Introduction
‘Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime; it is the LORD who sends the thunderstorms. He gives showers of rain to all people, and plants of the field to everyone. The idols speak deceitfully, diviners see visions that lie; they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd. ‘My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the LORD Almighty will care for his flock, the people of Judah, and make them like a proud horse in battle. From Judah will come the cornerstone, from him the tent peg, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler. Together they will be like warriors in battle trampling their enemy into the mud of the streets. They will fight because the LORD is with them, and they will put the enemy horsemen to shame.’ Zechariah 10:1-5
THE LORD WILL CARE FOR JUDAH
This chapter begins with God’s people being encouraged to speak to God and ask Him for rain so that their crops would increase, Zechariah 10:1 / Deuteronomy 11:13-15. The reason for this was because of all the previous events of conflict which God was going to bring amongst the nations. Zechariah calls upon his people to pray to God for their every need and as they obey Him, He will give them their needs, Zechariah 10:1.
In the past, the Jews were involved in idolatry, Zechariah 10:2 / Isaiah 2:5-22 / Jeremiah 44:15-28, which eventually led them away from God. They would pray to their man-made idols to provide for their needs. The word ‘idol’ used here, Zechariah 10:2, in Hebrew is the word ‘teraphim’, which were images of wood and stone, household gods or idols, Genesis 31:19 / Genesis 31:30 / Judges 7:5. They were carved in such a way they resembled humans, 1 Samuel 19:13, and some also took the form of signs of the Zodiac and other instruments of astrology.
In the past, the Jews also put their trust in diviners, Zechariah 10:2, which also led them away from God. They claimed their dreams were of divine nature, Zechariah 10:2, but they were false and as a result, God’s people were being offered false hope and comfort from these diviners, Zechariah 10:2 / Jeremiah 23:13-14.
In the past, the Jews were also led away from God by the shepherds and leaders, Zechariah 10:2-3 / Ezekiel 34:1-31 / Matthew 25:32.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Although stated in the future tense, this passage refers to something that God had already done to the shepherds and he-goats of Israel but the use of the future here indicated that the same anger of the Eternal would fall upon any future sins like the ones already punished. Of course, that occurred. When the shepherds and he-goats of the people led Israel in the rejection of their Messiah, the anger of God fell upon them and their city again, Jerusalem being utterly destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70. That Zechariah certainly had that in mind is evident from Zechariah 12:2.’
God was going to make Judah His ‘proud horse’, Zechariah 10:3, through which He Himself would be victorious. Jesus, the Messiah, was the Branch of Judah, who would eventually reign victorious over all things, Genesis 49:10 / 1 Corinthians 15:25 / Philippians 2:5-11 / 1 Timothy 6:15.
Jesus is the Messiah, the ‘chief cornerstone’, Zechariah 10:4 / Ephesians 2:20 / 1 Peter 2:3-8. He is the nail, or the ‘tent peg’, Zechariah 10:4, upon which all depends. He is the battle ‘bow’, Zechariah 10:4, and from Him comes every ruler together, John 19:11.
God’s people will be equipped with the power of Christ, Zechariah 10:5, that is, the Gospel message to convert the souls of many, Romans 1:16. God’s people under Christ with fight because He is with them, Zechariah 10:5, and they will win all their spiritual battles, not with physical weapons, Zechariah 10:5, but with spiritual weapons, 2 Corinthians 10:4 / Ephesians 6:10-18.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following, concerning the enemy horsemen, Zechariah 10:5.
‘The Macedonians, who opposed the Maccabees, and had much cavalry, whereas the Jews had none, and even few weapons of war, yet they overcame these horsemen.’
‘I will strengthen Judah and save the tribes of Joseph. I will restore them because I have compassion on them. They will be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the LORD their God and I will answer them. The Ephraimites will become like warriors, and their hearts will be glad as with wine. Their children will see it and be joyful; their hearts will rejoice in the LORD. I will signal for them and gather them in. Surely I will redeem them; they will be as numerous as before. Though I scatter them among the peoples, yet in distant lands they will remember me. They and their children will survive, and they will return. I will bring them back from Egypt and gather them from Assyria. I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon, and there will not be room enough for them. They will pass through the sea of trouble; the surging sea will be subdued and all the depths of the Nile will dry up. Assyria’s pride will be brought down and Egypt’s sceptre will pass away. I will strengthen them in the LORD and in his name they will live securely,’ declares the LORD.’ Zechariah 10:6-12
Zechariah now encourages those who are still in captivity to return to the land in preparation for the Messiah to come. Notice God will save the tribes of Joseph, He will restore them and have compassion on them, Zechariah 10:6. These promises all speak of the salvation of souls from sin, the bringing back of the captives in sin to God’s fold, Jeremiah 32:37 / Psalm 44:3. In other words, this will happen when all the tribes of Israel, come to Christ and accept Him as their Messiah.
God says, ‘they will be as though He hadn’t rejected them’, Zechariah 10:6. In other words, He’s not going to hold their past sins against them, Hebrews 8:12 / Ezekiel 36:11. God also says because He is their God, He will answer them, Zechariah 10:6 / Hosea 12:5-6 / Malachi 3:6 / Isaiah 41:17.
