Christ in Zechariah 10:4

For those of you who don't know me, I come from Manitoba, from Winnipeg, although I met a lady today who was born in the same street as I was in Fife, Methil, Scotland on a road called Rannoch Road. It's a small world, just amazing. Turn please to the book of Zechariah chapter 10.

The book of Zechariah chapter 10, we'll read from verse 3. Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats, for the Lord of hosts had visited his flock, the house of Judah, and had made them as his goodly horse in the battle. Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor together. Now, I trust God will bless to us the reading of this precious word.

Generally, when we think of the minor prophets, the comments often made is, will you turn please to the white pages in your Bible. And sad to say, and I point to my own self, that too often, those 12 minor prophets are probably the least read in our Bibles and the least known. Zechariah holds a very special place among the minor prophets, because second only of all the prophets, second only to Isaiah, in Zechariah, we probably have the majority of the messianic prophecies and statements.

Now, you should understand this, that when you come up to the book of Malachi, you really have to go all the way back in your Bible, chronologically, to Ezra and Nehemiah. Because that's about, and I have difficulty with dates in my Bible, because I've got some chronological, or whatever you call them, they have about 50 years in between many of the dates that they give you. We've been doing David and 2 Samuel, and the dates are all over the place.

But roughly, you can take that Malachi will fit alongside with Ezra and Nehemiah, somewhere in that region, and Zechariah comes along about 518, first six chapters, and chapter seven and eight, 520 BC, or the other way around, 520, then 518, and chapter nine to chapter 14 is an unknown date stamp, so we really don't know. But in the book of Zechariah, we're going to learn about Christ. Now, the Lord Jesus, when he's traveling with the two on the road to Emmaus in Luke chapter 24, he began at Moses and the prophets, and he told them about himself.

When he sat with the disciples in that room, he said to them that when I was with you, he told them all about himself, his life and his death, and he did it from Moses, from the Psalms, and from the prophets. And so we've every reason to turn our Bibles to the Old Testament and to look to see Christ. Lovely exercise, you know, to start at the book of Genesis, just lie in your bed some night and just think of Christ throughout the Old Testament.

You know, most of us can stop at the book of Leviticus and the first five chapters, and we can just delight our hearts in seeing Christ in the offerings, but he's seen in many other aspects in your Bible. Now, I don't want to take too long, I just want to do two things. I want to impress upon our hearts that if we get into those almost unknown books, we can learn something precious about the Lord Jesus.

We can learn something about future events, and we can learn of the wonder of the Word of God, that way back there, 500 or more years, 500, over 500 years before the birth of the Lord Jesus, there are statements made concerning him that would happen in his life. I'm not going to get into them, that's not my purpose today, I just want to look at this lovely verse. But you'll notice as you go through, you start off with the Lord Jesus, and he's the man, he's the horseman right at the start.

He's probably the angel of Jehovah, and of course here we have him as the corner. In chapter 3 and chapter 6, he's spoken of as the branch, the man whose name is the branch, my servant the branch, and that ties in with Isaiah 4 and Jeremiah 23, as the branch of Jehovah and the righteous branch, for the Lord is the branch of Jehovah, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's spoken of as the king, he's spoken of as the priest, he's spoken of as the stone, and we're going to look at him today as the cornerstone, as the nail, as the battle bow.

The oppressor is not the best translation, we're going to use the word exactor, every exactor together. And so we have some lovely thoughts about the Lord Jesus, out of him came forth the corner, that's the thought of the cornerstone. Takes us back to Psalm 118, where we first learn of the Lord Jesus as the cornerstone.

The verse is quoted in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, it's quoted in Acts, it's quoted in 1 Peter, and there is no doubt as we read 1 Peter 2 that the Lord Jesus is the cornerstone. We can, it's unequivocally taught to us in the scriptures that he is the cornerstone. But if we turn back, and maybe we should do it, go back to Isaiah chapter 28, and we'll read another verse in Isaiah 28, verse 16.

Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste. So here we have the Lord Jesus, not only as the cornerstone, the tried stone, that's his character, his proof, but as the foundation stone.

