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Zechariah, Prophet of God's remembrance, part 12

Zechariah 4:1-3 says,

¹ Then the angel who was speaking with me returned and roused me, as a man who is awakened from his sleep. ² He said to me, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps which are on the top of it, ³ also two olives trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left side.”

The prophet was asleep when the angel awakened him and asked what he was seeing in his dream. No doubt he was dreaming of the lampstand from the temple in Jerusalem. However, on each side was an olive tree representing the source of olive oil fueling the seven lamps. So the scene appears to be located outside as in an open field. Otherwise, the lampstand should be accompanied by the table of showbread and the altar of incense.

Misunderstanding Prophecy

Zechariah 4:4, 5 continues,

⁴ Then I said to the angel who was speaking with me saying, “What are these, my lord?” ⁵ 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.”

As usual, the prophet did not know the meaning of what he had been seeing, and he needed an explanation from the angel. Being a prophet or a seer does not mean that he/she understands its meaning. Interpretations are a separate feature of revelation. Oftentimes, the meaning of revelation is concealed until much later, usually near the time of its fulfillment. While the prophets may have a measure of understanding, the full meaning is not fully clear until the prophesied event actually takes place.

Hence, even prophets are limited in their understanding. Prophets are people, too, and like most people they tend to understand the language according to men’s definitions rather than God’s. For example, many receive glorious revelations about Israel, and they assume that God is referring to the nation that men call Israel. Yet men’s labels are often at odds with the truth.

In Paul’s day, he speaks of how men defined a Jew in carnal terms, whereas God’s definition of a Jew was one who praises God in an acceptable way through heart circumcision (Romans 2:28, 29). The same can be said of the name Jerusalem. Even genuine prophets can assume that it always refers to the earthly city when, in fact, it can refer to either the earthly or the heavenly.

Their misunderstanding does not mean the prophecy itself is false. It often means that the prophet has made a false assumption based on the viewpoint that he was taught earlier. He then tends to share his understanding, and most people fail to discern where the prophecy ends and man’s understanding begins.

No doubt Zechariah was familiar with the lampstand itself, but he did not know why it was accompanied by two olive trees. Was it not the priests who were responsible to refuel the lamps with olive oil? Nothing in the law suggested that olive trees were to do this directly.

The Meaning of the Vision

When he inquired, the angel gave him a cryptic answer: “Not by might [hayil, “army”] nor by power [koah, “strength”], but by My Spirit.” (This is written in Hebrew at the bottom of the painting above.)

In other words, the light of truth, represented by the lampstand, cannot be forced upon anyone, either by military power or by physical strength. It comes only by “My Spirit,” which is represented by olive oil. Those who attempt to convert others by conquest or by any form of fleshly coercion are trying to produce and transmit truth in a carnal manner. I am reminded of a saying from Benjamin Franklin: “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.”

The proper way of transmitting truth is set forth in the food laws in Leviticus 11. Under the New Covenant, this is how we are to eat clean spiritual food. When we listen to a sermon, we are listening to a man preach as best he can. But truth stands on a double witness—most importantly, the witness of the Spirit. Anyone who accepts something as truth apart from the Spirit’s witness is hearing words from a man only. Such “food” lacks a cloven hoof, for it fails to stand on a double witness. That makes the word unclean to the hearer (Leviticus 11:4), regardless of the preacher.

It may be that one must take the time to meditate upon the word with prayer. This is what it means to chew the cud (Leviticus 11:3) in order to make it a clean word. If a preacher does not allow the people to chew the cud but insists that they must all accept what he says as gospel truth, then he is the one who renders the word unclean. Sometimes the people are the problem; sometimes the preacher (or the denomination as a whole) is the problem.

Further Explanation

Zechariah 4:7 continues,

⁷ “What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”

The “mountain” in this case is an obstacle. This was well understood in Jesus’ day as well, and this metaphor was used in Matthew 21:21 in the story of the barren fig tree,

²¹ And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen.”

It seems that for every word of prophecy that God speaks He also raises up an obstacle, a “mountain,” to make its fulfillment impossible by might or power. In this way, he ensures that His word is fulfilled only “by My Spirit” without being tainted by the power of flesh. Such mountains can be removed or overcome only by faith.

In the days of Zerubbabel, the first governor of Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile, and Joshua the high priest, the mountain was local opposition. Ezra 4:4, 24 tells us,

⁴ Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah, and frightened them from building [the temple]…. ²⁴ Then the work on the house of God in Jerusalem ceased, and it was stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius King of Persia.

This obstacle remained in place for a dozen years. It ended only after Darius the Great became the king of Persia. Zerubbabel and Joshua “arose and began to rebuild the house of God” (Ezra 5:2). When their adversaries complained to Darius, a search was made in the archives, and they found Cyrus’ decree authorizing the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem (Ezra 5:13; 6:2, 3). Darius then commanded the obstacles to be removed and even told them to use tax money to complete the project (Ezra 6:8).

So they began rebuilding the temple in the second year of Darius and finished it in his sixth year (Ezra 6:15). This was on March 15, 515 B.C. The two olive trees, known as the two witnesses in Revelation 11, were Zerubbabel and Joshua in the days of Zechariah. These proclaimed "Grace, Grace," which not only identifies them as representatives of the remnant of grace (Romans 11:1-7), but also shows the sovereignty of God. The remnant of grace is the small body of overcomers that God has chosen by the power of His own will.