This vision is linked to the previous vision as the focal point of God’s work of cleansing and empowering his people. The task before Zerubbabel and his associates must have seemed insurmountable, especially in view of God’s descriptions of the coming glory of Jerusalem and the temple. This fifth vision is given to show Zerubbabel that God gives divine enablement for the work that he has ordained.

The vision contains two major objects. The first is a solid gold lampstand (4:2). The lampstand no doubt is intended to symbolize the bearing of witness or testimony. Isaiah 60:1–3 speaks of restored Israel as being a light to which the nations, in a world of darkness, will come. This will be possible because the light of God in the person of the Messiah has first come on Israel (Isa. 9:2; 60:1…