Zechariah 013 – God is In Control
Zechariah 6:1-9 • Dr. Andy Woods • January 12, 2022 • ZechariahZechariah 013 – God is in Control
By Dr. Andy Woods – 2/12/2022
Zech 6:1-9
Take our Bibles if we could and open them to the book of Zechariah chapter 6, as we continue our verse by verse teaching through the book of Zechariah. In case you didn’t notice we have a new website. I don’t know if it’s a new website, it’s like a face lift for an existing website. So, whenever you do something like that there’s always a little… there’s a few stragglers you know, stuff doesn’t transfer over perfectly and so just be patient with us as we’re trying to get everything up and running but I think we’re going to be livecasting tonight from the website and also Facebook.
So, we are in the section of the book of Zechariah where Zechariah has eight night visions.
Structure
I. Introductory call to repentance (Zech 1:1-6)
II. Eight night visions (Zech 1:7–6:15)
III. Question and answers about fasting (Zech 7–8)
IV. Two burdens (Zech 9–14)
Eight visions that he received in a single night. That’s a heck of a night when you think about it and all of those visions relate to trying to encourage the returnees from the Babylonian captivity to get busy building the second temple. So the first temple had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon 70 years earlier and when they came back from the captivity, they were sort of motivated at first to rebuild the temple and then they kind of slacked off. I know that never happens to anybody in here, you guys never slack off on anything. I know personally for me it’s very easy to start a project and then kind of lose interest in it because of all kinds of circumstances but that’s what happened to the returnees and God’s temple was, you know, not being rebuild which is a problem because Bible prophecy indicated that Jesus when he would show up four hundred years later has to come to a temple. So, if the temple is not built, that prophecy can’t be fulfilled. So Zechariah along with his contemporary Haggai, is encouraging the returnees to rebuild the temple. 2:42
So the way Zechariah does it is he, as the Holy Spirit gives him visions, he sees what God is going to do in and through the temple one day, including glimpses of the millennial kingdom and he basically invites his audience to participate in God’s great program. You know, he basically says, you can be on the winning side of history by getting busy building the temple now. So, they’re having all of these opposition and problems and discouragement, so here come these eight visions and look at this, we’ve studied seven of the eight.
II. Eight Night Visions (Zech 1:7‒6:15)
1. Riders & horses among the myrtle trees (Zech 1:7-17)
2. Four horns & four craftsmen (Zech 1:18-21)
3. Man with the measuring line (Zech 2)
4. Cleansing of the High Priest Joshua (Zech 3)
5. Lampstand & olive tree (Zech 4)
6. Flying scroll (Zech 5:1-4)
7. Woman in the basket (Zech 5:5-11)
8. Four chariots (Zech 6:1-8)
9. Conclusion: crowning of Joshua (Zech 6:9-15)
So we just have a final eighth vision to look at tonight and it has to do with the vision of the Four Chariots, chapter 6, verses 1 through 8 (Zech 6:1-8), I think it is; and so we’re just going to try to cover those verses tonight and next week is the second half of the chapter and it’s the conclusion of these eight night visions with the crowning of a priest, which never happens. You don’t crown priests, cause priests are priests and kings are kings but the crowning of the High Priest Joshua, which we’re going to look at next week, is a type, if you will of the unique king priest Jesus Christ that is going to rule the whole world one day from Jerusalem and that unique king priest is going to rebuild the temple. So, Gosh, I guess the temple is pretty important to God if it’s going to exist in the millennium. So, we’ll see that next week, but before we get to that next week, we have tonight chapter 6 verses 1 through 8 (Zech 6:1-8)
The Four Chariots and I’ve sort of entitled this study “God is in Control”. Is there anybody back there that needs to hear that? It’s so easy in the midst of problems of life to forget the fact that God is actually in control and as these returnees were struggling and as they were facing obstacles and setbacks and as they were getting push back from the Gentile nations, they needed to know that God was on top of things and God was going to deal aggressively with this Gentile nations that were opposing them. So, that’s what that last vision is about. It’s the Four Chariots chapter 6, verses 1 through 8 (Zech 6: 1-8) and the meaning of it is divine judgment on the Gentile nations that are opposing Israel. 5:52
So this is a particular chart that we refer to all the way through these night visions. You have the vision in the left hand column, the biblical reference in the center and then a one sentence meaning as to what the vision means; and so you go to the very end and we have the Four Chariots, chapter 6 verses 1 through 8 (Zech 6: 1-8) and it’s a reminder of divine judgment on the Gentiles; and one of the nations that God has judged and will judge is Babylon and that should ring a bell because the last couple of weeks, I think last week and then prior to Christmas break, we were looking at the woman in the Ephah chapter 5, verse 5 through 11 (Zech 5:5-11), which is a prophecy about how evil is going to be ripped out of Israel one day but it’s going to be relocated in the land of Shinar. So it’s one of those tremendous passages about the fact that Babylon still has a role to play in Bible prophecy and so that subject is going to come up here with our vision that we’re going to look at tonight, the Four Chariots.
