And it shall come to pass in all the land, saith Jehovah, two parts therein shall be cut off [and] die; but the third shall be left therein.
Verse 7 shows the Shepherd struck and the flock scattered. Verse 8 turns at once to a land where most of the people die and only a third is left — so readers ask when this happens, to whom, and why.
Commentators place the whole present age between verse 7 and verse 8. Nothing in the first century matched what verse 8 describes.
We judge it clear that the whole present interval of grace comes in between the seventh and eighth verses. Judgment, and terrible judgment, did fall on the Jewish nation some thirty or forty years after the death of Christ. But nothing then happened like the bringing of a third part through the fire into relationship with God. So we must look for this word to be fulfilled in the future, when the Jews are back in their land in unbelief and God takes up His dealings with them again... Then God will deal with them for their sin in rejecting their Messiah.
The sifting falls on the people found inside the land, not on the world at large. Commentators set it beside God's separate dealing with those still scattered abroad.
In Ezekiel 20:34, 38, we learn how God will deal with the people scattered throughout the nations, purging them before He brings them into the land for blessing. Here we learn what He will do to such as may be left "in all the land", in the last days. Judgment will fall on two-thirds of them, and only a third will come through into blessing.
The lost majority are not victims of random disaster. Commentators see them as the apostate mass of the nation.
There is almost universal decline and apostasy. The Jews as a whole give up all the truth that was their own. Yet despite the idolatry among them, and the terrible power of the enemy against them, led by the antichrist and the beast, God has, as He always will have, a witness to Himself in this "third part."
Israel's future blessing as a nation is certain. But commentators warn that this does not mean every Israelite is saved.
Scripture does teach that Jacob, or Israel, is chosen for the earth. It teaches that they will be blessed as a nation, since God never takes back His gifts and His calling. But that says nothing about their souls being saved. The plain testimonies point the other way... Zechariah 13:8-9 is just as clear: only a remnant is spared from the great tribulation. And note, these statements belong to the time when it is said that all Israel — not all the Israelites — will be saved.
Some have read the fractions as a rough count of how many Christians will be saved. Commentators reject that reading.
It is humiliating to read the comments even of a man like Calvin. He starts by wrongly confusing the church with the Jews in a passage like this: "For when three hundred shall profess to worship God, one hundred only, says Zechariah, shall be saved." Not so. Only a mistaken interpreter says that. He applies to the church in general what is really said of the Jews in their final crisis.
Survival is only the doorway. What is left still has to pass through fire.
The dross must perish, and what is precious must be refined and tried. God's people must go through trouble.
Out of that fire the third gets back a name the nation had lost.
Here God deals with Judah in the land for the rejection of Christ. This is not like Israel, who, as we have seen, was dealt with for idolatry... "They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people' (Ammi); and they will say, 'The LORD is my God.'" This cancels the earlier sentence: "Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God" (Hosea 1:9).
- Timing. The present age of grace stands between verse 7 and verse 8. The sifting comes at the end, once the Jews are back in the land in unbelief.
- Place. The judgment falls in the land itself. God deals another way with those still scattered among the nations, purging them before they enter.
- The two thirds. They are the apostate part of the nation, given over to idolatry; only a remnant is spared from the great tribulation.
- The one third. A remnant, not the whole nation. Israel's blessing as a nation does not mean every Israelite's soul is saved.
- The outcome. The survivors pass through the fire, call on God's name, and hear Him say, "They are my people." The old sentence of "Not My People" is gone.
And I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried. They shall call on my name, and I will answer them I will say, It is my people; and they shall say, Jehovah is my God.
Zechariah's last chapters move from the striking of the Shepherd to the sifting of the nation that rejected Him. Two parts are cut off, one part is left — and God leads that third into the fire, where it learns to call Him its God.
This judgment did not end when Jerusalem fell, a generation after the cross. Commentators see a long gap in the middle of the chapter. It falls between the Shepherd struck down and the nation sifted:
We judge it clear that the whole present time of grace belongs between verse seven and verse eight. Terrible judgment did fall on the Jewish nation some thirty or forty years after the death of Christ. But nothing then brought a third part through the fire into relationship with God. So we must look for this word to come true in the future. By then the Jews will be back in their land in unbelief, and God will take up His dealings with them again.
God does not deal with the whole nation in one place. One writer marks the difference:
God clears the transgressors out of the ten tribes before they come into the land (Ezek. 20:33-38). He clears the transgressors out of the Jews while they are in the land (Zech. 13:8-9, and many other passages).
The picture is not of raw ore turned into something valuable. Refining assumes the metal is already there, and one writer presses this until the whole logic of the verse turns on it:
This only expresses the full confidence they reach after purification. But He refines them because they are already "silver." No one ever refined into silver something that was not silver, and that is not what happens here.
The furnace burns away what does not belong. Fire does two things at once, and what it does depends on what it meets:
The hand of God will be on them in severe chastening, as a father chastens his child. This is to refine the silver, for that is what fire does. It separates the dross from the true silver or from the gold. Then the pure metal can shine in all its brightness and delight the great Refiner… The same fire that refines and purifies believers will burn up unbelievers, for there is nothing of pure silver in them.
The trial is the working out of God's government — His careful, discriminating dealing with a people He has not abandoned. One commentator also warns against reading the verse as a statement about Christians in general:
The dross must perish, and what is precious must be refined and tried. His people must go through trouble… It is humbling to read the comments even of a man like Calvin. He starts with a mistake, confusing the church with the Jews in a passage like this: "For when three hundred shall profess to worship God, only one hundred, says Zechariah, shall be saved." Not so. Only a mistaken interpreter says that. He applies to the church in general what is really said of the Jews in their last crisis.
The fire does more than purify. It teaches the surviving third to pray:
This third part will go through the fire of the Great Tribulation, of which the Psalms and the prophets so often speak. Then they will call upon Him out of the depth.
Then two answers meet. God takes back a verdict He passed long ago, and the people echo words first spoken by a doubting disciple:
He will hear them and answer with the cheering word, "This is My people." For centuries God had disowned Israel for their rebellion and called them "not My people" (Hosea 1:9). Then Israel will say with a whole heart, "The Lord is my God." They once rejected the Lord Jesus, but they will say what Thomas said when he saw His wounded hands and side: "My Lord and my God" (John 20:26-28).
The trial is not endless. Deliverance comes when the pressure is at its worst, and the next chapter supplies the outcome:
Two-thirds are killed, while the remaining third pass through a fire of tribulation heated seven times over. Those are the circumstances in which "the remnant" will come to call on Jehovah's name, and He will acknowledge them as His people. At last, when these troubles reach their worst, the Lord appears. He overthrows the adversaries, He delivers the remnant, and millennial blessedness comes in.
- Silver first. God refines this third because they are already silver. Fire does not create worth. It uncovers it.
- Fire sorts. The same heat purifies silver and burns up what has no silver in it. Dross dies, metal shines.
- Fire teaches prayer. Out of the depth they call on His name, and He answers. The furnace is where the cry is born.
- Answer restores. God's "My people" cancels His old "not My people." Their answer is the one Thomas gave before the wounded hands.
- Then rescue. This word waits for a future crisis in the land. At the worst moment the Lord appears, and the kingdom follows.