Communion, Work and Encouragement
The history of the remnant returned from Babylon is of real interest and suggests much that is so important for guidance. It is profitable for us to consider, for the same grace which watched over, encouraged, and bore with them now watches over us. If we are truly humbled about our own failure, we must realize that grace is our only resource.
Never-Failing Grace
Glancing backward for a little, there was a time when Israel as a nation answered to the twelve loaves on the table of showbread. But that state of things ceased, and the nation was divided. Israel, beginning with idolatry, ended with judgment, while Judah, preserved in grace for a time, also departed from Jehovah and was carried into Babylon. Night settled down upon the scene of testimony. Never-failing grace would still, however, have something suitable to itself. The ever-merciful Jehovah accordingly restores a feeble few to the land, gathering them to the original center with a divinely-wrought desire to have Him duly recognized. His Spirit remained among them (Hag. 2:55According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not. (Haggai 2:5)), and Jehovah would have them erect a house for His name, in which He would find pleasure (Hag. 1:88Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. (Haggai 1:8)), however small this temple would be compared with Solomon’s.
They also are permitted to enter into that pleasure, and their joy rises upward while they sing, “His mercy endureth forever” (Ezra 3:1111And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. (Ezra 3:11)). They also add in unselfish faith, “toward Israel” — faith which does not restrict God in His gracious acts, but loves to reckon upon His faithfulness towards all of His people. Here God sees something to meet His mind; a seven-branched golden candlestick, yielding light amid all the darkness in virtue of the golden oil which His grace supplies (Zech. 4:12-1312And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? 13And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. (Zechariah 4:12‑13)). But testimony to Him as Lord of all the earth in administrative power (which gave the table of showbread its significance) remained with the Gentiles. In this way God thought of the restored remnant, though it was contemptible in the eyes of those who did not know Him or His ways. So today that same grace establishes and maintains heavenly testimony concerning Christ at God’s right hand. His present place is the seal of the world’s condemnation; they rejected Him who came in grace, because He came in weakness. For this reason the world refused Him His place (which Jewish testimony claimed) as “Lord of the whole earth.” Now it is more deeply guilty in having formally cast out that same blessed One when He came in tenderest pity, “reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them” (2 Cor. 5:1919To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:19)).
But the godly remnant of Judah, as is typical of man, became occupied with its own weakness, instead of with a God who turns man’s weakness to His own glory. Through lack of faith they became discouraged, for man is glad of any reasonable excuse to slip out of his responsibility. Circumstances may arise which try his devotedness (compare Ezra 4:23-24; 5:1-2,523Now when the copy of king Artaxerxes' letter was read before Rehum, and Shimshai the scribe, and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem unto the Jews, and made them to cease by force and power. 24Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia. (Ezra 4:23‑24)
1Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them. 2Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem: and with them were the prophets of God helping them. (Ezra 5:1‑2)
5But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, that they could not cause them to cease, till the matter came to Darius: and then they returned answer by letter concerning this matter. (Ezra 5:5)), but in this man also finds an occasion for what pleases his flesh better — self-aggrandizement or gratification. How natural to hearts which were growing lukewarm it was to obey the king’s command! And more than this, they ceased to build God’s house and found an opportunity for embellishing their own houses (Hag. 1:1,4,91In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, (Haggai 1:1)
4Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? (Haggai 1:4)
9Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. (Haggai 1:9)).
Haggai and Zechariah Enter the Scene
At this point, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah enter upon the scene, having been sent by God to rally the backslidden remnant. Their zeal is in keeping with the magnitude of the evil of abandoning the work on God’s house, when the temple is viewed as that in which the glory of Jehovah was essentially involved (Hag. 1:88Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. (Haggai 1:8)). This aspect of devotedness is outside the thoughts of those who contemplate only man’s blessing and happiness. To such, the gathering of a feeble few around the center which God recognizes is a matter of no importance — a waste of time and trouble, and especially should this gathering hinder a “movement “which has in view (as they think) the benefit of man.
The Two Leaders
In Zechariah 3-4 the prophet Zechariah addressed the two chief actors in this blessed work of God — Joshua and Zerubbabel. The dealings of God with His two beloved servants at this juncture display the most precious grace and wisdom. Each is dealt with according to the responsibilities of his office: the high priest Joshua, as worshipper, is engaged with the foundation; Zerubbabel, the workman, with the superstructure. At the outset, communion with God, seen especially in Joshua’s case, introduces the question of fitness to approach God. The carrying forward of the work, in the case of Zerubbabel, suggests the question of adequate strength.
Joshua and the Foundation
Thus in the prophet’s vision, conscience-smitten Joshua stands mute before God, while the accuser pleads against him.God, while admitting Joshua’s state, in love takes up his cause. Happy the portion of him whom God renders sensible of guilt, and thus silent before Him, but only to teach him what divine love can do for him against all who would condemn and with him when humbled about the state of God’s people! The accuser being silenced, Joshua is dealt with according to that love and clothed with the robe of righteousness. The iniquity is removed, and Joshua duly established in his office (vss. 5-7); he is also made fully aware of the responsibility attaching to his position. To sustain him here, and those who “sit before” him in similar testimony, Christ is prophetically introduced by an assurance based upon the foundation-stone already laid before Joshua (vss. 8-9). This is no doubt a figure of the blessed One of whom God has said, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious.” Thus is Joshua drawn by infinite love into nearness with God, that he may see, together with God, what is involved in their present undertaking, and taste the delight which He finds in viewing what foreshadowed His beloved Son. His eyes are engaged with that One whom Scripture calls “the Branch,” and only those who are blind to God’s purposes would fail to see, in the work they were so ready to abandon, the expression of God’s grace to them and an occasion for showing their gratitude to God for what He had just done in their restoration.
Zerubbabel and the Building
These considerations have led us from the foundation to the building. All was contemptible to man, but everything for the comfort of the faithful heart, which has learned to rest in God’s estimate of things. He is pleased with what man is prone to despise. Jesus moved among the base things of this world, was crucified in weakness, and was despised and rejected of men. It is well for the soul to have realized what God has said of the believer — “dead with Christ” — from the scene where He was sold for “thirty pieces of silver”; it was well for Zerubbabel (Zech. 4) to have God’s mind concerning that “day of small things.” God says, “Not by might, nor by power,” but these are just the things which fill the eye amid Babylon’s splendor and display; they are just the things that all are reckoning upon now for the accomplishment of the many “movements” for the benefit of man. This same occupation with might and power can also be a snare to many who are content with the day of small things, but who have not yet learned to see God in them. We must be content also with the power which is alone adequate to sustain them — a power known only to faith, which, when apprehended, is sure to eclipse everything known to man.
Shall Zerubbabel now shudder beneath the discouraging shadow of the “great [Gentile] mountain” and condescend to reckon upon its aid? When he uses by faith the power with which he is furnished, the great mountain melts, and all man’s display is mere vanity. God finds pleasure in the day of small things, while sin is characterized by display. What joy it is to Him to undertake afresh what is a matter of rejoicing (vs. 10), to Him whose seven eyes run to and fro through the whole earth! God ever delights to furnish conscious weakness with strength — strength adequate to undertake and accomplish those things in which He would have us act for Him.
The heart needs two things which characterize life: first, energy, which desires an object to go after, to win Christ; second, the peaceful, quiet enjoyment of the place we are in. This is rest — the happiness of knowing a settled, unclouded relationship. Relationship goes on beyond the glory, for after the kingdom and all is over, we shall still be children.
Christian Friend, Vol. 6, page 62 (adapted)