Let’s turn our attention to Zechariah 13.

Last time we heard about the Jews at the end of the Tribulation looking upon their pierced Messiah – Jesus Christ, whom they had pierced and rejected. And we heard how they were all going to mourn and lament their treatment of him.

And so, chapter 13 is following-up on those events. So,

let’s read Zechariah 13 and then attempt to explain the details.

{Read Zec 13…}

Zechariah 13 Commentary Cleansing for Jews

So, after all of the mourning that we heard about in chapter

12 with all the families of Israel mourning their pierced Messiah, the reality

of verse 1 will materialize.

KJV Zechariah 13:1 ¶ {In/On} that day there shall be a fountain opened {to/for} the house of David and {to/for} the inhabitants of Jerusalem {for/to cleanse them from} sin and for {uncleanness/impurity}.

So, the order of events presented to us in chapters 12 and 13 so far is this – Jesus returns and delivers the Jews from their enemies that have surrounded them to destroy them. Then the Jews look on him whom they’ve pierced, and they mourn for the way they treated him. And now, we see in verse 1 of chapter 13 that a fountain as it were is opened to them to cleanse them from their sin.

Now, the Scripture does teach us that in the Millennium

there will be a river of water flowing from Jesus’ throne in Jerusalem east

toward what is called today the Dead Sea.

But I’m uncertain as to whether that’s the same thing as

this fountain mentioned here.

If this fountain in Zechariah 13 is the same thing as the

River that flows from the Messiah’s throne in Jerusalem, then I suppose we are

being told that at the end of the Tribulation there will be this literal

physical river that can somehow result in the cleansing of these Jews from

their sins.

But I’m a little uncertain as to whether the Lord is really

going to use a literal fountain of water to cleanse his people of their sin. He

does that nowadays through our believing in Christ. He promises to cleanse us

from our sin as we confess them to him. So, is he all of a sudden going to

change his approach in the last days and allow people to be cleanse of their

spiritual sins by dipping themselves into a physical fountain?

The other possibility is that this is a metaphorical

fountain. So, when the Lord here speaks of opening a fountain for the cleansing

of the Jews’ sin, he’s speaking of his forgiving them as they receive his son

as if he were plunging them into a cleansing fountain. Just like going into a

fountain of water cleanses the skin of dirt, God is saying that he is going to

cleanse the souls of the Jews as if he were putting them into a fountain of

water. I think this is more likely what the Lord is promising – not a literal

fountain in the last days, but total forgiveness of sins, the effect of which

mirrors on a spiritual level the cleansing benefits of a fountain of water.

So, once these Jews receive their pierced Messiah and

demonstrate their faith in him by mourning for the way they treated him – the

Lord will forgive their sins. He will cleanse them spiritually just like a

fountain pouring out fresh water would do for a person’s body.

Zechariah 13 Commentary God will Remove Idolatry

And with past sins cleansed and forgiven, the Lord will

begin to remove the sources of sin from the land of Israel after Jesus returns

to earth to set up his Millennial kingdom.

2 ¶ And it shall come to pass in that day, {saith/declares} the LORD {of hosts/who rules over all/Almighty}, that I will {cut off/remove/banish/utterly destroy} the names of the idols {out of/from} the land, and they shall {no more/never again} be remembered: {and also/Moreover} I will {cause/remove} the {prophets/false prophets} and the {unclean spirit/spirit of impurity} {to pass out of/from} the land.

So, idols and false prophets will be done away with. Things

– other than God – that demand people’s worship, and the unscrupulous

seemingly-relig