Fourteen
Years of Despair (534-521 B.C.)
Now that a brief
overview has been given on the
circumstances of rebuilding the
temple and the city of Jerusalem, we
need to go back and consider the
despair that beset King Zerubbabal
and Joshua, the high priest, at the
beginning of the story. The
reconstruction of the temple was
halted almost as soon as it was
started and the project “lay
dead” for fourteen years. The
warlords mocked Zerubbabel and
Joshua, and as time went by, these
good men were considered impotent and
inept by many of their own people. It
is true that Zerubbabel and Joshua appeared
impotent and inept to the natural
eye, but they wisely waited on the
Lord.
The reconstruction
project stopped because the warlords
sent letters of accusation (about the
past behavior of the Jews) to King
Cyrus and the king shut down the
rebuilding project until matters
could be reviewed and sorted out.
There was nothing that Zerubbabel and
Joshua could do but wait. One does
not run ahead of a sovereign king.
Fourteen years is a long time to wait
and Zerubbabel and Joshua knew that
with each passing year, their
opportunity to complete the task
became more unlikely. During this
period of “gridlock,” the
Lord gave the prophet Zechariah
several visions to encourage His
people.
Of course, Jesus saw
everything that was going on. He saw
the lies and accusations of the
warlords. He saw the devil’s
efforts to thwart the rebuilding of
the temple. Jesus also saw the
fragile condition (spiritually
speaking) of those Jews who had
returned to rebuild Jerusalem. In
some ways, the generation that came
out of Babylon was worse off than the
generation that came out of Egypt.
The Jews who came out of Babylon
possessed a corrupt religion. They
had mixed the laws of God and Moses
with the pagan beliefs of the
Babylonians and had created a toxic
religion. To clean up this mess, God designed
the rebuilding of Jerusalem and His
temple to purify the rebuilders.
He wanted to teach a new generation
of Jews the importance of living by
faith (doing what is right in
God’s eyes without regard for
the consequences) because without
faith, it is impossible to please
God! (Hebrews 11:6)
Jesus wanted to
rebuild Jerusalem to be a city
founded on faith and inhabited by the
“faith-full.” Jesus did not
want Jerusalem established on human
prowess and illusions of
self-importance and
self-righteousness. Therefore, Jesus
put the exiles in a “tunnel of
hopelessness.” (This is a
helpless situation that is bad,
narrow and confining. There is no
other way out, forward or backward,
up or down. It is a foreboding place
where gridlock stops everything but
the mighty hand of God.) Almost
immediately, God wanted the
rebuilders to understand that human
effort could not rebuild His temple
and His city. There was absolutely
nothing that the Jews could do about
it. After a few years of hopeless
gridlock, God spoke to His people
through Zechariah:
“[For many
good reasons,] The Lord was very
angry with the forefathers [and
according to His promise, He drove us
from His land – Leviticus
25:23]. Therefore [the Lord
said to me] tell the people:
‘this is what the Lord Almighty
says: “Return to me,”
declares the Lord Almighty, “and
I will return to you,”’
…[did you notice the order
– return to me and I will return
to you] ‘Do not be like your
forefathers, to whom the earlier
prophets proclaimed: “This is
what the Lord Almighty says:
‘Turn from your evil ways and
your evil practices.’” But
they would not listen or pay
attention to me,’ declares the
Lord.” (Zechariah 1:2-4,
insertions mine)
Basically, the Lord
says, “If (consider the
conditional nature of this offer) you
return to me, I will bless you. I
have many wonderful things in store
for you.” “’Shout
and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For
I am coming [to Earth], and I
will live among you,’ declares
the Lord. ‘[A time is coming
when] Many nations will be joined
with the Lord in that day and [many
Gentile nations] will become my
people. I will live among you and you
will know that the Lord Almighty has
sent me to me to you. The Lord will
inherit Judah as his portion in the
holy land and will again choose
Jerusalem [as His dwelling
place].’” (Zechariah
2:10-12, insertions mine)
Israel left a bad
taste in the mouths of the
Canaanites. This bad taste can be
assessed by the hatred that the
Gentiles had for the returning Jews.
The Canaanites did not want the Jews
living in their midst and they did
everything possible to keep them from
rebuilding. During the period of
gridlock, the Lord gave Zechariah a
vision concerning Joshua and a vision
concerning Zerubbabel. As high
priest, Joshua represented the
religious condition of Israel and as
king; Zerubbabel represented the
political condition of Israel.
Because the vision concerning Joshua
does not directly concern the Two
Witnesses, I will reluctantly skip
over it. (See Zechariah 3.)
