If you could locate the book of Zechariah chapter 4 (Zech 4) this evening, and we’re continuing on with our verse by verse study through the book of Zechariah, sort of… in that section there, roman numeral II, dealing with the eight night visions:
Structure
and so we’ve already dealt with four visions that he received in a single night and now we’re looking at the fifth vision, it’s the lampstand and olive tree, found in chapter 4.
So, here’s a chart we like to refer to as we go through this. You’ll notice chapter 4 there and it’s the golden lampstand and the two olive trees and in the far right hand corner, or far right hand column rather, you’ll notice that it ultimately speaks of Israel as the light to the nations under Messiah king priest Jesus Christ one day.
So if you are fatigued right now in the Christian life, this chapter, I guarantee you it’s going to minister to you, as it ministered to me as I was preparing this bible study.
So verses 1 through 3 the vision is described, and then verses 4 through 14 the vision is interpreted, and really what this chapter is about is new resources. Actually, they are not new resources, they are God’s resources available for God’s work. So, what God orders, he pays for, amen? God doesn’t, you know, order a big meal and then get worried looking for His wallet, you know, when the bill comes. He wouldn’t order it if He couldn’t pay for it. So the truth of the matter is if God has called you to do anything, He gives you the energy to do it, and that ministry is the ongoing, uninterrupted ministry of the Holy Spirit. So these returnees were struggling to rebuild the temple and the project was dormant for fifteen years because of discouragement, and here there’s a reminder of what their source of power is, and it’s a reminder that the two characters that God is using here, Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest are especially appointed by God and especially energized and empowered by God. So this chapter serves as a reminder of the source of energy available as they’re rebuilding the temple and it also would vindicate these two leaders, who are getting a lot of push back from the community itself and from the pagan world as they were trying to lead God’s people through difficult times. 3:44
So, with all of that being said let’s take a look at this vision as it’s described there in chapter 4, verses 1 through 3 (Zech 4:1-3).
First thing we see here is the setting, and notice if you will chapter 4, verse 1 (Zech 4:1) as Zechariah receives yet another vision in a single night. It says: Then the angel who was speaking with me returned and roused me, as a man who was awakened from his sleep. So the angel aroused Zechariah from his slumber and that’s kind of interesting that he is in a state of slumber because he had just received three other visions.
Thomas L. Constable – Constable’s online notes on Zechariah, p. 46.
“Zechariah’s guiding angel ‘roused’ the prophet from his visionary slumber. Evidently when the last scene of his vision ended, Zechariah remained in a sleep-like condition. Even in an ecstatic state, human beings remain dull and obtuse to divine revelation, and must receive supernatural enlightenment.”
So Thomas Constable writes: Zechariah’s guiding angel ‘roused’ the prophet from his visionary slumber. Evidently when the last scene of his vision ended, Zechariah remained in a sleep-like condition. Even in an ecstatic state, humans remain dull and obtuse to divine revelation, and must receive spiritual enlightenment… So the interesting thing about being a Christian for a while is you start to get Christian friends and you start to get a Christian church and you start to participate in a Christian small group and you start to watch Christian tv and you start to listen to Christian radio and you read Christian books and you kind of get absorbed into the Christian subculture and one of the things that could happen in the midst of all of these blessings is you could fall asleep. Does that ever happen to anybody? It happened to me. Seminary students it’s the worse for because they’re around Bible teaching all of the time and you kind of get to a point where you get… maybe you’re hearing what’s being said but you’re not applying. So that’s kind of where Zechariah was, he just received multiple visions and yet even in that sanctified environment he needed a good kick in the backside by the Holy Spirit to wake up again. So all of us need that and the Holy Spirit will provide that for us. So he needs to wake up in spite of his ecstatic state that he was in, because God has something more to show him, and we move away from the setting to the lampstand with the seven lamps
and Zechariah here asks a question or rather a question is asked of Zechariah: He said to me… that’s the angel saying to Zechariah… What do you see?… So that’s our verb of perception. Every time it says “I saw” or something like that, it typically is a clue that we’re in a new vision and the second part of the verse, verse 2 (Zech 4:2) says: And I said, I see, and behold, a lampstand of gold with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lampstands on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps which are on the top of it… So what do you see? Here’s what I see and Zechariah describes something that looks like that. 7:31
Ignore just for a minute the two trees on top cause those are not described yet but he saw a golden lampstand that looked like a menorah. This time of the year devout Jews celebrate Hanukkah, and so you’ll see menorahs and things like that going up in different places in their homes. I have a menorah in my home that I like to take out this time of the year. So he saw this lampstand that probably looked like a menorah and then he saw on top of the menorah this golden bowl, and the menorah involved this lampstand with seven lamps, which you can see there, and Zechariah as he’s describing this vision, when he’s asked: What do you see? He saw basically seven spouts coming from the bowl into different lamps and he goes on here, verse 3 (Zech 4:3), and he describes the two olive trees over the bowl.
So what does it say there in verse 3?: …also two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and one on the other side of the bowl… So the whole thing looks something like that. He sees two olive trees on either side of the bowl and Charles Dyer gives a wonderful description of this.
Charles H. Dyer – Old Testament Explorer, p. 824.
