Christ: Priest and King
Zechariah vi. 9-15.
At this point an interesting episode breaks in on this wonderful series of visions. From far-off Babylon, where the majority of the Jewish nation was still residing, a deputation of three Jews came to Jerusalem, bringing a present of gold and silver. This donation was evidently intended to aid the little band of returned exiles in their heroic work. Alas, it is still the way in which too many Christians do the work of God! They shrink from personal service; but are quite ready, in lieu of it, to give a subscription in aid of those who are sacrificing ease and emolument that they may give priceless personal service.
The men who brought the gift were Heldai (called Helem in verse 14), Tobijah, and Jedaiah, and they were received and entertained by Josiah, or Hen, the son of Zephaniah.
Zechariah was directed to take the gold and silver, and make a crown (or crowns). These, on — some public occasion, and with, perhaps, some little ceremony, were placed on the fair mitre, which, we have already seen, had been set on the high priest’s
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It was a much more significant act than this bare recital of it suggests. These two offices, the sacerdotal and the regal, had been always kept jealously apart in Israel; and when King Uzziah had attempted to burn incense upon the altar of incense, the altercation which ensued in the holy place between himself and the priests, countersigned as their horror and indignation were by the rising of the brand of leprosy on his forehead, proved how stringent that separation was. But here the divinely commissioned prophet, by an unmistakable symbolic act, combined the two offices in the same individual. And, using a well-understood name for the Messiah, went on to say: “Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts, saying: Behold, the Man whose name is THE BrancH. He shall grow up out of his place (ze., shall emerge from the obscurity of his early beginnings), and He shall build the Temple of the Lord; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and He shall be a priest upon his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both” (i.e., between these two offices, the priestly and the regal).
I. NoTICcE THIS SIGNIFICANT DESIGNATION OF THE Lord Jesus — “The Branch.” The family of David was like a decayed tree, the stump of which alone remains; but from so lowly and unlikely an origin, a shoot or scion would emanate, which would again become a noble forest tree, and perpetuate the memory and influence of the royal line. This imagery is familiar to more than one of the prophets, and, in every case, can only be applied to “Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matt. i. 1). “There shall come forth,” says Isaiah, “a shoot out of the stock of Jesse; and a Branch out of his roots shall bear fruit, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him. In that day shall the Branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious.” “Behold’” — they are the words of Jeremiah — “the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as King.” It is suggested that, in the song of Zecharias, so full of the glad realization of the fulfilled past, Branch may be substituted for Dayspring, and he may, therefore, have quoted this very phrase and said, “The Branch from on high hath visited us” (Luke i. 78).
Certainly David’s race had reached a low ebb when Joseph went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, to the city of David which is
called Bethlehem, to be enrolled with Mary his I espoused wife, because they wete of the house and lineage of David. There was no room for them in the village inn; the new-born/babe was wrapped in
swaddling clothes and laid in a manger; and the
couple were so straitened for means that they could not afford to purchase two young pigeons, the gift of the poor, for the mother’s thank-offering in the Temple. From that stock, however, the scion has
grown into a noble tree, whose branches reach out to
the ends of the earth, and whose fruit gives life and
blessing to all mankind.
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Through a branch the fullness of the Root is carried to the fruit, which swells in ruddy beauty on its extremity, and presently falls into the hand of the wayfarer; so Jesus is the blessed channel of communication between the fullness of God, and the thirsty wastes of human need. We sit under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit is sweet to our taste.
II. THE COMBINATION IN CHRIST OF THE PRIESTLY AND KincLty OFrrices. — ‘He shall be a priest upon his throne.’’ Man’s nature demands a Priest. Conscious of sin and defilement, he rears an altar wherever he pitches his tent; and, selecting one of his fellows, he separates him from the ordinary duties of life, and bids him stand as mediator and priest between God and himself. It was thus that Micah addressed the young man, the Levite of Bethlehem-Judah, when he said, “Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and priest; and I will give thee ten pieces of silver by the year, and thine apparel, and thy victuals.”
If an argument were needed to prove the unity of the human family, it surely would be suggested by the universal distribution of temples and altars over the world, as though men were everywhere alike in this — that they know themselves to be sinful, and desire to find some way of propitiating and approaching the Almighty.
In the Levitical system, and, above all, in Jesus Christ, God has met this universal craving of the human heart. Indeed, no religion is destined to universal supremacy that does not provide for the consciousness of guilt, and reveal a merciful and faithful priest, appointed in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins, and bear gently with the ignorant and erring.
Man also requires a KING. God had designed to meet this need by Himself by being Israel’s King, that they should not be “like other nations,” but a peculiar people unto Him. They were following natural promptings, when the Israelites came to Samuel and said: ‘We will have a king over us, that we also may be like the other nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.” Man needs a leader — one whom he may admire and obey; from whom he may receive indisputable commands; and in whom his faculty of veneration may find satisfaction. The days when there was no king in Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes, were far from being either contented or prosperous.
How remarkable it is that the kingship of Jesus should have been so accentuated in his trial. It was the center around which the storm raged. Pilate challenged his claims: ‘Art Thou a king, then?” and Jesus asseverated them: “Thou sayest that I am — a king.” The faded purple robe flung over his shoulders, the reed in his hand, the mocking bending of the knee, the crowd of thorns on his brow, were but the grotesque and heartless mockery of his claims. And when his sacred body was affixed to the cross, the title on the headpiece, written in the languages of learning, imperial power, and religion, attested that He was King of the Jews.
