Zechariah 6:13, commentary and pictures

The Branch who builds the Lord's temple is the promised Messiah, Christ, who bears the glory and sits and rules as king while serving as priest upon His throne.
He builds His temple by His sacrifice and mediation as both its foundation and its builder, and that temple is His church and the true heavenly sanctuary of which the earthly tabernacle and temple were types.
His present sitting and ruling is upon His Father's throne as priest and intercessor for fallen humanity, not yet upon His own throne of glory, which He receives when His mediatorial work ends.
The glory He bears is the glory of redeeming the fallen race by His blood, for which the ransomed will ascribe glory and dominion to Him forever.
The counsel of peace between them both is the counsel between the Father and the Son, the plan and covenant to save a lost world laid before the foundation of the world in which the Father gave His Son to die for sinners.

Branch Builds His Temple

The prophecy belongs to a series of visions given to encourage God's people while they were rebuilding the temple amid uncertainty. Those visions assured them of God's compassion and that His house in Jerusalem would be rebuilt. The Branch is the promised Messiah, Christ, the man who grows up out of His place. He is the one who builds the temple of the Lord, bears the glory, and sits and rules upon His throne as king while serving as priest upon His throne. The counsel of peace between the two offices shows the united royal and priestly work carried on between them.

He builds the temple through His sacrifice and mediation as man's intercessor. In that building He is both its foundation and its builder. The temple He thus builds is the church of God. That temple is also the true heavenly sanctuary. The human-built tabernacle and temple and the earthly sanctuary were types of it.

The building of a temple illustrates the building up of the true Christian church. In that illustration Jesus Christ is the foundation stone. Gentile converts are brought as valuable stones to be laid upon Him, and by contact with Him are made living stones.

Priest-King Bears Glory

To bear the glory means that the glory of redeeming the fallen race belongs to Christ, and through eternal ages the ransomed will ascribe to Him glory and dominion forever because He loved them and washed them from their sins in His own blood.
His present sitting and ruling upon His throne is upon the Father's throne, where He serves as priest and intercessor for fallen humanity.
There He pleads through His spotless life and through His wounds and suffering, and this is not yet His throne of glory.
His rule as priest on the Father's throne is His present mediatorial work, distinct from the future kingdom of glory.
That kingdom begins after His work as mediator ends, when He will receive David's throne and rule an everlasting kingdom.

The earthly priesthood and the sacrifices that pointed to Him ended with His death and gave way to His ministry in the heavenly sanctuary.
After His death and resurrection He became minister of that true sanctuary, of which the human-built tabernacle and temple and earthly sanctuary were types, and mediator of the new covenant.
He entered the holy place once by His own blood to obtain eternal redemption, and He lives to intercede for and to save those who come to God through Him.
As Son of man He shares the throne of the universe, and by taking human nature and retaining it forever He binds humanity to God as God's pledge of unchanging peace.
The prophecy that He is both King and Priest was fulfilled when the people proclaimed Him King of Israel and He accepted their homage and the office of King and Priest.
His cleansing of the temple was part of the work He had to do as evidence of His divine mission, even though reforming the corrupt priesthood would fail.

Counsel of Peace

The counsel of peace between them both is the counsel between the Father and the Son, who are two distinct persons whose unity exists alongside their individual personhood. The man whose name is the Branch grows up out of His place and builds the temple of Jehovah, bearing the glory and sitting and ruling upon His throne as king while serving as priest upon His throne, with His royal and priestly work united in that counsel of peace. In His work as man's intercessor He builds the temple of the Lord by His sacrifice and mediation, being both its foundation and its builder, bearing the glory of that work and sitting and ruling upon the Father's throne while at the same time being a priest upon His throne.

That counsel of peace is the plan and covenant of peace to save a lost world, laid before the foundation of the world and before the creation of the earth. In it the Son pleaded before the Father on behalf of sinners, and the Father gave Him to die for them. Christ as Substitute and Surety for the ransom of man did not stand alone in the undertaking, but the Father and the Son together devised the plan of redemption after long communion. The Father gave Himself to the world in the gift of His Son from love for fallen man, revealing God as holy and loving in justice and mercy. Carrying out the plan required the Son to give His life to satisfy the claims of the law and restore humanity to harmony with heaven.

The peace agreement shows the united love and work of the Father and the Son to save the lost race, carried on in the ministry in the sanctuary above. The love of the Father is no less than the love of the Son as the fountain of salvation, with the Father Himself loving those who come to Christ, God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, and God giving His only Son so that whoever believes will not perish but have everlasting life. The counsel of peace between God and humanity is secured in Christ as both king and priest. His taking human nature and retaining it forever is God's pledge of that unchanging peace, for as Son of man He shares the throne of the universe and binds humanity to God.