8. The Four Chariots (Zech 6:1-8)
I. The Vision (Zech 6:1-3)
II. The Interpretation (Zech 6:4-8)
So, with this eighth and final night vision, we have the vision itself, verses 1 through 3 (Zech 6:1-3), and then you have the interpretation given, verses 4 through 8 (Zech 6:4-8)
and of course, here’s the big idea of this particular final vision, you’ll notice the little graphic that we have there at the bottom of the screen, God is in control, that’s the point. Yes, you’re getting push back from the Gentile nations and opposition but God is in control of everything and he’s keeping a record and he’s going to deal with those opposers in His providence and timing so, Dr. Thomas Constable says: There is a similar emphasis… concerning this vision… There is a similar emphasis on the fact that Yahweh controls history and subdues the nations that oppress Israel… 8:08
So, let’s start off here with the vision itself, what exactly did Zechariah see verses 1 through 3 (Zech 6:1-3) and basically he saw two things.
I. The Vision (Zech 6:1-3)
A. Four Chariots (Zech 6:1)
B. Four Horses (Zech 6:2-3)
Four chariots, verse 1 (Zech 6:1) and each of those chariots seems to be pulled by a different horse. So we’ve got four chariots verse 1, and then four horses verses 2 and 3. So notice verse 1 as we look at these four chariots. He says in verse 1 (Zech 6:1): Now I lifted up my eyes again and looked…. and just stopping there for a second, there’s your verb of perception. Whenever he says “I looked”, “I saw”, “the Lord showed me”, that’s kind of your hint that a new vision is starting. So, that formula is pretty consistent all the way through these eight night visions and it’s consistent with the eighth night vision. So it says: Now I lifted up my eyes again and looked, and behold, four chariots were coming forth… So he sees four chariots coming forth and what are chariots a symbol of in the Bible? They are typically a symbol of power and great authority. Just a few verses on that. Isaiah, 66, verse 15 (Isa 66:15) says: For behold, the LORD will come in fire And His chariots like the whirlwind, To render His anger with fury, And His rebuke with flames of fire… Habakkuk chapter 3, verse 8 (Hab 3:8) uses the chariot as a symbol of power and authority, it says: Did the LORD rage against the rivers, Or was His anger against the rivers, Or was Your range against the sea, That You rode on Your horses, On Your chariots of salvation?… Haggai, Zechariah’s contemporary, chapter 2, verse 22 (Hag 2:22) says: I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of nations; and I will overthrow the chariots and their riders, and the horses and their riders will go down, everyone by the sword of another… So, the fact that Zechariah is seeing these four chariots, you know, is basically causing anticipation that judgment of some kind is coming. 11:00
So back to verse 1 it says: Now I lifted up my eyes again and looked, and behold, four chariots were coming forth… Where were they coming from? They were coming from between the mountains; and the mountains were bronze mountains… So where are these chariots coming from? They are coming from between, in this vision, two mountains. I’m going to show you, as we go through to verse 8, that these chariots are going to actual geographic locations, they’re going to judge true nations; and so if they moving towards actual geographical national realities it stands to reason that the place of origin of these chariots is a real place as well. So the question becomes, well, they are coming from between two mountains, what two mountains are we talking about? And I have a suspicion that those two mountains are (1) Mount Zion and the second mountain is the Mount of Olives; and between Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, is a valley and that valley is known as the Valley of Jehoshaphat, so that’s probably the two mountains that Zechariah is seeing here where these chariots are coming from. Charles Feinberg in his commentary on the book of Zechariah says:
Charles L. Feinberg – God Remembers: A Study of Zechariah (Wheaton: Van Kampen, 1950, p. 76.
“Since the chariots go forth to actual geographical designations, as we shall see later, just so the mountains from whence they proceed are to be taken as representing a specific geographical locality. The mountains, in all probability, are Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives…Between these two mountains in Palestine [Israel] lies the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which is related in Scripture to the judgment of the nations.”
Since the chariots go forth to actual geographical designations, as we shall see later, just so the mountains from whence they proceed are to be taken as representing a specific geographical locality. The mountains, in all probability, are Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives. Between these mountains in Israel lies the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which is related in Scripture to the judgment of the nations… This idea of two mountains also reminds me when the Lord comes back. The Lord is going to return one day and His feet are going to touch the Mount of Olives and the Mount of Olives is going to what? Split, east and west. Zechariah chapter 14, verse 4 (Zech 14:4) says: On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will split from east to west forming a large valley, half the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south… Wow! So, whatever these two mountains are, whether it’s a reference to the splitting of the Mount of Olives or whether it is a reference to Zion and the Mount of Olives and the Valley of Jehoshaphat in the middle, it’s an actual real place. These chariots are coming from an actual geographical location just as are going to be traveling in judgment to particular geographical nations that oppress the nation of Israel. So we see no need whatsoever when we study prophecy to somehow just say, well, this just contains great spiritual truths, you know; and don’t worry about the literalness of it. 14:55
