This evening I want to continue the study in the book of Zechariah. So if you have your Bibles this evening, if you would turn with me to Zechariah. And tonight we’re going to be looking at chapter 4, Zechariah chapter 4. Just to review a little bit, Zechariah was a prophet who came at the time that the nation of Israel was going back into the land.
They were going back into Jerusalem, they had been told by the Lord to rebuild the temple. God had enabled them to, under the Medo-Persian king Cyrus, to go back with the instructions to rebuild the temple. And at the time that Zechariah is given these visions, there are some events that have occurred.
And I just want to review those again with you. Number one, they come back and they laid the foundation for the temple. And as we’re going to see tonight, the man who had been chiefly responsible for this was Zerubbabel.
And Zerubbabel had helped to see that the foundation was laid, but now it had sat for a number of years and nothing more had been done. The Jewish people that were in Judea and Jerusalem at this time had become very discouraged. And not only were they being discouraged by the fact that they weren’t seeing anything happen, they were also being discouraged by those that were around them that weren’t believers.
And some of these believers had first offered them to help. And the scriptures say that we’re not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. And they really understood that they wouldn’t allow these really pagan people to be building the temple of God.
And so they said no. And then these same people began to discourage them. To tell them, well, you’re never going to get it built.
Why are you doing this? There’s no point in it. And we see that these same tactics were used when Nehemiah came back and was going to rebuild the walls. It’s one of the things that the enemy does.
He first tries to get us to compromise. And if we refuse to compromise, then he will try to discourage us and say that you’re not accomplishing anything anyway. And that’s really what was happening here.
These people have been discouraged. Zerubbabel had been discouraged as we studied last Wednesday night. Joshua, the high priest, had really failed in his responsibilities.
We saw in the last vision that we had that the Lord was going to cleanse him of his sin. And he was going to enable him to lead the people in walking after God. And now we’re going to take a look at Zerubbabel.
Zerubbabel, if you look at Joshua, would be the spiritual leader of Israel at this time of the nation of Judah. And Zerubbabel would be the political leader or the one that would be leading the nation in governmental affairs. And so that’s what we’re going to be looking at tonight.
Now, there are eight visions that Zechariah was given. And this is the fifth vision out of the eight that he is given. And it’s a vision that deals with the golden lampstand.
Now, you may be familiar from pictures and from looking at Israel right now, where they’re looking at rebuilding the temple. They’ve got a menorah because there was a menorah in the temple. And the menorah was the light that was placed in the temple.
It was a light that had seven candlestands on it. And the light was lit by olive oil. And it was used so that the priest would be able to function his duties and there’d be light.
Now, we know that one of the things that happened during the Maccabean revolt, during the time of the Maccabees, when the Greeks had come in and they had taken over and they had really desecrated the temple at that time. This would be quite a bit after the text we’re looking at today because the temple had been rebuilt. And the Greek leader at that time came in and he desecrated the temple, sacrificed the pig in the Holy of Holies, and just tried to destroy anybody who would want to follow God in the Jewish faith, according to the scriptures.
At that time, the Maccabees, which were a priestly father and his sons, rose up against them. And at that time, one of the things that happened is they drove them out of the temple area. They overtook the temple.
They cleansed the temple. They began to offer sacrifices again. And one of the things that they did is they put up the menorah and reestablished the menorah.
And one of the things that happened is that there was no oil, but the menorah went, I believe it was for seven or eight days, with no oil being added to it. And it should have run out of oil. And it has been referred to when you hear of Hanukkah, that is the celebration of light that the Jewish people do, and that came out of that event.
And it surrounded the menorah that was in the temple. Well, God gives a vision to Zechariah about the nation of Israel, and specifically Zerubbabel, who is going to be responsible for leading the nation. And also he had talked to us last week as we saw and looked at Joshua, the high priest.
Now, just a couple, just a note that I didn’t bring out last time, it’s interesting the name that God, that the high priest had at this time, it was Yeshua. That’s Joshua in Hebrew. Jesus’ name in Hebrew is Yeshua.
The people that God used, first of all there was Joshua, Yeshua, that came after Moses to lead the people into the promised land. And he was the one that was to give them courage and direction, and to take them into the land. We see that Joshua, or Yeshua, is the one that is to take the nation of Israel when they have come back out of their captivity, and begin to give them spiritual direction, and be the spiritual leader for this nation that is discouraged spiritually, as well as discouraged just by all the circumstances around them.
And secondly, we see Zerubbabel, as I mentioned, is to be the political leader, or the one that leads them governmentally. Let’s take a look at what this is, and what is this menorah that is being shown to Zechariah in his vision.
