Scripture Reading: Zech. 1:3, 18-21; 2:1-2, 5, 8-9, 11; 6:12-13; 10:1, 3, 8, 12; 11:7; 12:1, 10; 14:5, 9
Ⅰ
The intrinsic significance of the twelve historical books in the Old Testament (Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther) is the revelation that God's move in man's history prepares the way for God to carry out His eternal economy by His becoming a man that man may become God in life and in nature (but not in the Godhead), for the producing and building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem for His ultimate expression:
A
We must link the twelve books of history in the Old Testament to God's eternal economy; the Bible actually tells us only one thing—God's eternal economy, which is based upon His good pleasure, the desire of His heart (Eph. 1:4-5, 9-10; 1 Tim. 1:3-4; 6:3); these twelve historical books were written in God's divine revelation for our admonition and enlightenment (1 Cor. 10:11).
B
The carrying out of God's eternal economy (with the procedure of His judicial redemption and the goal of His organic salvation) to prepare us to be His bride to bring Him back is the only way to solve the problems of today's world situation; this is the desire of God's heart, and He will accomplish it—Rom. 5:10, 17, 21; 1 Thes. 5:23-24; Phil. 1:3-6.
C
The Lord's second coming will resolve all the problems of the world, such as injustice (Isa. 11:4), war (2:4), sickness (Rev. 22:2; Ezek. 47:12), famine (Isa. 35:1, 6), education (2:2-5; 4:2-6; 11:9; Hab. 2:14; Heb. 8:11; Psa. 2:6, 12), sinful establishments (Matt. 13:41-43), the suffering of all creation (Rom. 8:21-22; Isa. 11:6, 9), and earthly governments (Rev. 11:15; Dan. 2:34-35, 44-45).
Ⅱ
The book of Zechariah reveals that the crucial point and major content of God's move in man's history are the two comings of Christ for the testimony of Jesus, the building of God:
A
Zechariah 9 through 11 speaks of Christ's lowly first coming, which was humble and intimate:
１
Christ came in a righteous way with salvation for God's people as a King, but as a lowly King, a humiliated King, riding not on a majestic horse but upon a donkey, even upon a colt of a donkey; this was fulfilled when Jesus Christ came into Jerusalem the last time—Zech. 9:9; Matt. 21:5-10.
２
Christ was detested, attacked, rejected, and betrayed by one of His disciples for thirty pieces of silver, the price of a slave (Zech. 11:8, 12-13; Exo. 21:32); what is prophesied here was fulfilled in the Gospels (Matt. 26:14-15; 27:3-10).
３
Christ, the Fellow of Jehovah, came as the God-sent Shepherd to the children of Israel; as a man Christ was both a relative of the children of Israel and a Fellow of Jehovah; He was smitten as the Shepherd, and His disciples were scattered as the sheep—Zech. 13:6-7; John 10:11; Matt. 9:36; 26:31; John 16:32-33.
４
Christ was wounded on the cross in the house of Israel, but He said, "I was wounded in the house of those who love Me"; the children of Israel killed Christ, but in this sweet word Christ counts their action as wounds from those who love Him—Zech. 13:6-7; 12:10; Rev. 1:7; Psa. 22:16.
５
Christ's side was pierced, and He became an opened fountain for sin and for impurity—Zech. 12:10; 13:1; John 19:34, 37; Matt. 26:28.
B
Zechariah 12 through 14 speaks of Christ's victorious second coming, which will be with power and authority:
１
Christ will come a second time accompanied by His saints, the overcomers—14:5; Joel 3:11; Jude 14.
２
His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east—Zech. 14:4; Acts 1:9-12.
３
He will fight for the children of Israel, His chosen people, against the nations that besiege them and will save them from destruction—Zech. 14:2-3, 12-15; 12:1-9.
４
At that time the whole house of Israel will look upon Him whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him; thus, all Israel will be saved—vv. 10-14; Rom. 11:26.
５
Afterward, He will be the King to reign and rule over the nations; all the people will go up to Jerusalem year after year to worship Him, and all will be sanctified unto Him—Zech. 9:10; 14:16-21.
