4:1-7 The prophet's spirit was willing to attend, but the flesh was weak. We should beg of God that, whenever he speaks to us, he would awaken us, and we should then stir up ourselves. The church is a golden candlestick, or lamp-bearer, set up for enlightening this dark world, and holding forth the light of Divine revelation. Two olive trees were seen, one on each side the candlestick, from which oil flowed into the bowl without ceasing. God brings to pass his gracious purposes concerning his church, without any art or labour of man; sometimes he makes use of his instruments, yet he needs them not. This represented the abundance of Divine grace, for the enlightening and making holy the ministers and members of the church, and which cannot be procured or prevented by any human power. The vision assures us that the good work of building the temple, should be brought to a happy end. The difficulty is represented as a great mountain. But all difficulties shall vanish, and all the objections be got over. Faith will remove mountains, and make them plains. Christ is our Zerubbabel; mountains of difficulty were in the way of his undertaking, but nothing is too hard for him. What comes from the grace of God, may, in faith, be committed to the grace of God, for he will not forsake the work of his own hands.

Verses 1-14. - 7. The fifth vision: the golden candlestick. Verse 1. - The angel that talked with me. The interpreting angel is meant. Came again, and waked me. It is thought that the angel, who is said (Zechariah 2:3) to have gone forth, now rejoined the prophet and renewed his colloquy with him. But the expression in the text is probably only equivalent to "aroused me again" (comp. Genesis 26:18; 2 Kings 1:11, 13, etc.). Absorbed in awe and wonder at the contemplation of the preceding vision, the prophet had fallen into a state of exhaustion and torpor, as Daniel slept after his great visions (Daniel 8:18; Daniel 10:8, 9), and the apostles were heavy with sleep on the Mount of Transfiguration (Luke 9:32). From this mental prostration the angel arouses him to renewed attention. Or what is meant may be that the change wrought on the faculties by the Divine influence was as great as that between natural sleeping and waking.

And the angel that talked with me,.... See Zechariah 1:9,

came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep; into which he fell, after he had had the former vision; see Daniel 8:18.

CHAPTER 4

Zec 4:1-14. Fifth Vision. The golden candlestick and the two olive trees. The temple shall be completed by the aid of God's Spirit.

1. waked me—The prophet was lying in a state of ecstatic slumber with astonishment at the previous vision. "Came again, and waked me," does not imply that the angel had departed and now returned, but is an idiom for "waked me again."

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