And it shall come to pass in that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, [that] I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered; and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.
Verse 1 opened a fountain for the guilt of God's people; verse 2 turns outward to their land, and to the two evils that had corrupted its worship for centuries. What does it mean for idols to be forgotten, and who is the "unclean spirit" that has to be driven out?
Twice God says "I will." This is His own work. One writer notes where it comes in God's order of working:
The LORD has removed the guilt of His people and opened up the sources of their daily cleansing. Next He goes on to cleanse His land.
The cleansing also goes far beyond Jerusalem, and it does more than take evil away:
The cleansing will spread over the whole land and will not be limited to Jerusalem. A spirit of holiness will be poured out in all hearts.
Israel's history shows why the two are named together:
Idols and false prophets were Satan's two successful tools. He used them to lead both Judah and Israel away from the worship of the LORD their God… And wherever idolatry takes hold, false prophets are everywhere. So Jehoshaphat had already promised to go to war with the Syrians alongside Ahab. Then he wanted to quiet his uneasy conscience by asking "at the word of the LORD." Four hundred false prophets were found to prophesy what Ahab wanted, while there was only one prophet of the LORD. In that other scene on Mount Carmel too, Elijah had to face four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal.
God removes the prophets and the spirit together. A false prophet is not just a man with wrong opinions:
A "lying spirit" drives false prophets. The problem is not just that they do not know the truth and follow the leaning of their own evil hearts. They are completely in the power and control of the evil one. There may be sincere men among them — men of thought and intellect, the leading minds of the time, "princes" of the age. But do not miss this: whatever the world thinks of them, they are energized and led by a "lying spirit."
Since the return from Babylon, Israel has not worshipped idols. So the verse points forward to a return of idolatry. One writer applies the picture of an unclean spirit leaving a man and coming back to the nation itself:
Every student of Scripture will agree that the unclean spirit means idolatry, and that its worship is linked with demons instead of God… As a nation, Israel never fell into idolatry after the return from Babylon as they had before. Not that they were better men; the unclean spirit of idolatry was no longer their special temptation… Israel had put aside their idol-worshipping habits. They went to the synagogue every sabbath day… The house looked clean. Nothing on the outside would shock you if you looked at it. But the unclean spirit is to go back.
Another writer presses the same point as a question:
This part of chapter 13 makes it very clear. When the fountain is opened against sin and uncleanness, idols will have been in the land, and false prophets will be prophesying there right before the Lord appears from heaven. How could the names of the idols be cut off from the land if there were none there?
God promises they will be "remembered no more." The idols go, and so does the memory of them:
The Lord of hosts will work in sovereign power to purge even the names of idols out of the land: their very memory will perish. The false prophets, energized by unclean spirits, will no longer have any place.
Something takes the place of what God removes:
It will be a change, not merely of thought or attitude, but of spirit. An "unclean spirit" had been in the land (Zech. 13:2), now a "spirit of grace" is poured upon them.
- Order — First God removes guilt at the fountain. Then He cleanses the land. The outward clean-up follows the inward pardon; it never replaces it.
- Pair — God removes idols and false prophets together, because they always travelled together. False worship finds men who will say what it wants to hear.
- Power — The false prophet's real problem is not ignorance but a lying spirit. However impressive he seems, the evil one controls him.
- Return — Idols must be in the land before their names can be cut off. So writers read this as a future return to idolatry, like an unclean spirit coming back to a swept house.
- Replacement — The end is not an empty land but a full one. The unclean spirit is gone, a spirit of holiness and grace is poured out, and even the memory of the idols perishes.
And it shall come to pass, if any shall yet prophesy, that his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of Jehovah; and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth.
The chapter opens with a fountain for sin and uncleanness, and verse 3 shows a cleansed people meeting a false prophet. Two questions press: why is prophecy gone, and how can a father and mother strike their own son?
The verse belongs to a wider purge. God removes idols, false prophets and the unclean spirit together. This comes after the long deception under the man Scripture calls the Antichrist.
God now weighs everything that offended His character... In the days of Antichrist the defilements, the uncleanness and the false prophesying had been many and grave! There were false Christs and false prophets everywhere then. God will now purge all of it away completely.
The charge is using the Lord's name as cover for the work of Satan. One writer ties this cleansing to a new spirit in the people that reaches into family life.
The cleansing will spread over the whole land and not stop at Jerusalem. God will pour out a spirit of holiness into all hearts. Even the closest family ties will not change this. The father and the mother will pierce their own children... They will not tolerate anyone using the name of the Lord to make room for the work of Satan, the father of lies.
The parents who gave the man life are the first to condemn him. One writer takes this as the measure of how much God's people will love the truth.
In that day the truth will hold its rightful place in the hearts and consciences of God's people. It will be more precious to them than the dearest things on earth. The earth will see once more the sight of saints loving the Lord more than father or mother, husband or wife, or children. So they will hold fast to His word at any cost. As this scripture teaches, they will be the first to denounce anyone who tries to replace the truth of God with his own lying imaginations — even a person tied to them by the closest bond of all. (Compare Deuteronomy 13:6-11.)
