Who art thou, O great mountain
The temple of God built amidst difficulties
I. THE SEEMING DIFFICULTIES IN OUR LORD’S WAY. Solomon raised his goodly structure in quiet. Joshua and Zerubbabel had difficulty after difficulty to overcome. Turn to the Lord Jesus. What difficulties were there in His way when He first undertook to build God’s temple in heaven! He had--
1. To introduce sinners into heaven; to bring those near to God, who were among the farthest from Him.
2. He had to prepare sinners for heaven. The Lord the Redeemer has to work to the very last against the bias of nature, and the power of nature’s lusts. Consider how many of such men He has to work on and change before His task can be completed. He has to bring “many sons unto glory.” Remember where this work is to be done. In a world where there is everything to obstruct, and really nothing to aid it. It is to be accomplished too against all the powers of darkness. It cannot be done in an hour, or a day, or a year.
II. The ease and completeness with which the Redeemer o`vercomes the difficulties before Him. This is more strongly expressed in the abrupt language of the original, than in our translation “Who art thou?” There is no surprise or ignorance implied in this question. There is something like derision and contempt in it. The question expresses at once His own dignity, and the insignificance in His sight of the obstacles opposed to Him; His own almighty power and their utter impotence. Here lies one of the hardest lessons we have to learn in practical Christianity--to see the difficulties of salvation, and not be discouraged by them; to see the hills before us and around us, and yet to feel sure that the Lord will carry us over them.
III. The means whereby the Lord Jesus carries on His great work. Christianity has been established in the world without the world’s aid, by means which have seemed most unlikely to establish it. Its very existence in the world at this moment is one of the greatest moral wonders the world ever saw. The Lord Jesus fits us for heaven by means of His Spirit. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” Observe then here how jealous God is for the honour of the Holy Ghost. In looking to the Lord Jesus as our sanctifier, we must not overlook the Holy Spirit. He sanctifies us by this Spirit.
IV. The effect which will be produced by the completion of Christ’s work. God’s present dealings with our world will not go on forever. There is a day coming when all His purposes of mercy towards it will be accomplished. The completion as spoken of under the figure of bringing forth and putting on the top or headstone of a building. This, in Eastern countries, was generally done with much ceremony, and in the presence of many beholders. With such a prospect before us, well may we ask with this prophet, “Who hath despised the day of small things?” As for the Church of Christ, let us learn to be ashamed of our fears concerning it. (C. Bradley, M. A.)
Salvation secure
Treat the text as designed to encourage the believer in the assurance of his final salvation, in strong confidence of continuing and upholding power, to be vouchsafed to him.
I. The honor of God is concerned in a persuasion of our final safety.
1. In all spiritual temples the command to build, and the means to build, and the laying the foundation for the building, originate solely with God Himself. How unlikely then that God should forsake the work of His own hands. God is the author of that spiritual temple which is to be raised from the ruins of our degraded humanity. Man is as powerless to work a change in his own spiritual affections as he is to fix a new sun in the heavens, or to divert the course of the trackless deep.
2. The honour of God is concerned in the accomplishment of this work, by the multiplied succours which He has provided for carrying it on. We discover a constant regard to a law of progression. Whether God be ripening a blade of grass, or forming a world from the shapeless void, there is to be a beginning, a continuance, and an end. The building up of the soul into a holy temple in the Lord is no exception to this law. God will take His own time, and work in His own way.
II. The building of this temple will redound to the glory of Christ. Zerubbabel is a type of Christ.
1. There is a promise on the part of Christ to His people, that He will work in them all needful grace to keep them faithful unto the end.
2. Christ is concerned in our final victory, because the believer’s triumphs form an integral part of His own. Conclusion--
(1) Be as confident with regard to the completion of the work as if it were altogether of God.
(2) Be as diligent in working out that accomplishment as if it were altogether your own. (Daniel Moore, M. A.)
