Zechariah 10:1 - Meaning and Application

The Lord had just promised this poor, afflicted people very gracious and glorious blessings in the previous chapter. Now he tells them that they must ask him for these things, and that they should give him credit for all his ways and all his gifts to them, not the idols that competed with him for their loyalty.

The prophet first tells them to turn to God in prayer for rain at the proper time. The Lord had promised, at the end of the previous chapter, that there would be plenty of grain and wine, even though unseasonable weather had caused years of shortage. But the earth cannot produce its crops unless heaven waters it, so they must look to God for the dew of heaven and for the fruitfulness of the land (Zechariah 10:1). They are told to ask the Lord for rain, not to pray to clouds or stars. God is the one who answers the heavens when they answer the earth (Hosea 2:21).

Seasonable rain is a great mercy, and we should ask God for it. The “latter rain” came in spring, around March to May, and helped the grain fill out. The “former rain” came at seed time in autumn. If either of these rains failed, the land suffered badly, because from the end of May to September there was no rain at all. Since the rain normally came at a certain time, they are told to ask for it at that time. We should pray in step with God’s providence, asking for blessings when they are due, and not expecting God to leave his usual way just for us. Still, when God withheld rain as a sign of displeasure, they were to pray for it then as a sign of his favor, and they would not pray in vain. Ask, and it will be given to you. The Lord will make bright clouds, or, as the margin reads, lightning, which often comes before rain. He will send showers in great abundance and give grass in the field to everyone, for God is good to all and lets his rain fall on the just and the unjust.

He also shows them how foolish it was to turn to idols, as their fathers had done (Zechariah 10:2). The idols spoke emptiness. The teraphim, household idols that people consulted in trouble, were not able to bring rain, or even tell them when it would come. They made promises of rain at such and such a time, but the rain did not come. The diviners, the false prophets of those idols, had seen lies. Their visions were a trick, and their false dreams never came true, which proved they were not from God. In this way they comforted people in vain. All the false gods of the nations together could not give rain (Jeremiah 14:22).

That was not the worst of it. Those who turned to false gods not only gained nothing, they also lost the favor of the true God. So they went into captivity like a flock driven into a pen, and they were troubled with one hardship after another, like scattered sheep with no shepherd. They had no prince to rule them, no priest to plead for them, and no one to care for them or keep them together. Those who wandered after strange gods were made to wander among strange nations.

The prophet then shows them God’s hand in all their experiences, both in trouble and in mercy (Zechariah 10:3). When everything went badly, it was because God was acting against them. He says his anger burned against the shepherds, the leaders who should have fed the flock but neglected it and left it starving. He was displeased with the wicked magistrates and ministers, the idol-shepherds. Their captivity in Babylon was a sign of that anger. In it, he also punished the goats, the sinful and harmful people in the nation, who were set on the left side to go away into punishment. The whole nation suffered in exile, but God’s anger was really against the goats and the shepherds, and he punished them. The same trouble can come from different causes: to some it is fatherly discipline from love, and to others it is judicial punishment from wrath.

When things began to improve, that better turn also came from God. He had visited his flock in kindness, looked into their need, and provided what was fitting for them. He had made them like his noble war horse, beautiful, carefully managed, and useful, as a man handles the horse he rides. He had made them both valuable in themselves and fearsome to those around them. It is God who makes us what we are, and our condition is as he appoints it.

He also shows them that every creature serves them as God makes it serve them (Zechariah 10:4). “Out of him came the cornerstone, out of him the tent peg.” All the power that had been set against them came from God. The combined force of their enemies, and they had many oppressors, was only what his hand and purpose had already allowed. Those enemies could not have had power over them unless it had been given from above.

In the same way, all the power that worked for them also came from him and depended on him. Out of him came the cornerstone of the building, the power of rulers that holds the parts of the nation together. Princes are often called the corners of the people. Out of him came the tent peg that made the state firm, the peg set in a sure place (Isaiah 22:23), the peg in his holy place (Ezra 9:8). Out of him came the battle bow, the military power, and out of him came every oppressor, or tax collector, who held civil authority in his hand. So we must always look to God, the source of all power, and see every person’s authority as coming from him.