I’d like to ask you to turn with me to Zechariah 4. Zechariah is one of the minor prophets in the Old Testament. It is the next-to-last book in the Old Testament, so you should be able to find it. Just go to Matthew, back up one book to Malachi, and then step back one more book, and you are in Zechariah.
I am always puzzled that they are referred to as minor prophets. If you were referred to as a minor brother or a minor sister, you would be rather offended. It is as if they did not have much to say. But somehow, someone said of these folks who perhaps did not speak as much that they were minor prophets, and it stuck.
But I want you to know that Zechariah, in particular, gave a major word—one of the words that many have said is the most important in the Old Testament. So I would like to read this entire chapter, Zechariah 4, beginning in verse 1 through verse 14. It is not a long chapter.
And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep.
And he said unto me, What seest thou?
And I said, I have seen, and behold, a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and its seven lamps thereon; there are seven pipes to each of the lamps, which are upon the top thereof;
And two olive-trees beside it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
That may be some of you this morning—or I may put you to sleep.
Then answered I, 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 are?
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 the headstone with shoutings of, Grace, grace, unto it.
And 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.
For who hath despised the day of small things? For these seven shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel; these 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 the second time, and said unto him, What are these two olive-branches, which are beside the two golden spouts, that empty the golden oil out of themselves?
And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these are?
And I said, No, my Lord.
Then said he, These are the two sons of oil, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.
Shall we pray?
Lord, we do not take Your Word for granted. We are utterly dependent upon the Holy Spirit to make these things real to us and alive to us. We are not just interested this morning in some new information, but we want You to speak what the Spirit is saying to the churches in this book—to us—and to open our hearts.
Lord, we say again, as Peter had to confess, “You alone have the words of eternal life. To whom shall we go?” Unless You speak, there is no gain. But if You speak, there is great gain.
So we call upon the name of the Lord for Your living Word to be made known, for our hearts to be awakened to what it says, and for our spirits to respond in kind, the way You want us to. Lord, do that miracle among us today once again, for Your glory and Your praise. Amen.
Well, this is not a very long chapter. I shared a month or so ago—maybe it has been more now; it is hard for me to remember—in Bowling Green. I was invited to Bowling Green, and I was before the Lord as to what to share.
This phrase from verse 10, “the day of small things,” was quickened to me by the Holy Spirit. As I thought about it, that was all I could think about: the day of small things. We live in a day of small things, and how we need to know what the Lord is doing in these days and cooperate with Him.
Linda and I, Fontaine, and Carolyn went up there. We had good fellowship with them and shared. When I returned to Richmond, the brothers asked me what I had shared on. I gave them the three points, and they thought it was appropriate for us here in Richmond as well.
So I trust the Lord will quicken and refresh us, and that together we will hear something that helps us and challenges us in the Lord. As Keen said, the burden on my heart is the recovery of the Lord’s testimony in difficult days.
That alone explains the atmosphere in Zechariah. They were among the small remnant that returned under the governorship of Zerubbabel and under the high priest Joshua, with one task in view: to return from Babylonian captivity and rebuild the house of God.
That was what they were charged to do. And that is the one thing this chapter does: it inspires. The prophet was used of God to remotivate and reinspire the people of God, in the most difficult period, to begin again building the house of God.
When they came back at first, only a very few responded. Fifty thousand out of the millions responded to the sovereign call that God gave through Cyrus, king of Persia: “Let all whoever will”—you can read Ezra 1:1-2—“go back to Jerusalem to build the house of God.”
That was a sovereign call. Of those in Babylonian captivity, only fifty thousand responded. Brothers and sisters, by whatever measure you use, that is the day of small things.
It seems that most of the people of God were comfortable in captivity. They were smart conquerors. I always say this: they did not take completely away from the people of God their religion. They even allowed them the ingenious idea of setting up synagogues.
That was all they had: a place to meet. But if you think about it, Judaism no longer existed. Now, I know some of you might jump all over me for that statement, but the temple was gone. The sacrifices were gone. The reason for gathering was gone.
