“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.”
~ Zechariah 4:6
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you have dreams? If you have dreams, do you remember what you dream? Do you have visions? Your grandpaa does not think that guys have visions today. Guys had visions 2500 years ago. God spoke to guys through visions. A vision is like a dream but more real than a dream. A vision from God is a divine revelation or a prophecy. Your grandpaa knows that dreams sometimes seem like they are something that is really happening. A vision was like a visual message from God letting a guy know what was going to happen in the near future or what is going to happen someday. Why do you think that God chose different guys to have a vision or visions of what was going to happen in the near future or what is someday going to happen on planet Earth? Zechariah was a guy who God gave seven visions. Zechariah was a leading prophet and priest among God’s specially chosen guys and gals – who were the Israelite people group’s guys, gals and kids. Zechariah was born in Babylon. Babylon was where Zechariah’s dad and ma were taken after God had the Babylonian army capture His specially chosen guys, gals and kids who were living in in the land of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem. As God was having the Babylonian army take away some of His specially chosen guys and gals from the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem to have them be exiled slaves in Babylonia, God also had the Babylonian army demolish Jerusalem’s walls as well as His temple that was in Jerusalem. Before God had the Babylonian army raze the city where He was worshipped and before He had His specially chosen guys and gals living in the land of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem taken away to be slaves, God told His specially chosen guys and gals through Jeremiah that they would remain slaves for seventy years before God would finally let them return to the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem to live again.
About seventy years after God’s specially chosen guys and gals ended up in Babylonia, God was ready to do what He had told Jeremiah that He would do – and that was to have His specially chosen guys and gals begin to return to Jerusalem where he expects them to repair His temple. Zechariah 4 is the fifth vision that God gave to Zechariah. Zechariah saw in his fifth vision two guys returning to Jerusalem to rebuild God’s temple. God let His specially chosen guys and gals know – through Zechariah, when the time would be when they could head back to Judah and Jerusalem. Jerusalem means the city of Salim or Shalem – or the city of peace. From the time that Jerusalem became David’s city, it has been the focal point – or the pinpoint place, where the enemy known as Satan thinks that one day he will or has to defeat God and God’s host of angels and beings. Zechariah in his fifth vision saw two olive trees representing the two guys. Zechariah also sees in his fifth vision a solid gold lampstand with a bowl on top. The bowl has seven lights and seven channels of lights. Whenever you read the number seven or hear the number seven in the Bible, seven is in God’s eyes His number symbol for perfection. Whenever you read in the Bible the number seven or hear the number of seven in relationship to another seven – the two sevens multiplied together means absolute perfection. The fifth vision that God gave to Zechariah was to be an encouragement to His specially chosen guys and gals that He was going to be with them as they returned to Jerusalem to rebuild His temple. God was saying to His specially chosen guys and gals in this vision that He gave to Zechariah that He would be their divine resource and light to complete the work that He expected them to do on His temple. The light that was shining from the solid gold lampstand was a symbolic reflection of God’s glory – which God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were captive slaves in the country of Babylonia understood. When oil is being referred to in the Bible, oil at times is used as a symbol of God – as the Holy Spirit. The bowl that was to be placed on top of the solid gold lampstand that Zechariah saw in his fifth vision was to hold the oil that was to be used to keep the seven lights burning. The light of the burning oil was to be symbolic and at the same time an active living example of God – as the Holy Spirit, lighting the way both in a figurative and in a literal way for His specially chosen guys and gals as they headed back to Jerusalem to restore His temple from all the devastation that the Babylonian army did to it when they seventy years earlier captured Jerusalem. God had Zachariah hear in verse 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.”
Have you figured out yet who one of the two olive trees is – or who one of the two guys is, who Zechariah saw in his fifth vision? One of the two olive trees is Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was a representative who God chose from the royal line or from David’s tribal clan – which was the Judah tribal clan, to return to Jerusalem to help in His temple’s restoration. The other guy being represented by one of the two olive trees was Joshua. Joshua was a priest. Joshua was from the Levi tribal clan. Levite guys were to be the guys who were to make the sacrifices to God once God’s temple in Jerusalem was repaired. God would use Zerubbabel and Joshua to do what He wanted done so that He could be worshipped once again in His temple. God is using your grandmaa and grandpaa to do what He wants done here in Guatemala so that He is worshipped here by the guys, gals and kids who are living in Guatemala. Your grandmaa and grandpaa pray that God – as the Holy Spirit, will use your lives to bring about spiritual life changes in the lives of the guys, gals and kids who He will lead to cross paths with you and that you will not do anything in your own might or power. It is simply always listening for God’s voice and then doing what He is leading you to do.
Zechariah 4 (182)