Sermon Tone Analysis
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*The Lord Remembers*
* *
*Responsive Reading: Psalm 25.1-7 *
*Hymn: *
*Text: Zechariah 1.12-21*
* *
*Introduction: *In verse 12, the Angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Mediator, asks the question, “How long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem?”
Doesn’t this hit at the heart of the matter for them?
And, for you?
You think about your own trials, afflictions and sorrows and generally, the question eventually comes up, “How long?”
God’s people sinned greatly.
I remind you of 2 Chronicles 36, “They mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy.”
After 70 years are completed, then God moves a heathen king to return the children back to their land and gives them permission to rebuild the temple of God.
However, oppositions arise.
Obstacles “frustrate their purpose” all the days of Cyrus even until the reign of Darius until the “work of the house of God… (finally) ceases.”
Because the returnees coward in fear of the severe opposition and because they soon become complacent in their fear of these men.
We find them ignoring the provisions and commands of God to rebuild the temple.
They become concerned more with their own land, buildings and profits.
They begin to fit in very well in the culture and people of the land.
So, we now come to the Prophecy of Zechariah.
The Word of the Lord comes to Zechariah, “Say to them, Return to Me.”
We first have a Call to Repentance in verse 1-7 and then in the midst of severe opposition and oppression, The Lord gives a Glorious Consolation of Good and Comforting Words.
But, all they have are words.
There is no deliverance.
There is no change, only these words.
But, they are the Words of the Mighty God, the Lord.
They will overtake.
What He says will transpire.
The prophet receives the first vision and sinks down in meditation.
Certainly, this must have overwhelmed him.
Surely, he had many questions.
How will this happen?
When will this transpire?
Now we find the Lord immediately revealing to him His provision for the destruction of his enemies.
The beauty of this passage is that The Lord Remembers.
He has not forgotten His people and left them to be destroyed.
I want to preach to you today under this topic – “The Lord Remembers.”
*I.
The Four Horns Scatter the Lord’s people.*
This vision delivers the assurance of what God promised in good and comforting words showing the provision of the Lord repelling the enemies of His people.
/“Do not be afraid nor dismayed because /(of them),/ *for the battle is not yours, but God’s*.”/
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The prophet asks a good question: “What are these?”
The horn commonly symbolizes strength and power in Scripture.
There is much dispute over what these Four Horns symbolize.
Do they refer to kings or empires?
Many scholars believe they do, but they dispute over who.
The answers vary from those in the past (from the time of the vision) such as Assyria, Egypt, Babylonia and Medo-Persia to include those in the future such as Greece and Rome.
It appears to be the nations who were past and present enemies; such as, Assyria, Egypt, Babylonia and Medo-Persia, if we take this vision as a continuation of the first vision.
See verse 15.
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To get really at the heart of the vision is to concentrate not so much on who these are specifically, but on what they did.
They scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem and the manner in which they did this was the issue.
Verse 15 again states they did it with “evil intent.”
The word used here to describe the “scattering” is /ra‛ra//̂//‛a//̂//h//./
It signifies both the evil intent and the consequences of it, that is, the calamity it caused.
This is why the Lord says, they helped or furthered it along, although the Lord was “a little angry.”
You have this same spirit in the time of the “Dark Ages.”
William Tyndale translates the Bible into the English language and they kill him.
But, the hatred is so venomous that they 100 years later dig his bones up and burn them.
It really doesn’t matter the identification of the Four Horns, but that they scattered God’s people.
They did such a job of it that in verse 21 we are told that “no one could lift up his head.”
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So, then what about the number Four?
What is the significance of Four Horns?
It indicates that they came from every direction: north, south, west and east.
It includes all possible enemies.
“There was” as is stated at the end of 2 Chronicles, “no Remedy.”
No one could escape.
The Divine Judgment is always complete.
Whenever the wrath of God comes down, there is no escape.
Nothing is left undone.
“What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; and what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.”
Joel 1.4
*II.
The Four Craftsmen Terrify and Cast Down the Four Horns.*
* *
A. Who then are the Four Craftsmen?
Notice, the Prophet’s question, “What are these coming to do?”
He is not interested in what they are as much as he is in what they are coming to do!
It ought to help us understand this vision.
Two things should be evident to us: Number and Purpose.
B. Notice, 1st, there are four and not three Craftsmen, equally matching each Horn.
They simply express the various powers, which God raises up and uses to overthrow those agencies in hostility to His people.
Each Horn rises up to do his work, but every Craftsman rises up to overthrow that Horn.
C. 2nd, They have a purpose.
The Lord raises tem up to terrify and cast it down each Horn.
They are Divinely Suitable Instruments.
Each Horn symbolizes the greatest power and strength in the world at its time.
Don’t your particular trials and situations appear equally overbearing?
Are you not left in the position of these Jews, not able to “lift up your head?”
How severe things can get!
How troubling and evil days are!
It is important to remember that phrase from 2 Chronicles – “no remedy.”
*All is hopeless – unless – well, unless God!* The Craftsmen are perfectly suitable in terrifying the Horns.
How is it possible?
Were not the Horns terrifying?
The word translated Craftsmen is chârâsh.
It literally is fabricator of any material.
It can refer to carpenters, masons, smiths or engravers.
They beat, cut, carved and shaved.
They were strong, powerful and skillful men.
They were quite capable men.
They may forge steel, but they had an artist touch to delicately carve or engrave beautiful works of art in stone, wood or precious metals.
But what significance was this to our text.
They powerfully and adequately brought terror to the Horns because of their ability to handle the Horns with power and skill.
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