Our Strength, or God’s Spirit?

By the power of God’s Spirit, when there is a bully, a mountain, or some other opposition or obstacle standing in front of you, daring you to even try to trust God, you can say, “Who are you, great mountain?” Whether you face the mountain of discouragement, the mountain of financial crisis, the mountain of past failures, the mountain of addiction, the mountain of criticism, the mountain of the misplaced guilt from your past, or the mountain of doubt about your future, you can stand in front of that mountain and say, “What are you, great mountain?”

And if you listen carefully, you may hear the mountain reply, “I am a great mountain. What are you?” Standing on our own, we would never have an answer for the mountains we face. But standing in the power of God’s Holy Spirit, when the mountain says, “I’m a mountain. What are you?” we can say, “I am a child of God, living in the power of God’s Spirit. The blood of Jesus Christ has redeemed me. His Spirit lives inside of me. Mountain, you will become level ground in front of me.” Praise the Lord!

There may be a mountain you have faced for years, just as Zerubbabel faced the mountain of the incomplete temple. Each day of continued opposition and the increasing sense of defeat makes the mountain seem larger and more overwhelming. By now, you may think that you simply will never overcome it. And, in the deepest sense, you are right. You cannot overcome your obstacle. You cannot flatten the mountain on your own. But the Holy Spirit of God can overcome it. He lives inside of you, and He will empower you. The greatest obstacles can be conquered. As you trust in Him, God’s Spirit conquers even the greatest of obstacles.

In verses 8-10 Zechariah’s fifth vision continues with a word of encouragement for Zerubbabel. In verse 9 the Lord acknowledges that Zerubbabel had laid the foundation for the temple. He had started on the rebuilding project a number of years before, in 537–536 BC (Ezra 3:8-11; 5:16). When the rebuilding began, the priests had dressed in their robes and held trumpets while the Levites stood with cymbals in hand to lead the people of Israel in praise. Together, the people shouted and gave thanks to the Lord for His goodness and His eternal love. There had been tremendous celebration when the foundation of the Lord’s house had been laid. Now the year was 519 BC. Over 17 years had passed, and the foundations had become a bitter visual testimony to an unfulfilled hope.

How encouraged Zerubbabel must have been to hear this promise from God: “Zerubbabel’s hands have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will complete it.” The language here uses synecdoche, in which the parts, “Zerubabbel’s hands,” represent the whole, the man himself. Repeating the figure of speech—“Zerubbabel’s hands have laid the foundation” and “his hands will complete it”—emphasizes the fact that Zerubbabel, who had personally begun building the temple, would also personally fulfill his God-given task by completing it. When Zerubbabel finished the temple, the angel promised, “Then you will know that the Lord of Hosts has sent me to you.” With those words, which repeat identical pledges made in 2:9 and 2:11, the angel offered not only a confirmation of Zechariah’s prophetic ministry, but also an assurance of the validity of all the visions the angel had shown the prophet.

As a result, the angel asks this rhetorical question: “Who scorns the day of small things?” The word translated “scorn,” buz in Hebrew, means to despise or hold in contempt. It indicates showing disrespect for someone or something. The word is used in Proverbs to caution fools against despising God’s wisdom (Prov 1:7; 23:9), to warn about the danger of disrespecting a mother or father (Prov 23:22; 30:17), or to judge those who hold God’s Word in contempt (Prov 13:13). The angel’s question in 4:10 also carries a cautionary tone. The NET Bible captures this warning especially well: “Who dares make light of small beginnings?”

“The day of small things” refers to the day when Zerubabbel and other returning Jews had started work on the temple. The longer Zerubbabel and company went without completing the building, the more insignificant that foundation seemed to be. You may have watched what happens in your community when someone starts to build a house but never finishes it. You drive down the road and see the building has been started. Workers dig the footings and pour the concrete for the foundation. They start to put up the walls or go even further. Then one day you drive by and you notice that construction has stopped. Maybe the builder ran out of money, or perhaps something tragic happened in the life of the family that was building the home. But for whatever reason, the building just sits there unfinished. Eventually, weeds begin to overtake the foundation. Rain starts to rot the wood of the uncompleted walls. A building that had looked promising at the beginning becomes more and more insignificant as the days pass with no progress.

