We are
going to look at the fourth chapter of Zechariah, which
features in a remarkable way conditions and Divine aims
in the ‘end times’. There are striking
similarities in it, as we shall see, to certain things
mentioned in the first chapters of the Revelation. Its
great value lies in its concentrated presentation of
essentials. When you have these you have everything
vital.
What first
comes into view is -
AN
ANGEL TALKING
“The
angel that talked with me” (verses 1, 4). The
parallel to this in the Revelation is the phrase, seven
times repeated (note: seven=spiritual perfection,
completeness): “what the Spirit saith to the
churches”.
The Lord
has something to say at the end. The book of the
Revelation is full of voices. It begins with: “I
turned to see the voice” (1:12). A strange way of
putting things! Did anyone ever see a voice? There is,
however, no mistake made. A vital reality is in this
seeming error, as we shall see. We have known much to be
made of this “voice” factor in the Bible. True
as it is that God can make Himself vocal and audible,
taking up men and articulating His thoughts through them,
as He has ever done, we would point out that in this case
it is not the voice of man; indeed, it is not primarily
the voice at all. It is that God has something to say,
and a very important something.
The most
pertinent question that can possibly be asked at this
time is –
WHAT
IS GOD SAYING TODAY?
A striking
feature of our time is that so few of the voices have a
distinctive message. There is a painful lack of a clear
word of authority for the times. While there are many
good preachers of the Gospel, and while we are not
without champions of the vital verities of the Faith, we
are sadly in need of the Prophet with his “Thus
saith the Lord”, which he has received in a
commission born of a peculiarly chastened fellowship with
God.
Why is it
so? May it not be that so many who might have this
ministry have become so much a part of a system: a system
which puts preachers so largely upon a professional
basis, the effect of which is to make preaching a matter
of demand and supply; of providing for the established
religious order and programme? And not only in the matter
of preaching, but in the whole organization and activity
of Christianity as we have it in the systematized form
today. There is not the freedom and detachment for
speaking ONLY when “the burden of the word of the
Lord” is upon the prophet, or when he could say:
“The hand of the Lord was upon me”. The present
order requires a man to speak every so often: hence he MUST
get something, and this necessity means either that God
must be offered our programme and asked to meet it (which
He will not do), or that the preacher must MAKE
something for the constantly recurring occasion.
This is a
pernicious system, and it opens the door to many
dangerous and baneful intrusions of what is of man and
not of God. The most serious aspect of this way of things
is that it results in voices, voices, voices - a CONFUSION
of voices - but not the specific voice with the specific
utterance of God for the time. Too often it has the
effect of causing men to hear and read just with a view
to getting preaching matter, subjects for sermons; the
value of things is judged by their suggestiveness of
themes. The man may be a godly man and the message may be
the truth, but there is something more than this - is it THE
message which relates to the immediate time-appointed
purpose of God? There are many good men who are giving
out what they know and believe of the truth, but at the
same time there are many of the Lord’s children who
are hungry and not being fed.
The food
question amongst the Lord’s people today is a very
acute one, and a more or less good ministry is not going
to meet the need. There is a growing concern to know, as
distinct from the generalisations of truth and service,
what is the Lord’s word for now, where we are, and
what in the Divine purpose belongs to this present hour.
This brings
us back to the first thing in our chapter: God has
something to say; but it also leads us to the next thing:
“The Angel that talked with me came again, and waked
me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep”.
Here we have the necessity for –
AN
AWAKENING TO WHAT GOD HAS TO SAY
In the
Revelation this is: “He that hath an ear, let him
hear”, and in the case of Laodicea - which
represents the end - it is: “I counsel thee to buy
of me... eyesalve... that thou mayest see” (Rev.
3:18). “I turned to see the voice which spake with
me”, said John. God is speaking; He has something to
say; but there must be a spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of him; “having the eyes of your
heart enlightened” (Eph. 1:17,18).
Spiritual
discernment, perception, understanding and intelligence
are all too rare. The causes are many. The engrossment
with the work and its multifarious concerns; the rush and
hurry of life; the restless spirit of the age: these,
with an exhaustive provision of external religious
facilities, all tend to render the inner place of Divine
speaking inoperative or impossible of functioning.
