And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, says the LORD, two parts therein shall be CUT OFF and die; but the third shall be left therein.
Continuing: The above tells of the result of purification and deliverance that has come to God’s people who hear and receive Him. They are the third who are left; all others will perish in the fires their ideas and ways have kindles. These are the dead who refused to hear and see, and who reject the hand reaching to pull them out.
Zechariah 13
8 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, says the LORD, two parts therein shall be CUT OFF and die; but the third shall be left therein.
9 And I will bring the third part through 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 hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.
This is accomplished by what is declared in verses 1 & 2 of the same chapter:
Zechariah 13
1 In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
2 And it shall come to pass in that day, says the LORD 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.
As we’ve seen, David, is the son of Jesse that Ephrathite (1 Samuel 17:12), the family name we have seen in our studies as a mispronunciation of Ephraimite (seen in the Hebrew text of Judges 12:5). By this we understand the house of David is speaking Ephraim as a descendant son of Joseph, the son of Jacob (as is Christ, Matthew 1:16), who were all at one point separated from their brothers. We know this is now culminated in God’s people in this latter time exhibiting patterns of Ephraim as the one revealed as God’s people in this latter time, those who are thought not to be His people.
These are the Ephraim spoken of in Zechariah 9:10 & 13, and 10:7; chapter 9 speaking first of the LORD’s lowly entry, riding those we saw are the “babes and suckling” described as humble donkeys. As we saw, these are those in the following chapter describes as Judah (leaders) who He has transformed into His goodly horse in the battle. We know this transposition (Ephraim becomes Judah) is foretold in Genesis 49 as Jacob gathers His sons and tell them what shall befall them in the latter days.
When we read the Genesis passage we see Judah is told his scepter (ruling position) shall be with him until Shiloh comes, to who the people shall be gathered. The next verse tells of the time of it (the septer – rule) remaining with him, and then when the foal, the colt of the donkey, shall be tied to the vine of Shiloh.
Genesis 49
8 Judah, you are he whom your brethren shall praise: your hand shall be in the neck of your enemies; your father’s children shall bow down before you.
9 Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, you are gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh [tranquility – the one who calms and heals the waters] come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
11 [Shiloh] Binding his foal unto the vine, and his donkey’s colt unto the choice vine [binding the babes and suckling to Himself – the vine, as in John 15:1 thru 6]; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:
12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
The above is the meaning Matthew 21:2 thru 5, as The LORD tells His disciples to untie and bring the donkey and its foal, which He rides into Jerusalem. We are then told in verse 5 this is done to fulfill Zechariah 9:9, which Matthew then quotes.
Matthew 21
1 And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage [the house of unripe figs], unto the mount of Olives [the source of anointing and healing oil], then sent Jesus two disciples,
2 Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway you shall find an donkey tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me.
3 And if any man say ought unto you, you shall say, The LORD has need of them; and straightway he will send them.
4 All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 Tell you the daughter of Zion, Behold, your King comes unto you, meek, and sitting upon an donkey, and a colt the foal of an donkey.
6 And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them,
7 And brought the donkey, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.
8 And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way.
9 And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that comes in the name of the LORD; Hosanna in the highest.
10 And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?
11 And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.
12 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,
13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves.
14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.
What we see in the events above described in Matthew 21 are the things we are told, in Zechariah 9, 11, 13 and 14, are “cut off” from among those the LORD has come to deliver. The word there rendered “cut off” is karath, which tells of the branches that are cut off and cast into the fires, which the LORD speaks of in John 15 as He tells of Himself as the true vine to which we must be tied.
John 15
1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that bears not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3 Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in me.
5 I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same bring forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.
6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.
8 Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so shall you be my disciples.
Zechariah 9
1 The burden of the word of the LORD in the land of Hadrach [speaking of a renewed dwelling place – referring us to 2 Chronicles 15:8 – see below], and Damascus [in silence and calm] shall be the rest thereof: when the eyes of man, as of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the LORD.
2 And Hamath [the fortress] also shall border thereby; Tyrus [the false rock – from which flows death in her waters], and Zidon [to hunt souls], though it be very wise.
3 And Tyrus did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets.
4 Behold, the LORD will cast her out, and he will smite [nakah] her power in the sea; and she shall be devoured with fire.
5 Ashkelon [the place of the trail in her fires] shall see it, and fear; Gaza [her means of strength – the treasurers] also shall see it, and be very sorrowful, and Ekron [perish – as a tree pulled up by its roots]; for her expectation shall be ashamed; and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.
6 And a mamzer [illegitimate son – only used one other time, Deuteronomy 23:2 – and see Hebrews 12:8 – those who refuse to be corrected] shall dwell in Ashdod [in positions of power], and I will cut off [karath] the pride of the Philistines [those who have brought in foreign ways and ideas, by which they rule].
7 And I will take away his blood [what is draining their life] out of his mouth [words], and his abominations [their idols] from between his teeth: but he that remains, even he, shall be for our God, and he shall be as a governor in Judah, and Ekron [those that were perishing] as a Jebusite [as the founders of New Jerusalem].
8 And I will encamp about mine house because of the army, because of him that passes by, and because of him that returns: and no oppressor shall pass through them any more: for now have I seen with mine eyes.
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your King comes unto you: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an donkey, and upon a colt the foal of an donkey.
10 And I will cut off [karath] the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.
11 As for you also, by the blood of your covenant I have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water.
12 Turn you to the strong hold, you prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto you;
13 When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and made you as the sword of a mighty man.
14 And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the LORD God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.
15 The LORD of hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and subdue with sling stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar.
16 And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land.
17 For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.
When Zechariah 9 begins speaking of the renewed dwelling place as Hadrach, a name only used this one time, it does so to refer us to 2 Chronicles 15, where in verse 8 the Hebrew word chadash, the origin of the name, is used. There we are told of the pattern of this purification of Ephraim (purified so the LORD could again enter).
2 Chronicles 15
1 And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah [Jehovah has helped – see Hebrews 13:6 and Psalms 118:6] the son of Oded [reiteration – to restore]:
2 And he went out to meet Asa [anointed and healed], and said unto him, Hear you me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The LORD is with you, while you be with him; and if you seek him, he will be found of you; but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.
3 Now for a long season Israel has been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law.
4 But when they in their trouble did turn unto the LORD God of Israel, and sought him, he was found of them.
5 And in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations [to understand the report/teaching of rest and restoration, into peace and security] were upon all the inhabitants of the countries.
6 And nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city: for God did vex them with all adversity.
7 Be you strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded.
8 And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from mount Ephraim, and renewed the altar of the LORD, that was before the porch of the LORD.
The “porch” is that spoken of in Ezekiel 44:3, where the LORD will enter, which was shut and which He has now opened and has entered.
Ezekiel 43
1 Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looks toward the east:
2 And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east [as a sun rising]: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory.
3 And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city: and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar [far off in the future]; and I fell upon my face.
4 And the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east.
5 So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house.
6 And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me.
7 And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcasses of their kings in their high places.
8 In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds, and their post by my posts, and the wall between me and them, they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed: wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger.
9 Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcasses of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever.
10 You son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern.
11 And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them.
12 This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.
Ezekiel 44
1 Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looks toward the east; and it was shut.
2 Then said the LORD unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut.
3 It is for the prince; the prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same.
The word karath, telling of those and the things that are “cut off,” is used its final time in Malachi 2:12 telling of cutting off the source of the abomination. There it is telling of Judah being cut off, because he acted treacherously after the priesthood failed. The LORD says for this He will cut off the master (teacher) and the scholar from among His people, as it is this day.
1 Corinthians 1
19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
1 Corinthians 3
18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
20 And again, The LORD knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
Malachi 2
1 And now, O you priests, this commandment is for you.
2 If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, says the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because you do not lay it to heart.
3 Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.
4 And you shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, says the LORD of hosts.
5 My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.
6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.
7 For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
8 But you are departed out of the way; you have caused many to stumble at the law; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts.
9 Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as you have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.
10 Have we not all one father? has not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
11 Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and has married the daughter of a strange god.
12 The LORD will cut off the man that does this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offers an offering unto the LORD of hosts.
13 And this have you done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regards not the offering any more, or receives it with good will at your hand.
14 Yet you say, Wherefore? Because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously: yet is she your companion, and the wife of your covenant.
15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
16 For the LORD, the God of Israel, says that he hates putting away: for one covers violence with his garment, says the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that you deal not treacherously.
17 You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, Wherein have we wearied him? When you say, “Every one that does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them;” or, “Where is the God of judgment?”
I know whenever I ask the Father what I should know or say at a specific point/moment in time, He faithfully answers. Hear this word of the Father, to those who cover His work and refuse to give Him the glory He is due:
“2 O you sons of men, how long will you turn my glory into shame? how long will you love vanity, and seek after falsehood? Selah.
3 But know that the LORD has set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him.
4 Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD.
6 There be many that say, ‘Who will shew us any good?’ LORD, lift you up the light of your countenance upon us.
7 You have put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.
8 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for you, LORD, only make me dwell in safety.” Psalms 4
Psalms 110
1 The LORD said unto my LORD, Sit you at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.
2 The LORD shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion: rule you in the midst of your enemies.
3 Your people shall be willing in the day of your power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: you have the dew of your youth.
4 The LORD has sworn, and will not repent, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
5 The LORD at your right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.
6 He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.
7 He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.
Isaiah 61
1 The Spirit of the LORD God is upon [in] me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
4 And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.
5 And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.
6 But you shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: you shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall you boast yourselves.
7 For your shame you shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.
8 For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
9 And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD has blessed.
10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the earth bring forth her bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the LORD God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
Genesis 49
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
23 The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:
24 But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from there is [has come] the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)
25 Even by the God of your father, who shall help you; and by the Almighty, who shall bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:
26 The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors [harah – all those who shall be conceived] unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.
