Zechariah 4

We're in Zechariah chapter 4, which is an explanation of Zechariah's fifth vision. So just a brief recap.

We're now in the second part of the book of Zechariah, which goes from verse 7 of chapter 1 right through to the end of chapter 6. And this part explains the eight visions that Zechariah had in a single night.

And I don't imagine he got an awful lot of sleep that night. And we have looked at four of the visions so far. And by the way, you'll come across people who will say there are 10 visions, not eight.

And it's a semantic point, but some people separate out things that I don't think the text does. But I'm not going to give it time because it doesn't really matter.

We're still talking about the same content, if you like. So the first four visions were as follows. Vision one was the man on the red horse. This was we we discovered this was a picture of Jesus, the angel of the Lord, ready to deal with those who have treated his people harshly.

The second vision was a vision of horns and craftsmen. And the horns were kingdoms or empires that had arisen.

And when they had harshly treated the Jews. So those were the horns and the craftsmen were the subsequent empires that God raised up to deal with the people who'd harshly treated his people.

And there is a pattern throughout scripture where God will bring his people under discipline. But if the people who are administering that discipline are too harsh, he will then bring judgment upon them later on.

Then we have the third vision, which was the man with the measuring line. And this is a picture of the Lord measuring the city of Jerusalem. And it was a futuristic vision of an Israel that would be well protected.

And an Israel for which or a city for which the city of Jerusalem for which he has very, very clear plans. Hence, you need a very precise measuring line to measure it to make sure it will do what the Lord has planned for it.

And then we had the vision four, which was of Joshua, the high priest. And he was revealed as a type of both Christ and Israel.

And so his role as the high priest, remember his name, Joshua, is a form of Yeshua. His name even announces him as a type of the Messiah.

And so this was explaining to us how this high priest who was ritually cleansed, his dirty garments were removed, his clean garments were put on and he was put in this place of righteousness, just like Jesus.

Jesus didn't need to be cleansed, but Joshua did because he was human. But he was a human type of Messiah. And once he put on his priestly robes, he was able to do messianic sort of things.

In other words, lead the people in the right way. And he was anointed of God for the task once his dirty garments, which, of course, symbolized sin, had been removed. So that's not only a picture of Christ, is it?

But it's also a picture of us. And we looked at the fact that we were all kings and priests to our God, according to the book of, I think it's 1 Peter, that we too have had our filthy garments removed and are therefore able to minister in righteousness, despite the fact that full righteousness is yet to come to us.

It's imputed to us at present. The Lord has credited it to our account. And so now we move on to the fifth vision.

And if you turn to Zechariah chapter 4, we will read it. And this is all about, this vision looks at a lampstand, which, of course, to us, many of us, it's like the table lamp or the standard lamp that stands in the corner of the room.

That's our picture of a lamp. Could I have the picture of the lamp on the screen, please? The lampstand in question looked like this. And it was very carefully crafted.

We'll look at that in a moment. And in one sense, this is what Zechariah was seeing. But in another sense, completely, this was a very much watered down version of what Zechariah was seeing.

Because he saw an embellished vision of the golden lampstand. So let's read. Then the angel of the Lord, who was speaking with me, returned and roused me as a man who is awakened from his sleep.

He said to me, what do you see? And I said, behold, a lampstand, all of gold, with its bowl on top of it, and its seven lamps on it, with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps which are on top of it.

Also two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on the left side. And then I said to the angel who was speaking with me, what are these, my lord?

So the angel who was speaking with me answered and said to me, do you not know what these are? And I said, no, my lord. Then he said to me, this is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain, and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of grace, grace to it.

Also the word of the Lord came to me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will 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? But these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. These are the eyes of the Lord which range to and fro throughout the earth.

Then I said to him, what are these two olive trees on the right of the lampstand and on its left? And I answered the second time and said to him, what are the two olive branches which are beside the two golden pipes, which empty the golden oil from themselves?

So he answered me, saying, do you not know what these are? And I said, no, my Lord. Then he said, these are the two anointed ones who are standing by the Lord of the whole earth.

