Night at the half-built second temple: low courses of great cut stones and a timber course, rough pole scaffolds dark against the sky, and one small clay oil lamp burning on a stone block in the foreground.

Eight night visions

Zechariah 4

What are you trying to build in your own strength?

14 verses≈ 3 min1 personBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1:1–6Return to MeA call to turn, in Darius’s second year
1:7–6:8Eight night visionsHorses, horns, a lampstand, a scroll, a basket, chariotsChapter 4
6:9–15The Branch crownedA crown for Joshua, and the Branch who builds
7–8Fasts to feastsJustice and mercy, and joy in Zion
9–11Your King comesThe King on a donkey, and the Shepherd rejected
12–14On that dayThe pierced One, the fountain, the LORD King

The Vision of the Lampstand and Olive Trees

Zechariah

Then the angel who was speaking with me returned and woke me, as a man is awakened from his sleep.

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The angel

“What do you see?” he asked.

Zechariah

“I see a solid gold lampstand,” I replied, “with a bowl at the top and seven lamps on it, with seven spouts to the lamps.

Zechariah

Zechariah

There are also two olive trees beside it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left.”

Zechariah

“What are these, my lord?” I asked the angel who was speaking with me.

The angel

“Do you not know what they are?” replied the angel.

Zechariah

“No, my lord,” I answered.

God

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

God

What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain.

God

God

Then he will bring forth the capstone accompanied by shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”

Zechariah

Close at a course of great cut stones: the governor, seen from behind and to one side, lays both hands on a newly set stone while builders ease the next one in on rollers, dust in the morning light.

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will complete it. Then you will know that the LORD of Hosts has sent me to you.

Zechariah

A clear late-winter morning: the finished second temple, a plain flat-roofed stone house with closed cedar doors and the altar of rough stones before it, as builders lower the last ropes and carry away scaffolding poles and the elders and two prophets stand together looking up at it, under a calm pale sky.

For who has despised the day of small things?

0:11

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Zechariah

Zechariah

But these seven eyes of the LORD, which scan the whole earth, will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.”

Question

Quick question

Think back over verses 2 to 6 before you answer.

What does the angel say the lampstand means?

Zechariah

Then I asked the angel, “What are the two olive trees on the right and left of the lampstand?” And I questioned him further, “What are the two olive branches beside the two gold pipes from which the golden oil pours?”

The angel

“Do you not know what these are?” he inquired.

Zechariah

“No, my lord,” I replied.

The angel

So he said, “These are the two anointed ones who are standing beside the Lord of all the earth.”

Pray

Lord of all the earth, I am tired of my own might. Pour Your Spirit like oil into what You have given me to do, and let me finish it by Your grace.

You’ve experienced

Zechariah 4

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A verse to carry with you

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

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