Zechariah 14:17, commentary and pictures

Those of all the families of the earth who refuse to come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, receive no rain and are punished with plague and consumed by fire. This takes place after the thousand years of Revelation 20, when the Lord is on earth with the saints and the New Jerusalem has descended to a plain prepared by God where Christ shed his blood. The rain withheld is the latter rain of God's Spirit, whose withdrawal after final refusal of the invitation marks those who do not worship the King and leaves them to perish. The coming up is to the true antitypical final Feast of Tabernacles at the New Jerusalem, celebrating deliverance from sin and death and the ingathering of the great harvest home when pilgrims wander no more. That gospel invitation to the feast is extended to all the earth, and the choice to worship the King must be made now while mercy still lingers in order to escape the plagues and share in that worship.

Time Place and Fulfillment

The threatened withholding of rain belongs to the plague portion of the chapter, which finds its fulfillment in the present world rather than in the eternal world, while the Jerusalem described in the chapter belongs to the eternal world, and the chapter is not arranged in chronological order. The events occur in the day of the Lord, and that day is longer than the thousand years of Revelation 20, beginning before those thousand years and extending beyond them, so they cannot be placed within the thousand years merely because they occur in that day. Their time is after the thousand years, when the Lord is on earth with the saints and the New Jerusalem has descended, safely inhabited, to a plain prepared by God where Christ shed His blood and made sanctified by His feet.

At that time the wicked dead are raised and Satan deceives them in the four corners of the earth into believing the city can be taken and the kingdom given to his followers, so that they prepare to attack the city and go up over the breadth of the earth to surround the camp of the saints and the beloved city. Before that final conflict Satan and his hosts acknowledge Christ as Lord and King over the earth, and then fire destroys the wicked and cleanses the earth of sin, after which there is no more utter destruction. The sequence contains events occurring at widely separated times and must not be read as if one followed another consecutively, and its time of application is to be found by comparing Scripture with Scripture rather than by private interpretation or unsupported assertion.

The chapter concerns Christ's coming to reign and to establish peace among the nations by His judgments, with the general tenor of His kingdom, the great day of the Lord, the last glorious restoration, and the punishment of the wicked on earth, and its fulfillment is to be as literal as that of Isaiah 53. It is connected with the final universal war of Armageddon, when all the nations of the earth gather for battle and are prepared for war, Christ appears to defeat and destroy them, and only afterward do wars cease and earthly kingdoms be destroyed. Its Jerusalem, with inhabited country around it, is the antitypical city of peace, not the old city of stone and mortar, but the redeemed's real, tangible home where they worship God and observe the memorial of creation.

What could have brought judgments upon the Jews in their own time and would have brought wonderful benefits was lost through their failure to meet the conditions and receive the promised benefits, so Zechariah 14:16-21 is not yet fulfilled and will not be fulfilled just in the way stated, but will be fulfilled in a far larger sense in the glorious earth made new when all God's children come home to their Father's house, and the restoration movement connected with Jerusalem is a type of the last reformation. Those who so hold the conditional and future larger fulfillment nevertheless affirm that not one good promise God has given to His children will fail. By contrast, the teaching of those who place the chapter in the literal restoration holds that it is the latest Old Testament prophecy about the return of the Jews to the literal land of Canaan, given in B.C. 487, and that every such promise was completely fulfilled to the Jews as a nation forty-two years later, by B.C. 445, when all Israel dwelt in their cities.

Refusal Rain and Punishment

Those of all the families of the earth who will not come up unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, shall have no rain upon them and shall be punished with plague and at last consumed by fire. That refusal is made after the thousand years, when the resurrected wicked nations come against the city of God's people and refuse to keep the true feast of tabernacles, while God's people keep the feast after their wanderings have ended and they possess the earth made new. The warning also reaches back to judgments that could have fallen on the Jews in their own time, but that application was lost through their failure to receive the promised benefits.

The rain withheld is the latter rain of God's Spirit, and to have no rain is to perish for want of it. Its absence marks those who do not worship the King, showing that the Spirit of God is withdrawn and no longer given to them after their final refusal of the invitation. That invitation to come up to the feast of tabernacles is the gospel invitation extended to all the earth, and the refusal stands among the events of the great day of the Lord when God deals with both the wicked and the righteous. The feast and its warning look also to the renewed earth, where God's people come year by year to worship and rejoice in their home after their wanderings have ended, joyfully honoring what He asks of them in worship.

Even those of a great nation such as Egypt, though they have received great light, if they refuse to come shall be struck by the plagues and perish in the future time when God's people have overcome their foes and sin has ended. That punishment with no rain is not imposed on people in the new earth where the survivors worship in Jerusalem, but on the wicked when they are destroyed. The cutting off described in Zechariah 14:16-21 takes place before the new earth becomes the saints' possession, so it does not prove that death will exist in the new earth. The picture of coming to Jerusalem to worship is given in the language of the prophet's own time, when God's people came yearly to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, and in the prophecy that worship represents the faithfulness of God's people who will be saved to the new earth.

Feast Worship and Hope

The feast in view is the true and great antitypical final Feast of Tabernacles kept at the New Jerusalem. That feast once commemorated the wanderings in the wilderness and was a season of thanksgiving to God for the fruits of the earth, and it points forward to the great harvest home of God when the ingathering has taken place. It is kept by God's people after their wanderings have ended and they possess the earth made new, where as God's children they celebrate their deliverance from sin and death and the weary pilgrims to Zion wander no more.

The invitation to come up to that feast is the gospel invitation extended to all the earth. The call to worship belongs to a picture of God's people joyfully honoring what He asks of them in worship, using the language of the prophet's own time when His people came yearly to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. In that prophecy the worship represents the faithfulness of God's people who will be saved to the new earth, linked with the redeemed worshiping God in a real and tangible home and observing the memorial of creation. On the renewed earth God's people come year by year to worship and rejoice in their home after their wanderings have ended, keeping His Sabbaths and the feast of tabernacles.

The choice to worship the King must be made now while mercy still lingers. Those who choose rightly will escape the impending plagues and share in worship in the New Jerusalem.