Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/525



THE GLORIOUS CONSUMMATION 509

to Jerusalem " to worship the King-Jehovah of Hosts," whose sole rule they will then acknowledge. Yes, Messiah s kingship is to extend over the earth. God s will, accord ing to the petition which He teaches His disciples, is to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

" It is on earth, where God has been denied and forgotten ; where His honour has been disregarded and His commandments have been transgressed ; where nations and kingdoms, instead of seeking His glory and showing forth His praise have not bowed to His authority and reverenced His law ; it is on earth that the Lord shall reign ; injustice, cruelty and war shall be banished ; and instead of idolatry, selfishness and sin, the fear and love and beauty of God will be manifest. Christ and the glorified saints shall reign over Israel and the nations. The appearings of the risen Lord to His disciples during the forty days seem to be a prophetic parallel of the relation of the transfigured Church to the earth. Jerusalem is the centre of the world ; the land of Israel is restored to wonderful fertility and blessedness. We may not be able clearly to conceive the fulfilment of the predictions con cerning this earth during the Christocracy, but our danger does not lie in believing too implicitly or too literally what is written." 1 And this kingship over the " earth " is due to our Lord Jesus as an answer to His humiliation. " It is not sufficient that He is glorified in heaven it is a perfect delight to His own that He is to be glorified and adored in the very scene of His rejection and shame. God will see to this. Here, where His royal claims were scorned, every knee shall bow to Him ; here, where He was reviled and insulted, every tongue shall own that " He is Lord to the glory of God the Father. His Name shall be excellent in all the earth

HI. "/ that day" the prophet adds, " shall Jehovah be One " that is, recognised and acknowledged as such, and be known and called the " God of the whole earth," 2 the only

1 Adolph Saphir, lectures on the Lord s Prayer. - Is*, liv. 5.