Priest and King

I The Eight Symbolic Visions

C The Concluding Acts

1 The Marriage, Text: 6:9-11

Title: Priest and King

Introduction

This is a coronation. Why is it important? Because for the first time in the history of Israel the offices of king and priest are married together. Other great leaders such as Moses shared in both offices, and foreign kings such as Melchizedek, King of Salem, served in both capacities, but ever since Israel had an actual king starting with Saul, there was a strict division between the royal authority and the priesthood. Kings were forbidden that which was reserved for priests. Jesus makes that clear in Matthew 12:3, But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungered, and they that were with him; How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? We do not take time now to consider why God permitted this. Our purpose is simply to point out that it was unlawful for the king to act like priest. King Saul in fear of the Philistines offered a priestly sacrifice in the absence of Samuel, and we read in I Samuel 13:13 and 14, And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue.” In the days of Isaiah the prophet King Uzziah did the same thing. He was very successful militarily and in building, but in II Chronicles 26:16-18 we read, But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God, and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. Azariah the priest with eighty other courageous priests of the Lord followed him in. They confronted King Uzziah and said, “It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. That is for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful; and you will not be honored by the Lord God.” As a result Uzziah was stricken with leprosy until the day he died. We can see that there was a very strong separation between the king and the priesthood. Now we come in Zechariah to the coronation of a priest. In examining this important prophetic event we want to observe three things, the contributors, the constraint, and the crowning.

I The Contributors

We read about the contributors in verses 9 and 10. Zechariah is commanded, The word of the Lord came to me: “Take silver and gold from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon. Thus was a delegation of Jews arrived from Babylon bringing with them gifts for the temple. Apparently those who remained in the lands of captivity sent offerings regularly to Jerusalem for use in the temple. Normally those temple gifts would be given to the temple personnel. On this occasion, however, Zechariah was told to take these offerings for another purpose. These people, Heldal, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, had remained of their own accord in a state of severance from the altar, where alone special worship of God and sacrifice could be offered. They had been removed against their will; yet, as Christians often do, acquiesced in the loss, rather than forego their temporal advantages. Still they wished to take part in the work of restoring the public worship, and so sent these men, with their contribution of gold and silver, to their brethren, who had returned. Zechariah is commanded to take their offerings perhaps because there might have been hesitation as would happen if a person donated to our church building but neither attended or showed any zeal for the cause of Christ. You can imagine that there might have been some resentment on the part of those who returned and were struggling against those who had remained, probably for economic advantage. These men carried silver and gold, materials which had been used to make the silver and gold vessels of the temple, and it is significant that it was that silver and gold which is now taken to make a crown for the High Priest. It is later revealed in this chapter that the King-Priest in view is the coming Messiah who is the true temple builder and it is befitting that he should wear such a crown.

II The Constraint

Why we may ask is the prophet constrained to prompt and immediate service in verse 10, Go the same day to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah. Josiah is most likely the host receiving these messengers from the captivity. The very same day that God has revealed this to him Zechariah is to carry out his mission. We know that he was to personally obtain some of the precious metals without delay and make a crown for the high priest, so what is the urgency? The Lord is turning their attention to the future glory. People involved in difficult tasks often lose focus on everything except the immediate difficulties. They need to look up and look forward. As Paul writes in Philippians 3:13 and 14, Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. At the hour Paul wrote these words he was in a Roman prison, but his attention was not on his incarceration but on the promises of God. This is what God wanted to convey to the people through Zechariah. In the Old Testament God’s people in trouble looked to the temple in Jerusalem where God had put His name. Thus Jonah in the belly of the whale proclaims in 2:4, I said, “I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.” Now God wants them to look beyond that earthly temple. What was ahead for these Old Testament Jews? It was the coming of the Messiah and the consummation of things. He would be the royal high priest who would truly end their captivity to sin and death through his atoning sacrifice and resurrection. This incident is a momentous event opening up for them the promise of a greater temple and city of God. It begins here with the surprising and unexpected crowning of a Priest for the first time since the institution of the monarchy.

III The Crowning

The actual crowning is in verse 11, Take the silver and gold and make a crown, and set it on the head of the high priest, Joshua son of Jozadak. The word crown in the Hebrew is plural, “make crowns.” You are familiar with that hymn “Crown him with many crowns, the Lamb upon his throne.” That is based on Revelation 19:11 and 12 where the second coming of Jesus is described, and we read, I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. It is of course impossible to place more than one crown on one head, and we might suppose that it is purely symbolic. However, there is a better explanation. Ancient crowns were often a series of diadems which is the Greek word used in Revelation. These diadems were like wreaths and a person could wear several of them at one time woven together. Thus Zechariah is commanded to make diadems of gold and silver woven together as a crown for the high priest. This would demonstrate his extreme royal authority. He is then, not only priest, but the king of kings. This has been the entire goal of the Old Testament. Adam was a king in Eden ruling over God’s creation, given the mandate to rule and subdue, and he was also a priest offering up his labors to God in worship. Once he transgressed he lost his position. The Messiah to come, Jesus is the last Adam. He is the obedient one who has earned back the right to rule and subdue and he confers that on us in salvation. Thus we read in Hebrews 7:16 and 17 that Jesus is one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life. For it is declared: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” And in Hebrews 6:20 the writer explicitly declares with regard to Jesus, He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek was a king-priest, and only a king-priest could replace Adam as the earthly head of creation. Thus the returned exiles of Zechariah’s day needed to fix their sights on God’s future promises.