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1 “On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity. 2 “On that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more,” declares the Lord Almighty. “I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land. 3 And if anyone still prophesies, their father and mother, to whom they were born, will say to them, ‘You must die, because you have told lies in the Lord’s name.’ Then their own parents will stab the one who prophesies." ~ Zechariah 13:1-3
Today, we transition into Zechariah 13 which is only nine verses long. The context for today's text is the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ which will happen at the end of the seven year period of time most call the Tribulation. In today's text, we will learn what God has to say about the day when Israel will be cleansed of their sin.
Now, throughout the Old Testament, God reiterates Israel's need for His forgiveness of their sin. This only makes sense, since it is against God and His definition of things that man has rebelled. Through our rebellion, we have challenged God's truth. If truth were ultimately undermined, no one would endure. Yet, God consistently offers His forgiveness throughout the Scriptures. In fact, the whole sacrificial system of the Old Testament is predicated on original sin and a forgiving God. In Psalm 103:12 we read, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."
Notice, He didn't say, "North from the south", because there is an end to the north and to the south. But, there is no ending to the east and the west. Thus, He, once we have trusted in the Son's work on the cross, has forgiven our sin completely. And, it really doesn’t matter what Israel had done in the past. I mean, our sin doesn’t affect God's nature. It lays nothing to bear on His nature that would change Him. And, no matter what man has done, the God of the Bible is still a God of forgiveness and He will come to Israel, in the end, offering His forgiveness. And, this is the message of Zechariah 13. God is a God of forgiveness.
I love the words of Max Lucado who once said, "There are some facts that will never change. One fact is that you are forgiven. If you are in Christ, when He sees you, your sins are covered-He doesn’t see them. He sees you better than you see yourself."
In v.1 of today's text we read, "On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity."
The "day" God references here is the day the Lord Jesus returns. It will be the day that He will set His feet on the mount of Olives in Jerusalem. It will be on that day, that Israel will look on the Lord Jesus and recognize the One whom they crucified, and, they will mourn over their rebellion. There is no forgiveness until there is repentance. There is no salvation until we admit our understanding of Original Sin and we confess our need for the Savior. And, after Israel mourns and cries out to God for His forgiveness, they will experience His cleansing of their sin.
According to Ezekiel 36, the Lord will sprinkle clean water on Israel, and they will be clean from all their filthiness, and from all their idols will God cleanse them. And, He will give them a new heart and a new spirit.
The Bible is clear about the condition of man: "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." No one has ever escaped this core truth. "There is none righteous. No, not one." Not only were the people of Israel conceived in sin, like you and me. They also rejected God's free gift of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. "On that day, a fountain opened to Israel."
The word "opened" brings with it the idea of continuance and permanence. Once it is opened, it will be perennially opened. And, it will be available as a source of perennial purification. This fountain of cleansing was opened at the cross of Calvary. The moment we received Christ as our Savior, our past, present and future sins were forgiven. And, on that day, Israel will access God's forgiveness through their recognition of the Lord Jesus as their Messiah. On that day, Israel will learn that as long as there is sin, there will be cleansing for the one who believes.
The word sin at the end of v.1 of today's text means to go in the wrong way. The root idea in the word used for this word "sin" brings with it the idea that we went down the wrong path, the path of disobedience and rebellion. And, that rebellion permanently separated us from God. That is, until the Lord Jesus came and paid the penalty for the sin that separated us from God.
The last word in v.1, "impurity," means something that is to be shunned. Israel will be cleansed of its own moral defilement and of its tendency to behave and go in the wrong direction. This is how sin manifests itself, it is a matter of what we are and consequently it is a matter of what we do. And so, this "fountain" will come as a cleansing from the defilement of sin. This "fountain" is the precious blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ.
In v.2-3 of today's text we read, "2 “On that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more,” declares the Lord Almighty. “I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land. 3 And if anyone still prophesies, their father and mother, to whom they were born, will say to them, ‘You must die, because you have told lies in the Lord’s name.’ Then their own parents will stab the one who prophesies."
When we come into a relationship with the Lord, He will always confront the idols in our lives. And, these idols can be good things, like our family, because an idol is anything that is more important to us than God. In v.2 of today's text we learn that the product of God's cleansing work in our lives is that we lose a taste for our idolatry. This explains God's words, "I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more."
The two besetting sins of all sinners, including the people of Israel, have always been idolatry and false prophecy. And, false prophecy is always the cause behind idolatry. At the end of time, as we know it, Israel will fall prey to another false prophet, the antichrist. But when Christ returns and He cleanses Israel from the defilement of sin, He will enable them to see the deception of the one they will, for a time, believe to be their Messiah.
God's presence in our lives enables us to see a world that the unsaved can not see. It is an unseen world. And, we only see it because of the word of God and the abiding Holy Spirit. Through His word and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are able to recognize deception, thus, we are equipped to turn away from such idols.
According to v.3, once we have entered into a personal relationship with the Lord, we will have the ability to recognize and call out the deception of the lost. When we were saved, we were given a tremendous gift to recognize how evil is rebellion. The punishment specified for false prophets in the Old Testament was quite severe. In Deuteronomy 18:20 we read, “If any prophet dares to speak a message in My name that I have not commanded him to speak, or to speak in the name of other gods, that prophet must be put to death.”
Because, God by nature is a God of truth, His judgment is vested in the eternality of His nature as true. He is true and holy. He is the judge of all who pervert the truth and all liars, especially those who say they speak for Him but do not truthfully teach His Word, are treated severely. So, the eternal God by His very nature as truth, has set in motion long ago the condemnation of those who falsify His Word.
In fact, the moment that sin appeared in this universe, the sentence of God was enacted on anyone who spoke a lie. It was set in motion at that moment. And, all liars and all those who teach falsely about God's Word were doomed. The verdict of guilty was in, when the first sin was committed, against all liars and perverters of the truth.
The Lord's punishment seems pretty severe until we begin to grasp the consequences of the false prophet's work. People are deterred from the Lord and they end up in hell. Now, that is severe. And, for good reason. This is why God has granted us His word and His Holy Spirit, because with the two of them, we would flounder our way to hell. But, as Chuck Swindoll once said, "God’s forgiveness extends to the worst offenders and to anyone who wishes to receive it, not because of who we are, but because of who He is."