Judaism, as laid out—the testimony of God in Israel—no longer existed. During this difficult and dark period, there is a phrase that occurs in the Bible: God is called “the God of heaven.” He is no longer referred to as the God of heaven and earth, because the testimony of God on the earth, which was to be in Jerusalem and in the children of Israel, was lost.
So He could only refer to Himself as the God of heaven. But, brothers and sisters, here is the encouragement: God will not forget His purpose. He will not forget His testimony.
Though we may be unfaithful, the New Testament says in 2 Timothy that He remains faithful still. He will issue a call in every generation for those few who will respond to stand on the Lord’s side. That is what Zechariah 4 is all about.
They were difficult times. They came out with such energy and zeal. How often that is true of us as well. When the Lord speaks to us and calls us to Himself, we come and start with such energy and zeal.
But it was not long before they began to compromise. The temple foundation was laid with such zeal, and then the work completely stopped. Can you imagine? Where is the hope in this day of small things?
Certainly, it was not in Babylon, even though His people were there. Surely, it was to be in Jerusalem. Yet the very ones who responded became discouraged. They became overwhelmed with everyday life. They began to build their own houses, and they left off building the house of God. The work fell silent.
God raised up Haggai at the same time, a contemporary of Zechariah and an older prophet. Haggai challenged the people of God. You know the story. It is actually the book right before Zechariah.
“Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your ceiled houses, while this house lieth waste?
Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.”
Brothers and sisters, has the Lord called us to come back, to leave compromise, to return unto Him, and to rebuild the house of God? Have we become discouraged? Have we become overwhelmed with life?
I have a phrase I use. I do not know if you will like it, but I use it often, to the point that Linda is probably sick of it. I say, “Life got in the way.”
Do you understand what I mean? These people returned with such good intentions, such zeal, and such labor. Then life got in the way. The very ones who were to recover the testimony of God in Israel—life got in the way.
I often think about that. I am at the age where my friends are dying. I do not want to be depressing, but when people ask me why I read the obituaries, I do it because I know people in there.
Now think about it. What is life’s purpose? What has God called us to? Why are we here? Will we just live out our days and have some obituary that says all the great things we have done—or not—and life got in the way, and we never built the house of God?
I often say to the Lord, “Do not let that be my legacy. Do not let me be so busy that I miss the call, do not respond, and do not do the very thing You have called me to do. Do not let that happen.”
Life got in the way. Well, these were difficult times. I think we live in similar days.
On the other hand, God always has His testimony in every generation. I was reading a book recently. I read it very slowly, a chapter at a time, and considered it. It is called The Christian Testimony Through the Ages, by T. W. Carron. You may have seen it out here on the bookshelf.
I was struck by the fact that God found those in every generation through whom He could recover some of His testimony, and they responded to Him. As I read it, I was overwhelmed by what they went through for the sake of God’s testimony. I thought, for a moment, how little I know of real difficulties—how little I really know.
But those who returned unto Him bore His testimony. Zechariah’s very name means, “The Lord remembers.” He will never forget His testimony. He will always be looking for one or two or more.
You may call it a day of small things. You may say, “What were these fifty thousand thinking? How insignificant was what they did.” But God calls them His chosen ones, the ones He will write a book of remembrance about, as it says in Malachi—those who thought upon His name.
Well, I hope you get the similarity to our day. Zechariah 4 is one of the most important chapters in the whole Old Testament. You do not have to take that from me. C. A. Coates said that.
He said it is one of the most important chapters in the whole of the Old Testament, particularly for remnant times—for difficult days. He went on to say that it is a chapter that encourages those who would go on. That is what we need.
Now I want to share just three things. I hope I can make them as clear as possible. There are three things in this chapter that we need—or, at least, three things I saw that we need. You may see more, far better than I do.
First of all, what we need for the recovery of the Lord’s testimony in difficult times is great vision. Unless we have great vision, we will never be used to recover the Lord’s testimony.
