Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/330



314 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH

He will, therefore, "cut off" the instruments of war and emblems of worldly power, first of all from His own people because they shall have no need of them, and lest they should still be tempted to be like the Gentile world-powers, some of whom " trust in chariots and some in horses." l

But the mission of the Jewish Messiah the Prince of p eace extends not only to Israel and Palestine : " He shall speak peace to the nations " an expression which does not mean exactly that Messiah would command peace to the nations, as Koehler and others interpret ; or that He " would bring about peace by compassing the disputes and quarrels of the contending nations," as some other writers understand it. The phrase Di?^ ~\y\ t daber shalom ( to speak peace "), is used in some instances in the sense of speaking that which avowedly has peace for its object, whether the profession be sincere or not ; 2 or simply speaking in the sense of announcing peace and the removal of hostility. Thus God is said to " speak peace to His people and to His saints." 3

It is in this latter sense, I believe, that the words are to be understood here. Israel s Redeemer-King comes to publish peace to the nations not only peace from outward strife and conflict with one another, but that deeper inner peace, and the removal of hostility between man and God, which has been the cause of all outward restlessness and strife though it is implied also that there is both power and authority in the word which He shall speak to bring about the blessed end which He has in view.

"And His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth" which is a verbal quotation by our prophet from the 72nd Psalm, where the effects of the blessed reign of the true Son of David, Israel s ideal " King," is so beautifully depicted, and where we read that " He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him ; and His enemies shall lick the dust. . . . Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him ; all nations sJtall serve Him"

1 PS. jcx. 7. * Ps. xxviii. 3, xxxv. 20. * Ps. Ixxxv. 8.