And if we looked at Zechariah chapter 4, verse 7, we would find him as the headstone. And so there's three thoughts of the stone in relation to the Lord Jesus. As I think of the cornerstone, I think of the one that's going to give me direction.

The cornerstone is placed, and it's not a small stone, it would be a large stone, and it would be set according to the direction the building would go. And so there's that stone on the corner, and horizontally it would mark out the wall of the building, vertically it would mark out the the plumb of the building, and every part of the building started off from the cornerstone. But it's also spoken of as the foundation stone.

And of course, in Corinthians 2, we learn that the Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation. And everything that we believe, everything in the word of God is centered on the person of Christ. He's the one in whom he'll have the preeminence.

There's none beside him, there's none before him. He's the foundation. You know, child of God, if Christ is not the subject, what do we have? If Christ is not the object, what do we have? Because you know, he's the theme of heaven.

The Father's attention is centered on the Son. God says this is my, in Mark 1, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And the attention of heaven was on the Lord Jesus Christ, and in Luke chapter 9, I get my chapters mixed up sometimes.

In Luke chapter 9, speaking to them on the mountain, says, hear ye him. And he is the one as the foundation, and everything is centered on him. He is the one who is the cornerstone, and everything gets its direction from him.

As we go through the scriptures and we would look at the person of Christ, we would see all those characteristics. We heard about comfort. We heard from Colossians.

And Colossians is going to tell us about the fullness of God dwelling in him. When you want to know the Father, you've got to know the Lord Jesus. In John's Gospel, he says, if you honor me, you're going to honor the Father.

To honor the Son is to honor the Father. If you believe on the Son, you'll believe on the Father. To receive the Son is to receive the Father.

To see the Son is to see the Father. To know the Son is to know the Father. To hate the Son is to hate the Father, and in his epistle, to deny the Son is to deny the Father.

There's that link between the Father and Son, because the Lord Jesus is teaching what the Father gave him to teach. Remember, he said, my teaching is not mine, but the Father which sent me. The Lord Jesus was always conscious, in John's Gospel, about being sent by the Father.

The works that he did, it was the works that the Father gave him to do. His step, his thoughts, his teaching was always in accord, in harmony with the Father's will. We're mentioning this morning, in Luke chapter 2, a lovely statement in Mr. Newbery's margin, and if you've heard me speak, I very rarely speak without telling you to buy a Newbery, and they're not expensive.

They're less than $100 through on that bookshelf there, and I've got four in my house. If you can't afford one, come and visit me, and I'll give you one, but you have to visit me and come through. He says this, this is your authorized version, he says, I must be about my Father's business, but Mr. Newbery's margin says this, I must be in the things of my Father, and the whole of the Lord's life was occupied with being in the things of the Father.

He came not to do his own will, but the will of the Father which sent him, and his delight was to do the Father's will. He says in John 8, I do always those things that please him. That's the one who is going to set the path, set the pattern for us in our spiritual life.

He's the foundation, he's the cornerstone, but he's the headstone. You know, he's the head of the body. Everything is cut by him, is finalized by him, is completed by him.

When you get the building put up, not the buildings we build today, but the buildings are built of stone, separate stones, they would have a capstone that would go on the top, and that would hold the building together. It would stop the walls from going. So you have a foundation.

You know, I built a little flower garden in my front yard. I just got those blocks, they all just fit together, I put them right on the ground. Do you know what happens after about two or three years? The walls start to go sideways, and I've got to just take them out, move them, build it up again with more dirt, knowing that I don't have a foundation.

You know, Christ is our foundation stone. Listen to what Isaiah 42 says, Behold my servant, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth, he shall not fail. He shall not fail.

We have a foundation that will never give way. We're centered and we're sourced on the person of Christ, and he is the headstone. I'm going to keep moving, we can spend longer on that.

But we go back to Zechariah chapter 10, and then we read out of him the nail. Now that's an interesting one. Now, I'm going to read to you a verse in Isaiah chapter 22.

