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MARK TIME WITH SYMBOLS

MAKE TIME WITH SIGNIFICANCE

Zechariah is a prophecy so evangelical, so messianic, so filled with symbols and certifying in significance that it leaves one as if panting near the summit of some steep climb, admiring the view and waiting for the finale.

Just look at a few of these features, like eminences seen from on high on some path, as you await your final ascent to the all-mastering pinnacle of altitude, above.

Below, in each case, first comes the symbol in the prophetic work, then the meaning, to be developed next.

	THE STONE AND THE BRANCH - THE CROSS AND THE GOAL
	THE SCROLL - THE JUDICIAL CRITERION FOR FINAL WORLDWIDE JUDGMENT
	THE BASKET - THE REVOLUTIONARY, CORRUPTIVE COUNTER-FORCE
	THE CROWN AND THE BRANCH - THE KING AND THE COLLABORATIVE FORCE

.As it were permeating all this, are the

OLIVE TREE WITH ITS BRANCHES, THE OIL AND THE LAMPS -
THE TESTIMONY OF THE LORD, MOVING THROUGHOUT HISTORY
TO THE TIME OF HIS COMING (Zech. 14:5).

Here in Zechariah, some half-millenium before Christ came to this earth, to demonstrate deity in human clothing and with human suffering leading to the Cross of sin-cancellation for His people, you have doctrines from the incarnation to the crucifixion, from the irrevocable judgments of God on those who reject His mercy to the irrevocable evils of those inured to good and enslaved by sins without faith, hope or the love of God. You have alike the criteria of sincerity and the unrepenting corrosives of the misleaders, the products of the atonement and the straight paths of spirituality. It uses symbols but rests in realities.

We turn to the first of the chosen symbols used in Zechariah.

Here in Zechariah 3, you see initially the rebuke to formalism, and by contrast, the realities of spirituality. THOUGH Joshua here is a high priest, yet his filthy clothes (cf. Isaiah 64:6) are to be removed by divine grace, and a new set of those of spiritual enduement from the wet-cleaning of God are provided (cf. Zechariah 13:1). While these things, too, are symbolic in format, and could be added to our little array listed above, this is not a commentary on Zechariah, but a selection of symbols and significance. This episode is mentioned as part of the symbol chosen here, that of the Branch and the stone.

Incidentally, it should be made clear that while for Joshua, such new clothes would represent what is cleansed, washed in the blood of the Lamb to be (as in Zechariah 11-12), yet to the extent the symbol expresses Christ Himself, they would be of an original purity. It depends simply on this, whether you are considering the symbol in terms of the one to represent it, or the substance, Christ Himself, to whom the whole depiction refers. The symbolised man thus is one aspect, and the One who made man, the other. With Joshua himself, the context of the removal of robes makes it clear by what means he could even be a SYMBOL!

Without godliness, there is nothing. The Cross pays for the removal of the exclusion, the resurrection enables the inclusion, the Holy Spirit applies the solution and strengthens with light and love, with comfort and guidance; while this total marvel of divine brilliance, like the D-Day work at the end of World War II, enables LIBERATION from the enemy and INCLUSION in the ways of liberty. With God, these ways are those of GODLINESS, forwarded by blessed sanctification here, concluded in the completion in the resurrection, when even the body is transformed and conformed to the likeness of His, who being first raised, raised the causeway to haven (I Corinthians 15:22-25, I John 3).

For sin, this "IF" is a condition. To redemption, it is a description. The law as in II Timothy 1, is for wrong-doers. The Lord is for His people, and He will never leave nor forsake them, whether it be a case of Joshua (Joshua 1:5, 1:9) or Paul (II Timothy 1:8ff.). It does however make it quite clear that formality and hypocrisy are not the criterion of life in the Lord. It is functional because it is covered and adopted, anointed, empowered and indwelt.

Thus we come to the STONE. On it is inscribed the iniquities which it covers, as described by Isaiah in 49-55, before Zechariah's time. Such is this work that IN ONE DAY, this grand transaction is wrought, and in Zechariah 12:10, we see how, and by whom (that is, it is the LORD HIMSELF, on whom this is done in this so intensely human fashion).

The BRANCH appears in all this as living format, the critical agency, deity incarnate, from the root of Jesse, humanly the descendant of David (Isaiah 11:1) who with divine jurisdiction is to rule this earth, the key and cornerstone alike to the believer's entry into the felicities of heaven, from which He, this same Messiah has come.......

Now we come to the scroll (leaving Ch. 4 till later). It contains writing. It flies throughout the earth. It cannot be stopped. It cannot be changed. It is aerial in motion, celestial in origin, final in judgment, because its words are truth. The WHOLE EARTH is its target. It sends the curse of God, and it includes religious renegacy as well as material theft, that is, stealing the honour of God or the goods of others. This is the law as in Romans 1-2, before which none can stand, whether because of carnal acts, or a carnal spirit which ignores the falling short of the glory of God and still stoops to self-affirmation in the presence of the Creator. To such, the scroll signifies ruin.

