The Pulpit Commentary — Zechariah — Section 14

3. His plar,e; amongst the myrtle trees in the hollow; representing, it is thought, the people of God, humble yet pleasing to him, in their then low estate (see Isa. xii. 19: Iv. 13). 4. His apparent pwrpose; viz. to "visit" and save his people (Gen. 1. 24; Exod. iii. 1G; iv. 31; Luke i. 68). II. THE Knm's SERVANTS. Of these we find ihat they are the objects: 1. Of special inqwiry. Who the Leader is the prophet understands. Who these are that attend upon him he cannot tell, yet much wishes to know, probably because of some- thing very special in their numbers and variety and general appearance of readiness and expectation. "What is it the King means to do with all these?" 2. OJ specin,l explanation. Explanation very readily given. Your difficulty is natural. Your inquiry is legitimate. "I will show thee what these be." Explanation also very sufficiently given. Who are they? They are persons "sent;" they have a mission indeed to accomplish. Who sent them? The Lord himself. For what purpose? For that of special investigation. To investigate where? In all parts of the earth. This is why God has visited his people, viz. to learn, by means of these bis servants, how things are with them in the world. III. THE Kmo's WORK. The nature and completeness of this are shown to us by his servants' report. For example, we see: 1. its great promptitude. The next thing we bear of this report is of its completion (ver. 11). No time, apparently, has been lost. While the prophet's question has been put and acknowledged, their mission bas been accomplished (comp. Dan. ix. 21; Ezek. i. 14). 2. Its perfection. They have examined the whole earth. They have examined it all so thoroughly that they challenge any one ("behold") to do more. 3. Its purport and unanimity. This is how they all found the world, viz. "sitting still and at rest "-like a weary traveller (so the figure may mean) who has finished his Jong journey, and taken his seat, and only asks to sit still. See, therefore, in conclusion, respecting this vision: 1. How speciully encouraging it was at that time. By the Jews, just then exhorted to recommence the restoration of their temple, two things only were specially required. The one was to know, as to God, that his eye was upon them for good (see Ezra v. 5). The other was to know, as to men, that they would be let alone in their work (Ezra iv. 3). And these, we see, were just the two things of which this vision assures them. With everything to help them in heaven, and nothing to hinder them on earth, what more could they ask? 2. How instructive for all times. When any direct work for God, such as that of building his house or enlarging his Church, has to be done, this is how it often pleases him to order the world. So Solomon was raised up as a "man of rest•· to build the original temple. So Christ was born, and the foundations of the Christian Chm.;h were laid, when all the world was at peace. So we read also in Acts ix. 31. Compare also the language of the Collect for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity; and the connection between vers. 2 and 4 in 1 'l'im. ii. ,. Vers. 12-16.-A vision of mercy. "Then the an11:el of the Lord answered and said," etc. In the last portion (vers. 7-11) we saw Christ, or the Angel-Jehovah, presented to us as a King, exercising visitatorial powers. In the present we seem to read of him under those two other principal aspects in which he is revealed to his people, viz. (1) as their great High Priest interceding for them with God; and (2) as their great Teacher or Prophet instructing and comforting them in God's name. I. INTERCESSION. We find this to be: 1. Exceedingly apposite. Much had already been done for the remnant of the Captivity; but much also remained. A mere handful (some fifty thousand all told, Ezra ii. 64, 65), compared with the many thousands 0f Israel, had been brought back; a few scattered centres of population only were to be found in the land, and Jerusalem itself was more like a city of the dead than of the living (compare the description of it in Neh. vii. 4, many years afterwards). This state of things is exactly recognized in the Angel-Jehovah's petition, "How long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah?" (For similar and, pro- bably, nearly contemporaneous request for further mercy after much mercy received, comp. Ps. cxxvi. 4 and 1.) 2. Very jwiicious. See what this intercession allows, viz. the justice of God. "Thou hast had indignation;" and rightly, so it implies. (For similar confessions of God's justice in pleading for mercy, comp. Gen. xviii. 25; Jcr. 8 THE BOOK OF ZECHARIAH, [l!II, I. 1-21.