#1180 Zechariah 4 Small Things

 

And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep. 2 And he said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. 3 And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” 4 And I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” 5 Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” 6 Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. 7 Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”

8 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. 10 For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.

“These seven are the eyes of the Lord, which range through the whole earth.” 11 Then I said to him, “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?” 12 And a second time I answered and said to him, “What are these two branches of the olive trees, which are beside the two golden pipes from which the golden oil is poured out?” 13 He said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” 14 Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.” Zechariah 4 ESV

Zechariah 4 Israel Light of the World

And in the Old Testament time, the vehicle of His communication was the nation Israel. After the founding of the nation, they became His channel of information and revelation. And if you look with me for just a moment - and if you don’t want to turn to it, think with me – in Romans chapter 3, two verses, verses 1 and 2. The apostle Paul, in reasoning through the logic of basic theology and asking himself questions which he proceeds to answer, says, “What advantage then hath the Jew? Or what profit is there of circumcision?”

In other words, the message of chapter 2 is that both the Jew and the Gentile are confirmed in sin, and if that’s true, then what is the advantage of being a Jew? The advantage comes in verse 2, “Much every way, but chiefly because unto them were committed the oracles of God.”

Further on in the book of Romans, in the ninth chapter and the fourth and fifth verse, the apostle Paul says, regarding his own kinsmen, his brethren in the flesh, “Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.”

Now notice, “The Israelites to whom pertaineth the covenants and the giving of the law and the promises.” Israel was God’s vehicle for the transmission of His revelation. God has always spoken to man. - J Mac

…20The beasts of the field will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I provide water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My chosen people. 21The people I formed for Myself will declare My praise. Isaiah 43: 20-21

…5See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the LORD my God has commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land that you are about to enter and possess. 6Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples, who will hear of all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” 7For what nation is great enough to have a god as near to them as the LORD our God is to us whenever we call on Him?… Deuteronomy 4: 5-7

Behold a lampstand all of gold - So we just left off with the priest, Joshua, who was standing before the angel of the Lord on behalf of Israel, and now we have another image that draws upon the temple, the lampstand. It is gold, which means something is precious, valuable, gold is also refined and made pure through much heat. It is also a symbol of kingship, and one of the three gifts that the Magi brought to worship Jesus.  

With a bowl on top of it - So we have gravity working for us in this vision. A place to collect the oil.

And seven lamps on it - So this is a menorah, kind of like the picture above, the lamp you still see Jewish households light during Hanukkah, only the Hanukkah menorah has 9 candles or lamps, but Zechariah's vision is not of candles, but of lamps, fed by oil, that is the fuel, that is what keeps the lamps lit. 

One of the more tedious duties of the temple service was the constant care of the lamps on the golden lampstand. They had to be continually refilled with oil, cleaned of soot, and their wicks had to be maintained. In this vision, Zechariah sees “self-filling” lamps, fed directly from two olive trees.

ii. In the temple, the lamps were fueled by pure, specially prepared olive oil. The lampstand Zechariah saw in his vision was fed straight from the trees. - Enduring Word

31 “Make a lampstand of pure gold. Hammer out its base and shaft, and make its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms of one piece with them. 32 Six branches are to extend from the sides of the lampstand—three on one side and three on the other. 33 Three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms are to be on one branch, three on the next branch, and the same for all six branches extending from the lampstand. 34 And on the lampstand there are to be four cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms. 35 One bud shall be under the first pair of branches extending from the lampstand, a second bud under the second pair, and a third bud under the third pair—six branches in all. 36 The buds and branches shall all be of one piece with the lampstand, hammered out of pure gold.

37 “Then make its seven lamps and set them up on it so that they light the space in front of it. 38 Its wick trimmers and trays are to be of pure gold. 39 A talent of pure gold is to be used for the lampstand and all these accessories. 40 See that you make them according to the pattern shown you on the mountain. Exodus 25: 31-40

And there are two olive trees by it - I love looking at pictures of the old olive trees, and olive oil was very important in that part of the world, this is what fueled the lamps, what people used to put on cuts, and to anoint. 

