by Ben Habegger | Mar 21, 2019 | Eschatology
Post #1 Post #2 Post #3 Post #4 Post #5 Post #6
Post #7 “Zechariah 14:16–19: The Lord
Summons the Nations to His Feast”
Verses 16–19 of Zechariah 14 continue the thought of the
section addressed in the last post. What becomes of the Gentile nations?
16 Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. 17 And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them.18 If the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall on them; it will be the plague with which the Lord smites the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths. 19 This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.
The last post dealt with the horrible fate of the nations
who attacked Jerusalem. There are those Gentiles, however, who survive the Day
of the Lord. Though once strangers and enemies to Israel and her God, this
remnant of Gentiles are now fellow worshipers with the Israelites. This picture
of a remnant from the Gentile nations which engages in perpetual observance of
the Feast of Booths (or “Tabernacles”) beautifully reveals the deep meaning and
eventual fulfillment of this Old Testament feast.
The conversion of the nations is not pictured in terms of their being circumcised, or obeying the Law of Moses, but of worshipping the Lord. It must be noted that ‘go up’ still thinks in terms of pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The language of the Old Covenant is being used to express the reality of the New (Isa. 66:23), and especially in its culmination when John sees ‘a great multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb’ (Rev. 7:9). John’s great multitude also ‘were holding palm branches in their hands’ (Rev. 7:9), and while this may reflect on Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem (John 12:13), it also fits in with what is said here to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. On the first of the seven days of this feast the Israelites were instructed to ‘take choice fruit from the trees, and palm fronds, leafy branches and poplars, and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days’ (Lev. 23:40). But why is this festival singled out for mention? It came at the end of the religious calendar and so in measure summed up all the worship of Israel (note its position in Lev. 23 and Deut. 16.) It was also a festival in which the resident alien was permitted a role (Deut. 16:14). During this time the people lived in booths constructed out of branches to remind them of how they lived during the period in the Wilderness and how the Lord had guided them at that time (Lev. 23:42–43). It was also a time when they remembered the Lord’s on-going bounty to them in the harvest (Lev. 23:39; Deut. 16:13–15). The nations in coming to this feast were therefore making a double acknowledgment: that it was the Lord who had guided them to where they were, and that it was his bounty that they enjoyed in the harvest. In the light of the Lord’s providential and saving goodness, the feast was one characterised by joy. ‘Be joyful at your Feast. … your joy will be complete’ (Deut. 16:14, 15). This is why the redeemed of the nations celebrate it with joy.[1]
What harvest is celebrated by this
eschatological Feast of Booths? Barry Webb answers well. “It is people – formerly enemies, but now
worshippers – gathered in from all the
nations, to worship, at last,
their rightful Lord and King.”[2]
How fitting that the text now contrasts a harvest
celebration with the withholding of rain. “‘Rain’ here stands for all the
blessings that the Lord bestows, particularly in the harvest (10:1). These will
be withheld from those who persist in their rebellion.”[3]
Andrew Hill adds, “The lack of rainfall was one of the curses God pronounced
against Israel for covenant disobedience (cf. Deut. 28:22–24). Here that curse
is extended to the nations by virtue of God’s rule over all peoples.”[4] T. V.
Moore remarks, “In this future condition, the present mingled state of reward
and punishment shall end. Now God sends rain on the just and the unjust, then
he will separate the good and the evil, and render unto every man according to
his works.”[5]
Why does Egypt receive special mention? Again, Andrew Hill
is helpful. “Egypt is singled out for mention, perhaps because it was the
origin of the Hebrew exodus (of which the Feast of Tabernacles was to be a
reminder, Lev. 23:43), and in the past it was a nation that ‘had suffered the
most from the plagues at God’s hands. If it did not participate in the future,
it would suffer again.’”[6] Elsewhere
Egypt is envisioned as sharing in future worship with God’s people, signifying
the conversion of former pagans (see Is. 19:19–25).[7] Here,
Egypt stands for those who refuse to so worship. It is also noteworthy that the
Book of the Revelation uses Egypt as a type of the Satanic world system which
persecutes God’s church. The trumpet judgments and the bowls of God’s final
wrath all point back to the plagues which God sent against Egypt when their
king refused to let Israel go. The city where the two prophetic witnesses are
slain is symbolically named Egypt (Rev. 11:8). Why does Egypt slay the
witnesses? It does so because of the divine plagues with which these prophets
strike Egypt, including the plague of drought (Rev. 11:6, 10). Even now, the
prophetic witness of the church painfully reminds the unrepentant world that already
“the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness”
(Rom. 1:18). In the future day of which Zechariah speaks, Egypt as well as all
the unrepentant nations will forever suffer the unmitigated plagues of God’s
wrath (cf. Rev. 14:10–11; 15:1; 18:8; 21:8; 22:14–15, 18–19).
