Not By Might, Not By Power
Aug 3, 2008 Zechariah 4
Intro:
I like to get things done. To make things happen. To accomplish something. To be “productive”. Cut a board, build a fire, assemble a shelf, paint a sanctuary. Part of it is my personality, part of it is a desire that all of us have – to do something tangible, important, worthwhile, significant. And then to look back and say, with pride, “I did that – that was me – I made that happen…” And for the most part, there is nothing wrong with that – it is part of how God made us to function in this world He created for us.
But my desire to “get things done” gets complicated when it comes to things of the spirit. When it comes to faith. When my desire to accomplish something tangible butts against the world of the intangible, it gets a little complicated… So then what do we do?? Our passage from Zechariah this morning offers some help…
Background:
This summer we have been studying this short book at the end of the Old Testament. Zechariah the prophet spoke during the 5th century BC, at a time when the people of God had returned from slavery in Babylon and were rebuilding, the focus during this period of time being the rebuilding of the temple. Something nice and concrete, tangible, the kind of project I would greatly enjoy with my desire to get things done and accomplish stuff.
As we’ve studied the book for the past month, we’ve read of a number of visions Zechariah had, and seen what they meant then and what they mean for us. They have been great visions of hope, of the promise of the presence of God, and of the promise of forgiveness and restoration. Last Sunday Gail Smith walked us through chapter 3 – I wasn’t here but I read her message and loved how she brought the passage to life, I felt like I was there and could see (and smell!) how filthy the sins of the people were and then how beautiful and refreshing and incredible the forgiveness of God which cleansed them. An amazing vision, pointing ahead to Jesus and the complete forgiveness which we celebrate and remember again this morning through communion.
Zechariah 4 (NIV)
So this morning we come to chapter 4. This is the NIV translation:
1 Then the angel who talked with me returned and wakened me, as a man is wakened from his sleep. 2 He asked me, "What do you see?" I answered, "I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top and seven lights on it, with seven channels to the lights. 3 Also there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left." 4 I asked the angel who talked with me, "What are these, my lord?" 5 He answered, "Do you not know what these are?" "No, my lord," I replied.
6 So he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ’Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty. 7 "What are you, O mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ’God bless it! God bless it!’ " 8 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 9 "The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you. 10 "Who despises the day of small things? Men will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. "(These seven are the eyes of the LORD, which range throughout the earth.)"
11 Then I asked the angel, "What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?" 12 Again I asked him, "What are these two olive branches beside the two gold pipes that pour out golden oil?" 13 He replied, "Do you not know what these are?" "No, my lord," I said. 14 So he said, "These are the two who bring oil* and serve the Lord of all the earth."
* takes translation from NIV footnote (changed from “these are the two who are anointed to serve…”)
Struggling with the text:
The chapter begins with Zechariah’s fifth vision, which he describes for us in vs. 1-5, and then is partly explained in vs. 11-14. The vision is interrupted by vs. 6-10, which are a prophetic utterance (you can tell by the phrase “This is the word of the LORD”).
This is a really difficult chapter to figure out. I read my commentaries, dug through my tools, and spent several hours wrestling with the image and the translations and the wide number of different ideas about what all these things symbolize, and I confess: I couldn’t figure it all out. What does the lampstand symbolize – the presence of God among His people or the people of God shining like a bright light? Does it refer back to the Tabernacle and the lampstand there, or to Solomon’s temple with its numerous lampstands, or does it look ahead to the lampstands we see at the end of time in Revelation 11? What are these two olive trees – do they represent people (maybe Zerubbabel and Joshua, or maybe Zechariah and Haggai), or are they “heavenly beings” (so NLT)? What are these “seven eyes” plopped in to the end of vs 10 – are they referring to the lampstand or does it refer back to the jewel with seven eyes in chapter 3? There are a number of uncommon words in the original languages which makes translation difficult, and influences how we interpret what is going on – you can see an example of that in verse 14 where I elected to read the text with the translation provided in the NIV footnote.
So normally, in cases like this, I am able to shift through the problems and possibilities, read the different perspectives, and come to a conclusion that I am satisfied with and then explore how that relates to us. But with this passage, I couldn’t – at least not without another weeks’ worth of effort! And to be honest, that bothers me (remember how I like to accomplish things…). But there is more to the chapter than the vision and its interpretation, so I’m choosing to focus on the part that does make sense and that does speak clearly to us today, the middle part. I think there are some things here that the Holy Spirit wants to speak to us.
Not By Might…:
This middle section is “the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel”. Who was he? He was the governor – the Jew appointed by the Persians as the chief political leader. He wasn’t a king, but he was the closest they had. And so he played a really important role in the rebuilding of the temple, as we see in this passage.
The word that comes to him is a well known verse: “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says the LORD (of heaven’s armies).” You’ve probably heard it, maybe even had it committed to memory. Did you know it came out of this context? The people of God returned from exile, still vulnerable, without an army to protect them and with a huge task (namely the rebuilding of their entire country, especially their faith and their religious structures). They were weak, yet they were getting started.
I’ll come back to that verse in just a moment, but looking at vs. 7 sets the stage. There is a good possibility that this “mighty mountain” is referring to the mountain of rubble that used to be Solomon’s temple. I think they are looking at this huge mess, stones and rubble and dirt, quite probably feeling completely inadequate and overwhelmed, and then God says to the mess, “what are you??”, God is saying “sure that looks intimidating, it looks insurmountable, it looks hard and maybe even impossible”, and in our own strength, with just our own resources, maybe it is.
Now I want you to keep that image in mind, the people of God looking at the pile of rubble that used to be their glorious temple and that looks impossible to deal with, but now I want you to think about your life. Is there something there that is similar, or that feels similar? Something that looks like a huge mess? A big pile of rubble, overwhelming, insurmountable, out of your control? Maybe it is even something you try not to think about, because it just makes you anxious. Well think about it now.
