FOUR CHARIOTS—GOING TO AND FRO – Zechariah 6:1-8

PM Home Bible Study Group; April 27, 2011

Zechariah 6:1-8

(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

II. The Prophet’s Night-Visions (1:7-6:15).

H. The Vision of the Four Chariots (6:1-8).

1 Then I turned and raised my eyes and looked, and behold, four chariots were coming from between two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of bronze.
2 With the first chariot were red horses, with the second chariot black horses,
3 with the third chariot white horses, and with the fourth chariot dappled horses—strong steeds.
4 Then I answered and said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?”
5 And the angel answered and said to me, “These are four spirits of heaven, who go out from their station before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The one with the black horses is going to the north country, the white are going after them, and the dappled are going toward the south country.”
7 Then the strong steeds went out, eager to go, that they might walk to and fro throughout the earth. And He said, “Go, walk to and fro throughout the earth.” So they walked to and fro throughout the earth.
8 And He called to me, and spoke to me, saying, “See, those who go toward the north country have given rest to My Spirit in the north country.”

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The first major portion of the Book of Zechariah is occupied with a series of eight “night visions” that were given to Zechariah in one night’s time—visions that display God’s love for His chosen people and His promise to bring them to blessing. As we’ve studied these visions, we’ve seen that they have unfolded this single theme: (1) the initial vision of the horses showed that God loves suffering Israel; (2) the vision of the horns and the craftsmen showed that God was going to cast down those who torment her; (3) the vision of the measuring line showed that God purposed to repopulate and prosper His people in their land; (4) the vision of the High Priest—a vision that featured the Joshua as a symbol—showed that God will glorify Israel’s promised Messiah; (5) the vision of the lampstands and the olive trees—which featured the governor Zerubbabel, but that also included Joshua—showed that God, by His Holy Spirit, would empower His people and make provision for them; (6) the vision of the flying scroll showed that God will judge the wickedness of the world that surrounds His people; and (7) the vision of the woman in the basket showed that God removes this world’s wickedness from His people.
This evening, we come to the eighth vision; and it too develops the theme of God’s commitment and love to His chosen people. The vision of the four chariots in Zechariah 6:1-8 shows that God’s rule through His people will go out to all the earth; and that He will judge those in the surrounding nations that would seek to suppress that rule. This vision—and indeed all the visions together that preceded it—are concluded with the crowning of the High Priest Joshua (the Old Testament form of the name “Jesus”; see 6:9-15); which shows that all that the visions were meant to convey comes together in the glorious rule of His Messiah.
In this final vision, God gives His prophet a view of the final judgment that He will execute on the nations just prior to the return of the Lord Jesus and the commencement of His earthly kingdom rule for a thousand years—a judgment described in Zechariah 14:1-15; and elsewhere in Scripture in such passages as Isaiah 66:14-16, Joel 3:1-16; and Revelation 9:13-19, 16:12-16, and 19:17-21. Dr. Harry Ironside wrote, “The vision evidently sets forth God’s control of all destructive agencies used by Him in the punishment of the nations that have deserved His wrath. It was intended to give repose of heart and confidence of mind to the remnant, making known to them the fact that the God of Israel was the Lord of all the earth. ‘All things serve His might.’ In His own way and time, therefore, He would send the chariots of His government against the nations that had made a prey of and spoiled His people” (H.A. Ironside, Notes on the Minor Prophets [New York: Loizeaux Brothers, Inc., 1950], p. 371).
I. THE VISION OF THE FOUR CHARIOTS (vv. 1-3).
A. This final night vision begins with the words, “Then I turned and raised my eyes and looked” (v. 1); which, as we’ve seen before (see 1:18; 2:1; 5:1, 5) seems to indicate the introduction of a distinct vision. What Zechariah saw in this vision was described in these words: “and behold, four chariots were coming from between two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of bronze” (v. 1).
B. The original language of the text mentions these two mountains with a definite article; that is, “the two mountains”. Because they are presented in such a way that the Hebrew reader would know what “the” two mountains were, and because they are presented in relation to “the Lord of all the earth” (v. 5) whose actions extend from some specific point to “the north country” and “the south country”, most scholars believe they are to be understood as Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives in the vicinity of Jerusalem. Between these two large hills is a valley (called the Valley of Jehoshaphat in Joel 3:2 and 12, and “the valley of decision” in Joel 3:14; and that is referred to as Armageddon in Revelation 16:16—that is the valley of Jezreel). It’s significant that these mountains are said to be of “bronze”; since bronze is sometimes associated in Scripture with the judgment of God (see Numbers 21:9, where the bronze serpent was set up in the wilderness [also John 3:14]; and Exodus 27:2, which describes the altar—set up in the tabernacle as an atonement for sin—as overlaid with bronze).
C. From between these two mountains, four chariots are said to have come forth. “Chariots” are also associated with the judgment of God (see Isaiah 66:15). Curiously, the focus of attention is not on the chariots themselves (no chariot drivers are clearly mentioned), but on the horses that went before them. Zechariah goes on to say, “With the first chariot were red horses, with the second chariot black horses, with the third chariot white horses, and with the fourth chariot dappled horses—strong steeds” (vv. 2- 3).