A second question sits under the verse. Why should anyone who prophesies be judged a liar at once? One writer answers that prophecy always came in response to failure, and that failure will be over.
God raised up prophets mainly because the priests in Israel had failed... Zechariah has shown us, however, that in the coming day there will be no more prophets. In that day, if anyone takes it on himself to prophesy, everyone will know at once that he "speaks lies" (Zech. 13:3). Christ Himself will take up the priestly work and carry it out in perfection. That will make the special gift or office of a prophet unnecessary.
The verse assumes someone might still try it. Blessing on earth will not mean every heart is changed.
When someone tries to pass as a prophet, his closest relatives must declare him false and be the first to pierce him through in solemn judgment. This shows that not everyone who enters the thousand years of blessing on earth will be born again. But judgment on acts of rebellion will be swift and decisive.
The same lying spirit is at work now. Dennett widens the description far beyond obvious frauds:
A lying spirit drives false prophets. They are not merely ignorant of the truth and following their own evil hearts; they are completely in the power and control of the evil one. Some may be sincere men of thought and intellect, the leading minds of the age. Whatever the world thinks of them, a lying spirit fuels and leads them... And who are these false prophets today? Those who deny what Scripture says about the atonement. Those who question whether the Scriptures are inspired. Those who are not sound on the truth of the person of our Lord. Those who in any way undermine the foundations of Christianity and try to put their own thoughts in the place of the truth of God. These are the false prophets of modern days.
- Cleansed — the verse follows the opened fountain. God purges idols, false prophets and the unclean spirit together, and weighs everything that offends His character.
- Named — the crime is speaking lies in the Lord's name; a cleansed people will not let God's name cover the work of the father of lies.
- Costly — a cleansed people will love the truth more than their own family. Parents will be the first to denounce a lying son.
- Unnecessary — God raised up prophets because the priests failed. Christ Himself takes up that priestly work, so no prophet is needed and any claim to prophesy is exposed at once.
- Now — the same lying spirit drives men today wherever people undermine the atonement, the Scriptures or the person of Christ. Holding fast to God's word at any cost is the test this verse leaves with us.
And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he prophesieth; neither shall they wear a hairy mantle to deceive.
Verse 4 belongs to a promise that God will clear His land of idols, false prophets and unclean spirits. So why is a prophet ashamed of his own vision, and why does a coarse hairy coat count as a tool of deception?
Verse 4 sits inside a bigger clean-up promised for that day. God names what He will clear out, and how bad things had become.
"I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more. And also I will remove from the land the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness." God now weighs everything that was offensive to His character... Think how many and how grave the defilements, uncleanness and false prophesying were in the days of Antichrist! False Christs and false prophets had abounded then. All this will now be completely purged out.
The "hairy cloak" was not random clothing. It was the uniform of a prophet. Describe the coat, and people knew who was wearing it.
Zechariah 13:4-5 shows that a rough or hairy garment was the mark of a prophet. King Ahaziah was sick, and he asked what kind of man had met his messengers. They replied that "he wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist" (2 Kings 1:8). The king knew at once that this described Elijah the prophet. John the Baptist also wore "a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist" (Matthew 3:4).
That is why the garment could deceive. Put it on, and people assumed you spoke for God.
The shame in this verse follows directly from the zeal described in the verses before it. When God's people stop tolerating lies told in God's name, the liars either vanish or go quiet.
"Resist the devil, and he will flee from you". So when God's people set their faces against the false prophets, the false prophets will disappear. If any stay under the power of Satan and still have their visions, they will no longer boast of it as before. They will be ashamed, and will lay aside the garment of hair that marked their office. For in truth the calling of the prophet will be gone — and God's people will know it.
Note what the shame costs him. He does not just stop lying. He takes off the badge, because it no longer buys him anything.
The garment meant something real before liars borrowed it. It belonged to men who mourned over a people gone wrong, and that work has an end.
Elijah and John the Baptist wore such garments. With them the garment matched the stern self-judgment that marked them, and their genuine mourning over the state of the people they prophesied to. Prophecy usually came because the people were in a poor state. But prophecy and mourning will be out of place when the Lord Jesus brings in the thousand years of peace.
There is also a reason no one will need a prophet then.
When the Messiah has come, and the law is written in the hearts of the people, and they receive a heart of flesh in place of the heart of stone, they will delight to walk in the ways of the Lord. Then the prophet will have no more place. So restored and converted Israel will know at once that anyone who claims to have seen visions is not a prophet of the LORD, and, having the mind of the Lord, they will carry out judgment on them.
The writers do not leave this in the future. The costume trick travels, and people copy it wherever God has entrusted His name.
But the prophets themselves will be ashamed of the part they have played. They dressed as true prophets — a hairy cloak — to do the work of Satan (v. 4). Sadly, such false prophets, with their look and their habits, are not only in Israel. They appear in our own day too, among all peoples to whom God has entrusted His name and testimony.
