Deeper Commentary
Zechariah Chapter 1
Zechariah 1:1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying- See on :7. The many restoration prophecies had stated that the Jews would return from Babylon after Babylon had fallen and restore God's Kingdom in Judah under a Messianic ruler. Ez. 40-48 contains commands more than predictions of how a temple system would be rebuilt, with a "Prince" who was also a priest as the Messianic leader. They would repent and enter a new covenant which would replace the old covenant. Tragically, most of the Jews preferred the soft life of Babylon, and those who did return were impenitent and are revealed by Haggai, Malachi, Ezra and Nehemiah as seeking their own personal gain from emigration to Judah. And so the prophecies were rescheduled and reapplied. There is an element to which they will come literally true in the last days when latter day Babylon falls, a remnant of Judah repent, and the Lord Jesus returns to earth to re-establish God's Kingdom on earth based in Israel. But they are also reinterpreted in many New Testament passages which allude to the restoration prophecies, being reapplied to Christian believers entering the new covenant and coming out of 'Babylon' in a more spiritual sense.
Some exiles did return and began rebuilding Jerusalem and the temple. But they were several times interrupted by seemingly invincible opposition from the local peoples and the king of Persia. But through the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, the exiles were encouraged to keep on keeping on, and against all odds, a temple was rebuilt (Ezra 5:1; 6:14). So we should not read Haggai and Zechariah as merely droning on against the Jews and not getting very far. It was due to their inspired words that the discouraged, spiritually weak people of God were inspired to rise up and do the work of God's Kingdom, and succeed with every man's hand against them. In this is their abiding value to us. There is however the repeated theme of wasted potential- so much could have happened at that time, even the re-establishment of God's Kingdom in the form of the kingdom of Israel, replete with a Messianic ruler. But it didn't, because of short termist, self-satisficing attitudes, a failure to look beyond the immediate and personal to a far bigger picture.
Zechariah 1:2 Yahweh was very displeased with your fathers- That may sound obvious; but as Ez. 18 explains, the mentality amongst the exiles was the fathers had been punished too severely, and they their children were unfairly suffering the results. "Very displeased" translates a Hebrew phrase meaning 'with intense, fiery anger'. And yet even that is described in :15 as God being only "a little angry" compared to the anger He felt against the nations combining to attack Zion (:15 LXX). The comparison is intentional. God is indeed very angry with His people when they turn from Him; but that anger must be seen in context. The fact Judah had so sinned and incurred God's wrath didn't mean that He was therefore insensitive to their abusers; His anger with their enemies was so much greater. And so in a strange way, "the wrath of God is [or reflects] the love of God". Who would a man be more angry with? His wife because she cheated on him repeatedly and is exposed; or a bunch of hoods who rape her after her infidelity has been exposed? The man who truly loved his wife would be more angry with the rapists, and so it was with God.
Zechariah 1:3 Therefore tell them: Thus says Yahweh of Armies: ‘Return
to me’, says Yahweh of Armies, ‘and I will return to you’, says Yahweh of
Armies- The triple repetition of "Yahweh of Armies" / "Lord of Hosts" clearly points towards the Angels,
through whom God was practically manifest in Judah's history. 'Turning'
back to God has the implication of patching up a marriage: "If a man put
away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he
return unto her again?... yet return again unto Me, saith the Lord" (Jer. 3:1). This is similar to Jer. 31:32 and Mal. 2:14, where again God, through the Angel, implies He would be justified in divorcing Israel. Mal. 3:7 seems a parallel passage: "Even from the days of your fathers (cp. Zech. 1:2,4,5) ye re gone away from Mine ordinances (given by an Angel), and have not kept them. Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of Hosts" (Angels).
Judah thought they had returned to God by having literally returned to Judah. But here we see the difference between the external and true spirituality. The literal return was to be part and parcel of the return to God which He so earnestly sought. But they had only externally returned, but not internally. Hence this appeal to "return". So easily we can think we have repented when in fact we simply went through a motion of so doing.
