Zech 6:12 Tell him this is what the LORD Almighty says: `Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the LORD.

   

Sometimes the concepts found in prophecy seem almost beyond us. The idea of a branch crops up again and again. What is a branch? It is an extension of a tree that is already growing. Israel, the people of God, were sometimes referred to as a vine in prophetic pictures. Out of this vine grows a branch. Indeed as Isaiah put it, “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” (Isa 11:1). Out of the family tree of David that was cut down at the exile, came a small shoot that became a branch that was fruitful.

 

What's this branch going to do? Build the Temple of the Lord. But wasn't that what they had been doing at that time? Why another Temple? Because it's going to be a different sort of Temple. What was the Temple? The dwelling place of God. How is this new Temple going to be a different sort of dwelling place? Because the earlier ones were built of stone. This Temple will be built of flesh. Paul caught this: “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?” (1 Cor 3:16) and in case you missed it the first time, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Cor 6:19 ). This is what Jesus, the Branch, came to do, to create a new living body that was also a temple, the new dwelling place on earth of God. How wonderful! Hallelujah!