Zechariah 14:12-21
12 And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem:
Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet,
Their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets,
And their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths.
13 It shall come to pass in that day
That a great panic from the LORD will be among them.
Everyone will seize the hand of his neighbor,
And raise his hand against his neighbor's hand;
14 Judah also will fight at Jerusalem.
And the wealth of all the surrounding nations
Shall be gathered together:
Gold, silver, and apparel in great abundance.
15 Such also shall be the plague
On the horse and the mule,
On the camel and the donkey,
And on all the cattle that will be in those camps.
So shall this plague be.
The Nations Worship the King
16 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall 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 whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, on them there will be no rain. 18 If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the LORD strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
20 In that day "HOLINESS TO THE LORD" shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the LORD's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. 21 Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the LORD of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts.
Some recently interpreted verse 12 with the phrasing about the “dissolving” the flesh, eyes, and tongues of God’s enemies as being the results of a nuclear bomb, but the word translates better as “rot” than dissolve, as in a plague known to the readers then. It is far too easy for modern readers to look for the fantastic as fueled by speculative writers of the end times than good historical biblical hermeneutical interpretations. Psalm 38:5 speaks of this festering rot of wounds, and Isaiah 34:4 describes the stars of heaven being dissolved and the heavens rolled up as a scroll (Matthew 24:29), while 2 Peter 3:10-11 says all will be burned up and dissolved by God (not insinuating outside weaponry or forces of man). In verse 15 we see that this is a plague of divine judgment unleashed on the animals of the enemies as well. It is therefore only possible to say that God Himself will cause the destruction of the flesh, eyes, and tongues of His enemies by His power without our assistance. Just like the book of Revelation which is the unfolding the end by God using confusing imagery as people of that time might write down as John did when witnessing all God revealed to him, so this book of Zechariah has images which are hard to interpret convincingly to exact means. Only the cause is known, that of God doing all these things and our understanding to the point of knowing the vengeance of the LORD played out by His hand as it is written. The prophetic message delivered by Zechariah continues with those remaining of the nations set against God and His chosen people coming to worship Him at Jerusalem; those who do not come would be unfruitful and not have His provision or providence as described by lack of rain, and a plague on them who do not worship according to the word of God. This could be indicative of those later kept from the New Jerusalem by rejecting His word and Christ who are left to die of the plagues set forth in Revelation, but that is not certain. What we do see is that those who worship Him have holiness as their defining identity, set as holiness to worship the LORD of hosts, and no unclean person there who does not belong as seen by reference to a Canaanite in the house of the LORD. This might then be taken as only those in Christ as His people made holy in Him will be able to be in His presence to worship (Revelation 22:14-15, 21:26-27, John 6:29). There is then judgment and holiness in this message to all God’s people, both ancient Jew and present called ones out of every other nation added to the chosen people of the Lord God Almighty. May we take God’s word as written and keep our interpretive speculation of fantastic imagination from overrunning our faith in the scriptures in historical and self-revealing context as we look at what really matters: God’s ongoing work of the gospel’s salvation and judgment for those enemies of Him rejecting Christ. May we therefore be holiness to the LORD in the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ and in our ongoing conformity to that holiness in our daily sanctification in our eternal perspective. Amen.
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