Time and again in the context of the restoration it is emphasized that
God would return to His people if they returned to Him (also Mal.
3:7). And they didn't return to Him- most chose not to return to the land,
and those who did for the most part did not return to their God in their
hearts. The whole basis of Israel's covenant relationship with God was
that if they were exiled from the land for their sins, they must repent
and
then
God would return to them (Dt. 30:1-10). Yet God graciously states to
the exiles: "I am returned unto you" (Zech. 1:16; 8:3). Here was grace
indeed. Passages like Ez. 36:24-31 therefore speak as if God's grace to
the exiles was effectively a new covenant- which has in essence been
extended to us. Having stated the conditionality of His 'returning' to His
people, and recognizing they hadn't fulfilled their part of the
conditions- God all the same returns to them, such was and is His almost
desperate desire for relationship with His beloved people. This is a
lesson for us in our relationships with others- to continue our acceptance
and 'return' to them, even if they don't fulfill their part of the deal.
For this, day by day, is how our God deals not only with us but with His
weak and wayward people as a whole.
Zechariah 1:4 Don’t you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: Thus says Yahweh of Armies, ‘Return now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings’ - This appeal to repent in the eighth month follows on the appeal to repent made in the seventh month (Hag. 2:1). But as noted on Hag. 2:18-20, by the ninth month it was apparent that the apparent response to Zechariah's appeal in :6 was only nominal. The "fathers" in view may have been the generation before them in exile in Babylon, who had refused to repent. Or they could be those of previous generations who had refused the multiple appeals for repentance (2 Chron. 36:15). The appeal was to repent of ways and doings- individual acts of sin as well as a general direction of life and thought.
But they did not hear, nor listen to me, says Yahweh- There seems no semantic difference between the terms "hear... listen" (also in Zech. 7:11). Just as returning to God was more than physically returning to the land, so hearing God was and is far more than literally hearing or reading His word.
Zechariah 1:5 Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they
live forever?- The reference may be to the false prophets, in the
spirit of Jer. 37:19: "Where now are your prophets who prophesied to you
saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this
land?". They would contrast with the prophets who were "My servants" (:6).
Their fathers died, many of them in the Babylonian invasion. The words of
judgment had come true upon them; and now Zechariah's generation were
tempted to think that such judgment could not overtake the returned
exiles. But they and the false prophets who appeared at the return from
exile were just as liable to judgment as the generation who went into
exile. We have a human tendency to assume that 'this shall not happen to
me'. But it shall, unless we repent.
Zechariah 1:6 But My words and My decrees, which I commanded My
servants the prophets, didn’t they influence your fathers? Then they
repented and said, ‘Just as Yahweh of Armies determined to do to us,
according to our ways, and according to our practices, so He has done with
us’- We can read this as saying that the prophetic words to their
fathers were responded to in repentance. But this would contradict the
argument of :5; and in any case, it was historically not the case. The
opposite was true. "Influence" is also "overtake (AVmg.), as if the
threatened judgments did indeed come upon their fathers. For all their
token repentances, they did not really repent, and so the Babylonian
judgment had come. So I suggest the rhetorical question is asked as to
whether their fathers really repented; with the expected negative answer,
as to the questions in :5.
The remained of the verse would then be a statement about the response of the people to Zechariah's words. "They repented", but they go on to state what was merely axiomatic, that God had done to them what He had planned to do. This again hints at a lack of total repentance. This was all in the eighth month (:1). But as noted on Hag. 2:18-20, by the ninth month it was apparent that the apparent response to Zechariah's appeal in :6 was only nominal.
