An Amillennial Interpretation of Zechariah 14 (3 of 8)

An Amillennial Interpretation of Zechariah 14 (3 of 8)

by | Mar 4, 2019 | Eschatology

Post #3 “Zechariah 14:1–5: The Lord’s Coming to Jerusalem,” Part 2

Post #1 Post #2

The last post addressed verses 1–5 of the text but did not deal with some questions about the prophetic details. If the prophecy uses the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem as veiled references to the New Testament church, why are certain geographical markers emphasized?

For instance, why does Zechariah stress that the valley of escape created by the divided Mount of Olives will reach all the way to Azel? Davis sees in these details a great deal of symbolism involving the escape of God’s people to a city of refuge.[1] More likely, much of the description of the earthquake, including the mention of Azel, simply refers to details of the historical earthquake during the reign of Uzziah.[2] It is as if the prophet rehearses the details of that past event to say, “It will be like that again when the Lord comes to defend his city. His people will have a way of escape.” That is certainly the comparison in verse 5: “Yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah.” There is also conflicting manuscript evidence here which should be factored into the interpretation.

Either this valley will become an escape route for the Hebrews fleeing Jerusalem in the face of the assault against the city by the nations (so NIV, NLT, NRSV; following the mt), or the valley will be filled and blocked like it was during the earthquake at the time of King Uzziah (so NAB, NEB, NJB; following the LXX; Targ.). A different vowel pointing of the same Hebrew root word renders the two separate meanings, and ‘either is equally possible’. Baldwin’s (1972: 218) mediation of the difficulty is helpful, noting: ‘It is impossible to be sure how the text read originally, but the general meaning is clear. The earth movements which open a valley eastwards will also block up the Kidron valley, so providing a level escape route from Jerusalem.’[3]

The earthquake of Uzziah’s time is barely mentioned in scripture. Amos prophesied two years before what was apparently the same earthquake (Amos 1:1). Such an earthquake must have been severe if it was still remembered over two centuries later in post-exilic Judah. It was an unforgettable national disaster which doubtless gripped the imaginations of Zechariah’s original audience.[4] That historical event is likened to the Lord’s coming, which will shake the entire earth (cf. Hag. 2:6–7; Heb. 12:26–27) and bring terror to those caught desecrating his holy dwelling.[5]

While appreciating the complex imagery of the text, we should perhaps not forget that the literal Mount of Olives may have a prominent role at the Second Advent of Christ. Matthew and Mark pointedly state that Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives as he taught his disciples about his Second Advent (Matt. 24:3; Mark 13:3). Luke also says that Jesus ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:12). At the time of Christ’s ascension, two men in white announced to his disciples that he would come back in just the same way which they had seen him leave (Acts 1:10–11). Jesus ascended to heaven bodily, and he will return bodily; he may also return to the same place, the Mount of Olives.[6] This would be in keeping with how the prophecies of his First Advent were fulfilled. The Christ came out of Bethlehem in Judah symbolically, since he was David’s seed and Bethlehem was David’s ancestral town; but Jesus was also born in the literal city of Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2; Matt. 2:1; Luke 2:4–7, 11).

[1] Davis, High King of Heaven, 397–98.

[2] For a discussion of the word Azel, see Mark J. Boda, The Book of Zechariah, New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016), 758.

[3] Hill, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, 262. See also Hill’s discussion of the name Azel on the same page.

[4] These online articles give summaries of fascinating archeological evidence for this major earthquake: https://patternsofevidence.com/2019/01/20/biblical-quake-confirmed/ .

[5] Josephus makes an intriguing connection between Uzziah’s attempted desecration of the Holy Place (2 Chron. 26:16–20) and the earthquake. Azariah the king (called this in 2 Kings 15 but Uzziah in 2 Chron. 26) attempted to usurp the role of Azariah the high priest; but the Lord struck the king with leprosy and drove him out of the temple. Josephus says that the earthquake also happened at the same time. He even records certain effects of the earthquake which seem to mirror Zechariah’s words: “And before the city, at a place called Eroge, half the mountain broke off from the rest on the west, and rolled itself four furlongs, and stood still at the east mountain, till the roads, as well as the king’s gardens, were spoiled by the obstruction.” See Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, book 9, chapter 10, paragraph 4, verse 225, William Whiston. In any case, the parallels between King Uzziah and the “man of sin” who will attempt to usurp Christ’s prerogatives are worthy of note (see 2 Thess. 2:3–8).