The building of the spiritual temple
Zerubbabel is a type of a far greater builder than himself, and the temple of Zerubbabel is a shadow of a far nobler temple. Zerubbabel is a type of Him “whom God hath exalted from among the people,” to build His spiritual temple; and the temple of Zerubbabel is a type of that Church, which is “built on the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone”; of which every true Christian is a lively, that is, a living stone; and in which all are builded together, for a habitation of God through the Spirit. Each converted Christian is a temple of God by the Spirit, and like the temple of Zerubbabel, is honoured by the indwelling God as His abode. Christians are spoken of in Scripture as living stones of one great spiritual temple (as well as each being a separate temple). The manner in which the separate stones of Solomon’s temple were prepared was striking and remarkable. While that temple was in building, no sound of axe or hammer was heard. Of the glorious temple to the Lord--a temple built of ransomed and purified souls, of deathless and sinless bodies--our Lord Jesus Christ is the chief builder. And He “will not fail nor be discouraged,” until He has erected His spiritual building on God’s eternal hill of Zion. But He uses instruments. He has His fellow labourers. He directs their work. The whole plan is in His mind. To His ministers he gives “diversities of operations” by the same Spirit. It is the conviction that our great Master is with His servants, even unto the end of the world, that supports and cheers them under difficulties that would otherwise overwhelm them. (W. Weldon Champneys, M. A.)
His hands shall also finish it--
The founder and finisher of the temple
Zerubbabel is very little more than a grotesque name to most Bible readers. He was a prince of the blood royal of Israel, and the civil leader of the first detachment of returning exiles. The words of the text are, in their plain original meaning, the prophetic assurance that the man, grown an old man by this time, who had been honoured to take the first spadeful of soft out of the earth, should be the man “to bring forth the headstone with shoutings of grace, grace unto it!” I take them to be a Messianic prophecy. This Zerubbabel was a prophetic person. What was true about him primarily is thereby shown to have a bearing upon the greater Son of David who was to come thereafter, and who was to build the Temple of the Lord.
I. There is here, a large truth as to Christ, the true temple builder. “I am Alpha and Omega,” etc. All the letters are from Him, and He underlies everything. That is true about Creation, in the broadest and in the most absolute sense. “He is the beginning, and in Him all things consist.” He is the Beginner and the Finisher of the work of redemption, which is His only, from its inception to its accomplishment. Jesus makes a new beginning; He presents a perfectly fresh thing in the history of human nature. Just as His coming was the introduction into the heart of humanity of a new type, the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, so the work that He does is all His own. He does it all Himself. The text declares that all through the ages His hand is at work. “Shall also finish it”--then he is labouring at it now. We have to think of a Christ who is working on and on, steadily and persistently. A work begun, continued, and ended by the same immortal hand is the work on which the redemption of the world depends.
II. We have here the assurance of the triumph of the Gospel. There were many who were ready to throw cold water on the works of Zerubbabel. The text is the cure for all hopeless calculations by us Christian people, and by other than Christian people. When we begin to count up resources, and to measure these against the work to be done, there is little wonder that good men and bad men sometimes concur in thinking that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has very little chance of conquering the world. That is perfectly true, unless you take Him into the calculation, and then the probabilities are altogether different. He renews and purifies the corrupted Church, and He lives forever. When Brennus conquered Rome, and the gold for the city’s ransom was being weighed, he clashed his sword into the scale to outweigh the gold. Christ’s sword is in the scale, and it weighs more than the antagonism of the world and the active hostility of hell.
III. Here is encouragement for despondent and timid Christians. Jesus Christ is not going to leave you halfway across the bog. That is not His manner of guiding us. He began and He will finish. If the seed of the kingdom is in our hearts, He will watch over it, and He will bless the springing thereof. Be of good cheer, only keep near the Master, and let Him do what He desires to do for us all.
