ENCOURAGEMENT IN A DAY OF SMALL THINGS
Archie D Melville
Zechariah 4: 1-14
1 John 4: 4-6
Zechariah was one of the post-captivity prophets and lived in a day when a great recovery was taking place. Israel had suffered the government of God by being taken away captive to Babylon, but there was a great movement afoot in Zechariah’s time, and his function was to encourage those who were coming once again, as it were, to be recovered to the truth. I think there is nothing more important than having a vision, like an impression, about divine things. I do not think there was anything visible that Zechariah could see in the way of a lamp-stand of gold, but the chapter deals with this matter, and the impression he had and is asked about when he is awakened up by the angel. It is a good thing to be awakened because we might tend to fall asleep, especially when things are so difficult and testing. Indeed, there is a word in Ephesians, “Wake up, thou that sleepest”, chap 5: 14. We need to be awakened and alert, and Zechariah was awakened here. An angel came and woke him up, “as a man that is awakened out of his sleep”, and said, “What seest thou?”. He describes what he saw, “a lamp-stand all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and its seven lamps thereon, seven lamps and seven pipes to the lamps, which are upon the top thereof; and two olive-trees beside it, one on the right of the bowl, and the other on the left of it”. I think what he really saw was a system operating according to the divine order. During the children of Israel’s journeys through the wilderness, there was a very important service to be carried out which was to replenish the lamps with oil. That involved physical effort and service by the people to maintain the light. There was a lampstand in the tent of meeting and the lamps had to be maintained, Exod 27 v 20-21.
It is a unique situation here, I think, and it shows an almost self-functioning source of light in this golden lamp-stand. We might say it is the divine order of things without the assistance of the priests or of man. It is a view Zechariah gets of a lamp that is of gold and it was being supplied by two olive-trees, and there are pipes and lamps and seven pipes to the lamps. It suggests there was a continual supply of oil to maintain divine light. The divine system is a system that will never fail. Our brother has been telling us about that, the oil not failing for a whole year. I think that really means for the whole dispensation. In the whole period of time that we are in there will not be any failure of God’s thoughts and purposes. What we have here is different from the seven golden lamps of Rev 2: 1 which are the assemblies, and there it is man’s responsibility, and there was failure, and there is failure in man’s responsibility, but there is no failure in this system here. There is supply, unending supply. There is oil for the lamps and there are pipes, seven pipes, to each lamp providing an abundant supply.
As we go down the chapter, we find the angel continues to speak to Zechariah, who is quite honest. He does not know, he does not understand what is going on, but the angel is patient, and divine Persons are patient with us if we do not understand what is going on; and we will have another opportunity to ask. “Knowest thou not what these are? And I said, No, my lord and he answered and spoke unto me, saying, This is the word of Jehovah unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts”. Zerubbabel was the governor and Joshua was the high priest as we read in Haggai 1. Zerubbabel and Joshua were involved in the reconstruction of the temple, and here we find that Zechariah gets this word, “the word of Jehovah unto Zerubbabel”, and the word was very important. They were surrounded by enemies, persons who scoffed and made light of them and mocked them so much so that they actually gave up building for a while, but Zechariah’s word was greatly strengthening for them, and the word was, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts”. So the resources were not their resources; they were not natural resources. It was not the children of Israel operating using their own resources. Then the word Zechariah gives is “Who art thou, O great mountain?”. The Lord speaks of faith removing a mountain in the Gospels, which I think is the same idea, Matt 17: 20. Whatever opposition, whenever a great and terrible problem raises its head, in the power of the Holy Spirit these builders will overcome it, the mountain becomes a plain and the headstone of this great edifice will be brought forth “with shoutings”. God will complete His work. There is no question about that, whether we have faith for it or not. Someone will take up the work if we drop out, and there will be those who will carry on, but the word is, be strong and do not drop out.
The word came to Zechariah that the foundations had been laid by Zerubbabel, the wall was rebuilt and this house would be completed: “his hands shall finish it: and thou shalt know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me unto you. For who hath despised the day of small things?”. You may think things are so small. Sometimes there are so few brethren around, you may think things have just petered out. Do you think divine thoughts will ever peter out? Do you think God will allow His thoughts to fail? I do not think so, and neither did Zechariah. “Yea, they shall rejoice - even those seven - and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel”. This was no substandard building. Zerubbabel had the plummet in his hand. Do you know what the plummet was used for? It was to ensure that things were built upright and plumb and, really what he is saying is, according to the divine standard: “these are the eyes of Jehovah, which run to and fro in the whole earth”. God is observing what is happening. If our building comes short in any way, then we should take heed to this word to ensure that what we build is according to the divine standard and the plumbline.
It goes on to speak about the olive trees and the lamp-stand. “What are these two olive-trees …?”. Well, God operates through persons. “Knowest thou not what these are? And I said, No, my lord and he said, These are the two sons of oil, that stand before the Lord of the whole earth”. I think we could say Zerubbabel and Joshua really would be represented by these two sons of oil. They were the ones who were occupied and engaged in this work and they were the ones that would encourage the people and get things operating again.
I turn to 1 John 4. John is a very positive writer, and he says, “Ye are of God, children”. He was looking at the believers as the work of God. They were “of God” and because of that they had overcome “because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world”. The world surrounds us and it tries to overthrow us, but further down he says, “We are of God”. I think John is looking at the pure work of God. He was not being occupied by failure. He was encouraging those that he wrote to and strengthening them and telling them that they were the work of God and “he that knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error”. What encouraging words these are for us! I desire that we might find strength in reading these things even in a day of small things, for His Name’s sake.
Grangemouth
6th March 2024