GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
ZECHARIAH 6:9-11
9 The word of the LORD came to me: 10 Collect from the exiles– from Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah– who have arrived from Babylon; and on the same day, go to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah. 11 Take the silver and gold and make a crown, and set it on the head of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest.
This passage raises several questions:
What comfort do we have in the short verse, “The word of the Lord came to me?
This verse is a formula that the prophet uses five times in all (4:8; 6:9; 7:4; 8:1 and 8:18). It is also used very commonly by Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Here in Zechariah, it shows a physical sign that accompanies a prophetic message. The prophet does not need to doubt the vision or guess at its meaning. The Lord has given him the vision, explained the meaning, and now he gives the prophet a sign so that the rest of the people will understand and remember the message. Such signs are given in many other places. The shepherds of Bethlehem found a baby in a manger (Luke 2:12). The death of Pharaoh Hophra was to be a sign to the Jews who ran away from the Lord to Egypt that they could not escape the Lord there (Jeremiah 44:29-30). The rainbow was a sign for Noah (Genesis 9:13). There are many signs like this in God’s word.
What was Zechariah to collect in verse 10?
There is no object in verse 10 that tells Zechariah what he was supposed to collect, even though many translations add “silver and gold” because they are listed in verse 11. The sign for the prophet was that these wealthy men were bringing a collection, an offering to help with the building of the temple. He did not need to know what they would give him; he only needed to go and receive their offering. As it turned out, they were bringing precious gold and pure silver.
Who were these four men?
They were sent back to Judah by king Artaxerxes “with silver and gold that the king and his advisers have freely given to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem” (Ezra 7:15), and additional “silver and gold from the province of Babylon, as well as the freewill offerings of the people and priests for the temple of their God in Jerusalem” (Ezra 7:16). They had been instructed to use the money for sacrifices, and also to “do whatever seems best with the rest of the silver and gold, in accordance with the will of your God” (Ezra 7:18). These men would not have known what the will of God would be for the additional silver and gold, but now we see God instructing his prophet to ask for the silver and gold to construct a crown by the will of God.
What do we notice from the verb “have arrived”?
This tense of the verb shows that they had already arrived, and probably from the context we may understand that their arrival had only just taken place.
What was the house of Josiah?
This is not explained clearly, but it seems reasonable that either he was the more wealthy of the four, and that his house had been prepared in advance for him by his family or servants, or else he was the least wealthy, and it took far less time to prepare a space in his little home where they could spend the weeks or months that would pass while their own homes were being constructed.
Also, it is reasonable to infer that if the other men did not yet have completed houses fit to live in, that they were lodging for now with their friend Josiah. This makes the sign for Zechariah similar to the sign for the shepherds of Bethlehem. It would be strange indeed to find a newborn infant using a feeding trough as a cradle, and it would be strange to find three wealthy men having to share the upper flat of another man’s house. Therefore this was for Zechariah’s personal comfort. The Lord loves to bring about the large from the small, the glorious from the inglorious. “He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things– and the things that are not– to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:28-29). It was a nod from God who chooses the odd.
Why is “crown” plural in Hebrew?
Here is the strange part of our text, and it is hidden from readers in most translations. Luther thought it should be called a double crown, one that united the roles of priest and king (more about that below). Certainly, crowns in the ancient East were circlets that could be fitted together or worn separately, such as the double crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt (Isaiah 11:11; Jeremiah 44:1) and the “many crowns” of Revelation 19:12 and our hymn, “Crown him with many crowns.” The plural could also be a Hebrew superlative, “the best of crowns,” such as when Adam calls his beautiful new wife “bone of my bones,” meaning “the best part of me” (Genesis 2:23). More than one crown is not necessary (Emily Dickinson said: “Existence’s whole arc filled up / with one small diadem”), but multiple circlets would show a special significance, and most often the union of two thrones.
What is the meaning of the crowning of Joshua, who was a priest?
The crowning of Joshua rather than Zerubbabel is so strange that some commentators dismiss it altogether. They insist that our text must be wrong. But they miss two important points. First, crowning the governor as king could be taken as treason; rebellion against the existing throne, which in this case would be king Artaxerxes in Babylon who had sent these men, Heldai and his companions, to give offerings for the service of the new temple. In such a matter, it would not only be the one who took the crown who would be held accountable, but the ones who offered the crown as well.
Second, as we will see later in the chapter, this action has a prophetic meaning: It foreshadows the crowning of Christ as both priest and king. The Bible teaches us that the office or work of Christ consisted in mediation. He was the one who went between God and man, to remove the wrath of God on the one side and to create faith in God on the other. This was the goal of the incarnation. “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). As we say in the Nicene Creed: “For us men and for our salvation, he came down from heaven… and became man.”
His office, as we know, is threefold: Prophet, Priest, and King. Zechariah is instructed to show how one man might possibly be both priest and king at the same time. He does not need to include the office of prophet in this action, because David has already been shown to be prophet by attestation (2 Chronicles 29:25; Acts 2:29) and by his prophetic words (Psalm 2:7, etc.). So David already proved that one man could be both prophet and king. And before David became king, the people asked, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” (1 Samuel 10:11). And some prophets were also from priestly families, such as Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and of course, Zechariah himself.
We will discover more about this unification of offices as the chapter continues. This is how the Word of God is presented to us: The unlikely, and even the seemingly impossible, is made simple and sure by the very act of God speaking it. He does with his Word what we could never do. He accomplishes what we cannot even comprehend. But as he does it, he explains it, he lays it out for us to understand so that the basic points of our faith and salvation are made certain for us over and over again. If we cannot grasp it through the laws and history of Moses, he presents it in the music and poetry of the Psalms. If we still don’t understand, he punches a ring around his subject with the parallel statements of the many prophets. And if someone needs more clarification, there is the simple message of the Gospels, especially the parables of the Lord, and the precise language of the letters of Paul, John, and Peter to explain in words tht anyone can understand. For the grace given to Abraham is the light for my path in the Psalms. It is the Suffering Servant in the prophets, the Son and Heir who is killed by the wicked tenants in the parable, and the atoning sacrifice explained so carefully by the Apostle. This is our salvation. This is the work of the Son of God to rescue you and me from the guilt of our sins. This is the gift of everlasting life.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Zechariah 6:9-11 The crown of priest and king