Secondly, in that middle part, I think there is great encouragement to build. These people were overwhelmed. They were discouraged. They were caught up in their own lives, and they had all but given up—until this great word of encouragement came to them. Then they began to rebuild.
Finally, I think that in the last three verses there is something for us in our day about great calling. If we respond, we can make a difference.
Let us begin with this. First of all, Zechariah was a man of vision—first and foremost. In this short book he has eight visions. Unbelievable: eight visions. He was a man of vision, and that is what made the difference in his usefulness.
First and foremost, Zechariah had a vision of the person of the Lord Jesus. That was his dominating vision. That was his great vision.
In this short book, there are more prophetic, Messianic prophecies about the Lord Jesus than in any other prophet in the Old Testament except Isaiah—and you know how long the book of Isaiah is.
He had a vision of Christ. He saw Christ as the Branch. He saw Christ as the Servant. He saw Christ’s entry into Jerusalem on the colt, the foal of an ass.
Someone recently shared that as a Sunday opening. I thought it was so good and so unique. I think it may be the only time it has ever been shared as an opening here in the thirty-five-plus years I have been here. But it came from Zechariah 9:9. Nobody else saw that vision of Christ but Zechariah.
He had a vision of Christ. That was his great vision. He saw Christ as the Good Shepherd, long before John ever stood up and said that He was the Good Shepherd of the sheep.
He saw Christ betrayed for thirty pieces of silver. He saw Christ’s hands pierced. He saw Christ’s people saved. He saw Christ wounded in the house of His friends. He saw Christ coming on the Mount of Olives.
Can you imagine how often today we talk about the second coming of the Lord Jesus—when He will appear, come to the Mount of Olives, and it will split in two? That great second coming, when He sets up His kingdom upon the earth—it was Zechariah who saw the coming of the Lord on the Mount of Olives. He saw Christ coming in coronation as King.
Now that is a full vision of Christ. Brothers and sisters, when we talk about great vision, it first and foremost is a vision of the Lord Jesus Himself.
If we do not see Christ, what do we see? If we do not see Him as everything—the whole of God’s provision for us as His people, the hope of His people, everything rolled into one, God’s unspeakable gift to man—what do we see?
This was the secret of Zechariah’s life. His theme in the book was:
“Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts.”
How we need to return to our beloved Christ as everything. When we began to meet years ago, at first it seemed to me that we did not have anything that was a great vision. But then I began to see that the great vision is the Lord Jesus.
That was what propelled us to be together and stand together when we were criticized all over Richmond as some little unnamed cult. They would say, “That group will not even take a name. Who are they?”
But we saw Christ. In those early days, Christ was enough.
That great vision does not just include the Lord Jesus. When you look at the first verses of Zechariah 4, that great vision included the house of God. Think of it. It included the lampstand—the candlestick, the candelabrum, if you like.
What Zechariah saw was not only Christ as everything, but Christ in His people: a living testimony upon the earth. That was the great vision of Zechariah.
This vision of Zechariah is identical to the vision of Peter in Matthew 16. You remember when the Lord said to Peter:
“Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father who is in heaven.”
What was Peter’s vision?
“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Then the Lord Jesus revealed the second part of that vision:
“I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
Peter was a living stone. He was part of that house, part of the material for that house. Often, we think of the house of God as a building. But in the great vision, the house of God is a people.
It is not stones mined from the earth, shaped into form, and put in place. It is human hearts into which the Holy Spirit comes and resides. He shapes and molds us into the likeness of the image of the Lord Jesus, puts us with people of like mind, and builds us up as a holy habitation for God in the Spirit. That is the temple.
Israel was always identified by the lampstand. In the Arch of Titus, after the overthrow of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, what are they carrying away? The lampstand. The testimony in Jerusalem was gone.
So Zechariah first saw a lampstand. He saw a lampstand all of gold. This was the testimony God was looking for. It was to be in Israel.
When God called the children of Israel out of the bondage of Egypt, they were supposed to be a lampstand all of gold—all of God—holding up the light. They were not the light. They were anything but the light. And we are not the light. We are anything but the light.