Zechariah 1:7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying- As noted on :6, the repentance of the exiles was at best tokenistic. But God's response was to assure them of the huge potential power available to them, and His purpose to all the same bring about the restoration of His Kingdom. It was over to them as to whether they wanted to be a part of that, both then and eternally. "Shebat" is Chaldee, reflecting how the Jews had very quickly assimilated with Babylonian language and ways in their exile. But the Hebrew equivalent means "shoot", the month of the shoot. And the shoot was intended to be Zerubbabel, the potential Messiah, whose name meant 'shoot of God'. Allusion may also be intended to how the mountains of Israel were to "shoot forth" (Ez. 36:8) when the exiles returned; rather than suffering the drought of God's displeasure which existed now the exiles had actually returned, as we see reflected in Haggai who was contemporary with Zechariah. The same allusion to the potentials possible is found in the meanings of the names Berechiah ['knee of Yah', i.e. His blessing] and Iddo ['timely']. The time for Yahweh's blessing had come, if Judah responded to the message of 'Zechariah', 'Yah has remembered'. He had not forgotten His plan to restore His Kingdom in Judah with a Messianic ruler, as might have appeared through the years of exile. He was now 'remembering' it, but Judah needed to do their part in bringing about what was potentially possible.
Zechariah 1:8 I had a vision in the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in a ravine- The man is defined in :10,11 as an Angel. The red, speckled and white horses behind him (1:8; Zech. 6:2-7) would therefore also appear to be ridden by Angels- indeed they are called "the four spirits (Angels; Ps. 104:4) of the Heavens" in Zech. 6:5 (see note there). The visions in this chapter serve the same function as the cherubim visions of Ezekiel- to assure the returning exiles that there had been and still was a huge system of careful, attentive Divine operation going on in the land and people of Judah, orchestrated by God's Spirit through the Angels.
Myrtle trees were associated with the feast of booths, at the time of harvest. The harvest that year had been very bad, as Haggai explains. The vision was received in the 11th month, literally 'shoot month', when harvest should have been forthcoming (:7).
The valley could refer to the Euphrates valley where Babylon and other cities of the exiles was situated. On this reading, we would interpret the situation as one of peace, with the lesson that the various marauding enemies of Judah had been Angelically controlled, and were now at rest, so that the exiles could rebuild the Kingdom.
"Myrtle trees" is "the [two] mountains" in the LXX, connecting with the
later prophesy of Zech. 6:1, where again horses and chariots appear from
between two mountains. This is all the language of theophany and the
cherubim of Ezekiel's visions, which speak of God's potential activity at
the time of the captivity and restoration. Zechariah sees the same Angel
chariots emerging from between two bronze mountains (Zech. 1:7-11 LXX, AV
"myrtle trees"; Zech. 6:1), perhaps designed to
recall the bronze pillars of the temple (1 Kings 7:15-22). The rebuilt
temple was intended to be the point from which the Angel chariots would go
forth; but that didn't happen at the very limited restoration from
Babylon, and so the first four seals of Rev. 6 are full of allusion to
this Zechariah vision- it was not left unfulfilled because of Israel's
indolence, but rather was reapplied to the latter day events of which
Revelation speaks.
And behind him there were red, brown, and white horses-
Zechariah 1
opens the prophecy with a vision of three kinds of horses- red, white and
speckled. These represented the powers which had subdued the land of Judah
and left it in the desolate state it was at the time of Zechariah. It’s
tempting to interpret them as Assyria, Babylon and Medo-Persia; or perhaps
Babylon, Media and Persia. Or it could refer to the surrounding nations-
Straight away, we read of four horns,
representing the powers who had desolated God’s people; and how they would
be destroyed by the carpenters, surely looking forward to the carpenter
Messiah. And the vision of Zech. 6 has four and not three
kinds of horses- red, black, white and speckled. This may be Zechariah’s
way of saying that because of Israel’s inability to fulfil the required
spiritual preconditions, the longer version of the prophetic program was
going to come into play. Although as always, there is the distinct message
of hope, that finally God’s triumphant purpose with Israel shall come to
realization.