Perhaps we have forgotten that the Bible not only IS
a revelation, but also CONTAINS a revelation,
and that that deeper spiritual content is only possible
of recognition and realisation by such as have had their
eyes and ears opened; in other words, by those who have
been awakened. Some of the Lord’s most faithful
servants are still only occupied with the letter of the
Word, the contents of books, topics, themes, subjects,
outlines, analyses, etc., and are not, IN THE DEEPEST
SENSE, in spiritual understanding. (This is not
meant as a criticism.) The difference too often is that
between a ministry to the mind or head, and one to the
heart or spirit. The former will sooner or later tire and
weary both the minister and those ministered to. The
latter is a ministry of life to both, and is
inexhaustible in freshness.
Whether it
comes at the beginning or later, it is the greatest day
in our history of which we can say: “It pleased
God... to reveal his Son IN me”. ‘I received
it, not from man... but by revelation of Jesus
Christ’ (Gal. 1:15,16; 12). That is the beginning of
an inwardness of things which may have many critical
issues. One of these is that of which we are particularly
thinking now, namely, the awakening to see what is the
thought and desire of God at given and specific times.
Such a revelation - through the Scriptures - is nothing
less than revolutionary, and usually costly.
Would to
God that there was an adequate number at this time who,
like the men of Issachar, “had understanding of the
times” (1 Chron. 12:32).
We now
proceed to see what comes into view when God’s
instrument is awakened, and is able to answer the
heavenly interrogation: “What seest thou?”
“BEHOLD,
A CANDLESTICK ALL OF GOLD”
Every
ministry in the Scriptures appointed by God was
constituted upon something having been SEEN. The
test of a Divine commission may be found in this
question, “What seest thou?”, and the answer,
upon the basis of God having shown something very
concrete, may well provide the credentials. It is not the
matter of winning the sermon or winning the audience, but
declaring the truth for the time as it has been made a
fire in the bones. It would be pertinent, rather than
impertinent, to challenge the servants of God with this
question, relative to the time in which they live, and
relative to the immediate concern of God –
“What seest thou?”
There is no
doubt that what God has seen at all times as His
objective is “a candlestick all of gold”, but
from time to time there has been a special necessity for
Him to bring it into the view of the people, and
especially of His prophets. It is for this that He
reacts, and the end-time must see a renewal of His
reaction.
Now,
ignoring the fact that there is a difference between the
seven-branched candlestick or lampstand of the Old
Testament, and the seven lampstands of the Apocalypse,
there is a relationship of the two in a common principle.
That common principle is that they both represent -
THE
INSTRUMENT OF THE TESTIMONY IN THE HOUSE OF GOD
While that
innermost light of the Most Holy Place - the light of
Christ in the presence of God - remains un-dimmed and
inviolate, there is that which is midway between Heaven
and earth - the Holy Place - where the testimony has to
be kept clear both Godward and man-ward. Concerning this
- as differing from the other - God has given very
careful and explicit instructions and injunctions for its
perpetual maintenance. He is peculiarly jealous over this
testimony. Thus, we find that it is here in the sphere of
this, that the prayer-life (Altar of incense) and the
feeding-fellowship (Table of shewbread) of the
Lord’s people have their true value and vitality.
The
instructions for the making of the Candlestick in Exodus
25 and 37 are full of the richest significance. First in
these is the material – “pure gold”. If it
is to have a SEVENFOLD fullness, intensity and
expression, which refers to spiritual completeness, then
it must be pre-eminently suitable to the Divine purpose.
The meaning of the “all of gold”, then, is that
it is –
ABSOLUTELY
ACCORDING TO GOD
Be sure to
get the force of this: an instrument of the testimony
wholly according to God! There is only One who is thus
wholly according to God’s mind and heart - the Lord
Jesus, and if the whole Tabernacle in every part came
firstly from God and then was Christ in type throughout,
then this lampstand speaks of a vessel of the testimony
of God in which the Lord Jesus is absolute and complete.
God would have everything according to Christ. This fact
governs the whole revelation in the Scriptures, from
Genesis to Revelation. It is typified and prophesied in
the Old Testament. It is presented in the Gospels;
demonstrated in the Acts; defined in the Epistles; and
consummated in the Revelation. But, alas, what a tragic
and heart-breaking history is associated with this fact,
and how difficult has it ever been to get anything wholly
according to Christ.
In an
earlier chapter we saw God’s reactions to this in
Bible times, and suggested that since then He has again
and again so reacted.
