Lampstand Dream

Zechariah has a dream about a lampstand that points at another who also had a vision about a lampstand while he was asleep.

Zechariah 4

¹The king who spoke with me returned and woke me as a man is woken from his sleep. ²He said to me, What have you seen? Zechariah 4:1-2I said, A lampstand all of gold with a bowl on the top of it and 7 lamps on it and 7 mouths to the 7 lamps which are on the top of it ³and 2 olive trees by it, 1 at the right of the bowl and 1 at the left. Zechariah 4:2-3FE ⁴I answered and said to the king who spoke with me, What are these my master? Zechariah 4:4⁵The king who spoke with me answered and said to me, Do you not know what these are? Zechariah 4:5aI said, No, I do not know my master. Zechariah 4:5b⁶He said to me, This is the word of the Master to Zerubbabel, Not in power nor in might, but in my spirit, says the Master of hosts. Zechariah 4:6⁷What are you great mountain before Zerubbabel, but like a plain, and I will bring out the head stone of equality and mercy. Zechariah 4:7⁸The word of the Master came to me saying, ⁹The hands of Zerubbabel laid the foundations of this house and his hands will finish it and you will know that the Master of hosts has sent me to you. Zechariah 4:8-9¹⁰For who has despised the day of small things? For they will look and will see the stone in the hands of Zerubbabel. Zechariah 4:10aThese are the 7 eyes of the Master which look over the whole land. Zechariah 4:10b¹¹I answered and said to him, What are these 2 olive trees at the right of the bowl and at the left? Zechariah 4:11¹²I answered the 2nd time and said to him, What are these 2 branches of olive trees which are beside the 2 gold pipes which pour gold from them? Zechariah 4:12¹³He said to me, Do you not know what these are? Zechariah 4:13aI said, No my master. Zechariah 4:13b¹⁴He said to me, These are 2 children of oil who stand before the Master of all the land. A Leviticus 8:12 A 1 Samuel 16:13 P Revelation 11:4 Zechariah 4:14 (Zechariah 4 BRB)

Count

7+7+7+2+7+2+2+2+2+2 = 40 = John

John

The story in John the lampstand dream aligns with is the death and resurrection of Lazarus. Here's the story:

¹There was a man who was sick, Lazarus of the town of Beth Any, the brother of Mariam and Martha. FA ²This is the Mariam who anointed the feet of Joshua with perfume and wiped them with her hair. The Lazarus who was sick was her brother. ³His 2 sisters sent to Joshua saying, Our master, he whom you love is sick. John 11:1-3FA ⁴Joshua said, This is not a sickness of death, but for the sake of the glory of god, that the son of god may be glorified on his account. ⁵Joshua loved Martha and Mariam and Lazarus. ⁶When he heard he was sick he remained 2 days in the place where he was. John 11:4-6⁷After that he said to his disciples, Come let us go again to Judah. John 11:7⁸His disciples said to him, Rabbi, not long ago the Jews wanted to stone you, yet you are going there again? John 11:8FA ⁹Joshua said to them, Are there not 12 hours in the day? If a man walks by daytime he will not stumble because he sees the light of this world, ¹⁰but if a man travels at nighttime he will stumble because there is no light in it. John 11:9-10¹¹Joshua said these things and after that he said to them, Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to wake him. John 11:11¹²His disciples said to him, Our master, if he is sleeping he will get well, ¹³but Joshua spoke of his death and they thought that what he said was sleeping in bed. John 11:12-13¹⁴Then Joshua said to them FA plainly, Lazarus is dead. FA ¹⁵I am glad I was not there for your sakes so that you may believe, but let us walk there. John 11:14-15¹⁶Thomas, who is called, The Twin, said to his fellow disciples, Let us also go and die with him. John 11:16¹⁷Joshua came to Beth Any and found that Lazarus had been 4 days in the house of burial. ¹⁸Beth Any was beside Jerusalem though separated by a distance of about 15 furlongs. ¹⁹Many Jews kept coming to Martha and Mariam to comfort their hearts concerning their brother. ²⁰When Martha heard that Joshua had come she went out to meet him, but Mariam sat in the house. John 11:17-20²¹Martha said to Joshua, My master, if you had been here my brother would not have died, FA ²²but even now I know that whatever you ask of god he will give you. John 11:21-22²³Joshua said to her, Your brother will rise up. John 11:23²⁴Martha said to him, I know he will rise up in the resurrection in the last day. John 11:24²⁵Joshua said to her, FA I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, even though he dies he will live. ²⁶All who live and believe in me to eternity will not die. Do you believe this? John 11:25-26²⁷She said to him, Yes my master. FA I do believe that you are the anointed son of god who has come to the world. John 11:27²⁸When she had said these things she went away and called her sister Mariam secretly and said to her, Our rabbi has come and he is calling for you. ²⁹When Mariam heard it she rose up quickly and came to him. ³⁰Joshua had not yet come to the town, but was in the same place where Martha met him. ³¹Also there, were Jews who were with her in the house, who were comforting her, who saw Mariam rise up quickly and go out. They followed her, for they thought she was going to the burial to weep. John 11:28-31³²When Mariam came where Joshua was and saw him she threw herself at his feet and said to him, My master, if you had been here my brother would not have died. John 11:32³³When Joshua saw her weeping and the Jews weeping who had come with her he was moved in his spirit and greatly disturbed. ³⁴He said, Where have you laid him? John 11:33-34They said to him, Our master, come and see. John 11:34³⁵Joshua was in tears. John 11:35³⁶The Jews said, See how much he loved him. John 11:36³⁷Some of them said, Could he FA who opened the eyes of that blind man have not kept this one from dying? John 11:37³⁸As Joshua was disturbed in himself because of them he came to the house of burial. That house of burial was a cave and a stone was placed at the entrance. ³⁹Joshua said, Take away this stone. John 11:38-39 FA Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, My master, his body already stinks, for it has been 4 days. John 11:39⁴⁰Joshua said to her, Did I not say to you that if you believe you will see the glory of god? John 11:40⁴¹They took away the stone and Joshua FA lifted his eyes upwards and said, Father I thank you for you have heard me, ⁴²and I know that you always hear me, but I say these things just because of this people who stand around, so that they may believe that you have sent me. John 11:41-42⁴³When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. ⁴⁴The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with cloths and his face bound with a napkin. John 11:43-44Joshua said to them, Loose him and let him go. John 11:44⁴⁵Many of the Jews who had come to Mariam, when they saw what Joshua had done, believed in him. ⁴⁶Some of them went to the Pharisees and told them everything Joshua had done. John 11:45-46⁴⁷The high priests and the Pharisees gathered together. They said, What will we do, for this man does many signs? ⁴⁸If we allow him to continue like this all men will believe in him and the Romans will come and take over both our country and our people. John 11:47-48⁴⁹1 of them whose name was Caiapha, who was the high priest that year, said to them, You know nothing. ⁵⁰Nor do you understand that it is much better for us that 1 man should die instead of the people and not all the people perish. John 11:49-50FA ⁵¹He did not say this of himself, but because he was the high priest that year, he prophesied that Joshua had to die for the sake of the people, ⁵²and not only for the sake of the people, but also to gather together the children of god who are scattered abroad. John 11:51-52⁵³From that day they decided to kill him. ⁵⁴Joshua did not walk openly among the Jews, but went away from there to a place which is close to the wilderness, in the province of Ephraim, and remained there with his disciples. John 11:53-54 (John 11:1-54 BRB)