[1]
MacKay, Haggai,
Zechariah and Malachi, 316.
[2] Webb,
Zechariah, 181.
[3]
MacKay, Haggai, Zechariah
and Malachi, 317.
[4] Hill,
Haggai, Zechariah and
Malachi, 270.
[5] Thomas V. Moore, A Commentary on Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, Geneva Series of Commentaries (Carlisle, PA: Banner
of Truth, 1993), 313.
[6] Hill,
Haggai, Zechariah and
Malachi, 270.
[7] Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets, Keil and
Delitzsch’s Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1971), 457.
Ben Habegger first served in full-time pastoral ministry near Detroit, Michigan from 2013-2017 and has now been vocational pastor at Hope Reformed Baptist Church of Aloha, Oregon (formerly Glencullen Baptist Church of Portland, Oregon) since January of 2020. He has a Master of Divinity degree from Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary and a Master of Arts in Reformed Baptist Studies from Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. Ben and his wife Theresa have four children.
by Ben Habegger | Mar 12, 2019 | Eschatology
Post #6 “Zechariah 14:12–15: The Lord Does
Battle Against the Nations”
Post #1 Post #2 Post #3 Post #4 Post #5
Next in
this last chapter of Zechariah comes a description of the Lord’s final dominion
over the nations. The nations will either willingly submit to the Lord or else
be subject to punishment. We will break down this larger section (verses 12–19)
and address it in two separate posts. For now, let’s look at verses 12–15.
12 Now this will be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth. 13 It will come about in that day that a great panic from the Lord will fall on them; and they will seize one another’s hand, and the hand of one will be lifted against the hand of another. 14 Judah also will fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered, gold and silver and garments in great abundance. 15 So also like this plague will be the plague on the horse, the mule, the camel, the donkey and all the cattle that will be in those camps.
These verses return to the earlier scene when the Lord comes
down to fight Jerusalem’s foes. He will destroy their bodies and the bodies of
their beasts so rapidly that they are consumed while still standing.[1]
Although swift, the destruction is also gruesome. The plague consumes portions
of the armies while the remaining combatants are so terrified that they turn
their weapons on each other in the confusion; this hearkens back to various Old
Testament battles in which God fought for his people by turning their attackers
against each other. The rotting disease and the victory of little Judah over
her mighty enemies may also allude to the covenant curses which God promised
disobedient Israel (Lev. 26:16–17, 25, 39; Deut. 28:21–22, 25, 27–28, 59–61);
in this context, however, those same curses turn to consume Israel’s enemies.[2]
Given the military imagery of this and other apocalyptic
texts, many people expect a very literal gathering of the world’s militaries in
the Middle East just before the Second Advent. Such an interpretation would
tend to overlook the deeper significance of the relevant prophecies.
As has been stated earlier in this blog series, Jerusalem
here stands for the church at the end of this age of tribulation. It is the
church on earth, surrounded by her enemies. Therefore the armies sent against
her need not be the sorts of forces deployed in earthly warfare, though
physical force will doubtless be involved. Far less need they be gathered in
one geographical location. Everywhere the church is, there the nations will
assault her. John saw these nations as they “came up on the broad plain of
the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved
city.” (Rev. 20:9) The camp of the saints, God’s people preserved in the
wilderness of this world (Rev. 12:6, 14), are identified as the beloved city. In
order to oppose her, the Satanically-deceived nations will tread “the breadth
of the earth” (nkjv, csb). Furthermore, this warfare should
be compared to that of the beast against the two witnesses in Revelation 11:7,
that of the beast against the saints in Revelation 13:7, and that of the beast
and his ten kings against the Lamb and his people in Revelation 17:14.
The picture here in Zechariah 14 is that of total
disintegration and terror among the attacking nations. They and their wartime
resources are struck by the sword of Christ’s mouth (Rev. 19:15, 21), and the
confusion is such that they begin to destroy one another. Verse 14 adds, “Judah
also will fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding
nations will be gathered, gold and silver and garments in great abundance.” In
that last hour, we know that the church militant will face her last battle (see
the near context in Zech. 12–13); but whereas they were momentarily overrun in
verse 2, now the glorified church—the church triumphant—joins her Lord in this
battle as his victorious heavenly army (Rev. 19:8, 14). And as was promised
them, they will share in the spoils. They will plunder the Egyptians. They will
inherit the earth.
[1] Boda,
Zechariah, 772.
[2] The
description of rotting flesh also seems similar to that of leprosy (cf. Num.
12:12). It is interesting that King Uzziah is referenced earlier in the text,
since God struck him with leprosy when he attempted sacrilege.
Ben Habegger first served in full-time pastoral ministry near Detroit, Michigan from 2013-2017 and has now been vocational pastor at Hope Reformed Baptist Church of Aloha, Oregon (formerly Glencullen Baptist Church of Portland, Oregon) since January of 2020. He has a Master of Divinity degree from Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary and a Master of Arts in Reformed Baptist Studies from Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. Ben and his wife Theresa have four children.
by Ben Habegger | Mar 6, 2019 | Eschatology
Post #4 “Zechariah 14:6–11: The Lord’s Reign from Jerusalem,” Part 1
Post #1 Post #2 Post #3
We now come to verses 6–11, a
section which will require two separate posts. Once the Lord arrives to rescue
Jerusalem, the Lord remains to forever reign from Jerusalem; and as the apostle
John would later note, “there will be no night there” (Rev. 21:25).
6 In that day there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. 7 For it will be a unique day which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at evening time there will be light. 8 And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter. 9 And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one. 10 All the land will be changed into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; but Jerusalem will rise and remain on its site from Benjamin’s Gate as far as the place of the First Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses. 11 People will live in it, and there will no longer be a curse, for Jerusalem will dwell in security.
Several items here require
attention, including the light without luminaries, the living waters, the
universal worship of Yahweh, the exaltation of Jerusalem above the surrounding
land, Jerusalem’s secure population, and the absence of a curse.
The
text and translation of verse 6 are difficult, but when taken along with verse
7, the larger point seems clear.[1] The
“luminaries” are probably the heavenly bodies. The failing of these heavenly
bodies has both literal and figurative significance throughout the prophets,
especially in connection with “the great and awesome day of the Lord” (Joel 2:31; cf. also Isa. 13:9–13; Joel
3:15; Matt. 24:29; Mark 13:24–25; Luke 21:25; Rev. 6:12–13). Bryan Gregory also
observes, “The disruption to the normal cycles of day and night is significant.
In God’s promise to Noah, he had promised that the normal rhythms of seasons
and days would not cease for as long as the earth endures (Gen. 8:22).”[2] Thus
Zechariah indicates that, although he speaks in terms of the old city of
Jerusalem and land of Judah, this holy city and promised land will be part of
the new creation. The earth as his readers know it will have passed away.[3]
MacKay helps to illumine the significance of the “living
waters”:
Jerusalem was always poorly provided with water, but the renewed city is the source of a divinely provided supply. Zechariah here resumes the picture presented by Joel and Ezekiel of the Temple as a source of water (Joel 3:18; Ezek. 47:1–12). This is not just typical of physical change, but of the spiritual blessings that water represents. It is ‘living’ water flowing freshly from a spring or fountain, and symbolic of true spiritual life given in salvation (Jer. 2:13; John 4:10; 7:38). This looks back to the river of Paradise, when ‘a river watering the garden flowed from Eden’ (Gen. 2:10), and it looks forward to Paradise restored…. Truly ‘there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells’ (Ps. 46:4).
Unlike Ezekiel’s river which flowed only to the east (Ezek. 47:1, an embarrassment for those who take both prophecies to refer to the same literal future event), the water splits half to the eastern sea, that is the Dead Sea, and half to the western sea, that is, the Mediterranean. In this way it is available for all the land. And it is available all the time, in summer and in winter. Many streams in Palestine were only winter torrents which dried up in the heat of summer, when the need for water was at its greatest. Not so this source of supply. It is available all the year round. There is no disruption of the bliss of the new creation ‘for the old order of things has passed away’ (Rev. 21:4).[4]
Verse 9 expresses the consummated, universal submission and worship given to the one true God in the age to come. “And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one.” Night forever gone. The river of living water. All the earth serving and worshipping the Lord. If these things do not point us to John’s vision of the eternal state in Revelation 21 and 22, I doubt much will.
