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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
Z E C H A R I A H.
CHAP. XIV.
Divers things were foretold, in the two foregoing chapters, which
should come to pass “in that day;” this chapter speaks of a “day of the
Lord that cometh,” a day of his judgment, and ten times in the
foregoing chapters, and seven times in this, it is repeated, “in that
day;” but what that day is that is here meant is uncertain, and perhaps
will be so (as the Jews speak) till Elias comes; whether it refer to
the whole period of time from the prophet’s days to the days of the
Messiah, or to some particular events in that time, or to Christ’s
coming, and the setting up of his kingdom upon the ruins of the Jewish
polity, we cannot determine, but divers passages here seem to look as
far forward as gospel-times. Now the “day of the Lord” brings with it
both judgment and mercy, mercy to his church, judgment to her enemies
and persecutors.
I. The gates of hell are here threatening the church
and yet not prevailing.
II. The power of Heaven appears here for the church and against the
enemies of it,
III. The events concerning the church are here represented as mixed
(ver. 6, 7),
but issuing well at last.
IV. The spreading of the means of knowledge is here foretold, and the
setting up of the gospel-kingdom in the world
(ver. 8, 9),
which shall be the enlargement and establishment of another Jerusalem,
V. Those shall be reckoned with that fought against Jerusalem
and those that neglect his worship there,
VI. It is promised that there shall be great resort to the church, and
great purity and piety in it,
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1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be
divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle;
and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women
ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and
the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those
nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of
Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of
Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and
toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and
half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of
it toward the south.
5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the
valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall
flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of
Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all
the saints with thee.
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall
not be clear, nor dark:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not
day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time
it shall be light.
God’s providences concerning his church are here represented as
strangely changing and strangely mixed.
I. As strangely changing. Sometimes the tide runs high and strong
against them, but presently it turns, and comes to be in favour of
them; and God has, for wise and holy ends, set the one over against the
other.
1. God here appears against Jerusalem; judgment begins at the house of
God. When the day of the Lord comes
(v. 1)
Jerusalem must pass through the fire to be refined. God himself
gathers all nations against Jerusalem to battle
(v. 2);
he gives them a charge, as he did Sennacherib, to take the spoil
and to take the prey
(Isa. x. 6),
for the people of Jerusalem have now become the people of his
wrath. And who can stand before him or before nations gathered by
him? Where he gives commission he will give success. The city shall
be taken by the Romans, who have nations at command; the
houses shall be rifled, and all the riches of them taken away, by the
enemy; and, to gratify an insatiable lust of uncleanness as well as
avarice, the women shall be ravished, as if victory were
a license to the worst of villanies, jusque datum sceleri–and
crimes were sanctioned by law. One-half of the city shall then be
carried into captivity, to be sold or enslaved, and shall not be
able to help itself, such is the destruction that shall be made in the
great and terrible day of the Lord.
2. He presently changes his way, and appears for Jerusalem; for, though
judgment begin at the house of God, yet, as it shall not end there, so
it shall not make a full end there,
(1.) A remnant shall be spared, the same with that third part
spoken of,
One-half shall go into captivity, whence they may hereafter be
fetched back, and the residue of the people shall not be cut
off, as one would have feared, from the city. Many of the Jews
shall receive the gospel, and so shall prevent their being cut off from
the city of God, his church upon earth. In it shall be a tenth,
Isa. vi. 13;
See
(2.) Their cause shall be pleaded against their enemies
(v. 3):
Then, when God has made use of these nations as a scourge to his
people, he shall go forth and fight against them by his
judgments, as when he fought against the enemies of his church
formerly in the day of battle, with the Egyptians, Canaanites,
and others. Note, The instruments of God’s wrath will themselves be
made the objects of it; for it will come to their turn to drink of the
cup of trembling; and whom God fights against he will be sure to
overcome and be too hard for. And every former day of battle,
which God has made to his people a day of triumph, as it is an
engagement to God to appear for his people, because he is the same, so
it is an encouragement to them to trust in him. It is observable that
the Roman empire never flourished, after the destruction of Jerusalem
as it had done before, but in many instances God fought against it.
