Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

As we get ready to walk through this chapter tonight, we know that through the pages of God’s Holy Word that we see just how powerful and wonderful our God is....

He is a wonderful God and a healer.... Pray for Jenny.

Now lets move forward in our passage....

We will look at the first 8 verses to begin with today

The first 8 verses speak to what is called the eighth vision, the 4 Chariots

Verse 1 begins with Zechariah again beholding something strange and yet wonderful in his eyes.

What he sees is 4 chariots..

And these 4 chariots come blazing out, riding out of where two mountains are.. so essentially they are coming out of the valley like area that exists between these two mountains.

The mountains are described as bronze in nature… The word bronze here points us back to the visions of Daniel.

One kingdom is refereed to as bronze in nature.

The number 4 indicates the nature of the judgments to come, 4 speaks to the universal nature of these judgments.

The mountains, and the valley we can most likely put a name on, the valley of Jehoshaphat.

it lay between Mount Moriah and Mount Olivet.

Olivet speaks to Zion itself, God’s city… Jerusalem.

This is the city of God.. and from His holy city he speaks and sends his judgment and wrath upon the world.

Thus we have him sending the 4 chariots.

Verse 2-3.

The chariots are spoken off, more meaning

The red chariot implies carnage and war

Black speaks to sorrow sadness and also famine ;

White reminds us of joy and victory

And the last one, dappled, grizzled - it speaks of a mixed dispensation, there will be a time of prosperity and adversity...

All of them strong… So the horses and chariots can not be defeated

Verse 4

Zechariah asks the angel a question, he asks them to identify what all of this meant , what were these things he was seeing...

Verse 5

These are the the 4 spirits of heaven, the chariots speak to the speed with which they go forth, and they stand before the Lord.

They receive the commands of God and they take them spedily to and throughout the earth.

let me share , verse 17

and also psalm 34:7

Verse 6

The north country speaks to what is in the north, and it is Babylon,

Jeremiah is speaking to the coming captivity from Babylon.

Now the children of Israel have returned from the north

The black horses” go to Babylon, primarily to represent the awful desolation with which Darius visited it in the fifth year of his reign (two years after this prophecy) for revolting [HENDERSON].

The “white” go after the “black” horses to the same country; two sets being sent to it because of its greater cruelty and guilt in respect to Judea.

Babylon would be defeated by Darius and Cyrus… Darius and Cruys would be defeated by Greece, and Alexander in the days to come..

The dappled or grizzled ones are going to the south, that is where Egypt is located.

They are the other great foe of God’s people.

King Josiah the last good king of Israel who was turning the hearts of the people back to God, he is mortality wounded in a battle with Pharoah Necho.

Josiah would make it back to Jerusalem, but would die and the nation would fall back into the hands of wicked kings and thus would head toward captivity , punishment because of sin

If God can use one man to help turn the nation back to him., could he not do the same with you...

Now verses 7-8

All four horses go out with the chariots to patrol the earth.

And verse 8 it says it set my Spirit at rest, namely it has quieted his anger.

Remember in the north, that is where babylon is located..

Babylon alone of the four great world kingdoms had in Zechariah’s time been finally punished; therefore, in its case alone does God now say His anger is satisfied; the others had as yet to expiate their sin; the fourth has still to do so.

The black horses” go to Babylon, primarily to represent the awful desolation with which Darius visited it in the fifth year of his reign (two years after this prophecy) for revolting [HENDERSON].

The “white” go after the “black” horses to the same country; two sets being sent to it because of its greater cruelty and guilt in respect to Judea.

Verse 9-15 begin a section called the ninth vision: The Crowning of Joshua

The message or vision of the Lord came down to Zechariah again and this is what he saw...

Verse 10… The message comes that three who were previously in exile should be chosen, Heldai, Tobijah and Jedeiah.. IN fact these are some of the newest who have returned from captivity.

They bring gifts for the building of the temple.

Heldai means robust and is called Helem below

Tobijah means the goodness of God

Jedaiah is that God knows

They are to go to the house of Josiah and there

Verse 11

They are to take the gift they brought for the temple, but the Lord has another idea… He desires a crown to be made for the head of Josiah...

The king and Messiah would wear a crown, and the high Priest would wear a crown....

But for one to wear a crown of both king and priest.... this was unheard off in the past.

Josiah is a picture of the coming Messiah who would be both King and Preist

Verse 12

Behold the man, these are the same words Pilate spoke in .

The sense here is, “Behold in Joshua a remarkable shadowing forth of Messiah.”

It is not for his own sake that the crown is placed on him, but as type of Messiah about to be at once king and priest.

The sense here is, “Behold in Joshua a remarkable shadowing forth of Messiah.”

It is not for his own sake that the crown is placed on him, but as type of Messiah about to be at once king and priest.

Joshua could not personally be crowned king, not being of the royal line of David, but only in his representative character.

From this man, something wonderful is coming, a branch is a picture like a shoot from the stump of Jesse.

Listen to jer 23 verse 5

Babylon alone of the four great world kingdoms had in Zechariah’s time been finally punished; therefore, in its case alone does God now say His anger is satisfied; the others had as yet to expiate their sin; the fourth has still to do so.

And He shall build the temple of the Lord...

The promise here is a future true building of the spiritual temple by the Messiah.

The material or physical Temple would be build by Joshua and Zerubbabel, in spite of many obstacles, they will build it.

The spiritual temple is the Messiah… Jesus said if anyone tears this temple down, It owuld be restored in 3 days...

Verse 13

Only one has the authority to build and sit in this temple...

The word sit is important… it implies security and permanence.

The final words makes me think of the message Isaiah the prophet spoke off…

Now verses 14-15

14. the crowns shall be to Helem … a memorial—deposited in the temple, to the honor of the donors; a memorial, too, of the coronation of Joshua, to remind all of Messiah, the promised antitypical king-priest, soon to come.

Helem, the same as Heldai above.

So Hen (that is, “favor”) is another name for Josiah (that is, “God founds”) above.

The same person often had two names.

15. they … far off shall … build—The reason why the crowns were made of gold received from afar, namely, from the Jews of Babylon, was to typify the conversion of the Gentiles to Messiah, King of Israel.

This, too, was included in the “peace” spoken of in Zec 6:13 (Ac 2:39; Eph 2:12–17).

Primarily, however, the return of the dispersed Israelites “from afar” (Is 60:9) to the king of the Jews at Jerusalem

build in the temple—Christ “builds the temple” (Zec 6:12, 13; Zec 6:12, 13, Heb 3:3, 4): His people “build in the temple.”

Compare Heb 3:2, “Moses in His house.”

ye shall know, &c.—when the event corresponds to the prediction (Zec 2:9; 4:9).

this shall come to pass, if ye … obey, &c.—To the Jews of Zechariah’s day a stimulus is given to diligent prosecution of the temple building, the work which it was meanwhile their duty to fulfil, relying on the hope of the Messiah afterwards to glorify it.

The completion of the temple shall “come to pass,” if ye diligently on your part “obey the Lord.”

It is not meant that their unbelief could set aside God’s gracious purpose as to Messiah’s coming.

But there is, secondarily, meant, that Messiah’s glory as priest-king of Israel shall not be manifested to the Jews till they turn to Him with obedient penitence.

They meanwhile are cast away “branches” until they be grafted in again on the Branch and their own olive tree (Zec 3:8; 12:10–12; Mt 23:39; Ro 11:16–24).