Zechariah 4:7

The Bible says in Zechariah 4:7, “Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.” To fully understand this verse, we must read Zechariah 4:6 one more time. It says, “Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” God made a great statement telling us how His work is done. God can do anything through His supernatural power. The largest natural structure on the earth is a mountain. God’s Spirit can take a mountain and make it into a level plain. After all, the Spirit was involved in the creation. What He created, He controls and He can change. It says in Genesis 1:1-3, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” Jesus used the same analogy of being able to move mountains. It says in Matthew 17:20, “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

Notice the phrase in Zechariah 4:7 that says, “Grace, grace unto it.” Of course, to repeat the word “grace” is to emphasize it. Whenever we talk about the supernatural power of God and what He can do for us, we must emphasize grace because it is only by the grace of God that any benefit comes to us from Him. Jesus is the source of grace. Jesus is the reason that grace is available. In every way and in everything that is good that comes form God, we are dependent upon grace. We are very fortunate that so much grace is available because we deserve none of the good things, and we would have hope for nothing without grace.

The Bible says in Zechariah 4:8-10, “Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you. For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.” In Zechariah 4:10 the Lord makes a very interesting statement. He says, “For who hath despised the day of small things?” Every work that God does is an important work: it is part of His plan. God evaluates things much differently than man does. God is looking for quality, not quantity. But man too often looks at quantity, and ignores quality. Who is the greatest preacher in America? Only God knows the answer to this, but it would not surprise me if it was someone who is the pastor of one of the smallest churches. The Lord says in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Every large work was small at one time, and it had God’s blessing and God’s power just as much when it was small as it did when it has large. It had to be small before it became large. And over time because of the principle of corruption that is at work in all things, the larger an organization becomes, often the more corrupt it becomes. That is why Christian denominations often become weaker and less spiritual the larger that they become and the longer that they are in place. It is no wonder that God said, “For who hath despised the day of small things?”

The Bible says in Zechariah 4:11-14, “Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the LORD of the whole earth.” This is a very interesting Bible verse because of the mention of the “two anointed ones.” We already have noted that the oil represents the Spirit of God that each believer must rely upon to do the work of God. The word Messiah means “anointed.” But the word that is translated “anointed” in Zechariah 4:14 is not the word that is usually translated anointed and does not mean “Messiah.” The word that is translated “anointed” in Zechariah 4:14 is a word that literally means olive oil. Everywhere else that it is used in the Old Testament it is translated simply as “oil.” “The “two anointed ones” refers to two who are characterized by oil. The oil comes from them. Remember the oil represents the power of the Holy Spirit that a believer needs to serve God effectively. It is possible that these are two angels to whom God has given a special task, but I think that it is more likely that these two who are the source of the power of the Holy Spirit are the Holy Spirit Himself and the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said about the Holy Spirit in Acts 1:8, “But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you…”

There are several Bible passages that indicate to us the close connection between The Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the power that a believer needs to receive and can receive to serve God. As we just quoted from Acts 1:8 Jesus said that we would receive power from the Holy Spirit, but notice the purpose of that power or we might say the result that will come from having that power: “But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” We receive the enabling of the Holy Spirit for the purpose of being an effective witness about Jesus Christ to the rest of the world. The relationship between Jesus and the Holy Spirit is seen in John 16:7 when Jesus told the disciples that Jesus would send the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.”

Jesus speaks about the Holy Spirit, and Jesus sends the Holy Spirit. Notice what the Holy Spirit does: He reveals Jesus and He speaks about Jesus. Jesus said in John 16:13-14, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself: but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.” We compare these teachings about the Holy Spirit to what God said to Zechariah. God said that there are two individuals who are characterized by oil, and who have a great deal to do with believers having the oil that they need. We are talking about having the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. There is no reason not to think that the “two anointed ones” in Zechariah chapter four refer to the Holy Spirit Himself and to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible says in Zechariah 5:1-4, “Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll. And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits. Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it. I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.” The word that is translated “roll” is one of the words in the Old Testament that refers to the way that books were written in those days: scrolls. As Zechariah was writing down the portion of the word of God that we are now reading, he was writing on such a scroll. This flying scroll obviously was a reference to the Word of God. It was flying in order to represent the fact that the Word of God is applicable to all the peoples of the earth. Just as a side note, it is interesting that even in the days of the Old Testament thousands of years before airplanes were invented and before man could fly, to represent a flying mechanism was a great way to represent traveling quickly and easily around the earth.

There are two sins mentioned in the first part of Zechariah chapter five: one is stealing and the other is swearing. To steal is a direct violation of one of the Ten Commandments. “Thou shalt not steal.” To steal is one of the worse sins that can be done against one’s fellow-man. Swearing is a sin because of its close violation of the commandment, “Thou shalt not lie.” We should always tell the truth. Jesus is the truth. God is truth, and He always tells the truth, and we should always tell the truth. If we would always tell the truth, then we would never need to swear. To swear is kind of like saying, “I may not always tell the truth, but I am telling the truth this time.” Also, to swear using God’s name, if it is done a certain way, is a form of taking God’s name in vain. Evidently, the people who lived during the time of Zechariah were doing this very thing. They were not people of their word. What a terrible situation that was. Can you imagine living around a bunch of people who are thieves and whose word means nothing? Such people would not please us, and they do not please God either.

“Thou shalt not steal,” and “thou shalt not lie” are commandments that are part of the law. The flying scroll represents the law of God that is present in all the earth. The truth is present in all the earth, and every human being is subject to the truth. Just because someone says that they do not believe the truth or they do not accept the truth does not mean that they are not subject to it. They are ruled by the truth, governed by the truth, and they will be judged by the truth no matter where they live on the earth, and no matter what they believe or do not believe. Jesus is Lord of lords and King of kings.

It says in Zechariah 5:3 that the scroll represents “the curse” that goes throughout all the earth. The law brings a curse. Until a person comes to the grace of God through faith in Christ, that person remains under the curse of the law. It says in Galatians 3:10, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” And then it says in Galatians 3:13, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”

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