Introduction
All of God’s people are restored failures. We can readily identify with those who have missed the mark and displeased the Lord in their life and service because we know the path only too well. It’s encouraging therefore to read Scriptures that tell us how God handles those who have failed Him. In commenting on some aspects of Haggai and Zechariah we are tracing three of the ways in which God worked with a failing people. He took people marked by discouragement and disobedience and brought them back to the work of God, to build again for Him. In the previous article we noted that from the outset God challenged the conscience, foregrounding their responsibility to put Him and His house at the centre of their lives.
But when failure comes in God is not only very clear about our responsibilities, He is also very kind. Although He never minimises sin, so very often His grace and tenderness are demonstrated in how He handles the sinner. Such kindness echoes the treatment of the first disobedient man in Eden when, having chastened him, the Lord God Himself made coats of skins (Gen 3.21). We want now to notice some ways in which the Lord warmed the hearts of His people through the ministry of His prophets. If they were to build with purpose and zeal it was not enough to feel the weight of their duty. The Lord wanted their hearts filled with an appreciation of the One who stood at the centre of all God’s purposes for them. Zechariah in particular is a book full of Christ with at least 30 fairly direct references. The Lord will ever have His people focused on Him as they serve, a principle which applies directly to local assembly life today.
God Warms Their Hearts
The people were distressed by the opposition from surrounding nations (Ezra 4.5), discouraged by the smallness of the work in which they were engaged (Ezra 3.12), and defiled by their failure. To meet all of these conditions, the Lord showed them His Messiah and on the three occasions we want to consider how He is presented as a Man.
1) Zechariah 1.7-11: The Man in the Valley
Chapter 1 of Zechariah commences a series of 8 visions shown to the prophet in one remarkable, and no doubt relatively sleepless, night. In the first vision Zechariah sees a man riding on a red horse, standing among myrtle trees in a valley (1.8). As the vision unfolds it becomes clear that this man is in fact the Angel of the Lord (1.11) who most would agree is a pre-Bethlehem appearance of Christ (see Gen 16.7-13 and 22.11-12). The myrtle, the fragrant, low spreading tree linked with Israel in the Feast of Tabernacles (Neh 8.15), seems to represent the nation in its distress. Small, weak and in the "low place" they may have been, but they were still fragrant to the Lord. The truth of the vision would encourage the hearts of the people.
First, they would derive comfort from an appreciation of the company of Christ with His people, the man with them in the valley experience. The circumstances were far from ideal with Israel: because of their disobedience they had become the tail of the nations and not the head (Deut 28.13). Their leader, who in different days would have been a king in the Davidic line, was merely a governor (Hag 1.1), subservient to a foreign power. In their valley experience, the Lord wanted them to know that He was with them, and the first person who filled the prophet’s vision was the Angel of the Lord. Like Joseph in the past (Gen 39.2,21) and Paul in the future (2 Tim 4.17) the remnant of the nation would come to know that He was with them in their difficulties. He still encourages us with an appreciation of His nearness, so often best understood by those in most distress. And many assemblies, though small numerically, are encouraged by the knowledge that when spiritual conditions are right He is in the midst (Mt 18.20).
Moreover, the vision would inform them of Christ’s control over His people. He stood majestically in the midst of the myrtle trees sending messengers throughout the earth (1.10) and receiving back reports of activity (1.11). The army of horses (1.8) sent out on reconnaissance missions would seem to be angelic beings moving in harmony with His purpose (cp. 1.10; 6.6-7; 2 Chr 16.9; Job 1.7 and 2.2) to report back to this Man. He was not merely present with them but was actively overseeing their affairs and fully aware that the whole earth was in a state of "repose" (1.11), completely indifferent to Israel’s plight. Acutely aware of all the circumstances, He stands imperiously over them, a commanding figure amidst His own. It is wonderful to know that there is still One in control. His presence brings comfort but His control brings confidence.
Finally, the care of Christ for His people is demonstrated in His response to the predicament of the remnant among the peoples of the earth. In 1.12 He intercedes for them and we have recorded what appears to be one of the few occasions in Scripture when we are allowed to listen in as divine Persons converse. The request is for mercy to those who have for 70 years rightly known the Lord’s indignation, and the intercession of Christ draws forth "good words" and "comforting words" (1.13, JND). These words unfold in 1.14-17 in accordance with the ultimate divine purpose for the nation. How encouraging to know that in this dispensation the same One intercedes for His own (Heb 7.25), and secures at the throne what we need.
2) Zechariah 6.9-15: The Man on the Throne
As the visions of the night give way to a new day, Zechariah is called upon in 6.9-15 to perform a symbolic ceremony. He is told to take gold and silver from Jews who had just arrived from Babylon (6.10), make a composite crown and set it upon the head of Joshua the high priest (6.11). Because such a combination of kingly and priestly offices was not allowed in Israel (Num 3.10), consternation would no doubt have resulted. Furthermore, if word got back to Babylon that a rival king was being anointed there would be grave repercussions for the future of the nation. However, Zechariah’s words in 6.12-13 made it clear that this was not the anointing of a monarch but a prophetic symbol of the coming Messiah and His glorious reign.
Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord: Even he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.
Their new building may have been small and inglorious compared with the scale and beauty of Solomon’s Temple, but the Lord encouraged them to look to the ultimate, not the immediate. Haggai had already told the people that "the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former" (Hag 2.9, JND), and now the people are given a vivid image of the Man whose glory would be displayed.
If all we had was the work of the present, without the future prospect, the heart would soon lose zeal in building for God. The nation was told something of the life, power, work, glory, authority and priestly function of their coming King and then the symbolic crown was placed as a "memorial in the temple of the Lord" (6.14). They would thus be stimulated to build with this tangible reminder of the promised Man who would reign in glory. We serve Him now in things which often seem so small, but an appreciation of His coming glory still fortifies the hearts of those that know discouragement as they build.
3) Zechariah 13.7: The Man on the Cross
But as well as distressed and discouraged the people were defiled, and in ch.13 of Zechariah the prophetic word turns to the subject of the nation’s cleansing. The ultimate cleansing of Israel is in view and in 13.1-2 the process of cleansing is explained, in 13.2-6 the proof of cleansing is highlighted, and in 13.7b-9 the preparation for their cleansing is foretold. We want to notice, however, the remarkable words of 13.7a where the price of their cleansing is prophesied:
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts.
For the cleansing of defilement the sword of justice must awake and the sin price be paid. We are at Calvary. The sword would awake against the Man Jehovah would call His "close companion". To those who deny the incarnation of the Son of God this verse remains a mystery, but to believing hearts it is filled with meaning. Enoch may have walked with God, Abraham may have been the friend of God, and David the man after God’s own heart, but Jehovah had only one man as His close companion. The cost of the nation’s cleansing is predicted in dramatic terms which could only find their fulfilment in the Man on the cross. The sin-stained hands of failing builders still turn to the work of that Man to find encouragement for their hearts, knowing that "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 Jn 1.7).
To be continued.
