The person of the high priest represented the whole people; but the power and anointing of the Holy Ghost, in the fragrance of grace, was that which united the whole people; so exactly in Christ-one Spirit, one Body. They shall in that day appoint themselves one head; they shall not be two people any more in the land, and this not only in form, but in spirit and unity of blessing. Hermon caught, in its lofty head, the dew, or produced it, but it fell in the central place of divine blessing. Thus ministering the power of unity, Hermon was called Sion; but it was written with S, not Z. This seems to be Zion, as we ordinarily understand, where the Lord commanded His blessing and life for evermore. It was the place of grace, the Hill of grace. Though Hermon, whose head was in heaven as it were, was the attractive place of dew, yet it was the dew of Hermon, but it fell on Zion—the Spirit will be poured on them from on high, and "Ephraim will no more vex Judah, nor Judah envy Ephraim, but " etc.
"Behold how good, how pleasant a thing, the dwelling" (rest) "of brethren, even unity together!" How good and how pleasant surely is it! The literal fact of this shall be in the restoration of Israel. It is the word of the Spirit of Christ, on their all being brought together in rest, as the same in Balaam, on the vision of Israel below. It is the vision of Pisgah—of Christ over Israel, and the expression of His heart to them thereon. The statement of truth in it, "Behold, how good"—then it shall be realized. In Him they were to appoint one head, and the great day of Jezreel to be the whole seed of God. No longer a stick of Ephraim and a stick of Judah, Judah vexing Ephraim and Ephraim Judah, Ephraim Manasseh, and Manasseh Ephraim, and they together against Judah, but dwelling together—brethren—one stick in His hand; as there was a partial restoration from Babylon, and though not the body of the tribes, an indiscriminate recognition of them, and Christ sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But, on the rejection of Christ, the staff "Bands" was broken, though the poor of the flock that waited on Him knew it was the Word of the Lord; and yet more fully in the day of their trouble, when I doubt not there will be more of this vexation than ever before, not taking the apparent restoration in temporal blessings, but waiting for Messiah; for this will be their trial, because of the Word of the Lord. When the trouble comes it will be proof of the truth of the word of the Lord, but when He takes the power, and His horn is made to bud, then comes the unity—they dwell together in unity—and there is the goodness and pleasantness.
Its comprehensiveness, and indefectiveness, is a great thing in this; for if there be brethren and not united, the very necessity of their love causes sorrow. Their being brethren is as a root of bitterness to their soul. "The precious ointment" must go "to the skirts of the garment," or "the head" itself could not be happy or content. The oil that was there would be the witness that it was not on the skirt, but now the uniting power of divine love, in Christ, shall gather them, in this unction from the Head, into unity, and like the copious dew of Hermon's blessing falling on the mountains of Zion; for though Hermon was called Zion, I believe here it alludes to Zion in the center of blessing in the south, and thus the dews of Hermon, and all there—a communicated blessing for them, i.e., in Zion. The Lord has "commanded" emphatically "the blessing, life for evermore," or "the age" perhaps, for o-lam (evermore) has the article.
It is then, the declaration of Christ—the Word of Christ to His brethren—of "How good and pleasant it is" for them "to dwell together in unity." The appeal to it, as now existing by His deliverance, symbolized by the unction from head to the skirt of the garment, and the refreshment of the dew of heaven on the whole land, coming from Hermon but centering in that place of blessing—Zion—and that, the point where blessing is commanded—the center of unity—the anointing and the dew from heaven, holy savor, and refreshing in it, then filling the land spiritually; seen now, in so far as the Spirit gathers in unity, by the free spirit there, not tarrying for men, nor waiting for the sons of men, and having the present savor of God.