520 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH
the inhabitants, but the animals also, were put to death ; in which case the same law affecting the relation between the irrational and rational portions of the creation was repeated on a small scale as that which caused the animal creation to be " subject to vanity," not willingly, " on account of the sin of man." An instance of this we have in the case of Achan, whose oxen, asses, and sheep were stoned and burned, along with himself and his children. 1
Blessed be God, " creation," which has become involved in the sin and consequent suffering and death of man, is to participate also in the benefits of the great redemption which has been accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ, and shall yet be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 2
But there is a beneficent end in the very judgments of God, for through them the nations will at last learn righteousness, and the fruit will be " universal homage to the Universal Ruler," 3 Jehovah of Hosts, and in the person of the Messiah, under whose sway all nations shall then be blessed. " And it shall come to pass that every one that is left of all the nations that come up against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, Jehovah of Hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles."
First, it should be observed that when it is said that all nations and families of the earth shall come up to Jerusalem from year to year to worship Jehovah, and in acknowledgment of Israel s national supremacy in the millennial earth, it is not meant that every individual in each nation shall come up, but that the nations shall come up representatively. " The actions of nations and all corporate bodies is always spoken of in Scripture with reference to those who are officially appointed to express or carry out their will. Thus in the great gathering against Jerusalem the nations concerned therein are represented by their armies. Every individual in each nation will not be present, yet each nation is said to be there." 4
1 Josh. vii. 24, 25. 2 Rom. viii. 20-22.
3 Von Orelli. 4 B. W. Newton.