I was reading the commentary of a postmillennialist, recently, Loraine Boettner and he doesn’t take prophecy literally and when he gets to Zechariah chapter 14 and verse 4 (Zech 14:4), the splitting of the Mount of Olives, he just say, well, that’s the sinner who’s being convicted by God’s word, you know. So, the word of God convicts them and we don’t really believe the Mount of Olives is going to split, that’s just a symbol of the conversion of the sinner. So he gets an A in creativity for that (laughs) but he gets a failing grade in interpreting the text and so we don’t do that kind of thing here, we take the Bible for what it says. I mean, all of the references to Christ’s first coming, born in Bethlehem, pierced, virgin born, those all happened in real time in history and there’s no need to, you know, pretend like the second coming passages are going to be different than that. You’ll notice that these mountains are bronze, and bronze in the Bible typically communicates judgment. You might remember Numbers chapter 21 verse 9 (Num 21:9) where… remember the… as the children of Israel were in the Transjordan, remember? They begin to grumble and the Lord sent snakes to bite them and many of them were dying and Moses cries out for an answer and what Moses was supposed to do is take a bronze serpent and put it on a pole, and all the children of Israel had to do to be saved from the snake bite was just to look at the bronze serpent on the bronze pole. That’s all they had to do and that story, that historical stories actually used by Jesus in John, 3, when He’s talking to Nicodemus about salvation, and He says: In the same way, the only thing a person has to do to be saved from the ultimate snake bite, sin and the wages of sin is… what?… Death, they just have to look by way of faith at the cross of Jesus Christ and they’re saved. So, you’ll notice how easy God made salvation in both cases and a lot of people try to make it more complicated than it is but God has made it very, very easy. All they have to do to be saved from the snake bite and its poison was to look at the serpent on the pole and the only thing that a lost sinner has to do today to be saved by way of analogy, John, 3, is just to look at the cross of Jesus Christ by way of faith, accepting what He’s done for us, two thousand years ago on the cross of calvary but bronze, you’ll notice there, is a symbol of judgment. It says: So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on the flag pole; and it came about, that if a serpent bit someone, and he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived… So I think I misspoke earlier, I think I said the pole was bronze but actually the serpent on the pole was bronze, it was just… something that looked like a flag pole, but bronze is communicating judgment and whenever God communicates judgment fortunately he communicates salvation. In fact, Jesus is coming back and there’s a picture of Him on the right there coming back.
That’s an artist rendition of what’s described in Revelation chapter 1 and it talks there about His feet when He’s returning in judgment and Revelation, 1, verse 15 (Rev 1:15) says of His feet: His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been heated to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters… So bronze in the Bible is communicating judgment and the fact that these chariots are coming forth, you know, from these mountains made of bronze is communicating judgment. So God is going to deal in judgment with the nations that are harassing Israel and are pressing Israel and trying to stop her from rebuilding her temple after the exile. 19:53
I. The Vision (Zech 6:1-3)
A. Four Chariots (Zech 6:1)
B. Four Horses (Zech 6:2-3)
So then, after Zechariah sees the four chariots, then he sees the four horses, you know, pulling the chariots and look at what he says in verses 2 and 3 (Zech 6:2-3): With the first chariot were red horses, with the second chariot black horses, with the third chariot white horses, and with the fourth chariot strong dappled horses… So horse number one was red, communicating bloodshed and warfare. Horse number two was black, communicating death and famine. Horse number three was white, communicating triumph and victory and horse number four was, my translation says dappled, some say grizzled. I had to look at what that means, it basically means spotted. So that would probably communicate pestilence and plagues. So this is the judgment that’s going out to the nations that have been oppressing Israel, Zechariah sees this happening in the end times.
So, that’s what he saw, he saw four horses and he saw four chariots and then you go to verses 4 through 8 and you get an interpretation of it; and that’s what I love about the Bible, so many people trust in their own sanctified imagination to interpret prophecies like this, just go on the internet and spend some time there and you’ll see people… you’ll see the crazies out there, saying all kinds of wild things about Bible prophecy. The truth to the matter is all you have to do is pay attention to the interpretation that the Holy Spirit Himself gives; and typically the Holy Spirit will do it right in the same chapter, right in the same context. So we don’t have to guess as to what these four horses and four chariots mean, the interpretation is coming. 22:09
So the interpretation is given in verses 4 through 8
II. The Interpretation – (Zech 6:4-8)
A. Zechariah’s Question (Zech 6:4)
B. Four Spirits Patrolling the Earth (Zech 6:5-7)
C. Destruction of the Land of the North (Zech 6:8)
so we have Zechariah’s question verse 4 (Zech 6:4), we have information that these four horses and four chariots represent four spirits patrolling the earth verses 5 through 7 (Zech 6:5-7) and they’re coming to destroy a particular land to the north or Israel and that’s described in verse 8 (Zech 6:8). So notice Zechariah’s question, verse 4 (Zech 6:4): Then I spoke and said to the angel who was speaking with me, What are these, my lord?… So you’ll notice that Zechariah wants an answer to the “What” question, what is this all about? And you know, I hope I never get to a point in my Christian life for I stop asking questions, because once I stop asking questions, I stop learning and there’s so many people, they kind of reach, I don’t know what it is, a spiritual plateau where they, I don’t know how they think this way but they think they know everything. Once you think you know everything, you stop asking questions and once you stop asking questions there’s really nothing else to learn. So I love the fact that Zechariah is always wanting to know what’s going on, I mean, he could have just zoned out and had his attention directed elsewhere but he keeps asking what and why and those types of questions and so we need to be those kinds of Christians.