ONLY by the mercy of the Messiah as in Zechariah 3, and to come in Zechariah 9, 11 and 12-13 is there escape from this (cf. Hebrews 6:19).

While this scroll, akin in certain ways to a radioactive shower, but one here deserved because its impact is dispensable by grace, removable by mercy and called for by justice, comes a further intrusion into the field of deliverance.

It is the inveterate, self-willed, deceptive, delusive cargo of the basket. This flies like a Persian carpet in fairy stories, but without anything fey about it in reality, to a place. This Shinar, as in Genesis 10:10, Isaiah 11:11, is a place evidently in lower Mesopotamia, taken up in its time by is Babylon. The nature which it came to possess as Babylon had already been expounded in Jeremiah 50-51 as the very essence of religious renegacy, proliferation, impiety, ruinous arrogance and sin-laden synthesis, such as is common today in the fatal aspirations of devil-collaborating man in his leadership to the fastnesses of hell.

Consider the passion of the repudiation of this spirit and in the case of Babylon, the city which was so largely inhabited by it, as in Jeremiah.

Thus we turn to Jeremiah 50:17ff.. Red print will be used for those parts which have the most direct relationship to the parallel in Zechariah.

The crucial points about Babylon were these: it was most haughty, it lifted itself up as if the final edition of truth, the final publication of power in this universe, it had no restraint, and it took sacred things from the Temple which God had appointed for a testimony, and savaged Israel, who for all its sins, has a Redeemer who (in a kind of British understatement) is ... strong.

Hence devastation comes to a city, to a nation, to one which did not bother with divinely sent symbols, a divinely sent people or a divine declaration and revelation for the earth, but asserting itself without impediment to power, though used to chastise the Lord's people, Israel for its sins, yet became itself a target for the concentration of all blasphemy and cruelty, bewitchment with gods that are not there, power that is limited and pomp that is mere show for a season, till the time of judgment sits. So it was. So it is, in its developing form as 'mystery Babylon' (Revelation 17) today.

Babylon in its day would even lay hands on the holy, and engineer this and that for the people and the testimony ? It would do this to Israel ? It would so treat the abiding testimony so located ?

This is the way to irremediable judgment on the earth, to interfere even with the emblems of divine mercy, to treat that one people, however misled, which so testify of truth, to oppression and even to transplant them! Such was the case then, in Babylon's imperial day. Hence as the mixer of the immiscible, the traitor to truth, the most haughty amidst the things of God, Babylon became irreparably doomed. The writ was read by Jeremiah!

It thus gives its name as in Revelation 17, to all that is recidivist and renegade, that being in contact with truth, yet depraves itself and seeks to do the same to the truth itself. Here are things morbidly horrendous, entirely characteristic of the present movement amid world powers, in this, our own contemporary earth. Here is mystery Babylon in part, the other part extending backwards to all that led to this nexus in the city of Babylon, from the past of all mischievous religion and religiosity to the present. Here is the archtype for spiritual anarchy, the prototype for Judas, and the fatal finale type for the turmoil before the return of Christ.

What then of the basket, with leaden cover pressed down, flying the debased women to their destination in Shinar ?

The basket as containing the women of deceit, was a carrier for those working their way by charm to disarm, to seduction by ugliness, in fact of no real attraction, but morbidly compelling to many. It is this which goes to Babylon, to Shinar, to be planted and set on its base, for ITS TIME. That of course is pre-eminently now (cf. Answers to Questions Ch. 5), as the time for the return of the Lord brings near the obverse side of that delinquent time, the impending bedazzlement of darkness with the light of truth as in II Thessalonians 1. The blight precedes the bedazzlement, so that the women go to the appointed place, though not allowed to be fully apparent till their time comes.

When their spiritual work is done (cf. Revelation 16:13ff., 17), the Lord returns not only FOR but WITH His people (Matthew 24, I Thessalonians 3:13, 4:13ff., Revelation 19, Zechariah 14:5).

This gives us an entirely different meaning to the term 'basket case', for these women, this spirit, this design of Satan, deceptive and delusive, which is to spread like weeds, before it is converted to ash by the flame of truth (Revelation 13, 17-19).

Thus, though the scripture involved in this symbol is here short, the tale of it is long, and the exposition of Jeremiah 50-51 has an atmosphere and expression, as if one were visiting the pyramids of Egypt, which if one were to go, is best tasted more fully, rather than merely superficially.

In the next symbolic teaching in Zechariah, 6:9-15, we have more on the branch, but also on the crown.

