CHAPTER 4

From Zechariah.

Signs of the Time of the Coming of the Word of God to Men, the Call of the Gentiles, and Final Destruction of Jerusalem.

[Passages quoted, Zech. ii. 10, 11; ix. 9, 10.]

AFTER this prediction of our Saviour's Coming, the prophecy now goes on, after interposing other matter, to speak of the final desolation of Jerusalem, partly under figurative and disguised forms, and partly quite clearly. Figuratively, for example, when it says:

(408) "1. Open thy doors, Libanus, and let the fire devour thy cedars; let the pine howl, because the cedar has fallen: for the mighty men have been greatly afflicted. 2. Howl, ye oaks of the land of Eashan, for the thickly planted forest has been torn down. 3. The voice of shepherds mourning, for their greatness is brought low: The voice of roaring lions, for the pride of Jordan is brought low."

This is figurative. But the same prophet goes on to give a clear interpretation of it.

(b) "2. Behold, I will make Jerusalem as shaking doorposts to all the nations round about, and in Judaea there shall be a siege against Jerusalem. 3. And it shall be in that day, I will make Jerusalem a stone trodden under foot by all nations; every one that tramples on it shall utterly mock it, and all the nations of the earth shall be gathered unto her." 

And shortly after he adds:

(c) "10b. And they shall look on me, whom they pierced, because they have mocked me, and shall make lamentation for him as for a beloved, and grief as for a firstborn son. 11. In that day the lamentation of Jerusalem shall be increased, as the mourning for Roon cut down in the plain. 12. And the land shall mourn according to families. The family of the house of David by itself, and its women by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and its women by themselves; the - 143 - family of the house of Levi by itself, and its women by themselves; the family of the house of Simeon by itself, and its women by themselves. 14. All the families that are left, each family by itself and their wives by themselves."

And again, after other matter, he announces yet more (d) clearly the siege of Jerusalem, saying:

"1. Behold the days of the Lord come, and thy spoils shall be divided in thee. 2. And I will bring up all nations unto Jerusalem unto war, and the city shall be taken, and its houses plundered, and its women defiled, and half of the city shall go into captivity, and the remnant of my people shall not be cast out of the city. 3. And the Lord shall come forth; and shall fight with those nations, as when he fought in the day of war. 4. And his feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem." 

Then, after an interval, he says:

"And there shall be one Lord, and his name one, encircling the earth and the wilderness."

And again after other matter, concluding the book of His (409) prophecy, He prophesies the calling of the Gentiles:

"And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall be left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall even come up every year to worship the King the Lord Almighty, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 17. And it shall come to pass that whosoever of all the families of the earth shall not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, even these shall be added to the others. 18. And if the family of Egypt (b) shall not go up nor come thither, then upon them shall come the fall, with which the Lord shall strike all nations, as many as go not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 19. This is the transgression of Egypt, and the transgression of all the nations, as many as go not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles."

So prophesied Zechariah after the Return from Babylon, in the reign of Darius, King of Persia, when Jerusalem was but just arisen from the desolation which it suffered under the Babylonians. And the whole period from Darius the (c) Persian, in whose time Zechariah prophesied, even to Augustus, Emperor of Rome, amounts to the seven and - 144 - sixty-two weeks of years in Daniel, which are equivalent to 483 years, as I have shewn in my recent investigations. And neither in the time of the Macedonians from Alexander onwards, not even if you include the reign of Augustus, was (d) anything similar to the words of the prophet fulfilled. For when in those days did the Lord, Whom the prophet speaks of as divine, come among men, and many nations know Him, and confess Him to the only God, and take refuge in Him, and be to Him a people? Or when in the times of the Macedonians or Persians did the king who was foretold come, sitting upon an ass and a young colt? When did He come and utterly destroy the royal array of the Jewish nation, here called Ephraim, and of Jerusalem itself, called chariots and horses, and conquer the army of the Jews? For this is what the oracle revealed, saying:

"Behold thy king cometh to thee, righteous and a saviour, himself meek, and sitting upon an ass and a young colt, and he shall utterly destroy the warlike bow." (410) 

For so it was prophesied concerning the destruction of the royal glory of the Jewish nation, at the same time, as, on the other hand, the prophecy of peace for the Gentiles was repeated in agreement with those previously quoted, namely, "And abundance of peace shall be from the Gentiles." In place of which Aquila and the other translators render, "And he shall speak peace to the Gentiles," which stands specially and literally fulfilled from the reign of Augustus, since from that date varieties of government ceased, and (b) peace enwrapped most of the nations of the world. And before the Roman days under Persians or Macedonians what King of the Jews was there, who "ruled from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth?" And so the other translators have shewn. Therefore Aquila says:

"And he shall speak peace to the Gentiles, and his power shall be from sea to to sea, and from the river to the ends of the world."

