Zechariah 10
McGeeCHAPTER 10THEME: Judah and Israel to be scattered and regatheredWe have seen in chapter 9 the future deliverance of both the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel and how God is going to use them in the future when they will serve, actually, as priests to the gentile nations of the world. There are those who interpret chapter 10 as a continuation of chapter 9. Some very fine Bible expositors feel, however, that only the first verse belongs to chapter 9, and I accept that view. The remainder of the chapter is separate, which we will see as we go along.
Zechariah 10:1
This first verse, as we have seen, belongs to chapter 9. It continues the description of the prosperous conditions which will prevail during the millennial reign of Christ on the earth. The rain mentioned in this verse means exactly what it saysliteral rain. You see, God has promised Israel, who are an earthly people, earthly blessings. (To the church He has not promised earthly blessings, but spiritual blessings.) The fall and spring rainfall is a very important part of Israel’s temporal blessings and would make that land like the Garden of Eden. In our day it looks almost the opposite because judgment has come upon the land as well as upon the people of Israel. The thing that denotes God’s judgment is the withholding of rain. I would say that Israel’s greatest problem next to the Arab problem is the water problemhow to get more water. Well, the best and the easiest thing for them would be to turn to God and experience the physical blessings which would come through rain. But they have not returned to God, and the rain has not returned. I have been told that the latter rains have returned to the land. They are getting more rainfall, that is true; but if you are there in late summer, you will see that the groves they have set out need rain and need it badly. There is not nearly enough water to irrigate the amount of land that needs to be irrigated. The latter rains, the spring rains, come during March and April. Although they do get some rain at that time, it is not nearly the amount of rain indicated in the verse before us. During the Millennium God will send them rain so that there will be plenty of grass for the stock and other animals. There will be plenty of rain for the crops and the trees which they would like to set out. The interpretation of this verse pertains to physical rainfall. However, rain is also a symbol of spiritual refreshment, and it is used that way in other passages of Scripture. For instance, Joe_2:28 has that connotation. That which physical rain does for the land, the spiritual rain, or the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, does for the spiritual lives of these people. Both the prophecy in Joel and the prophecy here in Zechariah have definite reference to the Millennium of the future. There will be a pouring out of the Spirit of God in that day. Therefore, the rain has a twofold meaning.
Zechariah 10:2
JUDGMENT FOR ISRAEL’S DECEPTIONNow beginning with verse Zec_10:2 we have a turning back again to the subject of judgment. Although God intends to strengthen them for the last days and intends to bring them into the Millennium, there are certain things which are radically wrong in their midst. He immediately puts his finger down on what was wrong in Israel. The thing which was really causing the trouble in the nation was idolatry. “The idols have spoken vanity.” The word for “idols” is actually teraphime. They were small household oracular divinities, which are spoken of elsewhere in Scripture. Merrill F. Unger, who is quite a Hebrew scholar, has written several books in the area of demonism in our day and also in the past. I am indebted to him for this bit of information which modern archaeology has uncovered regarding the nature of the teraphim. At the ancient site which is right near Nineveh, called Nuzu, excavations were made between 1925 and 1941.
They found tablets which illustrate customs which went as far back as the patriarchs. You will recall that Jacob had trouble with his uncle Laban, and he left with his two wives, Leah and Rachel. He was glad to leave, and Rachel actually took the teraphim from the home of Laban and concealed them. Now, with the Nuzu evidence, we know that the possession of those household gods implied leadership of the family. When she stole those gods, she was getting for her husband the right to her father’s property, and the theft was a very serious matter. This explains why Laban was so wrought up over it.