“…he saw a gold lampstand, possibly shaped like the menorah that provided light in the temple. Above the lamp was a bowl that served as a reservoir for the olive oil used as fuel in the seven lights at the top of each branch. Individual channels led from the bowl to the lights, providing a constant source of fuel to keep the lamp burning. Beside the reservoir were two olive trees that provided olive oil to keep the reservoir filled. In effect, Zechariah saw a lamp that would never go out because it had a constant supply of oil.”
Charles Dyer says: …he… that’s Zechariah… saw a gold lampstand, possibly shaped like the menorah that provided light in the temple. Above the lamp was a bowl that served as a reservoir of the oil used as fuel in the seven lights at the top of each branch. Individual channels led from the bowl to the lights, providing a constant… and that’s the key word… a constant source of fuel to keep the lamps burning. Beside the reservoir… or the bowl… were two olive trees that provided olive oil to keep the reservoir filled. In effect, Zechariah saw a lamp that would never go out because it had a constant supply of oil… Doctor Constable on his online notes describes what Zechariah said as follows:
Thomas L. Constable – Constable’s online notes on Zechariah, p. 48.
“There were also two olive trees, one standing on either side of the bowl. Human maintenance of the lamps was unnecessary, since the oil flowed from the trees, to the reservoir, to the lamps. This important feature of the vision stresses God’s singular provision of the oil (cf. v. 6).”
There were also two olive trees, one standing on either side of the bowl. Human maintenance of the lamps was unnecessary, since the oil flowed from the trees, to the reservoir… or the bowl… to the lamps. This important feature of the vision stresses God’s singular provision of the oil… So, it was sort of an ingenious device that Zechariah saw in this particular night vision. Uhm… it didn’t require human maintenance. So the olives just dropped off the olive tree and kind of rolled down into the bowl and producing the oil and then from there, they just kind of flowed to each of the seven lamps on the seven lampstand menorah, keeping the whole menorah constantly lit up, constantly fueled and you didn’t have to go and check to make sure that it was still working because it was always working. 11:27
So the oil in the Bible typically is a description… I’m speaking here of the olive oil… it’s typically a depiction of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is pictured as oil frequently in the Bible. So for example, in the New Testament in 1st John 2, verse 20 (1 John 2:20) John says: You have an anointing… that’s the imagery of oil… from the Holy One… and then in 1st John 2, verse 27 (1 John 2:27) John says: As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you… So the Holy Spirit is this anointing oil. In Psalms 133, verse 2 (Psalm 133:2) it describes Aaron the high priest being anointed by God and it says: It is the precious oil upon the head, Coming down upon the beard, Even Aaron’s beard, Coming down upon the full edges of his robes… So when he was anointed by the Holy Spirit, what symbolized that was anointing oil on his head which went down through his beard and then went down to the edges of his robe, and it was that anointing that gave him the spirit empowered ability to serve God in a special way, and you’ll notice that we’ve got seven lamps there, that are described, seven of course represents completion, the way God uses numbers, the world seven days, created in seven days, six days and God rested on the seventh day. As you go through the Bible, you’ll see the number seven over and over again referring to completion and I think that’s probably referring to the seven-fold ministry of the Holy Spirit. The seven-fold ministry of the Holy Spirit is described in Isaiah 11 verse 2 (Isa 11:2) where it says: The Spirit of the LORD… number one, that’s number one… will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom… number two… the spirit of understanding… number three… The spirit of counsel… number four… the spirit of strength… number five… the spirit of knowledge… number six… and the fear of the LORD… number seven. You’ll see there in Isaiah 11, verse 2 the seven-fold ministry of the Holy Spirit. The spirit of the Lord will rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. So, what is Zechariah seeing in this vision? He is seeing here the complete and total ministry of the Holy Spirit and the fact that that ministry never gets extinguished, and it’s speaking of a constant supply of God’s resources to do God’s work, in the midst of a community of returnees after the seventy years captivity that have become very discouraged to the point where they stopped building the temple, and they let the project die for fifteen years. It was a task that was overwhelming to them. You have to understand that when the returnees came back from the captivity, only a small group came back. Most of the Jews liked it in Babylon and stayed there. A small group comes back, the small group being obedient to God, the larger group I think being disobedient to God, and they got back into the land after seventy years of captivity and they had a job to do which was to rebuild the temple that Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed seventy years earlier and they started getting resistance, the people of the land resisted them, there was uprisings within the community itself that resisted it, the people got discouraged because of such a huge task. I mean, when you think of rebuilding the temple, the older guys would remember the majesty of Solomon’s temple and how puny their efforts were in comparison to that, that they could remember and they just, you know, they just quit basically and so Zechariah’s whole ministry is to get them moving again on this temple project, and so this vision, you could see how it would minister to them by reminding them that they’re not going to do this through their own strength. They’re going to do it through this constant supply of the Holy Spirit that’s being described here. So a lot of us are up against the same kind of thing in our own way when you think about it, there’s things that we’re supposed to do and they’re just too big for us and so we need a reminder of where our source of power comes from. 17:02
So we go down to verses 4 through 14 where the vision now that we’ve seen is interpreted for us and the first thing brought to our attention is God’s strength.
