Context: (BKC) Two months after Haggai delivered his first sermon, Zechariah began his prophetic ministry (cf. Hag. 1:1; Zech. 1:1), encouraging the people to spiritual renewal and motivating them to rebuild the temple by revealing to them God’s plans for Israel’s future. With this prophetic encouragement the people completed the temple reconstruction in 515 B.C. (Ezra 6:15)
Content:
1. the Structure Lampstand
v.2a a menorah of pure gold with a receptacle BDB bowl, a. of lamp, i.e. oil-receptacle at the top. v.2b There are seven lamps at the top, with seven pipes going to the lamps. 3 There are also two olive trees beside it, one on the right of the receptacle and the other on the left.
(BKC) (a) a bowl for storing oil was suspended over the lampstand (Zech. 4:2); (b) oil was transported by gravity from the bowl through seven channels or conduits to each of the seven lights of the lampstand, apparently 49 conduits in all (v. 2); and (c) the lampstand was flanked by two olive trees which were tapped by “two gold pipes” through which “golden oil” flowed constantly into the bowl (vv. 3, 11–12)
(NET) The vision apparently describes two olive trees providing olive oil by pipes to a large basin atop the menorah. From this basin two pipes extend to each of the seven lamps of the menorah, for a total of fourteen pipes in all. See vv. 11–12.
2. The structure of the lampstand provided a never-ending supply of oil to the lamp, which is the ideal situation for anyone who wants to have a never-ending supply of light. Z and Joshua would not have the never-ending supply of power. Then, what is the supplier?
v.6 “This is the LORD’s message to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by strength and not by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.
Z and Joshua are the extensions of the olive trees v.12
14 So he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”
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