The candelabrum and olive trees.
I. By the candelabrum was symbolised the Israelitish community, the nation of the old covenant, the people of theocracy. But Israel was itself a symbol and type; it was the visible manifestation of that invisible spiritual community, the Church of the living God, which embraces the faithful of all ages and places. It is represented as made of the most precious of metals, pure gold, to indicate the worth and excellence of that which God hath chosen for Himself as His special treasure; and it is represented as having seven lamps, to indicate that the Church is a luminous body, having light in itself, and appearing as the luminary from which proceeds light to the world.
II. The light which the Church possesses is not from herself; it is light communicated and sustained by influences from above. Hence in the vision which Zechariah saw the lamps were supplied by oil, not by human ministration, but through channels and pipes from the olive trees, which stood beside and were over the candelabrum. Oil is the proper symbol of the Holy Spirit's influences. Apart from the Divine Spirit the Church is dark and cold and feeble; but through the visitation of the Spirit she is animated and invigorated, becomes luminous and glorious, and is crowned with success as she labours to erect God's temple on earth.
III. God sustains His Church by His grace. But this grace comes to men through certain appointed media. This was symbolised in the vision by the fruit-bearing branches of the olive trees, and by the conduits and the pipes through which the oil was conveyed to the lamps. The branches represented the sacerdotal and civil authorities in Israel. These were in the old time the channels through which God conveyed His grace to His Church on earth; and, as they operated through means of subordinate functionaries, the branches were represented in the vision as emptying themselves into the conduits and pipes, by means of which the oil was conveyed to the lamps. When the symbol was again exhibited (Revelation 1:12), the great Head of the Church Himself in proper Person was seen in the midst of the seven golden candelabra. Through Him, as the great Priest and King, uniting in Himself the two offices and discharging the functions of both to His Church, "the oil of Divine grace is poured into the candlestick of the Church in infinitely greater abundance than through any of the previous servants of God." (Hengstenberg.)
W. Lindsay Alexander, Zechariah's Visions and Warnings,p. 59; see also Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iv., p. 96.
References: Zechariah 4:6. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. iii., No. 149; G. H. Wilkinson, Old Testament Outlines,p. 280; see also Church Sermons by Eminent Clergymen,vol. i., p. 401.