Look at verse 4 (Zech 4:4): Then I said to the angel who was speaking with me saying, What are these, my lord?… So Zechariah wants to know what this vision is about, and verse 5 he gets an answer from the angel and you look at verse 5 and it says: So the angel who was speaking with me answered and said to me, Do you not know what these are? And I said, No, my lord… Now that same kind of thing is going to happen in verse 13 (Zech 4:13) where the angel doesn’t just cough up the answer. The angel asks Zechariah, you don’t know what this is? Implying that he should know. So, what you’re going to see in this chapter is two times where God expects His own people that have enough information, to figure it out on their own, and I find that kind of interesting cause a lot of us sit around and we wait for some kind of vision or some kind of dream or we look for kind of a ray of light from God, you know, as we are in the shower or we wait for a liver quiver or we want to hear a voice and lot of times God is saying: I’ve given you all the information, you know. Before I give you further insight, you need to figure it out on your own, based on what I’ve already revealed, and so this actually happens two times in this vision and so I found that sort of interesting, you know, you would think Zechariah when he asks a question would get an immediate answer and the angel kind of rebukes him twice and says: You mean you don’t understand this? and since Zechariah apparently doesn’t know what it means and he should know, now the answer starts to come in verse 6 (Zech 4:6), it says: Then he said to me, This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel… Zerubbabel is the governor, who is leading the nation politically as they should have been building the temple but they weren’t, so it’s a word for the governor and it sort of authenticates the fact that this governor is our leader and you need to submit to his authority and then in the second part of verse 6, he says something here that to be honest with you, you’ll spend your whole Christian life, as I have, learning this and re-learning it and re-learning it and re-learning it and re-learning it because it’s completely counterintuitive to how we operate in our sin natures. Our sin natures are all about independence from God and doing things our own way. So, we get saved and then we think as saved people, well, now that God wants me to do His work, I’m just going to work for Him the same way I used to work before I was a Christian. So what will start to happen in your Christian life is you’ll try to start doing the work of God through natural power and that’s what was happening to this group as they just let the temple project die, because when you try to do the work of God through your own power, you’re going to get very tired very fast because God puts on us God size burdens, and what God orders He pays for. So the only way to fulfill a God size burden is to tap into God size resources, right? Like the energy of the Holy Spirit that’s being described in this vision and because this is something that we don’t naturally do cause we’re used to living our lives in our own way, we have to be re-taught this lesson, and the lesson is, and it’s there in the second part of verse 6 (Zech 4:6): …Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of hosts… If you are someone that likes to highlight in your Bible and put stars around things, put verses on your refrigerator, however you do it, then I think this ought to be in your, at least in your top ten list, if not your top verse. You will do God’s work not through human power. You wil do it through the energy that the Holy Spirit supplies and according to this vision that energy of the Holy Spirit is always available because just like that lamp was never extinguished in Zechariah’s vision, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is always available. The problem is we just don’t take advantage of it. 22:33
So, there’s a couple of scriptures that the Lord has given me over the years in addition to this one. One of them is in Acts 2, verse 47 (Acts 2:47) which is describing the birth of the church and its growth and it says: …the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved… So who is adding to the church there? It’s very clear, the Lord is adding to the church. Now, in spiritual leadership you have to keep reading that over and over again because you start to think that the growth of the church is your responsibility. The truth of the matter is God never called pastors or elders or shepherds to build this church. If somebody can find me the verse that says, the shepherds and the pastors and the elders and the deacons are responsible for building the church, I’d like to see it because no such verse exists. Now, the evangelical world with its marketing research and management theories will put that on your shoulders really fast but God never put that on your shoulders. In fact, Jesus in Matthew 16, verse 18 (Matt 16:18) says: …I will build… whose church?… My church… and by the way, He’s going to do a pretty good job building it because the rest of the verse says: …the gates of Hades will not overpower it. So, what are my big three verses when I get discouraged with God size tasks? (1) Zechariah 4, verse 6 (Zech 4:6): Not by might nor by power, nor by My Spirit.. but by My Spirit says the Lord. My second (2) verse is Acts 2, verse 47 (Acts 2:47) which says: …the Lord added daily those that should be saved… and my third (3) verse is Matthew 16, verse 18 (Mat 16:18) where Jesus says: I will build my church… and those three verses have rescued me from discouragement, I can’t tell you how many times. Uhm… if you want the J. Vernon McGee translation of this, he’s one of my favorites. He translates it as follows: Not by brawn nor by brain… (hahaha) He just had a great Southern way of expressing things and I appreciate… I appreciated that very much. Thomas Constable on Zechariah chapter 4, verse 6 (Zech 4:6) says:
Thomas L. Constable – Constable’s online notes on Zechariah, p. 50.
“The work would only succeed because of the supernatural grace (help) that the Lord would provide by His ‘Spirit’ (cf. Gen. 1:2; Exod. 15:8, 10; 28:3; 31:3; Num. 11:17-29; Judg. 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6, 19; 15:14, 19; 2 Sam. 22:16; Ezek. 37:1-14). This is, of course, true of any work that seeks to carry out God’s will in the world (cf. 2 Cor. 12:9).”
