Zechariah 6:1  And I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came four chariots out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of brass.
2  In the first chariot were red horses; and in the second chariot black horses;
3  And in the third chariot white horses; and in the fourth chariot grisled and bay horses.
4  Then I answered and said unto the angel that talked with me, What are these, my lord?
5  And the angel answered and said unto me, These are the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth.
6  The black horses which are therein go forth into the north country; and the white go forth after them; and the grisled go forth toward the south country.
7  And the bay went forth, and sought to go that they might walk to and fro through the earth: and he said, Get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth. So they walked to and fro through the earth.
8  Then cried he upon me, and spake unto me, saying, Behold, these that go toward the north country have quieted my spirit in the north country.

In chapter 6 we have vision number 10. In this vision Zechariah saw four chariots come out from two mountains. We are told that the mountains were mountains of brass. Again, we are reminded that symbolism is being used here. As we have noted before, the land is focused on Israel and will also cover all the earth. As we have noted Israel is the centre of God’s world. In Bible times the nations around Israel were envious of her. All trade went through Jerusalem. The nations tried their best to defeat Israel. God drew the foreign nations into Israel to attack their borders and eventually to defeat the nation due to their rebellion.
The mountains are described as mountains of brass. It could be that there were the elements of brass in the mountains. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. It is a strong metal. As noted, there is much symbolism in the book of Zechariah. We need to be careful not to use symbolism where it does not exist, but as noted, brass is an alloy and is not naturally occurring. The nations around Israel were strong, but not as strong as God. Israel is situated among hostile nations. The protection for Israel is God. God changed that land when the nation of Israel took possession of it. God protected that land from invading armies when Israel followed Him. As noted, Zechariah was directed to look at what was going on in Israel at his time, but also what was ahead for Israel. We will see that further on in this chapter.
Zechariah saw four chariots between these two mountains. Each chariot had different types of horses pulling it. The first one had red horses. The second had black horses. The third chariot had white horses and the fourth chariot had grisled and bay horses. The Hebrew word for “grisled” means “spotted.”
As was common with visions, the recipient did not always understand what he was seeing. Zechariah asked for an explanation of what he was seeing. In verse 5 and following the angel gave further explanation regarding this vision. The chariots and horses were the four spirits of the heavens. The four spirits originated from standing before the Lord of all the earth.
It is again important to note there is one true God and He is over the entire earth. There are not many gods. In Bible times, each nation had their own god(s). Israel was to have one God, the true God. They often yielded to the temptation to add another god to the true God. When they did this, they were in trouble.
Today there are also many gods. The Muslims have their false god which originated with Nimrod. The Hindus have their gods as do the Buddhists. The American natives have their many false gods as well. The Catholics have their false gods as well. The ecumenical movement tries to blend many of the false gods into the true God and of course when you do that, you negate the true God. He does not accept any false god.
These four spirits were given their assignment from the Lord. Verse 6 tells us that the black horses and the white horses were to go to the north country, while the grisled horses went to the south. The red horses are not mentioned further here. We are again reminded of the fact that the one true God is over all the earth. All people will answer to the one true God. It is important to know Him. He has given us His Word and we can know Him through His Word.
Verse 7 tells us that the bay horses were told to walk through the entire earth. Each group of horses had their assignment and as is usual, they went where they were told to go. The book of Revelation also uses different horses for God’s purposes.
In verse 8 we read that those that went toward the north had quieted God’s spirit in the north country. To the north of Israel are the Assyrians and the Babylonians. The Babylonians were directed by God to invade Judah. They destroyed the temple and the walls of Jerusalem. They killed many Jews and took others captive. The spirit of the Lord was quieted toward the north country in this vision because the north, which began as Babylon and then became the Medo/Persian empire, had released the captives. The Jews were allowed to go back to their homeland during the reign of Cyrus.
As we have noted they were allowed to go back and rebuild the walls and in our context, to rebuild the temple under the leadership of Ezra.
God had used the Babylonians to punish Judah. They had spent 70 years in exile there. At the right moment, God had worked to bring them back to their own land. Some of them settled back in their own land and the temple was eventually rebuilt. This was all temporary. We know that in AD 70 that temple was destroyed by the Romans. As we will see further in this prophecy, the fulfillment of all that the prophets spoke is wrapped up in the book of the Revelation. That is the final judgment and evil will be brought to an end in that book and at that time.
God’s spirit will be quieted for good when He takes care of the wickedness that originated with Satan and is still very much alive in our time. We are coming to October 31, a day that is designed to exalt Satan and evil. Many have tried to purify this evil event, but there is no way to purify the devil’s deeds. The right way to respond to these events is to reject them and treat that day as any other day should be treated. It needs to be a day to serve the Lord and glorify His name. Those who are saved need to be a light in a dark world. Light exposes darkness. Light dispels darkness. True light cannot mix with darkness. When that happens, things cannot be seen clearly.
Pastor Bartel