Devotional Commentary on
Zechariah 4
Needle in a haystack. That is
what you have when you try to find a good commentary on Zechariah 4. Most commentaries are trying to park
all the events in the time of Zerubabel in 520-516 BCE. Good for them, you may
say. Not so, says Delitzsch, the great Assyriologist and scholar who should
have been an Adventist with his pockets of Adventist doctrine in his heavy
scholastic discussions. Now the truth is out and I plan to lean heavily on this
scholar for this chapter. The brightness and clarity with which he wrote and
the comparison he has with Ellen White is worth looking into. My dissertation leader prof. dr. Akio
Tsukimoto, the famous Assyriologist in Tokyo, who was at Rikkyo University said
to me that Delitzsch is not popular because scholars say he was “too creative
and imaginative”. I can live with this kind of creativity of Delitzsch. Zechariah got this vision after the
angel walked away “returned” (verse 1) and since Zechariah was very tired and
sleepy, he woke him up. Zechariah saw a candlestick of gold
with an oil-bowl on top and seven lamps thereon, seven tubes or channels to the
lamps on top (verse 2). Near it were two olive trees left and
right of it. That is the vision. What about the interpretation? The angel interpreted it for him: “This
is the Word of the Lord” (verse 6). Delitzsch (1884 English translation) said
that is the key. From this all semantics will find its course. And it did. “The burning lamps were a symbol of
the church or of the nation of God, which causes the light of its spirit, or of
its knowledge of God, to shine before the Lord, and lets it stream out into the
night of a world estranged from God. As the disciples of Christ were called, as
lights to the world (Matt. v. 14), to let their lamps burn and shine, or, as
candlestick in the world (Luke xii. 35; Phil. ii. 15), to shine with their
light before man (Matt. v. 16), so was the church of the Old Testament also.” Suddenly I have a feeling that
Delitzsch is onto something here. Delitzsch provided a control check
from the New Testament that the candlestick is the role of the church:
Revelation 1:20 where the churches were seven lamps that are before the throne
of God and explained to be churches which represent the new people of God, the
Christian church. The candlestick only help the lamps to
shine and serve the purpose of shining lamps, said Delitzsch. It is the “divinely
appointed organism for the perpetuation and life of the church”. Who do you want to listen to? Ellen White
or Delitzsch. Birds of the same feather they are here. Said Delitzsch: “Oil, regarded
according to its capacity to invigorate the body and increase the energy of the
vital spirits, is used in the Scriptures as a symbol of the Spirit of God, not
in its transcendent essence, but so far as it works in the world, and is
indwelling in the church….” (1884: 267). Ellen White said: “The oil furnished
by the olive trees (v. 3) typified the Holy Spirit” (see Ellen White, Christ
Object Lessons page 408). She continued to say in another source on this
matter: “So from the anointed ones that stand in God's presence the fullness of
divine light and love and power is imparted to His people, that they may impart
to others light and joy and refreshing. Those who are thus enriched are to
enrich others with the treasure of God's love.”—Ellen White in Prophets and
Kings, page 594. These trees could not provide oil to
the lamps if God did not plant them and nourish them with sunshine and water
and so, said Delitzsch also the church cannot succeed unless God is the One who
is planting and nourishing. Said Ellen White on Zechariah 4 in the
Sabbath School Quarterly of 1944: “The capacity for receiving the holy
oil from the two olive trees is increased as the receiver empties that holy oil
out of himself in word and action to supply the necessities of other souls.