The
Reformation was such a reaction, and by it He recovered
the great foundational truth of Justification by Faith;
which puts Christ into His absolute place as the Chief
Cornerstone of the House of God. It was a grand thing,
though very costly. But all too soon men pulled it down
to the earth, and the ‘Protestant Church’ as
such issued; a tree in the branches of which almost every
kind of credal bird can lodge. Protestantism, as such, is
by no means a synonym for what is wholly according to
Christ.
Since then
the reactions of the Lord have been seen in many other
instances.
The
Moravian Brethren, through a great fight and affliction,
were used to recover the great truth of the Church’s
responsibility for the testimony of Jesus in all the
nations. Not the responsibility of a missionary society
or adjunct to the Church, but of the Church itself
directly. This was, and is, wholly according to Christ.
But again, human hands mould this movement into a
‘church’ with all the outward elements of a
religious order. There is no question but that there has
been considerable spiritual loss.
A further
reaction of God was seen in the Wesleys and Whitfield.
Here, in addition to a mighty recovering of soul-saving
evangelism, there was the recovery of the doctrine of
practical holiness. This was grand while the instrument
remained; but alas there came those human hands again,
and an earthly organizing into a system - the
‘Wesleyan Church’. We are perfectly sure that
Wesley would not have wished this.
Then about
a hundred years ago, there was what all ought to
recognise as a movement of God in the shape of the
‘Plymouth Brethren’. There were several most
precious recoveries made in this instance. The Lord Jesus
was given an exclusive place which was not common in
those days, nor is it common now. The great truth
concerning the Body of Christ - the One Church - was
brought again into view, after perhaps centuries of
obscurity. God was in this, and is still in it, but the
most ardent devotee to this community is both grieved and
ashamed to contemplate its divisions today. Is it that
men have again been insinuated or have insinuated
themselves? Has this, like so much more, been taken into
the governing hands of men? Has that subjective work of
the Cross, by which in a very deep way man is cut off and
the Holy Spirit governs, failed of adequate application
or acceptance here? These are questions, not charges; we
are seeking to speak, not destructively, but
constructively.
Many more
are the reactions of God through the past nineteen
centuries; we only use these by way of illustration. It
will be seen that each fresh movement was an advance upon
those that preceded it in the matter of truth recovered:
from the Divine standpoint it was a movement nearer to
the original position. The big question which at once
arises is: Will the Lord do a new thing yet? Are we to
know of a fresh reaction to His first position? The only
answer we can give to this question is that, whether or
not there should be anything in the nature of a movement
as open to general recognition, we are certain that there
is a more or less hidden movement on the part of the
Spirit of God, working through deepening dissatisfaction
with things as they are toward that which is nearer the
original thought than has been since the beginning. It
will be such a thing as cannot be ‘joined’ by
men, but in which only those will share who are moved by
deep inward exercise, so that it becomes a matter of a
common spiritual travail.
What next
comes before us in Zechariah’s vision, which is more
than Jewish, but has that invariable double application
of Old Testament revelation, is –
THE
TWO OLIVE TREES AND THE TWO ANOINTED ONES
The
symbolism here is familiar. Two is the number of
testimony or witness. Trees are very often symbolic of
man as witness, or men as witnesses. The olive, as is
apparent in this chapter, especially relates to the oil.
The position of these two trees is on either side of the
candlestick. From verse 14 we learn that “These
are the two anointed ones (sons of oil), that stand by
the Lord of the whole earth”.
There is no
doubt that the two olive trees bring into view, firstly
and historically, Joshua the High Priest and Zerubbabel
the Governor. Chapter 3 deals with the one and chapter 4
with the other. The first discourse concerned the High
Priesthood and its ministry; the second (4:1) concerns
the Government or sovereignty. This, interpreted
prophetically, relates to the Lord Jesus. His High
Priestly work and position come first into view, and are
established in glory; then He is established by God as
Lord and Sovereign Head. On these two sides of His one
Person He ever gives the meaning of the candlestick: that
is, He defines the nature of its vocation, and supplies
the unfailing resource for that testimony. It is, as we
have said, constituted according to Christ, and
maintained by Him in all the fulness of His anointing.
The Divine
explanation of this is: “This is the word of
Jehovah unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by
power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts”
(verse 6). Here we reach the central meaning of the
vision as to the execution of the purpose of God. It
speaks for itself. Its clear affirmation is that this
instrument and this testimony must be utterly in the
hands of the Holy Spirit. Not might, nor power, of brain,
will, emotion, organization, machinery, committee,
influence, reputation, numbers, name, personality,
outfit, enthusiasm, etc., but solely the Holy Spirit! The
accounting for this will never be, IN TRUTH -
whatever superficial observers may say - attributable to
any human force or resource, but all who have any
spiritual intelligence will have to recognise that its
energy and power is Divine. This will also be proved by
its endurance and persistence through the intense fires
of opposition and antagonism.