Isaiah seems to tie in so lovely with some of those things. We think of the nail, we think of Judges 4 with Jail and Sisera, we go back to the tabernacle and we see the nail used to support the ropes on the tabernacle, that's the word it's used, the nails that went in the ground. But here we have in chapter 22, verse 23, listen to this, I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place.

So there we learn that the nail provides security, and there's security in Christ. John chapter 10, you can't get any better. The Lord Jesus says, I give unto my sheep eternal life.

Now one of those double negatives, they shall never, never perish. Oh, can you get that? We're held in the Father's hand, and he'll never, he'll never let us go. The security that we have in Christ.

But look at this, and he shall be for a glorious throne to his Father's house, and they shall hang upon him the glory of his Father's house. That sort of riveted me. If you went into one of the tents, maybe into Abraham's tent, it's not a tent like maybe I would sleep in that you can hardly walk in, it'd be a great big tent structure and skins all over holding it up, but there'd be a main support, and on that support there would be a nail, and a precious object that maybe Sarah wanted to display to visitors would be hanging on that nail.

And ladies do it today, you've got things hanging on the walls, or you've got little things on little dressers and that, that they want to show off to their guests because they're lovely, they look good. Something that's precious is going to be displayed. And here's what we read, and they shall hang upon him all the glory of his Father's house.

You know, the Lord Jesus in John 17, he prays this, Father, glorify me now with the glory that I had with thee before the world was. There's a glory about the person of Christ that's eternal. John chapter 12, Isaiah saw his glory and spake of him.

When did they do that? Isaiah chapter 6, and he sees the Lord high and lifted up. He sees his glory, and there's an eternal glory about the Lord Jesus. There's a glory that marked him in his life.

The disciples saw something of his glory in Luke chapter 9 on the mountaintop, and there he was bright and glistening, a glory that they'd never seen before, a glory that was veiled to the eyes of men. Paul said, had the princes of this world known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But in 2 Corinthians, their eyes were closed.

They couldn't see him. They couldn't understand him. You remember Moses came down from the mountain, and there the glory of God was upon him, and he veiled his face.

He didn't want them to see a fading glory. He didn't want them to see a glory that was disappearing, and he kept his face veiled. But child of God, one day we're going to see the Lord Jesus.

We're going to see him in all of his glory. The writer to the Hebrews says, but we see Jesus, who was made a little Lord of the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and with honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. Some of our brethren would like to make that before Calvary, and I have no problem with that.

I personally think it's after, but that's okay, because glory belongs to Christ. And if we turn back in our chapters in Zechariah to chapter six, we read about the king priest, and we read this, he shall bear the glory. He shall bear the glory.

You know, Diotrephus was a man who loveth to have the preeminence. What was he doing? He says, I want Diotrephus to be a head of Christ. The moment you set yourself or another in a high place, you're setting aside the person of Christ.

And that's seen in the order in the assembly. You see the woman with her covered head, and you see the man with his uncovered head, and the man, he speaks of Christ, and the woman's head is the glory of the man. And so the woman's glory is covered, that the man who speaks of Christ might be displayed, and the glory of Christ is seen in the gathering of his people, the woman with her covered heads, and the men with their uncovered heads.

He shall bear the glory. And so the nail would speak of security, but it would also speak of glory. In respect to security, just in my mind, it's something that holds things together.

You've probably all done some carpentry, and you bang in those nails, and once you get it in, something holds quite good. But there's another word about holding together that I love, I just want to pass it on. In the list of gifts, I think it's in Corinthians, Corinthians is a Roman's job, I don't have a good memory for all that detail.

But you get the word helps in the spiritual gifts. You've read that word? Now, are you a help? You know, in Scotland, they used to say you've got yelpers, scalpers, that's people who scalp you and get onto you, or helpers. Now go forward in your Bible to Acts chapter 27, remember Paul's in that ship on the sea, and the storm was coming, and they used helps to undergird the ship.

