Mining the Minors: Zechariah (27)

As we have discussed several times in the process of trying to interpret the prophecies of Zechariah, commentators have tried a variety of approaches to the text. One of the least successful (but most respectful) of these remains Martin Luther, who wrote, “I give up. I am not sure what the prophet is talking about.”

Hey, better than blabbering on without any idea where you are going.

Many other commentators have followed Luther’s lead in simply bypassing verses they find difficult to interpret, though most are not as frank as Luther in throwing up their hands. If you search “Zechariah 14 meaning”, you’ll find that postmillennial, amillennial and preterist commentators, whose approach to the text is either figurative or historical, uniformly say almost nothing meaningful about it, as Zechariah leaves them in bewilderment. The few who do apply these verses either to the Roman armies of AD70 [what?] or to the “enemies of the church”.

Our approach here has been primarily literal to date, and we’re not going to change that now. Buckle up. We might actually get finished today.

III. Two Oracles (continued)

2/ Concerning Israel (continued)

The Gathering of Nations, the Second Coming and Reign (continued)

Zechariah 14:12-15 — A Plague on the Invaders

“And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.

And on that day a great panic from the Lord shall fall on them, so that each will seize the hand of another, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other. Even Judah will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance. And a plague like this plague shall fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and whatever beasts may be in those camps.”

The Nuclear Argument

A remarkable number of writers connect the idea of rotting flesh, tongues and eyeballs with the symptoms of radiation exposure after a nuclear explosion, a possibility never considered by any school of prophetic thought prior to WWII, when the technology was used for the first time. That alone doesn’t make it impossible, but a nuke seems unlikely to me for several reasons.

First, though God sometimes acts in judgment indirectly, the Hebrew word used for plague is always associated with God’s direct action. It’s possible the Lord could judge the nations through non-miraculous methods like an Israeli missile strike against its enemies or an accidental detonation in the camp of the nations, but there’s no biblical or logical reason to limit the possibilities in that way.

Second, regardless of the type and size of the bomb, being at Ground Zero in a nuclear strike means total annihilation, followed by instant death from the resulting firestorm for at least half the population within a two- to three-mile radius. The heat inflicts first-degree burns on its victims up to 11 km from the point of detonation. However, the plague to which Zechariah refers does not seem to involve either fire or a violent impact, and the speed with which the plague rots flesh exceeds anything we would normally expect from the effects of nuclear radiation on the human body.

Third, the effects of a nuclear strike are indiscriminate. The city of Jerusalem occupies an area of only 49 square miles, meaning that a nuclear detonation anywhere nearby would injure and kill Israelis as well as their enemies. Accordingly, there would have to be considerable distance between the two armies when the plague breaks out. Such a scenario does not accord with what Zechariah is describing.

Bacterial Warfare?

There is no reason to assume a divine plague on the nations must take a form with which medical science is currently familiar. Still, the plague in Zechariah sounds a lot more like a super-fast-acting version of necrotizing fasciitis than radiation sickness. The various flesh eating diseases we know about can kill in as little as two days and rot tissue like gangrene in the later stages. Zechariah’s plague is much faster, taking effect while the armies of the nations are still standing on their feet. Assuming Isaiah is chronicling the same events, he implies this judgment also results in the loss of tremendous quantities of blood. Likewise, Revelation 14 speaks of blood as high as a horse’s bridle for 1,600 stadia. The blood might be an artifact of battle, but extensive blood loss is also a feature associated with hemorrhagic infections like Ebola. It is not generally associated with a nuclear strike.

Zechariah also describes panic and confusion in the enemy camp, so death is not instant, though probably excruciating. If the eyes of the enemy soldiers rot in their sockets, it would certainly explain the infighting among the invading nations blinded by the plague. Judah is also directly involved in battle, which would require Israeli immunity from the disease afflicting their enemies.

The plague will also afflict the animals of the enemy armies. God takes no joy in the unnecessary death of animals. In a fallen world, however, the sinful choices made by men have always had their grim consequences on comparative innocents. It would be unusual for the Lord to rescind the agency of the nations in this lone instance.

The Wealth of the Nations

Another indication that a nuclear strike is not a feature of the battle is the comment that the wealth of the surrounding nations will be collected afterward. Nukes cause unbelievable amounts of damage not just to human beings and animals, but also to buildings and property. It’s hard to envision “garments in great abundance” making it through a firestorm in any condition to be collected or reused.

Zechariah 14:16-21 — The Joy of the Survivors

“Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them. And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain; there shall be the plague with which the Lord afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths.

And on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, ‘Holy to the Lord.’ And the pots in the house of the Lord shall be as the bowls before the altar. And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the Lord of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day.”

The Worship of Survivors

It’s well understood that when nations declare war on other nations, it is rarely with the universal approval of their own citizens. For example, I entirely disapprove of Canada’s involvement in the current war in the Ukraine, though our government would like us to believe enthusiasm for its present course is ubiquitous. The nations that go up against Jerusalem will be no exception. If their armies are raised through the draft, there may even be reluctant foreign combatants in Israel. Certainly, anyone from the nations who survives the final battle in Jerusalem will be glad to be alive, and any survivor from the nations who passes the judgment of the sheep and the goats described in Matthew 25 will surely be inclined to worship the God of Israel.

