The Power in the Vision (Zech. 4:6)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/28/2016 8:15 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                 Focus: Power in the Vision

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Zechariah 4:6

            Message of the verses:  “6 Then he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, ’Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.”  “6 “This is GOD’s Message to Zerubbabel: ‘You can’t force these things. They only come about through my Spirit,’ says GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies (Message).”

            John MacArthur writes “One of the great verses in the Bible!  I want to show you just a distinction here you need to make.  Not by might, and in the Hebrew that refers to the strength of many, and not by power, and in the Hebrew that refers to the strength on go great one.”

            Now since we know what this has to say in the Hebrew we can then understand that the restoration of Israel will not be due to a collective operation on the part of their strong men, nor will it be due to the efforts of one great and strong man.  So the answer as to where the power comes from is the Holy Spirit.  When something is to get done that God wants to get done He gives power through His Holy Spirit.  Now let’s take this example over to our witnessing of the truth of the gospel and we read “You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses (Acts 1:8).”  Let us also look at Acts 4:31 “And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.”

            I want to say something that I have probably said in a past SD, but I think it applies to this section, since this is a very important verse in the Word of God.  Let us look at Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  This verse comes right after Paul writes as to how we have been saved, which is by grace through faith and it is not of ourselves, as it is a gift of God.  So he is saying that we are not saved by our own efforts, but through the power of the Holy Spirit, however after we are saved God has given us works to do, and now I want to look at Colossians 2:6 “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,” and this tells us how we are to walk in our Christian life, as it is the same way we’re saved, by grace through faith, and as stated this comes through the power of the Holy Spirit who has given us an effectual call which we cannot say no to.  The Spirit calls us to salvation and the Spirit enables us to do the work that God has called us to do and as we go back to our verse in Zechariah we see that this is done not by might nor by power but by My Spirit says the Lord of Heavens Armies.  I want to add one more thing that I am convinced is true and that has to do with the believers rewards that Paul writes about in a couple of his NT letters.  How do believers earn those rewards?  God has given us work to do and we do it through the power of the Holy Spirit so that He receives the glory, remember what Paul wrote concerning salvation “8  For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9  not as a result of works, so that no one may boast (Eph. 2:8-9).”  If we could do the works that God wants us to do in our own power we would have something to boast about, but we must do them through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Now we will look at a quote from John MacArthur concerning this verse.

            “Now you'll notice something interesting in verse 6. It says, "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel." And here Zerubbabel was the chief ruler over Israel. We know that from Haggai where that is recorded for us. Haggai, I think you might want to look for just a minute at verse 4 of Chapter 2, "Be strong O Zerubbabel saith the Lord and be strong O Joshua, and there's those two, the one in civil authority and the one in religious authority, and so forth, and so these two people are the ones who stand in the power. In Ezra 2:2 you have a similar indication of the authority that has been given to Zerubbabel as one who is responsible for leading the people.

“Now this man had a lot of obstacles in front of him and a lot of them piled up. He was trying to lead the nation to the rebuilding of the wall and he was trying to lead the nation to the restoration of the temple and he was fighting obstacle after obstacle after obstacle. But God says to him, "Zerubbabel, it's going to be done historically and it's going to be done by the Holy Spirit and it was. Now the Holy Spirit used a human vessel to build that wall. Who was it? Nehemiah, but he did it in 52 days and everybody said, "It had to be God, it had to be God." So historically note he says to Zerubbabel, God's Spirit is going to rebuild this place, but Zerubbabel also, like Joshua, is a symbol of the whole nation and as historically Zerubbabel would see the city restored so future the nation will see the kingdom restored on its grandiose scale.

“The nation at this time was a mess. Things were rather tragic, but God says, "Zerubbabel, it's going to happen," and the implication of the future it's going to happen again when all of those who are the nation once led by Zerubbabel see God's power.

“Now notice what it says there at the end of verse 6, "But by My Spirit." The Spirit or the ruwachof God, the breath of God, this is the Spirit who worked in creation, where it says, "And God breathed and everything sprang to life." This is the spirit that opened and closed the Red Sea in Exodus 15, this is the Spirit in Ezekiel's vision in Chapter 37 where God breathed into the dead bones that had come together and the dead people came to life. It will be that Holy Spirit the ruwachof God who will restore and regenerate and rejuvenate Israel. Great, great future hope.

“Now I want to just add a footnote: all God's work is done by God's Spirit. Did you get that? All God's work is done by God's Spirit. Anything not done by His Spirit is not His work even if you call it that. The Spirit always works through spiritual gifts, the Spirit always works through holiness, the Spirit always works through the word and the Spirit always works through humility and where you have the gifts in operation holiness, the word, and humility you have God's Spirit at work in any generation.

“So the oil, then, is the picture of the Spirit and it's the flow of the Spirit in profuse quantity that's going to make that kingdom such a fantastic time. An interesting Bible study that I would just challenge you to do is to study the concept of oil in the Bible and how it relates to the Holy Spirit. Let me just give you a starting point, several little points. It won't take too long. This doesn't count in my sermon, okay? Number one: oil heals. Did you know that? Oil heals. Psalm 23, "Thou anointest my head with oil." The shepherd would put oil on the sheep's head when it had been bruised and it would sooth the cut. In the Bible oil again and again is applied to wounds. Luke 10:34, and James 5:14, and if we would make a parallel we would say it's the Holy Spirit who touches us in the time of our being wounded, in the time of our care, in the time of our sorrow, in the time of our distress, and the time when we've been cut and sooths those wounds with His marvelous presence. And oil lights as we see in the vision here. And certainly the Holy Spirit is the one who illuminates the believer's path. It is the Holy Spirit that leads us into truth. It is the Holy Spirit who lightens the heart of an unregenerate man and convicts him of sin. It is the Holy Spirit who opens the word of God to our understanding. He is light. And oil warms. Oil was used to produce heat. The unresponsive heart is warmed by the fire of the Holy Spirit.

“Read Luke 24, and the response of those on the road to Emmaus. Fourthly oil is a sign of joy. Did you know that? Did you know that in the Old Testament feast times oil was never applied in periods of sorrow and grief because it was reserved for periods of joy? Read Psalm 104:15, or II Samuel 12:20. Oil is a symbol of joy in the Old Testament and certainly the Holy Spirit is the source of joy. Romans 14:17 says, "The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." So you can follow that through yourself. The Holy Spirit is many things symbolized by oil.”

5/28/2016 8:54 AM