When I was teaching piano and voice, my students often participated in an evaluation day at the university with judges rating their performances—superior, excellent, very good, good, and fair.  When I was a child I participated in the same event and the words given as ratings were exactly what they said they were.  Even a “very good” was very good. 
            By the time my students participated we were well into the philosophy of promoting self-esteem by never telling a child he was wrong about anything.  The vast majority of the 1000 entrants received a superior, which simply meant he didn’t play or sing more than a few wrong notes.  It had nothing to do with his musicianship or his artistry.  If a judge handed out more excellents than superiors, he was taken aside and enlightened.  As a result only a small handful of “very goods” ever hit the rating sheet, and news of a “good” spread like the plague, with exactly the same reception.  Everyone knew that a “very good” wasn’t, and a “good” was just plain awful.  Judges were actually forbidden to even look at the “fair” rating, much less circle it.
            That may be why “good” means little to us these days.  It is probably why we just read right over it when Luke calls Joseph of Arimathea and Barnabas “good” men.  Luke did not use that term lightly; those were the only two times I found that particular Greek word used of a man. 
            So can we ever hope to become so good that term can be used of us, the same term that Jesus used of God?  Only if, like God, that goodness becomes an intrinsic part of us, a goodness that exists no matter what happens on the outside, no matter what anyone else says or does. 
            Jesus seemed to expect it.  You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. Matthew 12:34-35.  There is the word, agathos.  A good person can only do good things if his heart is good, so if I am not doing them, something in my heart needs to be changed.
            “But that’s just not who I am,” won’t cut it with the Lord.  He expects us to change who we are.  He expects us to turn that evil heart into a good one, one that is good the way God is good, simply by its nature.  But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Luke 6:35.  There it is again, that same word, or a compound of it in this case, a “do-gooder.”  If you want to be a child of God, that’s what you have to be.
            Jesus makes it even plainer a little later.  Becoming “good” is not an option. It is not something we can do on the outside, while harboring a heart of evil or malice towards others.  It is not something we can do by rote without compassion.  It is the thing that will determine our destiny.  Well done, good and faithful servant.  Enter into the joy of your lord, Matt 25:21. 
            “Good” is a very special word in the Bible.  It isn’t passed out profligately so we can keep our self-esteem intact.  It isn’t bandied about simply because of good deeds or loud hallelujahs.  It is a quality so deep that if one ceases to exist in this life, so does that much goodness in the world.  “Only one is Good,” Jesus said, in the absolute sense.  That doesn’t mean he doesn’t expect us to become good as much as is humanly, with a little help from God, possible.
 
And let us not grow weary of well doing, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Galatians 6:9-10
 
Dene Ward
 

I imagine many of us grew up using that phrase in the first prayer we ever uttered at the table.  Maybe that is why we are so prone to say, “God is good,” and indeed He is.  We will shout it to the world.  When?  When we get exactly what we want.  When what we pray for comes to pass.  When life is easy and carefree and comfortable.  And that means we have absolutely no understanding of the goodness of God.  We are, in fact, showing ourselves to be those same immature little children uttering a memorized grace. 
            Jesus said in Mark 10:18.  Why do you call me good?  There is none good except God alone.  That Greek word is agathos.  I am not a Greek scholar and at this age, never will be, but I can tell when one Greek word is used and when another is simply by looking at the letters.  Here is the difference in this one.  God is good whether I get what I want or not.  God is good whether life is easy or not.  God is good even in the midst of storms and trials and disease and pain.  The goodness of God never changes because it is intrinsic to His nature.  That’s what that word means.  Nothing on the outside of Him affects that goodness.  It always is because it is part of who He is.  God is good because He is God.
            We too often mean a different Greek word when we shout, “God is good.”  Kalos means something is good only when it is beautiful, valuable, or useful to the person judging it so.  It is an extrinsic quality, affected by circumstances on the outside of it.  Thus, by  using this Greek word, we mean that a person would cease to be “good” if he became disabled or too ill to work, or if she were no longer beautiful due to age.  If the only time I utter the phrase, “God is good,” is when my prayers are answered in a positive way, then that is exactly what I am saying about God.  If I were a first century Greek, I would be calling him kalos instead of agathos.  He is only good when He is useful to me, just like children who “love” their parents when a wish is fulfilled, but say, “You’re so mean,” when they get a “No.” 
            So how do we feel about God?  Do we understand that He is good simply because He is, or do we feel the right to judge His goodness based on our own desires?  The real test of my understanding of the nature of God comes when, in the wake of disaster, I can say along with Job, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord” (1:21).
 