You’ll notice also that when the answer is given, verses 5 through 7 (Zech 6:5-7) and this is typically what you have, an interpreting angel will answer or God Himself will answer, the answer relates to the question, always. The answer doesn’t start talking about the price of tea in China or something like that and that becomes actually an argument for literal interpretation, because the answer keeps following or responding to the question, that means we are to interpret this literally. I mean, if the answer suddenly has nothing to do with the question, then you could say literal interpretation is not necessary, but what you’ll see in all of these visions whether it’s Zechariah, whether it’s the ones John’s sees in the book of Revelation, is the answer that’s provided or the answer that’s coming is always related to the question; and so Zechariah asks this question and he actually gets an answer there in verses 5 through 7 (Zech 6:5-7), you know, he wants to know, what.. What’s the deal with these horses and chariots? So here’s the answer verses 5 through 7. 25:14
Let’s take verse 5 first (Zech 6:5), it says: The angel… and this is very common in this kind of style of writing. You have an interpreting angel, you see the same thing in the book of Revelation, you know John asks questions and an angel typically will answer and the same thing is going on here in Zechariah, it says: The angel replied to me, These… these what? These four horses and four chariots… The angel replied to me, These are the four spirits of heaven, going forth after standing before the Lord of all the earth… So the answer is the four horses and the four chariots equal four spirits that are sent out from the Lord. Now, four spirits in the Bible typically communicates divine power going out from God to judge. When you start studying four spirits in the Bible, you’ll see this meaning frequently. For example in Psalm, 148 and verse 8 (Psalm 148:8) it says: Fire and hail, snow and clouds, and Stormy wind… Now, here we have four winds or four spirits… wind, fulfilling His word… Jeremiah, 49, verse 36 (Jer 49:36), God through Jeremiah says: I will bring upon Elam the four winds… that’s what we’re seeing here… From the four ends of heaven, And will scatter them to all the winds; And there will be no nation To which the outcasts of Elam will not go… You see the same imagery of four winds in the book of Daniel chapter 7 and verse 2 (Dan 7:2) it says: Daniel said, I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds… Which is what we’re seeing here… the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea… And then you have the same thing going on in the book of Revelation chapter 7, verse 1 (Rev 7:1) it says: After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree… So, these four winds that represent the four horses and the four chariots, when you study that out through different cross references it’s talking about divine power coming out from God to bring judgment and you’ll notice verse 6 (Zech 6:6) it says: …with one of which the black horses are going forth to the north… So the north is a real place as I’ll show you in a second… the white ones go forth after them, while the dappled… or spotted ones… go forth to the south country… So notice these geographical directions. We’ve got north, we’ve got south, and what else do we have there? I missed one, didn’t I? Little louder? West, there we go. So, when it talks about these directions, north, south and all this kind of stuff, north and south from what exactly? Well, it’s always related to the nation of Israel, because the nation of Israel is the centerpiece of divine activity and even before we get to that, I forgot to give you this quote by Feinberg concerning the four winds.
Charles L. Feinberg – God Remembers: A Study of Zechariah (Wheaton: Van Kampen, 1950, p. 78.
“The four winds speak of divine judicial power exerted in judgment, carrying out the purposes of God. CF. Psalm 148:8; Jeremiah 49:36; Daniel 7:2; Revelation 7:1.”
He says: The four winds speak of divine judicial power exerted in judgment, carrying out the purposes of God. See further and here’s all the verses that we read, Psalm 148:8; Jeremiah 49:36; Daniel 7:2; Revelation 7:1. 29:59
So, back to verse 6 (Zech 6:6): with one of which the black horses are going forth to the north country; and the white ones go forth after them… also to the north… so while the dappled ones go forth to the south country… So I think I threw west in there, but west is not in there, it’s north and south. North and south from what? To understand that you have to think the way God thinks. The city of Jerusalem does not mean much to the world, but it means everything to God and as far as God is concerned, the city of Jerusalem in the nation of Israel, is at the center of the world. Now, the politicians don’t think that way, the United Nations doesn’t think that way, most Americans don’t think that way but this is how God thinks so when it says, north and south is always relative to Jerusalem. So the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 38 and verse 12 (Ezek 38:12) talks about an end time invasion coming against God’s people, Israel: to capture spoil and to seize plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places which are now inhabited, against the people who are gathered from the nations, who have acquired cattle and goods… and look at these here… who live at the center of the world… Ezekiel chapter 5, verse 5 (Ezek 5:5) says: Thus says the Lord God, This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands around her… Now that Hebrew word center is a translation of the Hebrew word where we get the word “navel” or “belly button”. So when Ezekiel talks about Israel and Jerusalem at the center of the world, he’s using the Hebrew word for “belly button”. So just as one’s belly’s button is the center of the body, as far as God is concerned, the city of Jerusalem is the center of the whole world. 32:31
Charles Feinberg writes in his Ezekiel commentary:
Charles L. Feinberg – The Prophecy of Ezekiel: The Glory of the Lord, Paperback ed. (Chicago: Moody, 1969; reprint, Chicago: Moody, 1984), 223.
“An interesting phrase is employed to define the place where God’s people will be dwelling. It is called the middle (literally, the navel) of the earth as explained in 5:5. The land of Israel is in the center of the earth as far as God’s purposes for the world are concerned (cf. Deut. 32:8). Rabbinic literature states: ‘As the navel is set in the center of the human body, so the land of Israel is the navel of the world…Situated in the center of the world, in Jerusalem in the center of the land of Israel, and the sanctuary in the center of Jerusalem, and the holy place in the center of the sanctuary, and the ark in the center of the holy place, and the foundation stone before the holy place, because from it the world was founded.’ Midrash, Tanachma, Qedoshim.”
