READING ON ZECHARIAH 3
READING ON ZECHARIAH 3
JT I expect you have some leading thought as to this book.
GS We thought that while Haggai would bring home the responsibility of the saints, Zechariah would encourage them. He would bring Christ before us, and show how things are to be met, as the four carpenters met the four great powers. Does Joshua here represent the state of the people?
JT Yes, he is the available man. There was not much with him, but in all our gatherings, while there may not be much, there is that which is available, which God would make the most of.
GS The four carpenters are not much in men’s eyes, but they are the ones who meet the four great powers. We thought this might connect with the fact that the Lord is presented as the Carpenter, perhaps in derision, in all four gospels.
JT Zechariah 2 brings out great prospects: Jerusalem is to be inhabited, and then the young man is to be instructed, which is noteworthy. That is what we look for. Now in chapter 3 we have an available man, Joshua the high priest — not that anyone should take special offices today, but still there are available men, and God makes use of what there is.
Rem We have looked upon Jerusalem in the light of the assembly representatively here on earth.
JT It should be inhabited. It is an encouraging thing for young men to take account of. The young man is to know these things: “Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein; and I, saith Jehovah, I will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her” Zechariah 2:4,5. That is very encouraging [p. 260] for young brothers and sisters; they are to know these things. However small the gatherings may be among us, Jerusalem is going to be inhabited; and this book makes much of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and that is the thing to which every young brother and sister should aspire, to be one of the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Ques So that Jerusalem becomes their chief interest?
JT Exactly. Zechariah is full of plain, simple, prophetic admonitions, for he is dealing with the returned remnant. He is not like Isaiah who served under the kings. Haggai and Zechariah are more conversant with remnant conditions, and the grace and sovereign mercy which would recover the people, and they ministered these things to such persons. They are in the good of the things of which they speak. Their statements are plain, and easier to understand than most prophets, for they are in the midst of remnant conditions — those of a restored remnant, not a worn-out remnant — conditions such as we are privileged to share now. We are living in the times of a restored remnant — not such a remnant as is spoken of in the Lord’s words to Thyatira: “To you I say, the rest who are in Thyatira” Revelation 2:24; they were hardly out of it; but the Philadelphian remnant were out of it in principle, and the ministry to Philadelphia is more direct and simple.
Rem Zechariah not only prophesied, but worked with his hands in the building of the house.
EJMcB Are there not two great principles in his prophecy: “Return unto me, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will return unto you” Zechariah 1:3; then the exercise of the prophet that there should be no Canaanite in the house of God; chapter 14:21? Sometimes in the act of returning, things are brought back which are not suitable to the One to whom we [p. 261] have returned. This ministry is calculated to eliminate the Canaanite element from our meetings.
JT Very good.
Ques Is it a constructive ministry?
JT Yes, it works out positive things. Joshua is the available man in this chapter, and the most is made of him. The next chapter brings before us the Spirit; chapter 5 the leavening conditions with which we have to contend; in chapter 6 we get the governmental conditions which are favourable in the main. So we see that the ministry is very constructive, and assures the saints in a position reached through the recovery, but with a great outlook. What we ought to see in chapter 3 is the available man, who is here in Portsmouth or any other locality — the man who is available to help things.
EJMcB It is a thing that is shown to you.
JT Yes; God will help anyone who may be visiting, or seeking to serve, as to what there is for God in any locality, for you want to go on with what there is. God helps us to see the available man. Here he is in a good position, standing before the Angel of the Lord, not thinking about what the brethren may think of him, nor of any great prospect personally. He is standing before the Angel, where things are searched out. That is a man on whom to keep your eye, and with whom to work. Satan says, ‘God is going to make something of that man, and I am here to resist him’. In this very city Satan is standing to oppose these men who have the truth. We should be alive to both these principles, the element which is according to God, and the satanic attack. The young people have no idea of the reality of satanic opposition. We come together for our meetings; there are brothers there trying to help, and Satan is against them. We ought to pray for them. The opposition is seen and rebuked; Jehovah says to Satan, “Jehovah that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee!” God’s choice comes [p. 262] in. It is a very serious thing to criticise brothers who are leading in any way, for Satan is behind the attack against them. We should be prayerful and sympathetic with them.
