Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Vision of the Gold Lampstand and Two Olive Trees

4 Then the angel who was talking with me returned. He woke me up. It was as if I had been asleep. ² “What do you see?” he asked me.

“I see a solid gold lampstand,” I answered. “It has a bowl on top of it. There are seven lamps on it. Seven tubes lead to the lamps. ³ There are two olive trees by the lampstand. One is on its right side. The other is on its left.”

⁴ I asked the angel who was talking with me, “Sir, what are these?”

⁵ He answered, “Don’t you know what they are?”

“No, sir,” I replied.

⁶ So he said to me, “A message from the Lord came to Zerubbabel. The Lord said, ‘Your strength will not get my temple rebuilt. Your power will not do it either. Only the power of my Spirit will do it,’ says the Lord who rules over all.

⁷ “So nothing can stop Zerubbabel from completing the temple. Even a mountain of problems will be smoothed out by him. When the temple is finished, he will put its most important stone in place. Then the people will shout, ‘God bless it! God bless it!’ ”

²¹ At that time Jesus was full of joy through the Holy Spirit. He said, “I praise you, Father. You are Lord of heaven and earth. You have hidden these things from wise and educated people. But you have shown them to little children. Yes, Father. This is what you wanted to do.

²² “My Father has given all things to me. The Father is the only one who knows who the Son is. And the only ones who know the Father are the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to make the Father known.”

²³ Then Jesus turned to his disciples. He said to them in private, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. ²⁴ I tell you, many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see. But they didn’t see it. They wanted to hear what you hear. But they didn’t hear it.”