PM Home Bible Study Group; November 9, 2011

Zechariah 13:1-9
Theme: The Future of the World Powers, Israel, and the Kingdom of Messiah (9:1-14:21).

(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

IV. The Future of the World Powers, Israel, and the Kingdom of Messiah (9:1-14:21).

B. The Second Burden (12:1-14-21).

2. Israel Cleansed of Her Sin (13:1-6).

1 “In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.

2 “It shall be in that day,” says the LORD of hosts, “that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land.

3 It shall come to pass that if anyone still prophesies, then his father and mother who begot him will say to him, ‘You shall not live, because you have spoken lies in the name of the LORD.’ And his father and mother who begot him shall thrust him through when he prophesies.

4 “And it shall be in that day that every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies; they will not wear a robe of coarse hair to deceive.

5 But he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a farmer; for a man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.’

6 And one will say to him, ‘What are these wounds between your arms?’[a] Then he will answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’

Footnotes:

a. Zechariah 13:6; Or hands

3. The Shepherd Smitten and the Sheep Scattered (13:7-9).

7 “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd,

Against the Man who is My Companion,”

Says the LORD of hosts.

“Strike the Shepherd,

And the sheep will be scattered;

Then I will turn My hand against the little ones.

8 And it shall come to pass in all the land,”

Says the LORD,

“That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die,

But one-third shall be left in it:

9 I will bring the one-third through the fire,

Will refine them as silver is refined,

And test them as gold is tested.

They will call on My name,

And I will answer them.

I will say, ‘This is My people’;

And each one will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’”

* * * * * * * * * *

The context of this passage is the same as that of chapter 12—that is, "the day of the Lord" (see 12:3, 4, 6, 8 (twice), 9, 11; 13:1, 2, 4; 14:4, 6, 8, 9, 13, 20 and 21; also 14:1, 7). The focus of chapter twelve was the events that surround the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ—particularly as that coming affected the Jewish people. In chapter twelve, we saw the promised frustration of Israel’s enemies (vv. 1-4), God’s glorious strengthening of His people at the time their enemies would surround them (vv. 5-9), and Israel’s national mourning over the One whom they had pierced (vv. 10-14).

The pieces of Israel’s history are not presented in chronological order in Zechariah; but putting them together, the order of events seems to be as follows:

(1) The nations of this world will gather together against Israel (12:1-3) under the leading of the Antichrist (11:15-17; 14:1-2).

(2) The Lord Jesus will return; and the Jewish people will see Him and mourn over Him in repentance and acceptance (12:10-14).

(3) The Lord will set foot on the Mount of Olives—changing the scene of the land and marvelously delivering His people (12:4-9; 14:1-9).

(4) The earthly kingdom of our Lord will be set up and His people will reign with Him (14:9-21).

This evening’s passage has to do with the first and the second of those events. It involves the national cleansing of God’s chosen people that will be carried on during the great tribulation and that will be completed at the time of Jesus’ return. Up to that time, they will have attempted a ‘false cleansing’ through the pursuit of righteousness through the law. As Paul wrote,

What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written:

"Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,

And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame" (Romans 9:30-33).

But in the future events that our passage tonight describes to us, the fountain of true cleansing through Christ will finally be opened up to the Jewish people. It will be the time that God so wonderfully spoke of through His servant Ezekiel:

"For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God. I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields, so that you need never again bear the reproach of famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities and your abominations" (Ezekiel 36:24-31).

Note then how this passage tells us of . . .

I. THE ‘CLEANSING’ THAT IS PROMISED (vv. 1-5).

A. This passage opens with the words "In that day . . ." (v. 1a). This is speaking of the very day which was mentioned in 12:11—that is, the day of national mourning and repentance that the Jewish people will experience at the sight of their crucified Messiah on the glorious day of His return to them.. Note how we’re told that, on that day, "a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness" (v. 1b). This fountain of cleansing will, as some translations have it, be opened "to" them; because it will have been—up to that time— closed to them through unbelief. Prior to that time, they had nationally rejected their Messiah and the cleansing He had provided for them at the cross. But now, they—that is, both the royal house of David and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; both of which represent the whole of the Jewish people—will look upon Him whom they had pierced, and will mourn for Him as for an only son (12:10). They will believe on Him; and then, at long last, the fountain for the cleansing from "sin" and "uncleanness" will be opened to them!

