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| So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” |
| —Zechariah 4:6 |
As I write this blog post, I am utterly amazed at the turmoil that our most recent Presidential election has caused and that has persisted for over two years. Never in my life have I heard such strident and profane exclamations hurled at an elected President. As a follower of Jesus, and someone who is a political, social, intellectual, and spiritual Conservative, I am flabbergasted at the rhetoric I am hearing on a daily basis from both sides of the political spectrum.
This is not the first time in history that someone has ascended to a position of power and brought controversy with him to the seat of authority. In ancient Judah, a leader named Zerubbabel was appointed governor of a group of Israelites who returned to their own land from captivity in Babylon. Zerubbabel had the support of certain factions within the returning peoples. But, he also had an equal and more vocal opposition to the legitimacy of his authority.
The Prophet Zechariah found himself in the most uncomfortable position of having several messages directly from God that he was expected to deliver publicly to Zerubbabel. These messages were not going to make the new leader happy.
Zerubbabel considered himself a savior of the people. But, God had to remind him that—as a human being given a huge task to accomplish, namely the restoration of the Jews to their rightful land—Zerubbabel would be quite incapable of doing this in his own strength and power.
Here is part of the Prophet Zechariah’s words from God, as recorded in Zechariah 4:6:
So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.”
In other words, “Zerubbabel, it doesn’t really matter that you consider yourself the savior of your people. The fact that you want to make Judah great again may be an honorable goal. But, you do not have the strength nor the power to do this by yourself. You are a mere, puny human being. And, you are a sinful one at that, since all humankind is stained by the sin of Adam and by the sins they commit on their own. Your only hope is to depend fully and completely on God. If you do that, God will be your strength and your power. With God’s divine help, you will than, and only then, be able to accomplish what you desire.”
I wish that more people, even those who claim membership in the Kingdom of God, would understand that without Him we can accomplish nothing of eternal value. Let’s not be numbered among the ignorant when it comes to understanding that: “‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.”