An interesting phrase is employed to define the place where God’s people will be dwelling. It is called the middle (literally, the navel) of the earth as explained in Ezekiel 5:5… We just looked at that… The land of Israel is in the center of the earth as far as God’s purposes for the world are concerned… and then he quotes, it’s very interesting, some Rabbinic literature, and this is what that Rabbinic literature says (quote): As the navel is set in the center of the human body, so the land of Israel is the navel of the world. Situated in the center of the world, in Jerusalem in the center of the land of Israel, and the sanctuary in the center of Jerusalem, and the holy place in the center of the sanctuary, and the ark in the center of the holy place, and the foundation stone before the holy place, because from it the world was founded… This is how Jews think about Israel. You’ve got the nation of Israel, which is at the center of the world and then in the center of the nation of Israel is the city of Jerusalem and then in the center of the city of Jerusalem is the temple mount, or the temple and then in the center of the temple mount is the most holy place and then in the center of the holy place is the Ark of the covenant. It’s like a bull’s eye, you know, you just get getting more and more in the middle, more and more in the middle, more and more in the middle, more and more in the middle and that’s how to understand Bible prophecy when it talks about north, south, east, west, all of these kinds of designations, it’s always from the city of Jerusalem which, as far as God is concerned, is the center of the entire planet. So anything that goes on prophetically in the city of Jerusalem, you have to pay attention to. In fact, Jerusalem… Israel, Jerusalem is basically called “God’s timepiece”. If anyone wants to understand where we are in the great march of events look at Israel, said a famous prophecy scholar about 1909. So when the discussion of planet earth moves towards the nation of Israel, what you need to see is like a stopwatch, the hand is on the hour hand, as far as God is concerned in terms of wrapping things up; and then when the discussion of the world leaves the nation of Israel in general and they all start to talk about the city of Jerusalem, you’re no longer dealing with the hour hand, you’re dealing with the minute hand; and then when they stop talking about the city of Jerusalem and they start talking about the temple and the temple mount, now basically we’re dealing with the second hand and most Christians in their churches will hear almost nothing about the city of Jerusalem and I’m telling you, as far as God is concerned, it being the navel or the belly button of the earth, it is a big, big deal and it’s reflected here in this Rabbinic literature that Hebrew Christian scholar Charles Feinberg quotes. 36:38
So, the black horse goes north, north of where? North of the city of Jerusalem and it is very interesting that Israel’s invaders typically came from the north. Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 14 (Jer 1:14) says: Then the LORD said to me, Out of the north the evil will be unleashed on all the inhabitants of the earth… Jeremiah chapter 4, verse 6 (Jer 4:6) says: Raise a flag toward Zion! Take refuge, do not stand still, For I am bringing evil from the north, And great destruction… Jeremiah chapter 6, verse 22 (Jer 6:22): …Behold, there is a people coming from the north, And a great nation will be stirred up from the remote parts of the north… And then I have here on the screen Ezekiel chapter 39, verse 2 (Ezek 39:2) which says: …and I will turn you around and drive you on, take you up from the remotest parts of the north and bring you against the mountains of Israel… So the reason why the first black horse goes north of Jerusalem is that is the part of the country that all of Israel’s invaders entered from the north. So we believe that the north here is a reference to Babylon, cause Babylon entered through the north. So that’s why the black horse goes north and then the white horse goes after the black horse also to the north and then the spotted horse, the dappled horse goes south. Now, what is south of the nation of Israel is Egypt and that’s a big deal because Egypt is where the nation of Israel went into captivity for four hundred years.
Egypt is one of the ancient enemies of the nation of Israel and so you got Babylon and Egypt. These horses in judgment are going to Babylon and are going to Egypt and it makes sense because those are the perennial enemies of Israel. 39:06
Charles L. Feinberg – God Remembers: A Study of Zechariah (Wheaton: Van Kampen, 1950, p. 79.
“The special prophetic application of what Zechariah had beheld was at that moment connected with the king of Babylon on the north [Jer. 1:14, 15; 25:9] and Egypt on the south. Between these two powers God would sustain His feeble flock, checkmating every effort to destroy them till Messiah should Himself appear.”
Charles Feinberg writes: The special prophetic application of what Zechariah had beheld was at that moment connected with the king of Babylon on the north and Egypt on the south… And I love this next sentence here… Between these two powers God would sustain His feeble flock, checkmating every effort to destroy them till Messiah should Himself appear… Now, how come, and this is why I misspoke earlier, I said one of the horses go west and that’s not what verse 6 says, Why do we have no horse going west? Well, what’s west to the nation of Israel?
The Mediterranean Sea, so no enemies are going to come through the Mediterranean Sea, at least not in the time of Zechariah. How come no horse go east? Well, when you go east, according to Dr. Constable you run into a mountainous area and you also run into the Arabian Desert and that Arabian Desert, now mountain Assyria, made it difficult to attack Israel from the east. Remember when Abraham was called from the land of the Chaldeans in the east? He had to sort of travel up? What was it? To Damascus and then come down, why didn’t he just come straight across? Because of this mountainous region and this Arabian Desert made it difficult. So that’s why no horse goes to the east and no horse goes to the west but they do go to the north cause that’s where their enemies including Babylon entered the country, and they do go south to Egypt.