The work would only succeed because of the supernatural grace… or help, and this is part of our problem, we don’t think we need help. My wife, she says to me quite frequently: Do you know why the woman is called “the help mate”? She says cause men need help. Me? I don’t need any help. Yeah, you need help, you don’t even know how to color coordinate your clothes properly. So, in the same way the Holy Spirit comes alongside as the helper, that’s his name by the way, the Paraclete, the one who comes alongside to assist, why would he do that ministry? Beause we need help, we are finite sinful beings who are arrogant to the point where we think we can do God’s work our own way and we wonder why we’re all so frustrated all the time. So Constable says: The work will only succeed because of the supernatural grace or help that the Lord would provide by His ‘Spirit’… and then he gives all these verses that you can look up to validate his point. He says: This is, of course, true of any work that seeks to carry out God’s will in the world… Then he quotes in parenthesis 2nd Corinthians 12:9 (2 Cor 12:9) where God says to Paul: My grace help is sufficient for you as he’s dealing with the thorn in the flesh. So we heard all the prayer requests earlier, the burdens that people are under, and the grace of God is sufficient for anyone, no matter what circumstance they are in and the grace of God is sufficient for anyone seeking to do God’s work in the world and the grace of God through His spirit was completely and totally sufficient for the temple under Zerubbabel and Joshua to be rebuilt. 27:32
So, what happens when we step out and we do God’s work our own way? Kadesh Barnea happens. Remember Kadesh Barnea where the children of Israel came out of Egypt and they went to Sinai and they received the law and they had an eleven day journey.
I think you’ll find that number eleven days, I believe it’s in Deuteronomy 1, around verses 2 through 5 (Deut 1:2-5) The generation that saw the ten plagues, the manna, the miracles in the wilderness, the revelation at Mount Sinai, all they had to do is trust God for eleven days (hahaha) and you’re in, the land of Canaan and you know the story. They got up to the southern border of Canaan at a place called Kadesh Barnea, you can read about this in Numbers 14, verses 39 through 45 (Num 14:39-45) and they saw giants in the land and they went into fear and God says: I’m done with you guys. He didn’t send them to hell but He says: You’re not going to enter Canaan. I’ll work with your kids because you won’t even trust me for giants when I helped you with everything else in terms of getting you out of Egypt after four hundred years of bondage. So I’ll start working with your kids. I’ll start a children’s ministry, that’s what He said, I’ll work with your kids, and the rest of you are just going to wander around out here for forty years until you’re all dead. Now, when they heard that, they didn’t like that and suddenly they got brave (hahaha) and they said: Well, we’ll go in anyway. Remember that? And you see this whole pathetic scene of them trying to go into the land when God said you’re not going in, and it was a total failure and the giants, Numbers 14:45 (Num 14:45), of the giants it says: Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down, and struck them and beat them down as far as Hormah… So if they had trusted in God’s resources they would have been in Canaan in eleven days. They didn’t trust in God’s resources and so God removed the resources and gave the resources to the next generation and then they try to get in anyway and this is how pathetic we are when we try to do God’s work our own way and that the whole project was a total failure and Joshua and Caleb warned them: Don’t do this, because the Lord’s not in it. 30:27
So, I’ve been in a lot of different evangelical situations where people are stepping out and doing things that the Lord is not in and it never works out well. You want to figure out, is the Lord in this or not? And if the Lord is in it, the ship is going to float. If the Lord’s not in it, you don’t want anything to do with it. Jeremiah 17, verse 5 (Jer 17:5) says: …Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength… If we’re doing God’s work through our own power without relying upon the resources of the Holy Spirit, we’re basically under a curse and so I look at this current state of the evangelical church in the United States and we have monetary power, we have budget power, we have voting power, we have academic power, we have all these computer programs that we can do all of these word searches on anything and everything, I can click a couple of buttons on my iPad or iPhone and anything I want to read pops up, we have marketing research, we have leadership conferences, we have… it’s like… it’s almost like we’ve tapped into every single source of power except the power of the Holy Spirit, that’s almost like an afterthought and we wonder why the church in our country has so little impact and why the whole country is falling apart and the church has almost no power as the sustaining salt and light to the culture. It’s related to what he is saying right here, Not by might not by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord. 32:29
So what is going to happen if Zerubbabel and Joshua, what happens if they tap into the Holy Spirit? Which is constantly available according to the olive tree vision, verse 7 is going to happen (Zech 4:7): What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain… So a mountain is going to become a plain, a mountain? think of that, think how big that is, it’s going to become a flat surface before Zerubbabel, if Zerubbabel walks in the resources of verse 6. So, all of the obstacles that are so overwhelming to him, God is just going to remove, that’s what the power of the Holy Spirit does.
Thomas L. Constable – Constable’s online notes on Zechariah, p. 50-51.
“Mountains epitomize large obstacles (cf. Isa. 40:4; 41:15; 49:11; Matt. 17:20; 21:21; Mark 11:23; 1 Cor. 13:2)…The whole process of temple restoration seemed like a mountainous job to the few exiles who returned from captivity. In addition, there was much opposition to building (Ezra 4:1-5, 24), and the Israelites themselves proved unwilling to persevere in the task (Hag. 1:14; 2:1-9). Nevertheless, God would reduce this mountain to a flat plain by assisting the workers.”
