By the Spirit of the Lord

And the angel…wakes me.

It is not as though the prophet is asleep. How could a prophet of the Lord fall asleep on such a revelatory and wonderful night as on the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month of the reign of Darius?

Rather, the prophet is “as” a man who is asleep.

The man of God is profoundly lost in thoughts so deep that he is cut off from his surroundings and is no longer conscious of the things of the world around him. His spirit is occupied with the works of God as they had been shown to him in vision after vision. The prophet has seen and heard many things that the Lord had revealed to him. And the prophet is greatly interested in those things because they all touch on the promise of God, the things of God’s kingdom, the Lord’s house, the position of God’s people in the world, and their rich and glorious future. And in thinking over these things, how could the prophet not have the greatest interest? It is understandable, then, that when the angel—not the angel of the Lord but the angel who explains things to the prophet—left the prophet for a moment and he lay alone with his thoughts, that he so deeply sinks into meditating on those things that he is as a man who is asleep.

The angel has returned and wakes the prophet. There are other things that still must be shown to the prophet. His thoughts must be turned away from the things that have been revealed to him so that he can concentrate on new things.

Again the word of the Lord comes to the prophet in the form of a vision along with an explanation by the angel. This time the vision touches on Zerubbabel. The previous vision was intended for Joshua the high priest. But concerning this vision the text says that it “is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel.” In Zerubbabel we have to do with the kingly office in Israel. Joshua was a priest, but Zerubbabel was a royal offspring of the house of David. The kingly line ran through Zerubbabel, who was a kinsman of the “Root of David” (Rev. 5:5; Isa. 11:10). As the head of the exiles, Zerubbabel returned from Babylon to the land of his fathers. Under his leadership the rebuilding of the temple began.

As much as to Joshua, to Zerubbabel also the word of the Lord must come.

After this series of prophetic visions, the priestly and kingly offices will be inseparably joined together, and “the counsel of peace shall be between them both.”¹

At the time of this vision, the offices are still separate.

So to Zerubbabel also comes a separate word of the Lord.

That word comes in a vision.

Because the prophet does not understand the meaning of the things that are shown to him and because the angel asks about their significance, the word of God is attached to the vision:

Not by might, nor by power!

By my Spirit!

It is God’s work alone!

So it surely shall come to pass!

By my Spirit!

Although towering Bashan with all its hills taunts Zion, it surely shall come to pass.

If you ask, what must and surely shall come to pass? then you find the answer at the beginning of the vision. That vision, then, is a word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: By my Spirit it surely shall come to pass.

The vision that the prophet is shown is wholly dominated by the meaning of the candlestick. The prophet sees a golden candlestick, and with this figure the prophet is familiar. He knows about a candle with seven arms and seven lamps, although he has never seen the candle as it is shown to him in the vision. The lamps of the candle in the temple had to be filled constantly with oil by the attending priest. But this candle has a steady supply of oil. Above the lamps is an elongated bowl that extends over all seven lamps of the candlestick. From the bowl to the lamps are “seven pipes to the seven lamps,” a Hebrew way of saying that each lamp has seven pipes going to it. And on each side of the bowl stands an olive tree.

For care by the hands of a man, this candlestick has no need!

Out of the olive trees flows oil to the bowl. Through the seven-times-seven system of pipes, the oil flows steadily to the lamps, whereby the candlestick can give its light.

In that vision lies the answer to the question, what shall surely come to pass?

In short that answer is, God’s house shall surely be built! The vast building marked by the favor of God, according to his own design, shall rise in eternity.

This candlestick is a symbol of God’s house, his living church. Thus truly the candle in the temple in the former days signified Israel, the people of the Lord, from the viewpoint of their being light. God’s people are the light of the world as a reflection of the true light of God because God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. And light is life. Light does not mean mere knowledge, but light contrasts with darkness, and as such light is symbolic of the true light of God: of God’s truth, faithfulness, love, knowledge, righteousness, holiness, and of the life of the overflowing fountain of all good. That life of God lives also in his church. She reveals the life of God to his glory. And this candlestick is a symbol of the church as she lives and reflects the life of God by his grace. The church is that in the new dispensation as well, as is made clear from Revelation 1:12–13, 20.

12. I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;

13. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

20. The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

Here, however, the seven candles do not stand in a straight line as the seven arms of one candlestick; but according to the nature of the new dispensation, the candles are arranged in a circle: The church as expanded in every direction!

Therefore, also seven candles.

Surely the fullness of the divine life of God’s covenant must radiate in the church and be reflected by her to the outside.

And to the church belong the two olive trees. These are not symbolic of the Holy Spirit, as some suppose. Rather, the olive trees symbolize Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the prince from the house of David. Is it not true that in Revelation 11:4 these two olive trees are identified? There they are “the two witnesses” and “the two candlesticks” that stand before the God of the whole earth. But the candlesticks in the vision belong to the church and are symbolic of Joshua and of Zerubbabel, not in their personal capacity but in their official positions as priest and king. Soon these two offices will be united in Christ, and out of him God’s people will be partakers of Christ’s anointing and become a royal priesthood in order to stand before the God of the whole earth. They will be his witnesses over against the ungodly power of the antichristian world to declare the praises of God who called them out of darkness into his marvelous light.

