Zechariah’s Vision

The foregoing vision given Zechariah confirms what we were discussing in our previous post concerning the divine channels chosen to dispense the truth to the household of faith.

In the narrative found in (Zech 4:1-14), Zechariah was given another vision by the angel of the Lord, and the angel (messenger) asked him, “What do you see?”

Zechariah answered saying,

“I am looking, and there is a lamp-stand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it, and on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps. Two olive trees are by it, one at the right of the bowl and the other at its left.”

Zechariah was at a miss as to what this vision represented, and sought answers.

Now in the account only part of what is seen has been explained, the rest is left up to us to decipher using what we have learned from our studies of God’s Word. God often does this; He would have us exercise our God giving ability to reason things out.

The two olive trees are said to be “dripping” oil (Verse 12). We understand that the “oil” represents the Holy Spirit, the “spirit of truth” in other words the “Word of God”.

Where does this oil come from?

It comes from the two olive trees, which the angel refers to as the “two anointed ones” (Verse 14).

The answer as to what or who is being referred to here is found in Rev 11:3-12, these two anointed ones are none other than the Lord’s “two witnesses”, also referred to as the “two olive trees”, the Old and the New Covenants [Testaments].

As for the lamp-stand all should agree that this represents the church as a whole from its first to its last, it’s every member complete, as is alluded to by our Lord in Rev 1:20, the only difference there being that the church was pictured as seven separate distinct lamp-stands, representing the seven stages or periods of the church throughout its history.

Now for the difficult part, we know that the Word of God, the “truth”, the “oil” comes to us through the “two anointed ones” …

But what does the bowl represent?

And what do the seven pipes below the bowl represent?

The answer should be obvious, God is the author of the divine plan as it is recorded in his word, (the two olive trees), but He has chosen Jesus Christ our Lord as the hub or central channel (the golden bowl) through which understanding and blessings (the oil) of this plan should flow to the Church, and subsequently to the world in general.

Now as the work of preparing the Church has been committed into the hands of our Lord, our Lord has seen fit to choose seven specific “stars”, angels, messengers, channels (the seven pipes) to dispense the “oil”, the truth to the body.

That is to say, “The seven pipes represent the seven channels of outpouring or distribution of the Holy Spirit from the head (Jesus) to the Church throughout the seven stages of its development, the seven stars or messengers to the Church being the agencies used to convey this supply of oil. All the anointing oil was poured upon, or emptied into, the bowl; from there the oil was distributed to the various branches or channels.

Here then is an important lesson: Whereas the Bible contains all the necessary oil to supply a person’s every need, it becomes available only in proportion to his relationship with Christ (his identification as a member of Christ’s body, the Church, pictured by the candlestick) AND to his harmony with the agencies or channels which God uses, His chosen messengers or Stars.”

Another very important observation which confirms this fact: “It is interesting to note that in all of the seven church messages the direction is “To the angel… write.” It is as if the angel himself, more than the church, needs to know these things. Historically the angels seem very much to have acted and preached based on the content of these messages. It is not, of course, that these messages are not to the churches themselves, but rather that they are TO the churches THROUGH the angels.

Without recognizing (identifying) the angel (the specific messenger chosen by the Lord to each stage of the Church, especially appointed to relay the message, i.e., to give to the household “meat in due season”), and what he has been given in the way of understanding, the Church cannot hope to receive much of the message.”

Another point here which we note is that the two pipes which fed the oil into the bowl are said to be made of “gold”, (Verse 12) gold representing the divine nature and thus here the divine channels through which our Lord (represented by the golden bowl) received his knowledge and understanding of the divine plan, but curiously nothing is said in respects to the seven pipes.

In our studies on the Tabernacle, we learned that “gold” represents divine perfection, while “copper” which closely resembles gold, is used to represent human perfection, whether that be actual or imputed perfection. We may surmise that as these seven pipes or channels were not mentioned in the narrative as consisting of gold like those which fed the golden bowl, that this may have indicated that they were not made of the same material, perhaps to indicate that the Lord would use human agencies rather than spirit agencies to be the channels to distribute the oil to the church. We know that all seven of the Lord’s chosen angels or channels were fully devout men, fully consecrated to the Lord and to his service, and thus would have received the imputation of the merit of Christ righteousness and as such be deemed perfect in the eyes of God, however they were not yet glorified at the time in which they were used as the Lord’s chosen messengers.

Nevertheless, the lesson for us is this: If we chose to ignore God’s chosen channels, then we have cut ourselves off from receiving the “oil” the truth, which flows from the Father through his Son and subsequently through these various human agencies chosen by the Lord to deliver us “meat (truth) in due season”.

Now I know that many are wary of human teachers, but the Lord has made used of them all throughout the age, and it has been given to us to “test the spirits”, to “prove all things” to verify that the channel through which we are receiving our nourishment is of the Lord and not merely of man.

“To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word there is no truth in them” (Isa 8:20)

In our next several posts we should like delve a bit more into the history of the seven Churches and of the seven stars or angels which were appointed to each. Also, what qualified each of these angels to be chosen by the Lord to give to the Church its “meat in due season”.