Then he said to me, “This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. Zech 4:6 (NLT)
The Israelites had returned to Jerusalem after a 70 year exile in Babylon. The city and the temple were run down and in need of repair. Infrastructure, marketplaces, government, education… everything was back to ‘pioneering’ stage. Most that returned from Babylon were born there and had no idea of what life in the Holy City was like – the only insight they had was the elderly and the stories passed down to them from their fathers. It's quite an overwhelming position to be in. There is a level of comfort found in our brokenness – or exile. A reason to stay still and hunker down, and when in this position long enough, to start to move with freedom can be a challenge.
Zechariah was given a vision from the Lord where he saw a gold lampstand with a bowl on top of it, 7 other lampstands, and two olive trees which supplied oil through the 7 lamps and into the bowl. Oil has always signified the ‘Anointing’ and ’Spirit’ of God in the Old Testament. God was sending a message to the Israelites, and Zerubbabel (their leader), that there was no need to force the rebuilding – conjure up strength, manipulate and whip people into working… The Spirit of God would move upon hearts, would move within bodies and would cause the city and the temple to be rebuilt and to flourish. Just as the Israelites didn’t need to throw a revolt, or declare war upon Babylon in order to be set free – the Spirit of God had moved upon the heart of Cyrus to let them return to Jerusalem to be their own people – so the Spirit of God would move again, and again, and again… and would keep on being a constant flow of strength and source of joy in the land to fulfil the purposes of God through broken humanity. What an incredible story of grace and hope.
Don’t force what you feel is coming, don’t push and strive in your own strength to bring about an outcome, but trust in God that His Spirit is at work, and then go with its flow.
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