Simple, really? Wow. Where this vision starts, I get this picture is that Zechariah, he's had the fourth vision, and he's kind of dozing off and hasn't finished quite going back to sleep, and then he's suddenly aroused as though from sleep, and he may have been having some sort of reverie or daydream.

I don't know. The scripture's not clear. But whatever it was, it was kind of, oh, you, you're not going back to sleep now, there's more. And so he's aroused to look at this new vision.

And the first thing we notice is that he's looking at a lampstand that is all of gold. Now, the lampstand in the temple was always gold, like that.

And it was carefully crafted, and we'll look at how it was crafted in a moment, but it was very carefully crafted. And so all of the Jews hearing this vision explained would know whether in their mind's eye or because they were in the temple looking at something similar, whatever, they would know what he was talking about.

And the fact that it's golden, gold in the scriptures often speaks to us of God's presence, his radiance and his glory. We know, for example, if we had the time to look at it, that there would be lots and lots of gold in the temple.

God's house was full of gold. The Holy of Holies had lots of gold stuff in it. The Ark of the Covenant was completely covered in gold. The angels that sat on top of it were gold.

Everywhere God is, there's gold. And so it's symbolic or seen as symbolic of his presence, his radiance, his glory. And so as we read on, we would expect to uncover things about the glorious presence and power of God.

Now, the account begins and it's describing a traditional lampstand. And everybody would go, oh yeah, I know what that's about.

And it's quite apposite because the golden lampstand needed to be restored to the temple. And they're building the temple as this is all going on.

It's part of Zechariah's ministry is to encourage them to rebuild the temple. So it's very timely. And so if we turn to Exodus 25, verses 31 to 40.

Now, chapter 25 is about various rules about how you put things together in the sanctuary. And it talks about the Ark of the Covenant.

And in verse 23, it talks about the table of showbread. And then you get to the golden lampstand. And the Lord, through Moses, says this, or says this to Moses.

Then you shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand and its base, its shaft, are to be made of hammered work. Its cups, its bulbs, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it.

Six branches shall go out from its sides. Three branches of the lampstand from its one side, and three branches of the lampstand from its other side. Three cups shall be shaped like almond blossoms in the one branch.

A bulb and a flower, and three cups shaped like almond blossoms in the other branch. A bulb and a flower. So for six branches going out from the lampstand.

And in the lampstand, four cups are shaped like almond blossoms, its bulbs, and its flowers. A bulb shall be under the first pair of branches coming out from it, and a bulb under the second pair of branches coming out from it, and a bulb under the third pair of branches coming out from it.

For the six branches coming out of the lampstand. Their bulbs and their branches shall be of one piece with it. All of it shall be one piece of hammered work, pure gold.

Then you shall make its lamps seven in number, and they shall mount its lamps so as to shed light on the space in front of it. Its snuffers and their trays shall be of pure gold.

It shall be made from a talent of pure gold with all these utensils. See that you make them after the pattern for them which was shown to you on the mountain.

So Moses had gone up the mountain, and God had shown him the pattern for these things. And so this is an instruction to make something that looks approximately like this. It doesn't describe the base, by the way.

It's never described. It says there's a base there, but we don't know what it looked like. And so it looks roughly like this. Now, you may know, you may remember from a previous study that the menorah, this candlestick is called a menorah, the menorah in the temple in latter days was 60 to 70 feet tall.

It was absolutely huge. And in fact, one of the problems they've got when they come to rebuilding the new temple and furnishing the new temple is that gold is by nature very soft.

And to get the metal to support the weight of these, it's some kind of metallurgy that we still don't know. Because the branches of this massive candelabra won't stay up.

They wilt. But this is a problem that they've got. Now, you may also remember that when we were studying through the feasts, we talked about the Feast of Tabernacles.

And this massive candelabra was lit. And it was so bright that it was said that in any courtyard in the whole of Jerusalem, you could read by it.

It shed so much light that it was startlingly bright. And this went out through the various windows and apertures in the temple and shed over the whole city.

So how does that apply to this? Well, in one way it doesn't because it's not talking about that candelabra, but in principle it does. And what we read, as we read on here, what we find is that that candlestick, go back to Zechariah, this candlestick has marked differences from a normal candlestick.

