This verse is a link between God’s judgment (ch. 3) and Christ. According to v. 2, to these women who escaped God’s judgment, Christ as the Shoot of Jehovah will be beauty and glory, and Christ as the fruit of the earth will be excellence and splendor. This is the ushering in of the God-man, Christ, through God’s judgment.

The day of the coming restoration of the nation of Israel (Matt. 17:11; 19:28; Acts 1:6; 3:21; 15:16).

In this book Christ is unveiled as the God-man. The Shoot of Jehovah refers to Christ’s deity, showing His divine nature, and the fruit of the earth (Luke 1:42) refers to Christ’s humanity with His human nature. As the Shoot of Jehovah, Christ comes out of God, out of eternity (John 8:42; Micah 5:2). As the fruit of the earth, Christ, having a human body made of dust (Gen. 2:7), grows out of the earth (cf. Isa. 53:2). In the restoration, to those of Israel who have escaped, Christ in His deity will be beauty and glory, and in His humanity, which expresses His divine beauty and glory, He will be excellence and splendor. The Shoot of Jehovah denotes that through His incarnation Christ is a new development of Jehovah God for the Triune God to branch Himself out in His divinity into humanity (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:22-23). This is for Jehovah God’s increase and spread in the universe. The fruit of the earth denotes that Christ, as the divine Shoot of Jehovah, also becomes a man of flesh from the earth (John 1:14; Heb. 2:14). This is for the Triune God to be multiplied and reproduced in humanity. As a man with the divine life, He is a seed, a grain of wheat, to produce many grains, His believers as His many brothers, through His death and resurrection (John 12:24; 20:17; Rom. 8:29).

The Shoot of Jehovah denotes the riches, the refreshing, the vigor, the growth, and the productive power of the divine life. The fruit of the earth denotes the produce brought forth, carried out, and expressed in Christ’s humanity. As seen in the four Gospels, all the fruit born by Christ came out of the divine life, but it was produced in Christ’s humanity. In Christ, the God-man, God and man live together as one, with God as the life inwardly and man as the fruit outwardly.

Lit., the Spirit of judgment and the Spirit of burning.

In the restoration Christ as the Shoot of Jehovah in His divinity and the fruit of the earth in His humanity will be a covering canopy of glory and an overshadowing tabernacle of grace (v. 6). The canopy is the covering glory of Christ in His divinity that will cover the entire region of Mount Zion and all its convocations, i.e., all the interests of Jehovah God on the earth. The glory of Christ will cover this entire region as a canopy of two sections: a cloud of smoke for a shade from the heat in the daytime, and a cloud of brightness of a fiery flame to keep the darkness away at night (cf. Exo. 40:38; Num. 9:15). The tabernacle (v. 6) is the God-man, Christ, in His humanity with His grace to be the overshadowing protection and defense for God’s chosen people (John 1:14; 2 Cor. 12:9).