Grace Upon Grace (Upon Grace)

He said to me, "What do you see?” I said, “I see a lamp stand 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 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!" (Zechariah 4:2–7).

Zachariah envisioned a menorah with a receptacle at the top to catch the oil that dripped continuously from two olive trees that flanked it.

"What is this?" Zechariah asked. This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit." 

Zachariah was called to encourage Israel's governor Zerubbabel and those associated with him who were rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem, a structure that the Babylonians had reduced to a "great mountain" of rubble. "Carry on," Zechariah insists, "for the Spirit of God is an indefatigable source of strength and energy."

Thus, in like manner, you and I can tackle mountains great and small, not by our own strength, but by the ever-present resources that flow from the Spirit of God. "if we burn steadily through the long dark hours, it is because we have learned to translate into living beauty those supplies of grace which we receive in fellowship with Jesus" (FB Meyer).

What mountain (or mountains) do you face this morning?  A difficult encounter that looms before you? A relationship that has been reduced to rubble? A painful, sinful habit you've tried again and again to surmount? 

So carry on. The Spirit of God is with you, an unfailing, ever-present source of grace. "For from his fullness [you have] received, grace upon grace, upon grace, upon grace, upon grace, upon grace, ad infinitum" (John 1:16).   

David Roper 

1.16.22