Not by Might, nor by Power (Zechariah 4:6)

Question 4133

The words not by might nor by power come from Zechariah 4:6, where the LORD sends a message to Zerubbabel, the governor charged with rebuilding the temple, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. The task before Zerubbabel was daunting. The returned exiles were few, poor and surrounded by opposition, and the rebuilding of the house of God had stalled under discouragement. Into that weakness God speaks a word that reorders everything, for he tells his servant that the work will be accomplished not by human resources at all, but by the Spirit of God.

The phrase not by might nor by power deserves close attention, because the two words are not idle repetition. The first, the Hebrew chayil, carries the sense of an army, a force of numbers, wealth and material strength. The second, koach, points to personal power, ability and energy. Between them they cover the whole range of human capacity, the strength of the many and the strength of the one, and God sets both aside in favour of his Spirit.

The setting of not by might nor by power

Zechariah ministered to the remnant who had returned from Babylon to a ruined Jerusalem. The foundations of the temple had been laid, but the work had ground to a halt, and the people were tempted to despise the day of small things. In a series of night visions God encouraged his discouraged people, and in the fifth of these Zechariah sees a golden lampstand fed by two olive trees, a picture of continual supply that needs no human refilling. The interpreting angel applies the vision with the words to Zerubbabel, not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit. The completion of the temple would not depend on the size of the labour force or the strength of the governor, but on the unfailing supply of the Spirit of God.

God then promises that the great mountain of obstacles before Zerubbabel will become a plain, and that the hands which laid the foundation will also finish the house. The point is plain. What God begins by his Spirit he will complete by his Spirit, and no human weakness can frustrate it. This is the same confidence that steadies the work of God in every age, and it stands behind our answer on the power of the Spirit in the work of God.

What not by might nor by power does not mean

It would be a mistake to read these words as a charter for idleness, as though the lesson were that we need do nothing and simply wait for God to act. Zerubbabel still had to build. The stones still had to be laid, the opposition still had to be faced, the labour still had to be done. The promise is not that human effort is unnecessary but that human effort is not the source of the result. A workman may swing the hammer, yet it is the Spirit of God who makes the work prosper, and the same Spirit who supplies the strength to lift the hammer in the first place. The word not by might nor by power humbles the worker without excusing him from the work.

Neither does the phrase teach that strength and resources are evil in themselves. God often supplies means, and Zerubbabel was glad of every willing hand. The lesson is one of dependence and order. When the people trust in their numbers, their wealth or their cleverness as the true cause of success, they have put their confidence in the wrong place, and God will not share his glory with human strength. The supply comes from the Spirit, and the means are only the channels through which he chooses to work. How a church keeps that dependence without falling into excess is taken up in our answer on honouring the Spirit while avoiding charismatic excess.

Not by might nor by power in the life of the church

The principle reaches far beyond the rebuilding of one temple. The whole work of God in the world advances by his Spirit and not by the arm of flesh. The early church turned the world upside down with no political power, no wealth, no armies and little social standing, armed only with the gospel and the Spirit of God. Paul reminded the Corinthians that he came to them not with lofty speech or wisdom, and that his message rested not in the persuasive words of human wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that their faith might rest in the power of God and not in the cleverness of men (1 Corinthians 2:4-5). When the church forgets this and leans on technique, marketing, money or charisma to do what only the Spirit can do, it produces a great deal of activity and very little life.

This is a searching word for our own day, when so much in church life is measured by the standards of business and entertainment. The temptation is always to substitute the might of organisation and the power of personality for the quiet, unglamorous dependence on the Spirit of God. The lampstand of Zechariah burned not because the people kept filling it but because the oil flowed from the living trees, and the church shines only as the Spirit supplies the oil. The believer who learns to walk in step with the Spirit, as we describe in our answer on being filled with the Spirit, has grasped the heart of this verse.

The day of small things

Zechariah adds another word that belongs with the promise, a gentle rebuke to those who had despised the day of small things (Zechariah 4:10). The rebuilt temple was a poor affair beside the glory of the one Solomon had raised, and some of the older men who remembered the first house wept when they saw the modest foundations of the second. The Lord meets that disappointment by telling them not to despise the small beginning, for his eyes would rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. What looked small to human eyes was the work of God, and the work of God is never to be measured by its outward scale.

This is a steadying word for any believer tempted to despair at the smallness of what God seems to be doing. A faithful work in a small place, a handful gathered around the word, a quiet ministry that the world overlooks, none of these is small in the reckoning of heaven if the Spirit of God is in it. The record of how God works is full of small beginnings that he was pleased to bless, a shepherd boy with a sling, a remnant returning from exile, a few unlikely men in an upper room. The measure is never the size of the means but the presence of the Spirit.

There is also a promise of completion folded into the vision. The hands of Zerubbabel had laid the foundation, and his hands would also complete it (Zechariah 4:9). What God begins he finishes, and the same Spirit who started the work would carry it through to the headstone. This is the confidence in which every servant of God may labour, that the work entrusted to him is held by One who does not abandon what he has begun, and who will bring it to its appointed end in his own time and by his own Spirit.

The vision closes with a scene of joy, the bringing out of the top stone amid shouts of Grace, grace to it (Zechariah 4:7). When the work that began in weakness is finished, the praise does not go to the strength of the builders but to the grace of God that supplied the power. So it will be with every work the Spirit accomplishes. The credit will not fall to human might or human power, but to the grace of the One whose Spirit carried it through, and the shout at the end will be grace, grace.

So, now what?

Ask yourself where your real confidence lies. When you face a task that seems beyond you, in ministry, in family, in the daily fight against sin, is your hope in your own ability and resources, or in the Spirit of God? The word to Zerubbabel invites you to set down the heavy burden of thinking it all depends on you, and to take up instead the lighter and truer confidence that the work is the LORDs and will be done by his Spirit.

At the same time, do not let dependence become an excuse for passivity. Build as Zerubbabel built, with diligence and courage, facing the opposition and laying the stones, while trusting all the while that the Spirit is the one who gives the increase. The right posture is neither anxious self-reliance nor lazy waiting, but active, dependent labour that looks to God for the result.

When the work is finished and the headstone is brought out, let the shouts be of grace, grace to it, as Zechariah foretold, for the glory will belong to the Spirit who supplied the strength and not to the hands that did the building.

“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.” Zechariah 4:6