Zechariah 4:6’s prophecy about the New Covenant is key to true ministry

 

 

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Zechariah’s prophecy about the completely different-in-kind New Covenant that was to replace the old covenant says: “Absolutely by no means by might nor by power but instead by My Spirit, says Yahweh, ruler of all hosts (or armies, ruler of all).”  The negatives “no” and “nor” are originally ou me double negatives, which are absolute in fact and in possibility.  This is like God speaking with all CAPS, underlined, and bold-faced!!!  The dative-case prepositions are most often translated “by the means/instrument of,” but grammatical arguments can also be made for “in the sphere/location of” or “within the company of.”  The Lord showed me in a dream that all three options are true throughout biblical writings regarding Himself, saying: “You are safe and have power when you dwell in My fortress of solitude, together with Me, within My company, and I make this all possible by the means or instrument of My Spirit.”

 

Now, “might” in Hebrew (a) and Greek (b) refers in context to man’s “naturally inherent dynamite-like capacity or force of strength, ability or efficiency as derived from external resources that are both human (c) and physical (d).  Now “power” in Hebrew (e) and Greek (f) refers in context to man’s “endowed (g), already-possessed, ‘held-onto,’ combat-ready power that stays or ‘holds on,’ which is thus an internal capacity of firmness, vigor, strength, might, ability, efficiency, force, and power or control over external things.”  Man’s “inherent might derived from his external body and other outside resources and internal power of mind, emotions, and will to immediately control their external world” is what all religion consists of, even the Jewish religion under the old covenant.  So essentially, “might and power” refers to all of man’s external resources and internal abilities.  <Notes> a) chayil, b) dunamis, c) like companies or hosts of people, soldiers, forces, or armies, d) like possessions and riches, e) koach, f) ischus, g) originally from God when the soul was created.

 

But in 518 B.C., Zechariah was told of a coming day when God’s covenant with man would no longer depend on this, when things would be completely different-in-kind because it will be “by My Spirit, says Yahweh, ruler of all hosts.”  Earlier in Zechariah 3:1-10, Jesus as the pre-incarnate “messenger of Yahweh” watches Joshua the high priest, representative of Israel standing before Him with “filthy garments,” stained by the iniquities of Israel he was representing, thus being rightly accused by Satan according to the Torah Law of conditional-favor.  However, Yahweh rebukes Satan solely on the basis of Israel being chosen by God.  So God takes Joshua’s/Israel’s filty sin away and clothes him with a pure vestment including a turban.  Then the messenger/Jesus authoritatively speaks of Himself as the Voice of Yahweh of hosts that “I will bring My Servant, The Branch and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day” and He then speaks of great celebration.  It’s not a coincidence that this “Servant” is the very “messenger/Jesus” that Yahweh speaks through!

 

We know this prophecy already occurred when “The Servant or The Branch or The Shoot or Root of Jesse” spoken of throughout the bible miraculously turns out to be the Jesus or Yeshua the Messiah (a).  The prophecy occurred by the “New Covenant in My blood” just as Jesus also promised (b).  Then the “messenger/Jesus” showed Zechariah more about that coming day:  A gold, super menorah of 49 lamps would be continually feed by 2 olive trees.  From Zechariah 4:14, these 2 trees are symbolic of the 2 anointed ones or 2 sons of/providing fresh, shining, pure oil (c) who stand before the Supreme Authority ‘adown, kurios of the whole earth, and we know from so many bible verses that this “gold” (f) or “golden” [oil] (g) of verse 4:12 is the Holy Spirit (d) continually bringing Christ’s light (e) into the world!  <Notes> a) Isaiah 4:2; 11:1-5, 10, 42:1, 52:13; Zechariah 6:12; Matthew 12:18; Acts 4:27, 30; Romans 15:12, b) Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25, c) the usual word for anointed mashach wasn’t used but instead yitshar meaning “fresh, shining, pure oil.”  This is very similar in meaning to chadash to describe the fresh, completely different-in-kind New Covenant, d) 1 Samuel 16:13, e) John 8:12, 9:5, f) Hebrews noun zahab, g) Septuaging Greek adjective chrusous.

 

Commentators say that 1 of these anointed “trees” represented the Aaronic priesthood, here by Joshua/Yehoshua (a) the high priest whose father is Yehozadek, meaning “Yahweh righteousness.”  Do you think it is a coincidence that “Yahweh righteousness” is essentially the meaning of Melchizedek as “king of righteousness,” who Jesus as The High Priest is descended from (b)?  The other anointed “tree” represented the Davidic line of kings, here by his descendent Zerubbabel the son of king Yehoiakim, an ancestor of Jesus’ father Joseph (c).  Jesus is the only person in history to be both a High Priest (d) and King of kings (e), who alone can supply an endless supply of the Holy Spirit’s “gold” or “golden [oil]” to produce Christ’s “light of the world” (f).  The man Jesus was “given the Spirit without measure” (g) for His ministry.  Only Jesus “baptizes, immerses, or fills to completion by the means of the Spirit” (h), and that uniquely defined His ministry (i) – the NT doesn’t even say it was Christ’s teaching!  This really disppointes bible students! <Notes> a) Yehoshua or the shortened Yeshua is the name of Jesus in Hebrew, b) Genesis 14:18; Psalms 110:4; Hebrews 5:6, 10, 6:20, 7:1, 10-11, 15, 17, c) Matthew 1:12-16, d) Hebrews 2:17, 3:1, 4:14-15, 5:5, 10, 6:20, e) 1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 17:14, 19:16, f) John 8:12, 9:5, g) John 3:34, h) see Spirit-baptism, i) Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16, 11:13; John 1:33, 7:39; Acts 1:5, 5:32, 8:18, 11:16; Romans 5:5; 2 Corinthians 1:22, 5:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:8; 1 John 3:24.

 

In 1985 I was Spirit-baptized again and this time I saw a shower of gold flowing into my head and rushing through my body out my fingertips like electricity and down through my legs pinning my feet to the floor.  I always thought this was the Holy Spirit’s “living/flowing water” but it was definitely bright yellow, translucent gold, which means it could very well have been this “gold” or “golden [oil]” described by Jesus in Zechariah 4:12.  Interestingly the only place the commentators say that the Hebrew noun zahab “gold” could simply refer to the color of oil is in this verse, but everywhere else it’s actually the metal “gold.”  I think they just couldn’t conceive of that the “oil” flowing from the 2 olive trees could actually be the metal “gold” flowing from “The High Priest – The King of kings” Yeshua Jesus!  The Septuagint Greek simply has the adjective chrusous “golden,” which again simply means “made of gold.”  I think the LXX was more accurate as in many cases the LXX texts we have are much older than the Masoretic Hebrew text.  The ‘oil’ of Jesus may very well have been translucent gold!  Extremely pure, supernatural and priceless!  And this is what created the pure fire that lights up the world!

 

God is showing Zechariah that absolutely nothing, by the use of the rare Greek double negative ou me, from the world or previous religious activity – whether from man’s external resource “might” or internal abilities “power,” even that of the old covenant – will be acceptable in God’s future completely different-in-kind New Covenant.   It will ALL be done by Him by His Holy Spirit.  This is in stark contrast to 613 Torah Laws of conditional-favor of the old covenant that are completely dependent upon man’s obedience of works “If you do ____, then I will do ____.”  God wipes that all out!  He eliminates man from the equation, exactly because of man’s weakness – his “might and power” simply isn’t good enough!  But God’s Spirit can do it all!  Now the gospel’s message is all about “the obedience of faith” as we see in Romans 1:5 and 16:26.

 

As Christian musicians, are we going to be satisfied by the natural man’s fleshly “might and power” external resources and internal abilities when it comes to worshipping the Lord, or are we going to put our trusting-relying-faith in the “by My Spirit” of God?  Are we going to approach God with our own “filthy rags of righteousness” or surrender it all to God’s grace and wait for Him to pour His gold anointing over us to play supernaturally for Christ’s light to shine brightly?