Thomas Constable writes: Mountains epitomize large obstacles… The whole process of temple restoration seemed like a mountainous job to the few exiles who returned from the captivity… cause most of them, as I said before, didn’t return, they stayed in Babylon, so there’s a little tiny group trying to do a big thing… In addition, there was much opposition to building… as the historical book of Ezra tells us (Ezra 4:1-5, 24)… and the Israelites themselves proved unwilling to persevere in the task… So, those are big mountains… Nevertheless, God would reduce this mountain to a flat plain by assisting the workers…. So, the mountain isn’t so big as far as God is concerned. It reminds me of what Jesus said in Matthew 17, verse 20 (Mat 17:20) …Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move (haha); and nothing will be impossible to you… So, I can give some testimony about this here during my time here at Sugar Land Bible Church. There’s been a few mountains and they’re bigger than me so what do I do with those? Well, if I find myself getting frustrated with them, or frustrated with people, Uhm… I’ve sort of learned a little bit and I’ve got a lot more growth in this area to do but I sort of learn to trust God with that problem and you would not believe how much better God deals with it than me. I mean, people that were obstacles… Boom! their job changes them or something happens and that’s how the Holy Spirit works. The mountain will become just like a flat plain but it won’t become a flat plain as long as we’re trying to do it through human strength. It will become a flat plain if we tap into the continual availability of the resources of the Holy Spirit and he says in the second half of verse 7 (Zech 4:7): …and he will… this is fantastic here… he will bring forth the top stone… Now, that’s called the capstone, that’s the stone that goes on top of the temple. So, the capstone is the last stone that goes in, the foundation stone is the first stone that goes in. So, they had a foundation stone but they didn’t have a capstone because the project stalled for fifteen years, so he’s making a comment here about the capstone because the foundation stone was already laid fifteen years earlier. It says: …he will bring forth the top stone with shouts… Now watch this… of “Grace, grace to it!”… So once the capstone goes in and the temple is rebuilt, the people are going to start shouting out, Grace, grace to it! In other words, Grace, help, unmerited favor built it and here is the lesson that we all have to keep learning: The same grace that saved you, alright? We’re all saved by grace, amen? The same grace that saved you is the same grace that will sustain you. God doesn’t reverse horses in midstream and say: Okay! You’re saved, salvation by faith alone through grace alone through the Holy Spirit alone, okay now, good luck with the rest of your life as you try to run your business or lead your family or pursue spiritual leadership or pursue education or navigate life through difficulties. You are on your own now! Uhm, not by might not by power but my Spirit says the Lord, see that? So grace is not a yesterday thing, it’s not a tomorrow thing, it’s a right now thing because our understanding of grace is: Okay! I got saved by grace through faith at the camp or whatever when I trusted Christ and I know I’m going to heaven one day, so we think grace is past and grace is future and what… the issue in this chapter is, no, grace is here. My grace will sustain you. 38:45
Back to 2nd Corinthians 12, verse 9 (2 Cor 12:9) as Paul was dealing with the thorn in the flesh: …My grace is sufficient for you… So remember what Paul said to the Galatians? …Are you so foolish?… (haha) because it is foolish when you think about it, Hey! Thank you Lord for the grace you gave me to get me a ticket to heaven, now I’m going to go out and try to run my whole life through my own power, that’s what the Galatians were doing, that’s what the returnees were doing that’s why the temple was going nowhere because they were trying to do a God size task through human resources. So Paul in Galatians (Gal 3:3) says: …Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?… I mean, what kind of insanity is this that you think that salvation is by grace alone and your future is guaranteed by grace but you just live your life now through human power. That’s foolishness and look at what he says there in verse 8 as now the focus moves away from God’s strength to Zerubbabel to rebuild the temple,
Look at verse 8 (Zech 4:8): Also the word of the LORD came to me, saying… So here we have almost a fresh prophecy given specifically to Zerubbabel who had on his shoulders as governor this task of rebuilding the temple. Verse 9 (Zech 4:9): The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will finish it… So what he is saying here is Zerubbabel in the year 536 BC put in the foundation stone.
Uhm, if you want verses on that you can read Ezra 3, verses 8 through 11 (Ezra 3:8-11), it’s what God did through Zerubbabel a number of years earlier when it talks about the house of God and how Zerubbabel laid the foundation of the temple, the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. There’s a reference to it also in Ezra 5, verse 16 (Ezra 5:16).
