THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
God’s Building
Message Nine—Fulfilling the Economy of God in the History of God
for the Building of God
Scripture Reading: Zech. 1:7-21; 3:9; 4:6-7, 12-14; 5:5-11; 12:1, 10
I. Man was created according to God’s kind, in God’s image and according to God’s likeness, so that man can receive, contain, and express God to fulfill the economy of God—Gen. 1:26; 2:7; Isa. 43:7; Eph. 3:2, 8-11:
A. The image of God is Christ, so man was created as a vessel according to Christ to contain Christ; if man does not contain Christ as his treasure, he is a senseless contradiction—Col. 1:15; Rom. 9:21, 23; 2 Cor. 4:4, 7; Eccl. 1:2, 14.
B. Because man was created for God’s original intention, he unconsciously desires Christ, the Desire of all the nations—Hag. 2:7.
C. God put eternity in man’s heart; eternity is “a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun, but only God, can satisfy”—Eccl. 3:11 (The Amplified Bible); cf. 2 Cor. 4:18.
D. God created man with a human spirit to contact God and to see God’s economy; “there is a spirit in man”—Job 32:8; 12:10; 10:13; cf. Eph. 1:17; 3:9.
II. The way to fulfill God’s economy in the divine history is by Christ as the sevenfold intensified Spirit in our spirit—Zech. 4:6; 12:1:
A. Zechariah reveals that the building of the church will be consummated by Christ as the sevenfold intensified Spirit of grace to be the topstone of grace—4:6-7, 12-14; 3:9; 12:10; Rev. 4:5; 5:6.
B. Zechariah charges us to pay full attention to our human spirit, that we may receive and understand the Christ revealed in this book for God’s building—cf. Col. 2:19; Rom. 8:16; Eph. 1:17; 2:22; 3:5, 16; 4:23; 5:18; 6:18.
III. The all-inclusive Christ is the history of God working within the history of man to gain the building of God for the manifestation of God—Micah 5:2; Zech. 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:
1. Babylon is characterized by the wickedness of business, or commerce, involving covetousness, deceit, and love of money; our Christian life should be without the love of money, and our Christian work should not be a money-making trade—Zech. 5:5-11; 1 Tim. 3:3, 8; 6:5-10; Acts 11:29-30; 20:33-34; 2 Tim. 3:2-4; Heb. 13:5; 2 Cor. 2:17; 12:15; cf. 2 Kings 5:15-27.
2. Of the cargo sold by Babylon, the first item is gold and the last is the souls of men; souls of men refer to men who sell themselves for employment—Rev. 18:12-13; cf. 2 Pet. 2:3, 15.
3. This depicts not only the coming Babylon but also today’s world; people sell their soul, their life, themselves, to their occupation, neglecting God and their eternal destiny—cf. Luke 12:13-21.
4. God’s sovereignty will cause the wickedness in business, which the people of Israel learned from the Babylonians in their captivity, to go back to Babylon (the land of Shinar) —Zech. 5:10-11; Gen. 11:2, 9.
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; Dan. 7:12; Joel 2:25:
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. At the time of Christ’s coming back, there will be a meeting of two figures—Antichrist, a figure in the outward, human history, and Christ, the Figure in the intrinsic divine history—2 Thes. 2:2-8; cf. 1 Tim. 3:15-16:
1. Christ will come back, descending with His overcomers as His army to defeat Antichrist and his army—Joel 3:11; Rev. 19:11-21.
2. After the Figure in the divine history defeats the figure in the human history, the thousand-year kingdom will come, and this kingdom will consummate in the New Jerusalem—the ultimate and consummate step of the divine history—20:4, 6; 21:10.
E. In order to live in the divine history within the human history, we need to apply the cleansing blood of Christ, live in the divine Spirit of Christ, and abide in the beautifying and killing word of Christ to flow out Christ for the unique expression of Christ—Zech. 3:3-4; 1 John 1:9; Zech. 4:6; 12:1; Rev. 19:13-15; Eph. 5:26; 6:17; 1 Cor. 10:16; Zech. 4:12-14; John 7:37-39a.