Just as Joshua, the high priest, had been used to symbolise sin, its removal, in Zechariah 3, this accompanied by evidences of regeneration and adoption, in the face of the glory of the Lord in His atoning sacrifice (the imprinted stone) , which provided for the change, so now he has another task of symbolism to perform. Now, he is used to symbolise Him whose is that regal glory, the Lord, the Stone, the Branch. There is the high priest who would be clean from the outset, sure to the end, whom the former changing personnel but signified in their imperfect functions, to depict Him who did it all, by Him the central load taken IN ONE DAY! (cf. Hebrews 7-10).

Gold is found for the crown, and it is placed on his head. This time the transference through symbol is quite explicit. Joshua symbolises with this appointment and crown, the Branch (as in Isaiah 11:1), the arising from the provisions of the Lord of the incarnate splendour of Spirit and marvel of beauty, the Messiah, and here He is seen not in His sufferings as in Zechariah 3, but in His royal rule to come. It is HE who will build with spiritual stones in His Temple to come (as in I Peter 2), and bear the glory (that is, it will be a spiritual temple in the last of it, with the glory directly resting not on architectural symbolism, but alpha and omega, the Lord of glory Himself, the Messiah).

He will "bear the glory" in this remarkable sense, that whereas Uzziah was given leprosy in exchange for the presumption of acting as if not only prince but priest (II Chronicles 26:16ff.), and this was a thing contrary to divine division of labour and specification of roles, this the Lord of glory Himself, on earth, has no omission of any saving role, or regality of rule. It is He, that Messiah who specifically having the Spirit without measure (John 3:34), has both roles; for there is no limit to His wonder. On Him is glory focussed from His Father, and as priest on the one hand and prince on the other, He will act (as in Isaiah 9, 11) in comprehensive and comprehending wisdom.

Indeed, not only will He build His OWN temple (not one to be destroyed), but those who are His will be used in this task also (as in Zechariah 6:15), those who as in Jeremiah 16:19 are not Jews only, but Gentiles also.

Just as Babylon, the satanic substitute for godly spirituality, has its consignment sent to Babylon, mystery Babylon, via the basket lift, so the anti-god forces of composition and sacrilege which conjoin the secular and the sacred with indifference and panache, have been most receptive! Again, just as these wicked women are sent, lead pressing them down till their fatal 'Spring' should arrive, so now the Lord has His own auxiliary forces, those used in gathering His people and bringing them home to Him. So do those afar off also with the Lord, build in His temple (Zechariah 6:15 cf. Isaiah 66:20, Ephesians 2).

Yes, and so it is even now in missionary actions amid the Gentiles, and has been so for nearly two millenia, as the word of God fulfils itself with an arch-authority, intimated to history, intimidated by nothing! Such things are the greatest predictions of all time, incorrigible by any force, philosophy or power, standing like citadels to truth, temples to reality, warning to folly.

OLIVE TREE WITH ITS BRANCHES, THE OIL AND THE LAMPS -
THE TESTIMONY OF THE LORD, MOVING THROUGHOUT HISTORY
TO THE TIME OF HIS COMING (Zech. 14:5).

Finally in this selection, we come to the Olive Tree and its Branches, the lamps and the witnesses (the branches).

First, let us be clear. The olive TREE is now in view, so that surely the branches in this case are not only multiple, but derivative, and express not the deity but the agencies chosen for His testimony of truth, that it should continue to burn and enlighten the earth. That is, whoever or whatever is this testimony, and lives, branching from the divine base, and bringing this divine truth, with the unction of the Spirit of God represented by the oil, through lamps which are the expressive media for the light: these are the witnesses.

As shown in some more detail in Jesus Christ: Acme, Alpha and Omega Ch. 5, this is now become the Church of the living God, with its prelude in the nation of Israel, in its prince, Zerubbabel, and its priest, Joshua, as symbols in administration and depiction, of the ruling and pardoning power of God in His truth and grace.

Here is the Spirit that continually brings life and light, here the tree from which it comes (as in John 15:26), here are the lamps which it lights (as in Philippians 2:15ff.), the redeemed (as in Psalm 32) people of the Lord, not the frauds but those who adhere to the truth as given by the Lord in His word, and here is the incorporation in view: the nation and then the Church, instrumental for the manifestation of this truth, the expression of its reality and practicality, which like the testimony of two witnesses, is received.

This Gospel and word is sent to all nations (as in Matthew 28:18-19), but there is a growing dissidence (as in Matthew 24:24, II Peter 2). Nevertheless, the ‘two witnesses’, the Church of the living God does NOT have hell prevail against it, and so continues under whatever affliction, to function. The two women have a task, and they set to with Babylonian vigour, to their own destruction and the devastation of the globe, at length.