Thomas L. Constable – Constable’s online notes on Zechariah, p. 64-65.
“Because of the geography of Palestine [Israel], all of Israel’s enemies came against her from the north or from the south; the Mediterranean Sea on the west, and the Arabian Desert on the east, prohibited major foreign invasions from those directions.”
“Since the chariots went in compass directions, we should probably understand their judgment to be universal (cf. 2:6; Jer. 49:36; Ezek. 37:9; Rev. 7:1). They went north and south out of Palestine [Israel], but they executed judgment in every direction. The total picture is of God executing His judgments against all nations that oppose Israel.”
Dr Constable says: Because of the geography of Israel, all of Israel’s enemies came against her from the north or from the south; the Mediterranean Sea was on the west, and the Arabian Desert on the east, prohibited major foreign invasions from those directions… Now, when these horses go out, are they only going to the north and to the south? I think that Dr. Constable is of the perspective that there’s going to be a lot more judgment than just that. It’s going to sweep across the whole globe one day and that would corroborate with what we know from the book of Revelation which speaks a worldwide judgment in the end times. So he says: Since the chariots went in compass directions, we should probably understand their judgment to be universal. They went north and south out of Israel, but they executed judgment in every direction. The total picture is of God executing His judgments against all nations that oppose Israel… (close quote) Think about being a returnee from the captivity and just facing problem after problem after problem as you’re trying to rebuild the temple. Think how discouraged you would get and suddenly, Zechariah in his eighth-night vision sees this and explains it to the returnees, showing them that all the people that are harassing them, God is going to deal with them dramatically in judgment and think about how that would be an encouragement to you, because you may be here tonight oppressed by all kinds of godless things or forces and we need that same word from the Lord that whatever is oppressing you, by way of godlessness, God is keeping a record of it and the day’s going to come when He’s going to deal dramatically with all of these godless forces that are constantly opposing and oppressing His people. 43:11
You go down to verse 7 and it says of Zechariah chapter 6, verse 7 (Zech 6:7): When the strong ones went out… These are these horses, dragging these chariots… When the strong ones went out… Look at this… they were eager to go to patrol the earth. And He said, Go, patrol the earth. So they patrolled the earth… So, these horses are going out in judgment and they are also patrolling the earth and it’s not like these horses are upset that God is sending them, they are eager to go and this is how you can tell when God is calling you to do something. God will put the desire to do it, I believe in a person’s heart, where they don’t have to be coerced to do it, they don’t have to be talked into doing it, they already want to do it and they’re just waiting for the opportunity to do it and that’s why it’s important for us to pay attention to the desires of our hearts, I’m not talking about the sinful desires that we can have, what I’m talking about are God implanted desires. I mean, those are things that God actually uses as ways of showing us what His will for our life is in all kinds of different areas. Psalm 37 and verse 4 (Psalm 37:4) says: Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you… What?… the desires of your heart… He doesn’t say, delight yourself in the Lord and yeah, God is going to give you desires and then He’s going to spend the rest of your life saying ha ha ha, I’m not going to fulfill those desires. I mean, that’s contrary to the way God works. So I had a youth pastor years ago that put it this way, he said: God doesn’t give us everything we want but He does control if you let Him, He will control our “wanter,” you know, what we want to do in terms of… I’m not talking about flesh or sin, I’m just talking about godly desires, so whatever it is God has put in our heart, it’s just a matter of waiting for the opportunity to do it and that’s how you can tell if a person is called to do something. I mean, they just want to do it. They don’t have to be yelled at, screamed at, motivated, cajoled, and that’s a good way of dealing with a church and trying to find people for different ministries. I mean, if you have to bring someone, you know, you have to drag them kicking and screaming to do something, chances are they are probably not called to do it, but if they have a basic desire to do it, that can become a really good sign and it also helps if they’re good at whatever it is they want to do. We have some people that want to sing up front and it’s like thanks but no thanks, cause you might have a lot of desire but you don’t have a lot of talent, sorry (laughs). So desire and talent is a pretty good combination because God is the author of both, amen? I’m talking about myself, of course, up here singing. 46:52
Alright, so these horses are going out and they want to go out, they’re eager, that’s what verse 7 it’s talking about; and then, we come to our last verse, verse 8, the destruction of the north, which would be Babylon.
II. The Interpretation – (Zech 6:4-8)
A. Zechariah’s Question (Zech 6:4)
B. Four Spirits Patrolling the Earth (Zech 6:5-7)
C. Destruction of the Land of the North (Zech 6:8)
Verse 8 (Zech 6:8): Then He cried out to me and spoke to me saying, See, those who are going to the land of the north have appeased My wrath in the land of the north… So the Lord here is actually now calling out to Zechariah, it used to be an angel taking to him earlier in the chapter, but here the Lord is actually calling out to Zechariah, I should say, in this vision and he speaks about the land in the north and what is the land of the north? We basically believe it’s Babylon, although Babylon is in the east as we tried to explain earlier, she had to enter the land from the north.
This is our second reference to Babylon, we think. We think Babylon is mentioned in verse 6 (Zech 6:6), the north country and now it’s mentioned again as a land of the north, verse 8 (Zech 6:8). Babylon here doesn’t get just one reference, prophetic reference, she gets two. It’s very interesting that in Isaiah’s oracles against the nations he mentions Babylon, not once but twice.
