The history of the remnant returned from Babylon has peculiar interest; and suggesting much that is so important for guidance, it cannot be considered without profit by those who would understand its typical bearing upon ourselves, inasmuch as it is the same grace which watched over, encouraged, and bore with that backsliding company then (Hag. 1:5-115Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. 6Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. 7Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. 8Go 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. 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. 10Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. 11And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands. (Haggai 1:5‑11)), which those conscious of failure now need to know as their only resource, whilst in shamefacedness they are bowed down under a sense of the reality and magnitude of their failure (See Dan. 9:2020And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; (Daniel 9:20)).
Glancing backward for a little, time was when in Israel’s day the nation answered to the twelve loaves on the table of shewbread; but that state of things ceased, the nation divided-Israel, beginning with idolatry, ended with judgment; Judah, preserved in grace for David’s line for a time, also departed from Jehovah, and was carried into Babylon—night settling down upon the scene of testimony. Never-failing grace, notwithstanding all, would still maintain 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, whose Spirit remained amongst 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)), by erecting a house for His name, in which He would vouchsafe to 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 mean this temple would be compared with that demolished through their sin.
They too are permitted to enter into that pleasure, and their inward joy rises upward towards its blessed source while they sing, “For 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)), “toward Israel,” adds unselfish faith, which, so far from circumscribing God in His gracious actings, loves to reckon upon His faithfulness towards all within the spheres of His revealed relationship. 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. 4:12,1-312And 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? (Zechariah 4:12)
1And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, 2And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: 3And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. (Zechariah 4:1‑3)). Testimony to Him as Lord of all the earth (vs. 14), perfect, in a sense, though administrative power, which gave the table of shewbread its significance, remained with the Gentiles. Thus thought God of the restored remnant, though contemptible in the eyes of those who knew Him not nor His ways. So in church days that same grace established and maintained heavenly testimony concerning the accepted One at God’s right hand, whose present place is the seal of the world’s condemnation, because of having rejected Him when He came in grace, and because He came in weakness. Once the world refused Him the place which Jewish testimony claimed as “Lord of the whole earth.” Now it is more deeply culpable in having formally cast out that same blessed One when He came, though in tenderest pity. God was in Christ 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 man, alas! getting occupied with his own weakness, through lack of faith, rather than with Him who finds in it only occasion for bringing glory to Himself, becomes discouraged, and is glad of any reasonable excuse to slip out of his responsibility. He does so when in this condition. Circumstances 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)); but in this he also finds an occasion for what pleases flesh better; namely, self-aggrandizement or gratification. How natural to hearts which were growing lukewarm it was to obey the King’s command! Not more so than that, ceasing to build God’s house, they found an opportunity for embellishing each his own (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)). At this point the prophets Haggai and Zechariah enter upon the scene, having been sent by God to rally the backslidden remnant. Their zeal in the matter is commensurate with the magnitude the evil of abandoning the work assumes, 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 is an aspect of devotedness outside the whole range of thought of those who only, or habitually, contemplate man’s blessing and happiness. To such the gathering of a feeble few around the center which God is pleased to recognize is a matter of no moment—waste time and trouble, prejudicial in fact—should this gathering in any way cramp or hinder a “movement” which has in view “the benefit (as man thinks) of the community.”
In the chapters named the prophet Zechariah is addressing 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 exigencies of his office—the high priest 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; carrying forward the work, in the case of Zerubbabel, suggests the question of adequate strength. Thus in the prophet’s vision conscience-smitten Joshua stands mute before God, while the accuser pleads against him; and God, while admitting Joshua’s state, in love takes up his cause. Happy the portion of him whom God renders sensible of guilt, and silent in that sense, only to teach him what Divine love can do for him against all who would condemn, and with him when bowed down under the burden of a state which conscience can but own! The accuser being silenced by the authority of Him, the object of whose blessed love Joshua now is, he is dealt with according to that love, in full view of the righteousness which cannot wink at iniquity. The iniquity is removed, the robe is provided and the miter, and Joshua duly established in his office (vss. 5-7), being then also made fully sensible 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), by God Himself too—watched over, and engraved by Him, 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 the arms of infinite, condescending love, into the nearness in which he may see with God what is involved in their present undertaking, and taste the delight which He finds in viewing what foreshadowed His beloved Son, upon whom all their hopes hang. His seven eyes are engaged with it; and it is only those who are dull to apprehend the glory promised in connection with “the Branch,” and blind to the dignity conferred upon the present basis of their operations by being linked with Him, that would not find, in what they were so ready to abandon, at once the expression of God’s grace to them, and an occasion for evincing the sincerity of their gratitude to God for what He had just done in their restoration.
These considerations have led us from the foundation to the building. All was contemptible to man, because outside the course of great things where he ever loves to move. It is everything for the faithful heart’s comfort, which has learned to rest in God’s estimate of things, to find that He is pleased with what man is prone to despise. Jesus moved amongst the base things, was crucified in weakness, and was despised and rejected of men. Well for the soul that has more than the world’s estimate of the lowly Nazarene, and has realized what God has said of the believer, “dead with Christ,” from the scene where He was sold for “thirty pieces of silver;” well for Zerubbabel (chap. 4) to have God’s mind concerning that “day of small things.” “Not by might, nor by power,” just the things which would be likely to fill the eye amid Babylon’s splendor and display; just the things that all are reckoning upon now for the accomplishment of the many “movements” on foot for the benefit of man; the very possible snare, too, of many who, by their profession, are content with the day of small things, but who have not yet learned to see God in them; and to 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, notwithstanding all his splendor, accompanied by a wisdom which writes confusion upon all his pretentious organizations by the word, “My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.”
Shall Zerubbabel now shudder beneath the discouraging shadow of the “great mountain,” condescend to reckon upon its aid, or even borrow in any way from the pretentious scenes of his people’s shame? Using by faith the power with which he is furnished, the great mountain melts, and all man’s display is mere vanity when he walks contentedly with the God who finds pleasure in the day of small things, while sin characterizes 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—the matter of rejoicing, may we not add? to Him who ever delights to furnish conscious weakness with strength adequate to undertake and accomplish those things in which He would have us act as to Him.
J. K.
Two things the heart wants which characterize life: energy, which desires an object to go after, to win Christ; and secondly, 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: after the kingdom, and all is over, we shall still be children.