The Gold Lampstand and Two Olive Trees
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Introduction - Burnout and Dependence
Introduction - Burnout and Dependence
Stress and burnout plague many and many are on the look out to prevent or avoid stress and burnout. It doesnt only plague job, home and relationships but also ministry. Many when called by God into ministry — yes this includes pastors, missionaries and the like but also includes any calling from the LORD - worship, serving, etc — many when they are called are not really thinking about the undertaking so much - how they will go day after day and week after week. Many of us as we get knee deep into it we feel like Peter - out of the boat and walking on water wondering how the heck did this happen, and then we like Peter begin to sink. We begin wondering why we ever got out of the boat and begin to look back to the boat thinking I should just get back there. We become aware of our personal inadequacy for the calling. Our text doesnt delve into all the intricacies of the complex issues of stress and burnout but it does give us principles to offer help against spiritual burnout. The enduring staying power.
Zechariah’s fifth vision speaks to encourage Zerubbabel to continue and finish the work God has called him to. Not by looking around them - but by looking to God in dependence. When we depend on the wrong things is when we get burnt out - especially doing God’s work.
1 The angel who was speaking with me then returned and roused me as one awakened out of sleep. 2 He asked me, “What do you see?” I replied, “I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top. The lampstand also has seven lamps at the top with seven spouts for each of the lamps.
3 There are also two olive trees beside it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” 4 Then I asked the angel who was speaking with me, “What are these, my lord?” 5 “Don’t you know what they are?” replied the angel who was speaking with me. I said, “No, my lord.”
6 So he answered me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by strength or by might, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord of Armies. 7 ‘What are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain. And he will bring out the capstone accompanied by shouts of: Grace, grace to it!’ ”
8 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 9 “Zerubbabel’s hands have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of Armies has sent me to you. 10 For who despises the day of small things? These seven eyes of the Lord, which scan throughout the whole earth, will rejoice when they see the ceremonial stone in Zerubbabel’s hand.”
11 I asked him, “What are the two olive trees on the right and left of the lampstand?” 12 And I questioned him further, “What are the two streams of the olive trees, from which the golden oil is pouring through the two golden conduits?” 13 Then he inquired of me, “Don’t you know what these are?” “No, my lord,” I replied. 14 “These are the two anointed ones,” he said, “who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”
God’s Work Requires God’s Spirit
God’s Work Requires God’s Spirit
1 The angel who was speaking with me then returned and roused me as one awakened out of sleep. 2 He asked me, “What do you see?” I replied, “I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top. The lampstand also has seven lamps at the top with seven spouts for each of the lamps.
3 There are also two olive trees beside it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” 4 Then I asked the angel who was speaking with me, “What are these, my lord?” 5 “Don’t you know what they are?” replied the angel who was speaking with me. I said, “No, my lord.”
6 So he answered me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by strength or by might, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord of Armies. 7 ‘What are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain. And he will bring out the capstone accompanied by shouts of: Grace, grace to it!’ ”
The angel who was speaking with Zechariah returns now and has to rouse Zechariah from sleep. These visions perhaps had exhausted Zechariah much like the divine visions and seeking their understanding wearied Daniel. As the angel rouses Zechariah he asks - “What do you see?” Zechariah describes what he sees a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top. The lampstand also has seven lamps at the top and each lamp has seven spouts. There are also two olive trees beside it one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left.
The vision seems to continue in a context of priestly ministry. This lampstand possibly similar to the lampstand in Israel’s tabernacle. The tabernacle lampstand however had to be filled with oil by the priests - constantly watched and constantly filled - but this lampstand seemed to be filled automatically - without human agency.
There was a bowl suspended over the lampstand and oil was transported by gravity from the bowl through seven channels to each of the seven lamps or lights — 49 conduits. Fed straight from the trees themselves.
It makes sense to consider the work to be done is the building of the temple that the vision would incorporate images relating to the temple. Zechariah though familiar with the ins and outs of the temple - asked “What are these?” as they were foreign to his knowledge enough that he was not sure what to make of them. The angel even asks “Dont you know what these are?” and Zechariah replies that he doesnt and so the angel gives the meaning. This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel tasked with rebuilding and probably quite overwhelmed in the task. “Not by strength or by might, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of Armies.”