B. And note the nature of that cleansing. “It shall be in that day,” says the LORD of hosts, “that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land" (v. 2). Here are described the two great sins of God’s chosen people. First, they were guilty of idolatry. They had turned from the one true God and had turned instead to idols. It was a sin that had plagued God’s people before He had sent them away into Babylonian exile; and it appears that, even after their return to their land, they will again be plagued by it during the dark days of the Antichrist (see Revelation 13:11-17). But at the time of this great promised cleansing, God will fulfill what He promised in Hosea 2:17; "For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals, and they shall be remembered by their name no more." Second, they were guilty of heeding and rising up as false prophets; and associated with those prophet was an unclean spirit that worked behind the scenes. These false prophets, in times of old, led the people into wicked behavior; and it appears that, in the times preceding our Lord’s return, an unclean spirit will so work through false prophets as to deceive them again (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12). But when the fountain for cleansing is finally opened to them, they will obey God’s command in Deuteronomy 13:1-5; “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst."

C. In that commandment from Deuteronomy 13, God also commanded His people, "“If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. So all Israel shall hear and fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you" (Deuteronomy 13:6-11). And that is what God says will happen at the time of this great national cleansing. Zechariah writes, "It shall come to pass that if anyone still prophesies, then his father and mother who begot him will say to him, ‘You shall not live, because you have spoken lies in the name of the LORD.’ And his father and mother who begot him shall thrust him through when he prophesies" (v. 3). Those who had acted the part of a false prophet in the past—and who had arrogantly and falsely presented themselves to the people as if they were God’s messengers—will at that time seek to hide what they had done: "And it shall be in that day that every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies; they will not wear a robe of coarse hair to deceive" (v. 4). Those robes of coarse hair were meant to imitate the garments of God’s true prophets (see 1 Kings 19:13, 19; Mark 1:9); but they will prove to have only been phony costumes when the false prophets deny their former profession: "But he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a farmer; for a man taught me to keep cattle from my youth’" (v. 5). They will say this because the people of Israel will become so committed to the truth that they will obey God’s law with respect to falsehood.

II. THE ‘CLEANSER’ WHO HAS BEEN PROVIDED (vv. 6-7a).

A. Where does that cleansing come from? We often sing that "there is a fountain filled with blood"; but a fountain isn’t ordinarily filled with blood. A fountain that cleanses is filled with water. But the cleansing itself is made possible by the blood. In the tabernacle of old, the altar—on which the offering was made and the blood was spilled— was what was encountered first; and then the laver for cleansing followed after it. And so, the "cleansing" of verses 1-5 points us back to the sacrifice that made the cleansing possible. Jesus Christ—the crucified Messiah—is the "Cleanser" through whom the cleansing is provided.

B. Some scholars have suggested that verse 6 describes the words of one of the false prophets mentioned in verses 4-5. But others have suggested that it’s more appropriate to see these words as describing the question that will be put to the Lord Jesus at the time of His return. As the Jewish people look adoringly and repentantly upon the One whom they had formerly rejected, we’re told, "And one will say to him, ‘What are these wounds between your arms?’"—or, as it can be translated "hands". And we’re told, "Then he will answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends’" (see 12:10). It was not in the house of an enemy that our Lord was crucified; but it was in the midst of those to whom He would later present Himself as Savior and King. It was for them that He died—even for those who had formerly rejected Him, who He will then call "friends".

