Zechariah 14:16 - Meaning and Application

Three things are foretold here.

First, when gospel worship is set up in the church, many will gather to it and join in it. Those who survive God’s judgment on his enemies will feel the mercy of escaping it, and they will turn to the worship of the God of Israel and honor him, (Zechariah 14:16). Those who were not destroyed will be changed, and that makes their rescue a double mercy. Men who once came against Jerusalem, after finding their attacks useless, will admire it and come there to worship with those they once opposed.

Some of Christ’s enemies will be made his servants, and others will be brought so low that they become his friends. When their hostile spirit is taken away, their former acts of rebellion are forgiven, and their worship is accepted as if they had never fought against Jerusalem. They go up to worship at Jerusalem because that was the place God chose, and because the temple there pointed to Christ and his mediation, meaning his work as the one who brings God and sinners together.

Saving grace sets us right in four ways. It puts us right in the object of our worship, so we no longer worship false gods, the creatures of our own minds, but the King, the Lord of hosts, the everlasting King, the King of kings, the sovereign Lord of all. It puts us right in the ordinances, the practices God has appointed for worship. Gospel worship is shown here by keeping the feast of tabernacles, because that feast especially pictured two graces, a holy disregard for the world and joy in God, (Nehemiah 8:17). The life of a good Christian is like a constant feast of tabernacles, because in all devotion we must turn from the world and rejoice in the Lord.

It also puts us right in the Mediator of our worship, that is, Christ, through whom we come to God. We must bring all our offerings to Christ, our temple, because only in him are our spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God, (1 Peter 2:5). If we trust in ourselves, we do not please God. We must come to him and speak only of his righteousness. It also puts us right in the time of worship. We must be steady and faithful. They were to go up year by year at the appointed times for this solemn feast. Every day of a Christian’s life is like a feast of tabernacles, and especially every Lord’s Day, the great day of the feast. So each day we must worship the Lord of hosts, and each Lord’s Day with special solemnity.

Second, those who neglect the duties of gospel worship will be called to account for their neglect. God will force them to come and worship before him by withholding his favor from those who refuse his ordinances: on them there will be no rain, (Zechariah 14:17). Some take this figuratively. Then the rain of heavenly teaching and the grace that should go with it will be withheld. God will command the clouds not to rain on them. It is right for God to withhold the blessings of grace from those who do not use the means of grace, and to deny green pastures to those who do not stay near the shepherd’s tents.

Or this may be taken literally. There will be no rain to make their land fruitful. The gifts of common providence, God’s ordinary care for daily life, are rightly denied to those who neglect and despise appointed worship. Those who ignored the rebuilding of the temple were punished by lack of rain (Haggai 2:17), and the same happened to those who refused to attend when the temple was built. If we are barren toward God, it is just for the earth to become barren to us. Many people are hindered and set back in their affairs, and this often lies at the root of it, they do not stay close to God’s worship as they should. They drift from God, and then he opposes them. If we leave off or delay the duties he expects, it is fair for him to withhold the favors we expect from him.

What about the people of Egypt? For them, the threat of no rain is no threat, since they have no rain anyway. They do not need it, and the Nile River waters their land and makes it fruitful, so what is a judgment to others seems to touch them less, (Zechariah 14:18, Zechariah 14:19). Yet if the family of Egypt does not go up, God will still find a way to deal with them, because they will suffer, in effect, the same plague that falls on other nations for neglecting the feast of tabernacles. God could restrain the river’s overflow, which would be the same as shutting up the clouds. Or if the river did rise as usual, God had other ways to bring famine on them and destroy the fruit of their ground, as he had done in several of the ten plagues of Egypt. So this same punishment would fall on Egypt, as on the other nations that did not keep the feast of tabernacles.

Those who think they are least dependent on heaven’s mercy cannot assume they are safe from heaven’s justice. It does not follow that because a people can live without rain, they can live without God. Not only the heavens, but every creature, is to us only what God makes it to be. No one’s way of living can excuse him from God’s judgments. The margin says, “This shall be the sin of Egypt,” and the sin of all nations that do not go up to keep the feast of tabernacles. The same word means both sin and the punishment of sin, because the two are so closely joined, as in (Genesis 4:7). Sin often carries its own punishment with it. Omissions are sins too, and we must answer for them. Those who do not go up to worship at the appointed times, when they have the chance, bring guilt on themselves. Their sin is its own punishment, because those who leave the duty lose the privilege of fellowship with God.

Third, those who do the duties of gospel worship will be given grace to honor their profession by gospel living too. This is promised in (Zechariah 14:20, Zechariah 14:21), and it is needed to complete the beauty and happiness of the church. In general, all will be holiness to the Lord. The name and mark of holiness will no longer be limited as before. “Holiness to the Lord” had been written only on the high priest’s forehead, but now it will belong to many more. All Christians will be like living temples and spiritual priests, set apart for God’s honor and used in his service.

True holiness will spread much more widely than before. That will happen because people will have stronger means of growing holy, better rules, stronger reasons, and brighter examples of holiness. It will also happen because, after Christ's ascension, the Holy Spirit will be poured out more fully than ever before.

This holiness will reach even ordinary things that once seemed far removed from religion. The horses’ gear will be dedicated to God. "Holiness to the Lord" will be written on the bells of the horses, or on their bridles, or on their trappings. Horses used in war will no longer be used against God and his people, but for him and them. Even their wars will be holy wars, with their riders serving under God's banner.

Their leaders, who ride in state with a grand escort, will count it their greatest honor to glorify God with their rank. "Holiness to the Lord" will be written on the harness of their horses, like the motto on a nobleman’s coach. Every gentleman will take the high priest’s motto as his own and use it as a reminder not to do anything unworthy of it. Travelers will have it on their bridles, so that it is always before them and guides their steps.

Even the bells of the horses, which are meant to speed them on the road and announce their coming, will bear the words "Holiness to the Lord." The point is that holiness should shape us ourselves and also be openly shown to others wherever we go.

Holiness will also reach the furniture of their houses and be used in God’s service. First, this will be true of the priests’ homes, or the rooms beside the house of the Lord. The ordinary cups they use will be like the bowls before the altar, the ones used to receive sacrificial blood or to hold the wine and oil for drink offerings. Their tableware will be used with such reverence, self-control, devotion to God’s glory, and such a mix of godly thoughts and speech, that their meals will look like sacrifices. They will eat and drink, not for themselves, but for the one who spreads their tables and fills their cups.

This should especially be true in ministers’ families, where common actions ought to be done in a godly way, even if they are done differently in other homes. Second, it will be true of ordinary homes, those of the common people. "Every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holiness to the Lord." The pots used to boil meat and the cups used to drink wine (Jeremiah 35:5) will no longer be abused through excess. They will not be used to feed lust, when they should help people obey God, as had happened before when "all tables were full of vomit and filthiness" (Isaiah 28:8).

What people eat and drink from these vessels will strengthen their bodies for God’s service. They will also use what they have generously to help the poor. Then those pots will truly be "Holiness to the Lord," just as the wealth and wages of the converted Tyrians are called holy (Isaiah 23:18). In both our gaining and our spending, we must look to God’s will as our rule and to God’s glory as our goal.

When there is such an abundance of real holiness, people will care less about ceremonial holiness, that is, outward ritual details. Those who sacrifice will take these common vessels and boil their sacrifices in them, making no distinction between them and the bowls before the altar. In gospel times, true worshipers will worship God in spirit and truth, and neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem alone (John 4:21). One place will be as acceptable to God as another, "I want people to pray everywhere" (1 Timothy 2:8). One vessel will be as acceptable as another, so long as nothing is improper or disorderly and the true substance of worship remains.

Some think this means there would be so many sacrifices that the sanctuary’s vessels would not be enough. If so, rather than turn anyone away or delay the offering, they would freely use common vessels, just as the Levites, in a time of need, helped the priests kill the sacrifices (2 Chronicles 29:34).

There will also be no uncleanness brought into sacred things to corrupt them. "In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts." Some understand this to mean there will be no more merchant there, since "Canaanite" can sometimes mean merchant. They think this was partly fulfilled when Christ drove the buyers and sellers out of the temple more than once. Or it may mean that even if people who were once like Canaanites, strangers and outsiders, are brought into the house of the Lord, they will no longer be Canaanites in character. They will lose every trace of the Canaanite spirit and way of life.

It may also mean that, even if gospel times make people less concerned about holy vessels, they will still be very strict about church discipline. They will be careful not to admit the profane to special ordinances, but will keep a clear distinction between the precious and the worthless, between Israelites and Canaanites. Yet this will not be fully complete until the heavenly Jerusalem, the house of the Lord of hosts, where nothing unclean will enter. At the end of time, and not before, Christ will remove from his kingdom everything that causes sin, and the wheat and the weeds will be perfectly and forever separated.