Burning house

Michael Stead ( The Intertextuality of Zechariah 1-8 (Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies) ) the golden lampstand of Zechariah 4 is not Yahweh nor Israel but the temple.  He notes that verses 2-3 provide a vision that verses 6-14 answer, in the same sequence.

In verses 2-3, the prophet sees a lampstand, with seven lamps, and two olive trees beside it.  In the interpretation, the angel says that Zerubbabel will complete the house (v. 9), explains the seven lamps as the eyes of Yahweh (v. 10), and the two trees as “sons of oil” (vv. 12-14).  On this arrangement, the lampstand matches the house that Zerubbabel is going to complete.

Glowing with Yahweh’s glory, the temple might well be described as a lamp on a lampstand that cannot be hid, a shining city on a hill.  This is not, of course, incompatible with the idea that the lamp is the people of God, since the temple is an architectural symbol of that people.  I suspect too that the burning wood house might also be a burning bush, a perpetual promise of new exodus.