2 Timothy 1:11, 17; 2 Timothy 6:13 - 16; Zechariah 3:1 - 5; Zechariah 4:1 - 14; Zechariah 5:10, 11; Zechariah 6:4, 5
I have before me to speak of the supremacy of God: His supremacy in grace as revealed in Christ, and also in His majesty as the supreme and sovereign Ruler. These two thoughts are brought out in the two verses first read. We read first of the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, speaking to us of the way God is revealed in grace. The word "blessed" there conveys the idea of gladness or happiness, and God is revealed now in the most wonderful way as Father, and He is the blessed God -- happy in the way in which He has revealed Himself. Verse 11 is full of stimulation and buoyancy; it is tidings to make us glad. They are of the glory of the blessed God, who takes the lead in gladness, as it says in Luke 15, "let us eat, and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found". God becomes supreme, as thus known in grace, to all who come into the light of Himself as revealed. "To us there is one God, the Father", 1 Corinthians 8:6. A heart that knows God, and is really in the light and joy of revelation, cannot be tempted by an idol; in that sense God is supreme. Then, on the other hand, He who is thus revealed in grace as Father in connection with the glad tidings of His glory, is none other than the "King of the ages". Paul immediately brings that in: "Now to the King of the ages, the incorruptible, invisible, only God, honour and glory to the ages of ages. Amen". Paul bows down in worship before God in His supreme majesty and ascribes honour and glory to Him in that connection. It is a great thing for us to have a conception of God in His majesty -- supreme in every age. He is the King of the ages, whatever age we may consider. Before the ages of time He was there; in each age and dispensation He remains in His supreme majesty, and will so remain to the ages of eternity, the One to whom all reverence and honour is due.
Now the kingship of Christ has the supremacy of God in view. The Lord Jesus, Himself a divine Person, having come into manhood, must ever be supreme as Man. He is God's King, God's Anointed. All things in heaven and earth are to be headed up in Him. But He uses His supremacy to this great end -- to bring about God's supremacy in the universe. Finally He will deliver up the kingdom to Him who is God and Father, that God may be all in all, 1 Corinthians 15:20 - 28. This is the great end in view in the service of the Son, and it is the end in view in all service that is truly kingly among the saints.
The kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ is beautifully set out typically in David and Solomon. David brings Christ before us in the beauty of His manhood. No one sets out the grace of the anointing in the Old Testament like David, and in him typically we have some idea of the fragrance that ascended to God from Christ. David, whose name means "beloved", is beloved because of what he is, whereas Solomon, whose name Jedidiah also means "beloved of Jehovah", is beloved because of the relationship in which he is set, typically, as the Son of the Father's love. Of course both David and Solomon typify Christ as Son in measure, but what is emphasised in the case of David is that he is beloved because of his personal charm, and in the case of Solomon that he is beloved because of his relationship as Son. We see in David that, though he accepted kingly glory and dignity from God, he did not use it for his own aggrandisement. In the Psalms he repeatedly refers to God as King; to him God was ever King. David's service and kingship were all to the end that God might have His place amongst the people. One of the greatest things that he did was to sing God's praise in the midst of the congregation. He is the writer of Psalm 22, and is typical of Christ as the One who would secure the assembly, where God's praises should be sung. We know too how David vowed to the mighty God of Jacob, how he swore to Jehovah, "I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob", Psalm 132. True kingship in man ever has in mind
that God should be supreme. The moral power expressed in a true king is used for that purpose, not for personal aggrandisement; so David comes forward and prepares abundantly for the house of God. His preparations are marvellous; for, while he prepared the material, he also set out the whole order of the service, securing the priests, the Levites, the singers, and the doorkeepers, securing much in his affliction and giving in his affection for the house of his God. What a spirit he showed in it all! It is David who utters the words, "the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up", Psalm 69:9, fulfilled in perfection in the Lord Jesus!
