When the exiles returned to from Exile to Israel, they were a rag-tag bunch that came home to a burnt-out shell of Jerusalem and a very dilapidated and depressed community of has-beens and non-starters. Rebuilding the temple was low on the priority and possibility lists.
Zerubbabel was the king in charge, but he was not expected to amount to much - the odds were stacked against him. But Zechariah had a vision about Zerubbabel:
The vision was of a lampstand with seven wicks, each of the wicks with its own channel to the bowl of olive oil and either side of the bowl were two olive trees.
The implication: The olive trees would supply the bowl endlessly, and perfect (seven implies perfection) light would come from this lamp.
The application: Zerubbabel may not look like much, but he will be endlessly supplied by the Holy Spirit. Our own strength peters out and our best efforts end in the sputtering flame of our limited endurance, but we can have the strength to press on and endure when God's Spirit keeps us going.
We tend to try to serve God in our own strength. We come up with gimmicks and tricks to keep going using emotional equivalents of "Red Bull Energy Drinks" to pull us from one "high" to the next. The vision Zechariah has has no rush in it, the trees grow slowly, the oil seeps into the channels and the lamps keep burning. When we stay in communion with God, His Spirit will fuel our work for Him.
It's not by OUR might, not by OUR strength, but by HIS Spirit!
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
