The Counsel of Peace

Zechariah 6:13ZEC 6:13
This chapter, written after the return of the Jews from Babylon, and when they were seeking to rebuild the temple, was intended to encourage them in that work. It speaks therefore of Joshua, Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah (those who had come from Babylon) by name.
But "no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation." Although some event previously to take place may occupy the chief part of it, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is looked forward to as the ultimate point, the true consummation. So here, after an allusion to the history of God's providence in the four great monarchies, and to the judgment of Babylon, the prophet comforts the hearts of those who were returned thence with a direct prophecy of Christ.
Christ is the great object of the love of God, and the Spirit of God in Scripture always looks on to Him. No matter what the substance of the prophecy, no matter what the circumstances of those addressed, He looks forward, seeing all things as they concern Christ, and His future glory. The Jews, for instance, had many deliverers raised up for them of God in times of need (Neh. 9:27)—"saviors, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies." But the moment the Holy Spirit begins to speak of these many "saviors", He always looks out further: they were all but types of THE Savior.
When Adam fell, and judgment came in, Christ is promised, the woman's Seed, as the bruiser of the head of the serpent. After the trial of Abraham's faith in Isaac, the promise is made unto his Seed, which seed is Christ. Again, "Out of Egypt have I called my Son," we are taught, referring to Christ. And so here: "He shall build the temple of the Lord: even He shall build the temple of the Lord; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne." It is "the man whose name is The Branch" who shall do all this. Zerubbabel is merely a type. Nothing is spoken casually, but all with a view to the ultimate purpose of the glory of God in Christ. Whether it affect the destinies of man, of Israel, or of the Church, all center in Jesus; God's thoughts about Jesus are marked on all.
Blessings Then and Now It must have been a great comfort to the saints of old to have future glories thus opened to them, for whenever the Holy Spirit had awakened spiritual desires in any heart, those desires could not be satisfied with anything then seen of temporal deliverance or blessing. They had much to thank the Lord for—to sing His praise for what He had done, but there was always either the actual presence of evil, or the fear of danger and evil still.
In the days of Josiah, when there was so great a returning to the ways of the Lord, and such a Passover kept that the like of it had not been since the days of Samuel the prophet, yet even then Jeremiah was uttering denunciations against the evil of the people. And the Spirit of God, in denouncing their sin, always referred to the new covenant, holding out the Lord Jesus as the One in whom alone the fullness of blessing was to center. And so with the Church now. We have indeed greater blessings and clearer revelations, but still there is evil, for we are yet in the body. In times of the greatest revivals, there has always been that mixed with them which tended to evil. We have surely much cause to thank God and rejoice, but nothing really to satisfy. We must still be looking onward to the future blessings in Christ. Never, till He appears, will the full desires of our hearts be given us; never, until we "awake, with Thy likeness," shall we really be satisfied. Nothing less will suffice, because the Spirit of Christ is in us. Constant dissatisfaction and constant thanksgiving are ours meanwhile, for if we know Jesus risen, nothing short of the full power of His resurrection can make us content. Our hopes run on to God's ultimate purpose of complete blessing.