ZECHARIAH 6 (NOTES OF A READING)
ZECHARIAH 6 (NOTES OF A READING)
Zechariah 6: 1 - 16
CAC It is helpful to see that the prophet fills up the interval between the house of Jehovah being taken from Jerusalem and the coming of the Lord, the assembly filling its place in that course of time. Therefore the instruction is most helpful and necessary for us, as it was in Zechariah’s day.
The first part of the chapter brings before us a subject very important for us to understand; that is, the course of what is going on in connection with the government of God in the world. The four successive empires of which Daniel has spoken are set forth in these four chariots.
Ques Would their being referred to as spirits suggest that the government of God is a living and active thing?
CAC Yes, and shows that Zechariah is not occupying us with the public history of these empires, but only with the hidden character of God’s government as known alone to heaven which goes on as the gentile empires run their course. We are now in the time of the fourth chariot — the Roman. It was there when Christ came into the world and has gone on all through and continues now. It is marked by strength.
Ques Why is it here, “the Lord of all the earth”, and in Daniel, “the God of the heavens”?
CAC To show the earth is not left to itself; things are not allowed to take their course as if it was. It may not seem so, but faith understands there is the government of God going on all the time.
The chariots came out from between two mountains of brass. God’s government as known to faith is a very stable thing. Romans tells us that the powers that be are ordained of God and are ministers of good to the people of God. It may be hidden from the natural eye, but is known to faith. Even in times of persecution faith discerns a secret acting of God.
Rem Nebuchadnezzar recognises that the heavens do rule.
CAC Yes. Horses are a symbol of earthly power, but are under control, and the fourth empire is as much under control as any. The first chariot had then passed off the scene, it was the time of the second chariot.
The black horses pacified God’s anger (”These ... have quieted my spirit in the north country”) in the overthrow of Babylon by the Medo-Persian power, giving satisfaction to Him because it prepared the way for the return of the remnant and for the house to be built. God always overrules things in a secret and very definite way for the blessing of His people.
Rem Daniel says, “In the days of these kings”.
CAC It is a comfort to know that there is not another, fifth empire. It is a great mercy, for there is nothing before the coming of the Lord. Military force is connected with the fourth power, as Daniel shows very definitely, which shows things are heading up. The control lies in the four spirits of the heavens, a power acting in a secret way and doing God’s work. Things look perhaps as if they have been handed over to the enemy. Daniel gives the empires on the public side and Zechariah the secret side of God’s government.
Rem “To you it is given to know” (Matthew 13: 11).
CAC Quite so, and therefore we ought to know just where we are at the end of the times of the Gentiles. The [p. 513] stone will crush the feet of the image and become a great mountain and fill the whole earth. We are just at that time. The times of the Gentiles will end in the judgment of those powers, and Christ’s kingdom set up.
Rem Psalm 2 gives it, “The princes plot together, against Jehovah and against his anointed”.
CAC So He uses the rod of His anger.
Ques Would their going forth into all the earth show they fulfilled divine purpose?
CAC Yes, especially the last to cover the western world where christianity operates. It is allowed in God’s government. It has been said that the greatest event in the history of the world since the flood is the christianising of Europe. That is like the work of the spirits of the heavens, is it not? God in a secret way is against evil, and if powers rise up against the Lord and His Christ, God will have to say to them. That vein of government which is in line with what is right, is according to the spirits of the heavens. God is controlling and limiting evil, as we saw in the last chapter.
Rem What a comfort to know that He is still the Lord of all the earth. He has sovereign rights everywhere.
CAC The principal thing with God is the blessing of His people and the prosperity of His work. We are subject to the powers that be, but knowing all the time that He whose right it is to reign is coming. It is not our confession that He is our Lord, but that He is the Lord of all the earth. This title had first been used in connection with taking possession of Canaan. His universal right was recognised in taking up a portion of territory. We have no rights here, but our rights are there. I have no right to my house, but He has right to it. Of course there is a providential title to it.
The second part of the chapter is of great importance as showing the gain which accrues to God from the sufferings that come upon His people under His government (verse 9). The priestly service is enhanced by the product of the sufferings of God’s people. The remnant had been suffering for seventy years under the first of the empires; that is, when captive in [p. 514] Babylon. Coming out of it they had silver and gold. They had acquired something which had its effect upon the priesthood. Whatever comes upon us in the ordering of God and we accept it, there is something we acquire from it. I suppose there are no saints that do not suffer from the government of God in some way. The acquisition of gold and silver largely depends upon our submitting to God’s government. Jeremiah is great on that — they must go into captivity and submit to it; if so it would be all right. Wrong-doing confessed does not arrest the action of divine government. It lands me into some kind of captivity, and if I submit to it I get some kind of gold and silver out of it. At the present time some of God’s people are suffering severely under the government of God. If they submit there will be gain. Rather than praying for relief we should be praying for more for God out of it — more crowns to put on the head of the priest. We should all aspire to have some material in the temple gained through our exercises, thereby getting spiritual substance, so that we can put crowns on the head of the priest. The idea is that the result might be something more precious for God in the assembly than ever before. Do we think to ourselves, this is going to bring something out of me to contribute to priestly service?
