20. How did holy spirit help the Jews to carry out God’s will?

²⁰ It appeared as if there were an insurmountable obstacle of opposition, coming from government officials who had been able to get a ban placed on the work. Yet, Jehovah promised that this seeming “mountain” would be removed and become “level land.” (Zechariah 4:7) And that happened! King Darius I made an investigation and discovered Cyrus’ memorandum that authorized the Jews to rebuild the temple. So Darius rescinded the ban and authorized that money from the royal treasury be given to the Jews to help pay the expenses of the work. What an astounding reversal! Did God’s spirit play a role in this? We can be sure that it did. The temple was completed in 515 B.C.E., the sixth year of the reign of Darius I.​—Ezra 6:1, 15.

5, 6. To what grand accomplishment does Zechariah 4:7 point?

⁵ We can be sure that the preaching and teaching done by Jehovah’s obedient servants in our time will continue with his backing. At Zechariah 4:7, we read: “He will certainly bring forth the headstone. There will be shoutings to it: ‘How charming! How charming!’” To what grand accomplishment in our time does this point?

⁶ Zechariah 4:7 is pointing to the time when true worship of the Sovereign Lord will be brought to its perfected state in the earthly courtyards of his spiritual temple. That temple is Jehovah’s arrangement for approaching him in worship on the basis of the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ Jesus. Granted, the great spiritual temple has existed since the first century C.E. Yet, true worship in its earthly courtyard will yet be perfected. Millions of worshippers now serve in the earthly courtyard of the spiritual temple. These and multitudes of resurrected ones will be brought to perfection during the Thousand Year Reign of Jesus Christ. At the end of the thousand years, only true worshippers of God will be left on the cleansed earth.