Monday, January 15, 2007 · no responses · comments closed

I was looking at the often-quoted Zechariah 4:6 the other day and noticed something new. I always hear, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit” or maybe, “…by my Spirit, says the Lord.” But here’s the complete verse:

Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

In most Bibles, you’ll see Lord written in small caps, like this: Lord. This variation in type is the standard denotation in Bibles that the word being translated is actually Yahweh. This distinguishes it from lord and Lord (regular type), which mean master. So, in this passage, we have both being used:

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.

When Zechariah says, “No, my lord,” he’s saying, “No, master.” And in reply, the angel tells the prophet that this isn’t the word of the master but the word of “the Lord”, Yahweh, and that Yahweh of hosts said it.

You may be thinking, “and so…? What’s here besides a lesson in typography and translation?”

God’s choices about how He represents Himself are worth noting, because they give us insight into the character and nature of God. We’re all familiar with the importance of God’s declaration to Moses at the burning bush, that He is “I am who I am,” that is, “Yahweh.” Sometimes God chooses to present Himself as “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious.” Another time He is “Father of the fatherless.”

“Lord of hosts,” which is rendered “Lord Almighty” in some translations, speaks to both God’s might and royalty (see “the names of God” in Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology). In some contexts, the word for hosts can mean army, and so Lord of hosts is akin to commander-in-chief. Other images associated with this name of God are similar to the imagery of earthly royalty, and so it serves as a reminder of God’s rule. This name is the most frequent compound with Yahweh in the Old Testament, showing up some 285 times, mostly in the prophets.

It is striking that in Zechariah, “the Lord of hosts” occurs 46 times, sometimes repeatedly in a single verse. Look at Zechariah’s first instructions in 1:3:

Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.

For whatever reason, God wants to make sure that His people get a particular picture of Him: Lord of hosts, the Lord Almighty.

And so we come to Zechariah 4:6, where we are told that what must be done will not be done by might or power, but “by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” Does this strike you as a little contradictory? When David imagines the “King of glory” making a royal entrance in Psalm 24, he writes:

Lift up your heads, O gates!
And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord, strong and mighty,
the Lord, mighty in battle!…
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
he is the King of glory!

As David sees Him, He is a warrior, “mighty in battle.” And yet this God of might and power — -power in battle and power on the throne — -says might and power are not the solution here in Zechariah; rather, it’s His Spirit.

Now, we might conclude that God is really saying, “Not by your might, nor by your power, but by my Spirit.” And that certainly seems reasonable. But it’s interesting to me that none of the translations I’ve looked at offer that as the meaning, though the The Message comes close with, “You can’t force these things. They only come about through my Spirit.”

Could it be that God is signaling a shift in how He works? Matthew Henry’s commentary on Zechariah 4 supports this idea. Henry points out that when God delivered His people from Egypt, He did it through visible works of might and power: plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, and so forth. But when He delivered them from Babylon, He used the working of His Spirit on Cyrus to prompt the ruler to let the exiles return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.

This certainly fits with what we see in the New Testament, as well. The Kingdom of God works within, and God brings transformation most often through the subtle, gentle efforts of His Spirit. Though God still works miracles that show His might and power, my own experience has been that my life is changed most often through His Spirit. I might — -and do — -pray for divine intervention at times, but pretty consistently, what I get in answer is the Holy Spirit leading and guiding me to a solution to the problem at hand.

I’ve known for a long time that it wasn’t going to be my might or power that changed things; it would be a work of God Almighty. What I’ve learned now is that as I look to God to move on my behalf, I shouldn’t be disappointed or discouraged when I don’t get the miraculous manifestation of His might and power; rather, I should watch for the work and influence of His Spirit — -and know that the Holy Spirit will accomplish what the Father desires.