But He is the light, and that shining light is a shining brightness to the whole world. This is the testimony of God: the lampstand, all of gold, all of God.
This is the vision. This is the great vision. God so loved us—think of it, just think of it—that He wanted us to be His expression. He wanted us to be His testimony.
He wanted it in Israel, and Israel is only a shadow and type of the church. He wants it in the church. We read about the lampstand in Exodus, standing in the holy place with the altar of incense and the table of showbread. It stood before the God of glory in the holiest of all, and it was a testimony to the whole world of who God was.
But that is not the end of the lampstand. You go to Revelation 1, 2, and 3, and you read about the lampstand again. Revelation 1:20 says that the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
The church is to be the lampstand, shining that light to the world. The testimony of God is in His Son through the church—Him being expressed in all His fullness. That, brothers and sisters, is the great vision.
Here is the question that came to Zechariah in verse 2: “What seest thou?” I want to ask you that same question: What seest thou?
Do you see what is in God’s heart? Has it ever dawned on you, the magnificence of His Son? Has it ever entered your thought that you have been chosen to be part of that eternal vessel, to express all His glory, His image, and His beauty—not just for the kingdom, but for all eternity?
The prophet was asked, “What seest thou?” Brothers and sisters, that is why I think vision is so important. I know some of you do not like that word. Do not worry; I am not upset with you. I know some of you think it is an old word. But I cannot tell you how important it is.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
Without vision, the people scatter. Without vision, the people do their own thing. That is exactly what happened in this difficult period. Brothers and sisters, how we need this great vision.
It strikes me that it is the same vision: what Zechariah saw is what Peter saw in Matthew. There is a difference, though, between the Old Testament lampstand and the New Testament lampstand.
In the lampstand of Zechariah’s vision, and in the Old Testament lampstand in the holy place, the light had to be continuously maintained by the priest or it would go out. That is the difference.
But here in Zechariah 4, this lampstand is different. It is all of gold; it is all of God. God’s nature is gold. Yet there is more: there is a bowl on the top of it. You do not read of a bowl in Exodus or in Revelation 1, 2, and 3.
It also has two trees, one on either side, the left and the right. Those trees feed oil continuously into the bowl, and the bowl has seven pipes feeding the oil continuously into each of the seven lamps.
Why am I making such a point about this? Because, brothers and sisters, we often see the testimony on our level, and we begin to despise it as the day of small things.
You see the flaws. You see what is wrong. You see the people. You see something that must be maintained by men continuously.
But what was shown to the prophet was a testimony maintained by God—continuously fed, with no dimming of the light, full of glory, and alive. That is the difference.
I think it would help us most of all if God would give us this great vision. We would be less critical. We would be more engaged for God to get what He is after in the difficult days in which we live.
This is the first point. The second point is great encouragement. When you see this great vision, I do not know whether it overwhelms you or not. You may begin to say, “Well, that is impossible. He did not know us when He wrote of that. That is impossible.”
I think of Don Quixote and The Man of La Mancha. Some of you are way too young to know what on earth I am talking about. But the theme song was, “To dream the impossible dream.” That is what we think of the great vision: an impossible dream. It could never happen among us or in our lifetime—utterly impossible.
But it is to that very despair that this great encouragement comes. They had given up. They were in, as John Bunyan called it in The Pilgrim’s Progress, the Slough of Despond—the swamp of despair.
How often we have fallen into despond. We look at the news. We look at the world. We look at the church. You look at me and say, “That is despair.” We are overcome, and we give up. The very thing we have been called to do, we stop.
It is to this that these words of great encouragement come. Following a great vision is great encouragement. I just want to dwell for a moment on some of these things—not in great detail, but enough that I hope you will be encouraged by the end.
There are seven words of encouragement. You may divide them differently, but I happen to like seven for a particular reason: seven is the perfect number in the Scriptures. When we see seven words of encouragement, we begin to understand that this is great encouragement.