(3.) Though Jerusalem and the temple be destroyed, yet God will have a
church in the world, into which Gentiles shall be admitted, and with
whom the believing Jews shall be incorporated,
These verses are dark and hard to be understood; but divers good
expositors take this to be the meaning of them.
[1.] God will carefully inspect Jerusalem, even then when the enemies
of it are laying it waste: His feet shall stand in that day upon the
mount of Olives, whence he may take a full view of the city and
temple,
When the refiner puts his gold into the furnace he stands by it, and
has his eye upon it, to see that it receive no damage; so when
Jerusalem, God’s gold, is to be refined, he will have the oversight of
it. He will stand by upon the mount of Olives; this was
literally fulfilled when our Lord Jesus was often upon this mountain,
especially when thence he ascended up into heaven,
Acts i. 12.
It was the last place on which his feet stood on this earth, the place
from which he took rise.
[2.] The partition-wall between Jews and Gentiles shall be taken away.
The mountains about Jerusalem, and particularly this, signified
it to be an enclosure, and that it stood in the way of those who would
approach to it. Between the Gentiles and Jerusalem this mountain of
Bether, of division, stood,
But by the destruction of Jerusalem this mountain shall be made to
cleave in the midst, and so the Jewish pale shall be taken down,
and the church laid in common with the Gentiles, who were made one with
the Jews by the breaking down of this middle wall of partition,
Eph. ii. 14.
Who art thou, O great mountain? And a great mountain the
ceremonial law was in the way of the Jews’ conversion, which, one would
think, could never have been got over; yet before Christ and his gospel
it was made plain. This mountain departs, this hill
removes, but the covenant of peace cannot be broken;
for peace is still preached to him that is afar off and to those
that are nigh.
[3.] A new and living way shall be opened to the new Jerusalem, both to
see it and to come into it. The mountain being divided, one-half
towards the north and the other half towards the south,
there shall be a very great valley, that is, a broad way of
communication opened between Jerusalem and the Gentile world, by which
the Gentiles shall have free admission into the gospel-Jerusalem, and
the word of the Lord, that goes forth from Jerusalem, shall have
a free course into the Gentile world. Thus the way of the
Lord is prepared, for every mountain and hill shall be brought
low, and plain and pleasant valleys shall come in the room of them,
[4.] Those of the Jews that believe shall come in, and join themselves
to the Gentiles, and incorporate with them in the gospel-church: You
shall flee to the valley of the mountains, that valley that is
opened between the divided halves of the mount of Olives; they shall
hasten into the church with the Gentiles, as formerly the Gentiles with
them,
The valley of the mountains is the gospel-church, to which there
were added of the Jews daily such as should be saved, who fled
to that valley as to their refuge. This valley of the mountains
is said to reach unto Azal, or to the separate place,
that is, to all those whom God has set apart for himself. When
God makes his mountains a way
by making them a valley, the way shall be opened to all the
way-faring men
(Isa. xxxv. 8),
and, though fools, they shall not err therein. Or, to
those that are now separated from God this valley shall reach; for the
Gentiles, who are afar off, shall be made nigh, with the Jews, who are
a people near unto him, and both have an access, a mutual
access to each other and a joint access to God as a Father by one
Spirit,
[5.] They shall flee to the valley of the mountains, to the
gospel-church, under dreadful apprehensions of their danger from the
curse of the law. They shall flee from the wrath to come, from
the avenger of blood, who is in pursuit of them, to the church as to a
city of refuge, or as doves to their windows, as they
fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah,
Amos i. 1.
Therefore the gospel reveals the wrath of God from heaven
that we might be awakened to escape for our lives, to flee as
from an earthquake, for we feel the earth ready to sink under us, and
we can find no firm footing in it, and therefore must flee to Christ,
in whom alone we can stand fast and be easy.