Now, look at verse 3, “And beside it, two olive trees: one on the right side of the bowl, and the other on the left side.” Now watch. The lamp is lit by oil. Okay? That’s the way they lit their lamps: oil. The oil is flowing to each of the seven lamps on the one big lampstand from seven pipes coming from a big bowl of oil. Now watch. And the bowl of oil is getting its oil from – what? – the olive trees. This, you see, is an automatic lamp. As automatic as you get in Zechariah’s time, folks.

Now, what we have essentially here is the seven-branched candlestick of the tabernacle, and the seven-branched candlestick of the temple. It’s the same thing, basically. However, there are three variations. Now watch. Number one is the bowl of oil. Now, in the temple of the tabernacle, the oil had to be supplied by the priests. So, it was not automatic, but this is an automatic lamp. In the holy place, they were filled by the priest, and they had to go in and trim the lamp, and trim the lamp, and trim the lamp all the time, keep the oil in there. Keep the oil in there because it would burn it up.

The second distinction is the seven tubes or the seven conduits or the seven pipes. And incidentally, the Hebrew grammar and the Hebrew construction of the term here indicates that there were 49, 7 going to each one. So, there would be seven little pipes coming down to each lamp. - J Mac

Do you not know what these are - He asked, and the angel asked him a question back, indicating that the prophet needs to understand, needs to know what these symbols represent.

This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel - Who was Zerubbabel? Well, he came back from the Babylonian captivity with Joshua to rebuild the temple. Joshua is the high priest as we saw in the last two posts, and Zerubbabel is of the line of David, both men are real, but also symbolic of the nation. Zerubbabel is a governor, he won't be a Davidic king because this is still during the time of the gentiles, and right now, the gentile nation in charge is Medo-Persia. But look at the big picture here as well, we have the prophet, Zechariah, the priest, Joshua, and Zerubbabel, the kingly line. Who in history was prophet, king and priest? Remember when Jesus came, He came preaching repentance, foretelling the kingdom, and saying, "I judge only as I hear, and My judgement is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him Who sent Me." He was a prophet. The priest is the mediator between God and man, and Christ adds humanity to His deity, becoming the God/Man, the perfect mediator. The priest offers the sacrifice, and Christ offers up Himself as the only, once and for all, pleasing, holy, pure sacrifice for sin. He is the priest. He is King of kings and Lord of lords, the seed of the woman, and the Son of David. If you look at both His lineages in the gospel, one is from Mary and the other from Joseph, Jesus is the rightful heir according to prophecy. Jesus is coming back to rule, He is King.

…18Because of this, the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him. Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. 19So Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does. 20The Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. And to your amazement, He will show Him even greater works than these.… John 5: 18-20

14Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we profess. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin. 16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.… Hebrews 4: 14-16

…4because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me. 6In burnt offerings and sin offerings You took no delight.… Hebrews 10: 4-6

…9Judah is a young lion—my son, you return from the prey. Like a lion he crouches and lies down; like a lioness, who dares to rouse him? 10The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes and the allegiance of the nations is his. 11He ties his donkey to the vine, his colt to the choicest branch. He washes his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.… Genesis 49: 9-11

Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord of hosts - Oil in the Bible was used to anoint, and also as a representation of God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. The people were struggling in the land, and Zerubbabel is a leader, a shepherd, and what a crazy, difficult job. There are none that feel so much weight as do true leaders. They are always on the look out, always trying to see ahead, trying to prepare and plan, and when things go wrong they refuse to let someone else stand where the battle rages the worst, and often they are the ones crushed under the load. Zerubbabel has been told that God wants him to build this temple and fortify Jerusalem, imagine the stress, overseeing people who have lost a lot of hope, doing this work amongst hostile neighbors. God also sends great planners and administrators in Ezra and Nehemiah, and this wonderful word here, that you are going to build, but God's spirit is going to be the force behind it, it will be done, rest assured. 