Here the
Holy Spirit is allowed to govern and dictate, to direct
and choose or reject, just as in the “Acts” at
the beginning. To have such an instrument and such a
testimony there will need to be a very revolutionary
re-shaping of ideas. It will be necessary to realise that
all those things, upon which men have come to count as
most important factors in the Lord’s work, are
really not necessary factors at all. It will have to be
recognised that education, personal ability, business
ability, worldly wisdom, money, etc. AS SUCH have
nothing to do with the work of the Holy Spirit or with
Christianity. The Lord may use these, call them in, and
if they are kept in their right place they may serve Him
greatly; but they are secondary, and He can easily
dispense with them. It is of infinitely greater
importance and value that men should be filled with the
Holy Spirit, and if a choice is to be made, this should
ever be the very first consideration. There is a wisdom,
judgment, discernment, knowledge, understanding by the
Holy Spirit which alone is equal to the demands of that
which alone is to be wholly according to God.
Thus the
Lord Jesus, as the Great Mediator and Sovereign Head,
would maintain His testimony wholly in accordance with
His own nature and mind in the fullness of the Spirit of
His own anointing. When things are thus there is no need
to be unduly oppressed by –
THE
GREAT MOUNTAIN
“Who
art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubhabel thou shalt
become a plain” (verse 7). The mountain is a
figure of the accumulation of difficulties. The
completing of the House of God will be no less fraught
with difficulty and obstruction than the commencement;
but, as then, so at the end, where the Holy Spirit is
absolute Lord, these difficulties will be proved rather
complementary than otherwise. The “many
adversaries” will only be sovereignly used to
further, rather than arrest, the consummation of
“the eternal purpose”.
“The
hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this
house, his hands shall also finish it” (verse
9). The Greater Zerubbabel laid those foundations at
Pentecost. The finishing will be by His hands alone. The
same glorious Lord Jesus will "bring forth the
top-stone with shoutings of Grace, grace, unto it”.
Then there
is presented for our contemplation, by way of an
interrogation, a matter which is indeed very challenging
–
THE
DAY OF SMALL THINGS.
“Who
hath despised the day of small things?” (verse
10). There is amongst the Lord’s people in these
days an unhealthy lust for big things. Something to
attract attention; a demonstration to capture, an
appearance to impress. Big names, big places, big titles,
big sounds, big movements, big sweeps! If the dimensions
are big according to men’s standards, the success is
judged accordingly.
In order to
obtain and maintain that which will preserve the
recognition of wholly Divine factors, God has ever found
it necessary to reduce. End-times are always days of
small things: see the testimony in the Revelation - it is
only represented by the few who ‘overcome’.
Bigness is material or temporal. Greatness is spiritual
and eternal. Too often men - even Christians - despise
that in which God delights. The significance of things
according to God is so often seen in an “upper
room”, as over against the whole city, but the city
succumbs to the upper room. When dealing with the
“world rulers of this darkness” the Lord has
frequently made an upper room His Throne-room.
“These
seven eyes of Jehovah shall rejoice when they see the
plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel” (verse 10).
What is this? The seven eyes symbolize the perfection of
spiritual vision, which takes in everything as it is. The
plummet is that by which crookedness is brought to light
and made manifest. When Jehovah sees the Lord Jesus with
that instrument in His hand, which so represents His own
standard that by it He can correct all that deviates, and
expose all the unsuspected leanings, bulgings, angles,
and dangers of that which is related to His House; when
He has that instrument by which He can make manifest how
His House should be built according to Christ - then His
perfect spiritual vision will rejoice and be satisfied.
This is what He needs. O, that we might be to Him such an
instrument! It will not be a popular ministry; it will
cost; but it will be precious to the Lord.
As we
close, let us just note the names of the Lord in this
chapter. The purpose as in view is related to Jehovah
- the Almighty, Eternally Self-Sufficient One (verses 6,
10). The executing and sufficiency of the purpose is
related to Jehovah-Sabaoth - the Lord of Hosts
(verse 6). The place of the testimony is related to Adon
- Master, or Lord (verse 14); that is, He who owns and
has the rights of proprietorship.