Ministry Excerpts:
THE IMAGE OF GOD BEING HIS BELOVED SON—CHRIST
Let us now consider several verses from the New Testament. Second Corinthians 4:4 says, “Christ, who is the image of God.” Philippians 2:6 says, “[Christ] existing in the form of God.” Colossians 1:15 says that Christ, the Son of God’s love, “is the image of the invisible God.” And Hebrews 1:3 tells us that Christ is “the impress of His [God’s] substance.” All these verses clearly show us that Christ is the image of God. Therefore, for man to be created in the image of God means that man was created according to Christ. In other words, what the created man is inwardly is altogether created according to Christ. The principle for the proper exposition of the Bible is to interpret the Bible both according to biblical facts and according to the biblical text itself. According to the fact, God created man in His image; that is, He created man according to His mind, emotion, and will and also according to love, light, holiness, and righteousness. According to the biblical text, the New Testament says that Christ, God’s beloved Son, is the image of God. hence, God also created man according to Christ. God created us in this way, expecting that one day we would receive and contain Christ.
MAN BEING CREATED ACCORDING TO THE IMAGE OF CHRIST
FOR THE PURPOSE OF CONTAINING CHRIST
The way that man would be created was determined through the council of the Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” The image here is neither the Father nor the Spirit but the Son. God created man in the image of the Son. In this respect, we are containers of Christ; we were created to contain Christ. If Christ is “square” and we are “round,” we will never be able to contain Him. thus, God had to make us “square” just like Christ. Before we were saved, and even at birth, we were already created in the image of Christ to be exactly the same as Christ, so that we would be fit to receive Him. For this reason, once we received Christ and were saved, we felt so comfortable and at ease within. Let me use an illustration. When you purchase something, the salesperson often puts it in a box. The box that the salesperson uses is just right, being neither too large nor too small. This is not a coincidence, because the box was made precisely according to the shape of that particular item. Everyone who has received Christ has experienced this indescribable sense of comfort, because we were created in His image, and we were created for Him. (The Economy of God and the Mystery of the Transmission of the Divine Trinity, msg. 3)
SISTER VERSES IN ZECHARIAH AND ISAIAH
In the books of Zechariah and Isaiah, both of which have much to say about Christ, there are sister verses that speak clearly regarding the human spirit. Zechariah 12:1 says, “Thus declares Jehovah, who stretches forth the heavens and lays the foundations of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him.” This reveals that 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, live God, fulfill God’s purpose for God, and be one with God.
Isaiah 42:5 is a sister verse to Zechariah 12:1. “Thus says God Jehovah, / Who created the heavens and stretched them out, / Who spread forth the earth and what springs up from it, / Who gives breath to the people upon it / And spirit to those who walk on it.” The Hebrew word translated breath here can also be rendered spirit (cf. Prov. 20:27). These sister verses both mention three matters: the heavens, the earth, and the human spirit. Whereas Zechariah 12:1 speaks of God’s forming the human spirit, Isaiah 42:5 simply speaks of God’s giving a spirit to man.
OUR SPIRIT AND THE SEVENFOLD INTENSIFIED SPIRIT
Our regenerated human spirit matches Christ, who is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). Regarding this, Zechariah 3:9 says, “This is the stone that I have set before Joshua: upon one stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its engraving, declares Jehovah of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.” This stone which has been engraved with God’s engraving to take away the sin of God’s people is Christ. The seven eyes of the stone are “the eyes of Jehovah running to and fro on the whole earth” (4:10). In order to understand the significance of the seven eyes, we need to consider Revelation 5:6. “I saw…a Lamb standing as having just been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.” The Lamb here, who is the stone in Zechariah 3:9, is Christ, and the seven eyes are the sevenfold intensified Spirit. Thus, the Christ who has been engraved by God to take away our sin bears the sevenfold intensified Spirit. Actually, He, the last Adam, has become a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b), even the sevenfold intensified Spirit. Christ today is the Spirit, and we have a spirit particularly formed by God to match Christ.
Let us now go on to consider the Christ who is unveiled in the book of Zechariah. In the first part of this book (chs. 1-6), there are five visions concerning Christ, and in the last part (chs. 9-14), many details concerning Christ.
VISIONS CONCERNING CHRIST
In the first of the five visions concerning Christ, Christ is unveiled as the Man as the Angel of Jehovah riding on a red horse and standing among the myrtle trees (1:7-17). The myrtle trees signify the humiliated yet precious people of Israel in their captivity. Christ’s riding on a red horse indicates that He was the redeeming One. His being the Angel of Jehovah indicates that He was the One sent by God to take care of His people with much expectation while they were in captivity.
In the second vision (vv. 20-21) Christ is the last Craftsman used by God to break the four horns—Babylon, Persia, Greece, and the Roman Empire—which damaged and destroyed the chosen people of God (vv. 18-19). Christ will be the unique One not only to break the four horns but also to smash the entire human government from the toes to the head, as signified by the great human image in Daniel 2.
