Zechariah
4
Features
of the End-Time
The chapter which is
now before us features in a remarkable way conditions and
Divine aims in the "End-times." There are
striking similarities in it to certain things mentioned
in the first chapters of the Revelation. These we shall
see as we go on. The chief value is in its reduction of
all that is essential to a concentrated essence, and when
you have this you have everything vital.
Let us take the chapter
bit by bit. What first comes into view is
An
Angel Talking.
"And
the Angel that talked with me," verse 1. "The
Angel that talked with me," verse 4. The parallel of
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." A strange way of putting things. Did ever
anyone 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, yet we
beg to stress that in this case it is not the voice of
man in view, and it is not primarily the voice at all,
but it is that there is something God has to say, and
that 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 it is 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 much 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? Not only in the matter of preaching, but
in the whole organisation and activity of
"Christianity" as we have it in the
systematised 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 the preacher
must make something for the constantly recurring
occasion. This is a pernicious system and it opens the
door to any number of 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, and 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." "And I turned to see the
voice that 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, the eyes of your heart being enlightened."
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 is not only 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 - 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
in the deepest sense are not in "revelation."
(This is not meant as a criticism). The difference too
often is that of a ministry to the mind or head, and not 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 men but by
revelation." That is the beginning of an inwardness
of things which may have many crisic issues. One of these
is the one 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, though usually costly.
Would to God that there
was an adequate number at this time who, like the men of
Issachar "had knowledge of the times." 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 credentials may well
be the answer upon the basis of God having shown
something very concrete. It is not a 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 rather pertinent 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 His
prophets. It is for this that He reacts, and the end-time
must see a renewal of His reaction.
Now ignoring 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 both 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 undimmed 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 manward. 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. So 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 has its true value and vitality. The instructions
for the making of the Candlestick in Exodus 24 and 37 are
full of the richest significance. First in these is the
material - "pure gold."
If it is to have a
sevenfold fulness, 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, and He
- 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 He has again and again so reacted
since.
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 Corner-stone
of the House of God. It was a grand thing, though very
costly, but all too soon men pulled it down on to the
earth, and the "Protestant Church" as such
issued; a tree under the branches of which almost every
kind of credal bird can lodge, and 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 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 a
missionary society or adjunct to the Church, but 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 that
there has been considerable spiritual loss.
A further reaction of
God is seen in the Wesleys and Whitfleld. 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 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 case of those who are now known as
"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 only questions, not
charges. Indeed, all that we have said is not meant as a
charge or as a criticism. We are seeking to speak
constructively, not destructively. Many more are the
reactions of God through the past nineteen centuries, but
we only use these by way of illustration. It will be seen
that each fresh movement was in advance of those before
in the matter of truth recovered. So that from the Divine
stand-point 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 into which there will come only such as come by
deep inward exercise, so that it is a matter of
common spiritual travail and inwroughtness.
What next comes before
us in this 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 or men as witness or
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 which
stand before 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 speech was concerning the High
Priesthood and its ministry, and the second speech of 5:1, is concerning the Government or sovereignty. This
interpreted prophetically relates to the Lord Jesus. His
High Priestly work and position first come 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."
Here we reach the central meaning of the vision as to the
executing 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,
organisation, 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
necessarily factors at all. It will have to be recognised
that education, business ability, worldly wisdom,
personal ability, 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, the very
first consideration should ever be as to whether this is
the case. There is a wisdom, judgment, discernment,
knowledge, understanding by the Holy Spirit which is the
only kind which is equal to that which 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
fulness 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 Zerubbabel 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 also shall
finish it."
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 topstone 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, "Who hath
despised
The
Day of Small Things?"
There is an unhealthy
lust for big things amongst the Lord's people in these
days. Something to attract attention, to impress; 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.
God has ever found it
necessary to reduce in order to get and maintain what
will preserve the recognition of wholly Divine factors.
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" 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." What is that? Well, the seven eyes
symbolise the perfection of spiritual vision, taking 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 and mind that
by it He can correct what is not so, and show the
all-unsuspected leanings, angles, bulgings, 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 such to Him! It will
cost! It will not be a popular ministry, but it will be
precious to the Lord.
As we close it will be
no little gain to note the names of the Lord in this
chapter. The thing 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.
First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Mar-Apr 1967, Vol 45-2