God’s work would only and could only be accomplished by the power of the Spirit of God. For God’s work to be accomplished it requires His supernatural power and supernatural endurance. No amount of human resources would ever amount to anything in the work of God. God says not the resources of many together or even one - but my Spirit and my Spirit alone.
“Oh Churches take heed lest ye trust in yourselves; take heed lest ye say, ‘We are a respectable body,’ ‘We are a mighty number,’ ‘We are a potent people;’ take heed lest ye begin to glory in your own strength; for when that is done, ‘Ichabod shall be written on your walls and your glory shall depart from you. Remember that he who was with us when we were but few, must be with us now we are many, or else we must fail; and he who strengthened us when we were as ‘little Israel,’ must be with us, now that we are like ‘the thousands of Manasseh,’ or else it is all over with us and our day is past.” Spurgeon
The Spirit of God is represented by oil and it is fitting.
• Oil lubricates when used for that purpose—there is little friction and wear among those who are lubricated by the Spirit of God
• Oil heals and was used as a medicinal treatment in Biblical times (Luke 10:34)—the Spirit of God brings healing and restoration
• Oil lights when it is burned in a lamp—where the Spirit of God is there is light
• Oil warms when it is used as fuel for a flame—where the Spirit of God is there is warmth and comfort
• Oil invigorates when used to massage—the Holy Spirit invigorates us for His service
• Oil adorns when applied as a perfume—the Holy Spirit adorns us and makes us more pleasant to be around
• Oil polishes when used to shine metal—the Holy Spirit wipes away our grime and smoothes out our rough edges
In God’s power the mountain that gave Zerubbabel trouble - the work, the problems, the setbacks, the discouragement — all of those mountains that stand in the way of finishing God’s work are leveled by His Spirit.
4 Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be leveled; the uneven ground will become smooth and the rough places, a plain.
He will bring out the capstone - the final stone, the finishing piece. He will complete the work accompanied by shouts of grace, grace to it. God declares in His power the work will be finished and empowered by Him Zerubbabel would be the one to finish it.
God’s work invites mountains/problems. God’s work also seems impossible or to progress extremely slowly and it requires His power if we want to finish it.
God’s Work Starts With Small Beginnings
God’s Work Starts With Small Beginnings
8 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 9 “Zerubbabel’s hands have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of Armies has sent me to you.
10 For who despises the day of small things? These seven eyes of the Lord, which scan throughout the whole earth, will rejoice when they see the ceremonial stone in Zerubbabel’s hand.”
The word of the LORD came to Zechariah to declare that Zerubbabel’s hands have laid the foundation and his hands will complete it. With God’s Spirit not only are we able to start the work - but we are able to finish it as well.
6 I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
God is a finisher of work and He accomplishes what He says He will. Then you will know the LORD of Armies has sent me to you - when Zerubbabel finishes the work. Not someone else -Zerubbabel.
Who despises the day of small things? You cannot tell the size of a work by its beginning. The answer is do not despise the day of small things. Those small things allow to learn without large ramifications for mistakes. Don’t despise small things, instead just consider it all as just a day. The days of small things are a season God uses for shaping, and preparation. It is Satan who tempts us to despise small things. Satan doesnt despise the day of small things - Satan fears the days of small things - because he knows it is from the small things that God brings and does great things.
Bible records the history of God using small beginnings. A nation began with Abraham, salvation started with a baby named Isaac. When God wanted to overthrow Egypt he started with a baby in a reed basket. .
God uses small beginnings in great works because although He could do it Himself, and He could give shortcuts, His work in our life is just as important as the work He wants to do through our life. God uses a powerful season of small things and those days are not a mistake nor are they a punishment, they are days of priceless shaping and preparation and they are not days to despise.
The eyes of the LORD - the perfect seeing eyes, the eyes of Omniscience that scan the whole earth they rejoice when they see the last piece of the project in Zerubbabel’s hands. God rejoices at the completion of the work. God delights in the work we are doing and delights to see it completed. The completion of the temple is a piece to the coming of the Messiah — you see this insignificant temple - in comparison to Solomon’s is part of the ongoing triumphing work of God!
