ZECHARIAH 14
There is a great contrast between Jerusalem as seen in the early verses of this chapter and Jerusalem as it is viewed from verse 8 to the end of the chapter. It is much like the contrast between Babylon and the holy city Jerusalem in the Revelation. Jerusalem as seen in verse 2 is the subject of divine judgment, given over to the destroyers by Jehovah’s displeasure. She is in the hands of those hostile to Jehovah. Jerusalem in this point of view is like the Jerusalem where our Lord was crucified, which has its counterpart in the present state of Christendom. Terrible things came upon the Jerusalem which rejected Christ, and terrible things will come upon the Christendom which professes His name only to dishonour it. “When they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them ... and they shall in no wise escape”, 1 Thessalonians 5: 3.
But at the time when the Lord was crucified at Jerusalem, there was a remnant who valued and loved Him, and who had His company for forty days after His resurrection, and who saw Him “taken up” from the mount of Olives, as we read in Acts 1. It was at the mount of Olives that the disciples were told that He would so come as they had seen Him go. And, as we know, there was a way of escape provided from all that was coming on Jerusalem in that day. Repentance and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins secured the gift of the Holy Spirit for all who accepted Peter’s word. The Lord being “taken up” from the mount of Olives gives that mount a very distinct link with His present place on high, and it was really in the recognition of Him as in that place, exalted by the right hand of God, that the spared remnant on the day of Pentecost found a way of escape.
Jehovah will act in a remarkable way for the remnant in Jerusalem in a future day. “And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem toward the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, — a very great valley ... . And ye shall flee by (or, into) the valley of my mountains”, verses 4, 5. He will take up a position on the mount of Olives [p. 147] before He is King in Jerusalem, and there will be a valley formed in connection with His being there into which, as I understand it, the remnant will flee so as to be in safety from the judgments impending, or actually in progress, in Jerusalem. In fleeing there the remnant will be linked on, in their faith and affections, with Acts 1. They will come spiritually to the thought of Him as risen and ascended, and will understand the Psalms which speak of Him thus. In that valley — a low place — they will learn Christ as having been taken up, and as having occupied a heavenly position for a long time, but as having now come down to take up His earthly kingdom. They will have learned to value the Shepherd, so long despised and rejected. They will have looked on Him as the One whom they pierced, and will have mourned for Him as one dearly loved. They will have washed at the fountain opened, and will be morally suitable to know Him, and to be with Him, in the mount of Olives position before He comes into Jerusalem. In that divinely formed valley there will be no natural impressions of Christ, such as many had in the days of His flesh (Matthew 16: 14); all their thoughts of Him will be according to God. For they will have gone through that day “known to Jehovah” of which it is said that “at eventide it shall be light”. They will come into the light of their association with Him as prophetically made known in the Song of Songs and in Psalm 45. Then they will come with Him into the holy city. They will have the light of the Psalms and probably of the gospels also.
There is a striking analogy between the circumstances of the remnant in that day and the circumstances in which saints find themselves today. The great Christian profession is just on the verge of apostasy, and is ripening fast for judgment. But there are those who have been purified, and have understood — in measure at least — the wondrous import of the death of Christ. Through exercise they have learned their association with Christ in His heavenly position. The only way of escape from what is under judgment is to flee for refuge to One who is altogether outside it. The Lord is to be known today in what answers to the mount of Olives position. That is, He is to be known as risen, and as having been “taken up” to heaven. Those who really want to find Christ must go altogether outside the world — either pagan or Christian — to find Him. This is not easily done, for it runs counter to every thought of the natural heart.
Our mount of Olives is the epistle to the Ephesians or John 20:17; it is what we shall reach in actuality by the rapture.
[p. 148] But I doubt whether any of us learn what it is to be in heavenly association with Christ without going through an experience something like the one described in Zechariah 14: 6, 7. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that there shall not be light; the shining shall be obscured. And it shall be one day which is known to Jehovah, not day, and not night; and it shall come to pass, at eventide it shall be light”. One has to learn the absence of light here; every human luminary has to be obscured. I do not think anyone will move out to the Lord in the mount of Olives position so long as he thinks there is light in man’s intellect or speculations or religious ideas. The wisdom of man, and even his religiousness, is darkness in the spiritual realm, and God would have it learned to be so. However able religious leaders and philosophers may be, they are under death. Only Christ is out of death and suitable for heaven, and it is only as having died with Him, and having Him as our life, that we live Godward. But this is outside the religious world as distinctly as the mount of Olives is outside Jerusalem. It is reached through the exercises and experiences of a day which is entirely different from any day in the natural calendar. It is a day “known to Jehovah”, which is “not day and not night” according to man’s reckoning; it is a day quite apart from natural impressions, such as the period between Gethsemane and the resurrection was to the disciples, or the three days were to Saul when he neither saw nor ate nor drank. None of us pass from the natural to the spiritual without going through a “day” of this kind, which is measured not in hours and minutes but in God-given exercise.
But “at eventide it shall be light”. There is no such light as the light of a risen and heavenly Christ. Happy are those whose hearts are filled with it! They are ready for His coming. And “the mount of Olives which is before Jerusalem” is “toward the east”. The “east” speaks spiritually of the coming of the Lord. So that we get a sentence here which stands really by itself in the chapter: “And Jehovah my God shall come, and all the holy ones with thee”, verse 5. The moment is near when the saints will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. They will actually go out from what is under judgment to be with the Lord, and to come back with Him to share His glorious reign, when all offences and those that practise lawlessness will have been gathered out of His kingdom.
In the time of Jerusalem’s desolation the only way to escape will be to flee out of it, for apostasy will be consummated there, and God’s judgment will be upon it. But His feet standing upon the mount of Olives is outside Jerusalem, and it appears to have reference to how He will make Himself known to the remnant when they will have to flee from apostate Jerusalem. It is a place which links on with known circumstances in the gospel history, and particularly with the Lord being “taken up”. It seems to me that the valley formed by the cleaving of the mount of Olives should be distinguished from the valley of Jehoshaphat in Joel 3. The latter is for judgment — Jehoshaphat means Jehovah judgeth — and the nations are brought there to be judged. But the former would remind us that the olive in Scripture is connected with promise and God’s sovereign goodness, and it symbolises what is spiritual. Hence I believe that in Jehovah standing on the mount of Olives He is taking up an attitude of grace towards the remnant. The mount cleaving in the midst thereof so as to form “a very great valley” I understand to be a provision of grace for the repentant remnant. They will flee into it from the city which is, at that time, given up to apostasy and judgment. If this is so there is a striking analogy between their position and ours. We go out spiritually from the scene of apostasy by learning our identification with the One who has been “taken up”. We shall go out of it actually when His assembling shout calls us to meet Him in the air. Then “when the Christ is manifested who is our life, then shall ye also be manifested with him in glory”, Colossians 3: 4. All the heavenly saints will come with Christ, and those of the earthly saints who are represented by the queen and her companions in Psalm 45 will also be with Him in His glorious reign. “All the holy ones with thee” is a general statement of what will introduce the reign of Christ, who is identified with Jehovah. It will include saints of the assembly, but it covers all who will reign with Christ.
The remnant will not come into the clear light of the Lord in the mount of Olives position until the end of the special “day” of verses 6 and 7, but “at eventide it shall be light”. All is “light” as between the king and the queen in Psalm 45, though the king’s enemies have still to be dealt with.
The Lord coming with all the holy ones is followed by the introduction of full millennial blessing. Living waters go out from Jerusalem, and Jehovah is King there over all the earth. Jerusalem dwells in her own place, and dwells safely. All who have warred against her will come under judgment, and all the inhabitants of the earth that are left will go up from year to year [p. 150] to worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, and to celebrate the feast of the tabernacles; verse 16.
This most instructive book closes on the note of holiness. “In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO JEHOVAH; and the pots in Jehovah’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. And every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto Jehovah of hosts ... and in that day there shall be no more a Canaanite in the house of Jehovah of hosts”. Every movement, and every vessel of service, will carry the impress of holiness. The selfishness of man, and his self-seeking, will have no more place. The mercenary element, which has been such a corrupting element in connection with the things of God, will disappear. It impresses us with the thought that holiness is a most essential feature of all service Godward. Indeed, it is very striking that the features of the millennial Jerusalem that are mentioned in this chapter are features which normally characterise the testimony of God at all times. Wherever the truth is maintained there will be, in principle, the flowing out of living waters and the feature of holiness. This will, assuredly, be as true in remnant times as it was in the early freshness of our dispensation.
God has set before us a wonderful vision of a heavenly Jerusalem in Revelation 21, but both that city and the earthly Jerusalem as seen in Zechariah 14 are set before us to help us to understand the features that should mark God’s assembly now. The Lord says of the overcomer in Philadelphia, “I will write upon him ... the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God”, Revelation 3:12. Every saint today whom the Lord makes a pillar in the temple of His God will set forth something that truly represents the heavenly Jerusalem. If this is so of one faithful individual, how true will it be of those who walk together as confessing and seeking to maintain the truth of the assembly!
In closing our consideration of the prophecy of Zechariah we must keep in mind that it was all given to encourage a feeble remnant to build the house of Jehovah in a time of recovery. It is intended to be a help to us as we take up the exercises of a returned remnant today. In Ezra 6: 14 we are told that the people “prospered” through the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah. May we also prosper through it in this our day!