ZECHARIAH
4
A
Bible Study - Commentary by Jim Melough
Copyright
2002 James Melough
4:1.
“And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is
wakened out of his sleep,”
This seems to indicate that
the previous revelation had been given the prophet in a dream or when he was
in a trance, but the present information appears to have been given him in the
course of a face-to-face conversation with the angel.
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:”
The golden candlestick or
lampstand shown him was not identical with that which lighted the Holy place
in the Tabernacle for it had six branches, three springing from each side of
the central shaft; but as the Tabernacle lampstand was a figure or type of the
Lord Jesus Christ, so is this present one. Both were of pure gold, always the
symbol of Divine glory, and reminding us that while the One portrayed by both
had condescended to become the Son of Man, He never ceased to be also the
second Person of the Trinity.
One reason at least for the
difference between the two lampstands or candlesticks may be that the one in
the Tabernacle is a figure of Christ in relation to the Church, while the one
seen here by the prophet may portray Him in relation to millennial Israel, for
the six lamps in the former protrude from the central shaft, whereas in
the latter the seven lamps are placed on the bowl at the top of the
central shaft, a position peculiarly appropriate to the dominion that will be
Israel’s in the Millennium.
Relative to the six
branched lamps of the Tabernacle lampstand: since six is the number of
man, weakness, incompleteness, and sin, it is to be remembered that connected
with the Church, composed of men still in earthly bodies, and having still the
old Adamic nature, as well as the new Christ-like nature, there is associated
with us much of what the number six signifies.
The Israel portrayed by the
seven (number of perfection and completeness) lamps, on the other hand,
will be a nation that will evince the earthly completeness and perfection of
the fulfillment of all God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for then
she will be the head and not the tail, exercising dominion over all the
nations of the millennial earth.
The seven pipes were seven
ducts through which the oil from the two olive trees was fed continuously to
the seven lamps; and since oil is one of biblical symbols of the Holy Spirit,
the truth being symbolically taught is that millennial Israel will be a nation
imbued with the unction of the Holy Spirit, she being His instrument for the
government of the millennial nations, and the display of the Divine glory.
She will be God’s lamp of testimony to the whole millennial earth, the Holy
Spirit enduing her with power as He does every true testimony in every age.
(Some understand there to have
been seven pipes or ducts to each lamp, thus making a total of forty-nine.
Whether one or seven pipes to each lamp, however, is relatively unimportant,
for the basic thought is of the perfection connected with the number seven, of
which forty-nine is simply a multiple).
A practical lesson for
believers of this present Church age is that we are also responsible to
display that same Divine glory, something that will be accomplished only to
the degree that the indwelling Holy Spirit is ungrieved and unquenched, He
being grieved when we do what He forbids; and quenched when we refuse to do
what He wishes or commands, for it is to be remembered that He will no more
compel a believer to obey than He will an unbeliever to believe. With the
one, as with the other, His activity - which is always for blessing - is
subject to the will of each individual. Were it otherwise, it would be
impossible to grieve or quench Him.
4:3.
“And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other
upon the left side thereof.”
As is made clear in verse six,
these two olive trees represent the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit in
relation to the written Word, for it is by means of that Word that He works,
it being through it that His will is revealed to men - saint and sinner
alike.
There being two olive trees
“one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side
thereof,” may be to portray the two parts of the written Word: the Old and the
New Testament; and perhaps also to portray its resemblance to the binary
system with which the computer age has made our modern world familiar. The
written Word also falls into the same two categories: what it commands
corresponding to one; and what it forbids corresponding to zero.
4:4.
“So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are
these, my lord?”
Another practical lesson being
taught in the prophet’s seeking information, is that we should be equally
inquisitive relative to what we read in Scripture. The modern tendency to
skim or speed-read has robbed us of much of that priceless insight which is
given only to the careful studious reader of God’s Word. We impoverish
ourselves spiritually when we refuse to read slowly and carefully, stopping to
consult a dictionary or concordance for the meaning of a word we don’t quite
understand; searching further to find the answer to a question prompted by
what we have just read. Meditative study of Scripture has become a lost art,
as is evidenced, not only by the paucity of profitable exposition on the part
of many who take the place of teachers amongst God’s people, but also by the
general ignorance of Christians relative to the typological and spiritual
significance of the written Word.
