Wednesday Bible Study- Z is for Zerubbabel, part 2

Last week, we did a lot of background on Zerubbabel, and who God saw him as.  But the person himself, that kinda got left behind.  But fear not, here we go with the man himself.

Zerubbabel is introduced in Ezra 1 by his Persian name, Sheshbazzar.  And as such, we find he has a special calling...

Ezr 1:1  In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: 
Ezr 1:2  "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 
Ezr 1:3  Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel--he is the God who is in Jerusalem. 
Ezr 1:4  And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem." 
Ezr 1:5  Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem. 

One thing we learn in the life of Zerubbabel is that God caused 2 stirrings, or awakenings.  The first was when he caused both Cyrus to decree the Jews could go home, and the Jews to WANT to.  At the head of this list was our boy...

Ezr 1:7  Cyrus the king also brought out the vessels of the house of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods. 

Ezr 1:8  Cyrus king of Persia brought these out in the charge of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. 

Note, now that once back in Israel, Ezra drops the Persian name...

zr 2:1  Now these were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried captive to Babylonia. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town. 

Ezr 2:2  They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. 

Zerubbabel and Joshua (Yeshua, Jeshua) are almost always linked by Ezra from here on in, as well as in less detail by Nehemiah, and prophetically by the prophets of the Return, Haggai and Zechariah.  Zerubbabel was the Governor; Joshua the High Priest.  Last week, I talked about God "putting the signet ring back on", and re-establishing the people in Jerusalem meant re-establishing both the kingdom (more or less) and the priesthood.  I'll talk about the symbolic end of that in a while, but first, I want to zero in on our boy.

His first act as Governor was to establish who belonged and who didn't.  A trio of groups numbering 652 people asked to be allowed into the congregation, but were unable to prove their bona fides; along with them were descendants of three priestly lines who had lost their equivalents of birth certificates.  Zerubbabel forbade them "to eat of the holy things" until the cleansed priests could cast the Urim and Thumin over them to determine God's will- and that would have to wait until a Temple had been re-established.  This, however, would take a while- and a second awakening.

In the seventh month of that first year back, Zerubabbel, along with Joshua and their people, called the ancient Feast of Booths, and rebuilt an altar for sacrifices to be made.  But the Temple itself had not been started.  This is when Haggai came into the picture.  He was the prophet that would spur the people to action, and three times God's Word was especially directed at Zerubbabel.  This was the first:

Hag 1:1  In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 

Hag 1:2  "Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD." 

Hag 1:3  Then the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 

Hag 1:4  "Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? 

Hag 1:5  Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. 

God was miffed that construction of HIS Temple, which should have been top priority, had been left off.  Though they had observed the sacrifices, they had not followed God's leading, and they were suffering drought because of it.  And so...

Hag 1:12  Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD. 

Hag 1:13  Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORD's message, "I am with you, declares the LORD." 

Hag 1:14  And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God, 

Hag 1:15  on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. 

So our dates here are a bit skewed- the call and the awakening came just prior to the seventh month according to Haggai, and it was in the seventh month that Ezra complained that while they were having sacrifices, they hadn't done anything on the Temple.    Perhaps the Feast of Booths was the kick off to the drive to build the Temple.  Or maybe we need to spread this out just a little bit.  Ezra is basically describing a period while the people were getting re-settled that God got impatient with them coming to Him first.  In addition to Haggai, we have another contemporary prophet- Zechariah- and he hints that they got started, but then kinda tailed off...

Zec 4:8  Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 

Zec 4:9  "The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. 

Now, I close-cropped this section because there is something before and after it that I need for the end of this story.  Suffice it to say, God was happy that Zerubabbel got the Temple done.  However, there were some that weren't happy WITH the Temple they got done...

Ezr 3:10  And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the LORD, according to the directions of David king of Israel. 

Ezr 3:11  And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel." And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. 

Ezr 3:12  But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, 

Ezr 3:13  so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people's weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away. 

And this dissatisfaction didn't go unnoticed by God...

Hag 2:1  In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 

Hag 2:2  "Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, 

Hag 2:3  'Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? 

Hag 2:4  Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the LORD. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the LORD. Work, for I am with you, declares the LORD of hosts, 

Hag 2:5  according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. 

The second time God speaks through Haggai to Zerubabbel, He encourages him in the building of the Temple despite its shortcomings, because the building isn't near so important as He who lives in it (notice that, fancy churches!).  The next battle, though, comes from outside the congregation:

Ezr 4:1  Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the LORD, the God of Israel, 

Ezr 4:2  they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers' houses and said to them, "Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here." 