In the next vision Christ is the One who measures Jerusalem in order to possess it (Zech. 2:1-2). This One not only possesses Jerusalem but also becomes the center of Jerusalem as the glory within her and the circumference of Jerusalem as the wall of fire round about her (v. 5). Furthermore, He is both the sending One and the sent One. He, Jehovah of hosts, has sent Himself as the Angel of Jehovah (vv. 8-9, 11).
In the fourth vision Christ is unveiled as the topstone of grace (4:7). As indicated in 3:9, upon this stone are seven eyes, signifying the seven Spirits, that is, the sevenfold intensified Spirit. Christ is therefore the topstone of grace to consummate God’s building with the sevenfold intensified Spirit.
The fifth vision involving Christ is the vision of the lampstand of gold and the two olive trees (4:2-3, 11-14). The lampstand here signifies the nation of Israel as the collective testimony of God shining out all His virtues. We may say that this lampstand is also a type of Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God. In Zechariah’s time the two olive trees were Joshua and Zerubbabel, but during the three and a half years of the great tribulation, the two olive trees will be Moses and Elijah.
DETAILS CONCERNING CHRIST
The last six chapters of Zechariah are divided into two groups: chapters nine through eleven, which speak of Christ’s lowly first coming, and chapters twelve through fourteen, which speak of Christ’s victorious second coming.
In His First Coming
In His first coming, Christ came as a lowly King and was temporarily welcomed as the King into Jerusalem in a lowly form. Regarding this, 9:9 says, “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.” Christ came also as a Shepherd (11:7-11), shepherding in Favor (grace) and Bonds (binding). However, He, the proper Shepherd of Israel, was detested, attacked, rejected, and sold for thirty pieces of silver (vv. 12-13). The children of Israel were thus left to false, useless, and worthless shepherds—the elders, the priests, and the scribes—who would not take care of them (v. 17).
In His Second Coming
In chapters twelve through fourteen, we see Christ in His second coming. In His coming back, He will be the King not only over Israel but also over all the peoples on earth. “Jehovah will be King over all the earth; and in that day Jehovah will be the one God and His name the one name” (14:9). He will reign over the entire earth, and all the peoples of the earth will go up to Jerusalem from year to year to worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles (v. 16). Upon those who refuse to go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, there will be no rain (v. 17).
CHRIST AND THE TEMPLE OF GOD
The book of Zechariah clearly reveals that God desires the rebuilding of the temple (4:9; 6:12-15). However, without Christ everything, including the temple, is empty. We need Christ, yet Christ needs a Body. This Body is the temple of God, the house of God, the expression of God, the satisfaction of God. Hence, today we should emphasize both Christ and the church. Concerning Christ, we need to pay attention both to the crucial aspects unveiled in chapters one through six and to the details unveiled in chapters nine through fourteen.
CHRIST’S JUDGMENT
UPON THREE CATEGORIES OF THINGS
Finally, I would like to point out that in the book of Zechariah we can see Christ’s judgment. The vision of the flying scroll (5:1-4), the vision of the ephah vessel (vv. 5-11), and the vision of the four chariots (6:1-8) are visions of judgment. Christ’s judgment will be carried out by the four chariots which come forth from between two mountains of brass (v. 1). Brass here signifies judgment. Although the two mountains of brass do not signify Christ, they are nevertheless closely related to Christ, for He has been appointed by God to carry out the judgment upon the living and the dead (John 5:22; Acts 10:42; 17:31; 2 Tim. 4:1). On the one hand, Christ is the Redeemer and the Savior; on the other hand, He is the Judge. As the Judge, He will carry out God’s judgment.
According to Zechariah, Christ’s judgment over the earth will be upon three categories of negative things. First, He will judge stealing (5:3b, 4b). Stealing signifies sins toward man, which are the issue of greed and covetousness. Second, Christ will judge the matter of swearing falsely by Jehovah’s name (vv.3c, 4c). Swearing falsely by Jehovah’s name signifies sins toward God, which are the issue of a wrong relationship with God. Those who swear falsely in this way do not deal with God in faithfulness and honesty. Third, Christ will judge the entire human government signified by the great human image in Daniel 2. He, the last Craftsman, will come as the stone cut out without hands and smash this great image from the toes to the head. Thus, He will clear away from the earth all stealing, all false swearing by Jehovah’s name, and all of human government.
We need to see how Christ’s judgment is related to us today. We should be careful not to steal from others in any way, and we should also be careful to be honest and faithful with God. Then we will be right with man and also right with God. Finally, we need to see that Christ will come as the stone cut out without hands and will smash the entire human government and thereby bring in the eternal kingdom of God. (Life-study of Zechariah, msg. 15)