So quite typically the Lord is using something with which they are very familiar to introduce something that they are not familiar with.

So in verse 2 he says, I see, behold, a lampstand, all of gold, with its bowl on top of it, and its seven lamps on it, with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps, which are on top of it.

Now, this one has to be filled by someone. Someone goes along with an oil pot and fills up each one. And so it will only burn as long as the oil will allow, and then somebody has to come along and refill it.

This one, however, has got a bowl on top of it, and the seven lamps on it, with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps, which are on top of it.

And then in the next verse, also two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left side. And there is therefore, and we'll come to it later in the chapter, but I need to say something about it now, or the rest doesn't make sense.

The main difference with this lamp is that it is completely self-sustaining. The olive trees that make the oil that it burns are right there with, it has its own bowls, which are filled without a man having to go along with his pot and fill it up.

So the main difference with this lampstand is it needs no attention from men. It is something that God provides, and God replenishes.

So it's an automatic version, rather like that. So we'll come to it in a minute, but it was fed by pipes from the olive trees that were next to it.

So we've already said, before we move on to the rest, more description of these differences, what was the menorah for?

Well, and the obvious answer is the only answer, really. It was to give light. And its construction of gold gold and its seven-branched construction made it a representation of God.

In that, I think we spoke about it in a previous session, we referred to the seven spirits of God. And we can revisit that if we need to.

But what you have here is a representation of God, seven spirits of God, shedding light. And seven is the number of divine completion.

And this, if you think back again to the Feast of Tabernacles that we spoke of a few minutes ago, this whole city could be lit by this lamp, but that lamp had to be refilled by men, and at the end of the feast, it went out.

This lamp, however, just burns. And it burns eternally because it never runs out of oil. So this was a very, very different proposition.

This lamp was, as we'll read in a moment, was self-sustaining, self-filling, and divinely kept to light. And so the prophet says, what are these?

And he gets a kind of enigmatic or mysterious response when the angel who was speaking with him says, not by might, this is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, not by might, and not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts, or Yahweh of armies.

One of the most famous verses of Scripture that we have, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. It's also one of the most misappropriated verses that there are, because it's usually thrown at someone who's struggling with a problem and in their encouragement of them to trust God in the problem.

This verse will be quoted. But what does it actually refer to? And I'm not, to be honest, taking it out of context in that way doesn't really do any harm.

It does encourage people to look to God. But what is it actually there for? And it's, by saying not by might and not by power, it's saying light comes from God without human effort.

It's not by might. It's not by power. It's not because I get my little oil pot and go and fill it up. It's not by anything other than God's anointing, God's spirit.

So, the lamp is a light, not by might and not by power. The lamp is a light by the spirit of God. Now, in the Bible, olive oil, which is what this lamp burned, was always a symbol of the Holy Spirit.

Hence, not by might, not by power, but by my spirit. That's the symbolism you're looking at, Zechariah. this is being kept to light, not by might, not by power, but by my spirit.

Now, if you remember, if you turn to, I think it's John 8, beginning at verse 12.

Now, before we read the verse, understand when it happened. Jesus has come to the temple for the Feast of Tabernacles. If you remember, sure we all do, that what had happened was, his brothers had said, come to the feast, and he'd said no.

And they all went on to the feast without him, and he came to the feast in his own time. And so, he kind of snuck in by the back door into the feast, so he didn't get mobbed. And then he began to take part in this feast.

And then there comes a point when the feast finishes, finishes, and this 60 foot high light is put out. It's gone. And it was at the point of that, at the end of the feast, when the light is going to go, that he says, as it says in John 8, 12, I am the light of the world.

He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. So Jesus aligned himself to the light, but he didn't align himself to the light whilst the men were keeping it alight.

He associated himself with the light that would go on beyond the efforts of men, if you follow that. what he then does, if we were to read on, we would find that the very next miracle he does was he heals the man born blind.

And so he brings light to a man who's never seen light. And then in John 9, if you just turn over the page, John 9, verse 5, he says, while I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

So, we begin to see that this menorah is a symbol of their Messiah who is to come, who's going to shed light on the whole world, not by might or power, but by the spirit of the living God.