Visions Concerning
Zerubbabel
“Then the
angel who talked with me [earlier
in the vision concerning Joshua] returned
and awakened me, as a man is awakened
from his sleep. He asked me,
‘What do you see?” I
answered, ‘I see a solid gold
lampstand with a bowl at the top and
seven lights on it, with seven
channels to the lights. Also there
are two olive trees by it, one on the
right of the bowl and the other on
its left.” Then I asked the
angel who talked with me, ‘What
are these, my lord?’ He
answered, ‘Do you [Zechariah,
a prophet of God] not know what
these are?’ ‘No, my
lord,’ I relied. So he said to
me, ‘This is the word of the
Lord to Zerubbabel: “Not by [human]
might nor by [human] power,
but by my Spirit [the temple will
be rebuilt],” says the Lord
Almighty.’
‘What are you,
O mighty mountain [of warlords,
gridlock and insurmountable
difficulties]? Before Zerubbabel
you will become level ground. [My
Spirit will remove all the roadblocks
set by your adversaries and the
temple will surely be rebuilt.] Then
he [Zerubbabel, yes King
Zerubbabel himself] will bring out
the capstone [the finishing stone
of the temple] to shouts of
“God bless it! God bless
it”’ Then the word of the
Lord came to me: ‘The hands of
Zerubbabel have laid the foundation
of this temple; his hands will also
complete it. [Tell those
who have no faith, those who doubt
this vision that when they behold the
completed temple] Then you will
know that the Lord Almighty has sent
me to you.’
“’Who
despises the day of small things? [Who
complains when troubles are few? God
works best when everything else
fails.] Men will rejoice when they
see [once again] the plumb
line in the hands of
Zerubbabel.’ ‘(These seven
[the seven eyes on the stone set
before Joshua] are the eyes of the
Lord, which range throughout the
earth [they are always on those
who fear the Lord. Psalms 33:18].)’
Then I asked the angel [a second
time], ‘What are these two
olive trees on the right and the left
of the lampstand?’ [After a
few moments of unanswered silence] Again
I asked him [a third time],
‘What are these two olive
branches beside the two gold pipes
that pour out golden oil?’ He
replied, ‘Do you [Zechariah,
a prophet of Israel] not know what
these are?’ ‘No my
lord,’ I said. So he said,
‘these [the two olive trees
and the golden lampstand that stand
before the Lord, they] are the two
[witnesses] who are anointed [chosen]
to serve the Lord of all the
earth.’” (Zechariah
4:1-14, insertions mine)
Please notice the key
points in this vision:
1. Even
though the rebuilding project was in
gridlock when God gave this vision to
Zechariah, the Lord promised that
Zerubbabel himself would present the
capstone (the final stone on the
temple) to shouts of “God bless
it! God bless it!” Jesus wanted
the king to know that he would indeed
rebuild the temple and the obstacles
he faced would be overcome, but not
through human strength. “’Not
by [human] might nor by
[human] power, but by my Spirit [the
temple will be rebuilt],’
says the Lord Almighty.”
2. Twice
the angel avoided Zechariah’s
question about the lampstand and the
two olive trees. In fact, the
angel’s response, “Do you
not know what these are?” was a
gentle rebuke because Zechariah, who
was both a prophet and a priest,
should have understood the meaning of
what he saw.
We have reached
bedrock in our study on the Two
Witnesses. The Lord showed Zechariah
a golden lampstand that had seven
lamps on it. Two olive trees stood
beside the lampstand, one on the left
and the other on the right. Each
olive tree had a golden pipe that was
attached to the lampstand. In fact,
the two pipes from the two olive
trees fanned out into seven channels
so that each lamp on the lampstand
received oil. The imagery is both
elegant and simple. Olive oil
perpetually flowed from the two
living trees and this enables the
lampstand to shine
perpetually! What a marvelous design!
Zechariah saw an eternal flame. A
lampstand fed by two olive trees.
(Remember, as we learned near the
beginning of this study, the Two
Witnesses have existed throughout
eternity.)
Fresh olive oil was
required for the seven lamps that
made up the golden lampstand. (Exodus
25:31-40, Leviticus 23:3,4) Zechariah
also knew that, “the lamps on
the pure gold lampstand [that
stood] before the Lord must
be tended [each day by humans] continually.”
(Leviticus 24:4 italics and
insertion mine) Given his intimate
knowledge of priestly duties,
Zechariah should have connected the
dots. He was looking at a symbol of
the Holy Spirit (the two olive trees)
and the eternal flame of God’s
Word (the lampstand with seven lamps
on it). The Spirit of God enables the
law of God to shine perpetually! As
the rain and the snow come down from
heaven, and do not return to it
without watering the earth and making
it bud and flourish, so that it
yields seed for the sower and bread
for the eater, so is my word that
goes out from my mouth: It will not
return to me empty, but will
accomplish what I desire and achieve
the purpose for which I sent
it.” (Isaiah 55:10,11)
Standing before the
Lord of the Earth
Notice the location of
the Two Witnesses in Revelation 11:4:
“These are the two olive
trees and the two lampstands that
stand before the Lord of the
earth.” The lampstand in
Zechariah’s day was located on
the south side of the Holy Place,
directly across the room from the
Table of Shewbread that was located
on the north side of the Holy Place.
The Table of Shewbread represents the
throne of God. In Zechariah’s
vision, two olive trees were seen
standing on each side of the
lampstand, therefore, the two trees
also stood before the Lord.
When Zechariah pressed the angel a
third time, the angel confirmed their
importance saying, “These [the
two olive trees and the golden
lampstand] are the two [witnesses]
who are anointed to serve the Lord
of all the earth [Sovereign God].”
The Lampstand with
Seven Lamps
When God gave this
vision to Zechariah, the temple in
Jerusalem was not in service. This
point is made because the temple in
Heaven was operating and intact.
(Hebrews 8:1-5) Zechariah’s
vision should be understood from the
perspective of the Heavenly temple,
where the Lord sits on His throne.
(Psalm 11:4) The lampstand in
Heaven’s temple represented the
nation of Israel, the agent through
whom God’s law was chosen to
shine. The seven lamps on the
lampstand represent the totality of
God’s Truth, the truth that
displaces darkness, including the
plumb line of His law that defines
true vertical.
Because of God’s
great affection for Abraham,
Abraham’s offspring had been
chosen as “keepers of the Word
of God.” They were trustees of
His law. In other words, when Israel
was delivered from Egypt, the nation
was chosen to serve the world as
trustees of the gospel of Christ.
(Exodus 19:4-6, 1 Corinthians 10:4)
Jesus referred to this responsibility
in His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus
told the Jews, “You are the
light [the lampstand] of the
world….” (Matthew 5:14,
insertion mine) In other words,
Israel had been selected and anointed
to serve the Lord of all Earth as
trustees of God’s Word. (Isaiah
42: 6,7; Revelation 14:6) This
explains why a single lampstand was
placed before the Lord’s
throne in the Heavenly temple. That
lampstand was a constant reminder
before the Lord that Israel needed
Holy Spirit power every day to take
the light of truth (the perfect law
of God) into all the world. “I,
the Lord, have called you in
righteousness; I will take hold of
your hand. I will keep you and will
make you to be a covenant for the
people and a light for the
Gentiles, to open eyes
that are blind, to free captives from
prison [of sin] and to release
from the dungeon those who sit in
darkness [of ignorance].”
(Isaiah 42:6,7, italics
and insertions mine)
The seven lamps on
Israel’s lampstand represent the
sevenfold brilliance that shines from
God’s Word. No group of people
has been given more blessing and
spiritual advantage than the nation
of Israel!
Paul, lamenting
Israel’s defiant rebellion
against Christ wrote, “For I
could wish that I myself were cursed
and cut off from Christ for the sake
of my brothers, those of my own race,
the people of Israel. Theirs is the
adoption as sons; theirs the divine
glory, the covenants, the receiving
of the law, the temple worship and
the promises. Theirs are the
patriarchs, and from them is traced
the human ancestry of Christ, who is
God over all, forever praised!
Amen.” (Romans 9:3-5) Did
you notice the little superscript
numbers? These numbers identify the
sevenfold blessing given to Israel.
God raised up a people to
“prepare the world for the
kingdom of God and He gave every
blessing and grace to do so, but they
refused. “He came to that
which was his own, but his own did
not receive him.” (John
1:11)
When Jesus began His
ministry, Israel was thoroughly
poisoned with idolatry. Israel
worshiped God’s laws instead of
God, and their legalism led them to
reject the teaching of Jesus. If
Jesus came to Earth to minister among
Christians today, He would find
Christians thoroughly poisoned by
idolatry. A majority of Christians
worship God’s grace instead of
God! This point is proven by the
total disregard for God’s
seventh day Sabbath. Most Christians
disregard God’s Sabbath because
they believe the Ten Commandments
were abolished at the cross. The
pendulum has swung from worshiping
God’s law to worshiping
God’s grace. In fact, mercy
(grace) and justice (law) co-exist
because God is love. (Psalm 89:14)
Man’s need of God’s grace
is based on the eternal presence of
God’s law. Where there is no
law, there is no need for grace!
(Romans 4:15) When the Ten
Commandments, especially the fourth
commandment, is presented to the
world during the Great Tribulation,
many Christians will be shocked to
hear that they have blasphemed the
law of God in the name of Grace.
Although the doctrine of grace
opposes the doctrine of legalism,
they produce the same outcome.
Anything that displaces the law of
God with rules taught by men is
blasphemy. (Isaiah 29:13; Mark 7:7,8)