This great encouragement was the very thing that propelled them to go on. After it was given to Zechariah, they began to rebuild the temple. The temple had lain dormant for fifteen years. It was built in a total of twenty years, from 536 B.C. to 516 B.C.—twenty years, with fifteen years dormant. Think of that. What great encouragement it must have been.
The first word is in verse 6:
“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.”
Think of that. So often, we think the church lives and dies by our strength and our power. You may say, “Oh, brother, I am much more spiritual than that. I do not do that at all.” You may misunderstand me, but so often down through the ages, it has been based on our power and our strength.
The great word of encouragement came to Zechariah: it is not by natural power and it is not by natural strength, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. That is the word of encouragement.
In other words, it does not depend on your strength or your might. You may say, “You do not understand. I do not have any strength in life.” That is good news. It is not by your might or by your power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.
That is the only way the testimony will be recovered. That is the only way it can be done. Some of us are not responsible by nature, and we say, “Well, it does not matter. We could care less.” Others are more responsible by nature, and we feel as though the weight of the world is upon our shoulders. We think, “If it is not for us, this thing will not happen.”
Surely the governor, Zerubbabel, must have felt that way. He was responsible, after all. This was the Word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel:
“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.”
He will build His church through the power and energy of His Holy Spirit, not by our own might and strength.
Now you begin to understand what the Lord Jesus meant when He said—perhaps in John 16—“It is profitable for you that I go away.” Can you imagine if you were those disciples? They were thinking, “No, Lord, it is not profitable. Do not go.”
Our little granddaughter Lily says that every time we are about to leave: “Don’t go.”
But the Lord said:
“It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send Him unto you.”
Think of it. The great encouragement is that He gave the greatest provision of all time as a resource to build His testimony. The troubles may be great; indeed, they are. The opposition may be great; indeed, it is. The weakness may be profound; yes, it is.
That was not a campaign slogan, by the way. Nobody got that? That is good.
But He has given His Holy Spirit, and through that Holy Spirit, He can recover His testimony.
The second thing is in verse 7:
“Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.”
This is said with disdain. Do you understand that what they were facing was not molehills? It was mountains. Not merely mountains, but great mountains.
They had tremendous difficulty, tremendous opposition, and tremendous warfare. Yet the Word of the Lord comes with disdain: “Who are you? You are nothing. You will become a plain.”
Even the greatest difficulties will disappear or become a plain through which we can go. This is great encouragement.
I remember going up to West Virginia once in a while. You may say, “What is in West Virginia?” I went up to a power plant to do work there. It is the coldest place I think I have ever been.
I remember one day standing outside. The air temperature was five degrees below zero, and there were forty-mile-an-hour winds. I literally thought I was going to die. They felt so sorry for me that they brought out a hood. I did not have enough sense to wear a hood—just my little hard hat. My ears had turned blue long before.
They were asking for engineering advice, and all I could do was hear my teeth chatter. But in the early days, when we went up there, we had to go over the mountains—over the mountains, with switchbacks and steep grades.
There would be ten-percent grades, trucks going down the hill, ice, fog, and snow. I remember Linda and I went up there once to an engineering conference, and by the second mountain, we had to pull over for her to throw up. I know that is probably something you should not say in messages, but these mountains were difficult mountains.
But you know what they did? This was so smart. I love West Virginia. Go, West Virginia. Sorry, Jerry—Jerry is from West Virginia.
They put a new interstate right through the mountains and leveled the mountains. It is beautiful. I cannot wait to get to that road every time I go up there. I go flying down the road, singing about these great mountains: “Who art thou, O great mountain?” They leveled them.
You went right through the difficulty to your destination and target. That is what the Lord says. That is the great word of encouragement.
If that is not enough, it goes on and on. Verse 7 says:
“He shall bring forth the headstone with shoutings of, Grace, grace, unto it.”
Can you imagine what hope this gives us, what encouragement this inspires? It tells us that the work will be done. It will be completed.
When it is completed, you and I will not be sitting around on some rock saying, “Boy, that was tough going.” We will be joining the chorus and shouting, “Grace, grace unto it!” It was all of grace. He did it all.
