will be "looted" and its "women raped" (14:2)--carried off as part of the booty by the victors. Half of its population will likewise be carried away into exile, but "the rest shall not be cut off from the city" (14:2). They will remain to witness the LORD's intervention on their behalf. He will fight against the nations like a divine warrior; his feet, planted on the Mount of Olives, will split the mountain in two, changing the face of the earth for the benefit of his people (14:5). He will alter the weather for their benefit as well; there will be no more  "frost or cold" (14:6). There shall be no day and night—the language here is echoed in the Book of Revelation--but only continuous light. The Day of the LORD represents for Zechariah the solution to all earthly problems and a clearly spoken answer to all the vexed questions of good and evil. Many will be lost in the struggle, but good will triumph over evil.  

At the center of that triumph is the restored and exulted Jerusalem, out of which "living waters" will constantly flow, half to the eastern sea and half to the western, covering the whole earth and giving life to it (14:8). The LORD will reign over the whole creation—"on that day the LORD will be one and his name one" (14:9)—and unity and single-mindedness will mark the lives of those who worship him. The whole earth will be leveled--there will be no obstruction to the will of God--only the once desolated and leveled city of Jerusalem will be raised "aloft" and exalted. It will "never again shall it be doomed to destruction; Jerusalem shall abide in security" (14:11).                    

 The LORD acts as the guarantor of that security, threatening a frightful plague upon those who "wage war against Jerusalem" (14:12). Even their animals will be inflicted with this plague (14:15).  He will create a "great panic" which will cause them to fight against one another and they will be plundered for Jerusalem's enrichment, as the children of Israel plundered Egypt.

Like many of the prophets, Zechariah's message is universalistic—but in a very constrained and limited sense. The neighboring peoples who survive the horrific plague will "have to come" to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Sukkoth each year. Commanded in the Book of Deuteronomy (16:13-17), the festival of Sukkoth—the Feast of Booths--became very important in post-exilic times. It was a seven-day-long celebration of the harvest which also came to commemorate the wilderness wandering of the people and the enthronement of God upon the ark of the covenant (1 Kings 8:1-2). The ark had by Zechariah's time vanished into the mists of history, but the sanctuary in Jerusalem takes its place as the locus of holiness. According to Zechariah in the LORD's coming Day the nations will flock to that sanctuary—not for the sake of piety but because if they don't "there will be no rain upon them" (14:17). This lack of spontaneity does sort of uncut the inclusiveness of his message, but that does not apparently concern the prophet. Egypt, the first oppressor of Israel, is singled out for especially harsh treatment if they do not keep the Feast of Booths (14: 18).

For the prophet, however, what is important is that on that day—the Day of the LORD—holiness will be all-pervasive. Not just the vessels especially set aside for temple sacrifice, but "the bells of the horses" and "every cooking put in Jerusalem and Judah shall be sacred and inscribed 'Holy to the LORD'" (14:20-21). Sacredness will be manifest in every part of life. Every sacrifice made to the LORD will be holy, and every person who eats of them holy. There will no longer "traders in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day" (14:21). Christian readers might connect this with Jesus' cleansing of the temple which all the Gospels record—see John 2:13-17. But here it means that "on that day" there will be no outside and inside, no holy and profane. The street will be as holy as the temple. Everything will be made sacred by the presence of the LORD, fully realized among his people.  

                  

Day 275. Zechariah 7-10

This passage begins with a feature typical of later Jewish life—the priests in "the house of the LORD" to define proper Jewish observance. (This function would later be taken over by learned laymen called "rabbis.")

Apparently during the period of the exile the Jews in Babylon had adopted the custom of fasting during the fifth month to commemorate the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 587 B.C. and the seventh month to recall the later assassination of the governor Gedeliah—see 2 Kings 25:25. A delegation now comes to the temple to inquire whether the abstinences memorializing this double tragedy should continue. The LORD's answer comes to the prophet Zechariah on December 7, of 518 B.C.