Moses said, "Please show me your glory." And he said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name 'The LORD.' And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy…The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation." And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. Ex 33:18,19; 34:6-8.
 
Dene Ward

I was humming that old tune a few weeks ago when I suddenly thought of that phrase in a slightly different light.  “Tell me about it!” we sometimes say to people who are complaining about something, not realizing that we have had the same or worse experience.  Or sometimes people say it to us, and if we are as mature as we like to believe, we suddenly stop whining out of sheer embarrassment, realizing that here is not only one who has had the same experience, but to an even worse degree.  I often wish Jesus were here to say that to those who complain about his church.
            So they hurt your feelings?  They didn’t come see you when you were sick, they didn’t help you when you were depressed, they didn’t praise you in public after you did a good deed, the preacher preached a sermon that stepped on your toes, and you don’t like the way the Bible class teacher looked right at you when he mentioned a particular sin. 
            Tell it to Jesus.  No one complimented him on his sermons. They usually just got mad and walked away.  Even his own disciples scolded him for insulting the Jewish rulers.  They called him a liar, a blasphemer, a madman, demon-possessed, and a child of fornication, none of which was true.  He didn’t sit there pouting, he kept right on teaching, right on serving, even people who didn’t deserve it, like you and me.
            So the elders won’t listen to you, especially when you think you have discovered something new.  They won’t use you in the way you think you should be used.  You aren’t asked to lead the singing as often as you think you should, or teach the classes you think you should be allowed to teach.  They won’t give in to your pet ideas about how things should be said or done or presented.  So why should you bother to try any longer?  Why should you keep a good attitude, or do the things you are asked to do as well as you can when you aren’t even appreciated?
            Tell it to Jesus.  I found ten passages in the gospels where the people in charge “communed with one another” to see how “they might destroy him.”  At least seven of those ten were completely different events.  Has anyone in the church done that to you yet?  Has anyone taken up rocks to stone you?  Has anyone nearly pushed you over a cliff?  Has anyone even come close to crucifying you yet?
            No, but the church is full of hypocrites.  Why should I even have to sit in the same building with them?  Why can’t I just leave and do it my own way?  You know their two-faced worship isn’t acceptable to God, so why must I keep company with them? 
          Tell it to Jesus.  He never stopped attending the synagogues on the Sabbath, and that wasn’t even part of the Law, it was simply a tradition that had begun after the return from the captivity.  He still attended the feast days right along with all those horrible people, even the Feast of Dedication, which was just a civil holiday.  He never left the work God gave him to do because someone hurt his feelings.  He never quit because people didn’t give him the due he deserved.  He never allowed the sins of others to cause him to forsake the God who deserved his love and loyalty.
            Are you going to let those phonies do that to you?  If you do, doesn’t that make you one of them?
 
…The LORD is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. 2 Chronicles 15:2
 
Dene Ward

I truly hope that things are better now, but as late as 30 years ago, the Lord's church was possibly one of the most unloving, unsympathetic organizations on God's green earth—at least when it came to these women.  And you are wondering what in the world I could be talking about, aren't you?  Look at the title of this essay and think a moment.
            I am talking about women whose husbands have abandoned them, and often their children too, for the world and other women.  Let me use the words of several of these women—I have known about a dozen of these poor souls—to make my point.
            One of them said to me when I invited her to our services some time ago, "It's been my experience that the churches of Christ are not welcoming to divorced women."  Nothing I could say about my then church family could persuade her otherwise.  Another told me, similarly, "They always wonder what I did wrong, and a few have had the nerve to ask me."
            Let me tell you, that's the first thing these women ask themselves when their husbands leave.  They don't need us asking too.  When Jesus gave this one exception for divorce he did not add, "unless she was a nag, or a bad cook, or a poor housekeeper, or gained too much weight, etc."  If a man commits adultery against the woman he vowed to love and cherish for the rest of his life, that's all it took in Jesus' eyes to put him away and still be right with God.  How dare any of us add to His Word?
            Another woman said she was shunned by the other women of the congregation, and somehow it came back to her that they were afraid that now she would want their husbands.  Excuse me?  She wasn't the one who broke up a home, her husband was.  Talk about unjust judgment.
            Another told me it wasn't just she who was shunned, but her children as well.  After all, statistics say that people from broken homes are more likely to have broken homes themselves. We wouldn't want our sons or daughters to be dating her children and possibly marry them!  And so we shun innocent children?  Shame on us.
            As if these terrible injustices were not bad enough, the faith of these women is also questioned.  One had lost her home when her husband left and paid no alimony or child support.  She, who had been a stay-at-home mom, had to work two jobs to keep a roof over their heads and food in their tummies.  When she was offered a job that had great benefits and paid enough for them to survive on only the one job, she counted it a blessing from God and took it.  But others looked only at the fact that it was an evening shift job and she had to miss both Sunday evening and Wednesday evening services.    One of the church leaders' wives said to her, "If you had enough faith, you wouldn't take that job."  Yet this was a woman who came to both Sunday morning services plus the weekday morning women's Bible study without fail.  She is one of the kindest, most generous, good-hearted Christians I have ever known.  She loves to study the Word of God, and does so every day.  Neither she nor the other women I have known, except the first one I spoke of, have left the Lord despite how His other children have treated them.  Now let's compare faith, shall we?
            I hope this situation has changed everywhere, instead of just the few churches I am aware of who are, indeed, better.  Imagine struggling to make ends meet, trying to overcome for your children the horrible example of a faithless father, and having no one to turn to, not even in that group who should be comforting, loving, helping, and encouraging.  Now imagine what the Lord himself would say to that group.  You do not want to hear those words.
 
And he said unto his disciples, It is impossible but that occasions of stumbling should come; but woe unto him, through whom they come! It were well for him if a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, rather than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble (Luke 17:1-2).
 
Dene Ward
 

My jasmine vine had a super-trellis built by a man who believes that if a little is good, more is better. 
            The trellis itself is a lattice of thick metal wires called a “cow panel,” used for the gate portion of pasture fence.  A cow isn’t even going to bend it, much less push through it.  The panel was stood on end and woven through a piece of twenty foot antenna mast set five feet deep into the ground.  The fifteen feet above ground was held steady by nylon cord tied to two nearby trees.
            The jasmine had already been growing five years, twisting its way up the fifteen feet of lattice work, and hanging over the top at least four feet.  Most of the blooms were bunched near the top every year, the sides down toward the bottom thinner in both leaf and blossom.  Still that huge vine was a beauty every spring and its scent often wafted on the breeze a good fifty feet away.
            Then one summer, after the spring blooms had been spent, an afternoon thunderstorm blew through.  Winds gusting up to forty miles an hour bore down on our property, littering the yard with limbs and twigs, moss and air plants.  Afterward, we walked the place mentally adding up the hours of clean-up in our future.  Then we headed down the drive and when we passed the two azaleas and two young oaks announcing the beginning of our yard, we saw the jasmine.
            The two cords had snapped from the tension the winds had put on them and then the mast had simply bent over in a salaam toward the wood pile.  It wasn’t broken or even creased, just bowed in an arc.  The weight of that vine simply couldn’t stand on its own against the gusts.  The “top” of the trellis now hung only a foot or so off the ground.  Keith got beneath it and tried to stand it up, but the weight was too much for him alone.  It would take at least two men pushing, while a truck pulled with a rope. 
            A few days later, before we had had a chance to do anything about it, we walked out again and discovered new growth all over the “side” of the jasmine vine, the side that was now the “top.”  It looked like the vine would not only survive, but thrive.  So we found a section of 8 inch PVC pipe that would stand on its end six feet high, and used it to prop the end of the bent trellis.
            Within a few weeks the shoots on the vine were thickening all over the new top, and dangling off the sides.  It was obvious we would no longer have a fifteen foot tall sentinel welcoming guests, but a fifteen foot long hedge four feet high would do just as nicely. 
            The next spring white blossoms covered the entire length of it, not just the mass at the end that used to be the top.  The white was almost solid because the blooms were so thick and on some mornings you could smell it all the way across the field.   
            We don’t realize it, but the times when the storms of life hit us, are often the times our faith and strength show best.  When a trellis stands on its own on a calm day, so what if the vine blooms?  Would we expect otherwise?  But when the storm comes and the trellis is damaged, yet it not only continues to support the vine the best it can, but the blooms actually increase, now that’s worth noticing. 
            When life is easy, of course we can stay faithful.  Isn’t that what Satan said about Job?  But when a trial comes along, how we handle it can be a far more powerful witness of Christ in us than any service we might have given, any class we might have taught, any monetary donation we might have offered.  Just like that bent over jasmine, our blooms will show brighter and influence more people when we faithfully endure the worst Satan flings at us.
            Are you dealing with a storm in your life?  Don’t think your usefulness to God and his people is finished.  Don’t think that because some servant of Satan blew you over that you have lost your value.  How you handle it, the fact that you keep on standing for the Lord, even if a little bent, will be seen by many more than ever before.  The blooms will be so thick, and the scent so heady, that your example will not be missed.  You may think you are of no more benefit to God, but He says otherwise.  Those who appreciate you will stand under your bower and give you support, but the work you are doing as you persevere is still a service far more precious than you could ever have imagined.
 