IV. Here is a striking contrast to the fate which attends all human workers. Few of us are happy enough to begin and finish any task, beyond the small ones of our daily life. Authors die with half finished books. No man starts an entirely fresh line of action; he inherits much from the past. No man completes a great work that he undertakes. Coming generations, if it is one of the great historical works of the world, work out its consequences for good or evil. We have to be contented to do our little bit of work that will fit in along with that of a great many others. How many hands does it take to make a pin? We have to be content to be parts of a mighty whole. Multiplication of joy comes from division of labour. So let us do our little bit of work, and remember that whilst we do it, He is doing it in us for whom we are doing it, and let us rejoice to know that at the last we shall share in the “joy of our Lord,” when He sees of the travail of His soul, and is satisfied. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Reasons against pessimism
Those Hebrew prophets were thorough optimists. No matter how great the desolation which was around them, no matter how deep the degradation into which the people had fallen, no matter how dark the prospect, they told of a glory to follow. Their words are charged with hope. They summoned languid, desponding souls to courageous action. They never hung their harp upon the willows. In the presence of error, evil, idolatry there is no quailing, no craven cry of fear, but a tone of almost contemptuous defiance. Can the force of contempt go further? “Moab is my washpot,”--I will wash my hands in Moab. “Over Edom I will fling my old shoe.” It is so here. This young Zechariah is perhaps the most hopeful of all the prophets. He calls upon the daughter of Zion to sing and rejoice. The holy city, which has been despoiled, shall become so vast that no angel can measure it, and God shall be a wall of fire round about it, and the glory in the midst of it. In this chapter he seeks to encourage Zerubbabel in the great work of rebuilding the temple. A mighty mountain of hindrance bars his way. But by this most suggestive vision the prophet assures him that he shall be aided in his work by the mysterious energy of God. Perhaps there never was an age when the servants of Christ were more exposed to dejection, or when it was more incumbent upon them to maintain an undaunted and confident spirit. Pessimism is in the air. It fills our literature with a wailing cry. As Goethe said: “Men write as if they were all ill, and the whole world a lazaretto.” There is a deep undertone of sadness in the life of our times. The culture of the age is mournful. One may well ask, Is this “metric England”? The number of suicides in this country during the past thirty years has risen from 65 per million to 79. In London it is 85, in Paris 422. Now, pessimism is the legitimate outcome of unbelief. If man is a bubble, soon to be pricked by death, how can he be glad? Men are congratulating the world that faith is dying; but they will find, if it dies, that some other things, which they would fain keep, have disappeared too. But if pessimism is proper to unbelief, it ought to have no place in the minds of Christian men. What are the reasons against pessimism? What reasons have we for declaring that it will be laid low?
I. First of all, it is alien to human nature. The fundamental principle of pessimism is that evil is an essential element of human nature. It is original and permanent. The world is corrupt in its nature. The teaching of the Word of God is that sin is an intrusion. We are often told that the Scripture view of man is too dark. It is the only bright view of the subject. That which regards sin as natural is horrible, and forbids hope. Sin is neither the “essence of the creature nor the act of the Creator.” So terrible is it when it culminates, that it would be fearful to regard it as the mere outcome of the natural working of the human heart. What a vivid picture is that which our Lord gives of the state of man! The human heart is a house, and living in it, ordering it, is “a strong man armed.” Yes, sin is a mighty tyrant, but it is only a lodger. It occupies the city of Mansoul, but it has crept in and it can be cast out. Is not this evident from a survey of the effects of evil? It is manifestly foreign to human nature, for it runs right athwart the interests, and cuts deep into the powers of that nature, sapping its strength, and draining its very life blood. It is a wrong inflicted upon the soul, not the intended outcome and expression of the soul. It is a great hurt, a violation of law, a break in the harmony of life, a discord in its music, a derangement of its order. The effects of sin are eloquent of its nature. It spoils, rends, tears, maims perverts It is off “the course of nature.” Human nature has fallen among thieves, which have robbed, wounded it and left it half dead. Sin is not the essence of man; it is an alien thing, it is a foreign power. Men feel it has to be accounted for, that it is not according to the constitution of things. A belief in a fall runs through the religions of the world. Archdeacon Wilson has well said: “The problem about evil which has attracted the mind of man has always been enunciated as the origin of evil. Did any one ever write an essay or vex his mind over the origin of good? It is in the constitution of our minds to ask for a reason for anything that is rare, exceptional, or anomalous. Why does an eclipse of the sun take place? What is the cause of thunderstorms? But we do not often ask why the sun gives light. Can it be that evil is so rare a phenomenon? No; the pessimist will not admit, and the optimist will not assert, that evil is so rare an interference that we are driven to account for it because of its rarity. It is not because it is rare, but because we instinctively feel it is an intruder, however common it may be. We ask for the cause of sickness, common as it is. Health is the normal state; disease the abnormal. Sin is an interference, a fall.”