And since he has passed into the glory, He is still the Priest-King. Not Aaron, but Melchizedek, is the true type of our Saviour now. As Aaron, He. made Atonement and propitiation for sin; but as Melchizedek, He has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. “This Melchizedek was King of Salem, and Priest of the Most High God.”
As Priest, Jesus pleads the merit of his blood; as King, He exerts power on our behalf. As Priest, He pacifies the guilty conscience; as King, He sends thrills of his own victorious life into our spirits. As Priest, He brings us nigh to God; as King, He treads our enemies under his feet. It is of great importance to us all to think of our Saviour in this dual aspect. On the one hand, we get all the benefit of his Cross and Passion; on the other, all the benefit of his resurrection and session at the right hand of God. May it not be that the weakness of thy Christian life is due to the fact that thou hast viewed Him only in the light of Calvary, and hast not, with Stephen, seen Him seated at the right hand of the Majesty on High — a Prince as well as a Saviour — a Saviour because a Prince? Thank God for the Lamb; but rejoice, O child of God, that He is in the midst of the throne! He bore the penalty of thy sin, when He shed his precious Blood; He will deliver thee from the power of sin, as thou placest thyself absolutely beneath his royalty, both King and Lord. When He is absolutely trusted and obeyed, he accounts Himself absolutely responsible to achieve the uttermost salvation of those who trust in Him. If there is some sin which defies thee, at least it shall not be too strong for Him. And if the outflow of his delivering power toward thee seems restrained and ineffective, be sure that, in some one particular, which He will be quick to show thee, if only thou art willing to be informed, there has been a failure to yield Him the obedience which is due to Him as thy King. He sits and rules upon the throne of the universe; and, therefore, will subdue all rule, authority, and power. He must sit and rule on the throne of thy heart, that there also He may put down everything which opposes and obstructs his sway. “God hath exalted Him to be a Prince and a Saviour.”
What majesty there is in these words: “He shall sit and rule upon his throne, and He shall be a Priest upon his throne! Let all other beings stand; He sits. He sits because of his intrinsic dignity; because of his finished mediatorial work; because full of a calm expectancy that.his foes shall be subdued under Him. The priests of Aaron’s line stood day by day ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, the which could never take away sins; but He, “when He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made the footstool of his feet.”
Infinite woe has come to mankind through the reign of priests. No rule has been so intolerant, so capricious, so cruel, as that exercised by some of the pontiffs, or by priests, of one sort and another, through monarchs, who have been the creatures of their will. But this world will never be at rest until it submits to the beneficent rule of the Lord. Jesus, and acknowledges that the counsel of its peace emanates from the combination of these two offices in his sacred person.
III]. As THE PRIEST-KING, CHRIST BUILDS THE TEMPLE oF God. — Twice over this is affirmed; but what untold comfort the assurance must have brought when first addressed to that little band of exiles! Their temple site was strewn with ruins: it seemed almost hopeless to contend with those heaps of rubbish, impossible to rear a fabric worthy of the past and adequate for the future; but these words must have greatly heartened them. As the hand of Inspiration drew aside the veil, they beheld another and greater than either Joshua or Zerubbabel, working with them and for them, and bearing the chief responsibility in all the toils and labors of their new erection — He; not they. They would work with new energy and courage, knowing, as they did, that they were fellow-workers with God. What difficulty could daunt, what enemies thwart or frustrate, the work of his right hand?
Is not this as true a description of what is happening today as it was of those far-off incidents of temple-building? We may be engaged in building that spiritual house, that holy temple of saved souls, which is slowly rising amid the wrecks of time; and sometimes it seems as though the structure will never be completed. The scaffolding poles and rafters hide the unfinished walls; the very pattern is obscured amid the dust and pother; for every step in advance there are apparently two or three of recession and failure, and we break our hearts. Will the work ever be done? Is it worth all the expenditure of blood and tears? Shall we not desist?
Then we understand that we have much less to do, with it than we supposed; that we are not so necessary as we thought; that we are but day laborers at the best, and that He is the great. Master Builder. It was this that made Paul exclaim: “We are God’s fellow-workers; ye are God’s Husbandry, God’s Building.”
If these words should be read by any who are losing heart because of the difficulties presented by) their parish, their church, or the souls of their] charge, let them be reassured, as they behold the * trowel in the hands of the Priest-King; and let them * be sure that He will succeed, They know not what He is doing, or using them to do. They are probably». doing more than they know; and He is responsible |: for employing them, whether in the deep founda- “> tion-digging, or in the high stories away in the{ {ft sunny air. (But let them not be discouraged, or) desert Him, lest He be compelled to summon others to help Him perfect what they commenced. y w
The crowns of gold were put aside till the temple was completed, and then deposited there, as a
, memorial to the men who had formed the deputation; and an assurance was given that those who were far off should come to add their strength to that of the returned remnant.
The Spiritual Temple is rising through the ages, and includes the workmanship of Jew and Gentile, of bond and free, of those who are the children of privilege, and those who seemed outside the pale of salvation. “Remember that aforetime ye, the Gentiles in the flesh,. ... were, at that time, separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise;.... but now — ye are fellow-citizens with the saints — being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief Corner-stone, in whom the whole building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord.”