６
"Jehovah will be King over all the earth; and in that day Jehovah will be the one God and His name the one name"—v. 9; Psa. 72:8; Rev. 11:15.
Ⅲ
The all-inclusive Christ is the history of God's move in man's history in order to gain the building of God for the manifestation of God—Zech. 4:9; 6:12-15; Matt. 16:18; John 1:1, 14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rev. 4:5; 5:6; 21:2:
A
While Christ is skillfully working to sovereignly control the world situation in human history, He is skillfully working Himself into us in the divine history to make us the masterpiece of His work, the poem of God, a new invention of God, expressing His infinite wisdom and divine design—Acts 5:31; Eph. 2:10.
B
Christ in His humanity is the Angel of Jehovah, Jehovah Himself as the Triune God, standing with God's people in the lowest part of the valley in their humiliation to care for them, intercede for them, and bring them swiftly out of Babylonian captivity—Zech. 1:7-17; Exo. 3:2, 4-6, 13-15; Isa. 63:9; Deut. 33:27.
C
Christ is the last Craftsman used by God to break the four horns; the four horns are the four kingdoms with their kings—Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and the Roman Empire—also signified by the great human image with four sections in Daniel 2:31-33, the four stages of locusts in Joel 1:4, and the four beasts in Daniel 7:3-8, that damaged and destroyed the chosen people of God—Zech. 1:18-21:
１
The four craftsmen are the skills used by God to destroy these kingdoms with their kings; each of the first three kingdoms (Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece) was taken over in a skillful way by the kingdom that followed it—Dan. 5; 8:3-7.
２
The fourth Craftsman will be Christ as the stone cut out without hands, who will crush the restored Roman Empire and thereby crush the great human image as the totality of human government at His coming back—2:31-35.
３
This stone signifies not only the individual Christ but also the corporate Christ, Christ with His "mighty ones"—Joel 3:11.
D
The corporate Christ, Christ with His overcoming bride, will come as a stone to crush the aggregate of human government in order to bring in God's kingdom—Dan. 2:34-35; Joel 3:11; Rev. 19:11-21; cf. Gen. 1:26.
E
Whereas Daniel 2 speaks of Christ coming as a stone cut out without hands, Revelation 19 speaks of Christ coming as the One who has His bride as His army.
Ⅳ
Ephesians 5 and 6 reveal that the church is both the bride and the warrior; in Revelation 19 we also have these two aspects of the church—Eph. 5:25-27; 6:10-20; Rev. 19:7-9, 11, 14:
A
To be the bride in the divine history, God's move in man's history, we need the beautifying word of God, and to be the warrior in the divine history, God's move in man's history, we need the slaying word of God—Eph. 5:26; 6:17-18; cf. 2 Tim. 3:16.
B
On the day of His wedding, Christ will marry His bride, the overcomers, who have been fighting the battle against God's enemy for years—cf. Dan. 7:25; 6:10; Eph. 6:12.
C
Before Christ descends to earth to deal with Antichrist and the totality of human government, He will have a wedding, uniting His overcomers to Himself as one entity—Rev. 19:7-9.
D
Thus, Christ as the Spirit, the processed and consummated Triune God, marries the church as the bride, the processed and transformed tripartite man—22:17a.
E
After His wedding He will come with His newly married bride to destroy Antichrist, who with his army will fight against God directly—19:11, 14:
１
The Lord Jesus, the Word of God, will slay Antichrist, the man of lawlessness, by the breath of His mouth, and He will bring Antichrist to nothing by the manifestation of His coming—vv. 11-15; 2 Thes. 2:2-8.
２
Out of Christ's mouth proceeds a sharp sword, that with it He might smite the nations—Rev. 19:15; 1:16; 2:12, 16.
F
After crushing the human government, God will have cleared up the entire universe; then the corporate Christ, Christ with His overcomers, will become a great mountain to fill the whole earth, making the whole earth God's kingdom—Dan. 2:35, 44; 7:22, 27; Rev. 11:15.
