Zechariah 10:12

And I will strengthen them in the LORD; and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the LORD.

And I will strengthen them in the Lord - (). I, the Father, will strengthen them in the name - i:e., the manifested power of the Lord Messiah, the Son of God.

And they shall walk up and down in his name - i:e., live everywhere and continually under His protection, and according to His will (; ; ; ).

Remarks:

(1) Prayer is the appointed mean of bringing down "showers" both of temporal and spiritual blessings (). The fact of the divine promise does not preclude the need of prayer for its fulfillment, but is to be the stimulus and encouragement to prayer.

(2) Our prayers are then to be the most earnest when the time appointed for the blessing draws nigh. "The time of the latter rain" may have come, yet we must ask for it. The former rains of the Spirit at Pentecost are a token of assurance that the Lord will give a still more copious effusion of the Spirit in the latter days of the Church.

(3) Men's own sins, rather than any external difficulty, stay the course of heavenly blessing. So long as they seek "comfort" anywhere else than in God, they seek "in vain" (). The Jews, who were once the Lord's flock, have, through their rejection of Messiah, become as sheep having "no shepherd." Such too are all of every nation who, whether in words or in heart and life, refuse the salvation and loving care offered by the Good Shepherd.

(4) When the Lord visits His people in mercy He visits the ungodly in anger. He shall make an everlasting distinction between the "goats" and the sheep (). Those who have been leaders in sin shall be foremost in suffering.

(5) Though the people of God be naturally timid as sheep, God can make them bold as the "battle horse" (). It was out of unwarlike Judah that the Lord raised up the heroic Maccabees to deliver His people from the cruel oppressor Antiochus. Above all, it was from the little Bethlehem of Judah that Messiah, the chief cornerstone of the Church, the nail of a sure habitation to the people of God, and the battle-bow against their enemies, "came forth" (). He will destroy at last the final anti-Christian foe of the Church. When the Lord is with us we are sure to "fight" successfully against every spiritual foe (); because greater is He that is with us than all who are against us.

(6) God has "mercy" in store for Israel and Judah, and "they shall be as though He had not cast them off" (), because of His everlasting love, as being "the Lord their God." Though the Jews of our day may not see it, yet "their children shall see it and be glad" (). Therefore, God's promises are to be patiently waited for until God's good time. The scattered people of the covenant shall yet "remember" God "in the far countries" where they are scattered, and then shall be restored again to the land of their fathers. No obstacle can impede their return when God shall will it (). "Sea" and "river" alike must make a way for them, as in the days of old (). God the Father will strengthen them in Yahweh-Jesus: and in "the might of His name shall they walk up and down" ().

(7) This last blessing belongs also in its fullest sense to the spiritual Israel-all true believers. They walk not in their own strength. But Yahweh the Father, who is here distinguished from Yahweh the Son (). expressly promises to "strengthen them with all might, according to His glorious power" (), through "Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith" (Ephesians 3:16), so that "they can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth" them (). Let our resolve be, whatever others do, "we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever" ().