We begin a chapter regarding the Lord's care for Judah, the royal line of Israel.
"Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime; it is the Lord who sends the thunderstorms. He gives showers of rain to all people, and plants of the field to everyone." (Zechariah 10:1) The success of the crops depended on the seasonal rains. Zechariah reminds the people that it is the Lord who commands the times and the seasons. It is He who provides for them. Before their captivity in Babylon, some of the people had fallen into the idolatry of the Canaanites who worshiped the fertility god Baal, a god also known as "the Lord of Rain and Dew". They entreated this false god for the bounty of the fields rather than the living God. Now that they have been released from captivity and have been given a fresh start, they mustn't even think about backsliding.
We know the verse above has to do with idolatry (and not simply with agricultural matters) because of what the prophet says next, "The idols speak deceitfully, diviners see visions that lie; they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd." (Zechariah 10:2) The Hebrew word used in verse 2 for "idols" is "teraphim", meaning "small images or cult objects used as domestic deities or oracles by ancient Semitic peoples". This implies that Zechariah is speaking not so much against overt idolatry carried out in public, but against private idolatry. We really never again find blatant idolatry among the tribes of Israel. But there is still the danger of hidden sin. A teraphim is kept inside the house where no one but the family can see it. It's a an object easily concealed if company comes calling. In Genesis 31 we find Rachel stealing her father's teraphim and when he comes looking for them she hides them inside her camel's saddle and sits on it. This shows how easy it is to harbor sin in our lives without even those closest to us being aware of it.
Zechariah suspects no one would dare set up a public altar to Baal on a street corner in Jerusalem. But since he is well aware of the fickleness of the human heart, he knows it's possible to say and do all the right things on the outside while clinging to sin on the inside. Idolatry is a lie. Anything that takes precedence over God in our lives is a lie. Zechariah compares this type of life with the image of a flock of sheep wandering the land without a shepherd. There is no true direction in the life of anyone who eschews the truth of the Lord in favor of a false belief system.
The Lord was angry with the faithlessness of the people before He sent them into captivity, but He is even angrier with the leaders of the nation who did not set a godly example for the people to follow. They bear the greater burden of sin because they were in a position to influence the people in the right direction and did not. "My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the Lord Almighty will care for His flock, the people of Judah, and make them like a proud horse in battle." (Zechariah 10:3) The higher the position we hold in the community or in the church or in the workplace, the greater the responsibility we bear to live in a way that honors the Lord. When the leadership is ungodly, the people feel more at liberty to be ungodly themselves. This is why the Lord is especially harsh with the "shepherds" and "leaders" of verse 3.
But all is not lost. The Lord promises to care for Judah and to bring a particular Shepherd and a specific King from this tribe. The royal dynasty of Judah began with David, a shepherd who was made a king. The final and eternal head of this tribe will be the one who is both the Good Shepherd who gives His life for the sheep (John 10:11) and the King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16). The people of Judah in Zechariah's day may have wondered whether their past behavior had negated any of God's promises to them, so He is going to reiterate what the patriarch Jacob prophesied about the tribe of Judah when he said, "The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his." (Genesis 49:10) Here is what the Lord says regarding the royal line of Judah, "From Judah will come the cornerstone, from him the tent peg, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler. Together they will be like warriors in battle trampling their enemy into the mud of the streets. They will fight because the Lord is with them, and they will put the enemy horsemen to shame." (Zechariah 10:4-5)
Without a cornerstone a wall cannot stay true to form. The cornerstone must be set so that everything else falls into its proper place. From Judah will come the cornerstone, the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom the Apostle Peter applies the words of the prophet Isaiah, "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame." (1 Peter 2:6, Isaiah 28:16)
The tent peg holds everything firmly in place, without which the tent would blow away on the wind. The Lord, this ruler from the tribe of Judah, is the security of His people. In the days of Isaiah the Lord used a man named Eliakim as a symbol of the One to whom would be entrusted the house of David. Eliakim served under King Hezekiah and was over his finances and his storehouses. The Lord uses him to represent a person yet to come, just as He used the high priest Joshua in the book of Zechariah to represent a person yet to come. Of Eliakim, and symbolically the coming King, the Lord says, "I will place on His shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I will drive Him like a peg into a firm place; he will become a seat of honor in the house of his father." (Isaiah 22:22-23) The Lord Jesus applies these verses to Himself when He says to the church of Philadelphia, "These are the words of Him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open." (Revelation 3:7)
From Judah comes the battle bow, from Judah the King who crushes His enemies in the winepress of Isaiah 63, from Judah the mighty warrior whom the Apostle John foresaw like this, "I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice He judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on His head are many crowns. He has a name written on Him that no one knows but He Himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is the Word of God." (Revelation 19:11-13)
From Judah comes every ruler, Zechariah tells us, because this is the tribe God chose as the royal line. This is the line from which the Messiah and King will come, the Ruler of all rulers, who will reign forever from David's throne. This is the King the patriarch Jacob foresaw when he said One was coming to whom belonged the scepter and the ruler's staff. This is the King Zechariah told us about who will proclaim peace to the nations. (Zechariah 9:10) When we first met the King on the pages of Zechariah, we found Him riding a donkey, the animal a king rides when he comes in peace. The next time the King comes to the world He will be riding a warhorse, the animal a king rides when he comes to do battle. At His first advent the Lord Jesus Christ came to the world as the Lamb of God; at His second advent He will be King and Lord over the earth. He will wear many crowns, for in that day "there will be one Lord, and His name the only name". (Zechariah 14:9)
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