1. The vision of these four horses calls to mind the vision of the four horses mentioned in the first vision (1:7-11). Those were “sent to walk to and fro throughout the earth” (1:10); and when they did, they reported back that “all the earth is resting quietly” (v. 11). Now, these horses—whether meant to be understood as the same or not—are sent to ‘give rest to’ God’s Spirit with respect to His people.

2. It would be hard not to also see in these four chariots and sets of horses a picture of the four horses described in Revelation 6:1-8. If this is the case, the colors of the horses in Zechariah’s vision may be understood in terms of the colors that are identified in John’s vision in Revelation. The red horses would be understood as picturing the taking away of peace from the earth through war (Revelation 6:4). The black horses would be understood from the black horse in Revelation as picturing scarcity and economic depression; where we’re told that “he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine” (Revelation 6:5-6). The white horses would represent conquest; as it says in Revelation 6:2, “And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.” And finally, the dappled horses should be understood as representing plague and death; where, in Revelation 6:8, a pale horse was ridden by Death, was followed by Hades, and to whom power was given over a fourth of the earth “to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.” That these are called “strong steeds” would suggest that the purpose of their going forth was certain; and could not be stopped by human opposition.

D. As Harry Ironside wrote, “God’s providential agencies may seem, to unbelief, like restless, uncurbed horses rushing here and there according to blind chance or their own uncontrolled energy. But the man of faith, though he cannot always see the Hand that guides the reins, yet knows that divine wisdom orders all according to righteousness” (p. 372).
II. THE INTERPRETATION OF THE VISION (vv. 4-8).
A. We’re not left to guess at the meaning of these things. We’re told, “Then I answered and said to the angel who talked with me [no doubt the interpreting angel that we’ve met with throughout these visions], ‘What are these, my lord?’ And the angel answered and said to me, ‘These are four spirits of heaven, who go out from their station before the Lord of all the earth'” (vv. 4-5). And so, immediately, we discover:

1. The chariots—and the horses that led them—are symbolic of four “spirits”. They are not earthly spirits; but spirits of heaven—that is, though they are active upon the earth, they have their source apart from and above the earth. Many scholars believe that they are angelic beings; and this would certainly be biblical, in that—as Daniel 10:10-21 makes clear—angelic beings are active in the great national/political affairs of earth.

2. They go out from their “station”—that is, their position of appointment—”before the Lord of all the earth”. They are under the rule of a sovereign God who is “Lord” (i.e., Adoni) of all the earth. The great national/political affairs of the earth are not out of control, but serve the purposes of the sovereign God. What a comfort this must have been to God’s oppressed people in Zion! And what a comfort it should be to us!

B. The angel describes the specific appointments of these chariots and horses. “The one with the black horses is going to the north country, the white are going after them . . .” (v. 6). Remembering that the homeland of the Jewish people was bordered by the Mediterranean Sea on the west and the desert on the east, there would only be activity traveling in the directions of either the north or the south. The land of the north was where the people had just returned from—that is, Babylon. But it was also where others of some of Israel’s most terrifying oppressors had come—that is the Assyrians in the past, and the Seleucids and the Romans in the centuries to come. “And the dappled are going toward the south country” (v. 6), from which Israel’s ancient enemy—the Egyptians—often came to oppress them. It’s interesting that we’re not told that the red horses went anywhere. It may be that they are among “those who go toward the north”, as is mentioned in verse 8. But then, it could also be that they stayed behind in the very place where the nations would one day be gathered together for mankind’s final, most bloodiest battle.
C. We’re told, “Then the strong steeds went out, eager to go, that they might walk to and fro throughout the earth” (v. 7). The interpreting angel—or perhaps God speaking through him—says, “Go, walk to and fro throughout the earth”; and we’re told, “So they walked to and fro throughout the earth” (v. 7). Then, specific attention seems to be to those who go toward the north. The angel called Zechariah to himself and spoke— again, perhaps, as God’s spokesman—saying, “See, those who go toward the north country have given rest to My Spirit in the north country” (v. 8). By that time, the Babylonian empire—the former captors of the people of Israel—had been conquered by the Median/Persian empire and had been brought to an end for that time. That the ones who went toward the north country gave “rest” to God’s Spirit clearly means that God was now satisfied that His sovereign purposes had been fulfilled with respect to the Babylonians; and that justice for His people had been accomplished.

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This is a picture for us, not only of God’s sovereign control over the circumstances of His people at the time of Zechariah, but also for the times to come. Because the next thing that we’re told about is the coronation of the High Priest as a picture of the Messiah’s rule, then we can see this vision as a promise of God’s sovereign control over the nations at the time of His judgment of the Gentile world just prior to the second coming of Christ. As Psalm 2 puts it;

1 Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,
3 “Let us break Their bonds in pieces
And cast away Their cords from us.”
4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;
The Lord shall hold them in derision.
5 Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,
And distress them in His deep displeasure:
6 “Yet I have set My King
On My holy hill of Zion.”
7 “I will declare the decree:
The LORD has said to Me,
‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
8 Ask of Me, and I will give You
The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron;
You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’”
10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings;
Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear,
And rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
And you perish in the way,
When His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.