Zechariah 9:14

"And Jehovah shall be seen over them; and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning; and the Lord Jehovah will blow the trumpet, and will go with whirlwinds of the south. Jehovah of hosts will defend them; and they shall devour and tread down the sling-stones; and they shall drink and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, like the corners of the altar."

This whole passage is a prophecy spoken in the terminology of carnal warfare; but the prophecy pertains absolutely to the victory of God's people in the spiritual sector. See the application of this as a remarkable prophecy of the Lord's Supper in the chapter introduction. We do not believe that the proper way to understand this is by changing the meaning of the text which speaks of "Drinking blood, etc," as in our version and many others. Matthew Henry rendered like it is, "They shall drink blood and make a noise as through wine."[38] Leupold concurred in this, adding that, "we have a metaphor."[39] As far as we can determine, the only metaphor connected with drinking blood that refers to Christianity points to John 6:53.

This bold application of practically all of this chapter to the triumph of Christianity under the Lord Jesus Christ must certainly have gone beyond what was in the mind of Zechariah; but we are totally convinced that the limitation of "God's Word" as spoken through any prophet to the limits of what we may subjectively suppose was in the prophet's mind is wrong. We do not believe that Amos had the slightest idea of what he prophesied when he foretold the darkening of the sky at the Crucifixion, nor that Caiaphas had any proper notion at all of what he prophesied in John 11:49-52. The apostle Peter elaborated this principle in 1 Peter 1:10,12; and we are willing to receive that inspired testimony. And besides all that, there is inherent in all of the Word that God gave, a strength, quality, meaning, and validity far and beyond what may be demanded by the context.

"Paul paraphrased passages without regard to their original context, or meaning ... It is as though the words of Scripture convey a convincing power within themselves apart from their original context."[40]

All that we have seen of Sacred Scripture in a lifetime of study confirms Batey's view as absolutely correct.