He certainly didn’t want Jacob to get his estate. He felt that Jacob had gotten more than he should have already. The second medium of deception was used by the diviners, and the verse before us says that “the diviners have seen a lie” or envisioned a falsehood. Divination is an occult, heathen imitation of biblical prophecy. The Devil has always imitated that which was biblical; he never gets far from the Bible. And every one of the cults and “isms” here in Southern California, including Satan worship, uses the Bible. That is the Devil’s method of deception. It is quite interesting that just this morning there have come in the mail box six different communications from cults and “isms”, and each of them has some weird interpretation of the Word of God. You see, every one of them uses the Bible. The Hebrew word for divination means “to cut or divide.” It had to do with the taking of a sacrificial animal, cutting it open, and looking at its liverthe form of the liver and the way that it was shaped. This ancient form of divination was called hepatoscopy. (It sounds like a medical term, and it seems to me that the doctors used a word like that in reference to my gall bladder surgery, but I don’t think they were looking at my liver for purposes of divination!) The liver was considered to be the seat of the victim’s life, and the shape of the liver supposedly told them the shape of things to come. We have reference to this procedure in Eze_21:21: “For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.” The Babylonians had diviners (Balaam was a diviner), the Philistines had them, and the false prophets of Israel used their methods. Now God, through Zechariah, is saying that “the diviners have seen a lie.” It was demonic inspiration; they were not getting their information from God. God had put down a law forbidding His people to use divination; it was entirely satanic. All the prophets warned against this sort of thing. Many years ago in downtown Los Angeles, I spoke on the subject of demonology in a Sunday evening series, and we averaged about three thousand people in attendance at each service. Some of my preacher friends kidded me about it. One friend with whom I played golf said, “McGee, you will do anything to get a crowd! Now you are speaking on demonology.” Well, I spoke on that subject because I felt it was needed in that day. However, the pendulum of the clock has swung over to the other side, and now there is too much discussion in the church regarding demons and Satan. It is true that there is a manifestation of demonism in our contemporary society, but we need to keep our attention centered upon the Lord Jesus Christ rather than upon Satan. I am convinced that Satan is out working on the front where the Word of God goes out. And I suspect that the many physical problems that I have had in recent years may be because God has let Satan get through to me. I am sure that Satan would like to stop the teaching of the Word of God todaythat would naturally be his priority. No wonder so many of our so-called Bible churches have gone off on an ego trip, playing up some novel program that brings the crowds. My friend, the only thing that God is going to honor permanently is His Word. And during these days I have attempted to keep my eyes centered on the person of Christ.
What is the reason for all the froth and even false teaching which is invading our conservative churches today? I think the explanation is that the Devil is out to deceive Christians. And he can destroy the reputation of almost anyone. That is the reason we need the protection of God in this hour as we have never needed His protection before. And we need to keep our eyes upon Jesus Christ. If we stay close to Him, we will be very far away from the Devil and demons. Instead of centering our attention on the casting out of demons, we need to think instead of casting in Christ. That’s the important thing. You will remember that the Lord told a parable about a man who had a demon. The demon went out of the man, and the man got all swept and garnished. Although he was rid of the demon, he had nothing to fill up the empty apartment. Well, when this demon got tired of walking around, he remembered this fellow, and he went back into him because he was an easy mark. Also, he brought some of his demon friends with him so that the last state of the man was worse than the first. So, you see, it is not enough to cast out a demon, the life must then be filled with Christ. You see, when Israel rejected God’s messengers and God’s message, they failed in their obedience to God. As a result, they turned to all sorts of satanic deception. God says to them through Zechariah, “The idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd.” Israel no longer had a true shepherd to lead them. My friend, you and I are living in a day when there is a manifestation again of demonic power. A great many folk are judging individuals and judging organizations by the apparent success they are having. It never occurs to them that we are to test the spirits. The apostle John warned: “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1Jn_4:1). The need of the hour is not for more youth programs or more new methods in our churches. What we need today are true shepherds who will feed the sheep the Word of God.
Zechariah 10:3
“Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds.” These shepherds were false prophets in Israel who had turned to the occult, had turned to the supernatural which was satanic. “And I punished the goats.” God is calling the leaders of Israel “the goats.” When I was a young fellow I worked in an abattoir, a place where they killed cattle, sheep, and pigs for the butcher shop. It was a very bloody business, and during the first two days I worked there, I had to go outside occasionally to recover from it. But the thing that seemed to me more cruel than anything was the use of an old goat with a bell around his neck. He was called a Judas goat because he would lead sheep to the slaughter. Instead of the workmen driving the sheep, they would start this old goat up the ramp, and all the sheep would follow him. Then the goat would step aside while the sheep went to the slaughter.
Now when the Lord said, “I punish the goats,” He is talking about the leaders in Israel. They should have been leading their people into the Word of God, to the place where they could have peace with God, peace in their own hearts. Instead, they were false prophets, giving them false comfort, and actually leading them away from God. God said that He was angry with them. “For the LORD of hosts hath visited his flock the house of Judah, and hath made them as his goodly horse in the battle.” God, you see, intends to strengthen them against their enemies.
