"The angel who spoke with me answered and said to me, Do you not know what these are? And I said, No, sir. And he answered and spoke to me, saying, This is the word of Jehovah to Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says Jehovah of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain, and he will bring forth the topstone with shouts of Grace, grace to it....The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will finish it" (vv. 5-7, 9a). Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, who laid the foundation of the rebuilding of the temple, will bring forth the topstone, indicating that he will finish the rebuilding of God's temple by the Spirit of Jehovah, not by might nor by power. The prophet Zechariah spoke this word to Zerubbabel in order to support, encourage, strengthen, and establish the hand of Zerubbabel that he might continue the building of the temple unto its consummation.
Whereas chapter three refers to Christ's death for redemption, chapter four speaks of the Spirit for the carrying out of God's economy. According to the New Testament, Christ's death for our redemption is followed by the Spirit. Today we should not only minister Christ to others but also supply them with the Spirit. The Christ we minister is the One who was crucified, who was raised from among the dead, and who in resurrection has become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). As we speak to others concerning Christ, we should supply them with the Spirit.
The topstone with shouts of "Grace, grace to it!" signifies Christ, who is the grace as the stone, upon which are the seven eyes of Jehovah, the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God for the completion of the rebuilding of God's temple (3:9; 4:7-10; Rev. 5:6). To bring forth the topstone is to complete the building. This topstone is a type of Christ. For God's building Christ is a stone in three aspects. Christ is the foundation stone to uphold God's building (Isa. 28:16; 1 Cor. 3:11), the cornerstone to join together the Gentile and Jewish members of His Body (Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:6), and the topstone to consummate everything of God's building.
The shouts of "Grace, grace to it!" indicate that the topstone itself is grace. The topstone is grace from God to us, and this grace is Christ. "The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us..full of grace and reality" (John 1:14). This reveals that in His incarnation Christ brought God to us first as grace and then as reality. Grace is God in the Son as our enjoyment; reality is God realized by us in the Son. When God is enjoyed by us, we have grace. When God is realized by us, we have reality. Both grace and reality are Christ. The topstone is therefore the Christ who is the grace from God to us to be the covering of God's building.
Zechariah 4:10 says, "Who has despised the day of small things? For they rejoice when they see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel, these seven; they are the eyes of Jehovah running to and fro on the whole earth." "These seven," which are the "eyes of Jehovah," are the seven eyes upon the stone in 3:9. Revelation 5:6 speaks of a Lamb with "seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God." The seven eyes of the stone are the seven eyes of Jehovah and also the seven eyes of the Lamb, Christ. It is crucial for us to realize that the stone, Jehovah, and the Lamb are one. Christ the Lamb is the stone, and He is also Jehovah. Thus the seven eyes of the stone and the seven eyes of Jehovah are the seven eyes of Christ. According to Revelation 5:6, these seven eyes are the seven Spirits, that is, the sevenfold intensified Spirit. The seven Spirits are the seven eyes of Christ. This means that the Holy Spirit is the eyes of Christ. This indicates that Christ and the Holy Spirit, although distinct, are not separate. Just as our eyes are essentially one with our body, so the Holy Spirit is essentially one with Christ.
Christ is the stone engraved by God the Father (Zech. 3:9). The engraved One is Christ, and the engraving One is the Father. Although the Father and the Son are distinct, they are essentially one in the accomplishment of eternal redemption. As the result of this redemption, we may now enjoy Christ as the Spirit, even as the sevenfold intensified Spirit. According to Paul's word in 2 Corinthians 13:14, we have the love of God the Father as the source, the grace of Christ as the course, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit as the transmission for our enjoyment. From all this we see that redemption has been accomplished by the Son, and now the Spirit is supplied to us for God's building. By the Spirit the building of the church will be consummated.