With this agrees the passage in the 101st Psalm concerning the Christ that is to be born of the seed of Solomon:

"In his days righteousness shall arise, and abundance of peace, so long as the moon endureth, and he shall (c) rule from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the world." - 145 -  

For these words about the son of Solomon are as exalted as those in the prophet. When, then, this took place and in what way, and in what period, let him that can, inform me. And when did Jerusalem after its siege by the Babylonians undergo a second burning, and have its Temple thrown to the ground?

And the figure used by the prophet is also exceedingly (d) strange when he says, "O Libanus, open thy gates, and let fire devour thy cedars." For he calls the Temple here, as was not unusual, by the name of Libanus (it is so called in other prophecies). To this the Jews themselves now assent, since Isaiah, too, has a similar prophecy to the one before us, namely:

"Behold, the Lord of Sabaoth shall disturb the noble with might, and the lofty shall be crushed in their pride." And Libanus shall fall with its lofty ones, and there shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a flower shall spring up from his roots, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him." 

To which he adds:

"And there shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall (411) rise to rule the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles trust." 

Here, too, the destruction of Libanus and the call of the Gentiles is connected with the birth of Christ, of the seed of Jesse and David. And Ezekiel actually calls Jerusalem Libanus when he says, "The great eagle, with great wings, that hath the dominion, cometh to Libanus, and tore off the tender boughs of the cedar." And he goes on to explain this himself, as happening when Nebuchadnezzar shall come to Jerusalem and take her rulers, and that which follows. But Ezekiel's prophecy is about the first siege, and Zechariah's about the second. When, then, after the time of Zechariah in the time of the Macedonian Empire was the Temple burnt? There was no such time. For after its burning by the Babylonians, it was not burned again till in the time of Titus and Vespasian, the Roman Emperors, it was utterly destroyed by fire, and it is in relation to this that the prophet summons the ancient rulers of the nation in a figure to mourn and weep, when he says: "Let the (c) - 146 - pine weep because the cedar is fallen, because the great ones are in great misery. Let the oaks of Bashan weep, because the wood that is planted is torn down: a voice of shepherds that lament, because their greatness is in misery." Then truly Jerusalem was as a portico shaken by all nations around it, and there was a force encircling Judaea, and their venerated Temple and its Holy Place is even to-day a stone trodden under the feet of all nations, and all that mock are mocked according to the prophecy.

(d) Yea, in return for their insults to the Lord who thus prophesied, there has not failed for them lamentation, mourning and wailing. And it was only after our Saviour came, and even until our own time, that all the families of the Jewish nation have suffered pain worthy of wailing and lamentation because God's hand has struck them, delivering their mother-city over to strange nations, laying their Temple low, and driving them from their country, to serve their enemies in a hostile land; wherefore even now every house and every soul is a prey to lamentation. And so the prophecy says, "And family shall mourn by family, the (412) family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves, and all that follows this."

And which were the days after the age of Zechariah, when the spoils of Jerusalem were divided, and all nations were gathered against them in battle, and the city was taken, their houses looted, their women defiled, and they themselves led into captivity, while the Lord was at the same time aiding the nations warring against Jerusalem and drawn up against them? Or when did His feet stand (b) on the Mount of Olives? Or when was the Lord King of all the earth, when was there one Lord over all men, when did His Name encircle the whole earth and the wilderness? It is impossible to argue that this was fulfilled previously to the period of the Romans, in whose time the Jewish Temple was burnt for the second time after its destruction by the Babylonians, and their city from then till now has been inhabited by foreign nations.

And it was when our Lord Jesus, the Christ of God, had (c) visited the olive-grove over against Jerusalem, since the words of the prophecy were fulfilled which said, "His feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives opposite to Jerusalem," that is, the life of holiness having been established - 147 - throughout all the world, that all the nations, according to the prophecy, kept the Feast of Tabernacles together in every place to the God of the prophets, and the Egyptians from that time recognizing God erected tents in every town and country place, which mean the local Christian Churches. For the power of our Saviour Jesus Christ has pegged them (d) far better than Moses' tents through the whole world, so that every race of men and all the Gentiles may keep their Feast of Tabernacles to Almighty God.

When, then, we see what was of old foretold for the nations fulfilled in our own day, and when the lamentation and wailing that was predicted for the Jews, and the burning of the Temple and its utter desolation, can also be seen even now to have occurred according to the prediction, surely we must also agree that the King who was prophesied, (413) the Christ of God, has come, since the signs of His coming have been shewn in each instance I have treated to have been clearly fulfilled.