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Zechariah 4 Devotional

Finished by His Spirit

“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 of Hosts.”Zechariah 4:6 (BSB)

Zechariah is woken as if from sleep and shown a gold lampstand with seven lamps, with an olive tree on each side (4:1-3). The angel does not explain every detail, but he gives a word for Zerubbabel, who is leading the rebuilding: the work will be done not by force or human strength but by the Spirit of the LORD (4:6). The mountain in his way will become level ground, and the hands that laid the temple's foundation will finish it (4:7-9).

Then God asks who would look down on a time of small beginnings (4:10). The work in Zerubbabel's hands looked modest, yet the eyes of the LORD, which range over the whole earth, rejoice to see it moving forward. The two olive trees are explained only as two anointed ones who stand beside the Lord of all the earth (4:14). What God begins by his Spirit, he finishes. Faithful work that looks small to others is not small to him.

To think about: Where are you tempted to measure your service by its size, and what would change if you trusted God's Spirit to finish it?

About Zechariah 4: The Golden Lampstand and Two Olive Trees

Zechariah sees a gold lampstand fed by two olive trees. The LORD tells Zerubbabel that the temple will be finished through His Spirit rather than human strength, that obstacles will be leveled, and that small beginnings are not to be despised. The olive trees are explained as two anointed figures.

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