Zechariah 4:1

 Zechariah 4:1 says, And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep,  Zechariah said the angel came to him again and awakened him as one is wakened out of his sleep.  God may have to occasionally awaken us out of a spiritual sleep.  Verse two adds, And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:  The angel told Zechariah to look around and tell him what he saw.  As followers of Christ today, God will continually ask us to look around us and observe what we see through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  We may not have a vision as Zechariah did, but we do need to have a vision of what God wants us to see and do in the world today.  Zechariah said he saw a golden candlestick with a bowl on the top and seven lamps with seven pipes feeding them.  Matthew Henry says the golden candlestick was like the one that had been in the temple, and that the church is the candlestick now set up to enlighten the world.  The seven branches represented the spreading of the gospel by not just the Jewish people but by the Gentile believers as well.  Verse three continues, And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.  Zechariah said that there were two olive branches by the candlestick, one on the left side and one on the right side.  Matthew Henry says these two olive trees continually provided oil for the main candlestick, which provided oil for the others without any need for anyone to tend to it.  God provides the Light of the world today through Jesus Christ, and He does not rely on anyone to provide that Light.  We are to share the Light of Christ, but we do not cause it to shine.  We simply point people to it.  Verse four asks, So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?  Zechariah said that he did not understand the meaning of what he was seeing, so he asked the angel to tell him the meaning.   Anytime that we don't understand what God is telling us or showing us, we simply need to ask.  Verse five adds, Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.  The angel asked Zechariah if he understood what he was seeing, and Zechariah said no.  If God speaks to us today as Christians and we o not understand what He is saying, we should never just continue on as if we do.  God will not leave us confused about what He is saying to us if we only ask Him to help us understand.