Then I answered the second time and said to him: ‘What are the two bunches of twigs of the olive trees that, by means of the two golden tubes, are pouring forth from within themselves the golden liquid?’

Zechariah 4:11-14.

31. How was the supply of oil delivered to the lamps, why was the supply constant, and what did the oil picture?

³¹ Zechariah saw good to follow up his first question immediately with a second one, in order not to miss inquiring about a feature that he had not mentioned in his first question. Those two olive trees, we recall, stood to the right and the left of the golden bowl from which seven pipes extended out to the seven lamps on the lampstand in order to deliver to them oil from the central supply. From where did the golden bowl atop the lampstand get its own supply of illuminating liquid? From the bunch of twigs of the olive tree to the right and the bunch of twigs of the olive tree to the left, and this by means of a golden tube from each bunch of twigs. The liquid thus delivered looked golden, and it could no more be turned off than those two olive trees could be turned off. The supply was constant, just as the source of it was living and constant. That illuminating liquid pictured, not a military force, nor human power, but, as Jehovah said, “my spirit.” Oil was thus used to picture God’s spirit.​—Zechariah 4:6.

32. (a) What is the source of the symbolic “olive oil”? (b) What is symbolized by the lampstand that gets such oil?

³² Just as the olive tree was created by Jehovah God and so He is the Source of its oil, likewise he is the Source of the spirit or invisible active force, that kindles the flame of the true worship of Him.