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.”
Is there here in the angel’s
question just a hinted implication that perhaps the prophet should have
known the answer? If that implication does exist, then it ought to remind us
that all too often the same question might be addressed to us who have been on
the road to heaven so long that meditative study would have rendered some of
our questions unnecessary. It is very different, however, relative to young
believers, the “babes in Christ.” God delights to hear the questions prompted
by sincere desire to know Him and His Word, and to give the answers.
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.”
The “this” of the words “This
is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel...” is ambiguous, for it may apply to
the statement that immediately follows, or to the vision of the golden
lampstand and two olive trees of verses 2 and 3. It may, in fact apply to
both, for it seems that what is written in verses 2 and 3 is the symbolic
declaration of what is announced explicitly here in verse 6.
Zerubbabel, the civil leader,
was being encouraged to put his hand to the work having the assurance from God
that the power needed for the task would be, not his own puny human ability,
but that of the third Person of the Trinity: the omnipotent Holy Spirit.
Every servant of God has the same assurance of Divine enablement to accomplish
every divinely assigned task. Our responsibility is to be sure that the work
we attempt to do has been given us by God, and is not impelled simply by the
restless rebellious energy of the flesh, for if the flesh is the source of our
activity, no matter how seemingly worthy the task, there will be nothing but
failure.
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.”
The language here is
metaphoric, the mountain being the symbol of the nations under the leadership
of Satan using kings and rulers as his puppets to oppose the work of God.
Relative to the work in which Zerubbabel was engaged, the mountain in that day
was the opposing surrounding nations; but clearly the language goes beyond
that day, and points to the final conflict between Christ and the armies of
the Beast at the end of the Tribulation. The reduction of the mountain to a
plain is the symbolic announcement of the truth that the nations of that day
would be powerless to stop God’s work, as will be also those assembled under
the leadership of the Beast in the conflict of Armageddon at the end of the
Tribulation.
The immediate task assigned
Zerubbabel was the rebuilding of the Temple, his victorious accomplishment of
that work being symbolized in his setting in place the headstone of the
building amid the joyful exultations of the people expressed in their shouts,
“Grace, grace unto it.”
The type will be fulfilled on
that quickly approaching day when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to end the
Tribulation and establish His millennial kingdom, for He is the One typified
by the headstone, as it is written, “Unto you therefore which believe he is
precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders
disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,” 1 Pe 2:7.
4:8.
“Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,”
4:9.
“The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands
shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me
unto you.
The speaker is the angelic
messenger informing the prophet that Zerubbabel’s completion of the Temple
would be the confirmation that Jehovah, the Lord of hosts, had been the Author
of all that the angel had revealed; and in this we are reminded of what is
written in 2 Pe 1:19-21, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto
ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place,
until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: knowing this first,
that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For
prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Hold Ghost.” Of all the books of all the religions of
the world, the Bible is the only one that has undertaken to foretell future
events, and not just in generalities, but with such amazing accuracy and
precision as to place its Divine authorship beyond question; and with by far
the greater part of prophecy already fulfilled, there can be no doubt in any
reasonable mind that what remains will also be fulfilled, and with the very
same precise accuracy.
4:10.
“For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and
shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the
eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.”
It may have been a day of
small things, see, for example what is written in Ezra 3:12 relative to the
reaction of the people when the work of laying the foundation was completed.
The younger ones who had never seen the former glorious Temple built by
Solomon, rejoiced, “But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the
fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the
foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice.”