You know what they were doing? They were putting ropes around the ship, and I don't know if they had a capstan in those days, but they tightened the ropes up, and they held the wooden ship together, saved it from falling apart, it eventually did, but that was the intention, save it from falling apart. I love to speak of Mrs. Sam Vanstone, she's long with the Lord. If you came about Winnipeg many years ago, you would know the Vanstones, they're in Portage in Winnipeg.

Mrs. Vanstone, after her husband died and her health went, she was in her sister's home on the second floor and could never go down, she never went down until they carried her down, used to go and visit her. You know what she did every day? Talk about being a help. She couldn't get out and do any work in the assembly.

She could only minister verbally to those who came to visit her. She had the assembly address book, and she prayed for everyone in the assembly every day. Is that a help? I know a sister and has got her prayer list marked with tears and my son's names on it.

You know, we might not be a platform speaker, we might not be a prominent person, but child of God, we can be a help, we can help to hold things together. The Lord Jesus Christ is the unifier of his people and unity is centered in him. We're going to see in Philippians chapter two about the Lord Jesus, and the word is the problem in Philippi is disunity.

And Paul says in chapter two, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And we're going to be centered on and focus on the person of Christ. You know, there's nothing will bring the saints closer together than the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then we have the battle bow. I'm going to finish very soon. Now, when I think of the battle bow, my mind automatically goes to Revelation chapter 19.

The bow's not there. It's a sword coming out of the mouth of the Lord. But in Revelation chapter six, the rider on the white horse, he has the bow and he is the man of sin as far as I'm concerned, antichrist, and he's going forth conquering and to conquer.

He's going to get world dominion. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to have the dominion. He's going to reign from shore to shore.

And the battle bow tells me this, that he is going to be the victor. Remember, it's coming out of Judah. You know, Isaiah tells us in chapter 32, a king shall reign in righteousness and the Lord's going to sit and he's going to reign as king.

We're going to touch that just in a moment with the next one too. He's going to be the one who will complete everything. He's going to win the battle.

He's going to defeat the enemy. Every foe will be conquered before him and he'll be king of kings and Lord of lords. There's a great day coming and you and I will be with Christ.

And the kings of the earth are going to rise and revolt against him. Psalm 2, the kings of the earth, they're going to arise against the Lord and his anointed and God's going to laugh. And the warning goes out at the end of the chapter, kiss the son, lest he be angry, for his wrath is kindled yet a little.

There's a warning with regard to the battle bow. And so with the might and the power of the Lord Jesus, listen to what we read when we come to the exactor in Philippians again, chapter two, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. What's the exactor? The exactor is the one who receives generally in a battle.

Someone's won a battle and a nation subdued and they will bring their gifts, their levies. They'll bring them to this king, the exactor. Now the oppressor is probably not the best translation.

The exactor is probably the closest. And if you look up the word, you will understand what I'm saying. If you turn to Revelation chapter 21, you will notice that the kings of the earth.

Now I must confess, I don't see the eternal state in that chapter. So if you do, please don't get angry with me for not seeing it. But I think the eternal state is probably the first eight or nine verses.

Then on to verse 15 of chapter 22, we've got the millennium scene and the kings of the earth are bringing their glory to the city. They're subject to the king of kings and Lord of Lords. They're recognizing that he is the one before whom they shall bow and they're bringing their glory unto him.

Any glory that they have, they recognize it's less than full compared with the glory that should be his. That's the Lord Jesus Christ in a coming day. He's going to establish his throne.

And we finish up the book of Zechariah and there's going to be one king in all the earth. Going to be one king. That's the Lord Jesus Christ, king of kings and Lord of Lords.

These are just some simple thoughts to turn your mind. And there's many things in this lovely book that would present you with the Lord Jesus as the one who is the coming king, who is the savior of the world. We're going to see him in chapter nine coming into the city on the donkey, which has got a past and a future application.

We're going to go back to the cross and in chapter 13, verse seven, we're going to see him as, as the Messiah, a Waco sword against my shepherd, the one who was slain upon the cross. Beautiful pictures in that book. Listen, you go home, just take time, pick up the book of Zechariah and read about the Lord Jesus.