The type merges into Solomon, who is not viewed in affliction and suffering, preparing for God, but as king in a scene of rest. David was a sufferer and a warrior; Solomon a man of rest, and he secures for God the fixed place of His dwelling, from which the ark never has to move. The Lord would have us take character from Himself as the true David -- to move in a kingly way here as seeking what is for God, and then He would have us come under His rule as the true Solomon and know in spirit the joy and rest of that scene where the ark is in its place and the glory fills the house. The great end of kingship is that God should have a fixed place for His dwelling, and that glory should fill the house. Paul prays in the third chapter of Ephesians, "unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom every family in the heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that the Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith". The Christ is the Anointed -- the King -- the One who has brought all to pass for God, and it is a question of apprehending Him in that character, in order that God might have His supreme place in the assembly. The chapter ends that "ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God", and the result is glory to God "in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages. Amen", Ephesians 3:14 - 21.
To bring the truth to bear on our own times, I refer to the prophet Zechariah, whom God sent to stimulate the
people with the sense of His own supremacy, so that the work might go on to completion. A remnant had come back from Babylon and the foundations of the house had been laid, and then difficulties arose and the work stopped. But the work did not cease permanently, thank God, for we read: "And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel", Ezra 6:14. The completion of the work is attributed to prophecy, showing how important the prophetic word is. We continually need prophetic ministry to bring before us from God what would stimulate us so that the work might go on to completion.
This bears on our own times, for a remnant escaped from Babylon at the Reformation, but what soon marked the position was, as the Lord said, "I have not found thy works complete before my God", Revelation 3:2. The foundations were laid, but the kingly element, represented by Zerubbabel in Zechariah, flagged, and what was begun was not finished. The supremacy of God is in mind. The Lord Jesus is not merely thinking of Himself, but of what is complete before His God. In Philadelphia there is the idea of completion, because there the Lord can speak to the overcomer of the temple of His God, the name of His God, and the name of the city of His God. Christ's God is supreme in the heart of the overcomer, and, therefore, the overcomer in Philadelphia has reached completion in his own apprehension of things, and that is what God would bring to us.
Zechariah's prophecy comes in to stimulate the kingly element to go forward and finish the work, but to bring this about the priesthood must be restored first; and so we have the vision relating to Joshua the high priest.
I would connect what is priestly and kingly with the two verses in 1 Timothy 1, linking the priestly side with the glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God, and the kingly side with the King of the ages. It is only as we are stimulated by the light of the declaration of God in Christ, only as He is supreme in our hearts as declared, that we
are capable of considering for what is due to His honour and glory as the great King. The remnant had allowed wrong motives to govern them, as exposed by Haggai's prophecy, Haggai 1:2 - 4, and, in result, the enemy brought in despondency. So we find Joshua clothed with filthy garments. They had got low down and were conscious of their own failure, and the enemy had taken advantage of it. The adversaries had written a letter to the king of Persia, stating that Jerusalem was a bad and rebellious city, Ezra 5, and the enemy today would say, Look at church history, look at the terrible state of Christendom, look at your own discrepancies, and, if our hearts are not right with God, Satan gets the advantage; we are crushed and priestly service ceases. It would never have happened if they had not said, "The time is not come". But God in grace reminds us that no conditions here can affect what the saints are before Him in Christ Jesus. Jehovah says to those standing by, "Take away the filthy garments from him". God has in mind that the dispensation should close with priestly service carried on in a buoyancy that has never been known before. Joshua is clothed, not simply in robes of righteousness, but in "festival-robes" for priestly service is the most joyous occupation in the universe. Could we come into the presence of the blessed God in the light of the outshining of His glory, and be other than happy? If we go into God's presence, we find that God is happy to have us there, and we are happy to be there. The glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God means that He is glad and we are made glad. So in Joshua, as representing the people, the priestly element is restored. He has a sense that he never had before of the joy of approach to God. The prophet says, "Let them set a fair mitre (or diadem) upon his head". The diadem means that we can come into the very presence of God and lift up our heads with joy and gladness.