The first four seals and the four coloured horsemen of Rev. 6, are based upon the horsemen of judgment in Zechariah 1, which vision is repeated in Zechariah 6 but with the difference that the four horsemen go out to judge the nations who have performed these judgments upon Israel, e.g. “the north country”. The four horsemen of Rev. 6 inflict punishments and judgments which are full of Old Testament allusions to prophecies concerning how God would judge His people, and Zech. 1 and Zech. 6 are obvious source passages. The focus of the four horsemen is upon God’s people in their land, and especially the city of Jerusalem, in the last days; and this is the focus of Revelation also.
Zechariah 1:9 Then I asked, ‘My lord, what are these?’. The angel who
talked with me said to me, I will show you what these are- An Angel
is called adon, demonstrating that adon or "Lord"
doesn't mean 'God Himself'. The Lord Jesus is indeed Lord, but is not God
Himself; for the term is used about others who were not God, such as this
Angel here. If Zechariah had not wanted to understand, would the
explanation have been given? It is a desire to understand God's word which
is so critical, rather than intellectual or exegetical prowess and
background knowledge of languages and history.
Zechariah 1:10 The man who stood among the myrtle trees answered-
LXX: "The man that stood between the mountains", i.e. those of Zech. 6:1;
see on :8. The Angel who rides the red horse followed by others was the
one speaking with Zechariah.
They are the ones Yahweh has sent to go back and forth through the earth- The horses represented the Angels who had controlled the various nations who had devastated the eretz promised to Abraham. It is Yahweh's "eyes" who go back and forth in that earth (Zech. 4:10); it is through them that He 'sees' what happens there (Gen. 18:21; 2 Chron. 16:9; Dan. 4:17). Similar language is used by the Satan-angel in the book of Job; see on Job 1:7; Dt. 11:12. Job was a real enough story, but I suggest it was re-written under inspiration in the exilic period, as encouragement that the adversaries of God's suffering people [Job] were under Angelic control. And despite personal failure and lack of help from the accepted religious leadership [the friends], Job as the people of God would be fully restored in the end. The various waves of invaders and desolators had been used to bring the eretz to a position of peace, so that Judah could rebuild God's temple and Kingdom in Israel (:11).
Zechariah 1:11 They reported to the angel of Yahweh who stood among
the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked back and forth through the
earth, and behold, all the earth is at rest and in peace- Myrtle
trees have been seen as a symbol of peace. The idea was that there was
peace in the Persian empire and in Judah at this time. As noted on :10,
the various waves of invaders and desolators (represented by the horses of
various colours and significance) had been used to bring the eretz
to a position of peace, so that Judah could rebuild God's temple and
Kingdom in Israel.
The horses
of Zechariah 1 are those nations who have trampled up and down the earth /
land of Israel, subduing it until it is quiet. The chariots / horses of
Zechariah 6 are the Angel cherubim representatives of those nations, who
are sent out against them in judgment. Such judgment is portended in
Zech. 1 also, where straight after the vision of the horses we read of
the four horns who have abused Israel being cut off by the carpenter
Messiah of Israel. There is an Angel stationed with the
horses in the valley from which they emerge, as if to show that the
judgments upon the land were Angelically controlled; Israel was not at the
hands of chance human evil, indeed the horses report back to the Angel.
This sets the scene for the horses / chariots of chapter 6 going out in
judgment against those nations. The land lying still and at rest is
explained further in Zech. 1:11,12- it was because the cities of Judah were
lying in ruins after the horse powers had trampled over them. This all
looks forward to how Jerusalem shall be trodden down in the last days,
after the pattern of how the Babylonians trod it down (Is. 5:5; 28:18;
63:18; Lk. 21:24)- which is when this prophecy will have its final
fulfilment. We can look, therefore, for the three or four entities which
trod down the land and people of Israel to have their latter day
equivalent, and a like judgment from Heaven. And this is what Revelation 6
is explaining in more detail- in a latter day context. The immediate
message in Zechariah’s time was therefore that a future treading down of
the land and Jerusalem was to happen, but the silver lining of that cloud
was that this would finally lead to the eternal restoration of Israel.
