Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/321



THE PRINCE OF PEACE 305

Immanuel l closes: "Cry aloud and shout, thou inhabitress of Zion : for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee" But when the infinite Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, whom no man hath seen, or can see, manifests Him self, and comes visibly to dwell in the midst of His people, it is always in the person of the Messiah, and the " Lo, I come, and will dwell in the midst of thee," is explained therefore by the equivalent announcement, " Behold, thy King (Messiah) cometh unto thee."

The coming of the King, which is announced in our passage in Zech. ix. is, however, a different one from the coming foretold in the passages quoted from Isa. xii. and Zech. ii. For although, as already stated, there is no per spective observed in Old Testament prophecy, and the two advents of the Messiah are often seen and spoken of by the prophets as one, we know now, in the fuller light of the partial fulfilment, that there is a coming of the Redeemer first in humiliation to suffer and die, before He shall come again a second time in divine majesty to reign over this earth, and to fulfil in a literal sense the hope and promise contained in the name " Immanuel," by Himself, the God- Man, visibly dwelling " in the midst of them," so that Israel will at that time be able to say to the nations, " God is with us," 2 not only in the spiritual sense, in which His presence is a reality to us now, but in the literal sense of having their Divine Messiah-King dwelling and reigning among them.

It is to the first advent of Messiah, then, that attention is especially called by the word " Behold," in the pth verse of the chapter we are now considering, although, as we shall see, this very prophecy looks on also to the second advent, and beyond the sufferings of Messiah, to the glory that should follow.

I have already, in the exposition of chap. vi. 12, pointed out how the Messiah is introduced to us four different times in the Old Testament, and under four

1 Isa. vii.-xii. has been appropriately so styled. - Hebrew, " Immanu-El," Isa. viii. 10, the same as Isa. vii. 14. 20