So, Jesus had aligned himself with the menorah's symbolism and with Zechariah's vision of the golden lampstand, and he identifies that then as a messianic vision.

Zechariah was seeing something for a future time when Messiah would come. Now, it was said, this is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel.

Why Zerubbabel? Zerubbabel was of the royal line of David, and he was a descendant of a king called Caniah. Caniah. And if you think back to one of the sessions that Tony did quite a long time ago, where he spoke from the book of 1 Samuel, I think it was 1 Samuel, Caniah was the king.

If you turn to Jeremiah 22, Jeremiah 22, Caniah was a king whose line was cursed, and it was said that none of his descendants could sit on the throne of David.

So this man was a king, but wasn't allowed to be a king because his family was under a curse. So he was royal line of David, which is the messianic line, but he couldn't be king.

So in Jeremiah 22 verses 24 to 30, you read this, As I live, declares the Lord, even though Caniah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, yet I would pull you off.

I will give you over into the hand of those who are seeking your life, yes, into the hand of those whom you dread, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

I will hurl you and your mother who bore you into another country where you were not born, and there you will die. But as for the land to which they desire to return, they will not return to it.

Is this man Caniah a despised, shattered jar, or is he an undesirable vessel? Why have he and his descendants been hurled out and cast into the land they had not known?

O land, O land, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord, write down this man childless, a man who will not prosper in his days, for no man of his descendants will prosper, sitting on the throne of David, or ruling again in Judah.

So we're returning to the same curse that Tony showed us when we were studying Samuel. Now, so you've got this man Zerubbabel, and he's a royal man, but he is not appreciated as a royal man, and I would contend that this is also therefore a type of Christ, who came as the king of the Jews.

They even nailed that title up above his head when they crucified him, but the Jews didn't recognize him as their king. So there's a parallel there that is a little bit useful, but keep in mind that he is a royal descendant of David, and therefore has some sort of pretension to the throne of David, even though he can't take it up because the line is cursed.

And I think that just gives us a hint that this is a type of Christ. King Jesus was also not recognized as such during his earthly ministry. And then as we consider this vision, it follows the previous chapter which is all about Joshua the high priest, and we've already discovered that Joshua the high priest is also a type of Christ, have we not?

And so what we see, if you combine the two, you see the combination of the role of priest, Joshua, Joshua, Jesus, and king combined in one person.

Now it can't be shown as one person because in that day you couldn't be a king and priest. You had to be one or the other.

And it's, I'm not going to go into it in detail, but in order to be a priest you had to be a Levite, and Messiah was going to come from the line of Judah, not Levi. So if you were a Levite you couldn't be, you couldn't be, if you were a Levite you could be a priest, but you couldn't be a king.

And if you were a king you wouldn't, you'd have been a Levite, and in fact, what you have, you had Uzziah, was it, that was, he was disciplined, I think, did he have leprosy?

I can't remember. He had leprosy, but he wasn't, he was castigated for trying to be both. He was a king who took upon himself to be a priest, and he took on priestly duties, and God judged him for it.

Now if we then go back to Zechariah and follow on down to verse seven, so we dealt with verse six, the word to Zerubbabel saying, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

What are you, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel you will become a plain, and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of grace to it.

So, what are you, O great mountain? This is a simple way of showing mountains were always analogous with problems, insuperable problems, problems that were so massive that you wouldn't know what to do.

And so, when the word of the Lord says, what are you, O mountain? It shows us that no problem, mountains included, is insuperable for Zerubbabel.

Now, Zerubbabel was trying to get the temple rebuilt, and he'd been given lots of problems that were insurmountable to him at the time. And this was saying, in his own time, this, what seems like a mountain, will be made like a plain.

You will finish this temple. It will be finished with your hands. So, no problem is insuperable for Zerubbabel. But, if you also read the typology, it also gives us this hint that no problem is insuperable for Jesus either.

It goes on and says, he will bring forth the top stone. Now, the top stone is the last stone to be laid, with shouts of grace, grace to it.

