This is the word of the LORD concerning Israel. The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation ORD concerning Israel. The LORD, of the earth, and who forms the spirit of man within him, declares: 2 “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. 4 On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,” declares the LORD. “I will keep a watchful eye over the house of Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. 5 Then the leaders of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the LORD Almighty is their God.’
6 “On that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume right and left all the surrounding peoples, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.
7 “The LORD will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah. 8 On that day the LORD will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the Angel of the LORD going before them. 9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.
This chapter begins another section of prophecy in which Zechariah describes what the Lord was going to do for the Israelites. This prophecy continues through to the end of the book. The people around the Israelites were also mentioned in this prophecy because they were involved in the promises. Unfortunately for the nations around God’s people, what was good news for Judah would be bad news for them.
In verses 1 to 5 the Lord goes back to the beginning, to creation. When he spoke to establish his credentials as deliverer and preserver, what better example than to point to the beginning. If he was able to stretch out the heavens above the earth, lay the foundations of this world on the face of the deep, and form the spirit of the man, then can he not also take care of problems and present dangers?
The problems of God’s people seemed big until they were placed into their proper perspective. The God of creation could easily take care of them.
It was not that the people would escape with no problems. Verses 2 to 4 speak about trouble and hard times, about siege and battle. Jesus prayed to his Father for all disciples: “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one” (John 17:15). And God’s people do continue to stand as was the promise to Zechariah’s people, an immovable rock for all the nations.
Built on the Rock the church shall stand
Even when steeples are falling.
Crumbled have spires in ev’ry land;
Bells still are chiming and calling,
Calling the young and old to rest,
But above all the soul distressed,
Longing for rest everlasting. (CW 529:1)
The Lord worked his protection in two ways. He promised first to make his people impregnable. They were to be like a rock that no one could move. If the enemy tried to destroy them, they would just bloody their hands and break their backs. God also promised to make the enemy unable to fight. He would strike the horse and rider with panic and madness. These were, indeed, God’s ways. Many examples of this stand in Scripture, one being Midian’s conflict against Gideon. When the Midianites invaded Israel’s homeland, God turned the swords of the enemy against themselves (Judges 7).
Verse 5 clinches the safety of God’s people. They were strong when God was with them and because their God was with them. With God they were strong; without God they were weak. The history of God’s people is a story of these two extremes, of the ceaseless vacillation between the two poles of strength and weakness. It is the story of our own lives too. Our weakness becomes overpowering when we drift away from the source of our strength. But our weakness becomes strength when we remain with God. “When I am weak, then I am strong,” the apostle was able to say (2 Corinthians 12:10).
Verses 6 to 9 continue the theme of deliverance. The Lord became eloquent. He made sweeping promises of help and deliverance. As he talked, it almost seems that he got carried away with his power and with his promise.
Verse 6 describes overwhelming power. A woodpile is no match for a fire. A pile of sheaves offers no resistance to a torch. The fire in both cases is going to have easy work of it. It is even in the nature of fuel to succumb to the fire. This is the comparison God makes about the ultimate outcome between good and bad, between his people and the people who come against his people.
To magnify his miracle, God promised to save what by itself was feeble (verses 7-9). The Lord made a point of saving the tents of Judah before he saved the walled city of Jerusalem. In verse 8 he talked about the feeblest—the one who could not stand by himself. The word for feeble here is a word that means “to stagger or stumble.” Jonathan’s lame son, Mephibosheth, when he was shown kindness by David, said, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?” (2 Samuel 9:8). Now the picture of strength and capability goes from the likes of Mephibosheth to David and from David to God himself. What an acceleration of strength!
The final picture is the picture of the Angel of the Lord going on before the people. The Angel of the Lord is elsewhere equated with Jesus himself, God made flesh. This is God in visible human form who goes before his people and fights for them as the hymn writer said:
Amen, Lord Jesus, grant our prayer;
Great Captain, now Thine arm make bare, Fight for us once again!
So shall Thy saints and martyrs raise A mighty chorus to Thy praise,
World without end. Amen. (TLH 263:4)
Divine retribution! Vengeance is God’s; he will repay. “I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.”