This is exactly the same style as in Ezekiel 38; we noted in studying the
context of that prophecy that it was given at the time when news of
Jerusalem’s fall had come to the rebellious captives in Babylon amongst
whom Ezekiel was sitting. They were being told that another even worse
desolation was to happen, patterned after the events they were now hearing
of, and yet from this would come the eternal restoration of Israel in
God’s Kingdom on earth. But not immediately.
Yahweh had promised that He would lead His people on that wilderness
journey from Babylon to Zion just as He had earlier led His people from
Egypt to the same promised land. Jer. 31:2 had encouraged them that Israel
“found grace in the wilderness” before, and they would do again, “When I
go to cause [Israel] to go to their place of rest” (RV). God had promised
in Jer. 31:9 that He would bring Israel on their journey from Babylon to
Judah along the fertile crescent- He would “cause them to walk by the
rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble”.
This is why Isaiah’s prophecies of the restoration from Babylon are shot
through with allusion to the exodus and wilderness journey (e.g. Is. 43:2;
51:10; 63:11). Jer. 31:2 had prophesied of the returning Jews: “The people
which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel,
when I went to cause him to rest”- just as Zech. 1:11 describes
the land being “at rest” when they returned to rebuild Zion. My point is
that Yahweh didn’t give up with His people because many chose to remain in
Babylon, and those who did make the journey didn’t believe His promises of
protection very strongly. He zealously worked with whatever they could
present Him with.
Zechariah 1:12 Then the angel of Yahweh replied, O Yahweh of Armies, how long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah- We have an example here of how Angels pray for more knowledge. They "earnestly desire to look into" spiritual things and seek for signs of the times as much as we do. If we are to made like Angels, this opens up a window into what the nature of eternity will be like. In this particular case the Angel was representing those of God’s people such as Ezra and Daniel who were asking God “how long?”. And in response to that, the Angel seeks to persuade other Angels [“Yahweh of hosts”] to act. See on Dan. 8:15. The way the Angel prays to the "Lord of Hosts" is interesting, as this title refers to His Angelic hosts. Do we have here one Angel asking another Angel or group of Angels? Angels have the same problems grappling with time periods as we do!
Against which You have had indignation those seventy years?- The way prophetic words can be rescheduled in fulfilment is demonstrated
by the elastic interpretation of Jeremiah's prophecy of 70 years exile. They came to fulfilment at the time of Daniel’s prayer in
Dan. 9:2; but also at the fall of Babylon and edict of Cyrus (2 Chron.
36:22,23; Ezra 1:1); and yet also in the second year of Darius (Zech.
1:1,12). This latter period would have been timed from the actual
destruction of the temple (2 Kings 25:2,8,9); whereas the captivity began
before that. And the predicted restoration didn’t happen as prophesied.
But it will ultimately happen- at the Lord’s return.
Zechariah 1:13 Yahweh answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting words- The enquiry of the Angel was reflective of the "How long?" enquiry of the faithful remnant. In response to them, the consolation of Zion would be forthcoming from God. There is a highly significant connection here with Is. 40, the start of Isaiah's prophecies concerning the restoration, repeated in Is. 57:8 [s.w.]. Nehemiah means 'Comfort of Yah'; 'Nehemiah ye, Nehemiah ye My people'. The Angel spoke comfort to Jerusalem through the words and work of Nehemiah. The 'comforter' prophecy was refused by the returned exiles, and was reapplied to John the Baptist heralding the coming of the Lord Jesus; and now the promise of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, reflects a reapplication of this comfort to those who now flee Babylon and commit themselves to the things of the Kingdom.