“O churches! take heed lest ye trust in yourselves; take heed lest ye say, ‘We are a respectable body,’ ‘We are a mighty number,’ ‘We are a potent people;’ take heed lest ye begin to glory in your own strength; for when that is done, ‘Ichabod’ shall be written on your walls and your glory shall depart from you. Remember, that he who was with us when we were but few, must be with us now we are many, or else we must fail; and he who strengthened us when we were but as ‘little in Israel,’ must be with us, now that we are like ‘the thousands of Manasseh,’ or else it is all over with us and our day is past.” (Spurgeon)

Well, I’m not going to take a lot of time to give you all of the study of all of the rabbinical scholars who’ve commented on this, because they all come out with the same answer, and the answer is this: traditional Jewish interpretation and Christian interpretation is almost unanimous on this that the lampstand represents the combined testimony of Israel as a nation under God, that the lampstand is Israel lit again to be the light of the world that God had intended originally for her to be.

Now, that’s basically the simple interpretation. Zechariah is seeing visions. The visions begin with restoration of the people, a rebuilding of the temple, a rebuilding of the city, the salvation of the nation, and then the witnessing ministry of the nation. And that’s exactly what we see right here, a restored, revived, regenerated nation is now again God’s witnessing people. They are the light. - J Mac

…17Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by My Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”… Matthew 16: 17-19

15If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.… John 14: 15-17

…7Do not be amazed that I said, ‘You must be born again.’ 8The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” 9“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.… John 3: 7-9

Who are you, oh great mountain - This is both in the language of metaphor and possibly literal as well. In it's representation it symbolizes the great obstacle before them, that of construction and all the turmoil surrounding it. In a literal sense, the old Jerusalem was torn down, the temple destroyed, so there is probably this great mound of rubble as well. It is a depressing sight, and Zerubbabel is not a billionaire that can say, "get me 10 crews in here, and I am willing to pay overtime, let's get this done." Yet , it gets done, not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord. God accomplishes a lot through a very poor, rag tag team. It is incredible that He includes us in His work at all.

…19Afterward the disciples came to Jesus privately and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” 20“Because you have so little faith,” He answered. “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” … Matthew 17: 19-20

Grace, grace to it - Remember, a couple of chapters ago, the people were in the land and had come to the opinion that it wasn't the right time to build the temple. Everything they saw was an obstacle, it was difficult and unpopular, so they decided it wasn't the time, but then God said differently. He looked at their obvious inability, and then graciously drew them into His plan, Whom the Lord calls, He fits for the task. Zerubbabel will finish the temple, look, he is going to set the capstone, amid shouts of grace. That shouting is giving back what belongs to God, the glory, the reality, that without Him we can do nothing. 

…7in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, demonstrated by His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9not by works, so that no one can boast.… Ephesians 2: 7-9

Then you will know the Lord of hosts has sent me to you - When they see the temple completed, this will confirm the words of the prophet, and they will praise God.

For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice - This temple will not carry the same magnificence of the prior temple, but it will be more significant in how it was brought forth, and in very difficult times. Some of the people were old enough to remember the old temple of Solomon as they were children departing from the land. May the Holy Spirit revive us and bring us to the place where we should be, as those who do not despise the day of small things.

Spurgeon spoke to the need for courage in the day of small things in our churches: “To me, it seems that it should be your glory to join the poorest and weakest churches of your denomination, and wherever you go, to say, ‘This little cause is not as strong as I should like it to be; but, by the grace of God, I will make it more influential. At any rate, I will throw in my weight to strengthen the weak things of Zion, and certainly I will not despise the day of small things.’ Where would have been our flourishing churches of today if our forefathers had disdained to sustain them while they were yet in their infancy?”

v. “God accepts your little works if they are done in faith in his dear Son. God will give success to your little works: God will educate you by your little works to do greater works; and your little works may call out others who shall do greater works by far than ever you shall be able to accomplish.” (Spurgeon)

These seven are the eyes of the Lord - Remember eyes represent seeing, knowledge, and seven is the number of perfection, and so this is done, accomplished under the all seeing, omniscient eyes of God. He is pleased with this little temple, He rejoices, because it is His work and His spirit, so don't despise what God delights in. This is the way He saw it.