Scripture warns us in advance: holy-looking dress proves nothing.
Many earnest believers are led astray when the followers of a movement put on a costume of extreme piety. But the word of God warns us not to be deceived by it. Ravenous wolves will come in sheep's clothing (Matthew 7:15). False prophets wear a hairy cloak to deceive (Zechariah 13:4). Servants of Satan disguise themselves as servants of righteousness (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
- Cleansing. God sweeps the land clean. Idols, false prophets and the unclean spirit go together, and He purges out everything that offended His character.
- Costume. The hairy cloak was the recognised mark of a prophet; Elijah was identified by it, and John the Baptist wore one.
- Counterfeit. The coat won trust, so imposters wore it. They did Satan's work while looking like God's messengers.
- Collapse. When God's people refuse to tolerate lies told in His name, the pretenders stop boasting. They feel shame and strip off the badge.
- Close. Prophecy arose from a poor state among the people. When the Lord Jesus reigns in peace, and the law is written on hearts, the prophet has no place left. Until then, a pious appearance proves nothing.
And he shall say, I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground; for man acquired me [as bondman] from my youth.
The chapter is clearing idols and false prophets out of the land when a voice breaks in, refusing the prophet's title and claiming a farm worker's place. Who is speaking, and why does a chapter about cleansing Israel turn to one man's lowly work and his wounded hands?
The natural first guess is that the false prophet of verse 4 is still speaking. One writer weighs that reading:
This may be a simple enough meaning; but it certainly gives a poor sense of verse 6. Others therefore apply it to Christ. This is a difficult passage, because it brings in Christ so abruptly.
Others read the words as Christ's own. One writer shows why the sixth verse settles the question:
At first it would seem that the words "he shall say" referred to the false prophets in the previous verse. But the language that follows makes this impossible. The question then arises: who is the speaker? Look at the sixth verse, and you see at once that it could be no other than the Messiah Himself... The mention of the false prophets brings Christ forward. He is the One through whose work, tied as it is to His rejection, all these blessings will be inherited. He is also the One who had been the Prophet among them, according to Deuteronomy 18, but whose words they would not receive.
The denial is not a claim that He never prophesied. It is a statement about the character He is taking at this moment, and the tense matters:
Amos said, "I was no prophet" — he became one later (Amos 7:14-15). Christ did not speak that way. He said, "I am no prophet." This means that He acted here in an entirely different character. Beyond doubt, Christ has been a prophet, just as He has been a teacher and evangelist. He combined in His person all spiritual gifts.
Translations of the last clause differ. Several writers read it as a purchase into slavery, and one gives both the wording and its meaning:
In verse 5 read, "I am no prophet, but a worker of the soil; for man [Adam] has acquired me as a slave from my youth." That is to say, Christ takes the humble position of One devoted to the service of man. He takes that place in the condition sin brought Adam into — that is, in His position as a man living in this world.
Why a farmer, of all trades? One writer answers from what sin brought on man:
He presented Himself here, and Jehovah called Him "My Shepherd." He was willing to subject Himself to the results of sin. He took the place given to man because of his disobedience. With sorrow He did His work, suffered hunger in the wilderness, felt tired and thirsty at Sychar's well... He humbled Himself and took the form of a slave (Philippians 2:7). He became the slave of man — the very man He had created, who was in rebellion against God! He let man buy Him, giving man rights over Him even from His youth, so as to serve man. Never was such self-denial seen!
What did that farming look like? One writer names the work:
Refused from the very start, He became a farmer — a sower of seed (Matthew 13), a vinedresser (Luke 13). In a word, He became the servant of man for the glory of God.
Who is the buyer? One writer sets Joseph, a slave in an Egyptian house, beside this verse:
Even the position of Joseph under an Egyptian master may remind us of Zechariah's words: "Man acquired me as a slave from my youth." I believe, with others, that these words are meant of Christ. Here, notice, it is not Israel: the lowly service to which He has stooped has the widest scope. Of course He is at the same time, and always, Jehovah's perfect servant. Far from clashing with His service to man, that is what involved it.
Verse 5 and the wounds of verse 6 belong together:
The Lord Jesus, in marvellous grace, devoted Himself from the outset to the service of man. He took the slave's place so that He could truly serve those He loved. But wounds and bruises were His reward. His hands were pierced in the house of those He had so devotedly befriended. The cross was man's shameful answer to unselfish love that only wanted to serve.
- Speaker. The one who says "I am no prophet" is not the deceiver of verse 4 but the Messiah. Verse 6 rules out every other speaker.
- Stoop. He refuses the prophet's title and takes the farmer's place instead — the place sin brought Adam into.
- Sale. "Man acquired me as a slave from my youth": the Creator let man buy Him, giving man rights over Him from His youth.
- Scope. The buyer is "man," not Israel only. His lowly service reaches that wide, and being Jehovah's perfect servant is what involved it.
- Scars. The wages of that service were the wounds in His hands; the cross was man's answer to a love that only wanted to serve.