Ques Yet Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the Angel?
JT It was well that he was not seeking to hide them. They were all there; everything was open. The Angel is going to be favourable whatever the garments are.
Ques You mean that if one seeks to be available to the Lord he would stand before the Lord just as he is, and not seek to hide his condition?
JT I think that is right. It is a sad state of things, but Joshua hides nothing.
EJMcB A man standing for God in remnant times must be characteristically in the light of the times, and prepared to bear the burden of that in his own person. Then he comes out in the light of what the Lord has accomplished. Is not the idea of the brand plucked from the burning divine working?
JT Yes, something has happened already. If you go back over the history of the man you see it. The position is very clear. Joshua is standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan is standing there in order to be his adversary.
JFG He is a man marked by priestly features?
JT Yes, He is called the high priest here. The comforting thing to begin with is what we get in verse 2, “Jehovah said unto Satan, Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan!” Jehovah is taking the matter in hand.
Rem Joshua had definitely the good of the people before him, and the glory of Jehovah.
JT What is in my mind more is where he was standing.
Rem You suggest that there is transparency with him?
[p. 263] JT Quite so. The politician is standing before the public; he is thinking of getting the vote; and a brother may be standing before the saints here to acquire a place of teaching, and to get their support; that is a very dangerous thing. This man is standing before the Angel of Jehovah; he is in a safe place. Whatever his garments, the Angel would be favourable to him. All is open, and the position is such that God can have a hand in it. Satan would have a hand in it, but God says, ‘You shall have no hand in it’. It is not simply the Angel, but Jehovah Himself who says, “Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan! Yea, Jehovah that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee! Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” You are reminded of the whole book of Job. Jehovah is facing the enemy in regard of this soul as a brand already plucked out of the fire. God will do more; He will not cease doing anything that is necessary.
FI Why does He say, “Jehovah that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee!”?
JT That is His choice. God has His choice on earth today. There is something that He has chosen. The great thought of Jerusalem has taken form in the assembly as a place of light and rule. Zion stands for sovereign mercy, but Jerusalem is a place of light and rule. It is a question of administration. That is what Joshua is for, to carry on the service of God. If you are going to serve, it must be in this city; it is a question of Jerusalem.
FI Joshua is standing in relation to that as high priest.
JT Yes. Jerusalem is the great thought of light, rule and order. The world is in disorder. What a great thought it is to have a few saints in the light of Jerusalem! God has chosen that. Then we are told in verse 3 that Joshua was clothed in filthy garments and stood before the Angel. We have him standing before the Angel in verses 1 and 3, and in verse 7 we have mentioned “these that stand by”. Then in verse 8 we have others who are spoken of as sitting before Joshua: “thy fellows that sit before thee”. The high priest should have those who should sit before him; he is a man to be respected. So far he is standing before the Angel. That is not the position that is in the mind of God for him. The Angel is representative, he has a charge; severity and scrutiny are called for, and things will be carried out according to his mission. Jehovah speaks Himself when it is a question of choice, but an angel demands that things should be right.
EJMcB Jehovah having settled the matter with Satan, the way is left open for the condition to be discovered in the soul, and to be removed according to what is suitable to Jehovah’s thoughts for His people.
JT If God has something to say to any of us in this city, He will deal with us privately; Satan will be shut out.
EJMcB When Jehovah has dismissed Satan, then He takes up the question as to what Joshua is like in relation to the returned remnant.
JT Satan makes the most of the filthy garments; and how often saints become his instruments! How often things come up in the care-meeting which should be dealt with privately.
AM Is there to be correspondence with the choice?
JT God is going to make this man suitable to this place. He has a great thought in regard to Jerusalem, and He is going to make this man suitable. Joshua is clothed with filthy garments and standing before the Angel. He says, ‘You cannot say anything too bad about me, really’. If it is true, it is true, and let it be faced, but let not Satan or any emissary of his be present. The thing is to “plentifully declare the thing as it is”, Job 26:3.
