THE UPBUILDING OF THE COMMUNITY

Chapter 4.

This naturally follows the restoration and purification of the Church. Joshua, their ecclesiastical ruler, has been installed into office; and now a suitable message has to be prepared and conveyed to their civil head, Zerubbabel. This is the meaning of Zech. iv. In most communities the distinction between the two spheres is easily defined and appreciated, and no serious difficulty is experiened in specifying the functions of each. But in Israel's case, the two offices were so closely allied, and the religious factor so strongly accentuated as in chap, iii., that the prophet must have felt it a delicate task, not simply to hold the balance between them, but to find any place in his ideal kingdom for the person and work of Zerubbabel. The delicacy of this problem, and not any spiritual exhaustion produced by the preceding visions, is sufficient to account for the significant pause observable in ver. I. He had lingered so long in the grove of myrtles trying to reconcile these conflicting interests, that a considerable interval elapsed before he was able to throw into shape his fully-matured convictions. And when the truth did dawn upon his mind with all the force of a divine illumination, he could only liken it to a return of his angel interpreter, and a spirit-taught awakening out of sleep. "The angel that talked with me came again, and waked me; as a man that is waked (daily1 ) out of sleep."

1. The Re-emphasising of Israel's Spiritual Calling.

The message to Zerubbabel can only begin with a re-affirming of Israel's spiritual calling. "He said unto me, What seest thou (cf. Jer. i. 12)? And I said, I see, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl (LXX) upon the top of it, and its seven lamps thereon; and seven pipes to the lamps which are upon it (omitting the first ‘ seven ' with the LXX); and two olive trees by it, one upon its right side (Kittel) and the other upon its left. And I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, lord? Then the angel that talked with me, said... This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by martial force ( Heersmacht, Orelli) nor by power, but by My spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."

One can have no hesitation in saying that this is a perfect picture of Israel's spiritual ideal. The seven-branched candlestick is an expressive symbol of the holy nation engaged in priestly service. She had been chosen of God to reflect His praise and to illumine the surrounding darkness, until, all darkness being scattered, the whole earth would become a tabernacle filled with heaven's own light. Her election, therefore, did not mean the rejection of others. Why should the shutting in of some be the means of shutting others out? This is not the meaning of election in any age. It was election to serve, and the very idea of service implied that the others could be served. Instead of leading the way to a Judaism that hated humanity, divine revelation was ever seeking to utter the words: — "Mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples" (Isa. lvi. 7). And thus the priestly nation, having been bathed in the laver of purification (chap, iii.), was now summoned by the symbolism of the golden candlestick to enter into the service of Jehovah, and hold aloft the torch of truth among the surrounding nations.

Election and inspiration — this is the teaching of the oil. The candlestick had to be fed continually with "pure olive oil beaten" — that is, oil prepared in the way which yielded the whitest, purest light by beating the unripe, green olives in a mortar (Ex. xxvii. 20). And this, as all expositors agree, is a suggestive symbol of the divine spirit. "It is not by might nor by power, but by My spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." This is the application of the figure made in Zechariah's vision, when the attending angel interpreted the two olive trees that stood beside the golden lampstand, and fed it perpetually with consecrated oil. The light which Israel was to give back in service was first of all divinely supplied by inspiration. The shining was dependent on the anointing. No one was sent a warring on his own charges. The calling was supplemented by the chrism of a divine endowment.

In the light of this higher teaching what was the duty of every true patriot in Jerusalem? Was it not to conserve the sanctity, and enforce the spirituality of Israel's high calling? Israel's ideal, as already noted, was not political, but religious. She was not an empire, but a Church. Hence if the leaders in general, or Zerubbabel in particular, were cherishing any secular ambitions in connection with the restoration of Jerusalem, the sooner they surrendered this illusive dream, and found their supreme concern in the higher interests of religion, the sooner would they gain a firm footing in the holy land, and rise to their destined place in the approved comity of nations. It was the lack of this which had proved Israel's snare in the past. The dream of a political supremacy, or the hope of holding their own amid the clash of empires, had ever been the ignis fatuus which allured their fathers to their doom. Both Ephraim and Judah had become joined to these idols; and therefore, first in Samaria, and then in Jerusalem, they had the downfall of the State. It had been a ruinous policy from first to last; and if the old folly was not to be repeated in the times of the second temple, the solemn teaching given to Zerubbabel must be laid seriously to heart, that it was not by martial force or political ascendency that Israel was to rise to future greatness, but by absolute devotion to the spirit of the theocracy which alone could make her a burning and a shining lamp — a divine lampstand, replenished not by anything human, but by the perennial and inexhaustible supplies of God's covenant mercy. It was a sacred calling — one far beyond the sparks of Israel's own kindling. The torch that was to lighten the world must be lit at the altar of God. She required an unction from the Holy One.