C. In verse 7, our attention is drawn back to that sacrifice that He made on the cross: "’Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, against the Man who is My Companion,’ says the LORD of hosts." God sends the sword against Him who was presented to the people as their true Shepherd (see 11:4-14). And notice how "the LORD of hosts" describes this Shepherd as "My Companion"—or, as the NIV has it, "against the man who is close to me!". With respect to what man has God ever spoken in that way? It can only be with respect to Him who said, "I and My Father are one" (John 10:30). Here, we have one of the strongest affirmations of the full deity of the Messiah in the Old Testament (see also 12:10). And what an amazing prophecy it proves to be! God says, “Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered . . ." This passage was fulfilled in an immediate sense at the time that our Lord was arrested when our Lord’s disciples fled from Him (see Matthew 26:31, 56), and He Himself was struck (see Matthew 26:67). But it was fulfilled in a broader, historical sense in that—not long after our Lord was crucified, raised and ascended—the Romans destroyed the city of Jerusalem, and sent the Jewish people scattered throughout the world for nearly two- thousand years. History shows us that Jesus Christ truly was the One who has provided the cleansing for His people.

III. THE ‘CLEANSED’ WHO WIIL BE PREPARED (vv. 7b-9).

A. That two-thousand year period has certainly shown us the truth of the words we find at the end of verse 7—"Then I will turn My hand against the little ones." The name "little ones" reminds us of the diminutive way that God spoke of His chosen people in 11:4- 17. Truly, no people group has suffered more at the hands of as many enemies as the Jewish people have over these last two-thousand years. And there is more suffering yet to come in that period that the Scriptures call "the time of Jacob’s trouble" (Jeremiah 30:5-7). As verse eight tells us; "’And it shall come to pass in all the land,’ says the LORD, ‘That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, but one-third shall be left in it . . ." (see Ezekiel 5:1-12). This remaining "one-third" will be the a remnant people that God will keep to Himself (see 1 Kings 19:18; Romans 11:5).

B. Who is this "remnant"? It seems that they are the ones spoken of in Revelation 14:1-5; where John writes, "Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder. And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. They sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures, and the elders; and no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth. These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God." This 144,000 are "of all the tribes of the children of Israel" (Revelation 7:4); and it’s through that dark time of Jacob’s troubles that they are refined. As God says in verse 9a, "I will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested." This sounds very much like the promise God made in Malachi 3:2-5;

“But who can endure the day of His coming?

And who can stand when He appears?

For He is like a refiner’s fire

And like launderers’ soap.

He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver;

He will purify the sons of Levi,

And purge them as gold and silver,

That they may offer to the LORD

An offering in righteousness.

"Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem

Will be pleasant to the LORD,

As in the days of old,

As in former years.

And I will come near you for judgment;

I will be a swift witness

Against sorcerers,

Against adulterers,

Against perjurers,

Against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans,

And against those who turn away an alien—

Because they do not fear Me,”

Says the LORD of hosts (Malachi 3:2-5).

C. God tells us the results of this "cleansing" when, at the end of verse 9, He tells us, "They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; and each one will say, ‘The LORD is my God’”

* * * * * * * * * *

This is God’s set purpose for His chosen people. In closing, we could do no better than to reverently ponder the ways God has made this promise clear elsewhere in His prophetic word:

"Behold, I will gather them out of all countries where I have driven them in My anger, in My fury, and in great wrath; I will bring them back to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. They shall be My people, and I will be their God; then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me. Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land, with all My heart and with all My soul.’

“For thus says the LORD: ‘Just as I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will bring on them all the good that I have promised them’" (Jeremiah 32:37-42).

"They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

“David My servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them. Then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, where your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell there, they, their children, and their children’s children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people. The nations also will know that I, the LORD, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore” (Ezekiel 37:23-28).

“Yet the number of the children of Israel

Shall be as the sand of the sea,

Which cannot be measured or numbered.

And it shall come to pass

In the place where it was said to them,

‘You are not My people,’

There it shall be said to them,

‘You are sons of the living God’" (Hosea 1:10).