Every nation in Isaiah’s oracles against the nations, Isaiah, 13 through 23, gets one reference but not Babylon, she gets two references and Zechariah here is given, just in the span of a few verses, Babylon two references. Why two references?
Charles L. Feinberg – God Remembers: A Study of Zechariah (Wheaton: Van Kampen, 1950, p. 79.
“Why, then, is Babylon again before us in verse 8? First, it would serve to comfort and encourage the returned remnant of Israel that had come from Babylon. Second, the Babylonian world-empire, as a matter of history, had already experienced the judgment of God in her overthrow and downfall. Third, it is where that wickedness will again be established and finally extirpated. Cf. 5:11. In the end time, the coming of Christ again in the establishment of His kingdom in righteousness will be preceded by final judgment on wicked Babylon.”
Charles Feinberg writes in his Zechariah commentary: Why, then, is Babylon again before us in verse 8?… Now he starts to give us some reasons… First, it would serve as a comfort and encouragement… and encourage the returned remnant of Israel that had come from Babylon. Second, the Babylonian world-empire, as a matter of history, had already experienced the judgment of God in her overthrow and downfall… I would add, at the hands of the Persians, more on that in just a second… Third, it is where the wickedness will again be established and finally be extirpated. In the end time… Do you know what “extirpated” means? I had to look that up, it means to be rooted out, I love these guys that wrote commentaries in the 1950’s. They had like a real vocabulary, they don’t do what we do today, LOL and all these little things we… I mean, you know, we’ve got this little twitter, texting world that we’re living in where we don’t have to communicate with each other with real vocabulary words anymore. Go back to the pre-social media world and you’ll see like a real vocabulary to the point where you’re reading stuff and you have to look it up in a dictionary. I was trying to explain this to my daughter cause I was saying, what does extirpated mean? Why don’t we look it up in the dictionary? She’s like, why don’t you just google it? (laughs) I mean, she… the whole concept of a dictionary it’s kind of foreign to her. So I had to pull it down and explained that in the old days when mom and dad were growing up and we used to, you know, hike uphill to school both ways in the snow, barefoot, fighting Indians the whole way, you know, we used to actually look up words in the dictionary. So “extirpated” means to be rooted out. Feinberg says: In the end time, the coming of Christ again in the establishment of His kingdom in righteousness will be preceded by final judgment on wicked Babylon… I think that’s why Babylon is mentioned twice here, because Babylon fell to the Persians in the past, Zechariah’s generation basically experienced that and it’s also going to fall at the second coming because it’s going to be the headquarters of the antichrist as we tried to explain last week. 51:50
You might remember, last week, in Zechariah chapter 5, verses 5 through 11 (Zech 5:5-11) there’s a very clear reference to the fact that a temple of evil is going to be reconstructed one day in the land of Shinar. The land of Shinar is a technical word, a technical word is a word that always means the same thing every time it’s used, it’s used six times. Shinar always refers to the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris, modern day Iraq. It’s where the Tower of Babel once stood, it’s likely that the garden of Eden was once in that area and it’s also where the children of Israel had been taken into captivity for seventy years. Zechariah’s audience having just come back from that and it’s also where the Antichrist’s empire will one day be, the headquarters of it. So as Solomon said, you know, there’s nothing new under the sun, meaning history is cyclical. Where everything started is exactly where everything is going to end.
Charles L. Feinberg – God Remembers: A Study of Zechariah (Wheaton: Van Kampen, 1950, p. 91.
“The first mention of Shinar in the Bible is in Genesis 10:10. (It is found in all, six other times: Gen. 11:2; 14:1, 9; Isa. 11:11; Dan. 1:2; and here). In all instances where it occurs it is used as a definite geographical designation. Strictly speaking it covers more than Babylon but is it is employed to denote this land.”
So Charles Feinberg says: The first mention of Shinar in the Bible is in Genesis 10:10. It is found in all, six other times… And there are the references there on the screen (Gen. 11:2; 14:1, 9; Isa. 11:11; Dan. 1:2; and here). He says: In all instances… that’s a technical word, a word that always means the same thing. It’s rare to find a technical word in any language, because most words have multiple meanings but not Shinar, it always means the same thing. He says: In all instances, where it occurs it is used of a definite geographical designation… And he goes on and you know, locates it there in the land of Babylon. 53:54
One other quick phrase here, there in verse 8 (Zech 6:8), you see the expression “appeased My wrath”? It says: Then He cried out to me and spoke to me saying, See, those who are going to the land of the north and have appeased My wrath in the land of the north… Why was God’s wrath already appeased? Because Babylon had fallen to the Persians. Just as Babylon has a future role and a future fall. She also had a past fall. The past fall was when she fell to the Persians in Daniel chapter 5, that’s the handwriting on the wall chapter.
