Bread from unlikely Places
Scripture
Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to lZerubbabel: mNot by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. 7 Who are you, nO great mountain? Before lZerubbabel oyou shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward pthe top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’ ”
8 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 9 q“The hands of lZerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also rcomplete it. sThen you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. 10 tFor whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see uthe plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.
6 “For pyou are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be pa people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but qit is because the LORD loves you and is keeping rthe oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, sthe faithful God twho keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10 and urepays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. vHe will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. 11 wYou shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.
And He shall stand and jfeed 2His flock
In the strength of the LORD,
In the majesty of the name of the LORD His God;
And they shall abide,
For now He kshall be great
To the ends of the earth;
5 And this One lshall be peace.
My notes
Commentary
If there were 22,000 first-born males, we may suppose as many females, and all these brought forth in the first year after they came out of Egypt, we must hence infer that in the last year of their servitude, even when it was in the greatest extremity, there were abundance of marriages made among the Israelites; they were not discouraged by the present distress, but married in faith, expecting that God would shortly visit them with mercy, and that their children, though born in bondage, should live in liberty and honour. And it was a token of good to them, an evidence that they were blessed of the Lord, that they were not only kept alive, but greatly increased, in a barren wilderness.
Here we have, (1.) His existence from eternity, as God: his goings forth, or emanations, as the going forth of the beams from the sun, were, or have been, of old, from everlasting, which (says Dr. Pocock) is so signal a description of Christ’s eternal generation, or his going forth as the Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, that this prophecy must belong only to him, and could never be verified of any other. It certainly speaks of a going forth that was now past, when the prophet spoke, and cannot but be read, as we read it, his outgoings have been; and the putting of both these words together, which severally are used to denote eternity, plainly shows that they must here be taken in the strictest sense (the same with Ps. 90:2, From everlasting to everlasting thou art God), and can be applied to no other than to him who was able to say, Before Abraham was, I am, Jn. 8:58. Dr. Pocock observes that the going forth is used (Deu. 8:3) for a word which proceeds out of the mouth, and is therefore very fitly used to signify the eternal generation of him who is called the Word of God, that was in the beginning with God, Jn. 1:1, 2. (2.) His office as Mediator; he was to be ruler in Israel, king of his church; he was to reign over the house of Jacob for ever, Lu. 1:32, 33. The Jews object that our Lord Jesus could not be the Messiah, for he was so far from being ruler in Israel that Israel ruled over him, and put him to death, and would not have him to reign over them; but he answered that himself when he said, My kingdom is not of this world, Jn. 18:36. And it is a spiritual Israel that he reigns over, the children of promise, all the followers of believing Abraham and praying Jacob. In the hearts of these he reigns by his Spirit and grace, and in the society of these by his word and ordinances. And was not he ruler in Israel whom winds and seas obeyed, to whom legions of devils were forced to submit, and who commanded away diseases from the sick and called the dead out of their graves? None but he whose goings forth were from of old, from everlasting, was fit to be ruler in Israel, to be head of the church, and head over all things to the church.
Beth-lehem signifies the house of bread, the fittest place for him to be born in who is the bread of life.
When the Prophets threaten us, or denounce the punishment we have deserved, we either become torpid, or grow angry with God, and murmur: but when they set forth any thing of comfort, we then indulge ourselves and become too secure. It is therefore necessary to connect threatenings with promises, so that we may be always ready to endure temporal evils, and that our minds, sustained by hope, may, at the same time, depend on the Lord, and recumb on him. It
The Prophet here anticipates this objection, and reminds us, that his goings forth have been from eternity, that they have been already decreed, even from the beginning; for with God there is nothing new, so that he should stand in need of holding any unlooked for consultation; as is the case with us when any thing happens which we in no degree apprehended; we then find it necessary to devise some new measures. The Prophet shows that nothing of this kind can happen to God: but all this,—that people are reduced to nothing,—and that they are again restored by Christ,—all this is overruled by his secret and incomprehensible providence. His goings forth then are from the beginning, and from the days of eternity.
God counts not but weighs; and the lowly and small in the eye of the world He chooses most fondly. He is a concealed God. His ways reach from the deep to the height
As David came not from Bethlehem without previous signs, so everything temporal in the kingdom of God has eternal signification.
Kings should consider that they ought not to esteem’ most highly their arsenals, but their stores of bread, and that those exist for these
Rulers are at all times by Gods grace. Christ’s coming is from eternity and to eternity.—It is little to believe that Christ was before the world; salvation begins not until you experience that He is born in the world.
God’s “therefore” is always hard to understand, especially when it goes against our flesh.
God’s “therefore” is always hard to understand, especially when it goes against our flesh
God forsakes, but only for a certain time; have patience in the time of drought, his time is best of all. All his ways tend toward new birth; even death. He has forgotten none, and goes after all, even the lost; leaves the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and seeks the one
CHRYSOSTOM: When He says : His beginnings are from the beginning, from the days of antiquity, He shows his preexistent nature; but when He says: He will go forth a ruler to feed my people Israel, He shows his temporal birth.
Whatever cities worthily receive Christ, these are his Bethlehem.
When God has work to do he will not want fitting instruments to do it with; and when he pleases he can do it by a few; he needs not raise thousands, but seven or eight principal men may serve the turn if God be with them
they shall feed; that is, destroy the land of Asshur, so that nothing may remain there whole and entire. God will then arm these shepherds with warlike courage; for they must fight boldly and courageously against their enemies: