Zechariah 1:7-
Notes
Transcript
Here we start this section that opens our entire section of eight vision and our first verse tonight seems to indicate that Zechariah received all these visions on the same night. Feb 15, 519BC.
On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying,
We’re not going to make it through all these vision in one night however. We’ll take our time to understand them. Sometimes they’re very helpful and just make clear to us what they mean in a fairly clear way. The first vision is very short.
“I saw in the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses.
These are all colors as other translations might make clearer. NIV has red, brown and white. This seems at first like it’s the entire vision. In one sense it is but we continue on from within the vision having this picture explained to us. It’s extra helpful when we don’t have to make up what’s happening here and the Bible just tells us.
Then I said, ‘What are these, my lord?’ The angel who talked with me said to me, ‘I will show you what they are.’ So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, ‘These are they whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth.’ And they answered the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, and said, ‘We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth remains at rest.’ Then the angel of the Lord said, ‘O Lord of hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these seventy years?’
The earth at rest seems like a good thing but it is clearly a negative. Nothing is happening and God’s people have not been fully restored. If you remember that there was a 70 year decree about captivity in Babylon by Jeremiah that Daniel was aware of there is also that understanding here. Two possibilities exist and I think it’s possible that both are each in their own way the 70 years. from 605BC and the first deportation to 535BC when the very first people are able to return is one set of 70. From 586BC of the destruction of the temple to 516BC (yet future for these people) when the temple is rebuilt. The people of this time clearly were also confused about how this 70 year thing worked and were asking if the 70 years was really up or not?
And the Lord answered gracious and comforting words to the angel who talked with me. So the angel who talked with me said to me, ‘Cry out, Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster.
Therefore, thus says the Lord, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be built in it, declares the Lord of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. Cry out again, Thus says the Lord of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.’ ”
Vision 2
And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns! And I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these?” And he said to me, “These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. And I said, “What are these coming to do?” He said, “These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one raised his head. And these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.”