A similar thing had happened with the temple in Jerusalem. More than a decade and a half before, Zerubbabel had laid the foundation. He had marked out all the footings to show where the temple was going to be. He and his workers, along with the rest of the returning Jews, must have been brimming with excitement to think that they were going to rebuild the house of God. Then, because of opposition and challenge, the work stopped. For days, then weeks, and eventually years, nothing happened. Now there were among God’s people those who despised the day of small things, who held the construction of the temple in contempt. They said, “Nothing is going to happen. Nothing has happened in 10 years. Nothing has happened in 15 years. Nothing is going to happen, ever.” As time passed, the project began to look less and less significant and more and more ill advised.

The Lord’s message for Zerubbabel was that when His Spirit touches something that looks small and inconsequential, God will do something significant. Perhaps those who scorned the day of small things were the older Jews who believed the new temple would be lackluster compared with the former temple before the exile (Ezra 3:12-13). Or those who scorned that day may have been the surrounding enemy nations who were at ease as the returning remnant of Israel sought to rebuild Jerusalem (Zech 1:15). Whether the scorn came from enemies on the outside or critics from within Israel, God Himself promised to rejoice as His mission for Zerubbabel was achieved: “These seven eyes of the Lord, which scan throughout the whole earth, will rejoice when they see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.”

The language at the end of verse 10 holds some difficulties. The phrase “the seven eyes of the Lord,” reminiscent of the stone with seven eyes in 3:9, suggests the Lord’s omniscience. The Hebrew translated “plumb line” can also be interpreted to mean “separated stone,” which might be a reference to the capstone in verse 7. If the meaning is “plumb line,” Yahweh, who sees and knows all, promises to rejoice as the construction of the temple begins again under Zerubbabel’s supervision. If the meaning is “capstone,” then Yahweh’s rejoicing comes at the temple’s completion. In either case, the idea is very similar: though Zerubbabel’s detractors scoff at his attempts to rebuild the temple, the Lord will overcome meager beginnings through His Spirit.

Just as Zerubbabel had an assignment from the Lord to rebuild the temple, every follower of Jesus has a specially designed life assignment from God. For each of us, there is a project God has for our lives. While all believers have the same ultimate purpose of living for God’s glory (1 Cor 10:31), the way that purpose fleshes out in the details of our lives every day differs for each Christian. But many of us have been in the same place that Zerubbabel was. God has given us an assignment, and maybe we have started it but we have unfulfilled dreams, uncompleted goals, dead visions, or half-built projects. We have laid the foundation but now we feel stuck. God’s Word assures us that, through the power of God’s Spirit, we can finish what we have started. God’s Spirit can overcome small and even frustrated beginnings and, in the end, the small things that some people despised will become finished projects over which people rejoice.

A friend of mine says that every church has a “Cold Water Committee.” These are people who have appointed themselves to discourage the dreams of other people and throw a bucket of cold water on them. Sometimes they even throw the cold water “in Jesus’ name”! As a pastor, people come to me often with ideas and dreams they believe the Lord has given them. At times, some of their ideas seem outlandish and impossible, and I am tempted to join the “Cold Water Committee” myself and tell them all the reasons their idea will never work. But then I remember that I serve a God for whom nothing is impossible (Matt 17:20). I am thankful for people who have encouraged me to pursue God’s calling on my life, rather than dousing every dream I have had. We need people like that in our lives. And, even when no one else sees the vision God has given us, the Holy Spirit of God who lives in us will encourage us and overcome the smallest beginnings. In Philippians Paul assures believers, “I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:6).

At the conclusion of the fifth vision, Zechariah asks the angel who has been revealing the vision to him two questions that both reiterate and clarify the initial questions asked in verse 4. The first question, found in verse 11, concerns the olive trees on either side of the menorah. The second question, found in verse 12, is more specific, asking for the identity of the two olive branches beside the gold conduits out from which “the golden oil” (literally “the gold”) flows.