Their words go back to 2 Kings 17, when the Assyrians exiled Israel and planted colonists to run the land for them.  But they were getting attacked by bees and eaten by lions, and Esarhaddon knew it was because the God of the land wasn't being worshipped properly.  So he brought a handful of Israelites (who themselves never worshiped at the Temple, but at Rehoboam's idols in Bethel and Dan), and these became the basis of the Samaritans of Jesus's day.  Zerubabbel, encouraged by the Lord, was having none of it:

Ezr 4:3  But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers' houses in Israel said to them, "You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the LORD, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us." 

And here, I'm guessing, is where Zechariah's delay came in, because these enemies then wrote to Artaxerxes, who had succeeded Cyrus, claiming the Jews were doing something they had no permission to.  But when Darius was enthroned, the Governor and his people wrote back and asked for a record search.  And the records bore them out, and they got approval to finish the Temple.  It was completed 21 years after its beginning, in 515 BC.

As for Governor Zerubbabel, that's the end of the story.  But there is more to it than that.  Because God wasn't just establishing Zerubabbel and Joshua, but the entire  nation of Israel, king and priest together.  Zerubabbel found out he was just a part of something greater when Haggai delivered God's Word to him the third time:

 Hag 2:20  The word of the LORD came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, 

Hag 2:21  "Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, 

Hag 2:22  and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. 

Hag 2:23  On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of hosts." 

You saw this last week in the 'signet ring' section.  But now notice, the first part of this is in the future- the end of days, when God overthrows the pagan world.  Zerubabbel as kingdom Israel, will be re-established then and the full boundaries of the land promised to Abraham will be theirs.  And Zechariah fleshes the concept of Zerubbabel and Joshua as symbols out:

Zec 4:1  And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep. 

Zec 4:2  And he said to me, "What do you see?" I said, "I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. 

Zec 4:3  And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left." 

Zec 4:4  And I said to the angel who talked with me, "What are these, my lord?" 

Zec 4:5  Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, "Do you not know what these are?" I said, "No, my lord." 

Zec 4:6  Then he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. 

Zec 4:7  Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of 'Grace, grace to it!'" 

This is the 'before' of that previous verse.  Zerubabbel and Joshua- and what they symbolize- are the 2 olive trees, the Spirit of God is the lampstand with the seven lamps- 

Rev 1:4  John to the seven assemblies in Asia: Grace to you, and peace, from the One who is, and who was, and who is coming, and from the seven spirits which are before His throne; 

Rev 4:5  And out of the throne come forth lightnings and thunders and voices. And seven lamps of fire are burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God; 

And Jesus is the Top Stone that (the line of ) Zerubabbel brings forward.  Not convinced?  Well the previous chapter in Zechariah is where Joshua the High Priest is presented before God...

Zec 3:1  Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. 

Zec 3:2  And the LORD said to Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?" 

Zec 3:3  Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. 

Zec 3:4  And the angel said to those who were standing before him, "Remove the filthy garments from him." And to him he said, "Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments." 

Zec 3:5  And I said, "Let them put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD was standing by. 

Zec 3:6  And the angel of the LORD solemnly assured Joshua, 

Zec 3:7  "Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. 

Zec 3:8  Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the BRANCH. 

Zec 3:9  For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. 

Note the lines I boldened:

1- the Jews had had their earlier iniquities, the sins that caused the signet ring to be ripped from Jeconiah, removed through their exile and restoration.

2- the re-establishment of the priesthood re-activated the promise of a Messiah, the BRANCH, which would be fulfilled in Jesus the "Top Stone".

3- For Joshua, a single stone with seven eyes; for Zerubbabel, a lampstand with seven lamps.

4- Jesus's accomplishment on the cross- the elimination of sins in a single day!

Finally, tying it all up is the 'after' of a story I could have easily split in threes:

Zec 4:10  For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. "These seven are the eyes of the LORD, which range through the whole earth." 

And here, believe it or not, is OUR lesson.  We go through the day to day of life, hoping for God to somehow magically change our fortunes here on earth,  or we say like those in 2 Peter 3, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation."   But those of us who live BEYOND those day to days- who keep the faith that God will move, as he did for Zerubbabel and Joshua- we will see the mansion Jesus promised to prepare for us, the 'plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.'  Because Zerubbabel and Joshua are the two greatest things for us- the signet ring that make us God's possession and the rock on which the removal of our iniquities is engraved.