The witnesses, then, in due time, it is these who are so smitten as in Revelation 11, at whose apparent demise there is such rejoicing in the end time, at whose resurrection there is such horror, and whose departure from this earth is by divine command, "COME UP HERE!" as in Matthew 24:31).

You will notice that the people of the earth, those shanghaied by the basket case, Babylon the mystery force, rejoice at the apparent end of the testimony in its all-embracive religious substitute (like a cosmetic, so good for the appearance). Great! the Church is killed! Now not only the Christ but His Church is gone, the earth is ours! Such appears their deluded and deadly diatribe, a mere dream of pathology, a trance, a drugged folly. Such is like the Babylon case in its inveterate haughtiness.

Here are glitches gone wild, hitches unhallowed made a life-style, here are spiritual lapses with time elapsed without limit.

Alas here is the very doom which we who love the Lord seek so hard and have sought so long to avoid, for God would have ALL to repent and to the knowledge of Himself, and it is not His design which brings man to exclusion, but His own preference (John 3:19, I Timothy 2, COlossiasn 1:19ff.), even if in his pathological position, man ultimate desire beyond the intrusive truculence and anaesthetizing pathology of sin, is known to God only (cf. Marvels of Predestination … Ch. 2, To Know God … Ch. 1, and Great Execrations, Great Enervations, Greater Grace Ch. 7).

It is like a surgeon with a cancer patient: it is not his will that the cancer kill, for he does all he knows to prevent this. In that image, it would be as if the patient insisted on keeping the growth every time the scalpel was poised. But it was predestinatively poised, and the results foreknown and understood.

So they rejoice, the recalcitrants, considering that the Church of the living God (not some controlled, misnamed, politically controlled cultural substitutes, mere psychic syntheses) is dead! dead ... Why it is like the crucifixion before the resurrection, in the rejoicing minds of the murderers. Here is triumph! they exchange gifts, we read. Happy day for those who love their own way.

However, it is not so, underground or in segments, for the body is still there, and at its resurrection as in Isaiah 26:19, I Corinthians 15, there is dismay that is readily understood, in the world. If there is SUCH POWER as this, and such practical particularity about persons as this, where is the end of the matter!

The end ? It is in light for those who love it, and in darkness for those who shun the light (John 3:19ff.). It is costly to shine with reflection from the divine light on this earth, as did the Philippians noted by Paul. Ashamed of Jesus ? (Luke 9:26). It is an option.

But God who has from the first attested the redemption - first as it was to come, then when it came, and subsequently to the last has attested it - always effective and without replacement in thought or truth, knows who are His own, and His own know Him (John 10:27-28).

All these things, in outline, essence and with sometimes more, sometimes less expansive detail, shown in the half-millenium before Christ through the prophet Zechariah, are yet one more testimony to the truth that comes from God only. Here it is seen in succinctness of expression, boldness of outline, striking vigour of symbolism, excellent clarity of meaning, evidencing the frank, testable and divine power of the truth. Each last item fulfils itself as the Lord acts, doing what He has said, whether as elsewhere in Zechariah (Ch. 11), concerning the price Judas got for betraying Him, or in the result of these things, or in the ass's colt for the King to come to the people in Israel, "lowly and having salvation" (Zechariah 9), or in any other area it touches.

Not merely is this so, but the truth from all the biblical books takes keynotes, emphases, as in a symphony, adorning, add data, confirming, expanding, condensing, stressing, applying; and it is all one composition in truth, intimate to detail, harmonious in principle, dovetailed in particulars, fearless in realism, never adapting for problems sake, but with the frankness of reality, striking the wood with a sharp axe, that there might be plenty for all.

God deals with the truth in His word with the masterly ease, and fearless testability in practice. Thus, again, it is like the playing or sporting of some great pianist, organist, golfer, horseman. Yes and more; for they but do what they are skilled at, but He does what none else can do, and HIS is the name, and His alone, focussed in Jesus the Christ, definitive in the Book of the Lord, the Bible, to which anyone who loves truth must look, and look in faith: for as Isaiah declares from the Lord:

a verse used much in the case of Spurgeon, when young, the famed preacher then to be, as doubtless for many (cf. John 6:40). Expressed in detail in Jesus Christ, the Messiah so indelibly presented both in prophecy and in history, both coincident like lovers in delight of soul, this Gospel of this only God, the Saviour, is the ultimate healing without which man cannot live.

This, he increasingly finds as with key to knowledge of the power of creation, from the mind God has made, he seeks to activate his dramatic ideas, whether to rule man or God. It is the very ludicrous impossibility of his aspirations which makes them both pathetic, for his ruin, poignant, for his suffering, and a testimony to the works of history, for what these expose in confirmation of the necessity of redemption from Him who alone is both able and willing to apply it.