…26Brothers, consider the time of your calling: Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were powerful; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly and despised things of the world, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are,… 1 Corinthians 1: 26-28

What are these two olive trees - I love Zechariah, like when he asked for a turban to be put on Joshua's head, and now, he ask about the olive trees. I was satisfied with them supplying the oil to the basin, oh, they are olive trees, but this guy is learning, he sees that there is a lot of representation going on here. Joshua represents the people, Zerubbabel represents them in another way, as a governor. The oil is the Holy Spirit, but Zechariah is like, "tell me more." 

Do you not know what these are - Come on man, really? And you got to love him, he doesn't have a vast library of commentary on this and he is also a few visions in, probably overwhelmed at this point. His answer is just the simple truth, "No, my lord." What we miss out on when we say, "I know, I know, I got it," when we really don't, and we just don't want to show weakness. Pride kills knowledge, it is the antithesis of wisdom. If we are paying attention, he asked first, "what are these two olive trees?" And then secondly and more specifically, "what are these two branches" or parts of the trees. His second question focuses in on two branches that are by the pipes from which the golden oil is poured out. This is an awesome question, and it gives us more detail about the vision. 

Now the two olive trees, what are they? Well, they’re mentioned in verse 14. And he’s still asking the same question at the end. He says, “What are these,” basically, and then the angel says, “These are the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.” Now, the two anointed ones, hmm. Who would that be? Well, in Israel there were two specific people who were anointed. Do you remember who they were? One was the king, and what was the other one? The high priest or the priest.

So, what you have here then is this. You have the office of king and priest. Now historically – and you have to – you have to keep your thinking hat on now, because you realize this has a historical meaning and then a prophetic meaning. Historically, the man who stood in the place of king was a man named Zerubbabel. He was the civil leader. And the man who stood in the place was whom? Chapter 3, Joshua. The responsibility of Joshua and Zerubbabel was to stand beside the Lord and to lead the nation in the proper path, and to bring them back to a restored place, a place where they would rebuild the wall historically, rebuild the temple historically, and become again, if even in just a small sense a witness to the power and the truth of God.

But prophetically – prophetically who is the ultimate King and Priest? The Messiah. He is the King and Priest. And in Zechariah – look at chapter 6, verse 13; it talks here about the Lord coming, the Messiah, called the Branch in verse 12, and this is talking about the millennial period, the kingdom to come, “Even He shall build the temple of the Lord; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne; and He shall be a priest upon His throne.” - J Mac

These are the two anointed ones, who stand by the Lord of the whole earth - This is interesting, and man, wow is it ever loaded. Israel is going to be called back into being a bright light to the rest of the world again, that will come at the end of the time of the gentiles. Jesus is the light of the world, and during this time of the gentiles, His true church, those that are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, they carry that light now, but one day Israel will look on Him Whom they pierced and mourn for Him as an only Son. Their lamp will be relit at that time, and they will be a light with the church. Two lampstands, hmm, and God has always kept His witness throughout the ages, often sending them out in pairs, as we see Joshua and Zerubbabel here, in the power of God's spirit, His anointed branches to that age. We also see Jesus, the Lord of the whole earth, standing with Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets, at His transfiguration. And at the end of the time of the gentiles, during the time of Jacob's trouble, there will be two prophets yet again, two witnesses of the Word of God, preaching against the wickedness of that day, giving the historical message to repent, calling to those Jews still alive, come look on Him you pierced, blessed are they that mourn. 

Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, 2 but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. 3 And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”

4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. 6 They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. 7 And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit[a] will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, 8 and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically[b] is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. 9 For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, 10 and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. 11 But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. 12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. 13 And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

14 The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come.  Revelation 11: 1-14