(4.) God shall appear in his glory for the accomplishing of all this:
The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee, which
may refer to his coming to destroy Jerusalem, or to destroy the enemies
of Jerusalem, or his coming to set up his kingdom in the world, which
is called the coming of the Son of man
or to his last coming, at the end of time; however, it teaches us,
[1.] That the Lord will come; it has been the faith of all the saints,
Behold, the Lord comes to fulfil every word that he has spoken
in its season.
[2.] When he comes all his saints come with him; they attend his
motions and are ready to serve his interests. Christ will come at the
end of time with ten thousands of his saints, as when he came to
give the law upon Mount Sinai.
[3.] Every particular believer, being related to God as his God, may
triumph in the expectation of his coming and speak of it with pleasure,
The Lord my God shall come, shall come to the comfort of all
that are his; for, “Blessed Lord, all the saints shall be with
thee, and it shall be their everlasting happiness to dwell in thy
presence; and therefore come, Lord Jesus.” And some think that
this may be read as a prayer, Yet, O Lord my God! come, and bring
all the saints with thee.
II. God’s providences appear here strangely mixed
(v. 6, 7):
In that day of the Lord the light shall not be clear nor
dark, not day nor night; but at evening time it shall be
light. Some refer this to all the time from hence to the coming of
the Messiah; the Jewish church had neither perfect peace nor constant
trouble, but a cloudy day, neither rain nor sunshine. But it may be
taken more generally, as designed to represent the method God usually
takes in the administration of the kingdom both of providence and
grace. Here is,
1. An idea of the usual course and tenour of God’s dispensations; the
day of his grace and the day of his providence are neither clear nor
dark, not day nor night. It is so with the church of God in this
world; where the Sun of righteousness has risen it cannot be dark
night, and yet short of heaven it will not be clear day. It is so with
particular saints; they are not darkness, but light in the Lord,
and yet, while there is so much error and corruption remaining in them,
it is not perfect day. So it is as to the providences of God that
relate to his church; in general the affairs of the church are neither
good nor bad in any extremity, but there is a mixture of both; we are
singing both of mercy and judgment, and are uncertain which will
prevail, whether it be an evening or a morning twilight. We are between
hope and fear, not knowing what to make of things.
2. An intimation of comfort with reference hereunto: It shall be one
day which shall be known to the Lord. This intimates,
(1.) The beauty and harmony of such mixed events; there is one and the
same design and tendency in all; all the wheels make but one wheel, all
the revolutions but one day.
(2.) The brevity of them; it is, as it were, but for one day, for a
little moment; the cloud that darkens the light will soon blow over.
(3.) The eye God has upon all these events, and the hand he has in them
all; they are known to the Lord; he takes notice of them, and
orders and disposes of all for the best, according to the counsel of
his will.
3. An issue very joyful secured at last: At evening-time it shall be
light: it shall be clear light, and no longer dark; we are sure of
it in the other world, and we hope for it in this world–at
evening-time, when our hopes are quite spent with waiting all
day to no purpose, nay, when we fear it will be quite dark, when things
are at the worst and the case of the church is most deplorable. As to
the church’s enemies the sun goes down at noon, so to the church
it rises at night; unto the upright springs light out of
darkness
(Ps. cxii. 4);
deliverance comes when the tale of bricks is doubled, and when God’s
people have done looking for it, and so it comes with a pleasing
surprise.
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8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go
out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half
of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it
be.
9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day
shall there be one LORD, and his name one.
10 All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon
south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in
her place, from Benjamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate,
unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the
king’s wine-presses.
11 And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more
utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite
all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh
shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their
eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall
consume away in their mouth.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult
from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every
one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up
against the hand of his neighbour.
14 And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of
all the heathen round about shall be gathered together, gold, and
silver, and apparel, in great abundance.
15 And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the
camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in
these tents, as this plague.
Here are,
I. Blessings promised to Jerusalem, the gospel-Jerusalem, in the day of
the Messiah, and to all the earth, by virtue of the blessings poured
out on Jerusalem, especially to the land of Israel.
