Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Golden Lampstand and Olive Trees

4 And the angel who was speaking with me came back and awakened me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep. ² He said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I see, and behold, a ^[a]lampstand all of gold, with its bowl [for oil] on the top of it and its seven lamps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps which are on the top of it.^{(A) 3} And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left side [supplying it continuously with oil].”^{(B) 4} So I asked the angel who was speaking with me, “What are these, my lord?” ⁵ Then the angel who was speaking with me answered me, “Do you not know what these are?” And I said, “No, my lord.” ⁶ Then he said to me, “This [continuous supply of oil] is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel [prince of Judah], saying, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit [of whom the oil is a symbol],’ says the Lord of hosts. ⁷ ‘What are you, O great mountain [of obstacles]? Before Zerubbabel [who will rebuild the temple] you will become a plain (insignificant)! And he will bring out the capstone [of the new temple] with loud shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’”^(C)

²¹ In that very hour He was overjoyed and rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and He said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things [relating to salvation] from the ^[a]wise and intelligent, and have revealed them to infants [the childlike and untaught]. Yes, Father, for this way was [Your gracious will and choice, and was] well-pleasing in Your sight. ²² All things have been transferred and turned over to Me by My Father and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him.”

²³ Then turning to His disciples, Jesus said privately, “Blessed [joyful, spiritually enlightened, and favored by God] are the eyes which see what you see,^{(A) 24} for I say to you that many prophets and kings longed to see what you see, and they did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”