The problem is the project got stalled. The foundation was laid in 536 but the project got stalled and the project as you can see from this chart here was interrupted about 534 BC and the project was dormant for fifteen years, that’s a long time, fifteen years to have an unfinished project of this caliber. If you don’t have a temple, messianic prophecy can’t be fulfilled because Jesus, according to prophecy is going to show up at this temple and so you see how the ministries, moving there to the right, of Haggai and Zechariah were strategically designed by God to get them moving again on this temple project and you can see finally the project got resumed around 519 and finally the whole thing was completed in 516 BC. So, what he’s saying here if you look at verse 9 (Zech 4:9): The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will finish it… In other words, the prophecies, the man that laid the foundation stone is the same man that’s going to put in the capstone and you know what? That prophecy was fulfilled. You can read about Zerubbabel putting in the capstone in Ezra 6, verses 14 through 18 (Ezra 6:14-18) where it says: They finish building… the temple was completed… So look at what happened here, 536 the foundation was laid and for fifteen years the project is dormant, God raises up Haggai and Zechariah to get them moving again and finally the temple is completed in 516 BC. 43:40
What do you learn from this? Here is what I’ve learned from this. God is not into incomplete projects. What he started in you, he will complete. By the way, there’s a verse on that, isn’t there? You know which one I’m thinking of? You probably know it without knowing the address but Philippians 1, verse 6 (Phil 1:6): For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus… Wow, that makes me feel good cause sometimes I wonder: Hey Lord, Are you still working in my life or not? And God says: Did I start with you?… Yeah, you started with me Lord, then I’ll finish it up… and that’s what the Lord did with the temple. As you look at the second half of verse 9 it says: …Then… this is Zechariah speaking to the community… Then you will know that the LORD of hosts sent me… So how Zechariah, are we supposed to believe that you are really a prophet? Well, here’s the test for a prophet: Everything you predict happens exactly like God said, or else you’re not a prophet of God. You’ll find that standard going all the way back to Deuteronomy.. What is it? 18, whatever a prophet says has to happen exactly like the prophet said or it’s not a true prophet. So, all of these people that write books and say Jesus is coming back in 1988 because the Lord told them, they failed the test, right? I mean, let’s put this way, if I was going to write a book predicting a date when Jesus was coming back, I would be smart enough to pick a date that’s outside of my lifespan because then I can sell my book and be popular and die and after I’m dead and gone, no one can hold me accountable for my false prophecies. So, whatever God says has to happen exactly. There’s… I don’t know if I want to get too far off into this but there’s a mindset in the charismatic movement, because they have a lot of prophets whose prophecies fail, and they’ll say things like this: well, the prophet needs to kind of grow into his gift. So, if it gets it 75% right that’s close enough and there is no such teaching in the Bible. God is omniscient. He doesn’t get it 75% right and if someone is making predictions that are 75% right, he is obviously… he or she… is not hearing from the Lord and therefore, they are not a true prophet. Jesus said this in the upper room. John 13, verse 19 (John 13:19): From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He… and that’s in the upper room and then, the next chapter, chapter 14 (John 14:29) He says: Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe… Jesus in the upper room twice said: Okay you all, listen up, I’m going to make a bunch of short term predictions about me, about my death, about my resurrection, about how you’re going to die, remember when He said to Peter? He made a prediction about Peter’s death? And the reason these apostles, eleven apostles in the upper room, the reason they went to their deaths, think about that, the reason they went to their deaths in their ministries is because Jesus got it 100% right. There’s no way that they would have died for this cause if Jesus was 75% accurate. Everything He said, right down to His betrayal by Judas, stunning predictions, they all happened like clockwork and that is what you see happening right there in Zechariah 4, verse 9 (Zech 4:9) second part of the verse, it says: When this happens… when Zerubbabel puts in the capstone, just like he put in the foundation stone fifteen years earlier, when this happens, then you will know that the Lord of Hosts sent me. You’ll know I’m a prophet when you see it happen cause this is a prediction that’s going to happen in your lifespan very, very, quickly. And then you look at verse 10 (Zech 4:10), and look at this: For who has despised the day of small things?… or small beginnings. Why does it say that?
ISRAEL’S FOUR TEMPLES
Because the temple that they were building, and I think this is one of the reasons discouragement set in, was so tiny compared to the majesty of Solomon’s temple, that the old men could remember and this thing that we’re building here is so minuscule. I mean, we used to have a Ferrari and now we’re in like a Toyota and they just got discouraged. Now, Ezra 3, 12 and 13 (Ezra 3:12-13) says of this temple they were building: …the old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes… the older guys who remembered what Solomon’s temple was like, they saw the new temple and they started to cry. They didn’t just cry, they wept out loud. Now the younger guys, they wouldn’t know any better cause they don’t (ha), they didn’t remember Solomon’s temple, they didn’t share a tear, Hey! This is great, we love this Toyota. The older guys are crying. We used to be in a Ferrari, we used to be in a Mercedes. I mean, I used to fly around in the Trump jet you know and now we got this little tiny thing. The younger guys didn’t know any different, the older guys would wept aloud. Haggai 2, verse 3 (Hag 2:3) of the same era said: Who is left among you who saw the temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Does it seem to you like nothing by way of comparison?… and so that’s why they were despising, the older guys anyway, this day of small beginnings, because who wants to work on something so small when they used to have it so big. 51:01
“’For who hath despised the day of small things?’ I can tell you who has—we despise the day of small things. We Americans are impressed with the big and brassy. We like our Christian work to be a success story. And we measure success by the size of the building and the crowds that come to it. Well, I am becoming more and more convinced that the Lord is working in quiet ways and in quiet places today.”
For who hath despised the day of small things?.. Then he says… I can tell you who has—we despise the day of small things. We Americans are impressed with the big and the brassy. We like our Christian work to be a success story. We measure success by the size of the building and the crowds that come to it. Well, I am becoming more and more convinced that the Lord is working in quiet ways and in quiet places today… close quote, amen. You know, when people ask you what do you do and you say I’m a pastor, as God as my witness, I’m not kidding about this, the very first question they ask is: Oh, How big is your church? Oh, about how many people go to your church? What’s the size of your church? They don’t ask what does your church believe about the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the virgin birth, nobody asks that. Particularly fellow pastors, fellow pastors are the worst about this cause it’s like a comparison. Oh, about how big is your church? I remember when the elders approached me here about being the pastor of Sugar Land Bible Church. I was kind of, you know, trying to call some of my different, you know, friends, pastors, mentors, you know what they thought about me trying to do this and the more I talked to people, the only thing… The only question I got from people was: Oh! about how big is it? and I’m thinking to myself: What does that have to do with anything? I mean, if it’s big, God can be in it, if it’s small, God can be in it. I mean, the size is kind of irrelevant when you think about it, right? I remember talking to my friend David Hawking and I made the mistake one time of saying to him and he, at the height of his ministry, was pastoring a church of like five thousand people so, I made the mistake of saying to him one time… I made.. I can’t remember exactly what I’ve said, I said something like: Oh, that’s a small church. Oh, this guy pastors a large church and he said: Wait a minute, let’s just stop right there, can you show me in the Bible where it says big church or small church? I mean, can you, you know, find one reference in the Bible to what you just said? And of course I couldn’t, cause a church is a church right? Where two or three are gathered, there I am in your midst. So it doesn’t matter if the church is fifty thousand people or the church is five people or less and the problem is we’ve got an American ministry philosophy instead of a biblical ministry philosophy and we are despising the day of small beginnings, exactly what Zechariah told his audience not to do. 54:35
Warren Wiersbe, another one of my favorites, he says:
Warren Wiersbe – Wiersbe, Warren W. “Zechariah.” In The Bible Exposition Commentary/Prophets, pp. 447-76. Colorado Springs, Colo.: Cook Communications Ministries; and Eastbourne, England: Kingsway Communications Ltd., 2002. P. 456.
