Zechariah 9:13
When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man. When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man.
God takes Judah in hand as a bent bow for His own use, sets Ephraim in place as the filled bow, stirs the sons of Zion to stand against the sons of Greece, and fashions Zion into a weapon like the sword of a mighty warrior. This arming stands joined to the summons to His people as prisoners of hope to turn to the stronghold, with His pledge to repay them double. By so arming them His purpose is that Zion should bear light outward to the Gentile world.
The darkness resting on the Gentile world came through the failure of the Jewish nation to bring forth the fruit He required, the fruit of obedience, self-denial, goodness, mercy, and compassion. Had they kept all His commandments, the light shining from their good works would have turned many to glorify God. The promise set forth here reaches to embrace the whole world within the covenant of the great plan of redemption.
The verse belongs to the day when the Lord shall be seen over them, when He shall defend them, and when He shall save them in that day as the flock of His people, raised up as crown jewels for a banner upon His land. That day is further marked by His arrow flashing forth as lightning, by the Lord God sounding the trumpet and advancing with the whirlwinds of the south, and by the Lord of hosts spreading His defense over them. That work of saving displays His great goodness and His beauty. In this setting lies ground for the hope of the Advent.