Zechariah 4:1
And the angel talked with me, came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep.
And just to pause here, he wasn’t wakened out of sleep, but the text indicates that he was in deep meditation, or concentration, or prayer. And the angel came to him, and caused him to come out of this, and he’s going to show them this vision.
Zechariah 4:2-3
And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I 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.
Now, this menorah is different from the menorah that you would see if you went and looked at a picture of the menorah that has been built for the new temple that the nation of Israel wants to build. It would be different from the menorah that you would see if you went and looked at. We had books here earlier showing the instruments of the temple.
It would be different than that. And if this one had these pipes or lines going from, there was a bowl that sat on top of a candlestick. And we’re going to see that this candlestick, this candelabra, this menorah is going to be supernaturally filled with oil.
And it says that there’s seven pipes or lines that go to the seven candlesticks. And seven times seven, it talks about that this is fed by really 49 lines, seven lines to seven candlesticks, 49 different lines that go from the bowls. And the two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
Now there’s going to be significance to these olive trees, which we’re not going to really see until the end of the chapter this evening.
So I answered and spake unto the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord? Then the angel which talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be?
And I said, No, my lord. Now, Zachariah was not that he was unfamiliar with the things of the temple.
He was of a priestly line. He would have understood, he would have known, especially one who loved the Lord, followed the Lord, was a prophet of God, would have known about the law, would have known about the tabernacle that Moses had built in the wilderness, would have known the instruments that were constructed for the tabernacle, so he would have known about the menorah. But why does he say, No, my lord? Because he doesn’t understand what is this to do, because here you have this, but we don’t have a temple.
And here you have this, but this is different from what I read in the scriptures of what Moses was instructed to design for the temple. So what is this about? I don’t understand, my lord. And it’s kind of like when Nicodemus came to Jesus, and Jesus told him that he needed to be born again, and Nicodemus said, How can we be born again? Can a man enter into his mother’s womb twice? Nicodemus was looking at it from merely what he understood and looked at it intellectually.
And initially, this is what Zachariah is, in a sense, doing too. He’s going by what he knows, but he doesn’t understand what he’s looking at. And so he says, No, I don’t understand.
Just like Nicodemus told that. And Jesus told Nicodemus, if you remember, he said, You are one of the teachers of Israel, and you don’t understand what it is to be born again. And the angel is really saying here, You don’t understand, you should understand, but I’m going to explain it to you.
And so he goes on and he says,
Then he answered and said unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by thy might, not by thy power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
Now this is one of the key verses to this whole chapter. Who enables us to have the power to accomplish anything that God sets forth for us to accomplish.
Now, Zechariah was talking to two men who had been trying to work in their own strength to get the people motivated, and yet they had failed to do anything for a number of years in the reconstruction of the temple. They were getting discouraged. Their enemies were around them, just trying to discourage them, trying to get them even sending notes back to the leadership of the Medo-Persians saying, These people are trying to rise up in rebellion against you.
They did that when Nehemiah came to build the walls. That’s one of the things they said. He’s trying to establish the kingdom for himself.
They were trying to say something similar for this during the time of Ezra. They’re trying to build this temple because they don’t want to be part of the Medo-Persian empire and it’s really an act of rebellion. They were trying to discourage and undermine these people’s vision to follow God and understand that the Lord had commissioned them to do this.
A lot of times we can get discouraged just like these two men. And we can think, I see nothing happening. I don’t see anything.
Lord, you said that you have the power of your spirit. You said that you’d accomplish things through us and yet I see nothing with my life. And we can be discouraged and Satan can come and undermine our vision and our relationship with God and try to destroy it so that our faith is weakened and we don’t believe God can help us.
Well, Zachariah, as the angel tells Zachariah, where does your power come from? Where does your ability to do anything come from? A lot of times if we witness to somebody, we’re going, well, Lord, they didn’t get saved today so what’s the use? Well, Zachariah is told by God’s angel, he says this is for Zerubbabel and he’s saying is not by might and by power but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. It’s God’s spirit that enables us to accomplish things. Not by our plans, not by our power, not by our might.
It’s interesting, one of the things that the church has done and I believe that Christians in the 20th century, especially America, have failed to see and realize is the importance of relying on God because oftentimes we have means and things all around us that would say just do this and this and if you do A, B, and C, then D’s got to happen and if you just follow these techniques, you can grow your church. If you just follow these techniques, then you will see this accomplished in your life and the thing is, and we forget about where the power comes from, it’s from God. One of the examples that came early in the life of David was his having to fight Goliath and the whole army of Israel stood and was amazed as David said is there no man that would come against this uncircumcised heathen who really is disparaging our God.