1. Jerusalem shall be a spring of living waters to the world; it was
made so when there the Spirit was poured out upon the apostles, and
thence the word of the Lord diffused itself to the nations about
(v. 8):
Living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; for there they began,
and thence those set out who were to preach repentance and
remission of sins unto all nations,
Luke xxiv. 47.
Note, Where the gospel goes, and the graces of God’s Spirit go along
with it, there living waters go; those streams that make glad the
city of our God make glad the country also, and make it like
paradise, like the garden of the Lord, which was well
watered. It was the honour of Jerusalem that thence the word of
the Lord went forth
(Isa. ii. 3);
and thus far, even in its worst and most degenerate age, for old
acquaintance-sake, it was made a blessing, and to be so is to be
blessed. Half of these waters shall go towards the former sea
and half towards the hinder sea, as all rivers bend their course
towards some sea or other, some eastward, others westward. The gospel
shall spread into all parts of the world, into some that lie remote
from Jerusalem one way and others that lie as far off another way; for
the dominion of the Redeemer, which was thereby to be set up, must be
from sea to sea
(Ps. lxxii. 8),
and the earth must be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the
waters cover the sea, and as the waters that in various channels
run to the sea. The knowledge of God shall diffuse itself,
(1.) Every way. These living waters shall produce both eastern
churches and western churches, that shall each of them in its turn be
illustrious.
(2.) Every day: In summer and in winter it shall be. Note, Those
who are employed in spreading the gospel may find themselves work both
winter and summer, and are to serve the Lord therein at
all seasons,
And such a divine power goes along with these living waters that they
shall not be dried up, nor the course of them be obstructed, either by
the droughts in summer or by the frosts in winter.
2. The kingdom of God among men shall be a universal and united
kingdom,
v. 9.
(1.) It shall be a universal kingdom: The Lord shall be King over
all the earth. He is, and ever was, so of right, and in the
sovereign disposals of his providence his kingdom does rule over
all and none are exempt from his jurisdiction; but it is here
promised that he shall be so by actual possession of the hearts of his
subjects; he shall be acknowledged King by all in all places; his
authority shall be owned and submitted to, and allegiance sworn to him.
This will have its accomplishment with that word
(Rev. xi. 15),
The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and
of his Christ.
(2.) It shall be a united kingdom: There shall be one Lord, and his
name one. All shall worship one God only, and not idols, and shall
be unanimous in the worship of him. All false gods shall be abandoned,
and all false ways of worship abolished; and as God shall be the centre
of their unity, in whom they shall all meet, so the scripture shall be
the rule of their unity, by which they shall all walk.
3. The land of Judea, and Jerusalem, its mother-city, shall be repaired
and replenished, and taken under the special protection of Heaven,
Some think this denotes particular favour to the people of the Jews,
and points at their conversion and restoration in the latter days; but
it is rather to be understood figuratively of the gospel-church,
typified by Judah and Jerusalem, and it signifies the abundant graces
with which the church shall be crowned, and the fruitfulness of its
members, and the vast numbers of them.
(1.) The church shall be like a fruitful country, abounding in all the
rich products of the soil. The whole land of Judea, which is naturally
uneven and hilly, shall be turned as a plain; it shall become a
smooth level valley, from Geba, or Gibeah, its utmost border north, to
Rimmon, which lay south of Jerusalem and was the utmost southern
limit of Judea. The gospel of Christ, where it comes in its power,
levels the ground; mountains and hills are brought low by it, that the
Lord alone may be exalted.
(2.) It shall be like a populous city. As the holy land shall be
levelled, so the holy city shall be peopled, shall be rebuilt and
replenished. Jerusalem shall be lifted up out of its low estate,
shall be raised out of its ruins; when the land is turned as a
plain, and not only the mount of Olives removed
(v. 4),
but other mountains too, then Jerusalem shall be lifted up, that
is, shall appear the more conspicuous; she shall be inhabited in her
place, even in Jerusalem,
ch. xii. 6.