Daniel chapter 5, verses 24 through 28 (Dan 5:24-28) talks about the last reigning king of Neo-Babylonia, a man named Belshazzar who thought he was invincible because of the high walls around Babylon and he went and retrieved the vessels, which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Jewish temple, when Nebuchadnezzar brought the Jews into the captivity and he took those holy vessels that were for holy uses and poured alcohol in them and they drank the night away in an inebriated state, taking God’s holy vessels and using them for profane purposes. In the moment they did that a hand appeared, Daniel, 5, and wrote on the wall: Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin… Which basically means numbered, numbered and divided. So… and they have to bring Daniel out of retirement to interpret it cause no one understood what it meant. So they bring this old man out and Daniel explains it that since Daniel as a youth had been given abilities to interpret dreams and things from God, he explains that this very night, your kingdom is going to be divided and you yourself are going to be killed Belshazzar and Belshazzar took a robe of purple and gold and bedecked Daniel. I think it says purple and gold, I think it says it three times in Daniel, 5. So when you read Revelation, 17, about the harlot bedecked in purple and gold, your mind should go back to ancient Babylon and I bring that up cause everybody misses that, they track it into the Roman Catholic priests vestments but it’s very simple, purple and gold. You’ll find it in Daniel, 5, three times, which represents Babylon and exactly what Daniel said happened. The kingdom was conquered by the Persians, it was divided between the Medes and the Persians and Belshazzar who thought he was invincible was killed that night. It’s all in Daniel, 5, in the Bible for you to read. 57:18
My professor Harold Hoehner, who’s now with the Lord, who was one of the greatest Bible chronologists that has ever lived in my opinion. He could give you dates on everything with all of these ancient calendars, I don’t even understand how he came up with these dates but I memorized all the dates. He said this took place Saturday night, is that specific enough? Saturday night, October the 12th, 539 BC and that’s when Babylon fell to the Persians and the way it happened, I think I’ve gone over this before so I won’t read all of these quotes but they, the Persians diverted the water of the Euphrates, allowing them to go under the walls of Babylon, that Belshazzar felt was making them invincible and the Persians tunnelled under the walls and the Persians conquered the Babylonians without there even being a battle.
Herodotus, Histories, 1:191 (450 B.C.)
“…he (Cyrus) conducted the river by a channel into the lake…and so he made the former course of the river passable by the sinking of the stream. When this had been done, the Persians who had been posted for this very purpose entered by the bed of the river Euphrates into Babylon, the stream having sunk so far that it reached about to the middle of a man’s thigh…those Babylonians who dwelt in the middle did not know that they had been captured…”
Herodotus writing within a hundred years of this event says: …those Babylonians who dwelt in the middle did not know that they had been captured… I mean, think about that, think about drinking alcohol out of holy vessels from the temple because you don’t care about God at all and you think you’re invincible because of the walls around Babylon and that very night you’re being conquered without a battle. 59:02
So the next time we think of ourselves as invincible, we probably need to rethink that, because when you’re at your point where you think you’re most invincible, that’s when you’re most vulnerable. That’s what Daniel, 5, says; and Cyrus, who was involved in this conquest, conquered Babylon without even a battle and so that’s why God says in verse 8 (Zech 6:8) looking back at past Babylon, My wrath has been appeased, but it hasn’t been perfectly appeased cause he had to destroy Babylon yet future, Revelation, 17 and 18.
So, all this is a tremendous word from God to the struggling exiles who were trying to rebuild the temple, the returnees that all the nations that are harassing you, God is going to curse, which comes right out of Genesis 12:3 concerning Israel, God says: And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse… Just mark it down as a matter of history, any nation that has monkeyed with God’s chosen people finds itself on the ash heap of human history whether it’s Babylon of the past, Persia, Greece, Rome or the Antichrist’s future empire and I believe this is one of the reasons God has blessed America, because here’s a letter from George Washington which I don’t think I have time to read to you tonight but he got America on the right side of the ledger early on by being a blessing to the Jewish people.
He visited a synagogue that you can visit today in Newport, Rhode Island called the “Touro Synagogue” and it’s the first synagogue ever built in the United States and George Washington actually went there to visit for a service, a worship service and he wrote to them, he wrote to that synagogue the same day in August 18 of 1790 and he wrote: May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, The United States, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid… And what he gave to the Jewish people was an absolute gift cause everywhere they’ve gone they’ve been persecuted. He says, it’s not going to be that way here in the United States, you can worship as you want and no one’s going to harass you, no one’s going to throw rocks through your store windows, as Adolf Hitler did and I believe that’s the reason God has blessed the United States, and I’m sort of troubled when I see our political leaders moving away from this and I see “the Squad” as Trump used to call them saying a bunch of antisemitic statements. I mean, that bothers me because if that becomes the norm in the United States, God will shut down the United States just like He shut down any other nation in world history that has come against the Jewish people. 1:02:45
So that’s the Four Chariots, the vision, the interpretation, we’re finished now with the eight-night visions and next week, look at this, end of chapter 6 where we have the Crowning of Joshua the High Priest, which is a picture of the end game that God has for Israel.
II. Eight Night Visions (Zech 1:7‒6:15)
1. Riders & horses among the myrtle trees (Zech 1:7-17)
2. Four horns & four craftsmen (Zech 1:18-21)
3. Man with the measuring line (Zech 2)
4. Cleansing of the High Priest Joshua (Zech 3)
5. Lampstand & olive tree (Zech 4)
6. Flying scroll (Zech 5:1-4)
7. Woman in the basket (Zech 5:5-11)
8. Four chariots (Zech 6:1-8)
9. Conclusion: crowning of Joshua (Zech 6:9-15)
It’s a type of the Messiah ruling the whole world as king priest in perfect peace and righteousness for a thousand years. So, we’ll see that next time. It’s 8:03, if you all have to pick up your kids, etc… this would be a good time to do that…