Zechariah 1:14 So the angel who talked with me said to me, Proclaim,
saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of Armies: I am jealous for Jerusalem and for
Zion with a great jealousy- "Jealous" being the same Hebrew word translated "zealous", we see the tremendous zeal of
God through the Angels for the restoration. Hence the ability of Ezra and Zerubbabel to achieve so much, seeing that they worked with the Angel,
the eye of their God upon them for good whilst they wished to work with
Him (Ezra 5:5). The pathetic, half hearted response of the Jews due to their obsession with materialism as decried by Haggai, Malachi, Ezra and Nehemiah must have been so 'frustrating' for the Angels, who were willing to provide so much power and success for those who would whole-heartedly commit themselves to the work. How many similarities with the new Israel?
God's enthusiasm to work with His people was to be 'proclaimed' by
Zechariah, literally 'cried out'. God so wishes to work with us
in the Kingdom work, and will overcome all obstacles.
Zechariah 1:15 I am very angry with the nations that are at ease-
LXX "And I am very angry with the heathen that combine to attack her:
forasmuch as I indeed was a little angry, but they combined to attack her
for evil". This idea of combined attack recalls the historical banding
together of the Jews' enemies against the temple project as recorded in
Ezra and Nehemiah. The historical record doesn't reflect the intense anger
of God against the likes of Sanballat. But here we see the depth of His
feelings against any who work against the work of building His Kingdom and
house. May we not be amongst that group, through our exclusive policies
and church politics. These prophecies all have their final fulfilment in
the last days, seeing Judah at Zechariah's time failed to respond in order
to enable their fulfilment. The combining together of the surrounding
nations against Judah at a time when they are apparently at peace (:11) is
the scenario of Ez. 38, and perhaps this was the intended primary
fulfilment of Ez. 38:11.
For I was but a little displeased, but they added to the calamity- God's huge displeasure with Judah was indeed fierce, but it was only a fraction of His anger against her abusers. See on :2; Zech. 8:2.
Zechariah 1:16 Therefore thus says Yahweh: I have returned to
Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it, says Yahweh of
Armies- "I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: My house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of Hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem". As the Jews literally returned to Jerusalem, the Angel too physically returned to "My house"- where He used to live. To some limited degree the Angel must have literally been in the temple- as Ez. 40 prophesied would happen.
The Angel cherubim which departed from Zion in Ez. 1,10 would return.
However, in the same way as the temple described by Ezekiel was not built
on the scale intended by the Angels because of Israel's apathy, so maybe
the Angelic presence too was greatly diminished to what it could have
been. The presence of the temple Angel in Lk. 1 indicates that He was
there to some degree.
God had stipulated that He would return if Judah returned to Him (:3). But He took the initiative and returne to them; such is His grace and earnest desire to rebuild relationship with His sinful people. And yet a far greater level of Divine 'return' was promised if they indeed repented (see on Zech. 2:10). This is to be our pattern in building relationships with others; forgiving and accepting the impenitent in the hope they will be led by God's goodness to repentance.
And a builders’ line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem’- Isaiah 54:2 bids the returning exiles to “enlarge the place of thy
tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare
not, lengthen thy cords!”. Yet Isaiah so often uses the idea of
‘stretching out’ the Heavens with reference to His creation of His new
Kingdom (Isaiah 40:22; Is. 42:5; 44:24; 45:15; 51:13; 65:17,18). Zechariah
1:6 cp. 12:1 show that to stretch out Jerusalem is parallel with
stretching out the ‘heavens’. The ‘singing’ of the heavens refers to
Judah’s intended joy at the restoration (Isaiah 49:13 cp. 48:20). Israel
were being told to peg out their tent as wide and far as they could;
because this would be the extent of their Kingdom. The Kingdom would be as
‘large’ for them as they had vision for in this life.
The exact dimensions of the temple given in Ezekiel recall Zech. 1:16 and 2:11, where the Angel accurately measures Jerusalem in preparation for the rebuilding of the temple. In the same way as it is possible to argue that Christ's second coming in AD70 was described in detail but was postponed to the last days because of Israel's lack of spiritual response, it may be that Ezekiel's visions of the temple were what should have been achieved during the restoration, but were re-interpreted and reapplied in later fulfillment.
