Who [art] thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel [thou shalt become] a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone [thereof with] shoutings, [crying], Grace, grace unto it.
Ver. 7. Who art thou, O great mountain?] So the enemies seemed to themselves set aloft, and overtopping the low and poor estate of those feeble Jews, as they called them, Nehemiah 4:2. But the virgin, daughter of Zion, despiseth them here, and laugheth them to scorn; she shaketh her head at them, and saith, Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? Isaiah 37:22. It is good for thee to meddle with thy match, and not to exalt thyself against the Holy One of Israel, who is more "glorious and excellent than those mountains of prey. The stouthearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep" (such as Sisera did): "and none of the men of might have found their hands," Psalms 76:4,5, when once they fell into the punishing hands of the living God. He will soon level these lofty mountains, Jeremiah 51:25. Babylon is called a destroying mountain seated upon a rock; yet God will level, and lay it low enough.
They shall become a plain] A champaign, that before seemed impossible, inaccessible. Christ's enemies shall be in that place that is fittest for them, the lowest, that is, the footstool of Christ; when the Church, as it is the highest in God's love and favour, so shall it be highest in itself. Gaudeo quod Christus Dominus est; alioqui totus desperassem, writes Miconius to Calvin upon the view of the Church's enemies. Glad I am that Christ reigns; for else I had been utterly hopeless (Melch. Ad.). O pray, pray, saith another saint; for the Pope of Rome and his conventicle of Trent are hatching strange business. The comfort is that he that sitteth in heaven seeth them; the Lord above them hath them in derision. For in the thing wherein they deal proudly, God is above them; and his will shall stand when they shall dung the earth with their dead carcases. Sciat Celsitudo Tun, &c. Let your Highness know (saith Luther in a letter to the Duke of Saxony) that things are otherwise ordered in heaven than they are at Augsbourg; where the Emperor Charles V had made a decree to root out the reformed religion out of Germany. But soon after the Turk broke into Hungary and the borders of Germany; so the Caesar had somewhat else to do than to persecute the Protestants. So the primitive persecutors fondly inscribed upon the public pillars, Deleto Christianorum nomine, that they had blotted out the name of Christ and his religion from under heaven; but this they could never effect with all the power of the whole empire. They found and complained that the Church might be shaken and not shivered; concuti non excuti, as 2 Corinthians 4:8,9. Facundi sunt Martyrum cineres, the very ashes of the martyrs were fruitful, and their blood prolific. The Church conquers even when she is conquered; Christ overcame as much by patience as by power. The people of Rome (saith one), saepe proelio victus, nunquam belle, they lost many battles, but were never overcome in a set war; at the long run they crushed all their enemies. Bellarmine somewhat boasteth the like of the Church of Rome, that she was never worsted in any set battle by the Protestants. But if he had lived till these late years he would have known it otherwise, and indeed he could not be ignorant of that famous Bellum Hussiticum, as they called it in Germany, and the many fields fought and won by the Huguenots in France, &c. And if at any time the Church lose the day, Victa tamen vincet. conquored yet conquorers, Christ hath his stratagems, as Joshua had at Ai; he seems sometimes to retire, that he may return with greater advantage. Certain it is, he will thresh the mountains and beat them small before his Zerubbabels; he will make the hills as chaff, Isaiah 41:15 .
And he shall bring forth the head stone thereof with shoutings, saying, Grace, grace unto it] i.e. He shall hold out to lay the very last stone of this new building with joy, and with general acclamations and well wishes. There was a promise for it long before, Isaiah 44:28. This Zerubbabel was not ignorant of; as neither of that which followeth, Isaiah 45:1,2, that, for the effecting of that promise, God would go before him to make the crooked place straight, to break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron, i.e. to take away all rubs and impediments. There is the like promise in the New Testament, and it may be a singular encouragement to those that go on to build the tower of godliness, to prepare a tabernacle in their hearts for the Holy One of Israel, that he may dwell in them and walk in them, the gates of hell shall never prevail against them, since Christ, as another Samson, hath flung them off their hinges, hath destroyed the devil's works, and laid the top stone of his spiritual temple with shouting, saying, Grace, grace unto it. The meaning is, saith an interpreter, that the angels, the faithful, and all creatures, rejoicing at Christ's kingdom established in the world, shall desire God the Father to heap all manner of blessing and happiness upon it, see Psalms 118:26 (Diodati). Or, they shall acknowledge and preach, that the Father hath laid up in him all the treasures of his grace and gifts of his Spirit. It is the observation of another reverend man, preaching upon this text, that when we preach human wisdom and foresight we should fall down and cry (as we are here taught), Grace, grace unto it; we are not to cry up Zerubbabal, Zerubbabel, any man or means whatever; but to exalt the free grace of God, the work of which alone it is and hath been. Zerubbabel should bring forth the head stone (as master builders used to do the first and last stone), and the people should magnify God's mere free grace; and acknowledge that he was marvellous in their eyes. Thus that learned preacher (Mr Thomas Goodwin, Fast sermon before Parliament Apr. 27, 1642); who also by the lighted candlestick here understandeth full perfecting and finishing of the temple, and restoring the worship of God within it unto its full perfection of beauty and brightness. By the two olive trees, Zerubbabel with the elders, and Joshua, high priest, with the other priests that sat before him, as Zec 3:8 cf. Ezr 6:14 cf. Psalms 52:8. These are said to empty golden oil, that is, their estates and pains for the finishing of costly work; and likewise because it was done in sincerity of heart, therefore it is called golden or pure oil. Further, these eminent ranks and sorts of persons that should give their assistance to this work are called sons of oil, Zec 4:14 marg., as being fruitful and affording plenty of it. Thus, Isaiah 5:1, a fruitful hill and fertile soil is in the original (as here) called a son of oil.