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Zechariah
Chapter One
Zechariah 1
Chapter Contents
An exhortation to repentance. (1-6) A vision of the
ministry of angels. (7-17) The security of the Jews and the destruction of
their enemies. (18-21)
Commentary on Zechariah 1:1-6
(Read Zechariah 1:1-6)
God's almighty power and sovereign dominion, should
engage and encourage sinners to repent and turn to Him. It is very desirable to
have the Lord of hosts for our friend, and very dreadful to have him for our
enemy. Review what is past, and observe the message God sent by his servants,
the prophets, to your fathers. Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your
evil doings. Be persuaded to leave your sins, as the only way to prevent
approaching ruin. What is become of our fathers, and of the prophets that
preached to them? They are all dead and gone. Here they were, in the towns and
countries where we live, passing and repassing in the same streets, dwelling in
the same houses, trading in the same shops and exchanges, worshipping God in
the same places. But where are they? When they died, there was not an end of
them; they are in eternity, in the world of spirits, the unchangeable world to
which we hasten apace. Where are they? Those of them who lived and died in sin,
are in torment. Those who lived and died in Christ, are in heaven; and if we
live and die as they did, we shall be with them shortly and eternally. If they
minded not their own souls, is that a reason why their posterity should ruin
theirs also? The prophets are gone. Christ is a Prophet that lives for ever,
but all other prophets have a period put to their office. Oh that this
consideration had its due weight; that dying ministers are dealing with dying
people about their never-dying souls, and an awful eternity, upon the brink of
which both are standing! In another world, both we and our prophets shall live
for ever: to prepare for that world ought to be our great care in this. The
preachers died, and the hearers died, but the word of God died not; not one jot
or title of it fell to the ground; for he is righteous.
Commentary on Zechariah 1:7-17
(Read Zechariah 1:7-17)
The prophet saw a dark, shady grove, hidden by hills.
This represented the low, melancholy condition of the Jewish church. A man like
a warrior sat on a red horse, in the midst of this shady myrtle-grove. Though
the church was in a low condition, Christ was present in the midst, ready to
appear for the relief of his people. Behind him were angels ready to be
employed by him, some in acts of judgment, others of mercy, others in mixed
events. Would we know something of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, we
must apply, not to angels, for they are themselves learners, but to Christ
himself. He is ready to teach those humbly desirous to learn the things of God.
The nations near Judea enjoyed peace at that time, but the state of the Jews
was unsettled, which gave rise to the pleading that followed; but mercy must
only be hoped for through Christ. His intercession for his church prevails. The
Lord answered the Angel, this Angel of the covenant, with promises of mercy and
deliverance. All the good words and comfortable words of the gospel we receive
from Jesus Christ, as he received them from the Father, in answer to the prayer
of his blood; and his ministers are to preach them to all the world. The earth
sat still, and was at rest. It is not uncommon for the enemies of God to be at
rest in sin, while his people are enduring correction, harassed by temptation,
disquieted by fears of wrath, or groaning under oppression and persecution. Here
are predictions which had reference to the revival of the Jews after the
captivity, but those events were shadows of what shall take place in the
church, after the oppression of the New Testament Babylon is ended.
Commentary on Zechariah 1:18-21
(Read Zechariah 1:18-21)
The enemies of the church threaten to cut off the name of
Israel. They are horns, emblems of power, strength, and violence. The prophet
saw them so formidable that he began to despair of the safety of every good
man, and the success of every good work; but the Lord showed him four workmen
empowered to cut off these horns. With an eye of sense we see the power of the
enemies of the church; look which way we will, the world shows us that; but it
is only with an eye of faith that we see it safe. The Lord shows us that. When
God has work to do, he will raise up some to do it, and others to defend it,
and to protect those employed in doing it. What cause there is to look up in
love and praise to the holy and eternal Spirit, who has the same care over the
present and eternal interests of believers, by the holy word bringing the
church to know the wonderful things of salvation!
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Zechariah》
Zechariah 1
Verse 1
[1] In
the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto
Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,
In the eighth month —
Two months after Haggai began to encourage the Jews to build the temple.
Zechariah —
Probably this is that Zechariah whom the Jews slew between the temple and the
altar, Matthew 23:35.
Verse 5
[5] Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?
Where are they —
But where are your disobedient fathers? Were they not consumed with famine and
sword, as I threatened them? Do they live - The prophets died as others; they
must not live always to warn you.
Verse 6
[6] But
my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they
not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of
hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our
doings, so hath he dealt with us.
My words —
The dreadful menaces which I spake.
My statutes —
The decreed judgments which I resolved to execute on them, which by my prophets
I proclaimed.
Take hold —
Overtake as a pursuing enemy overtakes, and seizeth on his enemy.
They returned — By
this it should seem that Zechariah gave them time to consider what answer to
give.
So hath he dealt — It
is true, as God said he would do, so he hath done against us.
Verse 8
[8] I
saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the
myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses,
speckled, and white.
A man —
Christ Jesus in the shape of a man.
Riding — In
a posture of readiness.
A red horse —
This colour is a symbol of his coming to avenge himself on his enemies.
The myrtle-trees — He
posted himself in a convenient place to observe and be ready, among verdant,
fragrant trees, emblems of the saints of God.
In the bottom —
This bottom or valley in which the myrtles grew, is an emblem of the church in
a low, afflicted state.
Behind him —
Christ was, as becomes a captain, at the head, the rest, as his soldiers, are
behind attending on him.
Red horses —
Horses and horsemen, and those are angels, verse 10. And the colour of these horses is red,
probably denoting the bloody condition of states and kingdoms, by wars one
against another when God punisheth his church, or when he avengeth himself.
Speckled — Of
a mixt colour; perhaps an emblem of affairs, not all dark, nor all light, such
as those during the last seventy prophetic weeks.
White — An
emblem of the best days of the church.
Verse 9
[9] Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me
said unto me, I will shew thee what these be.
O my Lord —
This was Christ, the Lord of hosts.
What are these —
What is the meaning of these appearances.
The angel —
Christ, the angel of the covenant.
Verse 10
[10] And
the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they
whom the LORD hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth.
These —
Horsemen, are angels, who are ministers of the Divine Providence in the
government of the world.
Verse 11
[11] And
they answered the angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle trees, and
said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth
sitteth still, and is at rest.
Is at rest —
All men sit still to take their ease. All is peaceable. This was the state of
the empire which at that time ruled all.
Verse 12
[12] Then
the angel of the LORD answered and said, O LORD of hosts, how long wilt thou
not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast
had indignation these threescore and ten years?
Angel of the Lord —
The angel, the Lord Christ.
Verse 14
[14] So
the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the
LORD of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.
Cry thou — Now
publish what thou hearest, and assure my poor captive church, that God will do
good for her.
Verse 15
[15] And
I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a
little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.
A little displeased —
With mine own people, that is, in comparison of the anger I bear against the
Heathen.
Helped forward —
Attempted to destroy whom I would but correct.
Verse 16
[16]
Therefore thus saith the LORD; 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.
A line —
The builder's measuring line shall be stretched out, to mark out the walls,
gates, streets, and houses in Jerusalem.
Verse 17
[17] Cry
yet, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall
yet be spread abroad; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose
Jerusalem.
Through prosperity —
Through increase of families, they shall send forth colonies, and plant new
cities, and thro' increase of wealth, and cattle, be able to build their
cities, and stock their colonies.
Verse 18
[18] Then
lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns.
Four horns —
Emblems of the enemies of the Jews.
Verse 19
[19] And
I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me,
These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.
The horns —
Powers, states, and kingdoms, which have from all sides pushed at, broken and
tossed my people.
Judah —
The two tribes.
Israel —
The ten tribes.
Verse 21
[21] Then
said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which
have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come
to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn
over the land of Judah to scatter it.
He — Christ.
These — He
first points to the four horns.
But these —
These carpenters are emblems of those instruments God will employ in breaking
those destroyers.
Who lift up —
Who employed their arms and strength against the kingdom of Judah, to drive
them out of God's inheritance.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Zechariah》
01 Chapter 1
Introduction
Verse 2
The
Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers
A call to
repentance
The
prophet being to carry comfortable tidings to this people, begins with the
doctrine of repentance, inviting them not to obstruct their own mercy by
impenitency; and to make way for this doctrine, he points out to them the
greatness of God’s displeasure against their fathers for their sin, as might be
seen in the horrible calamities that did come upon them, which might teach
their children not to expect exemption if they followed their way.
Doctrine--
1. A people are prepared and fitted for favourable manifestations of
God by repentance, and mercies are sweetest and most comfortable unto
penitents, therefore the Lord permits this doctrine to the following visions,
as the only way to fit people for them, and make them truly comfortable to
them.
2. No privilege bestowed on any people will exempt them from sharp
corrections when they sin; for albeit the Jews were the only people of God at
that time, yet “the Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers,” which is
also a warning to them.
3. Though the Lord do not chastise any of His chosen and regenerate
people in pure wrath or beyond the bounds of moderation, yet His fatherly
displeasure may be very hot and sad in its effects, and His displeasure against
a visible Church, which hath abused mercy, very grievous, and therefore ought
to be seriously laid to heart; therefore He calls them to consider how “the
Lord hath been sore displeased, or had displeasure on displeasure.”
4. Albeit examples of God’s anger, especially when they are near,
ought to be effectual documents to others, exciting to tremble and repent, yet
such is the stupidity of men, that notwithstanding any such warnings, they will
be ready to adventure on the same sins, which God hath so remarkably punished;
therefore they need stirring up to see and make use of God’s anger against
their fathers, the effects whereof were very visible to them. (George
Hutcheson.)
The prophet’s
exordium
Its
object is to show the unchanging permanence of God’s Word, by contrasting it
with the transitory nature of their fathers and the prophets, and it may thus
be set forth more fully. Let the fate of your fathers be a warning to you that
you avoid the disobedience to the word of Jehovah, which brought upon them
evils so desolating. For where are they new? Once they ruled and worshipped
here as you do. But where are they now? Some lie in slaughtered heaps, when the
banner of Judah was trampled in the dust, and her bravest sons cut down like
grass before the mower’s scythe, by the fierce cohorts of the Assyrian. Some
lie buried in the ruins of the holy city, which they sought to defend from the
spoiler. Some are sleeping by the flashing waters of the Euphrates, after
weeping out a weary life beneath the willows that bend in the land of the
stranger. Whilst some, in the feebleness of tottering age, have returned to lay
their bones in the soil that is hallowed by the memories and hopes of Israel.
And why has this been their mournful history? Because they refused to listen to
the warnings of the prophets. Hence even the prophets themselves were taken
away. They warned, and wept, and prayed, but met only with stoning, reviling,
and hate. They toiled on to stay the coming judgments, but when their efforts
were disregarded by the people, God in mercy took them away from the evil to
come. Then the last barrier was removed, and the torrent of wrath came dire and
pitiless in its rush of fury and swept them away in its flood. Now as your
fathers and the prophets alike have passed away according to My word; as
neither the wickedness of the one, nor the piety of the other, could arrest My
threatened judgments, beware lest a like evil come upon you, that your
prophets, being disregarded, be also withdrawn, and the judgments you are
daring come upon you for your disobedience. This appropriate introduction was
probably followed with exhortations to build the temple, and restore the
worship of God, that are not recorded, as their interest was local and
temporary. Inferences--
1. Whilst God is love, and whilst the preachers of the Gospel must
preach this glorious truth, they must not conceal the fact that God is a
consuming fire, and angry with the wicked every day. It is a sign of sickly
piety when men are willing to hear nothing of the wrath of God against sin (Zechariah 1:1-2).
2. If men expect God to return to them in prosperity, they must
return to Him in penitence. The flower averted from the sun must turn toward
it, to catch, its genial smile (Zechariah 1:3).
3. What we have to do for God in life should be done quickly, for
life is rapidly passing; to evil and good alike come the swift shadows of the
sunset (Zechariah 1:5).
4. What a man sows, he shall also reap, and the seedlings of life on
earth shall be harvested in heaven or in hell (Zechariah 1:6). (T. V. Moore, D. D.)
Verse
3-4
Turn ye unto Me . . . and I will turn unto you.
The Divine order of all true progress
The first step is at all times to turn to the Lord; the second
follows, “turn you now from your evil ways, and from your evil doing.” The
motive and the power to forsake evil must be found in himself. Once know Jesus
and His love, experimentally, and you possess a motive for holiness, greater
far than either heaven or earth can furnish. It is the expulsive power of a new
affection. And yet, as in all advance, there is reciprocal action. The first
step must ever be to Jesus. When the man is in Christ he possesses the power.
But in turning away from evil, new light and life are thrown back upon the
starting point. We see truth more clearly, and embrace it more earnestly. Thus
there is growth in grace. To every step of faithfulness on our part the Lord
adds new light; and this light is reflected in the face of Jesus Christ. He
becomes more known, more loved; and this produces its effect in more likeness
to Him. (T. Whitfield, M. A.)
The importance of repentance
Urged from--
I. The divine displeasure
towards the impenitent men of the fast. “The Lord hath been sore displeased
with your fathers.” “They had shown a mournfully strong and inveterate
propensity to depart from God and from His ways. They had needed incessant
repetitions of Divine admonitions, entreaties, promises, and threatenings; and
manor a time all had proved unavailing. Jehovah bound them to Himself with
‘cords of love.’ But ‘they brake the bands asunder, and cast away the cords
from them.’ They chose their own ways. They thus provoked Him to anger. Their
fathers had by their sins brought that heavy seventy years’ judgment upon
themselves.” Now the displeasure of God to sinners of the past is here referred
to in order to induce the Jews to repent of the selfish negligence which they
had evinced concerning the building of the temple (Haggai 4:5-7).
II. From God’s assurance of a
welcome to all that truly repent. Proved--
1. By His invitation to the impenitent. “Come now let us reason
together, saith the Lord,” etc. etc.
2. By the experience of mankind. Manasseh, David, Saul, Bunyan, and
millions more returned to Him, and He not only received them, but rejoiced over
them.
III. From the transitoriness of
human life. By the “fathers” are meant those with whom God was displeased, An
argument--
1. For the wicked to repent.
2. For faithfulness, and for persevering zeal.
For we shall all soon have finished our mission. (Homilist.)
Verse 5
Your fathers, where are
they?
And the prophets, do they live forever?
The mortality of God’s
instruments
1. The mortality of the instruments which God employs for carrying on
His cause in the world. At the time these words were spoken, the patriarchs of
antiquity, the seers of after times, the evangelical Isaiah, the plaintive
Jeremiah, the vehement Ezekiel, all had been gathered to the tomb. There is no
exemption from the stroke of mortality for the most valuable instruments of
God’s service. Their death subserves the Divine purposes, and the interests of
men, as well as their lives. The removal of ministers makes way for a greater
variety of gifts and graces to be exercised in the ministry itself; and thus
that irrepressible love of novelty which seems to be one of the instincts of
our nature is provided for. How glorious does our Lord Jesus Christ appear, in
carrying on His cause, not only in spite of, but in the very midst of, and even
by, the ravages of death. It is a bright manifestation of His power, to work by
such feeble, fallible, mortal creatures as we are; it is a still brighter
display of His wisdom and power to make even their death subserve His cause.
There is much in this view of our subject at once to encourage the timid and to
repress the vain. Christ can do much with the weakest instrument; and He can do
altogether without the strongest.
2. What there is, and how much, which, when these instruments are
removed, survives the wreck of mortality, and perpetuates itself through the
time to come. It was the proud boast of Horace, “I shall not all die, much of
me will escape death”; and it has proved true. What remains of these men?
3. The means to be employed to carry on the work begun by our
forefathers. Some fear the cause of missions will not live. Others think public
attention will be diverted from the cause by the surpassingly great, various,
and absorbing events of the times in which we live. It is a most remarkable,
instructive, and impressive feature of the times that there is a conspicuous
parallelism between political convulsion and social disorganisation on the one
hand, and moral action and reformation on the other, between the destructive
and the constructive forces, between the shaking and crumbling of the things that
were ready to vanish away and the rising up of those things which cannot be
shaken and are intended to remain. Shall we suffer this passing age to draw off
our attention from the cause of Christian missions? That would be to lose our
interest in the cause, when all things seem preparing the world for its full
and final triumph.
4. We must unite appropriate and adequate means to our confidence of
final success.
Lessons from the death of
our fathers
The death of our fathers
reminds us--
1. Of our own mortality.
2. Of our own obligations.
3. Of our fathers’ principles.
4. Of our prospects of reunion with them.
5. Of the grandeur of immortality. (G. Brooks.)
Prophetical succession
I. The law of human mortality and succession is full of suggestion.
Death is the law of all life, vegetable and animal, as well as human. Had man
not sinned, the mortality of his human body would probably have been the same.
The death to which sin doomed man was spiritual, not fleshly death. He could
scarcely have remained permanently in a world subject to the conditions of
this. The death of the body is sorrowful enough, because of our human
affections and sensibilities. The prophets die. Even their high vocation does
not exempt them from the law of death. It may be that God would teach us that
He can do His work without the best and greatest. Instead of Stephen God raises
up Paul. A prophet’s work may seem indispensable to an age, yet he dies.
II. Is there not high benefit in the prophetical succession? If the
wise and experienced die, they give place to the young and ardent, who, with
fresh impulse and newer lights, enter into their wealth of wisdom. Else might
the prophet become a stereotype. The wisest may outlive their wisdom, and the
most useful their usefulness. Sometimes the greatest are the greatest
hindrance. Every generation rises to higher and broader spiritual conception
than its predecessor. Whether is the greater evil, the mistakes of impetuous
youth, or the paralysis of incapable age; the zeal without knowledge of experience,
or the knowledge without zeal of over caution; the Radical revolutionist, who
would make all things new, or the Conservative revolutionist, who stands still
in the stream of advancing thought and spirituality--the one too fast for his
age, and the other too slow? Have we not a great law of compensation in the
succession of God’s prophets, especially as the generations overlap each other,
and the Church possesses both at the same time? (Henry Allon, D. D.)
On the instructions to be
derived from recalling the memory of our fathers
It is a tribute which we
owe to the memory of our earthly parents, to recall them occasionally to our
thoughts. The hope of this was a source of consolation to them amidst the cares
of life.
1. By meditating on the fate of our fathers, we are reminded that we
too must die. It is a fortunate circumstance in the nature of man, that, though
his Maker hath formed him a mortal being, the idea of his dissolution doth not
continually haunt his mind.
2. We learn what are the objects that are most worthy of pursuit. The
good which our fathers have done remains forever. It remains to embalm their
memory, and to exalt their name.
3. We learn to imitate our fathers. The grave of a good man is a
scene of much instruction and improvement.
4. We become reconciled to our own departure. The region beyond the
grave is not a solitary land. There your fathers are, and thither every other
friend shall follow you in due season. Therefore let your hearts be glad, let
your glory rejoice, let your bodies also rest in hope. God will show you the
path of life. (W. Moodie, D. D.)
“Your fathers, where are
they?”
Primarily, these words
were intended to carry along with them a warning import to those to whom they
were originally addressed, as to the folly of following on in the footsteps of
those of their ancestors who had been taken away from all connection with time
in the midst of careless inconsideration. The prophet does not pronounce as to
where the fathers were. He knew that their bodies were consigned to death’s
dark domain, and reduced to inanimate matter. But where are their immortal
spirits? The prophet leaves it as an open question, “Where are they?” We may
have forebodings, but we are not the arbiters by whom any ease may be decided.
It must be left in the hand of Him to whom alone the right belongs to
pronounce, and who will “judge righteous judgment.” Think now of those of our
fathers who lived and died in the faith of the Gospel.
1. They are not where they once were.
2. They are not where we are.
3. They are where they desired to be.
4. They are in the place for which they made preparation.
5. They are where they never would have been, but for the finished
work of Christ, as their Representative and Substitute.
6. They are where they will be forever.
7. They are where they will be very glad to see us.
It may be added, and we
shall be very glad to see them. (T. Adam.)
Our fathers
I. The people addressed. The visible Church, who lived in the typical
land of promise, and under the Old Testament dispensation. It was declared or
delivered, by the prophet from God, toward the close of the Babylonish
captivity and exile. The “fathers” are represented as including those with whom
the Lord had been sore displeased, and the people addressed are their descendants
in the flesh, who inherited from their births their evil nature, were
encompassed with their high privileges, and laden with their proportionate
responsibilities. The “prophets” appear to signify those really sent of God,
who spake His true Word, and no vision out of their own hearts.
II. The intention or object of the questions proposed. The inquiry is
not after the existence of the absent “fathers.” It doth not touch the truth of
the immortality of the souls of the prophets. It regards the mortal existence
of both the fathers and the prophets on earth. The inquiry calls a fact to the
recollection of the people addressed, which relates to their immediate or
remote ancestors. “Where are they?” Not with you now, to influence you. The
Church is suffering the loss of the benefit of their labours. The questions are
put for the health and profit of the souls of the hearers, or for their greater
condemnation, if they will not receive warning.
III. The permanent use of the record, as God speaks by it to us, and in
our circumstances. We have been a highly favoured people, and we have long
possessed manifold means and privileges, of a religious and spiritual nature;
and in many cases, it is trusted, have, through distinguishing and sovereign
grace, derived from the use of them profit unto eternal salvation. Let us make
these inquiries matter of admonition for comfort and profit. (William
Borrows, M. A.)
The invisible world
The difficulty of
giving a sort of general reply to the question contained in the text, is much diminished
by this particular fact, that the Scripture itself has assigned a fixed and
determinate place in the world of spirits to the soul of every human being.
Consider--
I. The case of those who have died without penitence and faith.
1. Those who have died without repentance are gone to a state in
which the wicked are no longer the prosperous. In this world guilt is often
successful, at least for a season.
2. The Impenitent and unbelieving are gone to a state in which they
have no longer any hopes of escape, or means of approach to God.
3. Our impenitent fathers are gone into a state in which God is known
only as the God of vengeance.
II. The case of those who have died penitent and believing.
1. They are no longer in a state of trial and affliction.
2. They are gone into a world where temptation never enters.
3. Where doubt and despondency never come.
4. Where their infirmities and corruptions cannot follow them.
Application--
Improvement of death
I. Some general observations.
1. No distinction which men wear m society can possibly exempt them
from the stroke of death.
2. Although our ancestors have departed this life, we are not
altogether to entomb them in oblivion. Many reasons may be assigned why we
should preserve them in recollection. To many of them we were bound by the ties
of natural affection. To others we are allied by official connection. We have
entered into their labours. The monuments of their industry lessen our toil.
3. Though these distinguished deceased have left this world, they are
still in some state of conscious existence. Probably the souls of the departed
enter at once either into bliss or woe.
II. The best improvement we can make of prominent persons’ deaths.
1. By a serious remembrance. Not merely of their persons, but of
their characters, and the labours in which they were engaged during their
mortal sojourn.
2. Diligent inquiry, as to whether we have reaped any solid advantage
from the ministrations in which they were engaged; and as to the manner in
which we treated the servants of God while they were fulfilling their course.
3. Imitation of their holy example. There is always a limitation we
must put when speaking of human example: “so far as he followed Christ.”
4. Earnest prayer in connection with bereavements.
5. By preparation to follow the devoted servants of God to the place
where they now dwell.
6. Cherishing a devout expectation of reunion with the departed
servants of God, in a world of future glory and perfection. (J. Clayton.)
The death of the old
1. The first thing that the words suggest is obviously the great law,
under which we receive and possess existence--that we must die; the law of
mortality, under which we were born. We will not enter into the curious
question, whether man would have died if he had not sinned. It is better to
look at death in its moral and spiritual aspect. It is thus continually
represented to us in Scripture. It is not a part of God’s plan; it is a thing
engrafted upon His original constitution. Death is the shadow of sin. This
great, black, dark substance, that we call sin, comes in between man and the
bright light of God’s countenance, and casts its shadow over man. That shadow
is death. Death is but the symptom of a spiritual disease; it is not so much
the grand disease of our nature, as it is the symptom of a deeper-seated
disease. And God applies His remedy to the core of the disorder. He redeems
from sin.
2. Apply remarks specially to the death of a very aged person. Note
the amazing power of the principle of life in man. It is so wonderful to think
that a human body, with its nice and delicate organisation, should go on
sleeping and waking, toiling and working, without intercession and without
rest, for ninety or a hundred years. What a thing it would be if any man
constructed a piece of mechanism that should go on in that way! But the
individual man, though he is a wonderful, complex machine, considered in
himself, is only one little wheel in a greater and a larger structure, that is,
the whole species; and the species--such is the wonderful power of life--death
cannot touch. However we may talk about death, the power of vitality is
greater; even in man, and in the present world, life is stronger than death.
Another thought is, that though there be this wonderful power of vitality, old
age in general is not in itself very desirable. In general, very great age is
only an additional affliction put to the ordinary ills of life. Nature does a
great deal, independent of religion, to bring men to be willing to die. But
where there is religion, and a “good hope through grace,” and a trust in the
Divine mercy, the language and feeling of a man often is, “I would not live
alway.” The very aged man stands alone. He outlives his friends; and what is
worse, he outlives the capacity of forming new attachments. The fact is, that
second childhood is very much like the first. The child is interesting but to a
few. The aged cannot very well sympathise with new hearts and new persons, new
modes of thought and feeling. How different it is with God! Generation after
generation cometh, and He has His fresh and young affection for every
generation as it comes. And every generation may come to Him, and look up to
Him, with the same cordiality and the same confidence as the first. The last
thought is, that we are struck by the death of a very aged person being
uncommon. We speak of it as extraordinary. It throws us back upon the general
law, that men do not all die at one particular time. There is no day, no fixed
date, up to which all men are to live, and beyond which none can survive. If a
fixed date for each individual had been assigned, the punishment of sin would
have been made unendurable. It is a most beneficent dispensation that there is
no fixed date. But the price to pay is that we must be prepared to see death
occur at all ages.
2. There are limits to human probation and the Divine forbearance.
You will see this by referring to the context. Your fathers and the prophets
are dead; their probation terminated. The agents and the objects of the Divine
mercy equally die. There is something very affecting in this. Zechariah says,
“Remember, you are living under the same law. Probation has limits; forbearance
has limits.”
3. The power and perpetuity of God’s truth, in contrast with the
mortality of man. This is seen by connecting the words that follow. The prophet
lives in his utterances. A true thought is a Divine and immortal thing. What
has come from the breast and bosom and mind of God, and has been uttered,
lives, and there is power in it. Men change, their feelings change, their minds
alter, their sensibilities and sympathies pass away; but the Gospel is fresh to
every generation. The Word of God, in its substantial essence, continues, and
is the life and food of the Church. (Thomas Binney.)
An inquiry after dead relations
By “fathers” is meant
fathers of our flesh, the active instruments in the hand of God of our being,
the secondary causes of our being. “Where are they?” Are they here? No. Are
they anywhere? Yes. We know where their bodies are. Their souls are somewhere.
“The prophets, do they live forever?” No.
Our mortal character
Not a year passes away,
hardly a week or a day, without some striking monition of our uncertain tenure
of earthly existence.
1. These inquiries of the text seem to furnish a strong intimation of
the mortal character of our present existence. The prophet bade the Jews look
back, and consider what had become of their fathers. The great and the good,
the noble and the mighty, the teacher and the taught, the prophet and the
people, have “gone the way of all the earth.” There is no exception of age or
station, of occupation or condition, to this appointment of the Most High, in
consequence of the transgressions of men. There is something painfully
affecting in the ravages of death. The fact is painful and humbling, more
especially as it is the undeniable proof of the fallen character of our
race--of that native corruption which has descended from Adam, who, though
created “in the likeness of God,” “begat a son in his own likeness,” and that a
sinful and degraded one.
2. But is the contemplation of death only painful and humiliating? Is
there not a light to irradiate the tomb? May we not regard the inquiries of the
text as the language of faith and hope? Surely the dark valley will open into
the brightness of eternal home. We “sorrow not” as those “who have no hope.” A
glorious prospect is opened beyond the tomb. Those who have departed in the
Lord are in His safe keeping. Our fathers are not taken away forever. They are
only removed before us, and anticipate us in the enjoyment of the Lord’s
presence. The hope of immortality has cheered many a believing soul amid the
pains of life and the sufferings of death.
3. Looking back upon the Christian life of our fathers, we should
follow their faith, and act up to their teaching, and pray that a double
portion of their spirit may rest upon us. We are responsible for the teaching
of Divine truth with which we have been blessed. (John S. Broad, M. A.)
Verse 6
But My words
The dying men and the undying Word
The text comes from the first of Zechariah’s prophecies.
In it he lays the foundation for all that he has subsequently to say. He points
to the past, and summons up the august figures of the great pre-exilic
prophets, and reminds his contemporaries that the words which they spoke had
been verified in the experience of past generations. He declares that, though
the hearers and the speakers of that prophetic Word had glided away into the
vast unknown, the Word remained, lived still, and on his lips demanded the same
obedience as it had vainly demanded from the generation that was past.
I. The mortal
hearers and speakers of the abiding Word. A familiar theme. Look at it from the
special angle, to bring into connection the eternal Word, and the transient
vehicles and hearers of it. All the past hearers and speakers of the Word had
that Word verified in their lives. Not one of them who, for the brief period of
their earthly lives, came in contact with that Divine message, but realised,
more or less consciously, the solemn truth of its promises and threatenings.
Wherever they are now, their earthly relation to that Word is a determining
factor in their condition. “Wherefore we should give the more earnest heed to
the things that we have heard.”
II. The abiding
Word which these hearers and speakers have had to do with. Just as reason
requires some unalterable substratum below all the fleeting phenomena of the
changeful creation,--a God who is the rock basis of all,--the staple to which
all the links hang--so here we are driven back and back, by the very fact of
the transiency of the transient, to grasp for a refuge and a stay, the
permanency of the permanent. It is blessed for us when the lesson that the
fleeting of all that can flee away, reads to us, is that, beneath it all, there
is the Unchanging. Zechariah meant by the “Word of God” simply the prophetic
utterances about the destiny and the punishment of the nation. We ought to mean
by “the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever,” not merely the written
embodiment of it in this book, or that primarily, but the personal Word, the
Incarnate Word, the everlasting Son of the Father. It is His perpetual
existence rather than the continuous power of the truth which is the
declaration of Himself, that is mighty for our strength and consolation when we
think of the transient generations. Christ lives. Therefore we can front change
and decay in all around calmly and triumphantly. Since we have this abiding
Word, let us not dread changes, however startling and revolutionary. Jesus
Christ does not change. There is a human element in the Church’s conception of
Jesus Christ, and still more in their working out of the principles of the Gospel
in institutions and forms, which partakes of the transiency of the men from
whom they come.
III. The present
generation and its relation to the abiding Word. Zechariah did not hesitate to
put himself in line with the mighty forms of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and
Hosea. He, too, was a prophet. Some simple exhortations.
1. See to it that you accept that Word. Open not only your minds but
your hearts to it. Hold it fast. In this time of unrest make sure of your grasp
of the eternal central core of Christianity, Jesus Christ Himself, the
Divine-human Saviour of the world. Accept Him, hold Him fast, trust to His
guidance in present day questions. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The fleeting hearers and speakers and the undying Word
I. The passing
away of hearers and speakers alike. All ingenious exposition of the words of
text suggests that they are a brief dialogue, a kind of duel between the
prophet and his hearers, in which the first question is his sword thrust at
them, and the second is their return to him. In it they parry and return the
prophet’s thrust. I prefer to regard the questions as continuous; the
remonstrance of the prophet based upon the fact that hearers and speakers alike
drift away into the unseen land, and are no more heard of. It is a very familiar
and commonplace thought. Try to individualise the thought that is here. Reflect
how surely, steadily, stealthily, constantly hearers and speakers of the
immortal Word are drifting, drifting into the dark. Did you ever stand in some
old cathedral, or ruined church, where for centuries the Word of God had been
preached? And did there never come over you, with a strange rush of feeling,
the thought, “Where are all the men and women that bowed their knees here,
beneath the vanished roof of this place?”
II. The contrast
between the fleeting hearers and speakers and the abiding Word. There is
nothing so transient as the words that are spoken by Christian teachers. Even
where the Word takes root in men’s hearts, how swiftly the speaker of it passes
and is forgotten. No workers so soon have their work covered with oblivion as
preachers. In another way, too, the prophets fade and perish; inasmuch as new
circumstances arise about which they know nothing; new phases of thought which
antiquate their teachings; new difficulties in which their words have no
counsel; new conflicts in which they can strike no blow. Yet, in all this
mingled and fleeting human utterance, does there not lie an immortal and
imperishable centre, even the Word of the living God? Much ingenuity is
expended nowadays in trying to discriminate between the permanent and transient
in Christian teaching. The enduring Word is that story of Christ’s incarnation,
death for our sins, resurrection and ascension, which by the Gospel is preached
unto you. Therefore we have to look beyond the dearest of human teachers, and
those to whom we owe most. “They truly were not suffered to continue by reason
of death,” but this Man (Christ) continueth ever our Friend, our Prophet,
Priest, and King.
III. The witness of
past generations to the immortal Word. They that heard and he that spake have
passed into the silent land; but they passed not thither until they had found,
in some measure, that both the warnings and the promises that had been uttered
were God’s truth, and not man’s dreams. God’s Word has leaden feet, but steady,
and slow, and certain, it overtakes the wrong-doer. Do you take care. The
generations that are gone found that the Word of the Lord was true; and if you
reject His Word, you too may, before you die, find out, what you will certainly
find out when you are dead, that He speaks no vain things.
IV. The practical
effects of these solemn thoughts. I want to urge upon my brethren in the
ministry that they should, in all their utterances, try to realise that they
are prophets, dying, with a message to dying men. There is a great deal of
modern preaching clever, eloquent, cultured, ingenious, which seems to have
utterly forgotten that it has got a message of forgiveness and of cleansing by
the blood of Christ to proclaim to men. And how these thoughts should influence
hearers! How you would listen if you knew that this was your last
sermon! (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The eternity of God’s Word contrasted with the mutability of man
When Zechariah wrote, the Jews had just returned from the
Babylonish captivity, and already, in spite of that severe warning, they were
going back into their old habits, and bringing upon themselves fresh displays
of the wrath of God. Both judgments and mercies either leave us better or worse.
They lead us to repentant watchfulness, or else harden our hearts into utter
carelessness and wilful sin. We might naturally have expected that the lessons
of a long captivity would have cured the Jewish people of their old disease,
but sin is of too deep and treacherous a character for external circumstances
to uproot it. The sin of idolatry had, indeed, been cast out, but the sins of
luxury and pride, self-righteousness and dogmatism, worldliness and unbelief,
had taken its place, and the forecast of their future possession of the Jewish
mind appears as soon as the Jews returned from captivity. Haggai and Zechariah
were commissioned by God to reprove the selfish and worldly spirit of the
people. Here the prophet enforces his exhortation by two considerations.
1. The mutable nature of man, passive in the hands of God, and
thoroughly dependent on God. It is the height of folly for man to oppose God,
who has all power to punish sin. All men must die. The Word they bring is
eternal as God is eternal, but they themselves must perish. Zechariah would
say, “If such be the destiny of man, it is yours. Soon you must fade and fall.
Turn ye from your fruitless and evil ways, and think not that ye can resist
God.”
2. The warning is enforced by considerations drawn from the
unchangeable nature of the Divine Word. The prophets had died, but the
certainty and stability of their prophecies had been vindicated by an express
fulfilment. For the Word of God is eternal and unchangeable. Are you then
profiting by it as you ought? (Joseph Maskell.)
Verses 7-11
I saw by night
The night vision
The anointed One of
God and His kingdom are the centre and axis about which the fiery wheel of all
Zechariah’s revelations and imagery turns.
The vision in our text is both beautiful and consoling. Consider--
I. The
time when it was seen.
1. The
time. “By night.” Primarily he meant natural night, while men slept. At that
season the Lord came to him, opening the prophet’s spiritual eyes, and causing
to pass before him, like a pictured scene in bright and glowing colours, a
sublime and cheering vision. The words “by night” may remind us of the
circumstances of the time at which the vision was given. Apply the words, by
way of accommodation, to the spiritual night of Christendom. For night in a
spiritual sense is only dreadful when we are deprived of spiritual vision, when
the eyes of the understanding are darkened. It is night, when with sufferings
upon us, we do not recognise the hand that inflicts them. There is another kind
of spiritual night more fearful still. David feared it when he said, “Hide not
Thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.” Yet even
here there may be vision in the darkness, and this is a favour indeed.
II. What
did the prophet behold? It was a precious vision. Afterwards he hears the
explanation of it. The vision was fraught with consolation and promise.
Zechariah beholds a man; that man is Christ, the Angel of the Covenant. The
times of Zechariah needed a helper in the character of a man, and a “man of
war”; for it was a season of war and tumults. Zechariah beholds Him upon a red
horse. And Christ, like a man riding upon a horse, stands ready to fly with
speed to the help and defence of His people. The prophet speaks of the myrtle
trees. True believers are trees which Christ Himself has planted; trees of
righteous ness, fast rooted in the ground of His merits, and thriving by the
grace of His Holy Spirit. Such are all the children of God here on earth. The
man among the myrtle trees “stood”; the Lord abides among His people. (F. W.
Krumreacher, D. D.)
Behind Him were
there red horses, speckled, and white--
Zechariah’s vision of the
horses
I. The
name of this parabolic vision. “The Word of the Lord.” Thought is invisible,
and must be clothed in some form of words. God’s greatest thought about men was
revealed to us by His Son in human flesh.
II. The
time when the prophet received this “Word of the Lord.” “In the night.” God has
often chosen the night season to reveal His mind to His servants. At night men
are more free from impressions from the outside world. The darkness and
stillness of night throw the mind in upon itself.
III. The
meaning of the symbolic Word.
1. The
“red horses” symbolise coming war.
2. White
horses symbolise victory.
3. Speckled
horses set forth the variety of the Divine dealings, of that mingling of mercy
and judgment which had been intended to lift them up to a high level among the
nations of the world.
Lessons--
The vision of horses
I understand that
all these horses had riders. There were, then, a troop of horsemen; but the
prophet says that one appeared as the chief leader, who was accompanied by others.
These horsemen had returned from an expedition; for they had been sent to
review the whole world and its different parts. He therefore says that they had
returned from their journey, and also that the whole earth was quiet, that men
enjoyed peace and tranquillity everywhere. It seemed a very unbecoming and
strange thing that the faithful alone should be oppressed with adversities,
while others lived in peace and enjoyed their pleasures. There follows at
length an answer from God. I regard this as the object--that horsemen were
presented to the prophet that he might know that God does not remain shut up in
heaven, and neglect the affairs of men, but that He has, as it were, swift
horses, so that He knows what things are everywhere carried on. The prophet
here ascribes to God the character of a chief sovereign, who inquires
respecting all the affairs of men. It is, indeed, certain that all things were
fully known to Him before He created angels, but God assumes the character of
man in order that He may more familiarly instruct us As God did not intend to
exhibit in full light what He afterwards in due time taught, the vision
appeared in the night. And to the same purpose is what he says respecting the
angels, that they were in a dark or deep place, and that they were among the
myrtles. Some think that their being in a deep place and thick shade designates
the state of the people, being that of sorrow and of joy; for though quietness
in part was restored to the people, yet much darkness and much perplexity remained
in their affairs. There was one angel more eminent than the rest, and in this
there is nothing unusual, for when God sends forth a company of angels, He
gives the lead to some one. If we regard this angel as Christ, the idea is
consistent with the common usage of Scripture, for Christ, we know, is the head
of the angels. With regard to the different colours, the prophet, no doubt,
understood that they designated the offices allotted to angels, as some convey
God’s benefits, and others come armed with scourges and swords. The design of
the vision is not doubtful; it is, that the Jews might be assured that the
distresses which they at present endured would not be perpetual, that there was
a hope of the temple and the city being rebuilt, because God had returned into
favour with the people. The prophet teaches at the same time that the building
of the temple was not to be expected, but as an instance of God’s gratuitous
favour, and this doctrine ought also to be extended to the state of the Church
at all times, for whence comes it that the Church remains safe in the world
except that God indulges us according to His infinite goodness? (John
Calvin.)
The rider in the myrtle
grove
By the myrtle grove is
signified the covenant people, the nation of Israel, and by its being in a low
place is indicated their then depressed and sad condition. In the Hebrew mind
the idea of modest beauty and freshness was associated with the myrtle; and
hence we find this introduced as symbolical of the Church under the reign of
the Messiah, when “instead of the briar,”--the symbol of the world under the
curse--“shall come up the myrtle tree.” The Jewish nation, though at that time
in a state of depression and affliction, was fair in the sight of God, was
destined to endure and flourish, and was ere long to be visited by Him in mercy
and restored to prosperity. This is specially indicated here by the standing
among the myrtle trees of the mounted rider. He is described as the Angel of
Jehovah; no other than God manifest in human form; the same Being who, in the
fulness of time, came to our world as the Angel of the Covenant. For the
consolation and encouragement of the people, the prophet had to tell them that,
depressed as was their condition, the Angel of the Lord, the Leader, the
Protector, the Redeemer of Israel, was still in the midst of them. He was ready
to ride forth in their defence, and to send judgment on their adversaries. This
was indicated in the vision by His being mounted on a red horse, the symbol of
war and bloodshed. The Angel of the Lord is with them also as their Intercessor
with God. Hence He appears in this vision as making intercession for them,
beseeching God to have pity on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah; and now that
the time of chastisement was at an end, that He would be gracious to them, and
grant them full restoration and establishment in their own land. And through
Him also came the comforting answer to the people, In this vision the Angel of
Jehovah speaks directly and immediately to the invisible God; but to the
prophet He speaks through the angel interpreter. God declares His zeal for His
people, His indignation against their enemies, and His determination to do good
unto His people, and enrich them with His bounty. He is not an indifferent
spectator of what happens to them. He watches over them with a constant
jealousy, solicitous for their well being, and ready to resent all attempts to
injure them. His own He will never forsake. When the deepest abyss of calamity
seems to be reached by them, when the darkest hour of their sorrow throws its
shadows over them, the Angel of the Lord, He who ever encamps round them that
fear Him, will suddenly appear on their side, and will deliver them from all
their enemies. (W. L. Alexander, D. D.)
The man among the myrtles
As the Jewish people are
usually regarded by the prophet in their theocratic character, as the form in
which the Church then existed, the general doctrines of these visions are
applicable to the Church in every form in which she exists. Some of the
doctrines as set forth in this vision are--
1. The
Church is externally an humble and lowly thing, neglected, often despised by
the gay and wicked world, a grove of myrtles, rather than the cedars of Lebanon
(Zechariah
1:8).
2. She
has, however, an unseen glory that the world knows not of; for Christ dwells in
her midst, full of love, invested with all power, sending His angel messengers
to do His work, and preparing everything for her final triumph (Zechariah
1:8-9).
3. The
hour of darkest desolation to the Church, and of haughtiest triumph to her
enemies, is often the very hour when God begins His work of judgment on the one
and returning mercy on the other (Zechariah
1:11).
4. Christ
intercedes for His people when they need it most, and His intercession is
always prevalent (Zechariah
1:12-13).
5. God
will have all our hearts, for He is jealous of sharing His glory with another (Zechariah
1:14).
6. God
often uses instruments to chastise His people, which, when He has done with
them, He breaks and casts into the fire (Zechariah
1:15).
7. The
Church of God shall yet triumph over every obstacle and vanquish every foe (Zechariah
1:16).
8. The
promises and threatenings of God, though slow, are sure. They have eternity for
the range of their fulfilment (Zechariah
1:17).
9. The
head of the Church is at once human and Divine. He is called here “a man” (Zechariah
1:8), and
the “Angel of Jehovah” (Zechariah
1:12).
But the Angel of Jehovah is a Divine Person--even Gesenius admits this, and the
Babylonish Talmud declares that “this man is no other than the Holy One.” But
if Divine and human, He must be God and man in one person. (T. V. Moore, D.
D.)
The second vision
The next vision was full
of comfort. As the little group of returned exiles looked nervously out on the
mighty world, empires, which surrounded and threatened them, they were filled
with alarm. How could they cope with them? There were Bishlam, Mithredath,
Tabeel, and the rest of their companions, of the nations whom Nebuchadnezzar
had settled in Samaria; Rehum the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe, so ready
in their use of the pen to exert influence on the great kings beyond the river,
to make the work of temple building cease; and the reactionary influences at
work in the far distant court, always adverse to the resuscitation of a subdued
nation, like the Jews, which had given such proofs of inveterate independence.
Beneath the irresistible pressure of these hostile forces the work of temple
building had already ceased for fifteen years, and there was every fear that
the new resolve to arise and build would meet with similar opposition and a
similar fate. There was singular appropriateness, therefore, in the prophet’s
vision “Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, four horns.” In the
language of a pastoral people like the Jews, the horn naturally represents the
pride and power of the ravager and oppressor of the flock. The number “four”
reminds us of the cardinal points of the compass, and indicates that, wherever
the people turned, there were foes, which were sworn to resist their attempt to
renew their national life. On the north, Chaldea, Assyria, and Samaria; on the
south, Egypt and Arabia; on the west, Philistia; and on the east, Ammon and
Moab. And it is probable that the Spirit of God looked beyond these to the four
great Gentile monarchies, which have occupied, and still occupy, the “Times of
the Gentiles,” and which were represented in the four metals of Daniel’s
vision, or in the four great beasts, which one after another emerged from the
sea. As yet Babylon and Medo-Persia alone had arisen; Greece and Rome, the
latter including the kingdoms of modern Europe, were to come. We must not
forget that God Himself gave these world-powers their authority. He says, in
Isaiah, “I was wroth with My people; I profaned Mine inheritance, and gave them
into thine hand” (Isaiah
47:6-7).