 
But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. Prov 4:18
 
 
Dene Ward

My grandson came by for a quick visit recently.  I spent a couple of hours preparing the house, putting up the things that might hurt him and the things that could get him into trouble.  Then I put out the old toys his daddy used to play with, the “new” ones I had picked up at a thrift store, the crayons, a small plastic chair I had bought for him, as well as my old rocking chair, the one I sat in until I outgrew it.
            You are never really sure what a two year old will find interesting.  Their likes and dislikes change with every mood.  I picked up blueberries and chicken nuggets, two of his favorite things, at least the last time I was with him.  That doesn’t mean he will like them this time.  At least I know that about toddlers.  It would have been more helpful to have been able to remember well my own preschool days.  Then I might have stood a better chance of pleasing him.  All of that is entirely normal. 
            In fact, that is normal in every case.  If you could climb into the mind of the person you are trying to relate to, wouldn’t it be much easier to understand them and get along?  A long time ago, Job said the same thing about man and God.  There was no one who could “lay his hand on both” God and man, 9:33. 
            Which is precisely why the Word “became flesh and dwelt among us,” John 1:14.  The Hebrew writer says, “He had to be made like his brothers in every respect” so that he could become our high priest, our intercessor, the one who stands between us and God, laying his hand on both because he understands both worlds, 2:17.  Paul makes it plain in 1 Tim 2:5 that Jesus is the only one of the Godhead who fulfills that requirement--There is one mediator between God and man, himself man, Christ Jesus.
            So now we cannot say, “No one understands.”  Jesus went through a lot of pain and sorrow and injustice and indignity just so he could understand.  Any time we excuse ourselves with something like, “Well of course he could overcome sin, he was the Son of God!” we are demeaning the sacrifice he made for us, and the things he bore on our behalf so he could be “the missing link” between our Father and his children.  We are saying that he doesn’t, and can never understand what it is like to be human.
            The Son of God is also the Son of Man.  He knows how we think, he knows how we feel, and he knows what we can and cannot endure.  He sits at the right hand of God even now, making intercession for us, Rom 8:34, because he searches our hearts and knows what is in them (v 27 with Rev 2:23).
            I may make a mistake about what will pique the interest of my two year old grandson.  Christ will never make the same mistake about us.
 
This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them, Heb 7:22-25.

Dene Ward
 

The last in the series.

Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains. And the mountains were mountains of bronze. The first chariot had red horses, the second black horses, the third white horses, and the fourth chariot dappled horses—all of them strong. Then I answered and said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” And the angel answered and said to me, “These are going out to the four winds of heaven, after presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth. The chariot with the black horses goes toward the north country, the white ones go after them, and the dappled ones go toward the south country.” When the strong horses came out, they were impatient to go and patrol the earth. And he said, “Go, patrol the earth.” So they patrolled the earth. Then he cried to me, “Behold, those who go toward the north country have set my Spirit at rest in the north country.” (Zech 6:1-8)
            First of all, you can't miss the similarities in this passage and the ones in Ezek 14:21 and Rev 6:1-8.  Yes, you can find small differences, but the overall picture is what matters in figurative language, not the tiny details, and the picture here is judgment. 
            In Revelation the white horse is conquest, the red is war, the black is famine, and the pale horse is death, and they were given authority… to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth. (Rev 6:8)  In Ezekiel the judgments are sword (war), famine, wild beasts, and pestilence.  Obviously, then, the chariots and horses in Zechariah are also judgments sent from God.  In this case, the judgment is over the heathen. 
            Notice the full circle these visions have taken.  In the first vision, the horses had gone out to patrol the earth and had reported to God that the heathen nations were "at rest."  The next six visions deal with God's people and the promised kingdom.  God would protect them, and any who hurt them would be dealt with.  He would cleanse them, He would help them accomplish the task of rebuilding and be with them while they waited for the Messiah.  His Law was still in effect and wickedness would be removed.  And now, here, in the final vision, we are back to the pagans again.  Only this time the horses are not coming back with a report.  This time the horses are going out in judgment. 
            And so for us today, judgments from God keep coming.  Nations have fallen in wars, earthquakes have shaken and destroyed great cities, volcanoes have erupted and left vibrant cities in ruins, storms have swept in and blown away homes and families.  Sometimes we are caught in those judgments, but God does not forget who we are and what is happening to us.  (His faithful are marked in both Revelation and Ezekiel.)  God is calling for repentance among the pagans.  He is giving them another chance, and we may yet lie under the altar with the martyrs before it's over, asking Him, "How long?"
            The message is clear.  You may have to wait a long time, but the time will come.  God will judge the unbelieving.  He will avenge his slaughtered and persecuted people.  He has brought them all together in a pure kingdom under a mighty Messiah—forever.
 
But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever.’ (Dan 7:18)
 
Dene Ward
 

Then the angel who was speaking with me went out and said to me, “Lift up now your eyes and see what this is going forth.” I said, “What is it?” And he said, “This is the ephah going forth.” Again he said, “This is their appearance in all the land (and behold, a lead cover was lifted up); and this is a woman sitting inside the ephah.” Then he said, “This is Wickedness!” And he threw her down into the middle of the ephah and cast the lead weight on its opening. Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and there two women were coming out with the wind in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heavens. I said to the angel who was speaking with me, “Where are they taking the ephah?” Then he said to me, “To build a temple for her in the land of Shinar; and when it is prepared, she will be set there on her own pedestal.” (Zech 5:5-11)
            Zechariah sees an "ephah."  An ephah is a standard Hebrew measure, about 22 liters I found in several books.  However it is quite possible that the word here simply means "large."  Here is a large basket, large enough to hold a grown woman.  Evil is often personified as a woman in the Bible, but lest you get your knickers in a knot, notice who it is that carries this "Evil" away and disposes of it—two [good] women.  She is deposited in Shinar, "the ancient name for the district in which Babylon, Erech, and Akkad were situated (Gen 10)."  (Homer Hailey)  These places were associated with going against God's way.  Baldwin says they were symbolic of Satan's government.
            The message is this:  wickedness will not be tolerated in God's kingdom.  It will be removed.  So how is that encouraging, especially when we know we still on occasion sin?  It's the attitude, people.
            Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, “Bring near the executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand.” And behold, six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his weapon for slaughter in his hand, and with them was a man clothed in linen, with a writing case at his waist. And they went in and stood beside the bronze altar. Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub on which it rested to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writing case at his waist. And the LORD said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” And to the others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. (Ezek 9:1-5)
            In Ezekiel's vision, God is ready to slaughter the people of Jerusalem.  But first he sends a man to mark those who "sigh and groan" over the sin in that city so they will be spared.  These people are not perfect, but they don't sit back and enjoy watching the sin either.   They don't abstain while wishing they could participate.  These people hate the sin, even when they themselves slip and fall.  When you have that attitude, when you have learned to love what God loves and hate what he hates—sin!—the thought of being in a place where it no longer exists is liberating.
            And that is why God's kingdom ousts the rebellious.  (1 Cor 5, etc.) Not the people who slip and fall, but the ones who sin and dare you to do anything about it.  The ones who are proud of their sin, as well as those who approve of them (Rom 1:32).  
            If you hate sin, God's kingdom will be your haven.  It is the place you can go to get away from the filth of this world and calm your weary heart, your sore eyes, and battered ears.  This is where your soul can rest.
​
Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked, who forsake your law. ​I look at the faithless with disgust, because they do not keep your commands. My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law. (Ps 119:53, 158,136)
 
Dene Ward

Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a flying scroll! And he said to me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a flying scroll. Its length is twenty cubits, and its width ten cubits.” Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land. For everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and everyone who swears falsely shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side. I will send it out, declares the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief, and the house of him who swears falsely by my name. And it shall remain in his house and consume it, both timber and stones.” (Zech 5:1-4)
            In this vision Zechariah sees a flying scroll, one about 30 by 15 feet, like a billboard or, as one of my students most aptly said, like one of those signs airplanes pull after them in the sky.  Although a lot of commentators go on and on about the meaning of this short vision, it really is not that difficult.
            The scroll represents the Law.  The two particular laws mentioned represent the two aspects of the Law.  Thou shalt not steal stands for all the sins against one's neighbor, while invoking God's name to swear falsely stands for all the sins against God.  The Law always carried with it blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience.  These people stand a thousand years after the giving of the Law.  God is making sure they understand that He still judges them by it.  It is still relevant.  Nothing about right and wrong has changed, and neither have the blessings and curses.
            This vision also stands as an encouragement to those such as Joshua and Nehemiah who had to enforce the Law.  If they must make hard decisions concerning covenant breakers among them, God is squarely behind them.  In fact, even in their own homes, the sinners will find that lawbreaking will eventually be their undoing.  Anyone who has seen the results of sin in a home, whether adultery, abuse, drunkenness, addiction, or any other such thing, knows it is true.
            And now the people know, too, that their sin will not be tolerated; that they cannot claim affinity with the people of God while breaking his Law. 
            In our day, in our culture, we need the same lesson.  The gospel is still relevant.  The laws of God are still in effect.  The leaders we have need the same encouragement:  you must still enforce those laws, even if it means "cleaning out" the house of God.  And we must support them for if we do not, we are standing against God.
            Trying to do right in a sin-filled society is hard.  Surely it helps to know that we are standing on the side of truth, no matter what our neighbors might think, and someday, no matter what our civil laws might say. 
 
​The LORD's curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the dwelling of the righteous. (Prov 3:33)
 
Dene Ward

And he said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” And I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” Then 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 of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’” Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. “These seven are the eyes of the LORD, which range through the whole earth.” Then I said to him, “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?” And a second time I answered and said to him, “What are these two branches of the olive trees, which are beside the two golden pipes from which the golden oil is poured out?” He said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.” (Zech 4:2-14)
            This night vision is a bit more involved, but many elements of it become obvious if you have spent any time in the Old Testament at all.
            Zechariah sees a lampstand.  Lampstands were common in the time, and one even stood in the Temple.  Scholars argue about the details of this one, but everyone gets the main point—this lampstand is directly attached to an olive tree on either side, from which the oil flows constantly.  This lampstand will never go out.
            In the middle of the vision, the angel gives a message for Zerubbabel—you will accomplish your mission.  Evidently, the man needed some encouragement, just as all good leaders do.  The people had been uncooperative at times—else why had the services of Haggai and Zechariah been needed?  The work was long, hard, and dangerous.  Yet, "the hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation…and his hands will complete it."  How?  Not with an army, not with wealth or status, but by the Spirit of God.  How could he fail with that power behind him?
            And then the prophet gives a message for them all:  "Do not despise the day of small things."  No, this is not the glorious, restored kingdom you have been promised.  Yes, this Temple is nothing compared to Solomon's, but those glorious things cannot come without these small things happening first.  If these people had not returned, if they had not built up their nation once again, if they had not built a Temple and rebuilt the walls, then what?
            Surely you can see the application to us.  We are that glorious Messianic kingdom.  And how is it built?  Not with armies, not with wealth or status, but by the Spirit of God.  It is built when we edify one another.  It is built when the world sees our love for each other, our peace, our joy, and wants the same things.  It is built when we offer the gospel day in and day out, not worrying about the "increase" but leaving that to God.
            And though our efforts may look small, especially when we insist on quantifying it, nothing is small when it comes to the work of God.  We all have our place in His plan.  Small congregations few and far between are large in the eyes of God as long as we are working, teaching, serving, giving, sharing, spreading light to the world through our lampstands (Rev 1:20).  We must never stop.
            The vision ends with "the two anointed ones"—the offices of priest and king under the Law.  In reality for us, the priest is the king, the Messiah, two in one.  This was their hope for thousands of years, and now He is ours too.
 
Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. (Phil 2:14-16)
 
Dene Ward