Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/133



What the graving will be is not stated, but those are far from the mark who conjecture some kind of an inscrip tion. Rather is it that which makes this Living Stone the precious corner-stone (or, " the corner-stone of preciousness" as it is literally), namely, the perfect equipment of the Messiah by the Father for His Messianic office and mediatorial work of redemption the spiritual glory and beauty which God would bestow upon Him when He shall have anointed Him with all the fulness of the Spirit; which indeed had already in symbol been set forth by the " seven eyes " which the prophet saw traced on the stone.

According to the Talmud, the Eben Shetiyah the foundation-stone of the Second Temple, which was some inches higher than the level of the Holy of Holies had the sacred Tetragrammaton (the four Hebrew letters making up the ineffable name " Jehovah ") graven upon it; and although in later times all sorts of absurd legends gathered around this tradition, there is no reason to doubt the fact itself, and the words used in reference to the Everlasting Foundation of the spiritual temple, " Behold, / will engrave the graving thereof" may be an allusion to it.

On Messiah, too, the ineffable name was graven. Of the Divine Angel of Jehovah we read already in the Old Testament, " My Name " (which stands for all the attributes of God's character, for all the perfections of His glorious Being) " is in Him." And, when in the fulness of time, He who of old so often appeared as the Angel of the Covenant in the form of man, became real man, and " tabernacled among us," then this sacred mystical " graving " became more and more clear and legible. Then " the Name " became fully manifested, and men saw " the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

But the most glorious display of all the attributes belonging to that " holy Name " was when on the cross of shame He laid down His life a ransom for us; hence those early Fathers, and some also of the modern inter preters, are not far wrong when they say that the " graving " of the stone took place when, " through the providence and