I. GOD'S WRATH IS THE HIGHEST IN CASES. It is not a mood or passion; not the outburst of arbitrary power; but the calm expression of the Eternal Mind. He who does wrong identifies himself with the wrong, and so far must be an object of indignation. God feels towards things as they are. How different the wrath of man (cf. James 4:1)!

II. GOD'S WRATH IS THE PUREST JUSTICE. Law must stand. Government and order must be maintained. Else anarchy. But nothing will be done beyond what is necessary for the ends of justice. God's wrath is just, in measure and duration. How different with the wrath of man! Often carried beyond the bounds of right, and becomes oppression. Often continued beyond the limits of justice, and becomes revenge (Isaiah 47:6).

III. GOD'S WRATH IS THE HOLIEST LOVE. There is much in the ways of God that we cannot understand, but we should never forget what he himself has taught us as to his Spirit and purpose (cf. Ezekiel 33:11). God's wrath is consistent with pity for the sufferer, mercy for the penitent, and deliverance for the oppressed. In his hand pains are disciplinary, trials are remedial, chastisements are benedictions in disguise. "The end of the Lord is merciful." But with men how often is wrath pitiless and cruel, working evil instead of good, rejoicing in destruction instead of deliverance!

"Father and Lover of our souls
Though darkly round thine anger rolls,
Thy sunshine smiles beneath the gloom,
Thou seek'st to warn us, not confound,
Thy showers would pierce the hardened ground
And win it to give out its brightness and perfume."

(Keble.) F.

Jerusalem and Zion are laid waste, it is true, but not in anger, so much as in chastising love. God still loves them, and is jealous of any estrangement of their affections from Him, and when estranged He chastises them to bring them back. This was His object in using the heathen as instruments of chastisement, but the spirit in which they executed this office provoked His wrath. He designed only to inflict a slight chastisement, but they rioted in the sufferings of His people with wanton cruelty. They mocked their sorrows and taunted them with their abandonment. Hence God will punish these heathen, and will bestow mercy on His people, cause the temple to be built, the city to be enlarged, and prosperity to return to the land.

(T. V. Moore, D. D.)

1. God seems to absent Himself sometimes from those for whom He hath great blessings in store. By absenting Himself is meant only the withdrawing His countenance, or sunshine of His favour, when the clouds of adversity or trouble, either spiritual or temporal, sit uneasy on His chosen servants. At such times He seems to "hide His face from them." Afflictions in this life are like eclipses of celestial bodies, the noblest planet never suffers any, for when we say the sun is eclipsed, it is we are more properly so, we want his cheerful light and influences, whilst he himself is not diminished one ray. The moon is sometimes really eclipsed, and labours under the want of a borrowed light. Thus Divinest constitutions never suffer. The lunar populace are more really affected by that obscurity which can never hurt a being, placed so near Divinity. But if such an one hath been obscured, then this proposition must be granted, that God Almighty doth sometimes seem to absent Himself from those whom He best loves. Joseph, David, and even the Son of God Himself, had more than an ordinary share of this world's frowns. The reason for such experiences may respect —(1) God Himself. He may permit this for His own Divine sake, that He may be glorified by all that happens to the children of men; that the wise man may see that he hath no reason to glory in his wisdom, nor the mighty man in his strength, but that all things by God's providence come alike sometimes to all.(2) In respect of those whom He loves, God may sometimes afflict them either by way of admonition or trial. God is that wise and tender physician who never administers any uneasy medicine but when He sees there is an occasion for it. All the dispensations of His providence are the results of Divine wisdom and unchangeable love; therefore they ought most to suspect themselves who have the least share of severe favours. God may design to make trial of the patience, virtue, faith, hope, or charity of any one of His servants.(3) The like reason not only regards the sufferer, but all others who are witnesses and spectators of their sufferings. That they may see the advantages of religion above all other supports and consolations, how useful and effectual it is.

2. Such absenting of Himself is but for a while, as seems best to His goodness and wisdom "I am returned" denotes the speediness and certainty of God's returning with mercies. The fountain of honour can never be impoverished or impaired by making the first overtures of tenderness and reconciliation. He is in great haste for an accommodation; He condescends much to our infirmities. It is His nature and property to have mercy and forgive.

3. When He doth return it is with all the tenders of love and compassion. Not with forgiveness only, or any one species, but with all the instances of mercy. Nor doth it at all interfere with His constancy and justice, because it always supposes conditions performed; at least in His foreknowledge, that His mercy will move us to repentance. Upon winch account His mercy is sometimes termed His justice. His mercy never obstructs His justice, but all His attributes are one simple essence, and proceed in an eternal and unchangeable method. Learn that if the mercies of God toward us are so great, we ought to be tender and compassionate one towards another.

(Samuel Prat, D. D.)

Berechiah, Darius, Iddo, ZechariahJerusalem, ZionAffirmation, Almighty, Armies, Built, Compassion, Compassions, Declares, Forth, Hosts, Jerusalem, Line, Measuring, Mercies, Mercy, Rebuilt, Return, Returned, Says, Stretched, Thus1. Zechariah exhorts to repentance.
7. The vision of the horses.
12. At the prayer of the angel comfortable promises are made to Jerusalem.
18. The vision of the four horns and the four carpenters.

Zechariah 1:16

     7254   plumb-line
     7468   temple, rebuilding
     8306   mercifulness

Zechariah 1:12-21

     4112   angels, messengers

Zechariah 1:16-17

     6703   peace, divine OT

A Willing People and an Immutable Leader
The Psalm is a kind of coronation Psalm. Christ is bidden to take his throne: "Sit thou at my right hand." The sceptre is put into his hand. "The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion." And then the question is asked, "Where are his people?" For a king would be no king without subjects. The highest title of kingship is but an empty one that hath no subjects to make up its fulness. Where, then, shall Christ find that which shall be the fulness of him that filleth all in all? The great …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856

The Source of Power
'And the Angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, 2. And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold, a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps which are upon the top thereof: 3. And two olive-trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. 4. So I answered and spake to the Angel that talked with …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

"But Whereunto Shall I Liken this Generation?"
Matth. xi. 16.--"But whereunto shall I liken this generation?" When our Lord Jesus, who had the tongue of the learned, and spoke as never man spake, did now and then find a difficulty to express the matter herein contained. "What shall we do?" The matter indeed is of great importance, a soul matter, and therefore of great moment, a mystery, and therefore not easily expressed. No doubt he knows how to paint out this to the life, that we might rather behold it with our eyes, than hear it with our …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

That Upon the Conquest and Slaughter of vitellius Vespasian Hastened his Journey to Rome; but Titus his Son Returned to Jerusalem.
1. And now, when Vespasian had given answers to the embassages, and had disposed of the places of power justly, [25] and according to every one's deserts, he came to Antioch, and consulting which way he had best take, he preferred to go for Rome, rather than to march to Alexandria, because he saw that Alexandria was sure to him already, but that the affairs at Rome were put into disorder by Vitellius; so he sent Mucianus to Italy, and committed a considerable army both of horsemen and footmen to …
Flavius Josephus—The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem

Zechariah
CHAPTERS I-VIII Two months after Haggai had delivered his first address to the people in 520 B.C., and a little over a month after the building of the temple had begun (Hag. i. 15), Zechariah appeared with another message of encouragement. How much it was needed we see from the popular despondency reflected in Hag. ii. 3, Jerusalem is still disconsolate (Zech. i. 17), there has been fasting and mourning, vii. 5, the city is without walls, ii. 5, the population scanty, ii. 4, and most of the people …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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