And in Daniel He lifts the veil and shows that the world rulers represent not
flesh and blood merely, but malign and mighty spirits that actuate and inspire
them (Daniel
10:13-20). As
long as God’s people are perfect in their loyalty and obedience towards Him,
they need fear the power of no adversary whatsoever; but when there is a break
in the holy connection which binds Him and them in an inviolable safety, it
seems as though all the forces of evil are set free to bear down on and ravage
them, until their chastisement is completed, and they return to their first
love. If we were asked to name the four horns which are ravaging the Church in
the present day, we should not hesitate to say that they are priestcraft,
worldliness, Christian science, and spiritualism. In every life there are
similar experiences. Sometimes, when we lift up our eyes, we find ourselves
begirt with opposition and threatened by hostile powers. Think of the martyr
host who have witnessed for God in every age, and who could reiterate the words
of the greatest Sufferer of all. “Many bulls have compassed Me, strong bulls of
Bashan have beset Me round about; they gape upon Me with their mouth as a
ravening and a roaring lion.” Ignatius, who complains that his custodians were
like “ten leopards, who only wax worse when they are kindly treated”; Blandina,
the girl slave; Germanicus, the noble youth; the Waldenses, whose wrongs roused
Cromwell’s wrath and Milton’s muse; the Netherlands, in their long conflict
with Philip, when the leaders saw their homes covered again by the ocean from
which their ancestors had redeemed them; Madame Guyon, beset by husband,
mother-in-law, servants, and priests; Samuel Rutherford, and hundreds of his
time, harried by the fiercest and most insatiable hate; William Tyndale, the
celebrated translator of the English Bible; John G. Paton, beset with
savages--these are specimens of a multitude, which no man can number, of every
nation, and kindred, and people, who have seen the vision of the four horns.
But there is something beyond; and surely it is not without significance that
the prophet says, “The Lord showed me four carpenters” (or smiths, R.V.). We
have no difficulty in descrying the sources of alarm for ourselves; but we need
a Divine hand to reveal our assured deliverance. “And Elisha prayed and said,
Lord, I pray Thee open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes
of the young man and he saw; and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and
chariots of fire round about Elisha.” For Babylon, the “carpenter” was Cyrus;
for Persia, Alexander; for Greece, the Roman; for Rome, the Gaul. Very
different from each other, very ruthless and unsparing; but very well adapted
for their work. Commenting on this passage, the late C.H. Spurgeon said: “He
who wants to open an oyster must not use a razor; for some works there needs
less of daintiness and more of force; providence does not find clerks, or
architects, or gentlemen, to cut off horns, but carpenters. The work needs a
man who, when he has work to do, puts his whole strength into it, and beats
away with his hammer, or cuts through the wood that lies before him with might
and main. Let us not fear for the cause of God; when the horns become too
troublesome, the carpenters will be forthcoming to fray them.” Remember how in
every age He has found His appropriate messenger. Athanasius frayed Arianism,
and Augustine Manichaeism; Luther frayed the power of the pope in Germany, and
rough Hugh Latimer in England; Wesley and Whitefield frayed the religious
indifference of the last century. When Haldane went to Geneva, he frayed the
scepticism which was destroying the Helvetian and Gallio Churches. The Lord
knows where to find His servants, and when the pre destined hour strikes, there
will stand the workman ready. Oh, child of God! there have been many horns
engaged in scattering thee. Year after year they have wrought sad havoc in thy
plans, and cost thee bitter tears. But thine Almighty Friend is greatly
displeased that they have hurt thee more than His purposes of chastisement
required, and He has resolved that they shall be frayed. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
God’s government of the
world
Amongst the various
manners in which God revealed Himself to men of old, visions were perhaps the
most frequent and impressive. He appears to the prophet in six distinct
visions. The visions were marked by these four characteristics. They were
I. It is
carried on in connection with mysterious agencies. What did the prophet see? “I
saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and He stood among the
myrtle trees that were in the bottom: and behind Him were there red horses,
speckled, and white.” Who are these? Unfallen angels and sainted men. These by
millions stand near His throne, prompt to obey His behests. In relation to
these agents two thoughts are suggested--
1. That
they are under the command of a transcendent mind. Most expositors regard the
man on the red horse, and who stood among the myrtle trees, as no less a
personage than the Angel of the Covenant, the Great Messiah. This same man
appeared to Abraham in the plains of Mature, to Jacob before his meeting with
Esau, to Noses at the burning bush, to Joshua at Jericho, with the sword drawn
in His hand. Here He is on the “red horse,” emblem of war. He is a great moral
chieftain. Another thought suggested is--
2. That
the whole world is their sphere of action. “These are they whom the Lord hath
sent to walk to and fro through the earth.”
II. That
it has not only difficulties, but an interpreter also. “Then said I, O my lord,
what are these?”
1. The
difficulties of God’s government. What are these? The prophet understood not
these strange appearances; and in amazement he exclaims, What are these? What
thoughtful man has not asked such a question as this concerning the Divine
government over and over again? “What are these? What are these elements,
forces, laws, existences, events? What are they? Are they messengers of mercy
or justice? O my lord, what are these?” We are all moving in mystery.
2. The
interpreter of God’s government. Who answered the question “The man that stood
among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they.” Some other creature,
the angel that talked with them, was asked first; but the answer came not from
him, but from the man, Christ Jesus. In Revelation
5:2, “a
strong angel” is represented as crying with a loud voice concerning the
mysteries of God’s government, inquiring who was able to “loose the seals”; but
no one was found in heaven, in earth, or under the earth worthy to “open and
read the book.” There was only One found. “It was the Lamb in the midst of the
throne.” Christ is the only interpreter of God. He is the Logos.
III. That
it is especially concerned in the interests of His people. His people are
supposed to be here represented by the “myrtle trees.” The Jewish Church at
this time was not like a forest of stately cedars, but a grove of myrtles,
fragile and obscure.
1. These
seem to be the centre of Divine operations on the earth. Now, in the myrtle
trees is the “man riding upon a red horse.” And in the myrtle trees were the
“red horses, speckled, and white,” the whole troop was there. The “myrtle
trees” seemed to be the centre of all the agents. From it they started on their
mission, and to it they returned. The true Church is the temple, the residence
of God Himself.
2. The
object of special intercession. “Then the Angel of the Lord answered and said,
O Lord of hosts, how long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem, and on the
cities of Judah, against which Thou hast had indignation these threescore and
ten years?” The duration of their captivity in Babylon. Who is the angel that
makes this appeal? It was He that “ever liveth to make intercession for us.”
“If any man sin, he hath an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
3. The
subjects of the Divine communication. “The Lord answered the angel that talked
with me, with good words and comfortable words.” The prophet is here
commissioned to proclaim--
Verses 14-17
I am jealous
for Jerusalem
Mercy mingled with
chastisement
“Jealousy is
that particular uneasiness which arises in our minds from the fear that some
rival may rob us of the affection of one whom we greatly love, or from
suspicion that he has already done it.
” God’s jealousy, or zeal, denotes His distrust of His creatures, His eminent
care of His people, and His readiness to punish such as injure them. He is
peculiarly jealous for everything whereby He maketh Himself known.
Comparatively speaking, God may be said to be but a little displeased with His
people, whatever be the manner of His dealing with them in this world. Their
afflictions are only temporary and of short duration. They are also designed
for their profit, and overruled for promoting their best interests. And though
the troubles that afflict the just be great and many in number, the Lord will
deliver him out of them all. Let us take the comfort which the good words
spoken to Israel are designed to yield, amid all the trials and afflictive
dispensations of providence with which we may be visited in this life. You may
be in darkness and in doubts, perplexed on every side, and encompassed with
difficulties, but still you need not despair. The Lord is jealous for you with
a great jealousy. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the
morning. (Matthew Fraser.)
Verse 16
I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies
Returning mercies
Jerusalem and Zion are laid waste, it is true, but not in anger,
so much as in chastising love.
God still loves them, and is jealous of any estrangement of their affections
from Him, and when estranged He chastises them to bring them back. This was His
object in using the heathen as instruments of chastisement, but the spirit in
which they executed this office provoked His wrath. He designed only to inflict
a slight chastisement, but they rioted in the sufferings of His people with
wanton cruelty. They mocked their sorrows and taunted them with their
abandonment. Hence God will punish these heathen, and will bestow mercy on His
people, cause the temple to be built, the city to be enlarged, and prosperity
to return to the land. (T. V. Moore, D. D.)
The Divine absence and return
1. God seems to
absent Himself sometimes from those for whom He hath great blessings in store.
By absenting Himself is meant only the withdrawing His countenance, or sunshine
of His favour, when the clouds of adversity or trouble, either spiritual or
temporal, sit uneasy on His chosen servants. At such times He seems to “hide
His face from them.” Afflictions in this life are like eclipses of celestial
bodies, the noblest planet never suffers any, for when we say the sun is
eclipsed, it is we are more properly so, we want his cheerful light and
influences, whilst he himself is not diminished one ray. The moon is sometimes
really eclipsed, and labours under the want of a borrowed light. Thus Divinest
constitutions never suffer. The lunar populace are more really affected by that
obscurity which can never hurt a being, placed so near Divinity. But if such an
one hath been obscured, then this proposition must be granted, that God
Almighty doth sometimes seem to absent Himself from those whom He best loves.
Joseph, David, and even the Son of God Himself, had more than an ordinary share
of this world’s frowns. The reason for such experiences may respect--
2. Such absenting
of Himself is but for a while, as seems best to His goodness and wisdom “I am
returned” denotes the speediness and certainty of God’s returning with mercies.
The fountain of honour can never be impoverished or impaired by making the
first overtures of tenderness and reconciliation. He is in great haste for an
accommodation; He condescends much to our infirmities. It is His nature and
property to have mercy and forgive.
3. When He doth
return it is with all the tenders of love and compassion. Not with forgiveness
only, or any one species, but with all the instances of mercy. Nor doth it at
all interfere with His constancy and justice, because it always supposes
conditions performed; at least in His foreknowledge, that His mercy will move
us to repentance. Upon winch account His mercy is sometimes termed His justice.
His mercy never obstructs His justice, but all His attributes are one simple
essence, and proceed in an eternal and unchangeable method. Learn that if the
mercies of God toward us are so great, we ought to be tender and compassionate
one towards another. (Samuel Prat, D. D.)
Verse 17
My
cities through prosperity
Zion’s
prosperity
Jehovah’s
tender care of His living Church seems to be a prominent topic with the prophet
Zechariah.
Amid all the visitations Zion has experienced from her God in consequence of
her departures, His heart has been set upon her eternal interests, and He never
can change His mind concerning her.
I. The claim which Jehovah lays to His Churches, “My cities.” They
are associated, or organised bodies, not promiscuous multitudes. Distinguished
they may be from each other by a variety of names, and a variety of
circumstances; but God says to them all, “Ye are My cities.” They are all
chartered cities. Their charter is unchanging, covenant love. It is written,
signed, sealed, and preserved by their covenant God. What is the wording of the
charter? “I will be their God, they shall be My people.” God’s Churches are
classified. Separated from one another, not only in their peculiar localities,
and their peculiar features of discipline, but in minor points of order and
regulation. Each one should know and keep his proper position. And they are all
consecrated cities, from the highest to the lowest. Cities are generally noted
for their liberties and privileges. And so “if the Son make you free, you shall
be free indeed.” Our privileges are most valuable and innumerable. These cities
were all designed and also founded by Jehovah, and He rules over them all.
II. Their prosperity--which must come from Himself. “Shall yet be
spread abroad.” The prosperity of a city is seen in its population, its
commerce, and the healthiness of its air. A sign of prosperity in a Church is
found in the number of spiritual births.
III. Their comfort. “The Lord shall yet comfort Zion.” Her tranquillity
is preserved in spite of all that sin and Satan can do; and her honourable
associations are kept up and maintained. That will be comfort for Zion.
IV. The grand first cause of all, electing love. The Lord “shall yet
choose Jerusalem.” (Joseph Irons.)
Verses 18-21
Behold four horns
The mission of the
Church’s enemies
Three things there are
which this age of ours hath brought forth: malignant enemies, special
instruments of their ruin, and great endeavours for reformation.
Accordingly here are three visions: a vision of four horns (Zechariah 1:18-19); a vision of four carpenters (Zechariah 1:20-21); a vision of a man with a measuring line in his hand (chap. 2.
Verse 1). The description of the Church’s enemies under the vision of four
horns.
1. Their number or multitude; they are four horns according to four
parts of the world.
2. Their power and strength. The horn in Scripture denotes strength.
3. Their mischievous and malignant practice; “They scattered Judah,
Israel, and Jerusalem.” In the second vision is the description of those
special instruments that are raised up for their destruction, under the
similitude of four carpenters or smiths. Their work is to scatter the horns,
and to cast out the Gentiles. The third vision presents the endeavours for
reformation, under the similitude of “a man with a measuring line in his hand”;
which is described in two ways: from the instrument thereof, a man, an
excellent man, possibly alluding to Zerubbabel the governor; and from the
exactness thereof,--he doth work by line.
Attend to three doctrines.
1. When God intendeth any good and salvation to His Churches, He doth
first suffer many potent, malicious enemies to rise against them. Was it not so
with Israel when God intended to bring them out of Egypt? Then their
taskmasters arose and doubled their work. This is God’s way still. But what
reason is there that God should suffer His people to be thus handled,
oppressed, scattered, by Cruel enemies? Good reason. So many enemies, so many
schoolmasters. Our enemies are our observers, and their observation is our
preservation. Hereby they are occasioned to honour God; they are weaned from
the world; they are more useful in their places, and even beneficial to their
enemies; they carry the truths of God into other parts; they receive a fuller
and clearer testimony of their own graces; their enemies themselves are the
more convinced; the saints are kept from, and cured of, divisions among
themselves; hereby the servants of God may see and know by experience, that it
is better to serve God than man; and the servants of God learn the right use of
the rod, both in Church and State. Then let no man be stumbled or offended at
God’s present proceedings in the world, as if they were very mysterious.
2. Though God suffers the enemies of His Church to be many and great,
He will raise up proportionate strength against them. Three enemies there are
by whom you are most molested, the flesh, the devil, the world. The flesh
brings forth three great evils. Ignorance in the understanding; in opposition
to that Jesus Christ is called our Prophet. Rebellion in the will; in
opposition to that Jesus Christ is called our King. Guiltiness that arises from
ignorance and rebellion; in opposition to that Jesus Christ is called our
Priest. The devil, our second enemy, is armed with all weapons of hostility
against us. Whatever terms or titles of strength and power there is in Satan,
there is somewhat in Jesus Christ that answereth, yea, that over answereth all.
The third enemy, the world; is described in Revelation 13:1. Our text speaks but of four horns, here are ten. So that,
whatever your enemies are, there is strength enough in Jesus Christ to subdue
their strength. Why is Christ thus furnished, but for His Church and people? He
is the Lord-keeper of all our comforts; the Lord-treasurer of all our graces;
and the great magazine of all our ammunition. The application of this doctrine
looks two ways: to the saints by way of consolation and encouragement; to the
carpenters God’s workmen, by way of direction and exhortation (W. Bridge, M.
A.)
Horns and workmen
This second vision may be
regarded as supplementary of the first. There the restoration of Judah was
indicated generally; here some of the means by which that was to be effected
are presented. Though enemies from all quarters, and on every side, might
assail the people of God, the Lord, their protector, would raise up for them adequate
defence, would bring into action powers sufficient to discomfit and cast down
all their oppressors, however many or strong. What was thus showed for the
comfort of the people of God in the old time is no less for the comfort and
encouragement of the Church in all ages and places. “The sum of the whole is,
though the Church may not be exempt from many troubles, yet the Lord has in His
hand resources by which He can restrain all assaults of the wicked, however
impetuously and violently they may be impelled against the Church.” The Angel
of the Lord, the Divine Redeemer, abides forever with that Church which He has
purchased with His own blood. And exalted as He is to the throne of His glory,
and having all power in heaven and on earth, He can send forth at any time
agencies by which the power of the Church’s enemies shall be broken, and all
their forces routed. It behoves the Church, then, to have faith in her exalted
head, and patiently to wait for Him. In due time He will interpose on her
behalf when she is afflicted; He will scatter and discomfit all her
adversaries, and will “cause her righteousness to go forth as brightness, and
her salvation as a lamp that burneth.” (W. L. Alexander, D. D.)
The vision of the four
horns
Some consider the four
horns represent the four kingdoms of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. Others
look on them as types of the whole of the enemies of Israel coming from the
four quarters of the earth. The same general truths are taught in either case.
1. That while the world powers continue, and the Church of God lives
in their midst, the latter will be subjected to opposition and persecution.
2. That whatever number of foes the Church may have, God will take
care to provide her with an equal number of friends.
3. That though there will ever be conflict between God’s Church and
her enemies, there will never be defeat but on one side. The strongest force
must ultimately gain the day. We can account for the existence of the Church
only from the fact that “God is in the midst of her.” (A London Minister.)
The purpose of this vision
I. For
instruction. The progress of the wicked in their enmity against the Church, is
but the prologue to the Church’s deliverance. First, the horns arise and play
their part; and this brings on the hammermen to act their part.
II. For admonition:
that God’s people be not offended, or dismayed, when they see things, go
contrary to their deliverance. At such times let us calm ourselves--
1. With a consideration of the just aggravation of our own sins, our
disunion and security that opened the door to let in the misery.
2. With the consideration of the character of the horns. It is the
nature of a beast to do as they do, to push and scatter. A brute will be a
brute. A devil will be a devil. But beasts are not made to rule over men. And
the devil is the gaoler of the wicked, not our ruler.
3. As the constitution, so the complexion of the last times is indeed
the worst; so no better is to be expected for a time, but, though the several
hammers make at first but a confused noise, and the pieces of the building lie
in the dust, yet, ere long, the new building is reared, and the Great Master of
the house comes in and dwells among us in it.
III. For
exhortation.