[p. 265] Satan will never do that; he will multiply it.
Ques If we face it as brethren, would not the desire be to have it removed?
JT If love is amongst ourselves you are as desirous as I to have it removed. “Having fervent love among yourselves”, 1 Peter 4:8. If it is there, there is no room for the devil. The devil only gets in through an emissary, through some injured brother, maybe.
LDM Luke 22 shows us that Satan got in there among the apostles.
JT Yes; the Lord says, “the hand of him that delivers me up is with me on the table” Luke 22:21.
LDM Later in the chapter we read, “I have prayed for thee” Luke 22:32; the Lord is taking the matter in hand.
JT What we get in John 13, too, is a terrible thing that Satan entered into Judas John 13:27. A brothers’ meeting should never be like that. The idea is, “Jehovah rebuke thee”; Satan is put out; there is no room for him there. You have the thing faced; there it is, and there is the means for its removal. Jehovah says, ‘I am going to do it’. “He spoke and said unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from off him”. There are others standing before the Angel besides Joshua: They are not said to have filthy garments and they are ready to serve him. It is a fine thing to be standing before the Angel, and ready to serve such. “Take away the filthy garments from off him. And unto him he said, See, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I clothe thee with festival-robes. And I said, Let them set a pure turban upon his head. And they set the pure turban upon his head, and clothed him with garments; and the Angel of Jehovah stood by” It is a fine meeting, this, where things are done, not left over till the [p. 266] next meeting; they are all done. There are people standing by, and He says, Do this. Things are often protracted and let slide among us.
EJMcB The thought is that the man should not only be free from the filthy garments, but supremely happy in festival robes.
JT That is what the Angel had in mind. Yet conditions are such in this country that nothing is done for three or four years! Where are these men standing before the Angel? Cannot they do anything? Christianity contemplates availability of servants. Why is not the thing done? How beautiful is the thought of these men standing before the Angel! He tells them to do things. What a fine change this is! Now we have a man suitable to Jerusalem. Things will be carried on according to God. All the assembly occasions should be festive occasions. See how quickly the festivity comes in in Luke 15; the gospel leads up to it. It suggests the thought of thee ‘place’ about which we have just sung in our hymn: “Thou lead’st our hearts to that blest place”. (178:1).
We are not to wait for that altogether. There is a place here which God intends to be free from satanic influence, where people are clad with festive robes, where the very entrance to that place gives joy. “They began to make merry”, Luke 15:24. This chapter is intended to make any local meeting an attractive place.
EJMcB The brethren are the ones who bring the turban forth; they give dignity to anyone whom God raises up in their midst.
JT They think of the mind of God for His people. What great thoughts He has for His people!
Rem “The Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem” — all springs out [p. 267] of that.
JT It is a question of the mind of God working out.
Ques Does this give us a view of Jerusalem as the centre of God’s interests on earth?
Rem The word ‘turban’ may be rendered ‘diadem’.
JT I suppose the thought in the diadem is the kind of intelligence that belongs to the people of God. The high priest had it. It was the one bit of his vesture that had on it, “Holiness to Jehovah” Exodus 28:38, Exodus 39:30; and that means that the mind has no place in the things of God. The leading brother does not trust his own mind. It is a question of a renewed mind, and of “Holiness to Jehovah”. It is very important to have “Holiness to Jehovah” on your head. It is so easy to bring the natural mind into the assembly. Nothing is more difficult to keep out.
Ques Why does it say, “And the Angel of Jehovah stood by” (verse 5)?
JT What a fine thing it was! He was seeing this going through. There is to be no discrepancy. The enemy would come in and rob us through any unjudged condition among us.
Ques So that the “pure turban” would be a safeguard against uncleanness of the mind?
JT Quite so.
LDM Does the thought of the Angel of Jehovah standing by suggest the divine standard? What is done is in keeping with the divine standard?
JT I think the Angel would mean that; he is under charge; as sent, he is representative.
