What is the meaning of "holy to the Lord" in Zechariah 14:20?

The most holy person in Israel, the high-priest, carried the inscription, "Holiness to Jehovah" around his mitre, but now even the little bells of the horses bear that inscription. In that temple which stands during the Millennium, sacrifices will be brought, but there will be no difference in the vessels which are used in Jerusalem, the meanest and smallest will be holy. In one word, all will be holy, all will be consecrated to Jehovah. What a perfect service that will be of the people which are then, in truth, a holy people. Application can be made of this to believers now. Surely everything the saint has, and his whole life, must be thus consecrated to Jehovah, to the Lord. No Canaanite will be there, nothing unclean. The Vulgate translates the word Canaanite with merchant. It stands, however, for everything that is unclean and an abomination. The city will be completely purged from it.

The last two verses bring before us the positive character of holiness that will distinguish the Lord's house and Jerusalem and Judah. "In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts." (vv. 20, 21.) Formerly there had been clean things and unclean, holy and unholy, but now all such distinctions shall be abolished, inasmuch as all alike will be holy as separated unto the Lord. Now at length Jehovah's own requirement, "Ye shall be holy; for I am holy" (Lev. 11:44), is met and satisfied, so that even the horses, unclean as they were under the law, have written upon their bells or bridles," Holiness to the Lord." The pots in the Lord's house, moreover, should be as holy as the bowls before the altar; and every pot in Jerusalem and Judah should be alike "holiness unto the Lord of hosts," and thus should be used by the worshippers for their sacrifices. The homes of the people shall be in that day as holy as the house of the Lord. In Christianity this is anticipated in another way (see 1 Cor. 6:19-20; 2 Cor, 6:14-18; Col. 3:17; 1 Peter 1:15-16, etc.); but this will be a universal consecration of all and everything to the Lord here upon the earth. Finally there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord. Jehovah's house had often been profaned by the introduction of such (see Ezekiel 44:6-7); but now, secured and sanctified by the presence and glory of Jehovah Himself, all will be maintained in the holiness suited to Him who has condescended to make it His dwelling-place. Then will be fulfilled the word of the Lord by Ezekiel, "My tabernacle also shall be with them; yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.

The last two verses dwell on the marvel of the change in Jerusalem. Even the bells on the horses will be engraved with the inscription, “Holiness to the Lord.” Israel will be “a holy nation.” Holiness will mark, not only their persons, but what they possess. There will be no separation between secular and spiritual life: all will be for God, just as Christian lives should be today. Even pots would be “like the bowls before the altar,” that is, daily eating utensils would be used as dedicated to the Lord.

But so thorough and complete would be the change, that holiness pervades things the most common. The very pots, the humblest utensils in Jehovah's house, "shall be like the bowls before the altar" — those that were most holy. "Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness to Jehovah: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of Jehovah of hosts." I admit the curse of a mercenary caste of religious teachers, and we see what a stumbling-block the covetousness of the Jewish priesthood proved in Israel; but I see no reason to abandon the simple force of Canaanite here, while allowing broad and deep principles as well as facts. He was in the land when Abram entered it; he was not banished from the land by the victories of Joshua. The enemy, never fully expelled before, should vanish then. All is to be according to God, as far as this can be in the earth till God in the most absolute way make all things new. Who can wonder when Jehovah takes the kingdom?

metsilloth, 'bells' from their tinkling, Zech. 14:20, but in the margin is read 'or bridles.' These are supposed to be the metallic plates suspended from the heads of the horses, on which inscriptions can be engraved, and which make a tinkling noise. At the restoration and blessing of Israel "Holiness unto the Lord" will be engraved on such plates.

Jehovah shall be God over all the earth; there shall be but one Jehovah, and His name one. It shall be truly one universal religion, the dominion of the one Jehovah, the God of the Jews, over all the earth. The land round Jerusalem shall be entirely peopled, and Jerusalem lifted up and securely inhabited in her place. There shall be no more any destruction of the city which Jehovah has chosen. A deadly plague shall smite all those that have fought against her. They shall mutually destroy each other. Judah shall also fight against them, and their riches shall be her prey. The remnant that are spared among the nations shall come up to Jerusalem, to the feast in which the entrance of God's people into their rest is celebrated. And all shall be holiness; everything in Jerusalem shall be consecrated to Jehovah.

“Holiness unto the Lord” will be proclaimed everywhere in Jerusalem, even upon the smallest details without, the bells upon the horses, and “every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah,” the pots in the Lord’s house being as holy to Jehovah as the bowls before the altar. Everything around the great King will bear His character in the holy, earthly city, and all will be for His pleasure, nor will there be any more a trafficker, or merchant to defile God’s house as when the Lord was upon the earth (John 2:14–16).

The two verses that close this prophecy emphasize the holiness that becomes everybody and everything that is brought into contact with God. Holiness, we have been told, becomes His house forever. In the coming age it will be stamped upon the most ordinary and the most humble things, such as bells that jingle round the necks of horses and little bowls that have some part to play in the temple services. It is worthwhile noticing that horses are mentioned here, for we might be inclined to ask, But, will not these marvellous inventions in the matter of transport be further increased and expanded in that day? The answer must be that there is no mention of these inventions in Scripture, but the reverse. In that day, instead of men flying all over the earth in their unsatisfied desires, the picture is rather of a man sitting restfully in contentment under his own vine and fig-tree. The knowledge of God will then be filling the earth, and it is this that really satisfies the heart. God in His holiness will, so to speak have come in; and consequently from the house of the Lord the Canaanite will have been permanently cast out.

The prophet adds to this that in that day everything in Jerusalem (for he still had Jerusalem in view) will be holy and consecrated to the Lord, so that all pots in Jerusalem and in Judah will be just as fit for boiling the sacrifices as the pots of the house of the Lord (v. 20-21). “And in that day there shall be no more a Canaanite in the house of Jehovah of hosts” (v. 21), as had earlier been the case: “Let it suffice you of all your abominations, O house of Israel, in that ye have brought strangers, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary, to profane it, even My house, when ye offered My bread, the fat and the blood; and they have broken My covenant besides all your abominations. And ye have not kept the charge of My holy things, but have set keepers of My charge in My sanctuary for yourselves” (Ezek. 44:6-8).

Solemnly, in the midst of all this, we are given to see the judgment of those who had been fighting against Jerusalem, and also of those who would not go up there to worship in the days of the glory. What ought to have been, but was not, shall then be realized. Holiness shall give character to everything; consecration to God. Nor shall there be blot or exception then, as hitherto there has been. The Canaanite was in the land, and left there, after Abraham had entered it; but now, "there shall he no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts." (See Gen. 12:6; Zech. 14:21) As one of our own poets says, "Days surpassing fable, and yet true."