Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/96



" And Jehovah shall inherit Judah His portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again ": which reminds us of Isa. xix. 25, where we read that even after the blessing comes to the saved of the nations whom Jehovah of hosts shall bless, saying: " Blessed be Egypt, My people, and Assyria, the work of My hands," He will still say of Israel, " Mine inheritance," for the Lord's inalienable " portion " from among all the other nations of the earth " is His people, Jacob is the lot of His inheritance " (Deut. xxxii. 9); in which respect, again, Israel nationally is the type and counterpart of the Church, which, made up of saved individuals from among all men, is " the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints " (Eph. i. 1 8),

The expression l al admath haqodesh " in the holy land " is very beautiful, and reminds us of the fact that the land also which has been defiled and polluted, perhaps, above all others, shall then be cleansed of its defilement, and hallowed and sanctified by the presence of Immanuel, to correspond with the people who are to inhabit it; who throughout their future existence on the earth shall be known and called by all other nations as " the holy people"

(Isa. Ixii. 12), on whose persons and homes and possessions, down to the very " bells of the horses," shall be written qodesh layehovah " Holiness (or holy ) to the Lord."

The words, " and shall yet choose Jerusalem again," so to say, " round off" the glorious promises in this chapter, and are the second of a threefold reiteration by Zechariah of Isa. xiv. I. The meaning, as already explained in my notes on the First Vision, is, that Jehovah shall then, by the various acts of lovingkindness to His people and to the land, which are enumerated in this prophecy, demonstrate in the sight of the whole world the fact and the immutability of His original choice of them.

The first cycle of these wonderful " visions " ends with the most solemn announcement of the great fact which forms the climax of all prophecy, namely, the visible appearing of Almighty God in the person of the Messiah as the Judge and Redeemer of men: "Be silent, all flesh,