MINORS’ LESSONS THAT HAVE MAJOR IMPACT IV: DEPENDENCE – Learned from Zechariah
From Zephaniah, we learned HUMILITY. We honor God when we humble ourselves before God lest we become comfortable and complacent.
From Haggai, we learned COMMITMENT. We honor God when we do whatever needs to be done in His Name, whenever it needs to be done, for as long as it needs to be done. Keep your promises to God!
From Zechariah, we learned REPENTANCE. We honor God, and we do ourselves a favor, when we repent of our sins and trust God to forgive us and to lead us in the way He would have us go in life.
Another lesson we learn from Zechariah is DEPENDENCE. Truth is the Lord wants people of faith – those of us who have humbled ourselves, repented of our sins, and committed our way unto Him, to depend on His Holy Spirit for direction and guidance in life.
Now hear this: Unless we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us, nothing of lasting value will be accomplished!
Now I don’t know about you; but for me, just knowing that the Spirit of God is willing and able to empower me is the one thing in my life that gives me hope; it’s the one thing in my life that encourages me to carry on.
God’s Holy Spirit empowers me; God’s Holy Spirit encourages me; so I say as I pray: “Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me; Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me; mold me, make me, fill me, use me; Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me.” What does this have to do with Zechariah?
Zechariah was a visionary prophet; he was one who saw visions. You know as well as I do that visionary folks are oftentimes looked upon with suspicion – the reason being that so much of what they envision seems to be so impractical – “off the wall” or “way out in left field.”
Zechariah was a trusted visionary; i.e., he was not considered to be a lunatic. His visions inevitably turned out to reveal truth and, therefore, he was accepted as a prophet very much in touch with the Lord.
The vision we look at today is the vision of the lamp stand; in this vision, God revealed that He the Lord would REBUILD the temple through the power of the Holy Spirit, not through human power or might.
But listen to this: The Holy Spirit’s instruments would be people of faith; and their leaders would be two persons of great faith – one a political leader and the other a spiritual leader (God uses both). In this case, God chose Zeb the governor of the “colony” of Judah, and Joshua the high priest. These two leaders had been appointed by Cyrus the Persian King; he was the king who issued that famous decree which permitted Jewish captives to return to Judah in order to rebuild the temple.
Babylon had destroyed the temple in 587 B.C. and had taken most of the Jews into captivity - where they lived a pretty good life; and that good life prompted many of them to like it there. Then Persia conquered Babylon. One of the first acts of Cyrus the king of Persia was to allow those who wanted to return to Judah to do so. Many returned; many did not.
To maintain control of those who returned, the king made Judah a “colony” of Persia; then he appointed Zeb governor of the “colony” of Judah and Joshua high priest. Both were “hand-picked” leaders; but make no mistake about it, the hand that picked them was guided by the Lord God!
These two leaders started their work rebuilding the temple only to be harassed and threatened by a coalition made up of some of the Jews who had remained in Judah (during the period of captivity) and some of Judah’s tribal enemies. So, the work on the temple was halted by the resistance; and that left the two leaders - Zeb and Josh – with no choice except to await a word from the Lord.
The message came to Zeb and Josh via Zechariah who received the message in a vision from God via an angel. Isn’t it marvelous the way God works through those who trust Him ?
Zechariah 4:1-14 . . .
Notice (v.1) this was a “rousing” experience for Zechariah. You might think of it as a “wake up” call. The “angel” got his attention. Have you had an experience which left you feeling that God was trying to “rouse” you?
Do you think the question the angel asked the prophet (v.2) could be asked of you and me? “What do you see?”
Maybe what the angel really wanted to know was whether Zechariah understood what he saw rather than the mere fact that he saw a lamp stand. There can be no doubt that he did see a lamp stand.
It becomes rather obvious here that the mission of this angel was to help Zechariah interpret his vision. This kind of angel is sometimes referred to as an “interpreting angel” – (the kind I must depend on all the time for my own understanding of scripture).
“What do you see, Zech?” “I see a solid gold lamp stand; at the top of it there is a bowl; and I see seven lamps each of which connects to the bowl by a separate conduit; but I also see (v.3) two olive trees – one on each side of the lamp stand, and I don’t know what all of this means.” “What!? You are God’s messenger and you don’t see the meaning?”
There are times when a spokesman for God must admit that he does not have all the answers; he does not always get it right when he does try to explain the meaning of a vision or, as is the case with most of us, a verse of scripture.
We who teach, preach and interpret scripture MUST rely upon the Holy Spirit to teach us so that we may teach others. Those who want to LEARN must rely on the same Spirit for understanding God’s Word.
We are fortunate about this vision; its interpretation comes directly from God’s messenger – the angel of the Lord.
The angel’s explanation (vs. 6-10a) gives us some advice that we had better pay attention to – and it’s this: God’s work has eternal value, and is not going to be accomplished by force (“strength”) - whether that force comes from a group of religious people, from a mighty army, or from wealth. You can even have strong leaders – intelligent, powerful – but it won’t happen simply because of WHO they are and how smart they may be.
Neither the governor nor the high priest had these inner or outer resources . . . so they had better understand that the task would never be completed EXCEPT by the power of the Holy Spirit; even if it was finished insofar as the building itself was concerned, the results would have no lasting effect - unless the Spirit of God EMPOWERED their efforts.
With the Spirit of God in charge, how could they fail? Even if the problems seemed to be insurmountable – as high as Mount Everest – there is no “mountain” that God’s people cannot conquer and turn it into “a plain.”
The truth is that when our God-appointed tasks are completed due to the power of the Spirit of God, we will look back upon what we thought was a BIG problem, and see it as a SMALL matter.
And, praise God, when that happens, people of faith will see that the Lord has been and will be with them all the way; you will hear shouts of joy even when the governor holds the “plumb line” in his hand because people of faith will know that the task is of God and, therefore, WILL be finished!
One other thought (vs. 10b-14): Keep in mind that the number seven represents perfection; so, the lamps represent the perfect light of God; the two olive trees represent a never-ending source of power; the gold of the conduits as well as the oil itself represents pure unadulterated divine power. It hasn’t been watered down! God’s power is supreme power!
Because of the majestic power of God at work in His people via the Spirit of God, there are two results seen in this vision of the lamp stand:
* The short-term end result would be the completion of the temple.
* The long-term result of dependence on the Holy Spirit will be the completion of our journey - when we will join with the witnesses of those days as together we stand with the Lord of all believers – our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – to give honor and glory and praise to the Lord God of heaven and earth. “To that end God’s people have been anointed!” Amen.
