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Scripture Reading: Zech. 9—14
In the Lord’s recovery there are three ministries: the priesthood, the kingship, and the prophethood. We have seen that in the prophethood there are two kinds of prophets. One is represented by Haggai, and the other by Zechariah. Haggai helped the people to be strong to work, while mentioning a little about Christ as the Desire of all the nations. Zechariah followed to tell the people the mystery of Christ. The ministry of the prophet Zechariah is a ministry concerning Christ, showing that in God’s recovery, Christ must have the first place. In the books of the recovery—Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Zechariah—eventually there is nothing but Christ. The recovery is the recovery of the building of God’s house, but it is for Christ.
The first section of Zechariah shows us quite clearly that Christ is everything in God’s recovery. But Zechariah not only prophesies concerning Christ in the present, but also about Christ in the future. The last six chapters are occupied with this. These six chapters may be divided into two subsections, chapters 9 through 11 and chapters 12 through 14. In the first subsection Zechariah prophesied concerning Christ as the anointed King who was rejected by the people. Of course, this relates to the Lord’s first coming. He came first as God’s Anointed, yet He was rejected. In the last subsection the rejected King is welcomed as the King. This is the second coming of Christ. So Zechariah prophesied something concerning the first and second coming of Christ.
The church today in the recovery of the Lord must stand for these two comings of Christ. We must tell others how Christ came the first time and how Christ will come the second time. We must not only tell others that Christ has the first place in God’s recovery, but that He has two comings, the first and the second.
How did Christ come the first time, and how will He come the second time? This is shown clearly in the last section of Zechariah. Zechariah is a short but deep book. It is easier to understand Isaiah than Zechariah. It is easy to understand Isaiah 53 but not so easy to understand Zechariah 9—11. “So I shepherded the flock of slaughter, and thereby the afflicted of the flock” (11:7). Who is this? Of course, at that time it was Zechariah; but if we read on, we will see that it is Christ (v. 12). Christ was sold for thirty pieces of silver—this is mentioned in Matthew 26:14-16; 27:3-10. So it is Christ who shepherds the flock. This is why He said that He is the good Shepherd in John 10.
Then Zechariah 11:7 continues: “I took to myself two staffs; one I called Favor, and the other I called Bonds; and I shepherded the flock.” Favor refers to grace. “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us...full of grace” (John 1:14). Bonds refers to being bound into oneness. Christ came with grace and oneness. These are His two staffs as our divine Shepherd. When He shepherds us, we enjoy the grace; then we have the oneness; we are just one.
“Then I destroyed the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also detested me” (Zech. 11:8). If we read Matthew 16:21, we see that these three shepherds are the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes. These were the three kinds of shepherds among the people of God when the Lord Jesus came to the earth the first time. He came as the Shepherd to feed God’s flock with grace so that they might have oneness. But these three shepherds opposed Him, so the Lord destroyed them. “My soul was impatient with them, and their soul also detested me.” All the elders, chief priests, and scribes detested the Lord because He destroyed them. They were not the shepherds but the thieves. And the people followed them to detest the Lord, so He says, “I will not shepherd you. What is to die will die, and what is to be destroyed will be destroyed, and those who are left will each eat one another’s flesh” (Zech. 11:9). This was really fulfilled after the death and resurrection of Christ. The Jewish race began to destroy one another.
“I took my staff, Favor, and I broke it in pieces so as to break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples. And it was broken in that day; and thus the afflicted of the flock, who watched me, knew that it was the word of Jehovah. And I said to them, If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, do not bother. So they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver. And Jehovah said to me, Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price that I am priced with by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter, into the house of Jehovah” (vv. 10-13). According to Exodus 21:32, a slave was priced at thirty pieces of silver. Christ was priced as a slave, and Judas betrayed Him for this price. The Lord came as the Shepherd, but He was rejected, betrayed, and sold as a slave for thirty pieces of silver.
We need to read Zechariah 13:7: “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, / And against the man who is My Fellow, / Declares Jehovah of hosts. / Strike the Shepherd, / That the sheep may be scattered; / And I will turn My hand upon the little ones.” This is the word of God, speaking about a man who is His Fellow. He is a man, yet He is the Fellow, the Companion of Jehovah of hosts. He is a man, but He is equal to God as God’s Fellow. This is how the Lord Jesus came as a man. He came the first time as a man to be the Shepherd with grace and oneness. But He was rejected, detested, betrayed, and priced and sold for thirty pieces of silver, just like a slave. However, not only did men reject and betray Him, but God struck Him. “Strike the Shepherd.” He was stricken by God on the cross. He was betrayed for thirty pieces of silver by men, but following that, He was stricken on the cross by God Himself.
From all these verses we can see that Isaiah is much easier to understand than Zechariah. Everything in Zechariah is mostly hidden, because it is something in the recovery. Anything in the recovery is hidden and is a mystery to all who are not in the recovery. This is why people cannot understand us. They are always trying to understand, but they can never understand. Until you come into the recovery, that is, the local churches, you can never understand; there is always something hidden. It has been the experience of all who have come in, that at first they were not so clear. Even after two or three months, they still were not so clear. But after two or three years, everything was so clear.
