Expository - OT
Zechariah 1 1
Zechariah 1 2-6
Zechariah 1 7-17
Zechariah 1 18-21
Zechariah 2 1-13
Expository - Zechariah
Zechariah chapter 1 vv 18-21by Graham Jones - The Church at Gun Hill
Zechariah - The Second Vision
The Vision
When Zechariah was pondering on the second vision, with its report that the Gentile powers were still and at rest, he must have wondered when the promised 'shaking of the nations' would come. When would the yoke of these nations be thrown off and Israel move into the prosperity promised of God? Speedily came the revelation in a second vision. He saw four horns. These horns were frayed or cut back ('terrified' in the NIV) by four carpenters or craftsmen.The Four Horns
In Scripture, the horn is a symbol of power or strength. These four horns stand for the four great Gentile empires or world powers "which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it." They are the same four powers, extending from the beginning of the Babylonian exile until the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God showed to Nebuchadnezzar in his dream. Daniel chapter 2 recounts the story of Nebuchadnezzar's dream and its interpretation by Daniel. The king saw a huge image, bright and terrible in aspect. Its head was of fine gold, its breast and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of brass and its legs of iron with feet part of iron, part of clay. God was revealing to Nebuchadnezzar what would happen after him. The interpretation made it clear that the image represented the four great world empires from Nebuchadnezzar until the establishment of the Messianic kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold who would be followed by three further, inferior empires, diminishing in strength and glory. In the unfolding of world history we witness these as the Medo-Persian, the Greek and the Roman empires, the latter appearing in two stages - the iron legs being the strength of the might that was once the Roman Empire and the feet, part of iron, part of clay, being the 'end-time' manifestation, having some of the strength of the dominion of ancient Rome, but fragile in alliances of elements which do not really mix.Daniel himself later had a vision of the same world empires. Four great beasts came out of the sea. Babylon, or more specifically, Nebuchadnezzar, was like a lion with eagle's wings. The Medo-Persian empire was like a great bear, unevenly balanced, whilst Greece was represented by a leopard with four wings on its back. Finally, the Roman empire was depicted by a 'great and terrible' beast with great iron teeth. This beast was ruthless in its destructive power. It also had ten horns amongst which a further little horn arose. Daniel kept watching until the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ and the scenes of the final judgment.
The ten horns of the fourth beast are seen again by John in the book of Revelation. He is told that they represent ten kings yet to come which will have power for a short while with the last, evil world ruler (known as the Beast). (Revelation 17 v 12)
The Four Craftsmen
Four craftsmen came to fray, or cut back, the power of these empires. Possibly the means used are also those portrayed by the four horsemen of Revelation chapter 6, or the four sore judgments of Ezekiel 14 v 21: the sword, famine, wild beasts and pestilence. All this is yet to come to a head but the end of those nations is foretold in Zechariah 12 & 14. Jeremiah promised that God would make a full end of those nations but not of His people Israel (Jeremiah 46 v 28). God's people needed to know that, whatever the strength of successive world empires against them might be, such power would be limited and restricted by God.Ultimately, we know through Daniel's interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's vision, that a stone, cut without hands, struck the image at its weakest point, the feet, and reduced the whole stucture to tiny pieces, blown away by the wind of God's judgment. The stone became a mountain which filled the whole earth. That stone is Christ, who will overthrow all Gentile dominion and establish His kingdom of peace on the earth.
