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About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Chapter - Chapter 13 Cleansing
From Sin (ch. 13:1 - 6)
Throughout
chapter 13 and 14 you will see the words "on that day."
These words can be understood in two ways.
It can mean a particular day, that is, a twenty four hour day,
or, it can mean a period of time. Most
of the time in the last few chapters of Zechariah "in that
day" refers to a period of time.
The question is what period of time is being spoken of?
It is clear to me it is the time period that is at the end of
this present age in which we live. The
things referred to in these chapters and verses in connection with
"that day" makes that pretty clear.
None of the things mentioned here in that day have happened in
human history to date, at least not in the fullest sense of the word.
In
verse 1 we see the result of true repentance.
God says that a fountain will spring up for Although
this fountain is a symbolic fountain, or so I believe, there is a
fountain, or a river, as seen in Ezekiel 47 that flows from underneath
the temple described in that chapter.
I believe this will be a literal river, a literal fountain of
water during the thousand year rule of Jesus on earth.
In
verse 2 we see that in that day God will remove the We
also do not know what lies ahead in Note
also that impurity will be removed from the land.
As I write in 2018 there are more abortions performed in Verse
3 may be disturbing to some. It
tells us that as Israelis repent, and, if their are still false
prophets, their parents will kill them.
This is a hard verse to understand.
Why would repentant parents kill their sons, even if they were
false prophets? This seems
to tell us that this repentance is understood as repentance was
understood in Old Testament days. In
Ezra 10 we see that as an act of repentance Israeli men sent their pagan
wives and the children born to these pagan wives home to their homeland.
They did so to express the sorrow for disobeying God by marrying
pagan women. With sending of
pagan wives and children back home to their pagan families demonstrated
genuine repentance in their thinking.
The
one thing we can say about this verse is that Jesus will rule with a rod
of iron as stated in the book of Revelation and elsewhere during His
thousand year rule on earth. He
will judge, and His judgment is immediate, and not delayed.
All
of the above being said, as stated in the Law of Moses (see Deuteronomy
10 and18) false prophets were to die. In
verse 4 and 5 we see that these false prophets will be ashamed of
themselves. Many of them
admit that they are not really prophets but farmers, or whatever form of
income they would have had. So
they go back to their real profession.
Verse
6 says this. "What are
these wounds on your body?"
The question is raised, "whose body is being spoken of
here?" There have been
two answers given to this question over the years.
Because of the context some say that it is the false prophets
being spoken of here. They
have gotten wounds in the houses of their friends, even in the house of
their parents as we have already seen.
Since the NIV does not separate verse 6 into a new paragraph,
that suggests to me that this might be the interpretation of the
translators. Others say the
body spoken of here is in reference to the wounds in the body of Jesus.
He too was wounded in the house of His friends, or so they say,
and He will have these wounds at that day and all through eternity.
At the moment, I tend to think the body spoken of here are the
bodies of the false prophets, but I could be wrong.
If it is Jesus spoken of in verse 6 it appears to me that the Jews at the end of this age will need to be taught the gospel. They do not seem to know why Jesus had the wounds in His body. This shows such a great misunderstanding on the part of the Jews at the time of the end if this interpretation is indeed correct. They are still looking for the King, as they were when Jesus was on earth. They do not expect their king to have such wounds in His body. At this point they will finally know that the Jesus they once rejected really was their King and their Messiah.
There is another way that some look at these verses. They say that the false prophets do not dress like a prophet but like a farmer to disguise himself. The wounds in their flesh might well be self inflicted or gotten by some other means. This does not seem to be the best way to view this passage. Whatever the case, there are a multitude of different view points on many of these Old Testament prophetic books.
The
Shepherd Struck, The Sheep Scattered (ch. 13:7 - 9) As
we move back and forth through history in Zechariah’s prophecies, we
now move back to the time when Jesus was first on earth.
You will note that the phrase "in that day," meaning
the end of this age, does not appear here in verse 7. God
tells the sword to awake and go against the shepherd, "the man who
is close to me." This
is clearly in reference to Jesus being executed.
There is no real dispute over this among Evangelical Bible
teachers. I have said it
before; it was not the Jews or the Romans that were behind the death of
Jesus. It was God Himself.
This is clear from Isaiah 53:10 as well as this verse.
God tells the sword to awake and go against Jesus.
God uses the Jews and the Romans in the process, but He is behind
it all. This
tells us one way in which God interacts with humanity.
Christians are not Deists. We
believe that God in more involved in His creation than we can know.
Here God tells the sword that it is time to rise, but God is not
really talking to a sword. He
is manipulating events, or so I believe, to cause the death of Jesus.
Also
in verse 7 God says to "strike the shepherd, and the sheep will
scatter." God tells the
sword to strike Jesus and He predicts with accuracy that the sheep will
scatter, and that is exactly what took place after the arrest of Jesus
in the garden. Matthew 26:31
and following speaks of Jesus’ disciples being scattered, running from
the Roman soldiers. The
above being said, I think these words go beyond the scattering of the
disciples. The next phrase
says the hand of God will turn against the little ones.
I believe the little ones are in reference to There
has been a debate over the centuries to how we should understand verse 7
in relation to verse 8. Some
say they go together and some say they don't.
Some say that those who are killed were killed in 70 A. D. when Verse
8 says that two thirds of the land will be struck down and perish, while
one third will survive. The
land refers to In
verse 9 we see the eventual outcome of this one third of the Jewish
population. After a long
period of time of refining as with fire they will come around and
recognize their God, and He will recognize them.
This takes place during the time which Jeremiah calls the
"time of Jacob's trouble," otherwise known as the Great
Tribulation; the last seven years that ends this age. Note
the wording of verse 9. The
process of refining, the Great Tribulation, will cause the one third of
Jews who are not killed to call out to God in repentance.
The text does not use the word "repentance" but that is
exactly what happens. This
word "call" here should be understood as a cry.
It is a heart felt, meaningful, cry to God for help.
When these Jews cry out to God, He will respond as we saw in
Zechariah 12:10. He will
pour out a spirit of grace and supplication and those surviving Jews
will be saved, and, they will be saved in the name of Jesus, because it
is Jesus who returns to
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