1The angel who talked with me came again and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep. 2He said to me, “What do you see?”
I said, “I have seen, and behold, a lamp stand all of gold, with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps on it; there are seven pipes to each of the lamps which are on the top of it; 3and two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl, and the other on the left side of it.”
4I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, “What are these, my lord?”
5Then the angel who talked with me answered me, “Don’t you know what these are?”
I said, “No, my lord.”
6Then he answered and spoke to me, saying, “This is Yahweh’s word to Zerubbabel, saying, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says Yahweh of Armies. 7Who are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you are a plain; and he will bring out the capstone with shouts of ‘Grace, grace, to it!’”
8Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 9“The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish it; and you will know that Yahweh of Armies has sent me to you. 10Indeed, who despises the day of small things? For these seven shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. These are Yahweh’s eyes, which run back and forth through the whole earth.”
11Then I asked him, “What are these two olive trees on the right side of the lamp stand and on the left side of it?”
12I asked him the second time, “What are these two olive branches, which are beside the two golden spouts that pour the golden oil out of themselves?”
13He answered me, “Don’t you know what these are?”
I said, “No, my lord.”
14Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”
Matthew's account of Jesus' baptism is highly significant as the Bible's first explicit reference to God in three persons. Until the Son of God came as a man to make the Father known (John 1:18), plurality in the Godhead was largely veiled. Hints are found in passages such as Genesis 1:26, "Then God said, 'Let Us make man... '" (NAU). Though God is singular, the verb make is plural. Similarly, in Isaiah 6:8, God speaks of himself with a plural pronoun: "'Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?'" (NAU). In Zechariah 4:6, God speaks of His Spirit as a distinct person. Deuteronomy 6:4 emphasizes God's oneness, in contrast with the many heathen gods, but does so with a word for one that can denote a unity, such as the oneness of a husband and wife (Gen 2:24). But, none of these passages is specific like those of the New Testament that mention all three persons of God, beginning with Matthew 3:16-17, and including 28:19; 1 Corinthians 12:4-6; 2 Corinthians 13:14, and 1 Peter 1:2.
The Holy Spirit's descent upon Jesus at His baptism was His anointing as the promised Messiah and Servant of Yahweh in fulfillment of Isaiah 11:2. Verses 13-15, of Matthew 3, clarify the fact that Jesus was not baptized as a repentant sinner, or as a mere follower of John. Matthew 3:17 indicates not a time when Jesus became the Father's Son, but the fact that he was already his son. This record of the simultaneous presence of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit corrects the error of modalism which, in an attempt to preserve the unity of the Godhead, views Father, Son and Holy Spirit not as distinct persons of God, but as different modes in which the one person of God reveals Himself.