The whole city shall be inhabited in the utmost extent of it, and no
part of it left to lie waste. The utmost limits of it are here
mentioned, between which there shall be no ground lost, but all built
upon, from Benjamin’s-gate north-east to the corner-gate
north-west, and from the tower of Hananeel in the south to the
king’s wine-presses in the north; when the churches of Christ in
all places are replenished with great numbers of holy, humble, serious
Christians, and many such are daily added to it, then this promise is
fulfilled.
(3.) This country and this city shall both be safe, both the meat in
the country and the mouths in the city: Those that dwell in it
shall dwell securely, and there shall be none to make them afraid;
there shall be no more of that utter destruction that has laid both
town and country waste, no more anathema (as some read it), no more
cutting off, no more curse, or separation from God to evil, no more
such desolating judgments as you have been groaning under, but
Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited; there shall be no danger,
nor any apprehension of it; neither shall its friends be fearful to
disquiet themselves nor its enemies formidable to disquiet them. That
promise of Christ explains this–that the gates of hell shall not
prevail against the church; and so do the holy security and
serenity of mind which believers enjoy in relying on the divine
protection.
II. Here are judgments threatened against the enemies of the church,
that have fought, or do fight, against Jerusalem; and the
threatening of these judgments is in order to the preservation
of the church in safety. Men that read and hear of these plagues will
be afraid of fighting against Jerusalem, much more when these
threatenings are fulfilled in some will others hear and fear. Those
that fight against the city of God, and his people, will be found
fighting against God, against whom none ever hardened his heart and
prospered
(v. 12):
This shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the
people that have fought against Jerusalem; whoever they are, God
will punish them for the affront done to him, and avenge Jerusalem upon
them.
1. They shall waste away under grievous and languishing diseases:
Their flesh shall consume away, and they shall be miserably
emaciated, even while they stand on their feet, so that they
shall be walking skeletons; nothing shall remain but skin and bones.
The flesh which they pampered and indulged, and made provision for,
when they were fed to the full with the spoils of God’s people, shall
now consume away, that it cannot be seen, and the bones that were
not seen shall stick out,
Job xxxiii. 21.
They keep their feet, and hope to keep their ground,
crawling about as long as they can; but they must yield at last. The
organs of sight, the outlets of sin, their eyes, shall consume away
in their holes, shall sink into their heads or perhaps start out of
them; their envious malicious, adulterous eyes, the eyes they had so
often fed with spectacles of misery, these shall consume, which shall
make not only their countenances ghastly, but their lives wretched. The
organs of speech, the outlets of sin, their tongue, shall consume
away in their mouth, whereby God will reckon with them for all
their blasphemies against himself and invectives against his people.
Thus their own tongues shall fall upon them, and their
punishment shall be legible in their sin, as his was whose tongue was
tormented in hell-flames. Thus Antiochus and Herod consumed away.
2. They shall be dashed in pieces one against another
(v. 13):
A great tumult from the Lord shall be among them. But are
tumults from the Lord, who is the God of order, and not of
confusion? As they are the sin of those that raise them they are
not from the Lord, but from the wicked one, and from men’s own lusts;
but, as they are the punishment of those that suffer by them, they are
from the Lord, who serves his own purposes, and carries on his
intentions, by the sins, and follies, and restless spirits, of men. It
is of themselves that they bite and devour one another, but it
is of the Lord, the righteous Judge, that thus they are consumed one
of another
(Gal. v. 15);
as Ahab was deceived by a lying spirit from the Lord, so Abimelech and
the men of Shechem were divided, and so destroyed, by an
evil spirit from the Lord,
Judg. ix. 23.
Note, Those that are confederate and combined against the church will
justly be separated, and set against one another; and their tumults
raised against God will be avenged in tumults among themselves. And
they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, to
hold him from striking, or to bind him as his prisoner; nay, his
hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour, to strike and
wound him. Note, Those that aim to destroy the church are often made to
destroy one another; and every man’s sword is sometimes set against his
fellow, by him whose sword they all are. Some think this was fulfilled
in the factions and dissensions that were among the Jews, when the
Romans were destroying them all; for they had fought against the
spiritual Jerusalem, the gospel-church; and to that well enough agrees
Thou also, O Judah! shalt fight against Jerusalem; the Jewish
nation shall be ruined by itself, shall die by its own hands; the city
and country shall be at war with each other, and so both shall be
destroyed. Suis et ipsa Roma viribus ruit–Rome was urged into ruin
by its very strength.