That surely shall come to pass!

That house of God shall be built!

Then the royal priesthood of God’s people shall radiate with the light of God. They shall live and glorify God’s marvelous life. They shall be formed and fashioned in perfection.

Of that the rebuilding of the temple was a shadow. And the second temple will be finished by Zerubbabel, so that he will bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings of the people, crying, “Grace, grace unto it.”

That royal priesthood will be realized in the new dispensation. The offices of priest and king will be united in the exalted Christ and advanced to their highest perfection. Out of Christ the whole church will become a royal priesthood.

That house of God will be finished in the new creation when the new Jerusalem will descend out of heaven, and the tabernacle of God eternally will be with men!

God’s eternal house!

By my Spirit!

By that Spirit alone it surely shall come to pass!

Surely it is by that Spirit that the house of God is built, that it continues to stand, that it is a house of God, and that it is completed.

This word of the Lord too is proclaimed in the vision.

The oil is one of the chief elements of the vision. Out of the olive trees, the oil flows to the bowl above the lamps, and from the bowl the oil flows through the seven-times-seven system of pipes to the lamps. It is by the oil that the lamps are able to give their light.

The oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit. That is very plain from the holy anointing oil that was poured over the head of the one who had been called to serve in office in God’s kingdom in the old dispensation. And it is clear from the angel’s explanation that the oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit. The vision is the word of the Lord that surely shall come to pass, not by might, nor by power, but through the Spirit of the Lord. Just as the light of the candlestick is in the oil, so the life of God’s church is in the Spirit.

The Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, for Christ is the Stone, the Lamb with seven eyes. Christ received the Spirit in his exaltation, and in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Christ has become that life-giving Spirit whom he pours out in his church. Thus there are seven pipes that carry the oil to each of the lamps, which represents the Spirit of Christ as he dwells in the church and is the “seven Spirits which are before his throne” (Rev. 1:4). Seven represents here the fullness of the life of the Spirit, the life of God’s covenant in Christ, and out of Christ the fullness of that life in the church. Through the working of the sevenfold, covenant Spirit, the sevenfold, covenant life radiates out of Christ in the church forever.

By that Spirit God’s house is built!

By that Spirit Christ becomes flesh, taking our flesh and blood from the womb of Mary. By that Spirit Christ is equipped for office as the priest-king par excellence. By that Spirit Christ offers himself to God as the Lamb without spot and blemish and descends into the depths of death and hell in order to accomplish satisfaction and reconciliation and to establish the foundation of God’s house on the basis of God’s strictest justice. By that Spirit Christ is raised and exalted to the right hand of the Father. Christ receives that Spirit in order to dwell by that Spirit in his people. By that Spirit Christ gathers his church out of every tribe, tongue, and nation of the world.

By that Spirit God’s house is preserved!

Only by the indwelling of that Spirit do God’s people have his life, the life of God. They never possess any of that life without the Spirit. Constantly that Spirit works this life of God in them and causes the house of God to radiate with that life. By that Spirit God’s people are preserved in the midst of the world and kept unto the very end!

By that Spirit the house of God also will be finished soon!

Because the one who raised Jesus from the dead did so by the same Spirit who will also raise our mortal bodies.

And soon Christ will make all things new and cause the whole new creation to radiate the glory of God in Christ!

Then Christ will bring forth the headstone!

Then will be heard shouts of joy: “Grace, grace unto it!”

By my Spirit!

It surely shall come to pass!

Exactly because it is by God’s Spirit, it surely shall come to pass!

Might and power mean nothing!

Human power and wisdom and human efforts and labor in themselves mean nothing for the building of God’s house. We do well to keep this in mind especially as we are privileged to be laborers together of God. We never build God’s house.

But the cause of God’s covenant so frequently appears thoroughly hopeless!

Oh, at the time of Zerubbabel and Joshua, that cause seems so dark. Jerusalem lies in ruins. The temple still is not built. Nothing but a wretched remnant has returned out of Babylon. Far and away the majority have it too good according to the flesh to return to the wasted land of their fathers. Besides, there is that great mountain: the world power! And that ungodly world power is always full of wrath toward God’s people and always opposes the cause of the Son of God!

What will become of God’s cause?

And so it is still! Is it not true that the faithful in the land always become smaller in number? Is it not true that what is called church is mostly like the salt that has lost its savor and is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden underfoot of men? Is it not true that it appears as though the powers of unbelief and lawlessness will obtain the victory? Who does not tremble a little?

But! Not by might, nor by power! If it were otherwise, the cause of God would be hopeless!

Now it surely shall come to pass!

Fear not, Zerubbabel! Do not hang your harp on the willows. Though it appears so dark, it surely will come to pass! God’s house certainly will be built and shall rise in eternity!

Do you say, “It can never be”? Oh, it can never be by might, nor by power!

But by my Spirit the great mountain shall become a flat plain, and the ungodly world power will disappear!

And God’s house will be finished!

Fear not!