This is why it is easy for the enemy to spread so many rumors. Satan knows that the local churches are the only ones that can cause him trouble, so he spreads many rumors through those who do not understand. Before the people of Israel entered the land of Canaan, the Canaanites talked much about them. Why? It was simply because they were fearful. Today it is the same. We are so little, but there is much talk about us across the country. Everything in the Lord’s recovery is a secret. Unless you are in it for a good while, you will still have some misunderstandings. You need to be in it for two or three years. Then you will be clear. Everything in the Lord’s recovery is mysterious. This is why the prophecies in Zechariah are given in a secret way. But praise the Lord, they are open to the local churches!
Zechariah tells us that Christ came as a man to be the Shepherd to feed the flock of God so that we could enjoy the grace and have the oneness. Yet He was detested by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and therefore betrayed and sold for the price of a slave. Even God struck Him for the purpose of redemption, and when He was stricken of God, the sheep were scattered. The Lord quoted these words in Matthew 26:31. Peter was telling the Lord how he would follow Him to the end, and the Lord said it is written that God will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.
Zechariah even speaks about the cross in a mysterious way. “Someone will say to Him, What are these wounds between Your arms? And He will say, Those with which I was wounded in the house of those who love Me” (13:6). This is truly a secret way to speak about the cross. The Lord came to the house of those who loved Him, yet they wounded Him, and the wounds are visible in His hands (KJV). This means that His hands were nailed to the cross. The Recovery Version says that He was wounded between His arms. This was the piercing of His side. Both are right. You may say that this was the wound on His hands, or you may also say that this was the wound between His two arms.
Zechariah 13:1 gives us the purpose for which He was wounded: “In that day there will be an opened fountain for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.” This fountain is the flow of His precious blood from His hands and His side, the fountain for sin. Zechariah 12:10 says, “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplications; and they will look upon Me, whom they have pierced.”
Zechariah prophesied concerning the death of the Lord in a very mysterious way. He did not use the word cross or crucifixion, but such words as wounded, an opened fountain, and whom they have pierced. In the whole Bible there is not another book that gives such a wonderful and lovable picture of Christ’s death.
Zechariah also prophesied regarding the manner in which Christ would come to Jerusalem before His death. He came as a King, not upon a grand horse but upon a little colt, the foal of a donkey. “Exult greatly, O daughter of Zion; / Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! / Now your King comes to you. / He is righteous and bears salvation, / Lowly and riding upon a donkey, / Even upon a colt, the foal of a donkey” (9:9). This was fulfilled in Matthew 21:1-11, when the Lord Jesus came to Jerusalem the last time.
I do not think that we could get a clearer and better picture concerning the first coming of the Lord than that which Zechariah gives us. He told us that He came as a man, yet He is the Fellow of God. He came to be the Shepherd to feed the flock of God with grace for oneness, yet He was detested by the false shepherds. He was betrayed for thirty pieces of silver and even stricken by God. He was wounded in His hands and side in the house of those who loved Him so that He might open a fountain for the cleansing of sins. He came to them as a man to shepherd and as a King, lowly, riding upon a donkey; yet He was rejected. All this concerns His first coming, and it is prophesied in such a secret way. He puts a little piece here and a little piece there, and it takes a real revelation from the Lord to put them all together.
Zechariah also speaks of the Lord’s second coming. “Indeed a day is coming for Jehovah when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you...Then Jehovah will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights in a day of battle. And His feet will stand in that day on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split at its middle toward the east and toward the west into a very great valley, so that half of the mountain will remove to the north and half of it to the south. And you will flee into the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach unto Azel; yes, you will flee, just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah the king of Judah. And Jehovah my God will come, and all the saints with Him” (14:1, 3-5).
These verses tell us that He will come with all the saints to fight, and He will stand on the Mount of Olives. If we read Acts 1:9-12, we see that the Lord Jesus ascended from the Mount of Olives, and the angels told the disciples that He will come back in the same way. He left from the Mount of Olives, and He will come back to the Mount of Olives. He will return to the very spot from which He ascended. At that time, the Jewish people will be surrounded by their enemies, just as they were at the side of the Red Sea. As the Lord split the Red Sea, in the future He will split the Mount of Olives into two parts, making an opening for the people to flee from their enemies.
While the Lord Christ will be fighting for the people of Israel, God will pour upon them the Spirit of grace, and all of them will repent and mourn. They will not mourn for their sins, but for their rejection of the Lord in the past. All the Hebrews will then repent and receive Him as Savior. He will solve all the problems on earth and be the King over all the nations. “Jehovah will be King over all the earth; and in that day Jehovah will be the one God and His name the one name” (Zech. 14:9).
We in the Lord’s recovery of the local churches must be clear that we are for Christ’s first coming, and we are also for His second coming. So we do need to pray-read the book of Zechariah. We do not need to analyze much but simply pray-read. The Spirit of grace will help us to understand Christ more and more in a secret way. This is the Christ whom we see prophesied in Zechariah, the mysterious Christ for the local churches, deeper than the Christ prophesied in Isaiah.
