Zechariah 6:13

Even He - Literally, “He Himself.” The repetition shows that it is a great thing, which he affirms; “and He,” again emphatic, “He,” the same who shall build the temple of the Lord, “He shall bear the glory.” Great must be the glory, since it is affirmed of Him as of none beside, “He shall bear glory,” “He should build the temple of the Lord,” as none beside ever built it; He should bear glory, as none beside ever bare it, “the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” John 1:14. This word glory is almost always used of the special glory of God, and then, although seldom, of the Majesty of those, on whom God confers majesty as His representatives, as Moses, or Joshua Numbers 27:20, or “the glory of the kingdom” given to Solomon 1 Chronicles 29:25. It is used also of Him, a likeness of whom these vicegerents of God bare, in a Psalm whose language belongs (as Jews too have seen,) to One more than man , although also of glory given by God, either of grace or nature .

So in our Lord’s great High Priest’s prayer lie says, “Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine ownself with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was” John 17:5; and prays, “that they also whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me, where I am; that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me” John 17:24. So Paul, applying the words of the eighth Psalm, says of our Lord, “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and horror” Hebrews 2:9; and the angels and saints round the Throne say, “Worthy is the Lamb which was slain to receive power and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing, and those on earth answer, Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever” Revelation 5:12. That glory Isaiah saw; in His miracles He “manifested forth His glory” John 12:41, “which resided in Him” John 2:11; in His Transfiguration, the three Apostles “saw His glory” Luke 9:32, shining out from within Him; “into this His glory” (Luke 24:26; add 1 Peter 1:11), He told the disciples at Emmaus, the prophets said, that He was to enter, having first suffered what He suffered; in this His glory He is to sit, when He judges. “And He shall sit and rule on His Throne” Matthew 19:28; Luke 9:26. His rule shall be, not passing but abiding, not by human might, but in peaceful majesty, as God says, “Yet have I set My king upon My holy bill of Zion” Psalms 2:6, and again, Sit Thou on My Right Hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool” Psalms 110:1; and the angel said to Mary, “The Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end” Luke 1:32.

And He shall be a priest upon His Throne - He shall be at once king and priest, as it is said, “Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedec.” When the Christ should reign, He should not cease to be our Priest. He, having all power given to Him in heaven and earth, reigneth over His Church and His elect by His grace, and over the world by His power, yet ever liveth to make intercession for us. Rup.: “Not dwellings now on what is chiefest, that “by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invincible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created by Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist” Colossians 1:16, how many crowns of glory belong to Him, One and the Same, God and man, Christ Jesus! He then “will bear glory and will sit upon His throne and shall be a priest on His throne.”

How just this is, it is easier to think than to express, that “He should sit and rule all things, by whom all things were wade, and He should be a Priest forever,” by whose Blood all things are reconciled. “He shall rule then upon His throne, and He shall be a priest upon His throne,” which cannot be said of any of the saints, because it is the right of none of them, to call the throne of his rule or of his priesthood his own, but of this Only Lord and Priest, whose majesty and throne are one and the same with the Majesty of God, as He saith, “When the Son of Man shall come in His Majesty (Glory), then shall He sit upon the throne of His Majesty (Glory)” Matthew 25:31. And what meaneth that re-duplication, and He shall rule on His Throne, but that One and the Same, of whom all this is said, should be and is King and Priest. He who is King shall rule on His Throne, because kingdom and priesthood shall meet in One Person, and One shall occupy the double throne of kingdom and priesthood.” He alone should be our King; He alone our Saviour: He alone the Object of our love, obedience and adoration.

And the counsel of peace shall be between them both - “The counsel of peace” is not merely peace, as Jerome seems to interpret: “He is both king and priest, and shall sit both on the royal and sacerdotal throne, and there shall be peaceful counsel between both, so that neither should the royal eminence depress the dignity of the priesthood, nor the dignity of the priesthood, the royal eminency, but both should be consistent in the glory of the One Lord Jesus.” For had this been all, the simple idiom, “there shall be peace between them,” would have been used here, as elsewhere (Judges 4:17; 1 Samuel 7:14; 1 Kings 5:16 (12 English)). But “counsel of peace,” must, according to the like idioms, signify “a counsel devising or procuring peace” for some other than those who counsel thereon. We have the idiom itself, “counsellors of peace” Proverbs 12:20.

They twain - Might be said of things : but things are naturally not said to counsel, so that the meaning should be, that the thrones of the priests and of the Branch should counsel. For the throne is in each case merely subordinate. It is not as we might say, “the See of Rome,” or “of Constantinople,” or “of Canterbury,” meaning the successive Bishops. It is simply the material throne, on which He sits. Nor is anything said of any throne of a priest, nor had a priest any throne. His office was to stand “before the Lord,” his intercessorial office to “offer gifts and sacrifices for sin” Hebrews 5:1; Hebrews 9:9. To “offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then for the people’s” Hebrews 7:27, was his special office and honor.

There are then not two thrones. One sits on His Throne, as King and Priest. It seems only to remain, that the counsel of peace should be between Jesus and the Father; as Jerome says, “I read in the book of some, that this, “there shall be a peaceful counsel between the two,” is referred to the Father and the Son, because He “came to do not His own will, but the Will of the Father” John 5:30; John 6:38, and “the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father” John 14:10. In Christ all is perfect harmony. There is a counsel of peace between Him and the Father whose temple He builds. The Will of the Father and the Son is one. Both had one Will of love toward us, the salvation of the world, bringing forth peace through our redemption. God the Father “so loved the world, that He gave His Only-Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” John 3:16; and God the Son “is our peace, who hath made both one, that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Cross, and came and preached peace to them which were afar off and to them that were nigh” Ephesians 2:14, Ephesians 2:16.

Others seem to me less naturally to interpret it of Christ in His two offices. Rup.: “There shall be the counsel of peace between them, the ruler and the priest, not that Christ is divided, but that those two princedoms, which were hitherto divided, (the priest and the king being different persons) should be united in the One Christ. Between these two princedoms, being inseparably joined in one, shall be the counsel of peace, because through that union we have peace; and through Him “it pleased the Father to reconcile all things unto Himself, and that all things should be brought to peace through the Blood of His cross, whether things in earth or things in heaven” Colossians 1:19.