David Baron

“ Speak ye every man the truth with his neighbour; truth and judgment of peace judge ye in your gates: and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour, and love no false oath: for all these are the things that I hate, saith Jehovah "; which is an inspired repetition and application of the preaching of the former prophets, which Zechariah had already summarised in chap, vii. 9, 10, an exposition of which will be found in my notes on those verses. ”

“ That the restoration spoken of here is yet future, is proved also by the fact that it is to be followed by Israel's national conversion, which has certainly never yet taken place. "And they shall be My people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness"
The restoration of Israel to their own land after the many centuries of dispersion and wanderings, will, as I have stated elsewhere, " be a great mercy and a wonderful event in the world's history " ”

“ Not as if the Word of God has failed in that whereto it was sent: a people for His Name from among the Gentiles a multitude which no man can number, out of all nations, and kindreds, and tongues have been, and are^being, gathered into the fold of the One Great Shepherd. But this dispensation, according to the predictions of Christ and His apostles, instead of ending in the universal knowledge of God, and in peace and righteous ness among the nations, is to end in almost universal apostasy and failure, and in the greatest conflict among the nations that the world has yet known. ”

“ In measure this has already been the case, for all the great blessings which have come to the world have come to it through the seed of Abraham; " for of them," to quote another, " according to the flesh Christ came, Who is over all God blessed for ever: of them were the apostles and evangelists, of them every writer of God's Word; of them those who carried the gospel throughout the whole world." [13] But, so far, the blessing which has come through Israel to the world has been only partial, and has extended only to individuals ”

“ Those are, therefore, not far wrong who have interpreted the words " a man, a Jew," of Christ; for although, as the whole context shows, it is not primarily and directly of the Messiah, but of the Jews in the days of their future blessing, that this prophecy is spoken; yet, as we have seen, it is only when Israel shall be the Messianic people and the representatives of Christ among the nations, Who will then be the King of the Jews, that this prophecy will be fulfilled. In this connection it is interesting to observe that even the Jews saw a reference in this scripture to the Messiah. ”

“ Then there follows a contrast between the time before they obeyed the voice of Jehovah their God and took up the work of building the Temple, and the condition of things since they hearkened to the voice of the Word of God through Haggai and Zechariah. Before, when they cared only for their own affairs, nothing prospered with them, and there was nothing but disaster and disappoint ment: " For before those days there was no hire (or wages ) for man, nor any hire for beast" so little was the produce that it did not pay the labour of man and beast ”

“ There is no one race of men, it was said before the middle of the second century, whether barbarians, or Greeks, or by whatsoever name called, whether of those wandering, homeless tribes who live in waggons, or those pastoral people who dwell in tents, in which there are not prayers and eucharists to the Father and Creator of all things, through the name of the crucified Jesus. ”

“ Keil thinks that the vine may especially be called "the seed of peace," inasmuch as it can only prosper in days of peace, its cultivation requiring much care and attention, which it is impossible to bestow in times of war or adversity. ”

“ But the promises contained already in the law, of prolongation of life and numerous offspring, which in the past have been only at certain intervals partially fulfilled, because of Israel's sin and disobedience, shall, under the new and unconditional covenant, into which the people shall then be brought, be fully realised. ”

“ That there is a measure of truth in all this no one will gainsay, nor can any one deny the fact of the marvellous, rapid spread of the gospel in the first two or three Christian centuries, through those Jewish apostles and messengers whose hearts were all aflame with love and zeal for their all-glorious Redeemer, and through their first con verts from among the Gentiles. ”

“ A representative section, but a mere handful out of the whole people, was indeed brought back to the land after the seventy years captivity in Babylon, of which Zechariah himself was a witness, but that could not possibly be the restoration here promised; first, because, as is to be inferred from the whole prophecy, this was to be something which should take place at a \\
& future in the point of view, or outlook, of this post-exilic prophet, to whom, what we may call the chief act in the restoration from Babylon was already an accomplished fact ”

“ Therefore," the prophet turns again to the remnant whom he was addressing, " love ha-emeth've ha-shalom truth and peace " for the promises of future blessedness and glory, whether national in relation to Israel, or spiritual in relation to the individual believer in Christ, are intended in every case to act as incentives to holiness of life and consecration to God's service in the present ”

“ The two opposite pictures," to adopt words of another writer, " the old man so aged that he has to lean on his staff for support because of the multitude of his days," and the young in the glad buoyancy of recent life, fresh from their Creator's hands (shall in that day) " attest alike " (as in measure they do now in all communities of men) " the goodness of the Creator Who protecteth both, the children in their yet undeveloped strength, and the very old, whom He hath brought through all the changes and chances of this mortal life, in their yet sustained weak ness ”

“ Augustine observed, The whole life of a good Christian is a holy longing to make pro gress; and again, The one perfection of man is to have found that he is not perfect., If thou sayest it sufficeth, thou art lost. Nolle proficere deficere est To be unwilling to increase is to decrease." St. Bernard, quoted by Pusey. ↑ See footnote on this phrase in the exposition of chap. ”