God, however, Who sees the end
from the beginning, knew what His people didn’t: that little Temple of
Zerubbabel was not the only one that would be built. It was only one of
several, for it was replaced by the magnificent Temple of Herod which was
destroyed almost as soon as it was built, for though it wasn’t fully completed
in the Lord’s day, it was destroyed just a few years later in AD 70 by the
Romans. Another, the Tribulation age Temple is yet to be built and also
destroyed, to be replaced by the glorious millennial Temple described in Ezek
40-43.
That little Temple which they
were to build has long since gone, as has also the magnificent Temple of Herod
which replaced it. Clearly God views all the Temples which have been, and
which are yet to be, as simply stages which will culminate in the magnificent
Temple that will adorn the millennial earth, and which will be again what
Solomon’s Temple was: the earthly dwelling place of His glory.
That literal house, however,
is but a figure or symbol of the spiritual house, the Church, which has been
in the building for almost two thousand years, but which is now almost
complete. God’s showing them therefore that what they were being called upon
to build was but a stage of a work that began with the Tabernacle, and that
won’t be complete until the millennial Temple is built, is to remind us that
the part which each generation of Christians has in the building of the
Church, is but a small part of a great whole. And as God encouraged them not
to look back, but forward, so does He also encourage us. As they were not to
waste time on weeping over departed glory, neither are we to sit idle,
bewailing the departed glory of the Apostolic age, or even of the generation
that has preceded us. We are to look forward and build, with our eyes on the
finished work, on that day when the building will be complete, and Christ
will, “Present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle,
or any such thing,” Eph 5:27.
That spiritual house, in the
building of which we are privileged to have a part, will surpass the glory of
any earthly Temple, for as Solomon’s Temple passed away, so will that of the
Millennium, but the Church will endure for ever, her glory lustering eternity.
“... with those seven,”
clearly refers to the precious stone described in 3:9, the seven facets of
which are the symbolic description of the Lord’s omniscience, that
interpretation being verified by the words, “... they are the eyes of the
Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.”
4:11.
“Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the
right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?”
We have already noted in our
study of verses 3 and 6 that in those verses the two olive trees are set
before us as symbols of the Holy Spirit working through the written Word; but
here we are being directed to yet another facet of His activity: He works also
through human instruments, as we shall see in the verses that follow.
4:12.
“And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches
which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?”
It is instructive to note that
here they are described, not as trees as in verses 3 and 11, but as branches,
implying that they are growing out of and dependent upon something greater
than themselves, i.e., the parent tree.
The lesson couldn’t be
clearer. In the context of this verse these two olive branches
represent Spirit-filled believers yielded completely to His will, and
therefore instruments that He can use to accomplish His purposes. Notice that
the oil doesn’t originate with them: they are simply the “pipes” through which
the golden oil flows, the oil representing the Holy Spirit; and gold being the
symbol of Divine glory, so that the typological picture is of the Holy Spirit
glorified through the obedience of believers yielded to His will.
A fact rarely recognized is
that the Holy Spirit never bypasses the will of either saint or sinner. He
will strive with sinners to convict them, but He stops short of compelling
them to accept salvation; and He will strive with believers, through the Word
applied to their consciences, to secure obedience, but He stops short of
compelling that obedience.
As it was by means of the
golden oil, flowing through the two olive branches, that the seven lamps shed
their light abroad, so is it by the obedience of believers that the light of
the knowledge of God is shed abroad in the world.
A further lesson is taught in
there being two olive branches, for two is the biblical number of
testimony or witness. It is through the testimony of obedient believers that
the light of the knowledge of God is diffused, and the darkness of this world
dispelled.
4:13.
“And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No,
my lord.”
The same lesson is being
taught here as in verse 5.
4:14.
“Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the
whole earth.”
The “two anointed ones” are
generally understood to be Joshua, the high priest; and Zerubbabel, the civil
head; and their standing by the Lord of the whole earth declares them to be
Jehovah’s willing servants, anointed by the Holy Spirit, standing by ready to
do His bidding.
Every believer has had a
similar anointing, for each is indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit, but
sadly those who stand by ready to do the Lord’s will, are a very small
minority today.
[Zechariah
5]