Continual Supply (Thoughts on Zechariah 4)

“Now the angel who talked with me came back and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep. And he said to me, ‘What do you see?’ So I said, ‘I am looking, and there is a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it, and on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps.’” Zechariah and his people were there to build the temple, so God used this temple lampstand to speak to him. “Two olive trees are by it, one at the right of the bowl and the other at its left.”

Olive trees were something he had never seen in the temple. And in the vision, the trees supplied seven lamps with oil through seven pipes. Taking care of the lamps was a big job; they had to be filled, cleaned, and the wicks needed to be tended to, so seeing the oil come directly from the trees was a big deal.

 “So I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, ‘What are these, my lord?’ Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, ‘Do you not know what these are?’ And I said, ‘No, my lord.’ So he answered and said to me: ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel…’”

Zerubbabel was the civic leader in Jerusalem and had the responsibility of finishing the work on the temple, and that work had stalled. In chapter three, God spoke to Zerubbabel about purity, and here God is talking about might and power.

“‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.”

One thing I read about this might was collective strength, and power was individual strength. I know I am not smart enough, organized enough, or creative enough to serve or lead any ministry or do anything in my life without the Spirit; anyone else?

When I was a school teacher, there was a student a few years younger than my students who was quite precocious. I was walking across the quad area when she approached me and asked me if I wanted to be anointed. I was taken aback a little but said, “Of course!” She asked me to kneel down, and I did as she instructed. A few moments later, with my eyes closed, I smelled grape bubble gum as she made a sign of the cross on my forehead. Peeking out, I saw her take her necklace wand with grape bubbles to anoint me. I continued kneeling as she prayed. I get teary when I think about it today.

What a sweet reminder last week of how much I struggle over trying to operate in my own strength and not the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit. Even when it is small tasks, any resources or might that come from me are done in my own strength and take away the power of the Holy Spirit. Even if it’s a little bit, why would I want to take away what the Holy Spirit can do? Creation, the parting of the Red Sea, giving life to dead bones—there is nothing I can do that can compare to the work of the Holy Spirit. And that sweet little girl reminded me of that that day.

“‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel, you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone, with shouts of grace, grace to it!’”

The work of the temple was a huge undertaking. When I have a huge mountain of things on my to-do list, I will picture them as a plain—vast, open land without obstacles!

“Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ‘The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands shall also finish it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. For who has despised the day of small things?’”

For Zerubbabel, I am sure it didn’t seem like small things since the temple lay in ruins for nearly twenty years. In how many of us has God used the very small things to mold and shape our lives in and out of ministry?

“For these seven rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. They are the eyes of the Lord, which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth. Then I answered and said to him, ‘What are these two olive trees—at the right of the lampstand and at its left?’ And I further answered and said to him, ‘What are these two olive branches that drip into the receptacles of the two gold pipes from which the golden oil drains?’”

The two branches, I read, were Zerubabbel and Joshua. Just as the oil trees in the vision continually supplied oil to the lamps on the lampstand, God wants His supply and our reliance on the Holy Spirit to be continual.

“Then he answered me and said, ‘Do you not know what these are?’ And I said, ‘No, my lord.’ So he said, ‘These are the two anointed ones, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth.’”

Anointed one means literally sons of oil. The lampstands needed continual tending, but when connected to the trees, the source of the oil itself, they would never run dry.

When we get weary and discouraged, it’s a certainty that we are not connected to the source—the continual supply of the Holy Spirit.

Father, take our little and make it much through the Might and Power of the Holy Spirit, that we would not operate in our own strength, but rest in God alone to do the work of His will. Amen.