4:1. “And in
that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own
bread, and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by thy name, to take
away our reproach”
This continues the
description of the worldwide destruction that will devastate the earth in
the Great Tribulation. So numerous will be the casualties in the wars, that
the male population will be reduced to only about one-seventh of its normal
size. Not even the carnage of the two most recent world-wars has resulted
in such appalling loss of life.
4:2. “In that
day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of
the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that escaped of Israel.”
This seems to look beyond
the Great Tribulation to the Millennium, and the phenomenal fruitfulness of
the whole earth during that glorious age; but clearly the reference is first
to the Lord Jesus Christ, for in Zechariah 3:8 and 6:12 He is called the
Branch.
“... for them that escaped
of Israel” emphasizes that she who has condemned herself to chastisement
instead of blessing for over twenty weary centuries, will have her blinded
eyes opened to see that He Whom she rejected and crucified was her Messiah,
Savior and Lord. Those long years of affliction are the symbolic
adumbration of the eternal punishment awaiting those who die without having
trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
4:3.
“And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that
remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written
among the living in Jerusalem:”
See comments on
chapter 2:3 for the significance of
the meanings of Zion and Jerusalem.
“... written among the
living” is not to be confused with those whose names are “written in the
Lamb’s book of life.” These mentioned here as being “written among the
living ...” are they, the believers who alone will be physically alive at
the end of the Great Tribulation, and who will pass into the Millennial
kingdom; the latter are those of all the ages who are spiritually alive,
i.e., who have eternal life through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as
Savior.
4:4. “When the
Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall
have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of
judgment, and by the spirit of burning.”
The “daughters of Zion” is
a metaphor for all the citizens, men and women alike, but since the woman
speaks of submission of the will, as the male does of its activity, the
point being emphasized is that all will have yielded themselves willingly to
doing evil - filth, in the present context, meaning excrement, and
indicating how utterly abhorrent sin is to God.
“... the blood of
Jerusalem” refers to all the blood wantonly shed within its walls; and its
being purged “by the spirit of judgment” means that God will execute
judgment against the perpetrators; the “spirit of burning” referring
possibly to His destruction of the guilty.
The JFB Commentary makes
the following instructive observation, “The same Holy Ghost, who sanctifies
believers by the fire of affliction ... dooms unbelievers to the fire of
perdition.”
The murder of the Lord
Jesus Christ was the crime that sealed the city’s doom, His blood crying out
for vengeance, with God’s judgmental response coming in the destruction of
the guilty city by Titus in 70 AD, which left it a burnt-out ruin that was
later rebuilt. She however, has never repented of her atrocity, with the
result that in the impending Great Tribulation she will suffer the terrible
judgments that will compel her repentant confession, and bring God’s pardon
to the surviving contrite remnant.
But again, the literal is
a symbolic portrait of the spiritual. The destruction of unrepentant
Jerusalem foreshadows the awful fate of the sinner who dies unrepentant: he
will suffer the eternal torment of the dreadful lake of fire.
4:5. “And the
Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her
assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by
night: for upon all the glory shall be a defense.”
An alternative rendering
of the last clause is, “upon the glorious whole.”
A similar phenomenon
occurred in connection with the Tabernacle during Israel’s forty years in
the wilderness, see Exodus 13:21,
that prodigy being a type of the Holy Spirit’s ministry to the Church during
this present dispensation of grace, in which He indwells every believer,
they being the living stones which comprise the Church. That pillar of
cloud and fire was a defense for pilgrim Israel, which is also described as
God’s glory, see Isaiah 46:13, “... I will place salvation in Zion for
Israel my glory.” The Holy Spirit is no less the guardian of the Church as
she traverses the wilderness of this evil world on her way home to heaven.
4:6. “And
there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and
for a place of refuge; and for a covert from the storm and from rain.”
Other renderings of this
verse are “for over all the glory shall be spread a covering. And there
shall be a pavilion for a shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a
refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain,” ASV; “For over all, his
glory will be shelter and protection: shade from the parching heat of day,
refuge and cover from storm and rain,” NAB; “For glory shall be spread over
all as a covering and a canopy, a shade from the heat by day, a refuge and
shelter from rain and tempest,” NEB. It means that God’s glory will be
spread over the Millennial temple.
This is also the symbolic
assurance of His unceasing care for every member of the Church. His glory
is inseparably linked with His bringing her safely home to heaven in spite
of every effort of Satan to destroy her.