2. The Part Played by Zerubbabel.

According to the present vision the r61e of the civil ruler was to be confined to the erection of the temple. Instead of being directed to the founding and strengthening of a State, he was summoned to support the leaders of the sacerdotal order in their efforts to reorganise the worship. And if he did so with devotion — resisting the temptation to bring Israel into an independent position by consolidating her external power — he was promised that the difficulties which had lain so long in the way of the temple restoration would be removed out of his path — levelled by the command and divine assistance of Jehovah, Israel's God. Every high hill would be brought low. This is the teaching of verses 7-10, which may be paraphrased as follows: — "That great mountain which stands before Zerubbabel I will set as a plain (Kittel's emendation); and he shall bring forth the headstone amid the acclamations and prayers of the people. For thus saith the Lord, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands shall finish (it); and despite the gloomy forebodings of some who bemoan the insignificance of its beginning, the seven eyes of Jehovah shall see with joy the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel, and mart with approbation the dedicatory services connected with that auspicious day. And if even divine Omniscience thus approve of the temple dedication, who can presume to depreciate or ridicule the work?"

Did the old men who moved about among the rising walls of the temple affect to despise it? Did they help to discourage the hearts of the builders by dwelling upon the dimensions of the former sanctuary, and peevishly suggest that the present building was as nothing in their eyes (Hag. ii. 3)? The disparagement was utterly inexcusable. It had only the semblance of validity, if one was prepared to ignore the greatness of Israel's spiritual ideal. Viewed in the light of that higher teaching, the complaint was not worthy of those who sought to keep in touch with present necessities, and who were still capable of being thrilled with the buoyancy of a spirit-taught hope. To men who had caught a glimpse of Israel's future — and surely Zerubbabel would try to be one of them — its comparatively insignificant beginning did not appear as a day of small things; for even now, in the light of their spiritual destiny, it was big with the promise of what might yet be. It was not unlike the bursting of the seed in springtime. Anyone may stand priestlike beside the opening bud, and say, "It doth not yet appear what it shall be"; for rolled up in its tiny folds, as in a cradle, is the germinal principle of animation, and this is endowed with the mysterious property and potency of growth. Massive and inert may be the weight of brown earth through which the tender blade has to push its way upwards in the spring; but the slender spike of green is a living thing, and we cannot afford to despise the feebleness of its origin; for it will yet help to cover the entire field with the fulness and glory of harvest.

Besides, the part played by Zerubbabel is not to be exhausted by the temple dedication. Faithfulness at the present juncture will be rewarded and crowned by an ever-increasing service in the future. He, too, will be accepted as a man of "portent." The prince, no less than the priest, is a type of the coming "Branch." In truth, the completion of the temple is only an august beginning. It will be succeeded, in due course, by the erection of the city walls. And these, in turn, will sweep out into that ideal kingdom depicted in chap. ii. 8 (Heb.), when Jerusalem will be inhabited as villages without walls, and when royalty, no less than priesthood, will prepare the way for the Messianic fulfilment, and usher in God's Servant, the Branch, who is both King and Priest. Is this not the precise teaching of verses 11-14? "Then

answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick, and upon the left side thereof? And (not waiting for an answer) I asked the second time, saying, What be these two olive branches (or, tufts, from which the oil flows into the bowl, Orelli) which by means of the two golden spouts (or, beaks, LXX) empty the golden oil out of themselves? And he answered me, and said... These are the two sons of oil (R.V.) that stand by the Lord of the whole earth." In other language, the two olive trees are the two offices of kingship and priesthood, instituted in Israel by the chrism of a divine anointing; and the two tufts, which empty the golden oil into the bowl, are the two representatives of these offices, viz., Zerubbabel and Joshua — the whole symbolism being well designed to teach Israel that so long as her civil and religious affairs were administered with discretion, so long would Jehovah enable them, through these appointed channels, not only to triumph over their present difficulties, but to shine as a lamp among the surrounding nations, and usher in the greatness and glory of the Messianic age. Zerubbabel is not set before Joshua, and still less is Joshua set before Zerubbabel. They are placed on a footing of perfect equality beside the Lord of the whole earth, and the conflicting interests connected with the two offices are most happily reconciled. The one leader may simply use the trowel in the furtherance of Israel's cause, while the other uses the censer and sprinkles the sacrificial blood; but if a similar spirit of devotion be found behind the two actions, the services of the two representatives will be divinely equalised. Only let Zerubbabel do his part well in helping to reorganise the worship, and both his official position and personal service will be duly recognised and acknowledged. There is no distinction between secular and sacred in the spiritual ideal of Israel. The divine spirit of the theocracy may be equally honoured in both; and "those that honour Me, I will honour."

3. The Meaning of the Vision for Us.

Instead of being weakened or eclipsed by the greatness of the Messianic fulfilment, it has only been illumined and intensified by being "baptized into Christ." There is (1) the lesson of the divine fulness of blessing as symbolised by the oil. The two olive trees which stood beside the golden lampstand were the type of a perennial and inexhaustible supply. There was no need, as in the Mosaic tabernacle, to replenish daily the exhausted lamps, or to prepare the oil according to divine prescription, so as to secure the highest degree of excellence in the light. Human agency in this respect was not introduced at all. The two living trees produced by themselves an abundant and unfading supply, and by means of the two golden spouts which communicated with the bowl upon the lampstand, they fed the seven lamps with a continuous stream of oil, which was the type of Israel's fulness of blessing received from Jehovah. And that divine fulness is intended for us. In the God of Israel there is a sufficiency of grace and goodness for all His creatures. No one is asked to remove mountains in his own strength. No one is expected to shine like a lamp in the sparks of his own kindling. No one is under any necessity of preparing the oil or creating a holy spirit for himself. "If ye know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy spirit to them that ask him?" That spirit presses everywhere like the air we breathe. It is the very breath of God touching the soul. And when, like the incoming tide, it fills every crevice and fissure along the shore, the individual life, instead of being impoverished and weak, is filled unto all "the fulness of God."

But, again (2), we have the channels through which the consecrated oil had to be conveyed. It was conveyed by means of the two sons of oil who stood by the Lord of the whole earth. And these two sons of oil, or the representatives of royalty and priesthood, are, as most expositors admit, fitly taken up and fulfilled in the great Antitype, who was at once King and Priest. Through the kingly and priestly offices of Christ we have the one mediatorial channel through which the holy anointing oil is conveyed to man. And thus we have the mystic teaching of all the New Testament writers, that the gifts and graces of the divine spirit are brought near to us in and through Him. It is only as we keep ourselves in vital contact with Christ that we enter, in any measure, into the divine fulness of grace, holiness, and comfort, which are represented to us in the golden lampstand. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?" No Zerubbabel in the church to-day has profited as he might have done by the teaching of the golden candlestick, who has not sought pardon and life, fitness and power to shine, through the royal and priestly functions of God's divine Son.

For (3) all this is necessary in view of the spirituality of Israel's ideal. That ideal is equally incumbent on us. "Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light" (1 Pet. ii. 9). There are both election and endowment in the priesthood of Christian men — election to serve, and endowment of the Holy Ghost — and both derived from Him who walks amidst the seven golden candlesticks and holds the seven stars in His right hand (Rev. i. 13). Elected to serve, perhaps to suffer, certainly to shine — to shine like stars in the darkness of midnight when no eye sees but God's. Who is sufficient for this service? No one who trusts in his own wisdom, and is blind to the forces that are divine. It is not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts. The lampstand that is to illumine the tabernacle of the world must be lit at the altar of God. We, too, need an unction from the Holy One.

1 The frequentative imperfect denotes the repeated experience of a man, and is quite distinct from the single, completed action depicted by the perfect in chap. ii. 17 (Heb.).