Zechariah 6:12–13

Zechariah is to make crowns of both gold and silver out of the offering — one elaborate crown. He was to put this crown on the head of Joshua, the high priest, not on Zerubbabel, the governor. This was most unusual! Joshua was of the line of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi. Priests came from this line, but never kings. Israel's king came from the tribe of Judah. But this occasion pictures Christ as both Priest and King. He is King, since He comes from the tribe of Judah, and Priest — not from Aaron's line, but of the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 6:20).

Pontius Pilate was fulfilling prophecy when he led Jesus of Nazareth out before that roaring crowd and said, "Behold the man." If the Jews gathered there had known the Scriptures, they would have recognized the phrase. But how did He come out? He wore a crown of thorns on His gentle and loving forehead, and the people stared into the blood-stained face of the Lamb of God, now ready to be laid on the altar and killed. But the call will sound out once more: "Behold the man." Then He will be crowned again — not with the crown of suffering and shame, but with the crowns of glory.

We saw in Zechariah 3:8 that the Branch is literally "the Sprout," the One who came from the stalk of Jesse, as David did, who is a special picture of Christ as King of Israel. He would grow up from His own place. He would begin in a place of lowly rejection. Then, by the power of God, He would grow up, or rise, into a place of highest honor and dignity. In this verse the emphasis is that He is truly "The Man." Elsewhere the emphasis is on His royalty (Jer. 23:5), on His being Servant (Zech. 3:8), and on His being "Jehovah" (Isa. 4:2). But this chapter takes up both His royalty and His priesthood, and both require that He be a true Man.

Verse 12 says of Him: "He shall grow up from His own place." "His own place" means Jerusalem, the city of His royal origin, for the psalm says: "The LORD records as He registers the peoples, 'This one was born there'" (Ps. 87:6).

Everybody else whom God had trusted with any responsibility had failed. Adam, entrusted with dominion over the earth, failed. Noah, entrusted with the power to govern, failed. Moses, entrusted with the leadership of the people of Israel, failed. David, entrusted with the honors of royalty, failed, and his kingdom had to be torn in two. The remnant of Judah, brought back from captivity in Babylon and entrusted with the care of the LORD's interests, failed... Each one of us, entrusted with some small piece of service for the Lord, has failed, but HE — never!

So the sign pointed to the Coming One, who would build the temple of the LORD. But were they not building a temple themselves? They were. Yet they were now told that all they were building was temporary, not the final house, whose later glory would be greater than its first glory, as Haggai had told them.

The Branch, the Lord Jesus, will build another temple of the LORD at Jerusalem that will last through the Millennium. Today, however, before He builds Israel's temple, He is building a spiritual house, the Church of God. He adds to it every person who turns to Him, as a living stone, and it is growing "into a holy temple in the Lord" (Eph. 2:21). So believers are "being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit" (Eph. 2:22). God dwelling there is the most important feature of the temple.

He was to put this crown on the head of Joshua, the high priest, not on Zerubbabel, the governor. This was most unusual! Joshua was of the line of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi. Priests came from this line, but never kings. Israel's king came from the tribe of Judah. But this occasion is a symbol: Christ will be both Priest and King.

They were working to build a house for Jehovah among the ruins of the once beautiful Jerusalem. The Lord tells them to look on their work as the promise of a coming time, when Messiah Himself would build the temple. That day would outshine the glory of the past far more than the past outshone the present.

The theme here is clearly the kingdom, and it takes in the Jews as His people on earth. The temple is clearly the one described in Ezekiel, not the New Testament dwelling of God in the Spirit.

God will entrust the authority to rule Israel and the whole world to this faithful Son of Man. That glory and honour will be perfectly safe on His shoulder. He alone of all men will be able to bear this glory. Even David was not able to bear it: he failed badly, as did Solomon and the kings that followed.

The One who in John 19 bears the cross, is the One who in Zechariah 6 bears the glory. No one but He could bear that cross, and no one but He could ever bear that glory.

This shows that there will be a throne on which neither Joshua nor Zerubbabel will have a claim. On that throne will sit a Priest; no longer will He stand, like Joshua, to act as mediator and to offer up sacrifices. With Him the priesthood of Aaron will have come to an end. A King will sit, the true Melchizedek, the King of righteousness and King of peace. He will bless the people in the name of God, and God in the name of the people. He is the Mediator between heaven and earth.

Among men these two things have so often been in opposition. In Him they will be joined in harmony. How often has the authority of a king clashed with the grace of a priest among sinful men? They will not clash when this prophecy comes true.

Had man not been in rebellion against God, there would have been no need for "the counsel of peace." Adam in paradise did not need it. But man has rebelled... Such was his rebellion, that peace between man and God seemed impossible. But now, wonderful grace! we see that there is not only peace, but a "counsel of peace" — thoughts of God concerning peace, thoughts which Jesus alone could meet.

He is now the rejected King and a priest — the great high priest, certainly. But He is on His Father's throne, not yet on His own. He says this Himself, and marks the difference, in Rev. 3:21.

There is a "counsel of peace" which belongs to us, an assured peace, peace indeed in the middle of present trouble, but still God's peace... My spirit may be much disturbed, and I may know trial of heart. But I still have a title to perfect peace through it all. It is not only peace with God, but peace about every circumstance, because God is "for us" in it all.