After further conversation in verse 13, the angel gives the answer to the first question: “These are the two anointed ones . . . who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.” According to the angel, these branches are people, the “two anointed ones,” which means “two sons of oil.” The phrase indicates that two men had been set apart and anointed by God as His special representatives. While the identity of these two men is not explicitly mentioned in this text, the context strongly indicates they must be Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the High Priest (Barker, “Zechariah,” 631). Zerubbabel, a member of the line of David, embodies the political leadership of Judah. Joshua the High Priest, whom we met chapter 3 and will meet again in chapter 6, personifies the spiritual leadership of God’s people.

Joshua and Zerubbabel were unlikely people for God to use. These two branches, through whom God’s Spirit flowed and by whom God promised to complete His work in Jerusalem, were not Moses, not Aaron, not David, not Solomon, but Joshua and Zerubbabel.

Consider Zerubbabel. He was, by all accounts, a godly man, yet he had an ungodly name. His name means “descendant of Babylon.” Zerubabbel’s very name brought to mind a wicked kingdom. Although Zerubbabel descended from the kingly line and was the grandson of King Jehoiachin of Judah (see Ezra 3:2 and 1 Chr 3:17-19), he was not a king himself. Instead, he was a governor, a vassal ruler under the authority of a pagan king.

Now consider Joshua. He is a high priest with no temple. We last found him in chapter 3 being cleansed from the horrendous filth with which he had been clothed. He has a famous and beautiful name, which means “Yahweh delivered.” Yet, any time we teach or talk about him, we have to distinguish this Joshua from the storied leader of Israel who first took control of the promised land of Canaan. Imagine meeting a man in heaven one day who introduces himself as “Joshua from the Old Testament.” Your elation at meeting him would no doubt diminish a little when he told you, “Now, before you get too excited, I need to tell you: I’m Joshua the high priest, not Joshua the son of Nun who fought the battle of Jericho.” This is Joshua with a lowercase “j,” Joshua the minor character in a book written by a minor prophet! He served alongside a mere governor. Still, God promises that He will use these unlikely men to do great and mighty things.

Conventional wisdom says that you have to have great resources to accomplish great things. It says you have to be a great person to accomplish great things. We tend to believe we can only do great things if we have large financial resources and talented people and innovative ideas. The truth is that our abundance of resources and abilities do not really help God accomplish His work, and our lack of resources and abilities cannot hinder God from doing His work. God works not by our might or strength but by His Spirit.

Consider a few examples. In Judges 3:31 a man you have probably barely even heard of, Shamgar, delivered Israel from the Philistines singlehandedly. He won a great victory by killing 600 Philistines with nothing more than an oxgoad, a stick sharpened at one end to drive along slow-moving oxen. Shamgar was an unlikely hero—as was Moses. When God asked Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, he was afraid no one would listen to him or follow him. God asked him, “What is that thing you have in your hand?” Moses answered, “It’s a rod, just a stick.” And God used that rod to convince the people to follow Moses, to turn the Nile River into blood, to bring great plagues on Egypt, to part the Red Sea, and to perform miracles in the wilderness (Lee, “Two Sticks”).

God uses ordinary instruments and unlikely people to do great things. We might be tempted to say, “I’m not much. I don’t have much. I don’t know much. I can’t do much.” Those things don’t matter to God. Here’s what matters: Are you willing to take who you are and what you have and place all of yourself into His hands? Zerubbabel, the unlikely governor descended from the line of David, points forward to the coming Messiah who would sit on David’s throne and rule the nations (Isa 9:7). Lower-case “j” Joshua reminds us of the coming Yeshua, whose name belongs in all caps, underscored, and bold print, whom the Bible calls our Great High Priest “who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God” (Heb 4:14). Through Him, we can turn a discouraging deficit into a stimulating success. Are you willing to turn the sails of your life toward His Spirit so that His Spirit can be the wind in your sails and take you where He wants you to go? God’s Spirit can conquer incredible obstacles and turn mountains into plains. His Spirit can make great things out of small beginnings. His Spirit can use the least likely people for His glory. His Spirit can do what our might and strength could never do as we give ourselves to Him.