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By My Spirit
Not by Might nor by Power
By Stanley M. Horton
“This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by
might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6).
Was this
word a new departure? Did God mean He was now changing His method of working
with men?
Not at
all.
God’s
Spirit was active in creation (Genesis 1:2) and has continued to be
active at every stage of God’s plan.
Where God
used armies, the victory was still the Lord’s (Exodus 17:9–15).
Even
Samson’s exploits were accomplished, not by superior muscle power, but by the
moving of the Spirit of the Lord (Judges 13:25; 14:6;
15:14).
Zechariah’s
vision only draws attention to a fundamental principle that applies to all who
are fellow laborers with the Lord.
The
vision that brings this word is the fifth in a series of eight given to
encourage those who were rebuilding the temple after its destruction by the
Babylonians.
All eight
are symbolic and all revolve around the work of the Messiah. God wanted the
people to see their work for Him was not a matter of isolated, local events.
What they
were doing was part of the great plan of God for the redemption of the world, a
plan that would find its consummation in the work of the Redeemer, our Lord
Jesus Christ.
A brief
survey of these visions will help us see the fifth vision in its proper
context.
The first
vision is of a company of horsemen among myrtle trees in a deep valley (perhaps
suggesting the lowliness and the security of God’s people).
They are
led by One on a red horse, One who is more than either man or angel, One who is
Christ revealed as the Protector and Restorer of His people.
The
second vision pictures four horns or world powers (probably the same ones
represented by the image of Daniel 2 and the beasts of Daniel 7: Babylon,
Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome), and four smiths representing the world
powers which in turn bring God’s judgment on these.
The third
vision presents a surveyor (Christ) with a measuring line, indicating that
through Christ will come the fulfillment of God’s promises of enlargement,
peace, and glory for Jerusalem.
The
fourth vision pictures Joshua (Jeshua, Hebrew for Jesus), the current high
priest (Ezra 2:2; 3:2), clothed in filthy garments representing the sins of the
people.
Though
the adversary accuses him, the filthy garments are taken away, the sin is
forgiven, and clean, beautiful garments are put upon him.
This is
then declared to picture the work of the Messiah, the “Branch,” that is, the
new shoot from the root of David (Isaiah 11:1; 53:1;
Jeremiah 23:5).
Significantly,
the fifth vision emphasizing the Spirit as the Giver of power (Acts
1:8) follows immediately on this picture of the forgiveness of sin.
The
remaining visions indicate that sinners must be destroyed, that sin must be
removed, but that the agencies that will bring this about at the end of the age
were, in Zechariah’s day, being held in check.
That the
fifth vision indicates a definite step beyond the fourth is suggested by the
fact that the angelic messenger had to rouse Zechariah to a higher, more acute
stage of spiritual consciousness in order to receive the vision, and also by
the fact Zechariah finds the vision hard to understand. (Note, Zechariah was
not actually asleep.)
Many
modern commentators seem to have just as much difficulty as Zechariah did, and
there is much disagreement about the interpretation of details.
The
vision itself is difficult to picture.
Zechariah
sees a solid gold candlestick or lampstand. (Tallow or wax candles were not
used in Old Testament times.)
The lampstand held seven lamps. We read that from the reservoir
bowl at the top there were “seven pipes
to the seven lamps.”
Actually, the Hebrew reads “seven
seven pipes to the lamps.”
This has
been interpreted as one pipe to each lamp, seven in all; two pipes to each
lamp, 14 in all; or seven pipes to each lamp, 49 in all.
The
phrase “seven seven” according to
Hebrew usage is best taken distributively, and most commentators who take it
this way see in the seven pipes to each of the seven lamps a symbol of fulness
of supply.
The Bible
does not say how the lamps are arranged, however. The lamps were probably not
in a line as they were in the lampstand in Herod’s Temple.
More likely, they were in a circle under the bowl “on arms of equal length branching at
regular intervals from the central shaft.”
Thus, the
lamps would give light in all directions.
The
beauty of the golden lampstand is marred, however, by the concept of seven
pipes to each lamp.
The word “pipe” (Hebrew, mutsakah)
actually means a place for pouring, a lip, or a spout.