3. The plunder of their camp shall greatly enrich the people of God, or
the spoils of their country
(v. 14):
Judah also shall eat at Jerusalem (so one learned interpreter
reads it); people shall come from all parts to share in the prey; as
when Sennacherib’s army was routed before Jerusalem there was the
prey of a great spoil divided
so it shall be now; the wealth of all the heathen round about,
that had spoiled Jerusalem, shall be gathered together, gold, and
silver, and apparel, in great abundance, that an equal dividend may
be made among all the parties entitled to a share of the prize. Note,
The wealth of the sinner is often laid up for the just,
and the Israel of God enriched with the spoil of the Egyptians.
4. The very cattle shall share in the plague with which the enemies of
God’s church shall be cut off, as they did in divers of the plagues of
Egypt
(v. 15):
All the beasts that shall be in the tents of these wicked
men, when God comes to contend with them, shall perish with them, not
only beasts used in war, as the horse, but those used for travel, or in
the plough, as the mule, the camel, and the ass.
Note, The inferior creatures often suffer for the sin of man and in his
plagues. Thus God will show his indignation against sin, and will make
the creature that is thus subject to vanity groan to be
delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of God,
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16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of
all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up
from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to
keep the feast of tabernacles.
17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the
families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the
LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.
18 And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that
have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD
will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of
tabernacles.
19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of
all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
20 In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses,
HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD‘s house shall be
like the bowls before the altar.
21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness
unto the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come
and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall
be no more the Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts.
Three things are here foretold:–
I. That a gospel-way of worship being set up in the church there shall
be a great resort to it and a general attendance upon it. Those that
were left of the enemies of religion shall be so sensible of the mercy
of God to them in their narrow escape that they shall apply themselves
to the worship of the God of Israel, and pay their homage to him,
Those that were not consumed shall be converted, and this makes their
deliverance a mercy indeed, a double mercy. It is a great change that
the grace of God makes upon them; those that had come against
Jerusalem, finding their attempts vain and fruitless, shall become
as much her admirers as ever they had been her adversaries, and shall
come to Jerusalem to worship there, and go in concurrence with
those whom they had gone contrary to. Note, As some of Christ’s foes
shall be made his footstool, so others of them shall be made his
friends; and, when the principle of enmity is slain in them, their
former acts of hostility are pardoned to them, and their services are
admitted and accepted, as though they had never fought against
Jerusalem. They shall go up to worship at Jerusalem, because
that was the place which God had chosen, and there the temple was,
which was a type of Christ and his mediation. Converting grace sets us
right,
1. In the object of our worship. They shall no longer
worship the Molochs and Baals, the kings and
lords, that the Gentiles worship, the creatures of their own
imagination, but the King, the Lord of hosts, the
everlasting King, the King of kings, the sovereign Lord of all.
2. In the ordinances of worship, those which God himself has appointed.
Gospel-worship is here represented by the keeping of the feast of
tabernacles, for the sake of those two great graces which were in a
special manner acted and signified in that feast-contempt
of the world, and joy in God,
The life of a good Christian is a constant feast of tabernacles,
and, in all acts of devotion, we must retire from the world and rejoice
in the Lord, must worship as in that feast.
3. In the Mediator of our worship; we must go to Christ our
temple with all our offerings, for in him only our spiritual
sacrifices are acceptable to God,
If we rest in ourselves, we come short of pleasing God; we must go up
to him, and mention his righteousness only.
4. In the time of it; we must be constant. They shall go up from
year to year, at the times appointed for this solemn feast. Every
day of a Christian’s life is a day of the feast of tabernacles,
and every Lord’s day especially (that is the great day of the
feast); and therefore every day we must worship the Lord of hosts
and every Lord’s day with a peculiar solemnity.
