David Baron

“ In Lowe's Hebrew Student's Commentary mi Zechariah, there is the following note:
"Another interpretation is that Zechariah's words are equivalent to this: The light of prophecy is dying out; while ye have the light, walk as children of the light. But to us it appears that to put the words, Do (or "did ") the prophets live for ever? into the mouth of Zechariah, is to destroy utterly his argument." ”

“ Let us despise neither age nor youth in God's servants. The question to be asked in reference to those who profess to speak in the Name of God is not about age, experience, education, or worldly position; but are they really the Lord's messengers, and do they, like Haggai, speak "in the Lord's message"? Zechariah was contemporary and fellow-labourer with Haggai (Ezra v. i) to this extent, that his first message was uttered in the eighth month of the second year of Darius ”

“ Yes; the prophets, though God's mouth piece, were but men, and are gone, but My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers, so that they had to return and say, that as Jehovah of hosts hath thought (or " determined ") to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, even so hath He dealt with us? "
Oh, that men would learn to distinguish between the frailty and weakness of the best of God's messengers and the eternal character and unfailing veracity of His message! ”

“ Is man all right, or is he radically wrong? Does man's natural course lead to life, or does the end of it lead to death? Upon the answer to these questions depends the answer as to who are the true prophets and genuine friends of man ”

“ Then was raised up Haggai, the first of the great trio of post-exilic prophets, who, by scathing denunciations, blended with glorious promises of present help, and announcements of a special and " greater glory," which should be manifested in this " latter House," succeeded in rousing the nation zealously to resume the work of building the Temple. It was then, right in the midst of the movement inaugurated by Haggai, that Zechariah was commissioned by God with further messages. ”

“ This fact should be an encouragement to those of any age who have a message from and for God. He can speak to and through men at any and every time of life. He presses into His service the hoary-headed, and sanctifies the experience of years ”

“ The prophets are no more, but the words which those holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost are still with us, verifying themselves, and in spite of man's unbelief accomplishing, whether in judgment or in mercy, that whereunto they were sent. ”

“ Christ died and rose again, according to the Scriptures; but before His ascension He entrusted His disciples with a message for the world, and in that last commission (Luke xxiv. 4649) " repentance " still finds a prominent place. And the keynote in the Apostolic preaching whether in Jerusalem or in Athens, whether to Jew or to Greek was, " God commandeth all men everywhere to repent." " Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the time of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord " (Acts iii. 1 9, xvii. 30) . ”

“ They then went to Babylon, which inaugurated the period called in the New Testament " The times of the Gentiles," which are still running; and when at the end of the seventy years a remnant was in the grace and faithfulness of God brought back, the tone and substance of the old message did not change. The cry was taken up by Haggai and Zechariah; and with the proclamation, " Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, saith Jehovah" (Mai. iii. 7) , the voice of Old Testament prophecy finally dies away. ”

“ They had seen the proofs of it with their own eyes in the desolations of the land, and in the seventy years captivity of the people.
But although Jehovah was angry against them on account of their long-continued apostasies and provocations, His anger was now turned away, and He was ready to comfort them if they would but turn from the evils which had brought those calamities on their fathers, and return to God with all their hearts. ”

“ Let us return, therefore, unto the Lord, and He, accord ing to His promise, will " return unto us " we with our sins, He with His grace and forgiveness; we with our poverty and need, He with His exceeding " riches " and infinite fulness ”