Jesus says Lazarus is asleep and that he is going to wake him. This is the same as Zechariah being awoken from sleep by an angel. Note also the way the angel in Zechariah says and you will know that Yahvah of hosts has sent me to you. Now consider what Jesus says at Lazarus' grave immediately before raising Lazarus: but I say these things just because of this people who stand around, so that they may believe that you have sent me. Jesus is playing the role of the angel.

Note the way Zechariah's dream had been about a lampstand and Jesus discusses walking in the light with his disciples. This detail never made much sense relative to the rest of the story, but now is explainable based upon the backstory that unfolds.

Now if Zechariah had a dream while he was asleep did Lazarus not have a dream, or vision, while he was asleep (dead) for four days? That is the implication of the alignment and turns out to be the right answer, but more groundwork is needed to see it.

First, it's important to understand the linkage between Zerubbabel and Lazarus. Both names are actually compound words. Zer-Babel and La-Zer (where the "us" is a Greek ending and can be ignored for this semitic language study). The common root in both names is Zer. Given this understanding the intent seems to be that the statements to Zerubbabel be treated as also applying to Lazarus since fundamentally they have the same name.

Second, it's absolutely critical to understand that Lazarus is the author of the Gospel of John. There's a page about this already, so it's not necessary to explain here how scripture reveals this, but it is important to know this before going further.

Once it's clear that Lazarus is the author of John it's clear he had to be raised because he had not yet finished penning his Gospel, for reasons that are obvious: Jesus had not yet finished living it. Once raised, though, Lazarus could write the rest of the story as it unfolded.

This is hinted at in the passage in Zechariah when it says that Zerubbabel will not only lay the foundation, i.e., write the first book of the New Testament, the Gospel of John, but he will finish the house as well.

If Lazarus laid the foundation of the house by writing the Gospel of John, how did he finish the house? By writing the book of Revelation.

Return to the understanding that Zechariah's dream of a lampstand points at Lazarus because he also must have had a vision while he was asleep. What was his vision? A vision of a lampstand, and much more, penned as the book of Revelation. Consider the lampstand excerpt at the beginning of Revelation:

¹²I turned to know the voice that spoke with me and when I turned I saw 7 lamps of gold. ¹³In the middle of the lamps was, The likeness of the son of man, Q Daniel 7:13 1|7 and he wore a long robe, 2|7 and girded round his breast was a sash of gold, ¹⁴ 3|7 and his head and his hair were white as wool, as white as snow, 4|7 and his eyes were as a flame of fire, ¹⁵ 5|7 and his feet were in the likeness of brass of Lebanon, as though they were burned in a furnace, 6|7 and his voice was as the voice of many waters, FA ¹⁶ 1 and he had in his right hand 7 stars, 2 and out of his mouth came a sharp 2-edged sword, 7|7 and his countenance was as the sun shining in its strength. Revelation 1:12-16 (Revelation 1:12-16 BRB)

This is Lazarus' vision of a lampstand that he had while he was "asleep" in the grave. The problem this raises (pun intended) is the earlier statement in Revelation that Lazarus was on the island of Patmos when this vision happened is incongruent with the idea that he had this vision while he was sleeping. That statement about Patmos however, could be an edit given the way Zechariah and John work together and the general issue of edits to scripture in different places. However, only the strictest of audits will reveal if that is truly an edit on an earlier, inspired, version of the book of Revelation.

If it's not an edit it's possible to read it as some kind of idiomatic saying, badly rendered in English, that means something like, "When I was in the grave..." While this is possible, the scenario of an edit seems more likely. Someone may have wanted to picture the author as an old man imprisoned on an island for his faith. An enemy of Lazarus, of which he had many after being raised from the dead by Jesus, could have wanted to make this his outcome when it might not have been true at all.

Ryan Eaton 2013-08-27