[1] Boda,
Zechariah, 760–61, fn.b., 762.
[2] Bryan R. Gregory, Longing for God in an Age of Discouragement: the
Gospel According to Zechariah, The Gospel
According to the Old Testament, ed. Iain M. Duguid (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R
Publishing, 2010), 207.
[3] Boda
also suggests an allusion in the Hebrew text to Genesis 1:3–5, implying a
recreation. “This suggests that 14:7 refers to a day of recreation, with 14:6
returning the earth to a state prior to the creative activity in Genesis 1, and
14:7 initiating the process of creation in Genesis 1. This recreation day, just
as the original creation day, is known only to Yahweh, in whose hands are the
times and seasons (see Ecclesiastes 3). However, the fact that the light
appears now in the evening suggests a clear shift in the cosmos, so that there
is perpetual light and no night. This is a feature of texts envisioning a
future idyllic age (cf. Isa. 60:19, 20; Rev. 21:25; 22:5).” See Boda, Zechariah, 762–63.
[4]
MacKay, Haggai,
Zechariah and Malachi,
308–309.
Ben Habegger first served in full-time pastoral ministry near Detroit, Michigan from 2013-2017 and has now been vocational pastor at Hope Reformed Baptist Church of Aloha, Oregon (formerly Glencullen Baptist Church of Portland, Oregon) since January of 2020. He has a Master of Divinity degree from Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary and a Master of Arts in Reformed Baptist Studies from Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. Ben and his wife Theresa have four children.
by Ben Habegger | Feb 26, 2019 | Eschatology
Post #1 “The Need for an Amillennial Approach”
The last chapter of Zechariah tends to be neglected by amillennialists, especially in comparison to the emphasis given it by premillennialists. While amillennialists anticipate a single consummation and glorification of God’s kingdom in connection with the single Second Coming of the Lord Jesus, premillennialists use texts like Zechariah 14 to argue for an intermediate reign of Jesus upon the present earth. Such a reign would separate the Second Coming from the eternal perfection of God’s kingdom by at least a thousand years (a time period taken from Revelation 20). The dispensational variety of premillennialism particularly insists upon a strictly literal reading of Zechariah and other Old Testament apocalyptic literature. The result is a Second Coming which radically subjugates sinners and improves their fallen world without banishing sin and death entirely.
Such a “millennial” reign is a problem for the amillennialist because it contradicts the straightforward eschatology of the New Testament. The apostles and prophets and Jesus himself all declare that the very event of Christ’s return will be the end of sin and death. The Second Coming immediately brings the final separation of the righteous from the wicked, the end of the opportunity for repentance, and the eternal glory of a new creation freed from sin’s curse. Further problems also arise when a dispensational hermeneutic is applied to Zechariah 14. Because the role of apocalyptic symbolism is minimized, the result is a renewed Judaism, complete with temple worship and required annual feasts. Although some details may differ from earlier historical iterations, this is essentially the Mosaic system of worship resurrected. It would be a titanic reversal of Christ’s blood-bought accomplishments and a return to those types and shadows which his priestly work has rendered obsolete (Heb. 7:18–22; 8:13; 9:8–10; 10:1, 8–9, 18). A premillennial interpretation of Zechariah’s last chapter, especially that demanded by dispensational literalism, is clearly untenable when seen through the lens of the New Testament.
For these reasons, an interpretation is needed which does not posit an intermediate messianic reign including renewed Judaism and the lingering effects of Adam’s fall. The interpreter must understand that the Old Testament prophets often foretold New Testament realities through the symbolic use of Old Covenant language. A woodenly literal hermeneutic cannot consistently explain such prophecies as that of Malachi 1:11: “For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord of hosts.” On the one hand, literal aspects of the Old Covenant such as incense and grain offerings could only be legitimately performed at the authorized location of the Jerusalem temple. On the other hand, the New Covenant era renders such a sacrificial system obsolete. However, once the interpreter acknowledges that the Spirit speaking through Malachi used Old Covenant institutions as pictures of future, New Covenant realities, Malachi’s words harmonize well with those of Jesus recorded in John 4:21 and 23: “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father…. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.”