In spite of the opposition, in spite of the difficulty, in spite of the trouble, it was all of grace. That capstone is put in place with shouts of, “Grace, grace unto it!” Brothers and sisters, that is great encouragement.
The Word of the Lord in verse 9 to Zerubbabel was this:
“The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it.”
Why is that such great encouragement? Because this very crew, who had become so discouraged, so overwhelmed, and had given up, were the ones who were going to finish the building of that house.
Zerubbabel is a type of Christ. He is one of the clearest illustrations of Christ in the whole Old Testament. The Lord Jesus said to Peter, when speaking of opposition and difficulties:
“I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
He used the very worst case: “The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Now that is encouragement. That is great encouragement.
The hands of Zerubbabel laid the foundation of this house. The apostle Paul said:
“For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
He is the foundation, and the Lord Jesus said, “I will complete this work.” To me, that is such great encouragement. I hope it is to you.
Look at this little word in verse 9:
“And thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you.”
Think of that encouragement. The encouragement that came through the minor prophets was, “I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts.” You will never call them minor again.
Where would we be? You may think, “Oh, we are too small.” But the Lord said:
“Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”
The day of small things—there am I in your midst. “I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts.” This is the great encouragement.
Then there is this rebuke, the one rebuke that is really strong:
“For who hath despised the day of small things?”
We get discouraged. We think things are too small, of no significance. But we need to see things as the Lord sees things. The Lord loves to use small things.
Think of all the stories in the Bible where the Lord uses small things. Consider the feeding of the five thousand. What did He do? He took a little boy’s lunch, fed the five thousand, and at the end there were twelve basketfuls left over—an abundance.
Think of David. All Israel was shivering in their sandals before the Philistine, and David, this little shepherd boy, had a sling and five smooth stones. What could he possibly do? It was the day of small things. Yet it became one of the greatest victories in Israel.
Think of the one hundred and twenty. If there ever was a ministry on earth that was the most powerful ministry, surely it was the Lord Jesus’ ministry. Yet at the end of His ministry, only one hundred and twenty were left.
If that were you and me, we would say it was an utter failure. Forgive me, Lord, even to think of that; it is illustrative. We would say, “It is an utter failure—only one hundred and twenty.” But that one hundred and twenty, those small things, changed the world.
Think of an unnoticed, unknown fellow born to a poor miner. He happened to be Martin Luther. Nobody noticed his birth but Mr. and Mrs. Luther. Yet an unnamed man brought down the power of the papacy and transformed the religious and cultural world.
Small things. Do not despise the small things.
I think of Nehemiah. Tobiah was there in the background, hassling Nehemiah. Can I use that word, “hassling”? He said, “What is this thing that you are doing? If a fox goes up on your stone wall, it will fall down.”
Despise. Yet Nehemiah later said:
“I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down.”
It may be small. We are certainly small. But God delights in using small things. First Corinthians 1:27 says that He has chosen the weak things of the world, the things that are not, the foolish things of the world, and even the despised things of the world.
That is our God. That is the glory of His encouragement.
Finally, in the encouragement, it says:
“These seven shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel.”
Now, this plummet is a plumb bob, for those who do not know. A modern plumb bob is a pointed weight on a string that we set to mark. It is absolutely critical that this plumb measurement, this plumb bob, this point, be right.
It sets the mark. It dictates when there is to be a change or a movement. It sets the line. It makes things right. The plumb bob is very important. Any of you who have had a surveying course know what I am talking about. Now everything is electronic.
But the great encouragement was that you would see the plummet in Zerubbabel’s hand. Why is that such great encouragement? You would think the governor would have a surveyor to whom he delegated holding the plumb bob.
You would think Zerubbabel would call someone and say, “Elias, come over here. Take this plumb bob out in the field. Turn a few points and measures, and get this temple back on course. You do this.”
But the great encouragement was this: “You shall see the plummet in Zerubbabel’s hand.” Zerubbabel is a type of Christ. He is the One who is building.
