A successful campaign.
"When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim," etc. It is clear, from the beginning of these verses, that we have to do here, in some sense, with battle and war. It is equally clear, from the fact that the persons here mentioned have been described in Zechariah 9:10 as specially separated from battle and war, that we have only to do here with such things in some more literal sense. It seems most probable, therefore, that the "peace" spoken of in the latter portion of the passage must be something equally peculiar in its way. Let us endeavour to find, in each case, where the peculiarity lies.
I. AS TO WAR. Under this head we may notice:
1. The description of the combatants. On the one hand, "Judah," "Ephraim," and "Zion," representing probably the Jewish people at large, as specially identified with the worship of Jehovah, the true God (Psalms 87:2). On the other hand, "Greece," as probably representing the heathen at large (Zechariah 9:10), in connection with those mythological fictions and philosophical inquiries in which the "sons" of Greece took the lead. When did these combatants and these systems of thought come into conflict? Even when God raised up those Jewish apostles of Christ (so it has been answered), who, by the preaching of the cross, attacked and overcame the religion and wisdom of Greece (1 Corinthians 1:18-24). This was most truly a kind of "war," which also spoke "peace" (Zechariah 9:10); a war, also, in which the "Word of the Lord out of Zion" (Isaiah 2:3) was as a "sword" (Ephesians 6:17) in God's hand.
2. The description of the conflict. Was not the Lord truly "seen over," or with these combatants for his truth (Mark 16:20; Hebrews 2:3, Hebrews 2:4)? Did not God's Word also, as spoken by them, find its mark like an "arrow" (Acts 2:37; 1 Corinthians 14:24, 1 Corinthians 14:25)? Did it not shake and overthrow many deeply rooted convictions, like the "trumpet" of Jericho, as though by its sound (Acts 17:6)? And overcome apparently insuperable obstacles as though by a "whirlwind" (2 Corinthians 10:4, 2 Corinthians 10:5)? Did not God again specially "defend" these combatants when endangered (Acts 5:23; Acts 12:1-17; Acts 14:20, Acts 14:21; Acts 16:26; Acts 19:23-41; Acts 21:32, etc.)? Did they not also, with their weapons of peace, "devour and subdue" those weapons of war, "the stones of the sling" (margin), spreading the gospel even when destroyed themselves (Acts 11:19-21)? And altogether were they not like men carried along as though with a holy "wine" from the "altar," in their fervour of zeal and success (Acts 2:13; Acts 26:24; 2 Corinthians 5:13)? In all these respects we seem to have here a faithful description of the earlier conquests of Christ's cross.
II. AS TO PEACE. Corresponding to this singular and hallowed warfare shall be its hallowed results. The Church, or congregation of God's believing people, shall be made thereby a new thing on the earth.
1. Externally; and that in three ways.
2. Internally. And this, in turn, manifested in three different ways.
From the various predicted changes thus accomplished, we may see, in conclusion:
1. The supernatural origin of Christianity. Physically, the Roman conquered the world. Intellectually, the Greek conquered the Roman. Spiritually, the Jew has conquered them both. A little society, formed originally out of the most despised of the nations, and principally, if not exclusively, out of the most despised of its provinces (Acts 2:7; John 7:52), has become the ruling society upon earth. Can we help saying as in Psalms 118:23?
2. The supernatural value of Christianity. Is there any system to be compared with it as to the blessings it bestows? Can the statement of 1 Timothy 4:8 be made of any other religion as it can of this one? Can anything else also so completely satisfy all the cravings of our nature (see John 4:14)?
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH