Project 119: Zechariah 1:7-21
| Project 119 | Amy Hirsch
After Zechariah heard a word from the Lord calling the people to repent, he experienced eight visions all happening on a single night (talk about a night of crazy dreams...except these weren’t just dreams - they were visions from the Lord!). Each vision uses apocalyptic imagery and the symbolic language can be confusing! We could spend all of our time trying to figure out exactly what each symbol means (for example, who exactly are the horns in verses 18-21?!?), but when we approach the prophets this way, we miss what is at the core of their message—and often, that’s a declaration of God’s character.
The horsemen in the first vision, “whom the LORD has sent to patrol the earth” (Zechariah 2:10, ESV), bring a report that everything is at rest and peace. This might seem like good news, but it’s a frustrating word for the Israelites, who are expecting God to overthrow their enemies. Certainly the Lord has used Babylon and Assyria as His instruments, to bring judgment on His people, but Isaiah and Jeremiah tell us that these foreign oppressors heaped evil upon evil on God’s people. They went beyond what He commanded in their punishment and “furthered the disaster” (Zechariah 1:15, ESV). The seventy years of exile Jeremiah predicted were hard and cruel, and the Israelites longed to experience the mercy of God.
The vision that Zechariah receives is full of “gracious and comforting words” (Zechariah 1:13, ESV). God reminds His people that He has chosen them. Despite their sin, they are still His people. He is committed to them and loves them with an all-consuming love, a love that jealously demands their attention, a love that requires that nothing else be put before Him (Exodus 20:3). He promises that the temple will be completed, that the city will overflow with prosperity, that He will be their God and they will be His people. And in Zechariah’s second vision of the four horns and craftsmen, the Lord reminds the Israelites that He is a God who does not allow sin to go unpunished. Those who brought destruction upon Israel and showed no mercy will face the judgment of God.
It’s encouraging how these words are true for us today, aren’t they? As we walk through suffering and look at the brokenness of the world, it can be hard to see God at work. Like the saints in Revelation 6:10, we also cry out, asking God “How long?” How long will You let war and destruction continue? How long will You allow evil to continue unanswered? And like the saints, we are told to wait a little longer. In these two visions, God reminds us that He is a God who is committed to His people and who loves us fiercely. He has not given up on us, and He promises that a day is coming when we will be able to see the renewal in our land, the New Jerusalem, with our own eyes. He also declares that He is a God who punishes evil—He will not allow Satan to have the last word.
Zechariah 1:7-21 (ESV):
A Vision of a Horseman
7 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, 8 “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. 9 Then I said, ‘What are these, my lord?’ The angel who talked with me said to me, ‘I will show you what they are.’ 10 So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, ‘These are they whom the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.’ 11 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.’ 12 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?’ 13 And the LORD answered gracious and comforting words to the angel who talked with me. 14 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. 15 And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster. 16 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. 17 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.’”
A Vision of Horns and Craftsmen
18 And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns! 19 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.” 20 Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen.21 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.”