Zechariah 10:4
PROPHECY OF THE MESSIAHThen He looks on to the future when there will come the Messiah, and I believe He is clearly identified in this next verse. “Out of him"out of whom? Out of the One who is comingthe tense is future. It means that from Him shall come forth the corner, the cornerstone. As you know, a cornerstone is placed in a building structure where two walls meet at a ninety-degree angle. The square cornerstone is fitted in there. This is a marvelous picture of Christ as the cornerstone because, you see, there was the wall of Judah and the wall of the ten tribes. The message is that Christ will be the cornerstone to unite them and permanently bring them back together. However, the cornerstone has a wider meaning than this. It gives us another very wonderful picture. Notice what the prophet Isaiah has written about it: “Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste” (Isa_28:16). Peter quotes this in his epistle and makes it clear that the cornerstone is Christ. “Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded” (1Pe_2:6). Notice that Peter used the word confounded, while Isaiah had used the expression “not make haste,” meaning “did not get in a hurry, did not get confused.” They both are expressing the same thought. My friend, in these days in which we live, what is the answer to the occult, to the satanic?
Well, in the first place, we should have nothing to do with it. We are not to meddle with it. Secondly, we should stay close to the Word of God and close to the person of Christ. Here in Zechariah note that immediately after He has warned against the occult, He introduces the cornerstone. We need not imagine that we are too intelligent to be deceived by the occult. The Greeks in their day were a very intelligent people; yet they made constant trips to Delphi. The way that the priests interpreted the blowing of the leaves in that cave at Delphi would put the Greek army out to sea or would take a man off his throne. It would change the course of history. If you think they were just following a superstition, I think you are wrong. It is my conviction that the Devil was using it to direct the Greek Empire. He was having a heyday. Frankly, it concerns me to hear of our leaders in Washington consulting fortune-tellers and others who deal in the occult. I am afraid that we are getting our guidance from the wrong source. What should we do? Turn to the person of Christ. He is the cornerstone. He is the foundation on which we can rest. “Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed” (1Pe_2:7-8). It is my observation that the people who go into the cults have heard the Word of God and have heard the gospel, but they have turned their backs on it. When an individual rejects the truth, God sends them “…strong delusion, that they should believe a lie” (2Th_2:11). That principle is still in operation today. The Lord Jesus made a very startling statement when He called Himself a stone: “…whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder” (Mat_21:44). What happens to you is determined by your relationship to the stone. You can fall on it, or it will fall on you. You can accept and receive Jesus Christ. You can come to Him as a sinner and fall upon Him. You can trust Him, rest upon Him. This means that you are broken in that you no longer trust yourself; you trust Him. But if you reject Him, He will become the stone that will fall on you and grind you to powder. In other words, He is going to be your judge. Daniel mentioned this in chapter 2 of his prophecy. He was given a vision of the times at the end of the gentile world rule when a stone cut out without hands (representing the Lord Jesus Christ) will smite the earthevery government and everyone in rebellion against God. He is that kind of a stone. Now not only does Zechariah call Him the cornerstone, but also “out of him the nail.” This is an interesting word. A nail is, of course, a stake or a tent peg used to fasten a tent securely to the ground. In the case of the wilderness tabernacle, the Israelites had tent pins which they used to keep the tabernacle from taking off with the wind. They had to nail it down with pins driven deeply into the desert sand. And here Christ is pictured as the nail or the tent pin. He is the one who holds things down, and we need to allow Him to hold us to the faith. What a picture this is of Him! Also, that nail or peg was used in another way. A tent pin was used inside a tent to hang things on. Women could hang their jewelry on it and men could hang their valuables on it. This also pictures Christ as the one on whom the Father will hang all His glory"And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house” (Isa_22:22-23). Although this prophecy was directed to Eliakim, Rev_3:7 makes it clear that the final fulfillment will be in Christ Himself.
He is the one who will become a throne of honor to His Father’s house, and only on Him will rest all the glory of His Father’s house. To gain Him is to gain that which is more precious than anything in the world. Notice that Zechariah presents Him as the “battle bow,” meaning the warrior and conqueror. He is the one who is going to come to this earth to put down all unrighteousness, and the armies of heaven are going to follow Him. He is going to put down “every oppressor"the false leaders, both religious and political, whom He has called “goats.”
Zechariah 10:5
This refers to the very dark period of the Great Tribulation. God is going to undertake for His people and enable them to go through it because at the close of that period Christ will come. Down through the years when they have rejected Christ, of course there has been no hope for them. When Titus the Roman was outside the gates of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the walls came down, the city was destroyed, and the people of Israel were scattered throughout the world. It is the current belief of several outstanding expositors that the nation Israel is not now in that land permanently. I’m not sure but what the accurate interpretation of the Word of God is that they will again be put out of the land of Israel and that subsequently God Himself will return them to the land. When God brings them back to the land, they won’t have any trouble with the Arabs. Their neighbors will not try to exterminate them. Rather, when the Lord regathers them, they will be there permanently and will be a blessing to the world.