JHB The Angel does not do the thing himself; those who are ready take it up: “they set the pure turban upon his head, and clothed him with garments”. Does it suggest that something having been said by the Angel of Jehovah, there is a waiting for persons qualified to take it up, and give effect to it?
JT Does that not work out in Bristol or here.
[p. 268] how you clothe the brethren with divine thoughts? If you are speaking with me, and I clothe you with holy thoughts, you are going to take that on. It is a question of how we look at one another, how we clothe the brethren.
JHB There are persons sufficiently in the current of the Lord’s mind to give effect to something He has said.
JT The Angel brings in the thoughts of heaven, what existed in heaven before. We do not know much about these great dignitaries, but doubtless the Angel would understand.
EJMcB Is that not a feature of the assembly, that it is a great vessel on earth answering to the mind of God? In all our care meetings ought we not to remember that we are being observed by these ministers of God’s will, that they might see things moving on earth as in heaven?
JT As we have it in ‘the Lord’s prayer’: “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven”. Matthew 6:10. Psalm 78 speaks of “the bread of the mighty” Psalm 78:25. The Lord Jesus would embody all that here; He is the Food of the mighty.
Ques Where do these clothes come from? Is there the suggestion of a wardrobe?
JT Yes; we read of a wardrobe-keeper, in the reign of Josiah; 2 Chronicles 34:22. “The father said to his bondmen, Bring out the best robe”. Luke 15:22. They knew where it was.
Ques Are these festival robes all in view of service? For the Angel goes on to say, “If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts; and I will give thee a place to walk among these that stand by”.
JT Now you have another thing. The Angel of Jehovah is protesting unto Joshua. He has been [p. 269] wonderfully served from heaven by those standing by, but now he is put under charge.
EJMcB Do we need that? There is much ministry, but what is produced?
JT That is good. There is ministry that clothes the saints with dignity, and reminds them of their heavenly calling, but now there is the protesting. The Angel protests to this man who has been served, and served for a purpose, that is, to rule the house of God, “thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts; and I will give thee a place to walk among these that stand by”. The Angel had been standing by, and others had been standing by. The protest is, “If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge”. There is to be the walk in fidelity.
Ques Is the power of these festival robes to be seen in our movements?
JT Yes, it is a question of walking in Jehovah’s ways — a great thought, that in the midst of a world where bypaths abound, there is the walking in Jehovah’s ways. It is a straight path, a highway. This is a question now of what the brother is, not only in the care meetings, but every day.
EJMcB If we moved in the direction of taking account of the brethren as pleasing to God, and promoting peace among them, surely there would be conditions which God would promote among us.
Rem We read in Judges that from the days of Shamgar till the time of the prophetess the highways were unused.
JT Yes, Deborah brought in the highways which had been neglected; “until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel”, Judges 5:7. She is the one who calls attention to the highways. That brings in the sisters; one of the most dignified titles a sister can have is “a mother in Israel”. She sat under her own palm-tree; she had acquired victory [p. 270] for herself, and where you get a sister like that you find that the brethren will not be slow to ask a question of her. They came to her to ask her what to do.
EJMcB What an asset to have a godly person who has really reached victory in her own soul, and is amongst the brethren to be enquired of!
JT This walking in Jehovah’s ways is important.
JHB What is the connection between Jehovah’s house and the city? I believe Haggai says much about the house, and little or nothing about Jerusalem, whilst Zechariah speaks far more often of Jerusalem.
JT I think the city is a wider thought; it is a place of light, and rule and order. The house brings in affection more.
EJMcB Would the city include the great administrative thought of God?
JT Yes, and the house the affections that belong to it. The house is where God’s affections are known. The city is a wider thought, and secures the house.
JHB Would you say that the city aspect of the assembly and its functions would hardly be right unless the house is functioning?
