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Following the passage quoted from Zechariah 9:9 comes the resulting
peace and dominion:
'And I will (He shall LXX) cut off the chariot
from Ephraim, and the
horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall
be cut off: and He shall
speak peace unto the heathen: and His dominion
shall be from sea even
to sea, and from the river even to the ends of
the earth' (Zech. 9:10).
Our conception of 'meekness' does not fit in with the idea of triumph
and conquest, and some may object to the application of this passage to
Revelation 19 and the Rider on the white horse. Psalm 45:4,5, however, shows
that there is no incongruity:
'And in Thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness ...
Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies'.
Jerusalem is the centre of interest in Zechariah, and is prominent in
the
prophetic sections that speak of the Lord's Coming. For example, chapter
12,
verse 2, says: 'Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all
the
people round about'. And it is in connection with the sore straits of
the
besieged city that Zechariah speaks of the Second Coming:
'In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem ... and
it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the
nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of
David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and
of supplications: and they shall look upon Me Whom they have pierced,
and they shall mourn for Him' (Zech. 12:8 -10).
John 19:34 -37 leaves us in no doubt as to the identity of Him Who was
thus pierced, and Revelation 1:7 reveals with equal certainty that Zechariah
12 is future:
'Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they
also which pierced Him: and all kindreds (tribes) of the land shall
wail because of Him. Even so, Amen'.
There has never been a national mourning by Israel for the death of
Christ, there has never been a destruction of the enemies of Jerusalem since
New Testament times, and since the partial beginning at Pentecost there has
never been poured out upon Israel the spirit of grace.
The Mount of Olives
Zechariah resumes the theme of Jerusalem's trouble and the Lord's
deliverance:
'I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle ... Then shall
the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations ... and His feet
shall stand ... upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on
the east ... and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with
Thee' (Zech. 14:2 -5).
There can be no doubt as to the literality of the Mount of Olives.
It
is described geographically as being 'before Jerusalem on the east'.
Moreover, to question the identity of the place would be to introduce a
serious problem into Acts 1: