And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep.
Zechariah has already seen four visions in one night. The prophet has fallen asleep, and the angel who has been guiding him comes back to wake him for a fifth.
The wording of this opening line marks the chapter as part of a chain rather than a fresh start.
This part of the prophecy again has the character of a vision, from verse 1 on. It shows that this is one of a series of visions which passed before the eyes of the prophet. The prophet was in the same state as Daniel by the banks of the Ulai river, when God sent Gabriel to tell him what would happen at the end of the time of God's anger (Daniel 8:15-19).
One writer reads the sleep as plain exhaustion after a heavy night.
There was a rest for the prophet between the fourth and fifth night vision. He had fallen into a deep sleep. He may have been overcome by the grand and important visions. The angel now wakes him with the question, "What do you see?"
Another writer sees a pattern in the waking. What was true of the prophet is true of every reader.
The next vision needs the angel who spoke with him to wake Zechariah up. Our natural minds would not see the truth of a vision like this. By nature we have no sense of these things, and it takes God's power to wake us... 1 Corinthians 2:14 reminds us, "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." We too need a power outside ourselves to wake us. Only then can we understand what God has freely given us. It must come by God's revelation.
Zechariah gives this messenger a fixed title, and the title runs through the whole book.
"The angel who talked with me" (a title used 11 times) is a different figure from "the angel of the Lord."
That God speaks through a go-between rather than directly is itself part of the message.
It means something that an angel speaks here, instead of the Lord addressing the prophet directly. It implies reserve and distance. That was right to notice, for God meant it to be felt. Yet it does not hold back messages rich in compassion and divine goodness. They bring blessing now, and they are full of glorious prospect for the future.
What the prophet saw when his eyes opened was not new. It stood in the tabernacle, the tent where Israel worshipped God.
The lampstand is the well-known seven-branched lampstand of the tabernacle (Exodus 25:31-40). It always was the symbol of the light of God in perfect testimony — testimony in the power of the Holy Spirit on the earth — first in Israel, and then in the Church (Revelation 1).
The vision that follows carries one line for Zerubbabel, the leader of the people.
Verse 6 gives a very plain message to Zerubbabel: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts." The civil leader of the people seemed to have too little power. That would not upset God's plans. It was not a time for an outward display of power, but "the day of small things" (v. 10). It was by the Spirit of God (v. 6) that a testimony (the lampstand) would be kept up.
- Sleep. This is not a fresh start. The angel wakes a prophet worn out by four visions already given, in the same state as Daniel when Gabriel came to him.
- Waking. The waking is a pattern for everyone. Natural instinct cannot take in what is spiritual, so a power outside us has to rouse us first.
- Voice. God speaks here through an angel, not in person. He meant that distance to be felt. Yet the message still comes full of compassion, and full of hope for the future.
- Sight. The eye that opens sees the tabernacle lampstand. It stands for God's light shining as testimony in the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Power. The whole waking leads to one line for a leader who seemed too weak. In a day of small things, the work goes forward not by might or power, but by God's Spirit.
And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I see, and behold, 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;
An angel asks Zechariah what he sees, and he can only describe the golden lampstand in front of him. The picture comes from Israel's tabernacle, but parts of it are new, and those new parts carry the message of the whole chapter.
Zechariah answers the question, then admits he does not know what he is looking at. One writer makes this the pattern for every Bible reader.
The prophet could not understand anything without the Angel explaining it to him. This kept him humble when he had to acknowledge: "No, my Lord" in response to the: "Do you not know…?" of his companion. We too need to feel our own ignorance before God if we want to understand the truths in God's Word. The Scriptures give many plain details, and even unbelievers can understand them. But the deeper sense will always escape the natural man.
The stand itself was familiar furniture; older translations call it a candlestick and read "seven pipes" where the ESV has "seven lips." What is added to it makes the vision new.
The candlestick is the well-known seven-branched candlestick of the tabernacle (Exodus 25:31-40). It always was the symbol of the light of God in the perfection of testimony — testimony in the power of the Holy Spirit on the earth — first in Israel, and then in the Church. There are several differences from the original candlestick to note. First, the bowl on the top of it. Next, each lamp appears to have seven pipes to carry the oil from the bowl to the lamps.
Commentators differ on who the gold points to. Some read the lampstand as a picture of Christ Himself.
The lampstand speaks of Christ, in whom God displays all His golden glory. It is He who is the Sustainer of all true testimony for God, of which the light speaks. In the tabernacle the lamps were to be lit so "that they give light in front of it" (the lampstand). The light was not only to light up the room. It was to display the lampstand itself, just as the light of God focuses on the Lord Jesus.
Another writer draws his conclusion from the metal itself:
The candlestick always stands as a symbol of testimony. "All of gold" shows that a divine Person will give the testimony — the Holy Spirit Himself.
This is the change that matters most. In Leviticus, Israel had to bring the oil in. In the vision the oil arrives without them.
In Leviticus 24, Jehovah had instructed Israel to provide oil for the lamps, but in this vision the golden oil does not come through the efforts of God's people. It flows straight from the two olive trees, through the two golden tubes, into the golden bowl of the lampstand. The seven pipes then carry the precious oil from the bowl to the seven lamps. There is no thought of the responsibility of man, as in Revelation; nor any sign that man serves as the instrument providing the light for God's pleasure, as in Leviticus 24. It is the sovereign action of God in every part.
The number seven repeats through the vision, and it is not decoration.
The vision speaks of perfection, completion, and fullness. The perfect and divine number seven appears three times: seven lamps, seven pipes and seven eyes. The seven lamps join in one stem — this is union — and above it is a golden bowl… It is a vision of fullness and accomplishment. The two olive trees keep the bowl filled with a continual supply of oil.
The vision came to a small people newly restored to their land. Their weakness is what makes the light remarkable.
The ever-merciful Jehovah restores a feeble few to the land… Here God sees something to meet His mind: a seven-branched golden candlestick, giving light in all the darkness by the golden oil which His grace supplies.
A lamp gives light, but the oil is not its own. The same holds for everyone Christ calls a light.
The Lord Jesus did not only say, "I am the light of the world." He also said to His own, "You are the light of the world." So they were Christ's testimony to the world. But light needs oil. To be able to be a testimony one needs the Holy Spirit, and throughout Scripture the oil is a picture of this.
- Wakened. Zechariah describes the lampstand exactly, then says "No, my Lord." Clear sight is not understanding; the deeper sense escapes the natural man.
- Gold. The stand is the tabernacle lampstand, the symbol of God's light in the perfection of testimony. Writers differ on the gold: some read Christ, the Sustainer of the light; others the Holy Spirit, who gives it.
- Bowl. The great change from Leviticus 24 is the bowl on top. Israel no longer carries the oil in; it flows in — the sovereign action of God in every part.
- Seven. Seven lamps, seven pipes, seven eyes, and seven branches on one stem — a vision of fullness and accomplishment.
- Light. A feeble few, and yet God sees something to meet His mind: light in the darkness from oil His grace supplies — the same borrowed light as "You are the light of the world."
and two olive-trees beside it, one on the right of the bowl, and the other on the left of it.
Zechariah is shown a golden lampstand, and verse 3 completes the picture: two living olive trees stand beside it, one on each side. The prophet himself had to ask what they meant — what are these trees, why two, and where does the light get its oil?
The lampstand was familiar; the trees were not. One commentator lists what this vision adds to the tabernacle lampstand:
This lampstand is the well-known seven-branched lampstand of the tabernacle (Exodus 25:31-40). It always was the symbol of the light of God in the perfection of testimony — testimony in the power of the Holy Spirit on the earth… There are several differences from the original lampstand to notice. First, the bowl on the top of it. Next, each lamp appears to have seven pipes carrying the oil from the bowl to the lamps. And last, the two olive trees with their branches and golden pipes, which supplied the oil to the bowl.
In the tabernacle, Israel had to bring the oil. Here the trees feed the lamp themselves:
In Leviticus 24, Jehovah had instructed Israel to provide oil for the lamps. But in this vision the golden oil does not come through the efforts of God's people. It flows straight from the two olive trees, through the two golden tubes, into the golden bowl of the lampstand. The seven pipes then carry the precious oil from the bowl to the seven lamps. There is no thought of the responsibility of man… It is the sovereign action of God in every part.
So the lamp burns on a supply it never has to earn. In Scripture the oil always pictures one thing:
Light needs oil. To be a testimony, a person needs the Holy Spirit, and throughout Scripture the oil is a picture of this.
The verse sets a tree on each side of the bowl. One writer traces the picture from the trees to the two men then leading Judah:
These two olive trees stood on either side of the golden lampstand. The prophet's question about the olive branches seems to make it plain that the olive trees — the sons of oil — were the two sources that fed and sustained the light of the lampstand. What then are these? Zerubbabel was the governor of Judah and Joshua was the high priest. The two together were a picture of Christ as the priest on His throne. So the two olive trees, as another has written, "are the royalty and the priesthood of Christ, which maintain, by power and spiritual grace, the perfect light of divine order among the Jews." These are the sources that feed and maintain this perfect light.
Oil is what set a man apart for each of those two offices:
The two anointed ones — the priesthood and the kingship — provide the oil that feeds the lampstand, for oil anoints both priests and kings (Lev. 8:12; 1 Sam. 16:13).
The number is not decoration. It carries a legal weight running through the whole Bible:
Two means distinctness, and so adequate testimony and fellowship when the two agree. Two witnesses are needed (Deut. 19:15; 2 Cor. 13:1)… Two olive trees picture two witnesses (Zech. 4:3; Rev. 11:3-4).
The same two images appear again in Revelation 11, but the scene there is not the same:
In Zechariah 4 we see a lampstand. All is in order, and everything in its place. Christ's royalty and priesthood sustain and nourish the Jewish people, and all is in its place. But here all is in confusion. There are two lampstands, two olive trees, but one does not know where to put them. Nothing is settled yet; but there is a testimony given to these things, to their future fulfilment.
The trees stand beside the lamp before the lamp gives light. One writer applies that order to us:
And so the olive trees and the lampstands are connected. (Zech. 4; Rev. 11) For to be a witness, we must first live by grace ourselves. We must draw on the richness of the olive before we can shine on the lampstand.
- Oil first. The lamp gives light only because oil reaches it. Testimony for God runs on the Holy Spirit, not on human strength.
- Oil unbought. No one carries oil to this lampstand. It flows straight from living trees, so the supply is God's sovereign action from start to finish.
- Oil anointed. The two trees are the two anointed ones: kingship and priesthood. Both meet in Christ, the priest on His throne.
- Oil doubled. Two trees, not one, because two is the measure of testimony that God Himself accepts as adequate.
- Oil then light. Draw on the richness of the olive before trying to shine. The trees stand beside the lamp before the lamp burns.