“Bible history is the record of God using small things. When God wanted to set the plan of salvation in motion, He started with a little baby named Isaac (Gen. 21). When He wanted to overthrow Egypt and set His people free, He used a baby’s tears (Ex. 2:1-10). He used a shepherd boy and a sling to defeat a giant (1 Sam. 17) and a little lad’s lunch to feed a multitude (John 6). He delivered the Apostle Paul from death by using a basket and a rope (Acts 9:23-25). Never despise the day of small things, for God is glorified in small things and uses them to accomplish great things.”
Bible history is the record of God using small things. When God wanted to set the plan of salvation in motion, He started with a little baby named Isaac. When He wanted to overthrow Egypt and set His people free, He used a baby’s tears. He used a shepherd boy and a sling to defeat a giant and a little lad’s lunch to feed a multitude. He delivered the Apostle Paul from death by using a basket and a rope. Never despise the day of small things, for God is glorified in small things and uses them to accomplish great things… By the way, at the Bema Seat judgement the words aren’t: Well done thy good and successful servant. Do we understand that? It’s well done my good and faithful servant. We are way to success oriented in modern day Christianity and I, you know, myself, I’ve drank of that Kool-Aid sometimes as well and the truth to the matter is God calls us to be faithful. The results, that’s His job. So we’re not called to be successful, whether a ministry is successful or not, first of all we need to redefine what success is and secondly if it becomes so called successful, that’s God doing it in and not man. So God at the Bema Seat doesn’t say: Okay, you are successful, he says: Okay, you are rewarded if you’re faithful. 56:29
So, life lessons here as this little group was, you know, looking down on this little project because it didn’t seem big enough compared to what they remembered, but boy, this temple is going to be a big deal, what starts small can get big because this is the temple that Herod is going to renovate in the intertestamental period and it’s going to become big to the point where the disciples are always going to be calling Jesus’ attention to the beauty of the temple. That’s how the Olivet discourse started. So, the people were kind of groaning, you know, they were despising the day of small things but what man despises, God values. Look at verse 10 (Zech 4:10), second part of it, it says: But these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel— these are the eyes of the LORD which range to and fro throughout the earth… God says: Okay, nobody is happy with Zerubbabel getting back to work on this little project, but I’m happy. I mean, when I see the plumb line in his hand, I’m happy about it. Everyone else is complaining that it’s too small. God says: I don’t care, I love it. So at the end of the day, who do you want to please, amen? Tom Constable says:
Thomas L. Constable – Constable’s online notes on Zechariah, p. 52.
“The people would be ashamed that they had despised the rebuilding project as insignificant (cf. Ezra 3:12; Hag. 2:3). The Lord Himself was ‘glad’ to ‘see…Zerubbabel’ building with his ‘plumb line,’ as His omniscient eyes (‘these seven’) surveyed all that was happening in the world, especially in Jerusalem (cf. 3:9; 2 Chron. 16:9). The Hebrew words translated ‘plumb line’ may mean ‘separated [i.e., chosen] stone.’ In this case, the idea would be that the Lord, in addition to His people, would rejoice when He saw the capstone put in place (cf. v. 7; Ezra 6:16-22).”
The people would be ashamed that they had despised the rebuilding project as insignificant. The Lord Himself was ‘glad’ to ‘see…Zerubbabel’ building with his ‘plumb line,’ as His omniscient eyes… that’s probably what it’s meant by seven, seven eyes, perfect knowledge. By the way, that imagery was used in Zechariah 3, verse 9 (Zech 3:9)… The Lord Himself was ‘glad’ to ‘see…Zerubbabel’ building with his ‘plumb line,’ as His omniscient eyes surveyed all that was happening in the world, especially in Jerusalem. The Hebrew words translated ‘plumb line’ may mean separated (i.e., chosen). In this case, the idea would be that the Lord in addition to His people would rejoice when He saw the capstone put in it or put in place, so everybody else is kind of embarrassed at how small it is but when Zerubbabel would put the capstone in, God says I’m happy with that. So don’t despise the day of small beginnings.