Similarly, the apocalyptic mention of Jerusalem in Zechariah 14 must be allowed to point beyond the earthly city of David. “For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come” (Heb. 13:14). Indeed, those in the New Testament church already “have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb. 12:22). We are not of the old Sinai covenant “which corresponds to the present Jerusalem”; we are of the new covenant corresponding to “the Jerusalem above” who “is our mother” (Gal. 4:24–26). James the Lord’s brother points to the prophecy of Amos and thus confirms that God has rebuilt and restored the ruined tabernacle of David so that the Gentiles may seek the Lord and be called by his name (Acts 15:13–18). The nations are now joining themselves to Zion, the redeemed city of God, the New Testament church of Jesus Christ. If James and the other apostles could confidently use such a hermeneutic, so can we. This hermeneutic will provide us with an amillennial interpretation of Zechariah 14. Concerning Old Testament promises fulfilled after Christ’s First Advent, John MacKay rightly says, “The realisation is in terms of the heirs and successors of the Old Testament Zion, Jerusalem and Israel. This is not to rewrite the promise, but to satisfy it in its fullest and proper extent.”[1]
Beginning with the next post, this blog series will present such an amillennial approach to the last chapter of the Book of Zechariah.
[1] John L. MacKay, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi: God’s Restored People, Focus on the Bible Commentary Series (Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland, Great Britain: Christian Focus, 2010), 417.
Ben Habegger first served in full-time pastoral ministry near Detroit, Michigan from 2013-2017 and has now been vocational pastor at Hope Reformed Baptist Church of Aloha, Oregon (formerly Glencullen Baptist Church of Portland, Oregon) since January of 2020. He has a Master of Divinity degree from Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary and a Master of Arts in Reformed Baptist Studies from Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. Ben and his wife Theresa have four children.
by Sam Waldron | Jul 20, 2017 | Book Reviews, Eschatology
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15
Concluding Thoughts
It is time to bring this lengthy critique of Waymeyer’s volume to a close. I want to do so by making four brief comments.
First, I will not attempt to delve into Waymeyer’s treatment of Revelation 20. It is tempting to do so, but this blog series is perhaps already too long. Fine, Amillennial treatments of this passage are, furthermore, easily available. I recommend William Hendriksen’s treatment for clarity and accessibility. I also and especially recommend G. K. Beale’s massive and impressive treatment of Revelation 20. It is 61 pages long! In it he seems to give evidence of having read almost everything ever written on the passage. He also seems to respond to every Premillennial objection to the Amillennial reading of Revelation 20:1-10.
Second, I also want to repeat my conviction that hermeneutical errors are at the root of Waymeyer’s mistakes. These involve especially the illicit introduction of the double fulfillment character of Old Testament prophecy into New Testament prophecy; his failure to recognize the highly figurative character of prophetic literature; and his failure to allow the clear teaching of Scripture, especially in the literal portions of the New Testament, to exercise a normative influence on the interpretation of the figurative and shadowy teaching of Old Testament prophecy and the highly figurative, apocalyptic language of Revelation.
Third, it must also be stressed that Waymeyer and the kind of Premillennialism he represents are guilty of (what Jay Adams someplace calls) eschatological diplopia. That is, they have a kind of prophetic double vision. What I mean is that the Bible teaches an interim kingdom to which they seem blind. It is the spiritual kingdom of the reigning Jesus during the inter-advental period. This is the true, interim kingdom. When Waymeyer insists on the necessity of a future, Jewish, millennial interim kingdom he is unnecessarily inserting a second interim kingdom after the one in which the church exists today. No such re-duplicated interim kingdom is necessary to explain biblical eschatology.
Fourth, and finally, I want to stress in conclusion that perhaps the greatest error of Waymeyer and his fellows is their failure to understand the true scope of Scripture (scopus scripturae) and biblical prophecy. That center is not the future of national Israel, but the future of Christ and His church. Ultimately, the question is really just this. Is the New Testament vision of Christ and the Church the fulfillment of the Old Testament? Or is it the Premillennial vision of a millennial kingdom centered on National Israel?
Dr. Sam Waldron is the Academic Dean of CBTS and professor of Systematic Theology. He is also one of the pastors of Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Owensboro, KY. Dr. Waldron received a B.A. from Cornerstone University, an M.Div. from Trinity Ministerial Academy, a Th.M. from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. From 1977 to 2001 he was a pastor of the Reformed Baptist Church of Grand Rapids, MI. Dr. Waldron is the author of numerous books including A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, The End Times Made Simple, Baptist Roots in America, To Be Continued?, and MacArthur’s Millennial Manifesto: A Friendly Response.