Is there not a cause is what David’s exact words were and he had all these nations and here you have this teenage boy and we know that he wasn’t a fully grown man yet because when he said that he would fight Goliath and he would stand against him, remember Saul said well take my armor and place my armor upon him and if you can imagine Saul, it says the nation picked him to be king and they wanted him as king because he stood head and shoulders above every man in Israel. So he was in all likelihood a tall, strong, muscular guy and then you got a teenage guy that’s a lot shorter than him at this time in his life and not as powerful and muscular and it says that they put Saul’s armor, tried to place it on him and David said take it off because if you can imagine trying to fight somebody and the armor that’s to protect you and to help you and fight them would just get in your way and cause you to stumble and fall. That’s often times what we do is we look to the world and they say well just do this, place this armor on you, place this in your life and you’ll be able to accomplish great things.
Well what did David do? He took the armor off, he said I don’t need that armor and instead he took a sling with five stones and he went against the giant Goliath who stood over nine feet tall, was the great warrior of the Philistines and it says that, I forget the exact poundage of his sword but it was a heavy sword because he was a big man and he stood there in his armor with his sword laughing at Israel and laughing at David and David took the stone and slew him and it wasn’t by David’s strength that Goliath was slain but it was by the power and might of the Lord and the Lord working through David in a situation that David should have never been the winner but yet David defeated the giant. Well the nation of Judah should never have been able to reestablish their city, their temple, their nation because it had been totally destroyed. The people were discouraged much like the soldiers that were facing the Philistine army when David came out as a shepherd boy and they were discouraged as well but it says here don’t be discouraged, don’t put your trust in your might and your power because if you do you will accomplish nothing but instead that we are to put our trust in the spirit of the Lord and in His power and might.
Verse 7, Who art thou, O great mountain? Before is a rubble, thou shalt become a plain and He shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings and crying grace, grace unto it. Now what is that all about? What’s this mountain that’s before is a rubble? Well a lot of times, have you ever had a situation in your life where it just seems like it’s so big there’s no way you could ever overcome it? It’s just so impossible. Why do we even want to begin to do what God’s calling me to do? Maybe it’s God really places on your heart to pray for people and you’re going well Lord I prayed for them but nothing’s happening.
These people they don’t seem to have any desire to change. I don’t see any difference in their life and all they do is whenever I’m around all they do is mock me and mock my faith in you and yet you are placed on my heart to pray for them. This is an impossible mountain.
I can’t accomplish this. The mountain that Zerubbabel was facing was the mountain of all the destruction that had happened to Israel by the Babylonians. The mountain was all of those pagans that were still around them that were mocking them.
These are the mountains. We have mountains in our life that Satan places there attempting to discourage us in our walk and faith in Christ and not to place our faith in his power and his might. What did Jesus say? Jesus told them if they would believe you can say unto this mountain be moved and it shall be moved.
Well, what was he talking about? Go out to the Rocky Mountains and go okay, that mountain I want it moved. He wasn’t talking about moving physical mountains. He was talking about spiritual battles and the mountains that we face in our lives and how that if we pray and have trust in him God will enable us to stand against what appear to be unfathomable ability to come against the odds that are raging against us.
The mountain that is there and yet we can make the difference. God has always used not the great and the mighty but often times the small and the unknown to accomplish great and mighty things for him because he gets the glory not the people. I shared with you before there was a Christian who had been living out in the desert during the time of the Roman Empire and he went to Rome and he hadn’t been there before and he saw all the people going into the Colosseum and he wondered what that was all about and so he went into the Colosseum and when he got in there he saw what they were doing.
The Romans really became bloodthirsty especially towards the end of the Roman Empire and they began to enjoy going to the Colosseum and either kill each other or be killed and torn apart by animals and they thought that was great entertainment. This Christian who had never seen anything like this and was one little guy saw this and went out in the midst of this Colosseum and he got out and started yelling Why are you doing this? Stop this! In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, stop this! And the people began to mock him and then all of a sudden he would not stop and then he prayed for them and he continued to tell them to stop and then somebody came out with a sword and killed him and all of a sudden God brought great conviction on all those that saw what had happened and it was one of the last events they had like that in the Colosseum. One guy doing what seemed to be impossible but yet God worked through him and accomplished something that nobody else had been able to accomplish.