And then you have a description of his two anointed ones, verses 11 through 14 (Zech 4:11-14) Look at verse 11: Then He… Then I said to him, “What are these two olive trees on the right of the lampstand and on the left?”… the question continues into verse 12: …And I answered the second time… So, Zechariah keeps asking this question: …and said to him, “What are these two olive trees which are beside the two golden pipes, which empty the gold oil from themselves?… Look what the angel said: So he answered me, saying, “Do you not know… (hahaha)… what these are?” And I said, “No, my lord”… So notice again, God expects Zechariah to use his brain and not just get the easy answer. 1:00:15
I see my daughter’s math teacher back there. You know, my daughter, just like I, doing math, she just wanted the answer. Show me how to do it, give me the answer. Well, you got a book, you got a brain, you got teaching in class, let’s see how far you can get on your own without us just coughing off the answer because if you give a man a fish, you feed him for 24 hours. If you… like the sound effects?… Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. So I find this very interesting as it happens twice in this short chapter, once in verse 5 (Zech 4:5), once in verse 13 (Zech 4:13). So finally, after it looks like Zechariah can’t cough up the answer, the answer is given there in verse 14 concerning who these two olives trees are. Verse 14 (Zech 4:14): Then he said to me, These are the two anointed ones who are standing by the Lord of the whole earth… Now, anointed ones means sons of oil. The two olive trees, not only do they represent a continuous supply via the Holy Spirit, of the lighting up of the menorah, but they also represent God’s two servants during this era, Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest. So they are literally the sons of oil. Wouldn’t that be a great way to be known by the Lord, a son or daughter of oil? Because you’re so dependent upon the spirit, God is doing great things in you and through you. It says: Then these are the two anointed ones… end of verse 14 (Zech 4:14)… who are standing by the Lord of the whole earth… Now, the whole earth is, I think, picturing a worldwide ministry and I think it’s ultimately speaking of the two witnesses in the book of Revelation who are going to shake things up. In fact, they’re going to shake things up so severely that when they’re martyred on the city streets of Jerusalem, the world is going to celebrate by sending each other gifts. I mean, you talk about two trouble makers? I’m going to love these two guys when I meet them, and what gives them this worldwide ministry in the midst of the antichrist’s empire in the tribulation? Revelation 11, verse 4 (Rev 11:4) says: These are the two olive trees… that’s imagery that goes right back here to our chapter… These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth… In other words, they’re going to have a worldwide ministry in the tribulation cause they’re going to be sons of oil just like high priest Joshua and Zerubbabel were sons of oil that got the temple project done. 1:03:33
Thomas L. Constable – Constable’s online notes on Zechariah, p. 54-55.
“The point of this vision, and its accompanying oracles, was the Lord’s ability to bring a seemingly impossible project to completion—successfully and gloriously—through His anointed servants (Messiah, and Zerubbabel and Joshua) and His supernatural enablement (cf. 2 Cor. 12:9). The lesson is applicable to any project that God has ordained and called His people to execute, including rebuilding the temple and building the church (Matt. 16:18).”
Tom Constable says again, excuse me: The point of this vision, and its accompanying oracles, was the Lord’s ability to bring a seemingly impossible project to completion—successfully and gloriously—through His anointed servants (Messiah, Zerubbabel and Joshua) and His supernatural enablement. The lesson is applicable to any project that God has ordained and called His people to execute, including the rebuilding of the temple and building the church… Let me just read this quote to you, Charles Feinberg sums the whole thing up:
Charles L. Feinberg – God Remembers: A Study of Zechariah (Wheaton: Van Kampen, 1950, p. 81.
“To recapitulate, the chief features of this message to Zerubbabel were: (1) the insufficiency and inadequacy of all human strength and resources; (2) the all sufficiency of the power of the Spirit of God for the accomplishment of the work of God; (3) the unceasing, abundant, and inexhaustible supply of this power at his, Zerubbabel’s disposal; (4) the assurance of the obliteration of all hindrances to the building; (5) the heartening hope of the completion of the work by the one commencing it; (6) the importance of the entire work of building as a prefiguring of the activity of the Messiah in a coming day; (7) the delight of God in the construction of the temple; (8) the positions of privilege of both Joshua and Zerubbabel as the media whereby the testimony of God is transmitted to the people; and (9) the typifying of the ministry of the Messiah in both the religious and civil offices.”
To recapitulate, the chief features of this message to Zerubbabel were: (1) the insufficiency and inadequacy of all human strength and resources; (2) the all sufficiency of the power of the Spirit of God for the accomplishment of the work of God; (3) the unceasing, abundant, and inexhaustible supply of this power at his, at Zerubbabel’s disposal; (4) the assurance of the obliteration of all hindrances to the building; (5) the heartening hope of the completion of the work by the one commencing it; (6) the importance of the entire work of the building as a prefiguring of the activity of the Messiah in a coming day; (7) the delight of God in the construction of the temple; (8) the positions of privilege of both Joshua and Zerubbabel as the media whereby the testimony of God is transmitted to the people; and (9) the typifying of the ministry of the Messiah in both religious and civil offices… I tell you, you may not have enjoyed this study but I sure have. I can’t tell you how encouraged I was just trying to prepare this.
So, next week, we are not meeting next week, right? Cause that’s the day before Thanksgiving and we typically don’t have Bible Study before Thanksgiving so if you show up Wednesday next week, you’ll think you missed the rapture but we’re going to reconvene, not next week the 24th, but December the 1st, does that sound right? And we’re going to finish, we’re going to be moving in to chapter 5 which is the flying scroll and the woman in the basket. So, sorry I kept you a little extra. So why don’t we go ahead and dismiss people to pick up their kids…