Work, precious, satisfying work,—to be constantly receiving and constantly
imparting. . . . All heaven is waiting for channels through which can be poured
the holy oil, to be a joy and a blessing to others.”—Ellen White in Testimonies,
vol. 6, page 117. Delitzsch continued: ““In this double
respect the candlestick, with its burning and shining lamps, was a symbol of
the church of God, which lets the fruit of its life, which is not only kindled
but also nourished by the Holy Spirit, shine before God” In verse 6 the main point is that the
kingdom of God is not by force but by His Holy Spirit. That is the message to
Zerubabel. “Who are you O great mountain?” (verse
7). As Delitzsch pointed out this mountain is a negative or evil power. It will
be destroyed to make way for the plain of God to exist. Then there is the plain
mentioned. Delitzsch said that “the building of the temple of stone and wood is
simply regarded as a type of the building of the kingdom of God” and he
commented on verse 9. Delitzsch interpreted the heavenly
Zerubabel to be the Messiah Christ. What will be brought out is the “top
stone/headstone” of the main architect with shouts of “Grace, grace to it”. Did
Daniel not say the Kingdom of God is a rock that will come to smash the other
earthly kingdoms to set up a heavenly kingdom at the end of time? Ellen White said about this verse: “Often
men are tempted to falter before the perplexities and obstacles that confront
them. But if they will hold the beginning of their confidence steadfast unto
the end, God will make the way clear. Success will come to them as they
struggle against difficulties. Before the intrepid spirit and unwavering faith
of a Zerubbabel, great mountains of difficulty will become a plain; and He
whose hands have laid the foundation, even ‘His hands shall also finish it.’ He
shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace
unto it” Ellen White in Prophets and Kings, page 595. The mountain was seen by the Targum,
Jerome, Theodotion of Mopsuesta, Theodoret, Rabbi Kimchi, Luther and others as
a symbol of the power of the world or the imperial power. Delitzsch continued “And as he
[earthly Zerubabel] will finish the building of the earthly temple, so will the
true Zerubabel, the Messiah, Tsemach, the servant of Jehovah, build the
spiritual temple, and make Israel into a candlestick, which is supplied with
oil by two olive trees, so that its lamps my shine brightly in the world” (Delitzsch
1884: 272) God spoke to Zechariah that Zerubabel’
hands founded the house of the Lord in 520-516 BCE “and his hands shall
complete [it]” (verse 9). He compared the two Zerubabels by
saying: that some will despise the day of small things (after Zerubabel will
finish his part in 516 BCE) but “shall rejoice and see the plummet in Zerubabel’s
hand”. This is the Messiah Christ for the Trinity is working together here: “these
sevenfold, the eyes of the Lord are roving to and fro throughout the earth”.
The building of Christ is his church on earth and the “King’s harvest” is
Christ’s harvest through his church on earth. “Zerubabel is still simply the type of
the future Zerubabel – namely, the Messiah – who will build the true temple of
God; and the meaning is the following: Then will the seven eyes of God help to
carry out this building” (Delitzsch in 1884: 272). The two olive trees were not yet clear
to Zechariah (verses 11-14). “These are the two oil-children which stand by the
Lord of the whole earth”. My father taught me as a child that this refers to
the Old and the New Testaments that serve God in His work and they stand by God
because they came from Him. They are God/Spirit-breathed. The two children of
oil was seen by Cyril as the Jews and Gentiles. Delitzsch rejected this view.
They were seen as the believing Israel and Gentiles by Kliefoth but Delitzsch
rejected this. J. D. Michaelis though they are Haggai and Zechariah but
Delitzsch rejected this. In Delitzsch discussion of August Köhler’s
view and attempting to cancel that view, Delitzsch touched on the truthful
answer but steered away to see them as the government and priesthood (Delitzsch
1884: 277). This is not correct. “this explanation [of Köhler]
is decidedly precluded by the fact that two mortal men [Haggai and Zechariah] could
not convey to the church for all ages the oil of the Spirit” (1884: 277). Think
about it: two prophets could not provide for the whole period of God’s remnant
between Adam and the Second Adam (= Christ) but the Revelation of God from
Genesis to Revelation in two parts does provide that witness as “anointed ones”
for God.
Dear God Great is Your witnesses and truth is
Your speaking to us. Your Word is truth and truth is what we seek in a period
of fake news. Open our eyes that we may see, Thy care so wide and free. Amen.