Just like David was able to kill Goliath when Saul, who should have been the one that came against him, wouldn’t even pick up his sword. And so it’s not by our strength or our might but by thy spirit, O Lord and he will take the mountains that are before us and he says the rebel will take this mountain and he will turn it into a plain. Now what did he mean by that? Well, as the rebel begins to walk in faith of God he will begin to turn this mountain into a plain and things will begin to happen.
During the whole time that the rebel had been there trying to rebuild the temple like I said, it’s been a number of years and nothing has happened except the foundation. All of a sudden the people will begin to rebuild the temple. Now, God never said that the temple would be built with the grandness of Solomon’s temple but he said it would be rebuilt according to the structure that had been laid out first by Moses in the tabernacle then by Solomon in the temple.
This temple would be laid out the same way it just wouldn’t have all the gold and the silver and the brass and all the precious metals all over it and it would be smaller. But Zerubbabel would build it and the very thing that the mountain that Satan put before him to keep him from doing it by faith in the Lord the Lord was going to remove that mountain and there would be a plain so Zerubbabel could accomplish what God would have him do. And he said, it’s interesting that he said and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings crying grace, grace unto thee.
Now it’s interesting he uses the term headstone. Stone is similar to cornerstone. And it’s interesting the thing that he would shout is grace, grace.
It is through the grace that is found in Jesus Christ the cornerstone of our lives that needs to be laid so the foundation can be completed and built upon by the word of the apostles and the prophets and that we can walk in the power of God. Zerubbabel had to do the same thing. It had to be through the grace of God that was found in Christ as he was directed to do this.
And so the example is given to us here really of where our strength is found. It’s found in the Lord Jesus Christ the chief cornerstone or headstone of our life. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 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. So we can become discouraged but God says I’ve given you a work and you will accomplish my work when you walk in my strength. Zerubbabel hadn’t been able to get it done but now all of a sudden he’s going to be able to get it done not because he had changed but because God was working through him and he relied upon the power of the Lord.
For who hath despised the day of the small things? That’s an interesting… We have a book, a song in our hymn book and it’s entitled Little Is Much When God Is In It. And that song tells a lot. It talks about the fact that little is much and you can think that you really have an insignificant place in the whole scheme of God’s life.
I’ll give you another example. There was a man who was a Sunday school teacher, and this gentleman was teaching Sunday school and he thought, you know, how am I ever going to make a difference in the world? One of his Sunday school students came to know the Lord because of this man’s faithfulness in presenting the gospel in the class. This young man accepted Christ under his teaching, and also this man, the teacher, began to instruct him in the principles of God’s word, which were taken to heart by this young student. This young student grew up to become an evangelist that was able to lead thousands to the Lord through the gospel.
Would it have happened had this man, who was a Sunday school teacher, not been faithful in his duty? Well, God says that he will accomplish his purpose in spite of ourselves, but what this was is it showed how this man, who had a little place and thought it was nothing, accomplished much more than he thought, and there’d be rewards in heaven for him because of his faithfulness in teaching what he thought, really, why am I doing this? But it was of great significance and importance in God’s schemes and plans. And we see here that he says here, 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.
Now, the eyes of the seven, whenever you see that in Scripture, it’s talking about the spirit of the Lord. The spirit of the Lord shall look upon Zerubbabel and see what’s happening. And he is the one that is running to and fro upon the whole earth.
And Zerubbabel was doing what God had called him to do and was going to walk in obedience to him after Zechariah shared this with him. And he and Joshua would accomplish what all the pagans around them were mocking and saying they’d never accomplished. Verse 11, Then answered I and said unto him, What are these two columns? Then said I, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side? So remember at the beginning, we said that he had this candlestick and it had all these tubes that went down and they were filling the bowl.
So they were filling the candlesticks with oil that came from the bowl. And now he says there’s these two olive trees on each side. Well, what they are symbolic of is Zerubbabel and Joshua, Yeshua, Joshua, spiritual and governmental leader of Israel.
And they are going to be the ones that will bring to the people. They should be like the olive tree that you’ll bring forth and show the Spirit of God. And that this Spirit of God is going to flow down to the people as this olive oil flows down to the candles and light is going to come up.
What was the nation of Israel established by God? What is one of the purposes, the main purpose of this nation was to do? Israel stood out as a different nation from the moment it was created by the Lord. From all the other nations, still stands out different today. If you look at the world, the world when Israel was birthed by the Lord and he made it a nation.
It says the descendants of Jacob went down into Egypt as 70 souls and they came out as a mighty nation. And God created a nation. You will not find Israel amongst the names of the nations of the world in the book of nations, the recording of all the nations where they came from.
