THE FIRST TWO VISIONS THE HORSES AND THE FOUR HORNS After opening the book with a call for repentance with words full of compassion toward the people humiliated with captivity, the present chapter provide us with two joyful visions concerning the setting of the temple of the Lord in us, 1- A call to repentance 1 - 6 2- The vision of the horses 7 - 11 3- The Lord’s jealousy on His house 12 - 17 4- The vision of the four horns 18 – 21 1- A CALL TO REPENTANCE: “In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying…….” (1) The prophet fixed his prophecy with the eighth month in the second year of Darius (520 BC). And he mentions his name and those of his father and grandfather . Mentioning his grandfather Edo is because he is the one who raised him after his father died; and because he was famous among those who returned from captivity (Nehemiah 12: 1, 4, 7). The call of the Lord to them was: ‘The LORD has been very angry with your fathers. [3] Therefore say to them, Thus says the LORD of hosts; Return to Me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts” (2,3) Here it is noticed: (1) In this call, God did not mention the sins of their fathers; for He did not wish to hurt their feelings while they were joyful for coming back from the humiliation of captivity ………but even while exhorting them to repentance, to support, He encourages them, and lifts up their morale. (2) By their fathers, he probably meant here the past generations who, did not listen to the true prophets, but to the false ones, and ended up, Israel falling into captivity, followed by Judah. Or he probably meant those who returned from captivity 15 years ago, who were slothful to rebuild the temple, and got preoccupied with their earthly pleasures (Haggai 1).. Those who with zeal returned from captivity to Jerusalem together with Zerubbabel; but, having not returned with their hearts to the Lord, the work stopped, and they lost their spiritual life.. That is why the Lord confirms to them: “Return to me; …… and I shall return to you”. Before the return to the place, the Lord seeks the return of the heart to Him. On His part, He is ready, and even longs to return to us to build His spiritual temple in us. This is His perpetual call to us. According to St. Augustine: [In His longsuffering, God waits for the sinner, saying: “Return to Me, and I shall return to you”]. And he says: [By our complete return to God we shall find Him always at hand, according to the prophet: “As surely as the sun rises, He will appear” (Hosea 6: 3 – the Septuagint version). God is never absent; He is present everywhere, but we, in our perversion, loses Him; for it is said: “He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him” (John 1: 10). He was in the world, but the world did not recognize Him, because of the impurity of our hearts we cannot see Him] And he says: [God forsook you, because you are the one who forsook Him. You let Him down; but He will never let you down]. The return to God, therefore is not by changing the place, namely by forsaking Babylon and going to Jerusalem, but by changing the position of the soul as far as God is concerned; Instead of giving Him the back by our evil doings, give Him the face, spiritually approaching Him. As according to St. Dedymus the blind: [This approach and separation should not be understood as changing the place, but the position and readiness of the spirit]. (3) He asked them to learn from the example of what happened to their fathers, saying: “Your fathers, where are they; and the prophets, do they live forever?” (5).He probably meant how He has warned their fathers by the prophets, but for some time; and how, having rejected the warning, they perished and lost the prophets. .According to St. Dedymus the blind, by the prophets He means the false prophets who deceived their fathers by saying: “Peace, peace, they say, when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 8: 11) [Together with the false prophets who deceived them, they perished. Both the deceivers and the deceived disappeared with the false prophecies]. (4) In His call for them to return, God is called “The Lord of Hosts”; repeating it three times in one verse (3). On one aspect, God approaches them as “The Lord of Hosts”, to proclaim His responsibility for the work, to provoke them not to fear the opponents, for He is capable to consummate the work by them, if they submit to Him like spiritual soldiers to their Leader. Repeating the Expression ”The Lord of hosts three times when He calls to repentance, is a confirmation of the work of the Holy Trinity in their life. Man cannot return to God, unless he experience the giving love of the Father; and the grace of the only-begotten Son through the cross; and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, the Grantor of forgiveness. (5) This book confirms the important principle previously proclaimed by God in the books of the prophets before the captivity; that what would dwell upon them is a chastisement from the Lord; but, at the same time is nothing but the natural fruit of sin: “The Lord Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as He determined to do” (6) (6) If their fathers perished because of their attachment to evil, Whoever attaches himself to vanity will become vanity. The only way then, is to be attached to the Truth to live eternally. So God presented to us His Word, namely ‘The ‘Truth’ to attach ourselves to Him and not die: “The Lord says: ‘did not My words and My decrees, which I commanded My servants the prophets overtake your forefathers?. And according to the prophet Isaiah: “The grass withers, theflowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40: 7). 