Who will rebuild the Temple? (Zech. 6:9-15)

As we have seen several times in our studies in this book the background is the decision of the people, after hearing the messages of Haggai and Zechariah, to resume rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. They had previously lacked enthusiasm for the project, but now their attitude had changed. No doubt, the people might have assumed that all that was included in this rebuilding project would be done under the supervision of Joshua and Zerubbabel. We are about to discover from this section of the prophecy that much more was included.

Look for more

We should not be too surprised at that method of more being included than first seems the case because it occurs repeatedly with regard to many aspects of the Christian faith. Here are a couple of examples. First, Jesus promised his disciples that when a person would trust in him for salvation he or she would receive the Holy Spirit to indwell them. What happens when a person believes in Jesus? He or she receives the Spirit. Does that Christian receive all the Holy Spirit? No, he only receives the firstfruits of the Spirit, which indicates that there is more to come. More of the Spirit will be received at the second coming of Jesus. So the receiving of the Spirit is an example that includes a greater fulfilment.

Another example is the promise that God made to Abraham that through his descendants all the nations of the world would be blessed. That promise was fulfilled in a measure during the existence of Old Testament Israel as now and again they became a blessing to people from other nations, although there does not seem to have been that many. The ultimate fulfilment of that promise is through Jesus, the real seed of Abraham, who has brought the blessings of salvation to all the nations of the earth for the last two thousand years. There is also another fulfilment when believers in Jesus, whom Paul says are the children of Abraham, become a source of blessing to the world through spreading the gospel.

Or we could think of the prophecies that say the Messiah would sit on the throne of David in Jerusalem. Jesus now sits on the throne of David, which is the royal line established by God, although that throne is located in heaven, in the new Jerusalem and not in the old. Similarly, with the line of priests connected to Melchizedek, who would have imagined that there would be a fulfilment of his activity in the heavenly ministry of Jesus?

The use of signs

Often the way that God revealed his will to his people in Old Testament times was by arranging for one of his prophets to perform a sign. Sometimes the sign was unusual such as when God told Ezekiel to lie on his side for a month. At other times, the sign was more obvious, as is the case here. Yet although it was obvious, this does not mean that its message was not surprising.

The sign on this occasion was the formation of a crown and put it on the head of Joshua, the high priest. Zechariah was told by God to contact some people who had returned from Babylon with silver and gold and make a crown from those precious metals. Those individuals were probably delivering a gift from the exiles in Babylon to help rebuild the temple. Then he was to put the crown on the head of the high priest. Normally the high priest wore a turban, because the office did not involve that of kingship. In Israel, as far as the priesthood connected to Aaron was concerned, the priesthood was separate from that of the king. So when Zechariah put the crown on Joshua’s head it was a very surprising action.

One obvious factor with a sign is that its meaning has also to be given. If the meaning is not told somewhere in words, then any suggestion can be made as to what the sign means and great confusion occurs. We only have to think of signs like baptism and the Lord’s Supper and see the confusion that occurs when the given explanations are not read. Once the explanation is read, the significance of the sign is known. Here, with regard to the sign of the high priest being crowned we are told what it signified by Zechariah.

The Builder Identified

The explanation identifies who will rebuild the temple. First, we are told that he is man with a specific name, the Branch. We have already seen that this title belonged to the Messiah. Perhaps when Zechariah heard the name of the builder he might have assumed that the temple would soon be built. In any case, the Branch would build the temple at the same time as he will reign on his throne. Moreover, he would function as a priest as he ruled.

We know that this is a prophecy of Jesus. One thing we can say about this prophecy is that it revealed that the Messiah would not be a priest in the line of Aaron because such a priest was not allowed to be a king. Therefore, it is very surprising that the people of Jesus’ day did not make this connection when he kept referring to Psalm 110 which describes a different order of priesthood in which the person was also a king.

In addition, the description of the coming of the Branch suggests that as a man he will have very lowly beginnings. He will sprout forth. Of course, we know that Jesus was also God and we may wonder how he could come from a lowly place. But even as a man, the Messiah was expected to come a place of exaltation. Yet those living at the time of Jesus do not seem to have noticed that the Messiah would come in a humble manner. But he did, from a poor family in Nazareth.