His answer is typical of prophetic utterances, exulting the importance of genuine faith and repentance over outward observances. The people's fasting is like their eating and drinking, the prophet tells them—it is for themselves that they fast and not for the LORD (7:6). The discipline of fasting, though good in itself, easily degenerates into hypocrisy when it is practiced without feeling. What God cherishes are the concrete practices of everyday justice and integrity—"Render true judgments," he tells his people: "show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; do not devise evil in your hearts against one another" (7:9-10). These are what God commands—not fasts and abstentions. This was the message the former prophets gave them, Zechariah tells the people, a message which Israel ignored—to their great sorrow. That is the reason that the LORD has "scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known" (7:14), and left the Land of Promise desolate.

But in spite of the unfaithfulness of his people, God has remained faithful, and now his "great jealousy" for Zion, his city, has been rekindled (8:1). This jealousy for Zion is coupled not with "great wrath" against the nations that despoiled her, but with determination to see Jerusalem rebuilt. The giving of a new name in the Bible often accompanies a changed purpose or identity. Now Jerusalem will be renamed "faithful" and the mountain of the LORD "holy" (8:3) because henceforth God will dwell there in a special way. The prophet paints a charming picture of domestic tranquility in a restored city—in the future "old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with a staff in hand because of their great age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets" (8:4-5). It may seem impossible for the "remnant of this people in these days" to imagine this future, but nothing is impossible for the LORD. He is able to gather the Jews from all the far places where they have been scattered, and bring them back to Jerusalem, where he will rule over them "in faithfulness and in righteousness" (8:8).They will be his people and he will be their God.

This word about a glorious and peaceful future comes as encouragement to a vulnerable city that is still largely a ruin. "Let your hand be strong," says the LORD (8:9). Zechariah reiterates this word of support which other prophets—like Haggai—gave the returned exiles when the foundation was laid for the rebuilding of the temple (8:9). Before that foundation was begun there had been no safety and security in the land and discord reigned. But now the LORD has determined to renew his covenant and deal with his people "as in the former days" (8:11). This new order will be reflected in the world of nature; the weather will be benevolent, the rains will come, and the land will flower and prosper. The "remnant of this people" will possess a land blessed with peace and prosperity.

As once the LORD "proposed to bring disaster" upon their ancestors and "did not relent," so now God is about "to do good to Jerusalem and the house of Judah"; therefore the people should "not be afraid" (8:13). Instead they should live lives of integrity in response to the call of God, speaking the truth to each other, rendering justice impartially--which makes for peace in the community-- loving "truth" (819), and cherishing "no false oath" (8:17).

Returning to the original question regarding fasting, through his prophet the LORD commands that the fasts which had heretofore commemorated the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple should continue to be observed, but not as fasts but as feasts--"seasons of joy and gladness, and cheerful festivals for the house  of Judah" (8:19). The people should rejoice because Jerusalem once destroyed will be rebuilt more splendid than before. To that restored Jerusalem the nations shall stream in to "entreat the favor of the LORD" (8:22). Verse 23 is one of the very rare instances where the word "Jew" is used in the Old Testament. Here "Jew" means one who lives in Jerusalem and worships the God of Israel. In the days to come these Jews shall be grasped by non-Jews who wish to "go with" them to worship in the temple, for they "have heard that God is with" the Jews (8:23).

The attitude toward non-Jews in the Old Testament is always ambivalent, however. This next section of Zechariah constitutes what is called an "oracle" or a "word of the LORD" against the nations. It is in fact a condemnation of Israel's traditional enemies in the region—a familiar subject found in the oracles of other prophets like Nahum. It predicts the ultimate triumph of Israel and its God over the nations. One by one they are named and dispatched.

The LORD, the divine warrior, moves first against the powerful and wealthy Phoenician city-state of Tyre; he will "hurl its wealth into the sea, and it shall be devoured by fire" (9:4).  The Philistine city-states will fare no better: Ashkelon, Gaza, and Ekron shall be left uninhabited and "a mongrel people shall settle at Ashdod" (9:6). What exactly the ultimate fate of humiliated Philistia will be is unclear. It seems possible that in the future they will be "a remnant for our God"—like one of the tribes of Israel (9:7). And "Ekron shall be like the Jebusites"—their capital city became Jerusalem, the special habitation of the Most High.  But in any case the threat they posed to the People of the Promise will be eliminated, and God "will encamp at [his] house as a guard" (9:8), to protect his people and his holy city.