2- THE VISION OF HORSES: It happened three months after the start of his prophecies, in the month of Shebat in which the myrtle trees give flowers with their sweet fragrance filling the air. The prophet probably used to spend the whole days falling on his knees underneath the shadows of those trees with unceasing tears, crying: “Lord Almighty, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and from the towns of Judah” (12) In the midst of his wailing, his heart looked with longing toward the temple which became ruins, and with sorrow toward the people who came to Jerusalem fifteen years ago to rebuild the temple, but everyone got preoccupied with his own affairs and personal interests.. Being a priest, the prophet longed to return to the temple with its spiritual rites which he never had the chance to practice since he was born. That is why, God granted him this vision: “There before me was a man riding a red horse, he was standing among he myrtle trees, and in a ravine behind him were red, brown, and white horses. I asked: ‘What are these my Lord?’. The angel who was talking to me answered: I will show you what they are’. .Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained: They are the ones the Lord has sent to go throughout the earth. And they reported to the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees: ‘We have gone throughout the earth and found the whole world at rest and in peace’” (8-11). By this vision the Lord proclaims his intention to save, and His care for this spiritual house of His, by giving him an angel to talk to him, to accompany him in all his visions, to enter into debates with him, and to interpret all what he did not understand. God intended to confirm the support of heaven to him and the ministry of the angels to men (Hebrew 1: 14). Now! Who is that Rider on the red horse, who was standing among the myrtle trees, in the shadow, who was called: ‘The angel of the Lord?’ The expression “the angel of the Lord’ most probably refers to God Himself; appearing as an angel, a messenger, for the sake of man. For the word ‘angel’ means ‘a messenger’. In the Babylonian Telmud it came: ‘That man was no one but the Blessed Holy One’, as it is written: “The Lord is a Man of War”; and according to St. Dedymus the blind: [The Rider on the red horse is the incarnate Savior; the red horse is the body by which He was clothed. The prophet saw him standing among the myrtle trees in the shadows, namely among the two shadowed mountains, which refer to the two Covenants: the Old and the New; fertile mountains and shadowed because of the richness of thoughts, and the multitudes of references pertaining to the incarnate God. We can say that the prophet saw that vision “during the night” (8); namely through the Old Covenant, as the Lord Christ – the Sun of Righteousness – who turned the night into daylight did not yet appear. He saw Him through the “shadows” of the prophecies, as a Rider on a red horse, incarnate as a Man, who approaches us by His divine work through the cross, on which He shed His precious blood. About whom the Prophet Isaiah said: “ Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah, with His garment stained crimson?.........Why are Your garments red, like those of one treading the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone; from the nations no one was with Me” (Isaiah 63: 1- 3). Behind the Lord Christ the prophet saw red, brown, and white horses; about whom the Lord said: “They are the ones the Lord has sent to go throughout the earth” (10). By the coming of the Lord Christ to us with salvation, heaven opened up, and “the angels, the ministering spirits were sent to serve those who will inherit salvation” (Hebrew 1: 14). Those whom the Lord sent to go throughout the earth were probably men of the Old Covenant to prepare the earth to receive the incarnate Word through their teachings and prophecies; those who, even though preceded Him, yet they now stand behind their Lord and Savior.. Their response saying: “We have gone throughout the earth and found the whole world at rest and in peace”, refers to that the earth was then, well prepared, the road well paved, and the time convenient to receive the Savior Messiah. If the Rider on red hose symbolized the incarnate Word of God, those horses with different colors probably symbolize the divine works. The prophet proclaims to the Jewish people at that time that, since God has presented diverse works, and provided them in several ways, with an atmosphere of rest and peace; no opponents, and no one setting snares for them, they should hasten to rebuild the house of the Lord. In the same meaning we can say that the prophet proclaims that the lord Christ, sending to them His red, brown, and while horses, granted us every heavenly talent and divine gift to make our earth, namely our bodies at rest and in peace, do not oppose the Spirit, but works together with her for the sake of the glory of God. .It is the time to work; in which it is befitting of us to dedicate all our spiritual, as well as our physical energies, for the spiritual building in our heavenly Jerusalem. That was the first vision which lifted Zechariah up from his daily tears, in the valley of the myrtle trees, underneath the shadows, to bring him forth into the valley of the work of God proclaimed through the incarnation and crucifixion.; by which Zechariah was taken away from the anguish of his soul to the true peace and rest. I wish we do not understand the phrase :”The earth was at rest and in peace” in the meaning of slothfulness, but in that of the enjoyment of the exalted peace of God. According to St. Dedymus the blind:[The prudent spirit bears an energy that moves it in continuous activity; but, working for the sake of goodness, it remains in a state of rest and peace, with no disturbance, enjoying the inner peace provided by the fear of God………. As is written: ”Whoever listens to me will live in safety, and be at ease, without fear of harm” (Proverb 1: 33). In our Lord Jesus Christ, our souls, as well as our bodies, namely, our inner heavens and earth, are at rest; being sanctified by Him, and joyful, in spite of bearing His cross, and entering together with Him into his grave, 3- THE LORD’S JEALOUSY TOWARD HIS HOUSE: If Zechariah spent years mourning the ruins of the temple; and with tears that would never dry, asking the Lord for the sake of rebuilding the temple; It is our Lord Jesus Christ who, alone, is the atonement Intercessor, who cries out with His precious blood for the sake of setting His sanctuaries in humanity; being said: “Then the angel of the Lord said, ‘Lord Almighty, how long will You withhold mercy from Jerusalem and from the towns of Judah, which You have been angry with these seventy years?”. Humanity has fallen under the captivity of the devil all those years, and no one could intercede for her, except Him who presented His precious blood as atonement for our sins; bringing forth the divine mercy through paying the debt of divine justice by the cross. His intercession was not by mere words, but by work, active and full of love, by which he could take away from the believers the divine anger, and bring them forth into the mercies of God, to set in them His heavenly Holy Temple. Those were the good words of comfort proclaimed by the angel accompanying the prophet (13) By the cross the Lord says: “I am very jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion, but I am very angry for the nations that feel secure. I was only a little angry, but they added to the calamity. Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there my house will be rebuilt; and the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem, declares the Lord Almighty. Proclaim further: ‘That is what the Lord Almighty says: My towns will again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and chose Jerusalem’” (14 – 17). On the historical aspect, that was literally fulfilled. After 70 years of captivity, God declared His jealousy for His city and His people; and while the nations were feeling at peace, having utterly humiliated the people of God, destroyed the promised land, and ruined the Holy temple; whether actively like the Babylonians, or by help and support like the Edomites, or by gloating ………but while feeling secure, God returned to Jerusalem to rebuild His house anew, and to stretch the measuring line, not for destruction, like at captivity, but to rebuild . That is how God overflowed His goodness over His people, and proclaimed His love and care. That was literally fulfilled in the sixth century BC; but in a perfect and deeper way in the Messianic era, when the Lord ascended on His cross, stretched His hands with blessing on humanity, destroyed the captivation of the devil, and granted the true goodness to those who believed in Him. According to the apostle Paul: “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8: 32).. He returned back to us with his mercies to set His temple in us, saying: “The Kingdom of God is within you” . He stretched His hands with the measuring line to build, and to grow our inner life, to overflow with the fruit sof His Holy Spirit, blessings and comforts (John 15: 26); This reveals how He chose our inner Jerusalem a bride for himself. What is that house that preoccupied the heart of God? (1) The church set by the Lord as His bride; to which the apostle Paul refers by saying to his disciple Timothy: “If I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Timothy 3: 14) (2) According to St. Dedymus, that house is the human body of our Lord Jesus Christ which He received as His dwelling place, together with the Godhead with no mixture nor separation; about which He said: “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days…….. but the temple He has spoken of was His body” (John 2: 19, 21). That house about which it was proclaimed in the book of Proverbs: “Wisdom has built her house” (Proverbs 9: 1). (3) St. Dedymus ends his talk about that house by saying: [We should add that every believer, as well, is a house built to become a temple for God. The Holy Scripture says: “Do not you know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3: 16). And the Savior Himself clearly says: “If anyone loves Me he will obey my teachings. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14: 23). 4- THE VISION OF THE FOUR HORNS: According to the Jewish tradition, the second chapter of the present book starts by this vision concerning the appearance of the four horns that scattered Judah and Israel, , “so that no one could raise his head’” (21); then “the appearance of four craftsmen” who came to terrify them and to throw down these horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter its people”(21). The prophet Zechariah in his seclusion probably was looking everywhere of the universe, to see the nations striking Jerusalem with their horns, unceasingly and with no mercy. The Jews who used to raise sheep perceived how the wild oxen with their horns kill and scatter their herds of sheep; hence the psalmist says: “Rescue me from the mouth of the lions, and save me from the horns of the wild oxen” (Psalm 22: 210. And the prophet Daniel talks about “the horn who fought against the saints and defeated them, until the ancient of days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the saints” (Daniel 7: 21, 22).. The horns also came to refer to the power and authority; as according to the Lord in Micah: “Rise and Thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will give you horns of iron; I will give you hooves of bronze; and you will break to pieces many nations; you will devote their ill-gotten gains to the Lord; their wealth to the Lord of all the earth” (Micah 4: 13). In this vision concerning the four horns it is noticed: (1) According to some, these four horns refer to the kingdoms that humiliated the people of God; namely, the kingdom of Assyria and Babylon; the kingdom of Persia and Made; the kingdom of the Chaldeans; and the kingdom of the Romans. To each of those kingdoms God sent a “craftsman” to scatter and to humiliate it. There you are, those four kingdoms are utterly devastated, their horns destroyed, and the work of God remained fruitful. The psalmist says: “Why do the nations rage, and the people plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against His anointed One?”…. The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them (Psalm 2: 1, 2, 4). Those kingdoms were referred to by the four and the four metals and the four great beasts that came out from the one sea, one after the other, in the vision seen by the prophet Daniel (2) According to the scholar Origen, to St. Augustine, and to many fathers of the church, the figure 4 refers to the four directions of the earth, namely to the love of the world; and refers as well to the body, being the dust of this world. It is as though those four horns that scattered :Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem” (19) that “no one could raise his head” (21), refer to the love of the world and to the evil pleasures of the body, that destroyed Judah, namely our union with the Lord Christ who came from the tribe of Judah; destroyed the new Israel, namely our inner membership in the church, and the purity of our heart ,by which we could see God; by which man cannot raise his head up, but bows down to bury his soul in the dust, like what happened to the servant with the one talent (Matthew 25: 18). And instead of having his body raised up to heaven, he bows with his evil desires down to earth. (3) As the devil stirred four horns against Jerusalem, God sent four “craftsmen” to confront them. Namely, God supports His children as much as they enter in temptations and tribulations. The stronger is the war brought up by the devil, the more help God sends to His children.. That was the work of God all along the eras: To the arrogant heretic Pharaoh, God sent Moses; ……To the evil Ahab God sent Elijah………and when the heretic Arius was stirred up against the church, God prepared Athanasius, and so on. And what happened on the level of the old Covenant and what happen, and still happens on that of the New Covenant, is realized every day in the life of each one of us. (4) According to some fathers, the four horns were the wars of the devil on all sides, about which the apostle Paul says; ”For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6: 12). The church was in need of the four gospels, being the “craftsmen” who corrupt the work of the devil with his four horns. Yes indeed, the devil caused a ferocious war by his four horns; but the four gospels presented to us a new “craft” to overcome the devil, namely the way of love and meekness. The fire by which the devil ignites the hearts of men against the believers, is quenched by love. As according to St. Augustine: [Fire is not quenched by fire, but by water; Evil is not overcome by evil, but by goodness]. It is amazing that, despite that the four “craftsmen” are characterized by meekness, the four horns were terrified before them. like when Herod, the one with authority was terrified before the barely clothed St. John the Baptist (Mark 6: 20); and when the governor Felix was terrified before St. Paul, the captive whom he tried (Acts 24: 25).
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