⁹ “Accordingly,” says Zechariah, “he answered and said to me: ‘This is the word of Jehovah to Zerubbabel, saying, “‘Not by a military force, nor by power, but by my spirit,’ Jehovah of armies has said.

He did not have any military force among the less than fifty thousand who had returned with him from Babylon back in 537 B.C.E. How, then, could he withstand any armed invasion by protesters to stop the temple work? What power did he or his fellow Israelites have? He did not know King Darius I personally, and had no political pull or influence with him. How, then, could he ever expect to finish Jehovah’s house of worship​—without being severely punished?

11. (a) What is the divine answer to the question? (b) So what did Zerubbabel need to have behind him in the temple work, and why?

¹¹ Do we today ask or did Governor Zerubbabel ask “How”? Back comes the answer from the greatest military Commander in Chief of all: “‘Not by a military force, nor by power, but by my spirit,’ Jehovah of armies has said.” (Zechariah 4:6) Zerubbabel did not need to worry about having a military force or power of any human source. All he had to do was to trust in the One who had told him by his prophets to go ahead with the work and to depend upon the spirit of that One, the Supreme Authority. That spirit of that One is, to be sure, an invisible active force, but it is irresistible, overwhelming, ever successful, always triumphant. Work invisibly it does, but it does produce results as purposed by the divine Source of that spirit. All the military might in the whole earth and all the political, religious power among all mankind cannot hold their ground against His holy active force in operation. In going ahead with the temple work, Governor Zerubbabel had that spirit behind him!