Lesson from Zerubbabel

"When Zerubbabel was trying under very adverse circumstances to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, he came to a time when the

difficulties appeared like mountains before him. Then the Lord sent His prophet Zechariah with a message to help and encourage him. Zechariah was given a view of the golden candlesticks, and was also shown whence the oil came that supplied the lamps. He saw two olive-trees, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on the left side, which through golden pipes kept the lamps supplied with oil, that they might burn brightly.

Zechariah asked the angel the meaning of what he saw. In reply the angel said: “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” (Zech. 4:6). Then he gave a message to Zerubbabel to go forward, and said that the mountain of difficulties would become a plain before him, and that as surely as his hands had laid the foundations of the house of the Lord, so surely would he finish it.

Zerubbabel was walking by faith in the words of the prophets who had foretold how and when Jerusalem would be rebuilt (2 Chron. 36:20-23; Jer 25:12). But those prophets were dead, and he faced difficulties that he might think the prophets never expected would arise. Then God sent a living prophet with a message of encouragement, to keep the light burning, and enable Zerubbabel to press forward and complete the work prophesied.

We cannot comprehend the word of the Lord without the Spirit to enlighten our minds. The light shines to the degree in which we believe the word and risk our all upon it: and as we come into difficulties in following the instruction given through the dead prophets, the Lord sends messages of strength and encouragement through the living prophet, to enable us to press forward to victory." Stephen Haskell