JT The two run together and support one another. The city is the external support of the house. So we come together with things settled. There is nothing unsettled about the city; it is a place of light, rule and order. The house affords room for affections, where we may sit down together in a family sense. There are courts, too; the Angel speaks both of the house and of the courts: “Thou shalt also keep my courts”. The brethren ought to grasp these great thoughts of the house and the courts. The saints are viewed as forming a circle of affections where God’s love is free to flow out. The rule of the house is necessary to that end, and there is “the law of the house”, the house being a sphere where love is, where we view each other as brethren, not only as [p. 271] servants. Paul would love to sit down with the brethren, and talk to them, as he did in the epistle to the Philippians, as taking common ground with them. He would love to go over things which are current among us as brethren. Where love is, things can be unfolded and opened up.
Ques The high priest would be able to take up his priestly service Godward?
JT Yes; and then he would not be like Eli who sat by the doorpost of the temple of Jehovah; there is not much priestly dignity in that. The priests had to stand and be on the alert. A true priest of God was Hannah, and she was praying to God, and Eli said that she was drunk. This scripture is to preclude anything like that; it is to help us to have a right judgment about things. Eli was not able to judge. This priest is to judge Jehovah’s house, not like Eli, but like Christ judges it. We need to dwell on this thought of the courts, and the place of privilege we are given. That is a great thing. You say, ‘God has given me this great privilege that I belong to the assembly, and I am privileged to walk with the people of God. I am given that’. The more that you get on in the things of God, the more you say, ‘It is all gift’. You say, ‘Who am I that I should have a place like this? It is God’s gift’. What can be sweeter than the thought that God has given me a place among the brethren here, to walk with them?
EJMcB We may well weigh over with exercise the fact that God has given us this place in these last days.
JT That is the way it works out. I do not flatter myself that I am faithful, and others are not, but I see that God has given me that place.
JHB Whilst that is so, would you not say that God gives this place when certain moral conditions exist: “If thou shalt walk in my ways, and if thou shalt keep my charge”?
God does not give the place indiscriminately.
AM Is it like following “righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”? 2 Timothy 2:22.
JT Yes. In the prophecy of Ezekiel, in connection with the wonderful measurements in chapters 41 and 42, we get the thought of a walk even in the house itself in the upper storeys — a beautiful thought, suggesting the highest place of privilege, that I can walk with these great personages. J.N.D. speaks in his hymns of walking in those courts with the saints.
‘Nor what is next
Thy heart Can we forget;
Thy saints, O Lord,
with Thee In glory met’. (160:8)
You say, ‘God has given me this place’, because the more you are in the sense of heavenly places, the more you feel God has given it to you.
EJMcB Then God has put me in this place because this is the thought that He is going to work out with regard to all men.
JT Quite so, Heaven is reflected in those who stand by. There are those who stand by. It is a great thing to be prepared to stand by. You may not be able to do much, but you can stand by. Then it speaks of those who are sitting: “Hear now, Joshua the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee”. Certain ones are owned now as with him. They are “men of portent”; they are men to be observed as signs or types. God is setting out something in these men now: “for behold, I will bring forth my servant the Branch”. Now we are going to get to Christ. God is going to bring in Somebody else: “the Branch” — a Man who is dependent. “For behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua — upon one stone are seven eyes; behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in one day”.
[p. 273] He is now moving on to the thought of the land, and in that day they are going to “invite every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig-tree”. This is going on to the millennial time. How God leads us forward, and covers the whole ground of the truth! How quickly God will bring about His thought — “in one day”.
Rem All this is to be anticipated.
JT Yes, we always ought to have before us the great prospect of what is coming. The idea of the stone with seven eyes is brought in. The ‘stone’ suggests permanency. There are seven eyes, and in the next chapter there are seven lamps. The seven eyes would bring in the idea of perception. This stone is before Joshua. I think it is a question in any meeting of things being open; let the Spirit of God open up things.
EJMcB That is what has come to light in “the Branch”.
JT That is the idea; Christ is brought in in this beautiful way under the figure of the Branch and the stone. The Branch suggests dependence, the stone permanency, and the seven eyes would speak of fulness of perception. All this is leading on to the cleansing of the land.
EJMcB There is power to meet the thing as it is, immediately.
JT Quite so.