Scripture Reading: 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rom. 5:17; 15:16; 1 Cor. 14:1, 4b, 31
Ⅰ
Christ is the High Priest for God's house, the heavenly King for God's kingdom, and the speaking Prophet for God's dispensing:
A
Christ as the High Priest is typified by Aaron and Melchizedek—Zech. 6:12-13; Heb. 5:4-6; 6:20; 7:1-3; Exo. 28:9-10, 12, 21, 29-30.
B
Christ as the heavenly King is typified by David and Solomon—Matt. 12:3-4, 42; 1 Kings 6:2, 10.
C
Christ as the speaking Prophet is typified by Moses and Malachi—Acts 3:22-23; Deut. 18:15, 18; Mal. 1:1; 2:15-16; 3:1-2, 16-18; 4:2.
Ⅱ
The recovery of the church as the house of God and the kingdom of God needs overcomers who are priests, kings, and prophets—Ezra 3:2; 5:1-2; Zech. 4:7-10; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10; Rom. 5:17; 15:16; 1 Cor. 14:1, 31:
A
A priest contacts God and is saturated with God to minister God into people; a king lives under the headship of Christ to reign in the divine life over Satan, sin, and death; and a prophet is constituted with the living word of God to impart divine revelation into others and speak Christ into people—Col. 3:1-2.
B
When we live as priests to speak for God, to speak Christ into people, we are prophets, and our prophetic ministry brings us into the kingship to conquer all the destructive chaos and triumph in the unique constructive economy:
C
Among the functions of the priest, the king, and the prophet, the function of the prophet is the highest because all three of these functions depend upon God's word; prophesying makes you an overcomer and prophesying is the function of the overcomers—1 Cor. 14:1, 4b; Rev. 1:20; 2:1, 7; cf. Mal. 3:1.
D
To prohibit prophesying is a sin before God—Amos 2:12b; 7:12-13, 16-17; Jer. 11:21-23; Num. 11:29b; 1 Cor. 14:31; 1 Thes. 5:20.
Ⅲ
In God's ordination Samuel was a new priest and a prophet, whose speaking changed the age, not through revolution but through divine revelation, to bring in the kingship—1 Sam. 3:1—4:21:
A
Samuel ministered as a Nazarite consecrated to God absolutely for God's fulfillment of His economy, a volunteer to replace any official and formal serving ones of God—1:11, 28a; Num. 6:1-8.
B
Samuel ministered as a God-honoring, God-pleasing priest to replace the stale and degraded priesthood—1 Sam. 2:30, 35; cf. Judg. 9:9, 13.
C
Samuel ministered as a prophet to speak the word of God when the word of Jehovah was rare and visions were not widespread—1 Sam. 3:1-10.
D
Samuel ministered as a judge in the reality of the kingship to replace the judging of the people by the old priesthood—7:15-17.
E
Samuel ministered as a man of prayer, praying for God's elect to be kept in the way of God that God's desire of His will in them might be fulfilled—8:6; 12:20-25; 15:11.
Ⅳ
In the Lord's recovery for God's building, Zechariah was both a priest and a prophet who spoke for God to reveal that Christ is everything to God's people in the priesthood and kingship for God's building—Zech. 1:1; 2:5, 8-9; 3:8-10; 6:12-13; 4:10; 13:1; 12:10, 1; Neh. 12:1, 4, 12, 16; Ezra 5:1:
A
The vision in Zechariah 3 concerning Joshua was to strengthen the priesthood by the removing of his filthy garments and clothing him with stately robes— vv. 1-10:
１
The blood of the Lamb, which is for our redemption, cleanses us from every sin and answers before God all the accusations of the devil against us, giving us the victory over him; we need to apply this blood whenever we sense the accusation of the devil—Rev. 12:10-11; 1 John 1:7, 9.
２
The precious blood of Christ is also the blood of the covenant, ushering us into the reality of Christ as the grace of the new covenant in the Holy of Holies—Matt. 26:28; Heb. 10:19-20; Lev. 16:11-16.
３
The stately robes with which Joshua was clothed signify the expression of Christ in His divine glory and human beauty—Zech. 3:4-5; Exo. 28:2; Gal. 3:26-27; Phil. 1:20.
B
The vision in Zechariah 4 of the golden lampstand and the two olive trees was to strengthen the kingship—vv. 1-14:
１
The lampstand in Zechariah signifies the need of the Spirit for the building of the recovered temple—the more Spirit, the more church, and the more testimony of Jesus—vv. 1-6; Eph. 5:18; Rev. 1:2, 9, 11.
２
The two olive trees, signifying Joshua (the priesthood) and Zerubbabel (the kingship), are the two sons of oil, filled with the Spirit of Jehovah for the rebuilding of God's temple—Zech. 4:3, 12:
ａ
All the believers are the many olive trees in the sense of being branches of Christ, the unique olive tree—Rom. 11:17; John 15:5.
ｂ
The oil denotes the Spirit, and the Spirit is God, who in typology is signified by gold; we need to be the wise virgins by daily paying the price to buy the golden oil so that we may be sons of oil who are filled with the Spirit of God in our whole being—Matt. 25:9; Rev. 3:18.
ｃ
To supply the oil for the shining of the lampstand is to flow out God to supply others with the sevenfold intensified Spirit that they may be enlivened for God's testimony through the church—2 Cor. 3:6; John 7:37-39a.
３
It is by the Spirit in our spirit that the building of the church will be consummated—"Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit"—Zech. 4:6-9; 12:1; Rom. 8:4, 16; Gal. 5:16, 25; Rev. 22:17a.