Zechariah 1:17 Proclaim further, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of Armies: My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and Yahweh will again comfort Zion, and will again choose Jerusalem’-As noted on 13: , this was the same “comfort to Zion” of Isaiah 40:1. But Israel would not follow God back to Jerusalem, and those who did generally were consumed with their own petty self interest. And so the prophecies and promises of “comfort to Zion” were re-interpretted and fulfilled in a spiritual sense in the ministry of the Lord Jesus. God had gone ahead of them- He had returned to Zion already, and bid Israel follow Him there.
Haggai and Malachi lament the effects of the famine in Judah which was affecting the exiles. The cities of Judah were not overflowing with prosperity; but the tragedy was that they could have done. The choosing of Jerusalem is always associated with God's respect of the covenant with David (1 Kings 11:13,32,36; 14:21; 2 Kings 21:7; 23:27 and often). Zerubbabel was in the direct line of David and could have been established as a Messianic king in the restored Kingdom of God; but it seems this didn't work out, and he returned to Babylon.
Zechariah 1:18 I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, four horns-
Daniel 2,7
envisaged the passage of four kings / kingdoms until a brief confused
period leading to the open establishment of God's Kingdom or mountain in
eretz Israel. The sequence of four could have had its conclusion
at the time of the restoration. The little
horn of Daniel 7 grows out of the fourth kingdom, represented by the
fourth beast. But in Daniel 8, a very similar horn grows out of Greece,
the third kingdom. We can therefore conclude that the antichrist figure of
Daniel 8 would have appeared as an outgrowth of the Greek kingdom, and
been destroyed by Messiah’s coming. But this didn’t happen, and Antiochus
Epiphanes became but an incipient fulfilment of the antichrist of the last
days. Zechariah, like Daniel, contains many conditional prophecies- “And
this shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey the voice of
the Lord your God” (Zech. 6:15). Zech. 9:13 appears to be another such
conditional prophecy, similar in reference to that of Daniel 8 about the
possibility of Messiah’s coming at the time of the Greek empire. God says
He will place Ephraim within the bow of Judah, to be fired at her enemies;
and He would “raise up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece”
(Zech. 9:13), leading to the final salvation of God’s people, the
establishment of Messiah’s Kingdom, and her Messianic king coming unto her
(Zech. 9:9). But this didn’t come true; the resistance of the Maccabees
was not based on true spirituality, and the Romans took over control of
the land from the Greeks. No Messianic Kingdom was established. This would
explain the purposeful ambiguity of interpretation which there is in the
image of Daniel 2; a good case can be made for the sequence
Babylon-Media-Persia-Greece, and yet also for the sequence Babylon-Medo
Persia- Greece-Rome. Daniel 8 predicts the breakup of the Greek empire
after Alexander’s death into four horns, out of which a little horn arises
(Dan. 8:8). The only other prophetic reference to four horns is again here in
Zechariah, when we read of how the four horns who had scattered God’s
people were to be cut off by the carpenters (Zech. 1:18,19). The
carpenters surely look forward to the carpenter Messiah. He could have
appeared and cut off those four horns; but He did not, and so another
prophetic sequence was allowed, in which another [fourth] beast arose,
this time with ten horns, not just four. And in Revelation we find this
developed further, in that seven heads also appear on the beast, and a
whore rides the best, sitting upon [another?] seven hills / kingdoms. The
number and ferocity of the enemies of God’s people seems to increase over
time. If Israel had repented earlier, then all this would have been
unnecessary. The three horses of Zechariah 1 thus become four horses in
Zechariah 6. The fact the four cherubim chariots are sent out in judgment
of those same coloured horses speaks of how all earthly entities have
their representative Angels in Heaven.
Zechariah 1:19 I asked the angel who talked with me, What are these?
He answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah- "Four horns. . . which have scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem". The number four is associated with the four cherubim Angels- the four types of Angel-controlled punishment
often presented in the prophets. The horns were the powers which scattered
Judah, but they refer also to the Angels. The simple takeaway is that all
evil in the lives of God's people is under His strict control. Thus the four horns
here would equate with the four living creatures of the cherubim and also of Daniel, and therefore the four nations of Dan. 2. Dan. 8:8 provides an example of these links: "When he was strong, the great horn was broken (see the link between horns and the cherubim- Angels in Hab. 3:3-5; the Angel behind Alexander); and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of Heaven". This would therefore describe the division of Alexander's Kingdom between four Angels- the "notable ones" or "winds", each of whom controlled one of Alexander's succeeding generals. His Kingdom was "divided toward the four winds of Heaven" (Dan. 11:4)- the Kingdom was not literally scattered throughout the world, but divided to four Angel-winds.
Israel, and Jerusalem- It was God's purpose to regather not only Judah but also the ten tribe kingdom of Israel. But very few of the ten tribes wished to return; so again, the fulfilment of the Kingdom prophecies and acceptance of the new covenant was precluded by God's people not wanting to respond to it, preferring rather to cling on to the shell of their religion rather than experiencing it for real for themselves.
Zechariah 1:20 Yahweh showed me four carpenters- The horns who dominated the land were Angelically controlled, but so was their destruction. But the LXX here and in :21 reads differently: "And the Lord shewed me four artificers. And I said, What are these coming to do? And he said, These are the horns that scattered Judah, and they broke Israel in pieces, and none of them lifted up his head: and these are come forth to sharpen them for their hands, even the four horns, the nations that lifted up the horn against the land of the Lord to scatter it. The idea could be that the preparation of Judah's enemies had been in Angelic hands, and so their restoration likewise was.
Zechariah 1:21 Then I asked, What are these coming to do?-
Zechariah assumed that this was a prophecy of future desolation of the
land, but was told that the horns were the powers which had already
scattered Judah.
He said, These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man lifted up his head- Judah was "scattered", throughout the territories controlled by Babylon and later Persia. A man who cannot lift up his head is a man in penitence (Lk. 18:13). The Divine plan was that the exile would elicit repentance amongst the Jews; but this didn't happen. Only when it occurs in the last days will the Kingdom be re-established.
But these have come to saw them off, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it- See on :20. The sawing off of animal horns was done to make the beast powerless and no longer dangerous. No longer would Judah need to fear the beasts of the nations. The "horns" are therefore assumed to be on beasts; we therefore have here a repetition of the four beasts of Daniel 7. And the point is that there were Angels appointed to do this for each of the horns; and those same Angels were powerful to restore Judah.
The four carpenter Angels "frayed" the horn Angels which had scattered Israel. The Hebrew for 'fray' means 'to hasten (with anxiety), to frighten'. Thus one group of Angels hastens the fulfilment of other Angels' work; hence in :12 an Angel prayed to the Lord of Hosts (Angels) encouraging them to end their indignation because the 70 years were ended. Similarly the Comforter Angel says that Jerusalem has "received of the Lord's hand (Angel) double (i. e. too much?) for all her sins" (Is. 40:2), and that her warfare ('appointed time') has ended, or expired. The phrase "appointed time" is the same word translated "host", used concerning the Angels, thus indicating that the period of the captivity was under Angelic control. Thus Dan. 10:1 also points out that "the time appointed was long"- implying too long, seeing that "the thing was true"?. This helps us to explain Angels being in some ways in opposition to each other in Daniel, e. g. the Angel prince of Persia withstanding another Angel in His action because of the need to execute a certain time period first. Again, the simple takeaway comfort was and is that all experience of evil is under careful Divine control, mediated at that time through Angels; and it is used to propel forward God's saving purpose.
However, we can understand the word translated "saw... off" as also meaning to prepare or even 'create'. Those horns / enemies of Israel were all prepared by God's Angels, and those same Angels were powerfully at work now to restore Judah.
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