II. That those who neglect the duties of gospel-worship shall be
reckoned with for their neglect. God will compel them to come and
worship before him, by suspending his favours from those that keep not
his ordinances: Upon them there shall be no rain,
v. 17.
Some understand it figuratively; the rain of heavenly doctrine shall be
withheld, and of the heavenly grace, which should accompany that
doctrine. God will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon
them. Note, It is a righteous thing with God to withhold the
blessings of grace from those that do not attend the means of grace, to
deny the green pastures to those that attend not the
shepherd’s tents. Or we may take it literally: On them there
shall be no rain, to make their ground fruitful. Note, The gifts of
common providence are justly denied to those that neglect and despise
instituted ordinances. Those that neglected to build the temple were
punished with the want of rain
(Hag. ii. 17),
and so were those that neglected to attend there when it was built. If
we be barren and unfruitful towards God, justly is the earth made so to
us. Many are crossed, and go backward, in their affairs, and this is at
the bottom of it–they do not keep close to the worship of God as they
should; they go off from God, and then he walks contrary to them. If we
omit or postpone the duties he expects from us, it is just with him to
deny the favours we expect from him. But what shall be done to the
defaulters of the land of Egypt, to whom the threatening of the want of
rain is no threatening, for they have no rain at any time; they need
none; they desire none; the river Nilus is to them instead of the
clouds of heaven, waters their land, and makes it fruitful, so that
what is a punishment to others is none to them?
It is threatened that if the family of Egypt go not up, that have no
rain, yet God will find out a way to meet with them, for there
shall be, in effect, the same plague wherewith other nations are
smitten for their neglect. God can, and often did, restrain the
overflowing of the river, which was equivalent to the shutting up of
the clouds; or if the river did its part, and rose as high as it used
to do, God had other ways of bringing famine upon them, and destroying
the fruits of their ground, as he did by several of the ten plagues of
Egypt, so that this (that is, the same) shall be the
punishment of Egypt that is the punishment of other nations
who come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. Note, Those
who think themselves least indebted to, and depending on, the mercy of
heaven, cannot therefore think themselves guarded against the
justice of Heaven. It does not follow that those who can live without
rain can therefore live without God; for not the heavens only, but all
other creatures, are that to us that God makes them to be, and no more;
nor can any man’s way of living enable him to set light by the
judgments of God. This shall be the punishment–margin, This
shall be the sin of Egypt, and the sin of all nations, that come not up
to keep the feast of tabernacles. The same word signifies both
sin and the punishment of sin, so close and inseparable
is the connexion between them (as
and sin is often its own punishment. Note, Omissions are sins, and we
must come into judgment for them; those contract guilt that go not
up to worship at the times appointed, as they have opportunity; and
it is a sin that is its own punishment, for those who forsake
the duty forfeit the privilege of communion with God.
III. That those who perform the duties of gospel-worship shall have
grace to adorn their profession by the duties of a gospel-conversation
too. This is promised
(v. 20, 21),
and it is necessary to the completing of the beauty and happiness of
the church. In general, all shall be holiness to the Lord.
1. The name and character of holiness shall not be so confined as
formerly. Holiness to the Lord had been written only upon the
high priest’s forehead, but now it shall not be so appropriated. All
Christians shall be living temples, and spiritual
priests, dedicated to the honour of God and employed in his
service.
2. Real holiness shall be more diffused than it had been, because there
shall be more powerful means of sanctification, more excellent rules,
more cogent arguments, and brighter patterns of holiness, and because
there shall be a more plentiful effusion of the Spirit of holiness and
sanctification, after Christ’s ascension than ever before.
(1.) There shall be holiness introduced into common things; and those
things shall be devoted to God that seemed very foreign.
[1.] The furniture of their horses shall be consecrated to God.
“Upon the bells of the horses shall be engraven Holiness to
the Lord, or upon the bridles of the horses (so the margin)
or the trappings. The horses used in war shall no longer be used
against God and his people, as they have been, but for him and them.
