Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?
What are these two olive trees? Zechariah three times (Zechariah 4:4; Zechariah 4:11-12) asks as to the two olives before he gets an answer; the question becomes more minute each time. What he at first calls "two olive trees," he afterward calls "branches," as, on closer looking, he observes that the "branches" of the trees are the channels through which a continual flow of oil drops into the bowl of the lamps (Zechariah 4:2), and that this is the purpose for which the two olive trees stand beside the candlestick. Primarily, the "two" refer to Joshua and Zerubbabel. God, says Auberlen, at each of the transition periods of the world's history, has sent great men to guide the Church. So the two witnesses shall appear before the destruction of Antichrist.
Antitypically, "the two anointed ones" (Zechariah 4:14) are the two-fold supports of the Church, the civil power (answering to Zerubbabel) and the ecclesiastical (answering to Joshua the high priest), which, in the restored Jewish polity and temple, shall "stand by," i:e., minister to, "the Lord of the whole earth," as He shall be called in the day that He sets up His throne in Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:9; Daniel 2:44; Revelation 11:15). Compare the description of the offices of the "priests" and "prince;" and in Isaiah 49:23, being the nursing fathers of the Church, and of Israel and Jerusalem primarily; and Ezekiel 44:1-31; Ezekiel 45:1-25; Ezekiel 46:1-24. As in Revelation 11:3-4, the "two witnesses" are identified with the two olive trees and the two candlesticks. Wordsworth explains them to mean the Law and the Gospel: the two Testaments that witness in the Church for the truth of God. But this is at variance with the sense here, which requires Joshua and Zerubbabel to be primarily meant. So Moses (the prophet and lawgiver) and Aaron (the high priest) ministered to the Lord among the covenant-people at the exodus; Ezekiel (the priest) and Daniel (a ruler) in the Babylonian captivity; so it shall be in restored Israel. Some think Elijah will appear again (cf. the transfiguration-the type of the millennial Church-wherein Elijah and Moses appear, Matthew 17:3; Matthew 17:11, with Malachi 4:4-5; John 1:21) with Moses. Revelation 11:16, which mentions the very miracles performed by Elijah and Moses (shutting heaven, so as not to rain, and turning water into blood), favours this (cf. Exodus 7:19; 1 Kings 17:1; Luke 4:25; James 5:16-17). The period is the same, "three years and six months;" the scene also is in Israel-Jerusalem (Revelation 11:8), "where our Lord was crucified."
It is supposed that for the first three and a half years, of the hebdomad (Daniel 9:1-27) God will be worshipped in the temple; in the latter three and a half years Antichrist will break the covenant (Daniel 9:27), and set himself up in the temple to be worshipper as God (2 Thessalonians 2:4). The witnesses prophesy the former three and a half years, while corruptions prevail and "faith" is rare (Luke 18:8); then they are slain, and remain dead three and a half years. Probably, besides individual witnesses and literal years, there is a fulfillment in long periods and general witnesses, such as the Church and the Word, the civil and religious powers, so far as they have witnessed for God.
So "the beast" in Revelation answers to the civil power of the apostasy; "the false prophet" to the spiritual power. Man needs the priest to atone for guilt, and the prophet king to teach holiness with kingly authority. These two typically united in Melchizedek were divided between two until they meet in Messiah the antitype. Zechariah 6:11-13 accords with this. The Holy Spirit in this His two-fold power of applying to man the grace of the atonement through Christ our high priest, and that of sanctification and glorification through Christ our King, must in one point of view be meant by the two olive trees which supply the bowl at the top of the candlestick - i:e., Messiah at the head of the Church; because it is He who filled Jesus with all the fullness of His unction (John 3:34). But this does not exclude the primary application to Joshua and Zerubbabel, the two that were "anointed" (Zechariah 4:14) with grace, to minister to the Jewish Church: and so applicable to the two-fold supports of the Church, who are anointed with the Spirit, the prince and the priest, or minister. For as He is the two-fold "tree," so they are the "branches." This probably is the design of the change of phrase from "trees" to "branches" (Zechariah 4:3; Zechariah 4:11-12). So the Lord Jesus saith, "I am the vine, ye are the branches" (John 15:5).
Branches, [shibelet] - literally, ears; so the olive branches are called, because as ears are full of grain, so the olive branches are full of olives.
Which through - literally, by the hand of - i:e., by the agency of "the golden pipes."
Empty the golden oil - literally, gold - i:e., gold-like liquor.
Out of themselves. Ordinances and ministers are channels of grace, not the grace itself. The supply comes not from a dead reservoir of oil, but through living olive trees (Psalms 52:8; Romans 12:1) fed by God.