Ⅴ
The way to fulfill God's move in man's history for the carrying out of His eternal economy is by exercising our spirit to experience and enjoy Christ as the sevenfold intensified Spirit—1:10; 4:2; 17:3; 21:10; 4:5; 5:6; Zech. 3:9; 4:10:
A
Zechariah 1:3 says, "Return to Me, declares Jehovah of hosts, and I will return to you, says Jehovah of hosts"; we need to exercise our spirit to return to the Lord with all our heart; this establishes the principle that we must return to the Lord first, and then the Lord will return to us—Jer. 24:7; Hosea 6:1-3; 14:1-5; Joel 2:13; Luke 15:17-24.
B
Zechariah 12:1 says, "The burden of the word of Jehovah concerning Israel. Thus declares Jehovah, who stretches forth the heavens and lays the foundations of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him":
１
In His creation God made three crucial, equally important items—the heavens, the earth, and the spirit of man.
２
The heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, and man was created by God with a spirit that he may contact God, receive God, worship God, live God, fulfill God's purpose for God, and be one with God—v. 1.
３
The central government and most prominent part of man's being should be his spirit; a man who is ruled and controlled by his spirit is a spiritual man—1 Cor. 2:14-15; 3:1; 14:32; John 3:6; Eph. 3:16; 1 Pet. 3:4; Dan. 6:3, 10.
４
Zechariah charges us to pay full attention to our human spirit, that we may receive the Christ revealed in this book and may understand all that is revealed therein concerning Him—Gen. 2:7; John 4:24; Phil. 4:23.
C
We need to enjoy Christ as the sevenfold intensified Spirit in the following aspects:
１
Christ is a man with a measuring line in His hand, measuring God's people in order to test, judge, examine, and possess them for His kingdom—Zech. 2:1-2; Ezek. 40:3; 47:1-5; Psa. 139:23-24.
２
"I will be her wall of fire round about, declares Jehovah, and I will be the glory within her"—Zech. 2:5:
ａ
That the wall of the city of Jerusalem and the glory within her will be Jehovah Himself indicates that Jehovah as Christ will be the protection of Jerusalem at her circumference and her glory at her center; this shows the centrality and universality of Christ in God's economy.
ｂ
Today Christ is the glory in the center of the church, and He is also the fire burning around the circumference of the church for her protection; in the New Jerusalem the Triune God in Christ will be the glory at its center (Rev. 21:23; 22:1, 5), and this glory will shine through the transparent wall of the city to be its protection of fire (21:11, 18a, 24).
３
Christ is the One sent by Jehovah of hosts and is also the Sender, Jehovah of hosts, for the care of His people, who are very dear to Him; whoever touches them touches the pupil of His eye—Zech. 2:8-9, 11; cf. John 14:26; 15:26.
４
Christ came as a Shepherd, shepherding the flock with two staffs—one is called Favor (grace), and the other is called Bonds (binding); grace is for our being mingled with God, and binding is for our being bound into oneness—Zech. 11:7; 2:1-2, 5, 8-9, 11; John 21:15-17:
ａ
While the Lord is so favorable to us, we should ask Him to send us even more favor, more grace, more "rain"—Zech. 10:1; 12:10; Ezek. 34:26.
ｂ
After being visited by the Lord as the Shepherd, every weak sheep among God's people becomes a horse of majesty—Zech. 10:3; cf. 9:13, 16; Dan. 11:32b.
ｃ
Often during our time of morning revival, the Lord whistles to us, calling us and gathering us to Him; the Lord's whistling is not shrill but mild and gentle, somewhat like the singing of a bird—Zech. 10:8.
ｄ
The Lord strengthens us in Himself so that we may walk about in His name—v. 12; Col. 3:17.
Ⅵ
With God's move, as the divine history, in man's history, there is the new creation—the new man with a new heart, a new spirit, a new life, a new nature, a new history, and a new consummation; we praise the Lord that we are in the divine history, experiencing and enjoying the mysterious, divine things for our organic salvation, so that we may make ourselves ready to become His overcoming bride to bring Him back—Hymns, #16; Rom. 5:10, 17-18, 21; 6:4; Ezek. 36:26; 2 Cor. 3:16-18; Matt. 5:8; Titus 3:5; Eph. 5:26-27; 6:17-18; Rev. 19:7; Matt. 24:44; 25:10.