Jesus was described in John's gospel as being full of grace and truth. He was the bringer of grace to this situation where there was massive opposition to him and to his gospel.

And so, the completed house in Zerubbabel's day was going to be one of grace. And, of course, the completed house of God, if you split that into two things in your mind, on the one hand, you have the church, which is supposed to be a source of grace to the world.

But, actually, this is not referring to the church, it's referring to Israel at some future time, I would suggest, in the millennial kingdom, when Israel will be seen as a place of grace.

And Israel will be completed, Jerusalem will be completed, will be completed by the Lord. Then we've got what could be a slightly confusing thing, says, for who has, this is verse 10, for who has despised the day of small things?

But these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. These are the eyes of the Lord, which reigns to and fro throughout the earth. Thank you, Lord, for making it simple.

What does this mean? Now, this is what I think it means, and I'm happy to be corrected or steered to other stuff that I haven't yet spotted.

But I think this is a reference to the grandeur of the new temple. And the new temple, grand though it is going to be, was a mere shadow of the Solomonic temple, which was even grander.

And this very much, I know it's completely off the wall, and it's not in my notes, but it makes me think of our little church as it's going to be.

It's not going to be like these massive great edifices that get built. It's going to be a humble but righteous place. And that's what I think this is all about, because the fact that the grandeur of the temple is reduced doesn't matter a hoot to God.

He's the one who's instructing it, and he's the one who's happy to accept what the workmen produce in his name, not by might nor by power, but by the spirit of the living God.

And quite often the spirit of the living God produces something that is fundamentally humble, certainly more humble than the previous temple.

So what's he talking about? Despising the day of small things. Turn to Ezra chapter three. So Ezra chapter three. And historically this is around the same sort of time frame that we're already dealing with.

And if you look at chapter three verses 10 to 13, it says this, Now when the builders had laid the foundations of the temple of the Lord, the priests stood in their apparel with trumpets and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with symbols to praise the Lord according to the directions of King David of Israel, they sang praising and giving thanks to the Lord saying, For he is good, for his loving kindness is upon Israel forever.

And all the people shouted with a great shout, and they praised the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. All they've got is the foundations, but you know, we've made a start.

It's a bit like we did yesterday. We've made a start. Verse 12, Yet many of the priests and Levites and the heads of fathers' households, the old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, while many shouted aloud for joy.

So there was mixed feelings about this, what, this? You call this a temple after what we had before and we've got these pitiful foundations?

there's this, they're despising the day of small things. Turn to Haggai chapter 2. In Haggai chapter 2 and verse 3, it says this, Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory?

And how do you see it now? Does it not seem to you like nothing in comparison? But now take courage as a rubber bell declares the Lord. Take courage also Joshua son of Jehoshadak the high priest.

And all you people in the land take courage declares the Lord and work for I am with you declares the Lord of hosts. So there were a lot of people who were despising the day of small things.

Oh, is this what you call the temple? Oh, no. We used to have all this opulence and all this glory and all man-made stuff and now we've got this humble alternative which God says he's happy with.

In the book of Haggai they're instructed proceed anyway, get on with it. He's clearly happy with the new temple. And we return now to this, the exhortation is addressed to Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel, the same players we're dealing with in the book of Zechariah.

So, we've said priests can't be kings and kings can't be priests, but the prophecies here seem to be continually addressed to both. And what I believe we see in this lampstand is in some way the bringing together of those two ministries, and there are only two places in scripture that these two ministries come together.

We'll look at them briefly in a moment. But in verse 10 of Zechariah, need to go back there, sorry to keep jumping you around, but actually I'm not sorry at all.

Who has despised the day of small things, but these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. These are the eyes of the Lord which reigns to and fro throughout the earth.

Oh, okay. Who are these seven? Well, the only seven that are in view are the seven lamps on the menorah.

But that's an inanimate thing. How can that rejoice and praise the Lord? Well, only if it symbolizes something else, which of course we've just read that it does.

These are the eyes of the Lord which rose to and fro over the earth. I can't remember the references just come to my mind. There's another in 1 Samuel, I think, might be 2 Samuel, it says, the eyes of the Lord rose to and fro over the earth, seeking those whose hearts are perfect towards him.

