Zechariah 4:2 Commentary and Bible Study

In his wakened state Zechariah is asked to report what he sees in the vision. He describes a golden candlestick as the KJV renders it, or a lampstand, but later tells the angel he does not know what these symbols mean. He is allowed to take in the details of the vision before he is shown its meaning. Zechariah, like all Jews, would have been familiar with the lampstand which stood in the tabernacle and later in the temple. It had seven lamps, a central stem with its lamp, and three branches on either side, each with a lamp (Exodus 25:31-40). The tabernacle lampstand was to be kept alight at all times (Exodus 27:20-21) and signified the continual testimony of God’s truth in the world. That testimony came through Israel of old, and now comes through the church which Christ calls the light of the world (Matthew 5:14), but their light is a reflected light, the true light of the world is Christ himself (John 8:12). The candlestick is made entirely of gold to show its great value of the light that came from it, gold being the most precious material available to God’s people in those days. The book of Revelation takes up the image of the lampstand in Revelation 1, but the symbol has been transformed there into its appropriate New Testament form – no longer a single lampstand with seven lamps joined together on a single stem, but now seven separate lampstands symbolising the ideal seven churches which stand for the churches of all time.But this lampstand has extra features that were not found on the lampstand in the tabernacle, and which are a crucial part of the vision. The extra features are the bowl above it which acts as a reservoir for the oil, the seven pipes which go from this bowl to the seven lamps in the lampstand feeding them continually, and the two trees which supply the reservoir with oil by dripping their oil into it. As a result, the olive trees automatically discharge oil into the lamps.