You won’t find Israel there because God created Israel. But you had all the nations of the world were pagan at that time. Israel was going to be different.
Israel was going to understand who the true and the living God was. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob worshipped the true and living God. They were to teach their sons and their sons were to teach their children all about the fact that God is the true God.
Israel was to be a light to the world. What has Israel, what has the problem been? What did God tell Joshua when he took the nation into the promised land that he told the people? If you refuse to drive out the people and if you refuse, remember he said in his challenge to them, choose you this day who you will serve. Will you serve the God of the Amorites? Will you serve the God of those who are on the other side of the Jordan? Will you serve the God of the Canaanites? Or will you serve the true and the living God? Basically he was saying the choice is yours, who you serve.
And the reason that they were called to make that decision is that they were called to be light in the midst of darkness. They were to be different. You know one of the amazing things is today, as you see the nation of Israel coming back into the land, they’re coming a nation again.
One of the things you see is that they are a different nation from the other nations of the world. The only nation that has been as charitable as Israel is, is the United States and the United States basically based its foundation upon this book as well. But the problem is the U.S. is turning far from it.
Well what happened is when Israel came into the land, the Lord warned them. He said, Drive out the pagans from you who don’t have anything to do with them. Do not allow your sons to marry their daughters.
Do not allow your daughters to marry their sons, lest they become a snare unto you and a means by which you shall stumble and fall. Israel didn’t heed. They said what? We aren’t strong enough to drive them out.
Remember those of you who were in Sunday school, we were looking at Caleb and his, when he came back into the land and he wanted to inherit, gain his inheritance, and he had part of his inheritance would be in the land of Judah, in Judah’s tribe because he was part of the tribe of Judah. And what he chose was the mountain that was inhabited by the giants of the land. He chose what appeared to be the most difficult thing to drive out.
But he said, I will drive them out in the name of the Lord. He did what this passage says that we should do. He relied on the Spirit of God to move the mountain for him.
And God did. When Caleb wanted to have a husband for his wife, for his daughter rather, what he did is he challenged any man who would want to marry his daughter, and he gave him a task that was very similar to the task he had. You need to show your faith and trust in God and that you rely upon the Spirit of God in order to accomplish this purpose.
And the young man who did that ended up becoming a judge of Israel and did exactly what Caleb had done in driving out the giants of the land on the mountain. He drove out and conquered the city that was a wicked city that he shouldn’t have been able to conquer, but yet he did in the power of God. And he became a judge of Israel.
He was the first judge of Israel, and he was a judge for 45 years, and Israel was at peace the whole time that he was judge. And part of it, I believe, is because of his faith in allowing God’s Spirit to move, just like his father-in-law Caleb had. Well, it says here that, Who hath despised the day of the small things? For they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet of the hand of Zerubbabel.
With those seven, they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro upon the whole earth. Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two columns, the trees, upon the right side of the candlestick, and upon the left side thereof? 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? And he answered me, and said, Knowest thou not what they be? And I said, No, my lord. Then I said unto him, These are the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.
That’s the two olive trees, Joshua and Zerubbabel. Who believed and listened, Joshua allowed himself to be cleansed of his sin, that he might lead the nation of Israel spiritually. Zerubbabel believed that the power of God could move mountains and give him plains, and that he would accomplish what God laid for him to accomplish, and he did that.
And these two men allowed God’s Spirit to work through them, that that Spirit flowed, and anyone who would follow them and walk by the same power of God’s Spirit would be used to accomplish great things in their life. That’s what God calls us to do today. Rely on His Spirit.
Allow His Spirit to flow through us. And just like the nation of Israel had been called to be a light to the world, and many times they failed, we are truly called, Jesus, what does he tell us to be? We are to be light and salt to the midst of the earth. We are to be light to a place that is extremely dark, and we are to be salt, and what does salt do? Salt enhances the flavor of food, and it preserves.
So we are to be light in the midst of darkness, we are to enhance the truth and preserve it amongst the world that wants to come against God and deny Him. Joshua and Zerubbabel, their purpose was to be these two olive trees and lead Israel. Even though it appeared to be just a small thing in the scope of the whole world, but it was a great thing in the hand of God.
Let’s just close in prayer. Lord, I pray that you would just help us to understand this. Lord, help us to be a Joshua or a Zerubbabel in our attitude and actions.
Help us to be open to be led by your Spirit, to allow your Spirit to accomplish the things you would lay for us to accomplish. Help us to rely on your Spirit, to call upon your name to place situations before us where we can see your hand at work in transforming lives and changing hearts. Go with us now, we pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen.