July 29, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Then I asked the angel, ‘What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?‘ Again I asked him, ‘What are these two olive branches beside the two gold pipes that pour out golden oil?‘ He replied, ‘Do you not know what these are?‘ ‘No, my lord,’ I said. So, he said, ‘These are the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth.’” (Zechariah 4.11-14)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

In the 11th chapter of Revelation, John the Presbyter is introduced to the “Two Witnesses.” Their purpose was to preach the word of God during the first three and a half years of the Tribulation. They were called to “measure the city” as well. The intent of such measurement, as we have learned from these reflections in Zechariah, is to determine the spiritual state of the city and the nation; indeed all of the land. There has been considerable debate as to who these “witnesses” were. Much of the Revelation given to John by the Resurrected Christ is cloaked in mystery as to who certain persons and nations are. What is clear in Revelation is the identity of the seven churches of Asia Minor to whom this Revelation was to be first given. What is also clear are three groups of people who are the primary actors in this “tragedy.” They are: the Church (the corpus of believers in Jesus as the Christ), the Temple (the corpus of believers in the coming Messiah) and all the rest who refused to be a part of one or the other previously mentioned. As to the beings and beasts which populate the end time world, their identities were known to those who were most familiar with the presentation itself in its context and cultural influence. Having been recorded as presented in the form of Greek Tragedy, a form quite familiar to John himself, we would need only to delve into such a genre and be able to establish both the historical past and the prophetic future of such identities. What is easily seen is a simple “good versus evil,” light versus dark, presentation.

Do we have such a scenario in the midst of Zechariah’s prophecy? The angel of the Lord who is called “my lord” speaks of these two witnesses as the “servants of the Lord.” Let me first reflect on the “lord of my Lord” designation. We hear it first from David in Psalm 110. Jesus speaks to this identity in order to validate that He, and David knew it as well, was not David’s son but the Son of God. This debate in Matthew 22.44+ silences for the moment those of the Temple who were questioning the identity of Jesus and the claim of others that He was the long-expected Messiah. I have hinted at this identity of “the angel of the Lord” in the discussion on the first three chapters of Zechariah. Such an identification gives us a powerful consideration as to the identities of the “two witnesses,” the olive branches standing on either side of the menorah, or golden channels of golden oil.

Let us first consider that they are called “branches.” Branches do not exist on their own apart from the trunk or the vine of the main plant. We are introduced both to trees and vines thus far. They are images of God’s presence in bodily form in the context of the world. We know that Israel has been prophetically identified with a tree. Noah receives the gift of an olive branch from a dove he continued to send out to determine when it was safe to exit the Ark. Was it a peace offering from God who had, in essence, made war upon the earth in the context of good versus evil and light versus dark? Or was it that the enduring presence of an olive tree even in the onslaught of a flood existed and now was bearing fruit? The Temple in Jerusalem itself was made of timbers from the heights of the great forests to the north of Jerusalem. We know of the presence of the fig trees whose broad leaves may have been the chosen covering of Adam and Eve in the Garden when their eyes “were opened” to the difference between humanity and God. It is something Satan has enjoyed bearing witness to throughout his sentence served apart from Heaven here on earth.

We know of the image of the vine as well and the blessing of the fruit of the vine. Noah was a vinedresser. His first order of business after building an altar on the “new land” on which to sacrifice in thanksgiving to God for their deliverance and safekeeping was to plant his grapevines. He brought those vines with him on the Ark along with the vine already made before the flood. It would be in a drunken stupor that he was found lying naked. The story of it became the testimony of how the division of the house of Noah came about. The son who saw his father’s nakedness would be ostracized and set apart while the other two were to be blessed and favored. We also know of the gospel expression of Jesus as “the true vine.” John records this teaching and the value Jesus placed on those who would be grafted in to the vine and thus bear “good” fruit, the fruit of righteousness. It would become a vital image applied to the identity of the Church. The grafting in of branches included both Jews and Gentiles. As we can read in the works of Paul, these are the two witnesses that shall work to fulfill the Great Commission left by Christ to His followers.

Because of the Messianic tones in Zechariah both of the Messiah and the messianic community, I cannot help but to understand that these two witnesses, the olive branches, represent the same. It is the testimony of the Temple and the Church, the Jews and the Gentiles, which fulfills the service of the Lord. Using Paul’s argument in Romans concerning “Law” and “Grace,” we are able to discern the value of both. Paul tells us that the purpose of God’s Law (let the reader understand there is a difference between God’s Law and man’s law) was to bring into view what perfection looked like. The Law itself would be a reflection of the world as it existed before the “Fall” of Adam and Eve. That story itself speaks of the choice they were to make of continuing in the presence of God by shunning evil or to experience the difference in life created by the adopting of evil. Attributing authority and power of anything to anyone but God veiled the perfection which God had made on earth. The Law now was the testimony to describe what no one of Moses’ generation had ever seen. The Garden of Eden was hidden from view and guarded by an angel with a flaming sword ready to consume anyone who dared to enter back in. It was not meant to be a call to works righteousness, the very thing Paul argued against, that the Law existed. It was the “measuring stick” by which we would understand that our works would always fail in achieving eternal life and peace with God. It was not meant to be a rod of discipline. It was to be the measure of trusting God more and more so that we could do with Him what we cannot do without Him. It was by grace, the extending of an olive branch, that we know we can be at peace with God and ourselves. Solomon captured this when he wrote “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3.5) It is the witness of the authentic Temple and the true Church by which the whole world is measured. Their question would ultimately be “In whom do you trust? In whom shall you believe? To whom shall you pledge yourself to follow all the days of your lives?” It is the very question which Jesus continues to ask those who hear the gospel and desire to follow Him. The response He gives is “Take up your cross and follow Me.” The yoke, the cross, the rod and staff, are images of the fruit of the tree not as a consumable but as a function of purpose and desire to “Serve the Lord with gladness.”

Mighty ones, those witnesses are alive and “well” in today’s world. Their state of “wellness” is determined by the God of Righteousness who shows us the Law and extends to us His grace. We see them both in the incarnation of His Word, Jesus the Christ who is Messiah. He calls both the Temple and the Church to be as one. He is ready to anoint them with holy oil and bring them into His house as one people, one nation, under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. If those words sound familiar to you, they should. But so should the call they issue today in 2024 as this nation must decide who shall truly govern it. The options seem clear to God. They should be as clear to us as they were for the “first” Joshua who said to the people of God entering into the Promised Land gained by faith and not by might, “As for me and my house, we will choose to serve the Lord our God.” Let our faith be the true measure of our lives…faith in God, faith in Jesus the Christ and faith in the Holy Spirit which grafts us into the one true vine becoming the true branch from which the authentic fruit is born.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.