Zech. 12-14
Problems
FYI: Right out of the gate, we run into a problem. The Hebrew word masa’ can mean either oracle or burden. Elsewhere, Jerimaih turns this oddity into a pun, and puns never translate.
“When one of this people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the LORD?’ you shall say to them, ‘You are the burden, and I will cast you off, says the LORD.’ Jer. 23:33
It is up to the translator which one is used.
FYI: The next problem we have is that the oracle is addressed to Israel. Yet Israel is never mentioned. The oracle is all about Judah and Jerusalem. No Israel anywhere.
The Prologue
An Oracle
The word of the LORD concerning Israel: Thus says the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him: Zech. 12:1
We start with a declaration of power and authority. The Creator of the universe has the right to pronounce the future.
Three Opinions
There are three schools of thought as to when and where this Jerusalem is. And they all must resolve who or what is Jerusalem. One’s hermeneutics will greatly affect how the passage is interpreted. We are Historicists.
- Is it the literal Jerusalem, the capital city of Judah in ancient times?
- Is it modern Jerusalem, the capital of present-day Israel?
- Is it the Gospel Jerusalem, the Jerusalem above, which is the spiritual mother of all believers [Gal 4:24-25]?
Ancient Jerusalem
Those who believe that this prophecy is about the historical Jerusalem have the advantage that the standard hermeneutical rule for prophecy is that the next historical event fulfills the prophecy. They believe that the sack of Jerusalem in chapter 12:1-9 is the historical sack by Antiochus Epiphanes in 167 B.C. Chapters 12:10-13:9 are roughly about the life of Messiah and His sacrifice. Chapter 14 is the sack of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D. They make Messiah descend on the Mount of Olives, as the Gospel goes out to the nations, no longer being inhibited by the Temple.
Modern Jerusalem
Those who say it is modern Jerusalem have the advantage that current events certainly appear to be that Jerusalem is a cup of reeling. If it is modern Jerusalem, then we should expect the city to be sacked two more times. Those who hold this view teach that the anti-Christ and his 10 nations will sack the city sometime in the near future. Chapters 12:10-13:9 are intended to explain to the modern nation of Israel, which will come to salvation through the Messiah they had rejected. The battle of chapter 14 is said to correspond to the yet future battle of Gog and Magog. [Ezek. 38 and Rev. 20]. Messiah’s feet on the Mount of Olives is made to be the New Jerusalem descending in triumph. (See Also: The Hoax of a One World Government)
New Jerusalem
24 Now this is an allegory: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.Gal. 4:24-26
Those who say it is Gospel Jerusalem believe that the first sack is the persecution of the Church by both the Jews and the Roman Empire, culminating in the great tribulation between 303 – 313, after which Constantine made Christianity the state religion. Chapter 13 is salvation being unfettered and free to spread throughout the Empire. Chapter 14 becomes the INQUISITION. They have Messiah on the Mount of Olives as the Reformation.
We are going to follow the oracle as a whole, Chapters 12, 13, and 14, as if a “running” narrative. The important pauses give us a clue as to what actions stand together, which, for the most part, are similar to the chapter designations. The oracle reads as a narrative; there is none of the symbolic imagery as we have seen in previous chapters; certainly no colored horses patrolling for the LORD, no horns, no scrolls, or any of the usual things that are symbolic prophecy.
Conclusion
We hold that the fulfillment is the ancient historical Jerusalem. With a caveat that the Gospel Jerusalem may have a typological fulfillment that remains to be seen.
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