ZECHARIAH 10
Jehovah returning in blessing to Israel after their long history of departure is more than once compared with the latter rain; Hosea 6:1 - 3; Joel 2: 23. So that “the time of the latter rain”, indicates a time of divine favour when Jehovah would visit His people after they have been long afflicted with “vanity”, and “a lie”, and “false dreams”. He had to say, “Therefore they have gone away as a flock, they are in distress, because there is no shepherd”. When the Lord was here He was moved with compassion for the crowd “because they were as sheep not having a shepherd”, Mark 6: 34. His anger, too, was kindled against those who pretended to be shepherds and leaders of the flock, but whose service was vanity and no comfort to the flock. Such are the conditions which prevail today over a great part of the Christian profession. We can be thankful that there has been a “time of the latter rain” for the assembly even as there will be for Israel.
“For Jehovah of hosts visiteth his flock, the house of Judah, and maketh them as his majestic horse in the battle ... . And they shall be as mighty men, treading down the mire of the streets in the battle; and they shall fight, for Jehovah is with them”, verses 3, 5. The great evidence of God having visited His people is that they are made overcomers. The fact that in each of the seven assemblies (Revelation 2 and 3) the Lord assumes that an overcomer will be found shows that He intended that feature to have a place, whatever the general condition might be. The greater the departure the more need there is for overcoming, and I think the chapter before us intimates that overcoming precedes restoration to privileges that have been lost. The overcomers in Revelation 2 and 3 get what is normally the portion of all saints, but in a day of departure it is only really possessed by those who have overcome. That is to say, it is given on the principle of restoration rather than as being possessed as originally given. God’s present ways with His people are ways of restoration; indeed, He has peculiar pleasure in restoration, and the greatest restoration of all is assembly restoration. But overcoming is the first thing, as seen in verses 3 and 5 of our chapter, before He speaks of restoration in verses 6, 7 and 12.
The first effect of God’s visiting His people is that they take on the character of overcomers. They have power to overcome [p. 126] what is seen to be opposed to what is in God’s mind for His people. They may not yet know much of assembly truth or assembly privilege, but they see that certain things are displeasing to God, and they take up a decided attitude with reference to them. They do not go with the stream. They refuse that in themselves which they see to be contrary to God’s mind, and they refuse it when they see it having place in the Christian profession. They overcome it by separating from it. By ceasing to do evil they put themselves in a position where they can learn to do well.
“And I will bring them back again; for I will have mercy upon them; and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am Jehovah their God, and I will answer them”, verse 6. “And I will strengthen them in Jehovah; and they shall walk in his name, saith Jehovah”, verse 12. What God will do for a remnant in Israel “in the time of the latter rain” He is doing now for a remnant in the assembly. The Lord is leading His saints to see that there is grace and power in Himself to enable them to be overcomers. They can only overcome as they are strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus. But as thus strengthened they can overcome everything which would hinder assembly restoration. The Lord brings His people back to Himself as the Source of everything, and then He can restore us to all that is in His own mind for the assembly.
In Matthew 13 the public history of the assembly is set forth in the first four similitudes, ending with the whole mass being leavened. But then we get the treasure and the pearl — what the assembly is for Christ — and restoration is to that. If God gives restoration it will be to His own most precious thoughts. The Reformers, and those who founded Protestant sects, did not overcome the influences of the time in which they lived sufficiently to be free for restoration to God’s precious thoughts as to the assembly. But a good deal of “latter rain” has fallen since their day, and many saints have found in the Lord strength for overcoming, and, in consequence, there has been a great opening out of divine thoughts which have been little known since the days of the apostles. But they are coming out now with an added grace as being restored after many centuries of grievous departure. It is due to the Lord that we should recognise His peculiar grace in this way. He is making things precious to us which have been lost sight of for many generations. All saints may have these precious things; they are truly the portion of all; but it is only the overcomer who gets them as the true wealth and gain [p. 127] of his soul. Let none of us deceive himself. We may walk in company with the most spiritual persons, and yet gain little by it if we do not take up the exercise of overcoming. But in taking up that exercise we have to learn that we need the grace of the Lord to enable us to overcome. So it is a matter of personal dependence. Our chapter begins, “Ask of Jehovah”, and in verse 6 we read, “And I will answer them”; showing that behind the restoration and the overcoming is the spirit of deep dependence. The heart, having learned its own emptiness and insufficiency, has blessed experience of what the Lord can be, not only in giving personal support, but in bringing us into His mind as to the assembly, and as to our place in it. We are not thinking merely of restored truth, but we think of the Lord as the Restorer of it. He is Himself our joy in relation to all that is restored. So we can understand the word in verse 7, “Their heart shall be joyful in Jehovah”. The Sweetness of what is restored lies mainly in the fact that it is restored by the personal action of One who loves us. The Philadelphian keeps His word, and does not deny His name; all, for the loyal heart, centres in Him.
“And I will strengthen them in Jehovah; and they shall walk in his name, saith Jehovah”, verse 12. This sums up the position of a restored people. Those strong in the Lord will assuredly be overcomers, and they will have strength to walk according to what has been restored. This scripture was given to encourage the hearts of a feeble remnant by filling them with a sense of what God would do for His people in “the time of the latter rain”. We are favoured of God to be found here in a time which distinctly answers to this in the history of the assembly. May we know how to profit by the instruction!