And now hear the word of the LORD to you. “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says the LORD (of heaven’s armies).” Those two words, “might” and “power” are used on purpose, and when put together like they are here they basically mean everything and anything that people could do. “Might” is a military word, “power” a more general word for all human resources. Commentator George Klein says, “Together, the terms “might” and “power” form a hendiadys encompassing the panoply of human resources that one might marshal in order to effect God’s will.” (Zechariah, “New American Commentary” series, p. 159). Should I apologize for a quote with the words “hendiadys” and “panoply” on a summer long weekend?? It helps emphasize the point – not by anything, at all, that human resources can accomplish.
Back to our lives – that pile of rubble, that mess, which you feel powerless against – that is ok. Because it is “Not by might nor by power”, not by anything that you and I can do, “but by my Spirit says the LORD (of heaven’s armies).” You and I can’t do it, but God can. We can’t physically heal, we can’t change the heart of a loved one far from God, we can’t heal the grief, we can’t fight our way through a financial mess on our own, we can’t force our teens to make good choices, we can’t see all the possible outcomes of the various choices ahead of us and thus make the perfect decision, we can’t find peace with incredibly hard things that are beyond our control. Now here is the good news – we don’t have to! “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says the LORD (of heaven’s armies).” We can’t do it, but God can. Only the Spirit of God can handle those messes in our lives. Will you let Him? Will you trust Him? Will you give Him control, and have faith that what God has promised will be done?
Looking back to the text, we find the next critical piece: we are not passive bystanders in the work of God. See how vs 7 continues with the active role that Zerubbabel plays – before Zerubbabel the mess becomes level ground, and then he brings out the capstone. Vs. 9 is even more tangible – the “hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation…” Sometimes I wonder if we think the response of faith is one of passivity – what I mean is that facing the metaphorical pile of rubble in our lives, we think that claiming “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says the LORD (of heaven’s armies).” means we stand back and do nothing. We wait for the spiritual bulldozer to appear from the sky and do all the work, while we sip lemonade from a safe distance away. But that is certainly not the picture here – Zerubbabel is up to his elbows in the mess, carrying out the stones himself – so where does this leave us? How do we trust yet still work; leave it to God yet get in it up to our elbows; believe it is “not by might nor by power” yet still exert all our might and all our power? More specifically, facing the pile of rubble in our lives, do we try to do it or do we try to do nothing in our desire to leave it to God? God, or us?
The answer is found in the way God has always interacted with us – He always works with us. He leads, He directs, He empowers, but He does it in cooperation with us. He does it, but uses us to do it. Without God, it is powerless and ineffective. Without our cooperation, our involvement, our sweat and effort, God often stands by and waits until we are willing to follow, before He’ll jump in and lead and empower.
So we return to the mess of rubble we see in our lives, and recognize that we cannot be observers, we must be participants. Always recognizing that it is not by our might or power, but by the might and power of the Spirit of God working in and through us, so that the glory all belongs to God. But we must roll up our sleeves and get active, we have to attack that pile of rubble and begin to, by the power of the Spirit, remove rock by rock, shovel by shovel, until the mess is cleaned up and we can rebuild.
Now I imagine some of you feeling deflated. Going back to the feeling helpless in the face of the massive mess. Probably thinking “well I tried that already, and it didn’t make a difference. Nothing happened, the mess is still there…”.
Let me suggest from the passage that the people of God in Zechariah’s day felt exactly the same thing. They looked at the mess, saw a few rocks get moved out of the way, and weren’t impressed. The pile was too big, the obstacles too huge, the pain too great, the work too much. And the beginning too modest. Too small. Enter the word of the LORD: “Who despises the day of small things?” This little phrase is in direct contrast to the “Day of great things”, a phrase the people knew well, and they associated with the presence of God. When God came, when God’s Spirit moved, well it must be in great and mighty ways, that everyone can see, that are incredible and overwhelming, right? Like some massive angel army appears and clears the pile of rubble away in 5 minutes, that is the way it is supposed to be, right?
Not always, and not now. God doesn’t relieve us of all responsibility and do all the work for us. He empowers us, and we get started. And maybe it is a small start. A few boulders moved, a few shovels of dirt thrown to the side. Maybe facing the mountain of rubble you got started too, and it looked small. Insignificant even. The passage speaks to this! Don’t despise a small beginning! Don’t dig in and then quit! Don’t start and get discouraged!
Because, after all, the end result isn’t up to us. We aren’t supposed to shoulder the burden, assume the responsibility, carry the load. We aren’t the ones, in our “might and power”, to make the ultimate difference. Maybe the beginning is slow, but do not despair. In the context of the passage, the promise, the vision, is this future picture of Zerubbabel making progress on the temple (the “plumb line” symbolizing the beginning of rebuilding and the end of the clean up). In our lives, facing our pile of rubble, what is the promise, what is the vision?
Without knowing the specifics of your struggle, I can still affirm the promise. It is freedom and life. Freedom from the weight of the burden. Freedom from the sin that keeps us flat on the ground with our faces in the muck. Freedom from the feeling that we have to be in charge of it all. Freedom from the pain that keeps us stuck. Freedom from the stress of trying to be in control.
To get there, we have to first believe that it is “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says the LORD (of heaven’s armies).” Then we have to dig in, pull away boulder by boulder. Start small, that’s ok. Maybe you write a note to apologize, and a few rocks are moved. Maybe you make an appointment with a counselor to start some healing; another shovel. Maybe you just start to pray about the mess again, and you make a small beginning. Start small, get to work on it, all the while knowing and believing that God can, and God will, keep His promise and deliver us to freedom and to life.