Yet although he had a lowly beginning, he would not remain there. Instead he would become a king with his own throne. When we come to crowning of Jesus, whose throne does he sit on? At his ascension, he went and sat on his own throne, which is the throne of God, and we can read about his arrival there in Revelation 4 and 5. From that throne, he would direct operations as the temple of the Lord is built by him. At the same time, he would govern as a priest on that throne.

Joshua knew that there was a throne on which he could never sit. He knew that was the case even although he had been symbolically crowned. The throne on which he could never sit was in the Holy of Holies, the throne of God that was the mercy seat. If Joshua the priest ever tried to sit on that throne he would suffer severe consequences. He must have realised that he was pointing to someone greater than himself.

What is the temple that Jesus would build? The answer is not a literal temple in Jerusalem. Instead he predicted that the temple that Zerubbabel helped to build and which was enlarged by Herod would be destroyed (Matt. 24:1-2). Instead of a literal temple in Jerusalem, we now know that the exalted reigning Jesus builds his church from his throne in the New Jerusalem, as he said he would do in Matthew 16:18.

Jesus as he builds the church functions as a king and as a priest. As king he has power to help those in need and as priest he has compassion on the weak. As king he defends and rules over his people, and as priest he leads the praise that his people offer to God. Of course, we are not to separate the activities of Jesus and say he does some things as a priest without also functioning at the same time as a king. His offices of prophet, priest and king usually work simultaneously.

We may ask why the office of prophet is not mentioned here along with the other two. While a definite answer cannot be given, we can say that perhaps it was because a description that involved too much development might have been too much for Zechariah to understand. Or perhaps we are to understand the prophetic role as being included in the others, because both the king and the priest in Israel taught the law to the people.

What is meant by the phrase ‘counsel of peace’? The prophet says that it will be between them both, so we have to work out what ‘both’ refers to. There are two couplets in the passage: one is the king and priest, but since they belong to the same person it is unusual to say that there would be peace between them; the other is the Lord of hosts and the king/priest, and we can understand how there could be peace between them. Of course, the idea of counsel between them points to equality because why would the greater take counsel from a lesser. Peace could point to the possibility that between God and every other priest and every other king there was a barrier to peace, and we know that the barrier could only be taken away by the king/priest. So it looks as if the Lord of hosts and the king/priest together act in peace as the temple of the Lord is built. And we can see how that is the case as the gospel of peace is declared to sinners who had been estranged from God.

As mentioned earlier, it was not possible for Joshua the high priest to wear this crown continually. So when he and his successors went about his priestly duties, the crown was stored elsewhere in the temple. The prophet mentions that the four men who had been involved in the production of the crown would know that it was there, and maybe they were called to tell others about because it is possible that the crown would not be in public view. Of course, people would be informed about its existence when they read the prophecy of Zechariah. So those in the temple at the time of Jesus should have made the connection when they heard him speak about Melchisedek.

The workforce

In verse 15, Zechariah returns to speak about the literal temple that they were in the process of building. He says that people will come from other countries to help them. Perhaps he means that more Jews will return to the Promised Land and take part in the project. Or he may mean that Gentiles would contribute to the building just as Hiram of Tyre had contributed timber when Solomon built the first Jerusalem temple.

Either suggestion would have been an encouragement for the people, and the fulfilment would be a visible confirmation that Zechariah was a true prophet sent by God. Nevertheless, the future of the project depended on his listeners getting involved in the present. If they decided to wait for the people from other places to arrive, God would not arrange for them to come.

We can see in this prediction of helpers coming to work on the temple project a picture of those who would yet come and help the king/priest erect the true temple, the church. They would come from all over the world to participate in this ongoing project. We can see something of this taking place in the Book of Acts as the thousands attending Pentecost, the Ethiopian treasurer, the Roman centurion Cornelius, and the various people that helped Paul all became involved in this amazing project of building the temple in which God will dwell forever. So we can see that we are actually in this verse if we are participating in the growth of the kingdom.