He never gives up the plumb bob to you and me. He never says, “Jerry, take charge of the plumb bob.” It is always in His hand. He is the Head of the church. He is the One we follow. He is the One from whom we take orders. He is the course and the direction.
This is the great encouragement: He will finish the work.
I hope that hits you the way it hit me—the great encouragement. How we need encouragement. But this is extraordinary encouragement.
One last point. It is not very long, but I think it is equally vital. The last few verses, verses 11 through 14, have been a mystery to many people. I believe they have to do with a great calling.
We read:
“What are these two olive-trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?
What are these two olive-branches, which are beside the two golden spouts, that empty the golden oil out of themselves?
These are the two sons of oil, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”
What are these two olive trees? We are not told who they are. If you read this chapter, you may ask, “Who are they? Why did the prophet not tell us who they are?”
I think they are purposely obscured, because what we see is a calling and a principle for every believer, not just for a few.
There are different interpretations, and we are not going to deal a lot with them. Some, and I believe they are right, have said this is Zerubbabel and Joshua. Indeed, it must have been. They were the anointed sons of oil, chosen to bring this remnant back and help them rebuild the temple of God.
Other people, perhaps even more rightly, say this is prophetic and Messianic. It speaks of the Lord Jesus, who is our King and our Priest. Only in the Lord Jesus is there an unlimited supply of oil that will never run out.
Others go in a literal way to Revelation 11:1-13. Verse 4 says:
“These are the two olive-trees and the two candlesticks, standing before the Lord of the earth.”
Their names are not given. Some say this is Enoch and Elijah, the two witnesses who never died. Some say it is Moses and Elijah, as seen on the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17.
I think the beauty of it is that it may be all of these in some sense, in some way. But we are never told who it is, and I think there is a reason.
Today, there is a great calling for every believer. He is looking for sons of oil. Ephesians 4:16 says that every one of us is to be a joint of supply.
It is easy for us to say, “Well, that was Moses. That was Elijah. That was Enoch. That was the Lord Jesus. That was Zerubbabel. That was Joshua.” But in the end, it is you.
There is a great call. He is looking for some who will respond—maybe just a few, but ones who will respond.
They only do two things here. That is all I read: only two things. One is that they empty oil out of themselves. Some versions say they empty the golden oil out of themselves; some say they empty the gold out of themselves. I think “golden oil” is probably more correct.
They empty it out of themselves. This is the one thing they can do. Brothers and sisters, are you willing to be empty?
People say, “Oh, I want to be a Martin Luther. I want to be a great saint.” It all starts with those who are willing to empty themselves.
Then they will be filled with a golden oil that never runs out. These sons of oil will be those through whom the testimony of God is recovered in difficult times.
This is really where my burden ends. The second thing is that they stand before the Lord of the whole earth. He is looking for some who will stand with Him. That is the great calling.
You may think, “This is not me. This could never be me.” But I believe those names are obscured for divine reasons, because today He is looking out among His people.
He is saying, as Moses said when they built the golden calf:
“Who is on the Lord’s side? Come unto me.”
Brothers and sisters, will we respond to that call? This is something you will never regret—in this lifetime or in the one to come.
You are called to be a son of oil. This is the great calling.
Lord, we confess right off that we do not see much. But we do see a little.
We want You to have Your testimony recovered in the earth. We want to be part of that city, that habitation for God in the Spirit. We want to be those living stones, where Christ is preeminent and where You are seen above all.
We thank You that this thing that seems too high, almost impossible, is met by Your greatest encouragement. Without Your encouragement, surely we would despair. But we are thankful that with this encouragement, we can press on.
Lord, I do not know all it means, but I do want to be a son of oil.
Along with my brothers and sisters, I offer myself to You in a fresh way, that in our generation You may find those who are willing to empty the golden oil out of themselves, to be filled in an extraordinary way, that Your testimony may burn brightly.
And Lord, in the end, we want our legacy from this life to be one thing: that when the call came, we answered, and we were among those who stood with the Lord of the whole earth.
Oh God, with us it is impossible. With God all things are possible. We commit these things to You in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.