Ques What would silver and gold represent?
CAC Silver and gold signify the knowledge of God — everything precious that is in the knowledge of God. Silver is redemption, and gold new creation.
Ques Would this be true of every believer?
CAC Certainly — if he submits, not otherwise. If we do not submit to the government of God we get nothing.
Rem Job says, “He trieth me, I shall come forth as gold”.
CAC Yes, he submitted. We often fight against it, but God keeps on with us until we submit. Then we get increased knowledge of God and every bit helps to enhance the priesthood. We have not an instance of the Lord submitting Himself to the powers that be.
Ques Jehovah will refine Israel “as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried”, and he will say, “It is my people; and they shall say, Jehovah is my God”. Is that it?
CAC Yes, so something is gained.
Ques Why the change from “the house” to “the temple”? What is the difference?
CAC It was the same building actually, of course. The house view of it is where God is known in His grace. In the temple there is light as to His mind. Both thoughts combine.
Then, “He shall sit and rule upon his throne”. That follows on Joshua getting the crowns on his head. They are now qualified for a new apprehension of Christ as the Branch — a largely increased apprehension of Him.
Ques Would you explain, “He shall grow up from his own place”?
CAC It is a very precious allusion to His incarnation. His incarnation is not only the basis of everything — His offices and glories — but truly more wonderful than anything else we shall ever know of Christ.
Ques “He shall grow up before him as a tender sapling”. Does that refer to the same?
CAC Yes, His incarnation and acceptance of His appointed place as coming into the world in incarnation, the smallness, the reproach, the feebleness — He accepted that place. We can learn how Christ can fill every place in glory, because we learn how He filled His place in incarnation, for there is no other way. A new shoot out of the stock of Jesse sprang up; it was entirely new.
Ques In the Father’s acclamation of the Son, would it not speak of His freshness there?
CAC Yes, I think so. “The holy thing also which shall be born”. It was an entirely new kind of manhood, true humanity, but humanity after its own order. It was life when everything was dead in Israel. We Gentiles are learning it, that we must have life in Christ — an entirely new source.
[p. 516] Jesse is a type of the faithfulness of God, and everything springs out of that in fruitfulness. Christ is the greatest expression of God’s faithfulness to man.
Rem “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”.
CAC Resurrection power was inherent in Him. Who ever heard of a dead man able to raise himself? The whole truth of divine Personality is wrapped up in that. The point here is that “he shall build the temple of Jehovah”. It is said twice, it is emphasised. One of the first things He made selection of was Peter as a stone. It is good to regard ourselves in that light, taken up by Christ as living stones to be put in the temple, set there for the service of God. We should value that as much as anything. It is the greatest thing on earth today. “The temple of God is holy, and such are ye”.
“And he shall bear the glory”. There is no one great enough to bear the glory of what subsists now for the pleasure of God. No one but Christ could bear the glory of sonship as applying to us. “The glory which thou hast given me I have given them”. We get it as realising it is given to Christ — that is how we get it. The building is to go on in all the light of this. If we want to be occupied in building we must take in all these wonderful thoughts. “And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house”. And bearing the glory is sonship. He alone is able to bear the glory of it before the Father at this minute.
Ques What is the glory in John 17: 5?
CAC That is His place in Deity. The Father has given in manhood the glory of sonship. It is that of which He bears the glory that He gives. Of course He has a place as Son that belongs to Him and no other, but He bears the glory of sonship to share it.
Rem He is “Christ, as Son over his house”, in Hebrews 3.
CAC He is referred to in Hebrews as Aaron typically. It is not so much what He is on the throne, but His glory in sonship. We are too apt to connect sonship with ourselves,
[p. 517] but we need to look at Christ. We are sons by adoption, He by gift and as begotten.
“That they may behold my glory”. The glory of Christ as loved by the Father before the foundation of the world, we are privileged to behold, but never share.
Rem There is conferred glory, and inherent glory which is never shared.
Rem “He shall be a priest upon his throne”.
CAC He fills the office of Priest in relation to that system of things in which He rules. It speaks of sympathy. Then, “The counsel of peace shall be between them both”. That is the greatest of all. Jehovah, and below a Man, He who rules. A stability of unity lies in matters entirely between the Father and the Son, complete unanimity between Both and everything secured by divine Persons entering into this divine counsel — the saints given by the Son to the Father; by the Father to the Son, and then handed back to the Father.