This next portion of Zechariah is echoed in the gospel account of Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem (see Matthew 21:2-7 and John 12:14-15.) The prophet looks forward to the day when the Messiah, the divine king and anointed one, will enter the city  "triumphant and victorious." He does not enter the city riding a warhorse—an image of force, pride, and coercion—but "humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey" (9:9)--a mount symbolic of a peaceful king rather than a ruthless conqueror. This Davidic king, whose reign is based upon the LORD's subjugation of Israel's enemies, will himself "command peace to the nations" (9:10) and rule over a greatly extended kingdom. The "River" mentioned in verse 10 is the Euphrates River. The "dominion" of the messianic king is greater than the mighty Persian Empire.

The covenant God makes with his people is sealed with blood—see Exodus 24:8--and blood sacrifices in the temple confirm that covenant. The followers of Jesus, mediating on Old Testament verses like 9:11, saw the shedding of Jesus' blood on the cross as sign of a the new relationship established in Christ between God and all of humankind—see Hebrews 9:11-22. The "prisoners of hope" are those who have nothing left but their trust in the faithfulness of the LORD (9:12). But they will not be disappointed. They will return to their stronghold—Jerusalem—and in the restoration of the city they will receive back double for all they lost in exile.

Greece (9:13) was the sworn enemy of the Persian Empire and a rising power in the ancient world during this period. Even before the conquests of Alexander the Great, the Greeks were menacing the western provinces of the Persian Empire. The LORD—the divine warrior-- promises to use Judah and Ephraim—the name of the long vanished northern kingdom of Israel—and a bow and arrow to fight against this new threat to the peace of Zion (9:13). The Divine Warrior "will sound the trumpet" and march forth to protect his people. The Law of Moses definitively forbids the drinking of blood, human or animal, but in verse 15 the blood mentioned may refer symbolically to the blood gathered from animal sacrifices which is smeared on the four corners of the altar. In other words, the invading Greek army shall be sacrificed to the glory of the warrior God as animals were sacrificed in the temple.

The violence of this imagery may be off-putting to a modern reader, but the point  that the text makes is that God, the Shepherd of Israel, is prepared to act definitively to save "the flock of his people" (9:16). Under his protection they will flourish with renewed life; the beauty and strength of their youth will be a reflection of his (9:17).

And it is the LORD who gives renewed life to the whole earth; his restorative grace is symbolized by the "showers of rain" he makes fall upon the thirsty land (10:1). It is futile to seek help or guidance elsewhere. The "teraphim" were household gods that represent powerful deceased ancestors. It is a common practice to pray and sacrifice to them in times of trouble—a practice routinely condemned by the prophets as worse than useless. (See Jeremiah 14:14.) The teraphim give nothing but "utter nonsense" (10:2). Seers, psychics, and false prophets also deceive and "give empty consolation" (10:2).  It is because the people lend credence to such as these, the people "suffer for lack of a shepherd."

The "shepherds" against whom the LORD's anger burns hot are the leaders of "the house of Judah," because they do not care for the people as he does (10:3).  The indifference of the leaders will be punished, but The LORD promises to make of his people a "proud war horse" (10:3), a "cornerstone," a "tent peg," and a "battle bow"—images of strength and dependability. They shall be victorious in battle because "the LORD is with them" (10:5).

The restoration of Judah and "the house of Joseph"—another name for Israel—shall be complete and lasting—"they shall be as though [the LORD] had not rejected them" (10:6). They shall be as numerous as they were before they were scattered among the nations (10:8-9). In the far countries into which they have been dispersed they will "remember" the LORD, and they will "rear their children and return" to the Land of Promise from all the far-flung places where the People of Israel have been scattered—from Egypt and Assyria and still further abroad.

They will be settled in an enlarged kingdom—an echo of what is going on in Israel today—in the territories of Gilead and Lebanon which were never traditionally part of the Land of Promise (10:10). And in order for this new Exodus to take place, God will do wonders as he did before. He will act marvelously so that they shall "pass through the sea of distress" and "all the depths of the Nile [will be] dried up" before them (10:11). The power of Israel's enemies will be finally and definitively broken, and the people will be made "strong in the LORD" in order that they may "walk in his name" (10:12).