The next chapter is to encourage the kingly element and presents another side of the position, which the prophet finds is far more difficult to understand. He has to be aroused as a man out of his sleep. Many of us need rousing, for it is a question of seeing what God has down
here, and what we see is that at the end of the dispensation nothing vital is missing. The candlestick is there with all the seven lamps on it. It is true that the assembly has broken down, as the addresses to the seven assemblies in Revelation prove. Yet to Sardis Christ reveals Himself as One who has the seven Spirits of God, suggesting the Spirit as distributed among the seven assemblies (the seven golden lamps); and the Lord still has that, even if the assembly has broken down, for the Spirit is still here. If we are prepared to stand for things, the full light of God is still available. The exercise for us is to become vessels of the Spirit, to make room for Him. We need to be brought into accord with these two olive trees, the "sons of oil, that stand before the Lord of all the earth". If the gain of the Spirit is to be known here on earth, there must be those who make room for the Spirit, through whom spiritual ministry can flow. Zerubbabel is encouraged to go forward relying on the power of the Spirit. The Spirit is here to give us the full light of God; He is here as the power whereby we can build; and He is here as the seven eyes of Jehovah which rejoice to see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel, Zechariah 4:10, to give us ability to discern what is according to God. Thus the word to Zerubbabel is, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts". He says, "The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it", and "Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain". The kingly element is to go forward, and thus the mountain becomes a plain. That is what actually happened in the history; as they went forward and built, the opposition vanished and the house was completed. God would raise the question with us as to whether we are going on to completion. The book of Zechariah ends with God as King in Jerusalem.
Chapters 5 and 6 are comforting as showing that God will see to things if we are prepared to go forward. Chapter 5 shows that He will deal with evil. We can leave it to Him, for He will see that evil is met, and He will finally remove the whole corrupt profession to make way for the
coming down of the heavenly city. Then chapter 6 shows that we can trust God to deal with the powers that be, for these horses refer to the four great Gentile empires. They are viewed as the "four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth". That is, if we are prepared to go forward in regard of His interests, we can count on God to overrule the actions of the powers that be. From this standpoint they are His agents. They may not understand that, for they are here viewed as horses who need bit and bridle. The point is that God is controlling them.
In keeping with all this, Paul, in his final exhortation to Timothy, commits the whole charge to him -- "that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ". Surely we all desire that; we desire to go on to completion, so that right up to the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ there might be the concrete expression down here of what is proper to the assembly, that the commandment might be kept without spot right through. Then the apostle, to encourage Timothy, brings before him the supremacy of God as King, for he goes on to say, "which in its own time" (referring to the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ) "the blessed and only Ruler shall shew". God is King of the ages, has ever held every age in His own hands, and alone determines the completion of any age. Even as to the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is the blessed and only Ruler, God Himself, who will show it in its own time, and He has not revealed the time to anyone. "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father", Mark 13:32. The One we know as Father is the King of the ages, holding times and seasons in His own authority. In the due time the Gentile powers will pass away like the chaff of the summer threshing floor and He will show the power and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the meantime the four Spirits of the heavens go out from standing before Him; they can do nothing without Him. As we maintain faithfulness to God's house, He will maintain us -- He who is "the King of those that reign, and Lord of those
that exercise lordship; who only has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen, nor is able to see; to whom be honour and eternal might. Amen". The apostle begins and ends this epistle to Timothy in worship to God as King.
May God help us to understand His supremacy both in His grace and in His majesty. May we, on the one hand, know increasingly the liberty and gladness of His presence, as made known in the glad tidings of His glory; and, on the other hand, in the light of His eternal supremacy as King, go forward boldly, learning through our Lord Jesus Christ how to be here in measure in a kingly way! May we go forward in the spirit of worship before our God!
(From Words of Grace and Comfort 1941, page 221)