God's Persistent Call to Restoration
Notes
Transcript
The series of visions given to Zechariah on the same day start with verses 7-17. This first vision gives us the general theme of the whole series of visions. The visions that follow add the details.
1. God’s Vigilant Watch, 1:7-11.
1. God’s Vigilant Watch, 1:7-11.
7 - This occurs five months following the restart of building the temple (Haggai 1), and two months following Haggai’s last two messages in Haggai 2 :10-23.
in our calendar it would be February 15, 519 B.C.
The word of the LORD came once again to the prophet Zechariah.
It came as a series of visions, not dreams, and all of them came at the same time, but were communicated to the people shortly thereafter. This type of communication is a supernatural revelations given to a prophet by the LORD. In Zechariah’s nighttime visions, they were both visual (and sometime symbolic) and auditory.
8- Zechariah sees a man riding on a red horse, standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine, with other horses behind him.
The vision was of the nighttime. Nighttime had connotations of gloom, obscurity, cold, and foreboding, describing the period of time the nation of Judah was finding itself. The once vibrant nation now struggled to reestablish itself following its return from exile.
The horse signifies military strength/power. They were prestigious possessions in the time of Zechariah, whereas donkeys were used for everyday work and travel. The color red signifying judgment and bloodshed.
The myrtle trees are evergreens, resistant to fire. They were used in the Feast of Tabernacles to picture future endless messianic blessings that would come to Israel. Here it is seen as symbolizing the nation of Judah/Israel, that they are standing in a ravine represents their present humiliation.
The colors of the other horses are symbolic as well— the sorrel (chestnut?) is a mixture of reddish brown and white suggests both judgment and blessing, the white horse symbolizes victory. The angel never comments on the colors of the horses but Zechariah points out their distinctive colors.
Who is the rider of the red horse standing amidst the myrtle trees? I believe the context points to the Angel of the LORD, the preincarnate Messiah, though others have different ideas.
9 - Zechariah asks a question which is answered by another, an interpreting angel. Zechariah wanted to understand what he was seeing. The angel with him said he would show him what these are, what the vision means.
10- At this point, the explanation comes not from the interpreting angel, but from the one on the red horse, standing amidst the myrtle trees. He reveals that the riders on the horses, angels, were sent by the LORD to patrol the earth. God is concerned with the nations, what they are doing within and to each other.
11- Note here that the riders report to the Angel of the LORD, who was standing among the myrtle trees. This points to the man on the red horse as the Angel of the LORD, God the Son preincarnate, who is not aloof from His people, but in their midst, even in their humiliation.
They describe to the Angel that they have patrolled the earth and that all the earth is at peace. Historically by this time Darius, the king of Persia, recorded that he had put down 19 insurrections, subdued nine rebel leaders and had subdued all his enemies.
2. God’s Compassionate Promise, 1:12-17.
2. God’s Compassionate Promise, 1:12-17.
12- The Angel of the LORD then intercedes on behalf of the people of Judah. The nations are at peace, yet Judah is not and He seeks in intercession relief for Judah and Jerusalem since the LORD has been indignant toward them these seventy years. Jeremiah 25:11-12
‘This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
‘Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,’ declares the Lord, ‘for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation.
cf. 2 Chronicles 36:15-21. Jer. 25:10
This anticipates Jesus’ role as our intercessor before God.
13- The LORD’s response is not recorded, but described as gracious words and comforting words spoken to the interpreting angel.
14- The angel now commands Zechariah to proclaim God’s revelation to the people of Judah/Israel. These words will bring comfort and encouragement as well as renewed hope to a humiliated people.
First, the LORD of hosts says he is exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion. This word jealous in the sense it is used of the LORD means that He has careful concern, specifically His intolerance of rivalry or unfaithfulness, for the well-being of others. God describing Himself as jealous has none of the negative connotations we associate with selfish human jealousy. He wanted to keep Israel true to Himself; so too the church.
15 Second, He is very angry at the Gentile nations, which were presently at ease, because they had compounded the punishment of Israel that God inflicted on His Chosen People by prolonging it. Cf. Gen 12:3
And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
16 The hostility that the people of Jerusalem brought forth promises from the LORD.
Third, the LORD promised to return and show them compassion.
Fourth, The temple, “My House,” will be built in it. The temple was completed in 516 B.C.
The city walls were rebuilt, completed in 444 B.C.
fifth, the measuring line pictures an expanded restoration.
Now the city was large and spacious, but the people in it were few and the houses were not built.
Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem, but the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while nine-tenths remained in the other cities.
17- Even more encouragement is to be proclaimed for the people through Zechariah:
The cities of Judah (“My cities”) will overflow with prosperity.
The LORD Himself will once again comfort Zion.
The LORD will once again choose Israel.
In this first vision we have seen the presence of the Angel of the LORD in the midst of a depressed, humiliated Israel. We see His loving and yearning intercession for them and then we see the promise of future blessings.
Note the following from this:
God is mindful of Israel at all times.
God is providing the means of His judgment on the nations persecuting His people.
God is reserving glory and prosperity for Israel in the benevolent and beneficent reign of the Messiah.
3. God’s Powerful Deliverance, 1:18-21.
3. God’s Powerful Deliverance, 1:18-21.
The second vision is found in verses 18-21, though in the Hebrew Bible it would be 2:1-4.
18- Zechariah received another vision and the what he sees first are four horns, animal horns. Horns were a common figure for power in biblical and ancient Near East visual images, many times used of a Gentile king or world empire, as in Dan 2:36-44 and 7:24.
“This was the dream; now we will tell its interpretation before the king.
“You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory;
and wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold.
“After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth.
“Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces.
“In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay.
“As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle.
“And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.
“In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.
‘As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings.
19- Now Zech once again asks the question, “What are these?” The interpreting angel reveals that the 4 horns represent the powers that have scattered Judah, Jerusalem, and Israel. Assyria took Israel into captivity. Babylonia destroyed Jerusalem and took the Judahites captive.
The four horns represent the kingdoms from the four corners of the world and the total opposition to Israel, or
These four stand for Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome (cf. Daniel 2; 7), or
These four represent Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, and Greece.
I lean toward #2.
20- Then the LORD showed Zechariah four craftsmen, the word literally speaks of workers in metals, smiths. Either the LORD pointed them out to Zechariah, or He did so through Zechariah’s interpreting angel.
21- The angel repeated that the horns represented the powers that had scattered the Israelites. The artisans represented those that had come to frighten these horns and to overthrow them for attacking the Israelites.
So who are the craftsmen? It is probably the kingdoms of Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and Messiah that are in view. Each of these kingdoms would destroy the one which preceded it, like Medo-Persia, the first craftsman, had already defeated Babylonia, the first horn. Cf. Dan. 2:34-35
“You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them.
“Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
“In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.
“Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”
The second smith, Greece, destroys the second horn, Medo-Persia. The third smith, Rome, destroys the third horn, Greece. Finally, the last smith, Messiah’s kingdom will destroy the fourth horn, Rome.
IN this second vision, notice that God takes account of every one that lifts his hand against Israel. Not only does He have complete knowledge of the condition of His people, He also knows the injuries they have sustained.
Knowing these things, God has already provided the punishment for every foe of His chosen ones. They will not stand before the God of Israel; they cannot prevail before the Living God.