So, what you've got then is God is watching. Everything that's being achieved is not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the living God.

And those who are despising the day of small things need to get in tune with the Lord who is happy with the humble alternatives. It tells us that Yahweh is watching over the whole earth all the time.

We read previously, he never slumbers nor sleeps. So then the prophet asks, what are these two olive trees, verse 11?

One on the right and one on the left. And it seems like he didn't get an answer because he then says a second time, what are the two olive branches that are beside the two golden pipes which empty the golden oil from themselves?

So, one of the biggest differences between this menorah and the normal menorah is that these two olive trees are piped into the menorah and it is replenished with what symbolically represents the spirit of the living God, olive oil.

So there's a constant flow, symbolically speaking, there's a constant flow of the spirit of the living God into the menorah. And if the menorah is a representation of Christ, then it means that when he comes, he will be full of the Holy Spirit and grace and power which of course, when you read the Gospels, that's what you read of him.

So, why two olive trees? Well, you've got Joshua and Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel is a king who wasn't represented as king, wasn't recognized as king, just like Jesus.

And Joshua was a high priest and the book of Hebrews tells us that he is our great high priest. priest. And he wasn't really recognized as that either.

But nevertheless, he was these things. And I think this, and when it comes to application of this, I just think this is confirmation of the gospel to all of us.

That in this vision, in the book of Zechariah, God put together the two ministries of prophet and king into one person. Now, the only other place that that happens in scripture, and I've lost myself in my own notes here, Genesis 14 verse 18.

So in Genesis 14 verse 18, we are introduced, as far as the scripture records anyway, to the only other man in scripture who was both king and priest.

priest. And he is a man called Melchizedek. Melchizedek, combination of melech, meaning king, and tzaddik, meaning righteous one.

So, Melchizedek means king of righteousness. And in verse, in chapter 14, verse 18, Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.

Now, he was a priest of God most high. So you've got Melchizedek. I won't waste any time in explaining it. We'll just go immediately to Psalm 110.

Psalm 110. A very short psalm. And it starts with, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand.

So the Lord, Yahweh, says to my Lord, Jesus, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. And then just jump down to verse 4.

The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. So you are one of the exceptions.

You will be allowed to be both priest and king. king. And there was no other way that they could show this other than using two people as an example, a priest and a king.

So this menorah, which is a representation of Messiah, is pouring the light of God into the whole world all the time.

and it's ministering to the people of the world with the ministries of both priest and king. I'm going to finish with Revelation 11, where we are introduced to a very, very similar vision.

There are some differences and I'm not going to be dogmatic about any of this. I just want us to bask in the principle that God has established, which is then there was given me a measuring rod, like a staff.

So we have a measuring line, we have a measuring rod, so there's measuring going on. And someone said, get up and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship in it.

So it's not only the place that's being measured, but the people. Leave out the court which is outside of the temple, do not measure it, for it has been given to all the nations, and they will tread it underfoot, the holy city, for 42 months.

And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1260 days clothed in sackcloth. There are many, many conjectures about who these two people are.

I'm not going to venture one this morning because that's not the purpose. But he has two witnesses, two people. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.

And if anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies. So if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way. So these men are given authority and they take the lives away from their enemies, not by might, nor by power, but by the spirit of the living God.

Verse 6, these have the power to shut up the sky so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying and they have power over waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every plague as often as they desire.

And I'm going to leave it there. So briefly, very briefly, I believe that that up here, that menorah, the special menorah that Zechariah saw, which was infinitely improved on the original, was a vision that told us of some of the qualities that Messiah would have when he came, one of which, and the most essential of which, was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit from the Lord into the earth.

Father, thank you so much for this scripture. I kind of feel like I only scratched the surface. it is so rich.

Thank you, Lord, that we have the privilege of studying your word and understanding mysteries that, if you can call what we've just done, understanding them. We understand some of what you've revealed.

And thank you for that. And I pray, Lord, that these studies will keep us glued to your word because you elevated your word even above your name.

And I thank you that you gave us the privilege of being able to freely study your word in Jesus' name. Thank you.