Zechariah 4:1-7
Zechariah 4:1
And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked
me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep,
Now once again the Lord Jesus Christ speaks to Zechariah
because for a while the attention was being paid to Joshua the high priest.
Now Zechariah is receiving a vision that has the effect of a man being
awakened out of sleep as if one is in a deep sleep and then the alarm goes off.
The fifth vision will be one that has startling effect on Zechariah.
Zechariah 4:2
And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have
looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it,
and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon
the top thereof:
Then the Lord poses a question to Zechariah and asks him
what he sees. He then proceeds to
proclaim what he sees. First, he
sees a golden candlestick. This
would be the golden lampstand found in the temple.
And thou shalt make a candlestick
of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his
branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same.
(Exodus 25:31) Then he
sees the bowls on top of the candlestick.
The bowls were placed there to feed the lamp so it would continue to
burn. There would be a total of
seven lamps.
And thou shalt make the seven lamps
thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over
against it. (Exodus 25:37)
Then Zechariah sees seven pipes to the seven lamps which would feed the
lamps so they would burn continually.
They were never to go out.
Zechariah 4:3
And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the
bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
And thou shalt
command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for
the light, to cause the lamp to burn always.
(Exodus 27:20) The two
olive trees are set beside it and they are the trees that supply the fuel, which
was olive oil, for the continual burning of the lamps.
The definition of the two olive trees and who they represent are given in
the commentary on Zechariah 4:14.
Zechariah 4:4
So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me,
saying, What are these, my lord?
So the Lord asks Zechariah what he saw and Zechariah
responds by asking him a question because visions do not have stand-alone
meanings, that is, they are representative of something else and are normally a
visual parable depicting some truth.
Zechariah desired to know the meaning of the vision he was given.
Zechariah 4:5
Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto
me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
Then the Lord answers Zechariah with a question asking
him if he knew what these things mean.
Then Zechariah responds that he did not understand what these things
mean. The Lord was probably asking
him to see if Zechariah would realize that these things being given him in the
vision had to do with the temple.
Zechariah 4:6
Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the
word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my
spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.
Now the answer comes to Zerubbabel who was the civil
governor and who would be in charge of rebuilding the temple.
In the previous verses we saw that the two olive trees were the ones
which continually fed the lamps so they would never go out.
Here the vision is also a prophecy to Zerubbabel concerning the building
of the temple. God tells him that the
work of the LORD is not done by means of might which would be the strength of
man nor power which would be the ability of man but the work of God is
established on this earth though the working of the Holy Spirit.
This is why sometimes the most timid Christians are the most effective
and the most over-bearing ones rarely are ever successful in the Lord’s work.
Zechariah 4:7
Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou
shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with
shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.