Archaeological
discoveries show that Old Testament lamps were simple. They were just small,
shallow, shell-shaped bowls with a lip pinched into one side where the wick was
placed.
I would
suggest that the Hebrew phrase “seven
seven” means the large reservoir bowl at the top had seven lips.
From
these a continuous supply of oil poured into the lamps that were so arranged
that one lamp was underneath each of these lips.
Then, the
distributive sense would also apply to the lamps so each lamp had seven lips
for wicks, giving 49 lights in all.
Thus, it
would picture not only fullness of supply but a fullness of light spreading to
all the world. This ties directly with Acts 1:8 and Matthew 24:14.
The light
of the gospel must continue to spread by the power of the Spirit toward the
uttermost part of the world until the end of the age.
Clearly,
the oil is a type of the Holy Spirit and the lamps are a type of those through
whom the Spirit gives light to the world.
There is,
however, little agreement among commentators concerning what the lampstand
represents.
Some
modern interpreters arbitrarily cut out the passage between verses 6a and 10b
and make the seven lamps the seven eyes of God.
This would make the lampstand represent God or Christ and the
lamps symbols of the Spirit. But this hardly fits the context, though
Calvin took the lamps to represent the “graces
or the various gifts of His Spirit,” and the number seven to indicate
perfection.
Some
Jewish commentators and most modern dispensationalists take the lampstand to be
Israel or Israel restored during the millennium, since the Book of Revelation
uses seven separate lampstands to represent the seven churches, and through
them the Church as a who1e.
Most, however, agree with Keil in taking the burning lamps as “a symbol of the church or the nation of God
which causes the light of its spirit or of its knowledge of God to shine before
God and stream out into the night of a world estranged from God,”
recognizing that the New Testament often refers to disciples or the Church as
lights (Matthew 5:14; Luke 12:35; Revelation 1:20).
Or, better, as Leupold puts it: “Every attentive reader can make his own application of this vision.
The ‘lampstand’ was the church of God as she gives light through the seven
lamps, that is — seven being the number of divine operation —
by the power that God supplies. This power is the Spirit. A lamp fulfills its
function when it shines in the power of the fuel or oil that it has. The church
fulfills her function, not by man’s striving, but by letting the Spirit make
her a light to the world. At this point we are confronted by an issue of faith:
will we believe that an adequate supply of the oil of the Spirit will be
provided by God? This so manifestly leads to the motto: ‘Not by might, nor by
power.’ ”
But this
is not all the picture. On each side of the lampstand is an olive tree with a
golden pipe through which oil empties.
The word “pipes” (Hebrew, tsanteroth)
in verse 12 is quite different from that in verse 2. Here, the meaning is a
conduit.
Yet, the
Hebrew may be taken to mean that the oil in the bowl is supplied by the olive
trees or that the oil in the bowl actually supplies the trees (called anointed
ones, sons of oil, in verse 14) with their oil.
In the
latter case it may be taken as teaching that light is maintained by God, not by
the prince, Zerubbabel, or his civil administration, and not by the priest,
Joshua, or his religious establishment.
In the
former case, it must also be recognized that the “sons of oil” means more than Zerubbabel and Joshua, more than the
church and state, and picture rather the princely and priestly ministry which
God’s Spirit ordains, a ministry that finds its fullness only in Christ.
In either case, we can see Christ as the real source, the Giver of
the Holy Spirit, “the ocean-basin of
God’s infinite resources.”
It pays
to turn away from dependence on the world. Its might and power are not enough
to accomplish the work of God. (Might and power are synonyms that include all
the strength, worth, wealth, ability, valor, efficiency, and sufficiency of
man.)
It is not
strange, then, that the New Testament gives such frequent emphasis to the
necessity of our dependence on the power of the Spirit.
Jesus set
an example as He performed miracles by the power of the Spirit (Matthew
12:28).
His final words to His disciples promised power “after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you”
(Acts 1:8).
The
entire Book of Acts demonstrates what this means.
The apostles
further show that the Church is edified or built up through the gifts of the
Spirit.
One of the final invitations of the Bible is “the Spirit and the bride say, Come” (Revelation 22:17).
Truly, from cover to cover, the Word of God teaches that it is “by my Spirit, saith the Lord.”
The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit Series
