Now, go over to chapter 6 verse 9. of Zechariah, this is about the witnesses.
Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “Receive the gift from the captives—from Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, who have come from Babylon—and go the same day and enter the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah. Take the silver and gold, make an elaborate crown, and set it on the head of Joshua (the Old Testament name of Jesus, by the way) the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Then speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, saying:
“Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! (which is the term for “rod”)
From His place He shall branch out,
And He shall build the temple of the Lord;
Yes, He shall build the temple of the Lord. (Two references, by the way; the same thing twice. “He shall build the temple of the Lord. Yes, He shall build the temple of the Lord,” this is “verily, verily.”)
He shall bear the glory,
And shall sit and rule on His throne;
So He shall be a priest on His throne, (Zechariah 6:9-13b NKJV)
So what is this referring to? A royal priesthood. If you are sitting on a throne, you are a king; but if you are sitting on the throne as a priest, you are a royal priesthood. Well, that goes perfectly with making a crown of silver and gold and giving it to the priest whose name is “Jesus”. If you made a crown of gold, you would give it to the king, and that would have been Zerubbabel. But the crown of silver and gold was given to the son of the high priest.
“Now the elaborate crown shall be for a memorial in the temple of the Lord for Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Hen the son of Zephaniah. Even those from afar shall come and build the temple of the Lord. Then you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. And this shall come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God” (Zechariah 6:14-15 NKJV).
That is the spirit of the two witnesses: the kingly priesthood, those who rule on behalf of the Lord but rule as the elohim of God, the magistrates of God, because what they do and what they say will be underwritten by the power of God. And note, they have come to establish and build upon the cornerstone that was returned to its place, upon which the temple was built in the days of the replaced temple.
My point is that in the heart of the restoration of Israel out of Babylonian captivity, the prophecy and the symbolic reference to the two witnesses and the crown of silver and gold is about restoring the royal priesthood of the order of Melchizedek. So, the testimony of the two, the two olive trees and the two lampstands, is about the light and about the anointing. They are about those who carry the Spirit of God and whose words come forth by the Spirit of God and bring light. “For Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” The Spirit of God always hovers over the surface of the waters. So, there is always a relationship between the authentic word of God, the incarnate word of God, and those who are led by the Spirit of God.
I do not see two individuals here. I see the witness of the king and the priest, because that can only come about in the restored temple of the Lord which glorifies Yehoshua, or Joshua, in the Old Testament, who is Christ in the New Testament. It is that the two witnesses represent the perfect incarnation, in a body of people, of the Lord Jesus Christ, the High Priest in the order of Melchizedek. This is about Jesus as the witness, but we are not minor priests under the high priest; we are the body of the High Priest. We are not minor kings under the King of kings; we are the body of the King.
The world will have to deal with us, the same as they had to deal with Christ. That is why the parallels between Christ and His ministry for forty-two months, opposed by unbelievers among the Jews, and us, the naos of God, certified to measure up to the Rod that came out of the stump of Jesse, approved as the naos of God, approved as those under the altar of God, approved as divine worshipers, coming forth at the time when the House of God is tread upon by Gentiles, by unbelievers in the House of God. It is the beginning of the separation that forces the disclosure of the harlot in chapter 17. This is the beginning of that process.
The essence of what is in the two witnesses is that they operate from the authority of God’s throne with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, so they are kings and priests. That is the final witness. When that measure comes, there is nowhere for the unrighteous, and the unbelieving, and the lawless to hide, whether in the church or in the temple grounds or in the world. We will see the beast, then, rising up out of the abyss, because now he can no longer operate behind the mask of false brethren and empty religion.
Peace,
Aaron56