Zechariah14
v.1
A day of the LORD is coming when your plunder will be divided among you.
v.2
I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.
The scene depicted here (contingents from all nations gathered to fight against Jerusalem) is probably the same as the one in Rev 16:16-21 (Armageddon). This eschatological verse alone—with its statements that “the city will be captured”—is sufficient to refute the notion popular in certain circles that “the times of the Gentiles” (Lk 21:24) were fulfilled as of the rebirth of the modern state of Israel.
v.6
On that day there will be no light, no cold or frost.
v.7
It will be a unique day, without daytime or nighttime—a day known to the LORD. When evening comes, there will be light.
Because of the topographical, cosmic, and indeed, even cataclysmic changes, that day will be “unique”.
v.9
The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.
The time is coming when there will be no more idolatry, polytheism, or een henotheism, but only high, ethical monotheism (cf. Dt 6:4).
Heaven and earth will truly become one in that day. All authority will have to be submit and cast their crown to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
v.16
Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
“The Feast of Tabernacles” marked the final harvest of the year’s crops (Lev 23:34-43). It was to be a time of grateful rejoicing (Lev 23:40; Dt 16:14-15; Ne 8:17). The people were to live in “booths” as a reminder that their ancestors lived in booths when the Lord brought them out of Egypt (Lev 23:42-43). Beginning with the period of Ezra and Nehemiah, the reading (and perhaps teaching) of “the Book of the Law of God” became an integral part of the festivities (Ne 8:18; cf. Isa 2:3). The festival seems to speak of the final, joyful regathering and restoration of Israel in full kingdom blessing, as well as of the ingathering of the nations. It may continue to have some significance (at least typically) in the eternal state (in the New Jerusalem on the new earth), since God will “live” with his people (Rev 21:3).
v.17
If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, they will have no rain.
v.20
On that day HOLY TO THE LORD will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the LORD’s house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar.
Here the nature of the messianic kingdom is depicted: It will be characterized by holiness (see 2:12). There will be holiness in public life (“the bells of the horses”), in religious life (“the cooking pots in the Lord’s house”), and in private life (“every pot in Jerusalem and Judah”).
v.21
Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the LORD Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD Almighty.
Even common things become holy when they are used for God’s service. So it is with our lives. In this way God’s original purpose for Israel (Ex 19:6) will be fulfilled. While the Hebrew for “Canaanite” can also mean “merchant” (possibly referring either to 11:5 or to the kind of activity condemned by Jesus in Mt 21:12-13), “Canaanite” seems the better translation, representing anyone who is morally or spiritually unclean—anyone who is not included among the chosen people of God (cf. Isa 35:8; Eze 43:7; 44:9; Rev 21:27).
The final scene of the book of Zechariah anticipates Rev 11:15, toward which all history is steadily moving—“the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever”—and Rev 19:16—“On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”