The Third Group and the Refining Fire

Since the fourth word has been sufficiently described regarding the 'I will stretch out my hand over the shepherds' (Zechariah 13:7), spoken by God, providing the beginning of the fifth, we shall proceed from the sixth word having this character.

And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord, that two parts shall be destroyed and cut off, but the third shall be left in it; and I will pass through the third through fire and will consume them, as silver is consumed by fire, and I will test them, as gold is tested; he will call upon my name, and I will listen to him, and I will say: This is my people, and he will say: The Lord is my God (Zechariah 13:8-9).

The time is marked by the name of the day, revealing in which the two parts of the captured people shall be destroyed and cut off, the third being shown as tested, passing through fire, and being burned according to how silver is purified and being tested according to how gold is tested. This third of the captives, thus purified and tested, calling upon the name of God, shall have God listening to him and saving him; to whom it will harmoniously belong to reward the people who have been benefited by his listening, God being shown to them in the manner of being their God, as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were. For to all other men God is as Creator, but uniquely to the patriarchs, who worship and revere him.

Having considered these things more holistically, let us see next what the two parts are that are being destroyed and abandoned, and what the third is that is being improved and led into salvation.

It is sufficient to consider the division into three of the captured Hebrew people. Many of those deported from their own land and fatherland into the captivity of those who prevailed, having completely turned away from godliness to worship idols, worshipped as if to serve the... and

To worship the beast and the dragon, and alongside these, to bow to the mute image of Nebuchadnezzar the tyrant; while others were not doing this, but were acting lawlessly against Judaism and as if they should not change, such as were the elders who remained, adulterously unfaithful, and those who agreed with them against the more prudent Shushan.

Among those who had worshipped idols and were acting lawlessly as Jews, there was another excellent and God-fearing rank in the captivity; they did not fall into dread, nor did they break the law, but were holy and pleasing to God, from whom many men were recorded as saints, of whom are the clearly revealed prophet Zechariah, and Daniel, and those around Azariah, the prophet Ezekiel, and the high priest Jesus the son of Joshedek, and others more, changing through moral virtue and the knowledge of the truth and of God.

The impious parts, two, the Greek and the Jewish, because of what they had done, being a tormentor, are being destroyed and failing, so that through a more strenuous discipline they might cast away the harms that had come upon them. Of this having been done, by the judgment of the divine providence, the third part, being divided from the two parts, is sanctified and made better by the Giver of good things, the Divine Word, being led through the purifying fire and 'burning with the spirit,' concerning which the same One saving all things says: 'I came to cast fire upon the earth, and would I were it were already kindled' (Luke 12:49), and again: 'Every one shall be salted with fire' (Mark 9:49).

Concerning him also the great John, 'of whom no one greater was raised among those born of women' (Matthew 11:11), teaches concerning himself: 'I came baptizing in water unto repentance' (Luke 3:3), but concerning the Savior of all: 'He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire' (Matthew 3:11), sanctifying and purifying, making it clear that it is those through the Holy Spirit, and those through fire, or the same ones both in the Holy Spirit and in the fire.

Those having come through fire, being the third of the captives, the improving one, at whom God breathed upon the one being called, from the face of Himself toward the...