II. Another reason against pessimism, and a ground for hope, is to be found in the wiles and deceptions that evil must practise before it can succeed. It pretends to be what it is not. It palms itself off as something else. Sin only keeps its place by deception. It is “transformed into an angel of light.” It wears the garb of goodness, and declines to be unclothed. Nor does it wholly possess the human soul. The noblest, most authoritative power of the soul may be cowed and silenced, but it never consents heartily to the sway of evil. Conscience is often like a discrowned king, whose commands are slighted, but it does not run with the multitude of the passions to do evil. It stands solitary, apart, issuing, however vainly, its protests. Hence sin and fear go together. The mountain shakes and trembles, as Sinai at the voice of God. “Conscience doth make cowards of us all.” Nor are the forces of evil so compact, so massive, so welded together as they seem. It is well to follow the counsel which the angel gave to the fearful Gideon--“But if thou fear to go down, go thou with Phurah thy servant down to the host, and thou shalt hear what they say, and afterwards shall thine hands be strengthened to go down to the host. An undefined fear pervades the ranks of evil. There are vague presages of approaching disaster.
III. But let us hasten on to consider the chief reason against pessimism, the highest ground for cherishing the spirit of the text. The vision recorded in this chapter is most beautiful and suggestive. The prophet sees a golden candelabrum, like that which had been in the old temple, but much grander. It has a bowl on the top of it, and beneath are seven lamps and seven pipes to the lamps, and on each side of the bowl stands an olive tree. The prophet is taught that his help is in God. As the lamp was supplied, not by human agency, but direct from the living trees, so he is to learn that evil will” be overthrown and righteousness exalted, “not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” The advent of Jesus Christ into this world was the coming of one stronger than the strong man armed. It was the introduction of a new spiritual energy, a life-giving, restoring force. His whole work, and the consequent descent of His Spirit, show that God is on the side of man, and that the evils which have enslaved, defiled, degraded him shall be overcome. Truth, purity, love are on the throne of the universe. “The Lord reigneth, let the earth be glad.” And further, we are reminded that as we seek to overcome the mountains of evil which are in this world, we can only be qualified for our work as we receive the power of the Holy Ghost. To trust in our own strength, to place our dependence in men or means, to rely on ecclesiastical organisations and auxiliaries, will entail inevitable weakness and defeat. I read the other day of an Italian miser, who died near San Remo worth £120,000, who for years went without stockings because he grudged paying for the washing of them. Some Christian workers are guilty of a similar penuriousness with regard to the spiritual treasures, the “unsearchable riches,” which are at their disposal. Let us not be straitened in ourselves, for we are not straitened in God. Let us be of good cheer, and cultivate a bold, buoyant optimism. And let us be clear as to what is implied in the hope of the overthrow of evil and the establishment of righteousness. It is not implied that the millennium will be here in a fortnight, or that the progress of goodness is steady and uniform. Dalliance with the world may enfeeble the churches, and they may be shorn of their strength. Everything depends on the extent to which the Spirit of Christ prevails among men. The great mountain of evil is a crumbling mountain. Some of us have quailed before that mountain. Sin seems so fixed and strong. The characteristic evils of our nature seem so inveterate. (J. Lewis.)