1. Let us not judge by sense, but by faith.
2. Judge not by present action, but by their productive tendency.
3. Judge not by the meanness of means, but by the might of the hand
that useth them. (N. Homes.)
Destroyers and builders
The enemy came upon the
laud, came upon the hills of Judah and of Israel, laid waste the city of
Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, scattered the people, broke up their happy
homes, and carried them into captivity. These are the horns of which the text
speaks. Wise men were raised up, skilful workers, men willing and able to
rebuild Jerusalem, restore the temple, and reestablish the worship of Jehovah
there. These be the carpenters spoken of in the text. The first class is
characterised by the fury of the beast, and the second by the wisdom and
skill of the man.
I. There are the
destroyers--there is the power of the destroyer. The power opposed to God and
His purpose is in Scripture often described under the symbol of a beast. The
prophet Daniel saw four beasts coming forth in succession to do their
destructive work. This symbol teaches us that the power opposed to God is from
below, from the abyss. The persecutions that raged against the Church in other
ages were eruptions from the bottomless pit, real boiling volcanic floods sent
forth from the mouth of “that old serpent, called the devil and Satan, which
deceiveth the whole world.” Such is infidelity, and the criticism which merely
destroys, and the philosophy which ignores God. The power opposed to God and
goodness is coarse, rude, vulgar--the power of a beast. What will a beast do if
turned into a flower garden? So the power of evil is rude and coarse. Whenever
men begin to sneer at religion, at faith, at holiness, at Christianity, that
moment they become coarse. The deepest and subtlest wisdom, the wisdom that can
create, the wisdom that can construct and build up, is not necessary for the
destroyer’s work. The rude, clumsy power of the reasonless beast will answer
for that purpose. The power of the destroyer is out of harmony with the nature
of things. The beasts of Bible symbol are all monsters. Not one of them is
harmonious or proportionate. Here is one--he has the body of a leopard to begin
with, the feet of a bear, the hungry mouth of a lion; he has seven heads and
ten horns, and on each of the heads in flaming letters is inscribed the name of
blasphemy. What a dreadful apparition that must have been to St. John! The
power of evil being out of harmony with the laws of nature, we can never fall
into the order of God’s universe while we are moved by the power of evil.
II. The skilful
workers. These men have a Divine vocation, and are inspired of God--endued of
Him for their work. There are very many Divine vocations in this world. There
is the preacher, the student of nature, the statesman, the teacher, private
Christians. These belong to the class of true workers. And God’s purpose shall
at last be realised; the work of the skilful ones shall prosper. Refer to the
building of the first temple at Jerusalem. It was an idea early started, again
and again lost sight of, but at last fully realised. There is an old saying,
that in this world every man has believed in his best moments that there is a
golden age which belongs to humanity. Man never believes in his present
degradation; he believes that it was never intended the world should remain as it
is. And I am glad there are so many brave Christian people in this great city
who are determined by God’s grace to do all that they can to realise this
ancient idea. The prophets saw it, and it kindled their souls into rapture. (Thomas
Jones.)
Four horns and four
carpenters
This vision presents to us
(the) cause of right in the earth.
I. That the cause
of right on the earth has strong antagonists. Here are four horns, four mighty
powers, all of which are in dead hostility to the covenant people. They are
represented as those who have “scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his
head.” The enemies of the true scatter and crush. Though Babylon, Persia,
Greece, and Rome have long since passed away, the horns, or the mighty powers
of evil, are still here, and are at work. What are they? Reigning materialism
is a horn; practical atheism is a horn; intolerant superstition is a horn; and
dominant selfishness is a horn.
II. That the cause
of truth upon the earth has Divine defenders. Here are four carpenters, or
smiths, who appear to “fray them, and to east out the horns of the Gentiles.”
Mark, the defenders were--
Verse 20
And the Lord shewed me four carpenters
The counterbalancing of agencies
Evil agencies are counterbalanced by good--for there is a Divine
providence always at work in this world.
The prophet saw “four horns,” representing the powers by which Judah had been
scattered; but at the same time he saw “four carpenters,” the instruments
raised up by God to accomplish a Divine work.
I. The world is
made for the Church. Men read the history of nations without the slightest
reference to the Church of the living God. They look at passing events and
circumstances without believing that they are the development of a Divine
providence at work in the world. It may be thought that the world was made for
unfallen man. Was it not rather made to be the scene of man’s trial and
probation? It is a fact that the world was mapped out with a peculiar reference
to the locality and home of the Church. The world was made for Christ, and
therefore for the Church. The world was made to be the school for unfallen
intelligences. It was made to be the tabernacle of God.
II. The work going on
in the world is in accordance with the Divine plan. There is a charm in
history, since it not only annihilates the distances of time and space, but
transports us to other scenes and periods. If you are a devout student of
history you will see a Divine hand prescribing, the limits of conquest and the
extent of a nation’s duration. There is, then, eternal order underlying the
world’s disorder, and a Divine will subordinating all human wills. The great
chapters of the world’s history have all been written beforehand. We have only
seen parts of the plan, some of the first chapters--strange and startling.
III. The work of God
in this world is under Divine supervision and angelic inspection. From some
brief hints, it would appear as if the government of the world’s provinces had
been, in some measure, intrusted to the management of angels in former times.
IV. Evil agencies
are counterbalanced by good. In the natural world there are opposite forces,
and laws that seem antagonistic, but these agencies are counterbalanced. We
have darkness and light--we have night and day. All the forces in this world
are adjusted by Divine wisdom, and thus the balance of the universe is
preserved. There are opposite powers in the world. There is Satan, and there is
Christ. “For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy
the works of the devil.” There is sin; and yet sin is counteracted by grace.
There is flesh, and there is spirit. The one seems to be the adversary of the
other. Is the law in our members always to bring us into captivity to sin? No.
Flesh itself is to be transfigured, to be consecrated and hallowed. There is
death in the world. All men die, though Christ has died; all men shall rise,
because Christ has risen. Thus evil agencies are counterbalanced by good. If
there are powers hostile to the Church and to us, there are powers that are
directly “opposed to them, and that are at work for us, for said the prophet,”
The Lord shewed me four carpenters. (H. J. Bevis.)
Four carpenters
I. The truth exhibited
in this vision.
1. The champions of the Church are as numerous as its assailants.
2. They are more powerful than its assailants.
3. They are seasonably provided.
II. The ground on
which this truth rests. On the love, power, promises, and dispensations of God.
(G. Brooks.)
Zechariah’s vision
“When God makes the prophet, He does not unmake the man.” Each
sacred writer preserves his individuality. Character and circumstance leave
their impress on the inspired productions. Zechariah was moulded by the peculiarities
of the age in which he lived. He was raised up to incite the Jews’ zeal in
building the temple. His mind overflowed with it. He could think of nothing
else. Hence we cannot marvel that, when he prophesied, he used architectural
figures. At one time he sees a “man with measuring line,” and anon he says,
“The Lord shewed me four carpenters.”
1. God’s works are often unobserved. “The Lord shewed me.” The seer
did not behold them at first. Only when Divine help was afforded did he become
aware of them. Are there not thousands who resemble him? As regards nature it
is so. “Eyes have they, and they see not.” What is true of creation is true
with double emphasis and touching revelation. The Bible is dull and
uninteresting to some. Others delight in it. Why the difference? The last have
Divine teaching.
2. God’s works are creative. “Carpenters.” These are constructive
agents. Building, not demolishing, is their proper work. In seeking our own
spiritual and moral welfare, we cannot too often remember this important
principle--the true method of destroying is by creating. Get good into your
heart, and it will cast out evil.
3. God’s works are compensative. “Four.” Observe the number. It
corresponds with the number of Israel’s foes. There is more of equality in
men’s conditions than is often supposed. A grand law of compensation is in
operation. “God hath set one thing over against the other.” As regards riches
and poverty, adversity and prosperity, there is compensation. Everywhere evil
is counterbalanced by good. Our mercies outweigh our miseries. (T. R.
Stevenson.)
The four carpenters
The Hebrew word means workman in iron, brass, and stone, as
well as wood. They are here the workmen of God. The horn is the instrument of
power. The four horns are the symbols of persecutors, of violence and
oppression, of the destroyers of the people and State. How were they to be
crushed, put to fear, destroyed? That the prophet could never have found out
for himself. The Lord showed him four carpenters. They were to fray (frighten)
the horns. It would be heart breaking if there were nothing for us but to
realise the evils we have brought on ourselves; if we were left only to all
that we could see of our troubles. But there is a revelation for us, and an
interpretation of the revelation too. The four horns were met by four
carpenters. It was a declaration to Zechariah that there existed--ready to act
out of the unseen world, whether by energising human means, or not--a system of
counterpoises, and counter influences, and means of salvation, with Divine
intentions concerning them, all of which were there, though man saw them not.
God revealed the workers of the spirit world. Zechariah saw four horns; it was
the human apprehending the terrible; and the terrible is not ignored by God; it
is emphasised, it is explained. God puts their evil work against His people
side by side with the work that He will do in their behalf. There was a
matching of four against four. All evil meets its match in every part when God
comes forth to work. If there be bad influences against you and yours, God can
bring counter influences against them, and He can break the spell of evil
already done. Why need you ever despair of restoration, of help, of salvation,
be your cause never so low? The “Son of God has come that He might destroy the
works of the devil.” (P. B. Power, M. A.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》