Ephraim, that is, the ‘Ephraimites will become like warriors’ Zechariah 10:7, but note the word ‘like’, this isn’t literal. Their hearts will be glad as with wine and when their children see this, they will rejoice in the Lord, Zechariah 10:7 / Psalm 44:3 / Philippians 4:4 / 2 Corinthians 10:17.
Hailey, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The same provision made for Judah’s redemption will have been made for Ephraim’s, and for every man, both would be redeemed from their captors, and both would be redeemed in the Messiah.’
God says He will ‘signal’ for them and gather them in, Zechariah 10:8. This is the idea that would signal to them as shepherd signals for his sheep to come, Isaiah 7:18-19. When they come, they will be ‘redeemed’, Zechariah 10:8, but with a great price, the precious blood of the Lamb, Revelation 13:8, but many will come, Zechariah 10:8 / Psalm 105:24.
Dionysius, in his commentary, says the following, concerning Zechariah 10:8.
‘For the Apostles and others converted from Judaism, had more spiritual children, all those whom they begat in Christ, than the synagogue ever had after the flesh.’
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following concerning the ‘scattering’, Zechariah 10:9.
‘Such had been the prophecy of Hosea, ‘I will sow her unto Me in the earth,’ as the prelude of spiritual mercies, ‘and I will have mercy on her that had not obtained mercy, and I will say to not-my-people, Thou art My people, and they shall say, my God’. Hosea’s saying, ‘I will sow her in the earth’ that is, the whole earth and that ‘to Me,’ corresponds to, and explains Zechariah’s brief saying, ‘I will sow them among the nations. The sowing, which was future to Hosea, had begun but the purpose of the sowing, the harvest, was wholly to come, when it should be seen, that they were indeed sown by God, that ‘great’ should ‘be the day of Jezreel’, Hosea 1:11. And Jeremiah said, ‘Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah, with the seed of man and with the seed of beast’, Jeremiah 31:27. The word is used of sowing to multiply, never of mere scattering.’
In other words, this is a reference to the sacred covenant name of God’s New Israel in Christ, the passage refers to the Messiah and his times. Notice also ‘they will return’, Zechariah 10:9. This returning doesn’t apply to fleshly Israel’s return from Babylonian captivity but the coming of all men to Christ having escaped from the slavery of sin, 2 Timothy 2:26.
Whenever you mention the names ‘Egypt’ and ‘Assyria’, Zechariah 10:10, they take our minds back to captivity, here they are used as metaphors for captivity to sin. In other words, just as God delivered them from Egyptian and Assyrian captivities, He would deliver them from their sin.
God promises that they will not be hindered, they will be led free just as God helped them through the Red Sea from Egyptian captivity, Zechariah 10:10-11 / Isaiah 11:15-16. Egypt and Assyria’s pride Zechariah 10:11, speaks figuratively of all those who would oppose the Lord. In other words, all powers opposed to God and His people shall be defeated.
McFadyen, in his commentary, says the following, concerning, Zechariah 10:11.
‘When taken in connection with other scriptural passages, Exodus 14 / Isaiah 11:15-16, there are two promises here, ‘Ancient miracles would be repeated to facilitate their journey home’ and ‘They would cross the Red Sea, the sea of affliction, in safety. Amen! And when were the ancient miracles of Moses repeated? When that Prophet like unto Moses, even Christ, appeared and did even more astounding wonders than those of Moses. And how do God’s people cross the Red Sea in safety on the way home? 1 Corinthians 10, reveals that this occurs when people are baptized ‘into Christ.’ The great analogy of the experience of Israel in coming out of Egypt, being baptized in the Red Sea, 1 Corinthians 10, struggling through their wilderness probation, and finally entering Canaan, as a divinely appointed figure of how Christians forsake the slavery of sin, Egypt, cross the Red Sea by being baptized into Christ, endure the tribulation of their earthly probation, Israel’s wilderness, and finally enter heaven, Canaan, that grand analogy is one of the greatest in the Bible and it shines in this passage.’
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following concerning the words, ‘I will strengthen them in the LORD’, Zechariah 10:12.
‘The big words in this whole chapter are IN JEHOVAH, here and in Zechariah 10:7. God is not promising to put sinful old Israel back in Canaan, but to put them in Jehovah, in the Lord, in Christ. This is a technical expression which cannot mean anything else except the union of baptized believers in Christ. All of the vain speculations of men about God’s restoring the old secular kingdom of the Jews in Palestine are not merely out of sight here but flatly contradicted by the passage.’
The meaning of this prophecy is that all of the prosperity of the two kingdoms of the old Israel, wherever they may be scattered throughout the earth, will find the blessing of God, along with all who desire salvation from among the Gentiles as well, and that all of them together, without any partiality or distinction whatever shall be gathered into one fold with one shepherd, that is Christ, in the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, Acts 11:12 / Acts 15:8-9 / Romans 10:12.