[6] Hill, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, 261.

An Amillennial Interpretation of Zechariah 14 (2 of 8)

by | Feb 28, 2019 | Eschatology

Post #2 “Zechariah 14:1–5: The Lord’s Coming to Jerusalem,” Part 1

Post 1

            The opening verses of chapter 14 portray the final conflict between the nations and the holy city. This conflict culminates in the sudden arrival of the Lord God and his heavenly hosts.

1 Behold, a day is coming for the Lord when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. 2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. 3 Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. 4 In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. 5 You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him![1]

Verse 2 puts this final conflict into proper perspective: the Lord himself “will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle.” This time when God gathers his enemies against his people “for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty” (Rev. 16:14) is prophesied in several places throughout scripture (cf. Ezek. 38:1–23; 39:1–6; Joel 3:2; Rev. 16:12–16; 19:19; 20:8–9). Here we must focus on the unique picture which Zechariah paints of this event.

The nations gather and battle against Jerusalem, and they are initially successful. They capture the city, loot the houses, rape the women, and even succeed in carrying away captive half the inhabitants. Still, the other half of the city’s people will not be killed or exiled. Why? The Lord himself will appear on the scene and catch the nations in their heinous act of desecration; and when God arrives, he will descend in full battle array. When he touches down on the earth right outside the walls of Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives will split to form a valley, a way of escape for the beleaguered inhabitants of the city. John MacKay explains verse 2 this way: “The message is that the future of the church will involve a time when it will be surrounded by its enemies and seemingly overwhelmed by them…. Under the metaphor of the pillaging of an ancient city, the church is presented as suffering grievously at the hands of her enemies, and yet there has been a remnant left.”[2]

The reference to the Mount of Olives should remind us of Ezekiel’s words, written a generation before Zechariah’s time. MacKay makes the connection when discussing verse 4:

‘His feet’ indicates a theophany, perhaps one where the presence of God causes the earth to shake (Ps. 68:8; 97:4; Micah 1:3–4; Nahum 1:3, 5). The addition ‘east of Jerusalem’ – which was scarcely needed to locate this well-known hill – links this vision with that granted to Ezekiel when the Lord’s glory left Jerusalem and ‘stopped above the mountain east of it’ (Ezek. 11:23). The Lord whose visible presence with his people had then ceased now returns in power, as was similarly forecast in Ezekiel 43:2. It is not of course to some reconstructed city that he comes, but to the New Jerusalem which is the reality symbolised in these visions. It is the city that bears the name ‘the Lord is there’ (Ezek. 48:35).[3]

Dean Davis further opines, “Verse 4 pictures the LORD creating an unexpected way of escape for his people; verse 5 pictures them using it…. Quite intentionally, the imagery used here reminds us of Israel’s miraculous deliverance at the Red Sea (Exodus 14:1ff).”[4]

            But what about the details of the earthquake and Azel, and should we expect the Lord Jesus to descend upon the literal hill called the Mount of Olives? These questions will be answered in the next post.

[1] All scripture quotations are taken from the nasb Updated Edition of 1995.

[2] Ibid., 303–304.

[3] Ibid., 305. Cf. also Andrew E. Hill, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, ed. David G. Firth, vol. 28 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 261.

[4] Dean Davis, The High King of Heaven: Discovering the Master Keys to the Great End Time Debate (Enumclaw, WA: Redemption Press, 2014), 397. Cf. also Barry G. Webb, The Message of Zechariah, The Bible Speaks Today, ed. J. A. Motyer (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 179.

An Amillennial Interpretation of Zechariah 14 (1 of 8)

An Amillennial Interpretation of Zechariah 14 (1 of 8)

by | 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.

Pin It on Pinterest