Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/332



316 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH

horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots, and I will cut the (walled) cities of thy land, and 1 will throw down all thy strong holds x

Here we have a Child born in time, in a small obscure place in Palestine, and of a race despised by the other nations, whose " goings forth " are from eternity, and who would be great unto the ends of the earth, and not only be the bringer of peace, but Himself " be our peace"

And the same picture of the true Son of David and ideal King of Israel, with the same enigmatical and apparently paradoxical combination of characteristics of humiliation and helplessness on the one hand, and of power and dominion on the other, which is to spread over the whole earth, not by force of arms but by means of His simple Word, is given also by Micah s contemporary Isaiah the son of Amos, 2 and was also doubtless in the mind of Zechariah as he spoke of the King who should appear in lowliness but would yet speak peace to the nations, and exercise a sway which would extend to the ends of the earth.

Secondly, I must once again repeat what has been stated at the beginning of my remarks on the 9th verse, that there is no perspective observed in the Old Testament prophecy, and that the prophets behold from their distant point of view the two advents of Messiah as one, not observing the different stages and long pauses in the process of the fulfilment of His mission on earth.

A pause of nearly two thousand years has already ensued between the Qth and loth verses of this great prophecy between the time when Jesus, " that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet" Zechariah, presented Himself to the daughter of Zion as her true King, " meek, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass, 3 and the time when He shall " speak peace to the nations," and shall visibly " stand and feed (or rule ) in the strength of Jehovah, in the majesty of the name of Jehovah His God."

1 Mic. v. 2, 4, 10, II. - Isa. ix. 1-7 (R.V.). 3 Matt. xxi. 4, 5.