Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit

Let's turn to the prophecy of Zechariah and we'll read chapter 4. The prophecy of Zechariah and reading chapter 4. Zachariah lived of course in the same time as Haggai and wrote very similar prophecies. So Zachariah and chapter 4. And the angel that talked with me came again and waked me as a man that is waked out of his sleep and said unto me, what seest thou?

And I said, I have 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, and two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.

So I answered. and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord? Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain, and he shall bring forth a headstone thereof, with shoutings crying, Grace, grace, unto it. 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 now shall it know that the Lord of hosts has sent me unto you. 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.'

Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive 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 these be? And I said, no, my lord. Then said he, these are the two anointed ones that stand by the lord of the whole earth.

This was a wonderful vision that Zechariah had, and no doubt it was needful for him, because you may remember that Israel had gone into captivity, into Babylon, that which had been prophesied by so many prophets, and no doubt most of the Israelites thought it was just a figment of imagination and wouldn't come to pass, but as we know, it did come to pass, and they did go into captivity into Babylon, and it had been prophesied by Jeremiah and others that that would last for 70 years. Well, 70 years is quite a long time, isn't it?

And therefore, there they were, away from Jerusalem, and of course, what had happened, when the Chaldeans came and conquered Jerusalem, they wrecked it, they burnt it, they took down the temple, that wonderful building of Solomon, and that was all decimated and gone. And so all they could do was to think really about what it had been. They couldn't actually know it and see it now.

But amazingly, Cyrus, who was king in Babylon, was instructed by God to instruct Israel to go back to Jerusalem and to rebuild the temple. And more wonderful, he said that he would provide all the necessary building materials and they could take the materials from their supply and any lack they could get money for to be paid. So it was a wonderful turnaround, really, and from a most unexpected quarter. But what we find in our lives is the Lord appears in ways that we wouldn't expect. And the reason for that is so that God receives the honour and glory It wasn't because the Israelites suddenly decided they would go and conquer Babylon, conquer Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.

It was the spirit of God that came upon them. And we see here in this account that the prophet Zechariah saw the angel came and talked with him and wake him as a man of his waked out of a sleep. And it was a wonderful revelation that was given to Zachariah. And as we read together, he was asked what he saw, and he said, I looked, and behold, a candlestick, all of gold, with a bold upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof. and two olive trees, one upon the right side of the bowl and the other upon the left side thereof. So these were ordained by God in this vision to supply the oil for those lamps so that they would not go out and they would be supplied so that the Israelites would be able to observe what they had to do. It's a wonderful provision by Almighty God.

And he asked, Zechariah asked and spake to the angel, and said, what are these, my lord? And the angel that talked with him answered and said, knowest thou not what these be? And he said, no, my lord. And it's wonderful to see, and we see it a number of times in the scriptures, where there are questions posed, and perhaps we may think, well, surely they should have known the answer. God makes you honest in the things of God and therefore there was this question and he answered very honestly and said, no my Lord.

Then he answered and spake unto me saying, this is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel. Well, Zerubbabel was of course an important person. He was governor of Judah and he was in charge really of this attack. And so we can see how God was gracious and gave him this instruction. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel.

And it was a wonderful word that God gave. And he said, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit saith the Lord of hosts. It wasn't the natural ability of men. It was through the work of the Holy Spirit, through the Spirit of God, by my Spirit saith the Lord of hosts. How amazing that would have been to the people on that occasion. And then, Also, they went on, and this is what occurred.

Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel, again remember he was the governor of Judah, not by might, nor by power. As we read in the previous verse, and then he comes down. Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel, Thou shalt become a plain. Nothing can stand before the power of Almighty God. How glorious it is. Thou shalt become a plain.

And it shall bring forth the headstone thereof, with shoutings crying grace, grace unto it. And of course, the headstone is representative of none less than the Lord Jesus Christ. So we can see how this victory would be obtained and there would be the blessed Saviour who would be the headstone and would receive the honour and glory for such a wonderful and such a great victory. The headstone thereof with shoutings crying, grace, grace unto it. It is the grace of God, the free unmerited favour which grants such blessings.

You can think of Israel having disobeyed God, turned their back upon God, had many warnings from the prophets, and they'd been told they would go into captivity. They didn't believe it. The time came when they went into captivity. And then the Lord came and encouraged them to return and to follow that which he instructed them in.

And so here was this good news, and he shall bring forth a headstone, therewith, thereof, with shoutings, crying grace, grace unto it. Word it is, isn't it? In our lives, our little lives, we need the grace of God. We need the favour of God. And so we're told then, 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 has sent me unto you. The Lord hadn't left his people.

They deserved to have been left and to have been forgotten. But God was faithful and God was gracious. And so we're thankful to have an account like this, which is strengthening to our faith. We see how disobedient they'd been. And yet how long-suffering and kind and gracious the Lord was. 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, the King of kings.

For who hath despised the day of small things? Sometimes we do despise the day of small things. Sometimes we look for great revelations. We look for wonderful appearances. But you see, the Lord is often in those small things. I sometimes think about the case of Elijah. You may remember when he fled from the queen and came to this cave and went in and stood in the mouth expecting some wonderful deliverance.

And we're told there was a great storm The Lord was not in the storm. There was a great earthquake. The Lord was not in the earthquake. And then there was just a still, small voice, a still, small voice, which came directly to Elijah. And we know that still, small voice spoke to him these words, What doest thou hear, Elijah? He'd walk contrary to the way of God. He'd run away, fearful, and yet God had wonderfully blessed him only a day or so before on that mountain when the priests of Baal could not convince their God to come and Elijah prayed to the God of heaven and that God came down with fire and consumed the sacrifice and the result was wonderful.

The people who gathered there to witness the situation, they acknowledged and they said, He is the Lord. He is the Lord. And what a good thing if in our little lives, There are those things which occur which convince us that the Lord is with us. The Lord does hear and answer prayer.

And so then we came and read, then answered I and said unto him, what are these two olive 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 these be? And I said, no, my Lord. And if we think of this, oil was needed in that situation.

But what do we need today? We need the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin. And what a great mercy it is, the Lord comes and opens our heart to receive the glorious truth of the gospel, so we rejoice in that wonderful work of salvation and are so grateful for what our Saviour did when he came down onto this earth and lived that perfect life for 33 years and then gave his life as that one sacrifice for sin upon the cross at Calvary. No wonder the apostle Peter said, the precious blood of Christ. Well, what a mercy tonight. If you and I can enter in to that situation and realise that we need the oil of his grace, the oil of his mercy, the oil of his love, and to crown it all, to have that outpouring of his precious blood upon our conscience, to know that he's well with our soul.

Well, just a few remarks on what is really a very wonderful chapter in what we term the Minor Prophets. But it's good to think and to meditate upon the greatness of God and the mercy of God and the love of God in remembering his ancient people And bless God, he is the same today.

We're told, I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. And therefore what is promised, you and I can rely upon. We can go in the strength of those promises and be found looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Amen.

Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit

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Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit

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