It is like the honeybees a small insignificant creature created by the LORD with the huge task of cross pollinating 30% of all crops and 90% of all plants. This is done through the simple job of not cross pollinating the plants but of simply building a hive and making honey.
God perhaps created the bees to help us see the importance of small things doing a simple job but having a world wide effect. When David fought Goliath he was simply taking lunch to his brothers. The boy in the New Testament who gave his five loaves and two fish probably was upset when as he was leaving his mom made him take the meal she prepared for him - and she not knowing the meal would feed so many simply was making her son lunch. The miracles of God are hidden in insignificant tasks, every day faith and prayer. "She gave more" Mark 12:41-44
No sincere act of worship or service is overlooked by God.
Jesus taught us that one who can be trusted with small things can be trusted in big things also. If you cannot be faithful for the days of small things you will never be trusted or used for the big things.
21 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You were faithful over a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Share your master’s joy.’
10 Whoever is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and whoever is unrighteous in very little is also unrighteous in much. 11 So if you have not been faithful with worldly wealth, who will trust you with what is genuine? 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to someone else, who will give you what is your own?
7 Then, even if your beginnings were modest, your final days will be full of prosperity.
Never be influenced by evaluations of men - their eyes are not perfectly seeing and they evaluate poorly.
1 Samuel 16:7 (CSB)
...Humans do not see what the Lord sees, for humans see what is visible...”
Tower of Babel was impressive but God despised it and confused the language of the people. There have been big ministries and bigger ministry personalities God shined a light and exposed a truth.
Noah built the ark while others watched and ridiculed. Nathanael almost missed the LORD because of His origins being in Nazareth. George Mueller started with a desire and a prayer - they called him an independent, a rebel and even a fanatic. He had built 5 orphanages and was providing for 2,000 orphans by prayer and faith. When he was 71, he started out on a series of missionary trips to Europe, Asia, and America. He traveled 200,000 miles, preached in 42 countries, and kept up this pace until he was 88 yrs. old. He died at 93. The day before he died, he was still handling orphanage correspondence. Hudson Taylor was laughed at when he dared to go alone to China without the guarantee of support from home. Men have a way of despising what is small. The protection to keep from despising small things, is to ask the LORD for eyes of faith to see what He sees and not see as other men see.
9 Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up.
God’s Work Values People Over Institutions
God’s Work Values People Over Institutions
11 I asked him, “What are the two olive trees on the right and left of the lampstand?” 12 And I questioned him further, “What are the two streams of the olive trees, from which the golden oil is pouring through the two golden conduits?”
13 Then he inquired of me, “Don’t you know what these are?” “No, my lord,” I replied. 14 “These are the two anointed ones,” he said, “who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”
Zechariah asks now what the two olive trees are on the right and the left. He also inquires about the two streams of the olive trees from which the golden oil is pouring through the golden conduits. The angel says - dont you know? Zechariah says no I dont, and the angel says these are the two anointed ones who stand by the LORD of the whole earth.
17 “For this is what the Lord says: David will never fail to have a man sitting on the throne of the house of Israel. 18 The Levitical priests will never fail to have a man always before me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices.” 19 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 20 “This is what the Lord says: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night so that day and night cease to come at their regular time, 21 then also my covenant with my servant David may be broken. If that could happen, then he would not have a son reigning on his throne and the Levitical priests would not be my ministers. 22 Even as the stars of heaven cannot be counted, and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so too I will make innumerable the descendants of my servant David and the Levites who minister to me.”
Gods work is done through Kings and Priests. His anointed — soon unified into the Messiah who is both king and priest. The lampstand typifying of Israel as a light to the nations.
6 “I am the Lord. I have called you for a righteous purpose, and I will hold you by your hand. I will watch over you, and I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations,
6 he says, “It is not enough for you to be my servant raising up the tribes of Jacob and restoring the protected ones of Israel. I will also make you a light for the nations, to be my salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Joshua and Zerubbabel were merely branches off the trees and thus the trees are the Kings and the Priests. God has a special work for these anointed ones and they are anointed to uniquely work together. In history God has given us many pairs working together.
Moses and Aaron
Joshua and Caleb
Elijah and Elisha
Peter and John
Paul and Barnabas
Calvin and Luther
Whitefield and Wesley
Moody and Sankey
God has promised to raise up two more witnesses to preach prior to Christ’s return.
3 I will grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy for 1,260 days, dressed in sackcloth.” 4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.
Anointed ones are literally sons of oil — sons of the Holy Spirit. In Hebrew idioms the son of something is radically characterized by that thing. How did the trees supply the oil? It came out of the trees. Real ministry is the giving of ourselves to the work of God and for God to use. People are most important in the program of God — the temple, the lampstand or any other furniture or fixtures in the building itself. What fueled the lampstand? The trees themselves. The temple needed the lampstand and the lampstand needed the oil.
Peter C. Craigie remarks: “The church as an institution, is never enough; no anonymous organization will by itself transform the world. People are always needed, fro through them the life and light of God may flow. And as Joshua and Zerubbabel had a part to play, … so too the Church depends for its vitality upon the clergy and the laity.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
This vision teaches spiritual power is needed and provided for the work to be finished just as the previous taught that cleansing was needed and also provided.
I’m no mechanic, but I do know that you can’t run a car without oil or you’ll burn up the engine quickly. I am a pastor, and I also know that you can’t serve the Lord without the continual supply of the oil of God’s Spirit or you’ll burn out. The solution to burnout is not to quit working for the Lord. Working for the Lord—being His lampstand—is the greatest thing you can do with your life. The work of God is not completed by human ingenuity or drive, but by the Spirit of God.
Human effort without the supply of oil would burn itself out. God’s work done in God’s way will never lack provision or power but We must open ourselves continually to the supply of God’s Spirit.
A woman asked D.L. Moody once, “Why do you talk so often about the need for being filled with the Holy Spirit. You always are stressing the need to be filled again and again. Why isn’t once enough to be filled?” Moody replied, “I leak.”
Every Christian receives the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation (Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:2,3). But we must learn to walk by means of the Spirit (Gal. 5:16), continually, repeatedly depending on Him.
In this vision, the angel had to awaken Zechariah from a sleep-like condition and then direct him to the vision by asking what he saw (4:1-2). Later, Zechariah has to ask twice regarding the meaning of the two olive trees (4:11-12). The trees provided a continual flow of golden oil to the lamps so that they did not burn out. All of these features are designed to show us that we must depend on God alone and that we must do so continually. God provides the power and God will finish the work - where God provides the power God finishes the work.
God calling Zerubbabel and Joshua “the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.” What a noble title for His servants! As the two olive trees, Joshua and Zerubbabel received the empowering Spirit of God and kept the light of Israel’s work and witness burning.
1 The Spirit of the Lord God is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners;
There are no small things in God’s hands. God is glorified in small things and He also uses small things to accomplish great things. All so called small things are linked directly to God’s ongoing triumph and victory in the final day. There are no small places or ministries, and there are no big preachers.
F. B. Meyer (The Prophet of Hope [Christian Literature Crusade], p. 58) observes that the wick is dependent on the source of oil moment by moment. It has no storehouse or backup supply. It is always on the edge of bankruptcy, but always supplied. Abundant supply of God’s Spirit as you do His work. Have you checked your spiritual dipstick lately?
Israel and the Church have been tasked with the privilege of shining as God’s glorious light in this dark world. Israel lost that privilege but will once again have it in the last days when Christ Returns. Satan’s schemes and the world’s plots have tried to extinguish the light. The world has tried to eliminate first Israel and now in these days the church - but both continue to exist. God is the one who sustains them through the olive trees.
Jesus Christ is the High Priest and the King of kings. The church does not rely on programs, or clever men, good will or even on government policy. Movie makers, and educators nor even on her own leaders - but entirely dependent upon the LORD Jesus who died for her. He will one day put the capstone in place
When that redeemed throng see the capstone of salvation dropped into place, they will shout together, ‘Grace! Grace!’ They will know then as never before that their presence in heaven is all due to the grace of God in Christ.