Even their wars shall be holy wars, their troopers serving under God’s
banner. Their great men, who ride in state with a pompous retinue,
shall reckon it their greatest ornament to honour God with their
honours. Holiness to the Lord shall be written on the harness of
their chariot-horses, as great men have sometimes their coat of arms
with their motto painted on their coaches; every gentleman shall take
the high priest’s motto for his, and glory in it, and make it a memento
to himself not to do any thing unworthy of it. Travellers shall have it
upon their bridles, with which they guide their horses, as those who
desire always to be put in mind of it, by having it continually before
them, and to guide themselves in all their motions by this rule. The
bells of the horses, which are designed to quicken them in their
journey and to give notice of their approach, shall have Holiness to
the Lord upon them,” to signify that this is that which we ought to
be influenced by ourselves, and make profession of to others, wherever
we go.
[2.] The furniture of their houses too shall be consecrated to God, to
be employed in his service. First, The furniture of the priests’
houses, or apartments adjoining to the house of the Lord. The common
drinking cups they used shall be like the bowls before the
altar, that were used either to receive the blood of the sacrifices
or to present the wine and oil in, which were for the
drink-offerings. The vessels which they used for their own
tables shall be used in such a religious manner, with such sobriety and
temperance, such devotedness to the glory of God, and such a mixture of
pious thoughts and expressions, that their meals shall look like
sacrifices; they shall eat and drink, not to themselves, but to him
that spreads their tables and fills their cups. And thus, in ministers’
families especially, should common actions be done after a godly sort,
however they are done in other families. Secondly, The furniture
of other houses, those of the common people: “Every pot in Jerusalem
and in Judah shall be holiness to the Lord. The pots in which they
boil their meat, the cups out of which they drink their wine
(Jer. xxxv. 5),
in these God’s good creatures shall never be abused to excess, nor that
made the food and fuel of lust which should be oil to the wheels of
obedience,” as had formerly been, when all tables were full of vomit
and filthiness,
Isa. xxviii. 8.
“What they eat and drink out of these shall nourish their bodies for
the service of God; and out of these they shall give liberally for the
relief of the poor;” then are they Holiness to the Lord, as the
merchandise and the hire of the converted Tyrians are said to be
for both in our gettings and in our spendings we must have an eye to
the will of God as our rule and the glory of God as our end.
Thirdly, When there shall be such an abundance of real holiness
people shall not be nice and curious about ceremonial holiness:
“Those that sacrifice shall come and take of these common
vessels, and seethe their sacrifices therein, making no
distinction between them and the bowls before the altar.” In
gospel-times the true worshippers shall worship God in spirit and in
truth, and neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem,
John iv. 21.
One place shall be as acceptable to God as another (I will that men
pray every where); and one vessel shall be as acceptable as
another. Little regard shall be had to the circumstance, provided there
be nothing indecent or disorderly, while the substance is religiously
preserved and adhered to. Some think it intimates that there should be
greater numbers of sacrifices offered than the vessels of the sanctuary
would serve for; but, rather than any should be turned back or
deferred, they shall make no difficulty at all of using common vessels,
as the Levites in a case of necessity helped the priests to kill the
sacrifices,
(2.) There shall be no unholiness introduced into their sacred things,
to corrupt them: In that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in
the house of the Lord of hosts. Some read it, There shall be no
more the merchant, for so a Canaanite sometimes signifies; and
they think it was fulfilled when Christ once and again drove the buyers
and sellers out of the temple. Or though those that were Canaanites,
strangers and foreigners, shall be brought into the house of the Lord,
yet they shall cease to be Canaanites; they shall have nothing of the
spirit or disposition of Canaanites in them. Or it intimates that
though in gospel-times people should grow indifferent as to holy
vessels, yet they should be very strict in church-discipline, and
careful not to admit the profane to special ordinances, but to separate
between the precious and the vile, between Israelites and Canaanites.
Yet this will not have its full accomplishment short of the heavenly
Jerusalem, that house of the Lord of hosts, into which no
unclean thing shall enter; for at the end of time, and not before,
Christ shall gather out of his kingdom every thing that offends, and
the tares and wheat shall be perfectly and eternally separated.
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