Zechariah 1:5 Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever? By "fathers" is meant fathers of our flesh, the active instruments in the hand of God of our being, the secondary causes of our being. "Where are they?" Are they here? No. Are they anywhere? Yes. We know where their bodies are. Their souls are somewhere. "The prophets, do they live forever?" No. (1) They may not, if they would. They come within the compass of the universal decree. They are made up of the same ingredients, they have the same demeritorious cause of death as others, namely, sin. And their Lord and Master will do without them, as He does without others. (2) They would not, if they might. Two things put the saints in general, and ministers in particular, upon a desire to be gone; the happiness they shall then be instated in, and the troubles and miseries they shall then be freed from. Do the prophets live forever? Yes. Though not in their persons, they do in their successors. Though not in this world, yet in a better. If prophets and righteous men did not in the other world live forever, the joys and glories of that world could not be said to be perfect. In the other world they must needs live forever, for otherwise the virtue and efficacy of Christ's blood and righteousness would be very much lessened. They must needs live forever, for the Church of Christ in the other world will still retain the same names and honourable titles of Christ's body, Spouse, and subjects as they have here. He cannot be a Father without children; a King without subjects; a Bridegroom without a bride; a Relate without a correlate. What can put an end to their living in those upper regions of glory? Sin cannot. Death cannot. Devils cannot. And to be sure, God will not. (Benjamin Hands.) Parallel Verses KJV: Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?WEB: Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? |
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