Zechariah 1:18 Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns.
19 And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.
20 And the LORD shewed me four carpenters.
21 Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.
What happens when truth is no longer accepted?
Isaiah 59:14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
15 Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.
16 And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.
17 For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.
There was a problem in Isaiah’s day. The rulers of Israel at that time had forsaken God. They were so corrupted by their pagan involvement that they could not even see what the problem was. It is not that the truth was not available. When people corrupt themselves with lies, they lose the ability to discern truth.
We face the same problem today. The majority of the media and the politicians are anti-God. They spin lies and the majority of people have no way of discerning the lies. When people deny the Truth, there is no hope. At the time of Zechariah the Jews were in trouble as well. They had spent seventy years in captivity. Few had learned the lesson so essential to their life. Few had acknowledged the sins of their fathers and thus were still duplicating those sins. God did not wipe them out. He sent Zechariah, among others, to encourage them to reconsider their course of action. God is good. He is merciful. He is also just.
As we see here again, Zechariah was given several visions from the LORD. He was not a modern day charismatic false teacher. He was a true prophet of God who was called to speak to his own people and also to write down the Words that God gave him. His Words are inspired of God. The charismatics’ words are either imagined or from the god of this world.
In verse 18 Zechariah saw four horns. God used illustrations at times to bring home an important point. We need to remember that during Zechariah’s time, the Scriptures were not yet complete. Thus God would sometimes use visions to illustrate a truth. Today we have the completed Scriptures which include those visions of the past. Sometimes we do not understand what those visions were about. Other times God tells us what they were about.
We are not given visions from God today. We do not need visions today. We have the completed Word of God.
We know from the Scriptures that horns were a picture of power. The brazen altar had four horns. They were there to show the power of God to forgive sins. They were also there as places to tie down the animal that was being sacrificed. We know that when an animal is killed, the nerves will still act in an independent manner. I am also told that when a body is cremated, it jumps around as it is being burned.
In verse 19 Zechariah asked the meaning of the horns he saw. He was told they were the horns which scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. The Babylonians came into Jerusalem and overwhelmed the Jews and broke down the walls and stripped the temple and destroyed it. They also took captives and killed others. The Jews had no defence against them, because God had removed His hand of protection from them. God brought the Babylonians in to punish His people because they refused to listen to the prophets He sent them.
In verse 20 we read that the LORD shewed Zechariah four carpenters. In verse 21 we read that Zechariah again asked for clarification. Zechariah did not ignore what he saw. He did not dismiss it as irrelevant. I heard a man downplay Bible prophecy the other day. He suggested that the Bible prophecy was not as important as that which was directed at us now. That man is wrong in his thinking. No part of Scripture is irrelevant or of less importance than some other part. It is all inspired of God and is all profitable for us.
II Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
We must be careful when we study God’s Word. We must remember that we should be studying It to meet with God’s approval. We are not studying It to try to impress people. There is no harm in admitting we do not understand something in the Scriptures. It is wrong to ignore what God says and dismiss Bible prophecy because we do not like what it says.
In verse 21 the angel answered Zechariah on this second vision as well. He reminded him again that the horns were a picture of the scattering of Judah, causing great shame and humiliation for the Jews. Many of them could not understand why God was not protecting them. The reason for that was because they ignored the words of the prophets. God warned them many times of the danger of rejecting Him.
The carpenters were sent by God to cause the enemies of God, the horns, to tremble and quake. The enemies of God wrongly assumed the reason they could successfully invade Jerusalem was because their gods were greater than the God of Israel. The fact was and is that the true God is greater than all and He needs to punish His children to get their attention and also to warn others of the danger of rejecting Him.
As we have already noted, God sent Daniel and Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah into Babylon as captives. Those four men were wiser than the many other captives that went into Babylon. Those four men chose to believe in God even though they were taken captive. They understood their captivity was not because God could not protect them. In fact they would trust God to protect them in a very hostile environment. God did not let them down. Nebuchadnezzar and his false counsellors witnessed the power of God at work through those four men.
When we look at verse 21 of our text, we must keep in mind that this is after the seventy years of exile. This was after God moved in the heart of the foreign king to let the Jews go back to their homeland. God was going to cast out the horns of the Gentiles. He was not going to allow the Gentiles to continue to oppress the Jews. God did that in part in the time of Zechariah. God allowed the Jews to go back home. He told them to rebuild the walls and the temple. Nehemiah led the work of rebuilding the walls. Ezra and a few others like Zechariah were tasked with encouraging the Jews to rebuild the temple. The Gentiles would not interfere with that work. The interference came from Jews who had not learned the lessons of the seventy years in exile. They had not repented and trusted in the Lord.
In spite of that fact, God was going to work in the heart of the Jews and some of them would respond in obedience to Him. He would protect them from further attacks from outside. The horns had scattered the Jews for a time. Now some of them were coming back. As we noted earlier, the fulfilment of this prophecy will be in the Millennium. Today, there are Jews scattered across the world. I am told one of the largest grouping of Jews today outside of Israel is New York. Interestingly, New York just elected a muslim as its mayor. Apparently 35% of the Jews living in New York voted for that muslim. That is an astonishing fact. Why would the Jews support a man who wants to wipe them out? The reason is because they are still blinded by the god of this world. They still assume they are better off with a godless leader, than in surrendering to the true God.
It could be that God is going to move many Jews out of New York and back home to Israel with this turn of events. After all, that is God’s plan. He wants the Jews to go back home. There will be a great gathering of the Jews in Israel during the Tribulation time. Sadly, many of those Jews will be killed by the antichrist. There will be a remnant that will be saved to enter into the Millennium.
Zechariah was told to prophesy of the blessings that were ahead for those Jews who would turn to God in repentance and serve Him.
We, as Gentiles, can also learn from this book. We know that the times of the Gentiles is still in place now. We also know that the Gentiles are limited in their power. Canada is quite powerless on the world stage. Currently the U.S. is exercising more power than it has in the previous four years. However, there is also unrest with this demonstration of power. We know that the Gentiles will exercise excessive power during the seven years of the antichrist. God will allow that to happen. He will send strong delusion against those who reject Him now, if they are alive at that time.
Man does not have limitless power. Man is restricted by God from the evil he would like to do. Those who are saved need to be thankful for that fact. As our governments try to shut God out of our lives, we can know they will never succeed. No man can control your mind and heart unless you give over that control. They can imprison and kill, but they cannot take over your mind and heart. God is still in charge and it is important to trust in Him.
Pastor Bartel