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Tuesday 5 February 2019

Zechariah 14:16-21 - Holy to the Lord

14:16,17
The end result will be that all the nations will worship the Lord. It is significant the the Lord of Hosts is seen as the king. This reminds us of Phil 2:5-11 where it speaks of every knee bowing and every tongue confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord. We find the Feast of Booths in Deut 16:13-17. All nations were allowed to come to this, and it was closely associated with the Lord blessing the harvest, hence the reference in v17 to those who refused to come not receiving any rain.

14:18,19
So Egypt is singled out as receiving punishment if she does not honour the Lord. She is seen as emblematic of what will happen to the nations. So why is Egypt singled out? It is because Egypt was not actually that dependent upon rain for her harvest, the flooding of the Nile that was crucial for her. So God is making it clear that there is no escape for Egypt. She could not say “we can survive without rain”.

14:20,21
We see here everything being devoted to the Lord, even the most ordinary of vessels. The words Holy to the Lord were engraved on the plate of gold word on the turban of the high priest. The aim was that everything in Israel was consecrated to the Lord, and at the end of days this will eventually become true. The reference to Canaanites is not racist, indeed some translations have “trader” (eg ESV). They were representative of those who made excessive profits out of worshippers. This helps to explain Jesus’ anger at the presence of money changers in the temple.

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