Zechariah 10:6
“I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph.” The “house of Judah” is, of course, the southern kingdom and “the house of Joseph”, the northern kingdom. That is, the whole nation will share in the joyful victory and blessing of the coming Kingdom. Even in the time of Zechariah, the small remnant that had returned was made up of all the tribes. We know this because a delegation had come down from Bethel, and that was one of the capitals of the northern kingdom. Now why does God protect them during this interval which we call the intertestamental period? Well, His answer is, “For I have mercy upon them.” We can ask ourselves the same question: How did you and I get saved? It was “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy …” (Tit_3:5). God is rich in mercy. He had to have a lot of it to save memaybe He didn’t need that much to save you. But He is rich in mercy; He has an abundance of it.
And it is on the basis of His mercy that He preserved them during that period. After the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, had been written, God went off the air, and He did not broadcast for about four hundred years. During that silent interval the people of Israel probably suffered more than at any other time (except perhaps during the time of Hitler and the Nazi regime in Germany). Although God was silent during that 400-year period between Malachi in the Old Testament and Matthew in the New Testament, we have a very good record of what transpired because of the prophecies given to Daniel and Zechariah, as we are seeing here.
Zechariah 10:7
Now just in case you think that the ten tribes got lost, “Ephraim” is one of the tribes of Israel. If you want to check on that, turn to Hosea. Notice how tenderly God said, “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? …” (Hos_11:8). Well, God didn’t give them up. They are not lost. It is by His grace that they have been preserved as a nation. “They of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man.” The records we have of the intertestamental period give the most thrilling accounts of how the Israelites stood against the Syrian conqueror, Antiochus Epiphanes. His persecution of these people was frightful; yet they were enabled to stand. “They of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man.” “And their heart shall rejoice as through wine.” It was a very difficult period, and they were far from God many times, but also there were periods when they rejoiced in the Lord.
Zechariah 10:8
It is estimated that there must have been around twelve million people in the land of Israel by the time Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans under Titus in A.D. 70, which is a far greater Jewish population than is there in our day. God says, “I will hiss for them.” The word hiss doesn’t quite express what He is saying. Have you ever been sitting in an auditorium when you hear somewhere behind you a “Pssst!”? You turn around to see who is trying to get your attention. That is what “hiss” means. Merrill Unger gives a translation with a new twist, and it is a good one. He says that it means, “I will whistle for them.” I like that. God says, “I’ll whistle for them and gather them.” We know that this has not yet been fulfilled because in the very next verse it speaks of their being scattered again among the nations. Although there was a great population in Israel at the time of Christ, the Lord Jesus made it very clear that Jerusalem would be destroyed after He had gone. He was crucified somewhere around A.D. 30, and in A.D. 70 Jerusalem was destroyed, and the Jews were scattered throughout the Roman Empire.
Zechariah 10:9
“And turn again.” Turn to what? To the land? No, to God. The Jews who have returned to the land in our day have not returned to God. I am in agreement with the Bible expositors who believe that the Jews will be put out of the land of Israel again and will be scattered among the nations. We do know that there is some disillusionment in the land and that many of the Jews want to leave and go back to the countries they came from. I believe the day will come when the Jews will again leave Israel.
Zechariah 10:10
“I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt.” There are very few Jews in the land of Egypt in our day. I believe this refers to future dispersion. “I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon.” If you read the Book of Joshua very carefully and notice where the borders were placed, you will see that Lebanon was part of the Promised Land. Some expositors believe that when the Bible speaks of the land of milk and honey, it has reference to the southern part of the Lebanese coast, which even today is a very rich and fertile area. Well, I don’t agree with that because we know that at the time the spies searched out the land, the rainfall was adequate, the hills were wooded, and there was fruit in abundance. Actually, a few years of withholding rainfall can make a desert. But Lebanon was part of the Promised Land. God certainly has not given Lebanon to the Jews in our day, but someday it will be theirs. If you are Lebanese, you won’t like that, but don’t worry, because it will not happen until the Millenniumand everything will be so wonderful at that time that you won’t mind at all.
Zechariah 10:11
Notice that the language reflects God’s miraculous deliverance of Israel from Egypt the first time He returned them to the Promised Land. But when He regathers them in the future, it will be by even greater miraclesso much so that Jeremiah wrote: “Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land” (Jer_23:7-8). In other words, when God regathers them in the future, it will be by a so much greater miracle that they will forget the miraculous deliverance from Egypt. My friend, I do not think that the wildest interpretation of prophecy in our day would dare say that the present return of Israel to Palestine is a fulfillment of this Scripture. It could not possibly be. It clearly refers to a future regathering.