It’s interesting that Egypt is singled out as a surrounding nation that will attack Israel. I believe Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Yemen, Iran and others will also be parties to the attack, but Egypt is the only one named, perhaps because of its long history with Israel.

The Feast of Booths

Why the Feast of Booths? It’s the final feast of seven feasts of YHWH instituted for Israel in Leviticus. These feasts were God’s joys shared with his redeemed people, and some scholars have pointed out that they also foreshadowed the works of God throughout human history. Booths (or Tabernacles, so named because the celebrators were to take branches and make themselves booths to dwell in for the duration of their stay in Jerusalem) was one of three feasts mandatory for all males in Israel, the others being Passover and Pentecost. Originally, it marked a commemoration of YHWH leading Israel out of bondage in Egypt. The Feast of Booths was the final feast in the series, at the end of the Jewish year, an eight-day time of harvest rejoicing that many believe anticipates the millennial reign of Christ.

Above is a diagram of the feast-types and their antitypes created by John Ritchie and now in the public domain. Double-click on it for better visibility in a larger format.

Types and Antitypes

If the Feast of Booths indeed anticipates the millennial reign, we can see why the survivors of the Gentile nations will be invited and welcomed. In type, the Feast is specifically Israelite, but the antitype or fulfillment is universal. Christ’s millennial reign is not just a time of great blessing for Israel, but a blessing extended to the entire world. Messiah is not just the Son of David, but also the Son of Man and the representative head of a new and better mankind. YHWH brought Israel out of Egypt, but he has since led out believers of all nations from slavery to sin and to Satan. The millennium will be a time for everyone to celebrate that.

The fact that greater numbers will now attend the Feast will be no burden on the trees of Jerusalem, which will flourish in huge numbers all around the Dead Sea as a result of the fresh river flowing toward it from the temple.

Mandatory Attendance

The judgment of the sheep and goats will temporarily purge the world of satanic opposition to Messiah. Those who survive it will do so because they are believers. Their works on behalf of the persecuted Jews demonstrate the genuineness of their faith, just as Rahab the Canaanite hid the Israelite spies because she trusted in Israel’s God and was credited with faith as a result. For these believers, no command will be required to get them to come up and worship in Jerusalem annually.

But the judgment of sheep and goats is not intended as final solution to human rebellion and self-will. As the reign of Christ goes on, children will be born with the option to acknowledge Christ as Lord or else rebel against his rule, directly or indirectly. Refusing to come to the annual feast is an act of passive rebellion God will not tolerate. Because refusing to send a delegation to Jerusalem is a corporate decision, the punishment will also be corporate: a famine on the land of those nations that refuse to bow the knee to Christ.

As we have seen, mandatory attendance at the Feast of Booths is not a new thing. That was always the rule. But how much greater is the rebellion of those who can see the glorified Christ in the flesh, yet still refuse to acknowledge his right to rule!

Holy to the Lord

During the millennial reign of Christ, holiness will be a perfectly ordinary feature of everyday life, not merely an occasional ritualistic exercise centered around the temple worship in Jerusalem. The bells on the horses and the pots in Israelite kitchens will be as holy to the Lord as the vessels in the temple in which sacrifices are boiled. Believers in the church era will think of Romans 12, where all areas of the believer’s life ought to be potential occasions for worship. So it will be in millennial Jerusalem.

As has been often pointed out, these sacrifices, whether domestic or temple-oriented, will not be efficacious with respect to the removal of sin. The New Testament reveals they never were. Their purpose in the millennial reign will be strictly commemorative.

A Trader in the House

Zechariah ends with the statement that during Christ’s millennial reign, there will no longer be a “trader” in the house of the Lord of hosts. The word translated “trader” by the ESV team is actually the Hebrew for “Canaanite”, and that’s the way most English versions translate it. Probably the ESV translators were trying to supply what they believed to be the sense of the term rather than the literal meaning. The Hebrew word translated “house” is more often translated “household”, so it’s possible Zechariah is saying there will be nobody with the spirit and attitude of the Canaanites, who incurred the wrath of God for their vile practices and idolatry, within the community of millennial Israel.

That said, it’s also possible he is speaking of literal Canaanites in the temple. Zechariah was writing very close to the time of Nehemiah. In Nehemiah 13, the governor leaves Jerusalem for a time. On his return, he finds the priests have allowed an Ammonite named Tobiah to take up residence in the temple, moving his household furniture into a chamber formerly used to store tithes of grain and frankincense. Ammonites were not Canaanites, though they spoke the same language, but the incident shows the level of corruption that had crept into the temple administration during the period that Zechariah was writing. Very likely it was necessary to point out the offensiveness of such an act of desecration.

During the millennial reign of Christ, there will be no need for a temple cleansing such as the Lord himself performed in his first advent. No unclean thing will be tolerated among the people of God. All will be “holy to the Lord”.