Zechariah 1

Zechariah 1:1-17

THE RIDER OF THE RED HORSE IN THE MIDST OF THE MYRTLESZec_1:1-17WE begin now this series of studies on the Book of Zechariah. By way of introduction to this discourse let me remind you that according to the Sacred Record, Zechariah was the son of Berechiah, and the grandson of Iddo, a descendant of a priestly tribe (Nehemiah 12:4). He, with others, had suffered in the Babylonish captivity, but while yet a youth returned to Jerusalem to be associated with Zerubbabel—the king, Joshua—the priest, and Haggai, the Prophet.It may be accepted as a fairly established fact that he began his prophecies in August, 520 B.C., and according to the text seems to have concluded them in December, 518 B.C. Evidently there were several objects to be accomplished by the prophecies of this man. First of all he joins forces with Haggai in a successful appeal for the reconstruction of the Temple and the restoration of Israel’s public worship.Again, he sought to encourage the downcast among the people. God gave to him the strange visions here recorded, that Israel might be enheartened for her labor of rebuilding, and inflamed in her affection for Jehovah.But there was a more remote meaning of these visions, and one far more important, in that “they extend to the times of the Gentiles,” declare the part God’s chosen people are to play in the last days, and plainly prophesy the Coming of the King of Glory to set up His throne in the midst of the people, and reign in person over the whole known world.George Adam Smith cannot understand why a Prophet, evidently accustomed to the plainest and most straightforward speech, should become involved in a style which seems “stilted,” “difficult,” “redundant.” But John, the Apostle, solves for us that difficulty. His Gospel is an inspired narrative of events and declaration of great doctrines; and the style is simple, smooth-flowing, easily understood; while the apocalypse is the plan of the ages and requires for its bold outlines and spectacular features, speech-pictorial, graphic, grandiloquent.Zechariah combines these opposite dictions in one volume, for he is both a Prophet and Seer— a man sent of God to plead before his own age and people the practical duties of devoted living; and yet, by way of prediction, to lay bare the Divine purpose concerning the centuries to come.In taking up this specific study of these seventeen verses, we will discuss them under three heads:—The Revelation to Zechariah; The Rider of the Red Horse; and The Restoration of Israel.THE TO “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, “The Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers. “Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts; Turn ye unto Me, saith the Lord of Hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of Hosts. “Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former Prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto Me, saith the Lord. “Your fathers, where are they? and the Prophets, do they live for ever? “But My Words and My Statutes, which I commanded My servants the Prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the Lord of Hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath He dealt with us” (Zechariah 1:1-6). This Revelation had to do with the Prophet’s people. He, like the other Old Testament Prophets, is pleading the cause of his own. You will remember how dear these ancient people were to Moses. When that great man found that his people had sinned a great sin he said, “Now I will go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin. And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin—, and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy Book which Thou hast written” (Exodus 32:30-32).That is the expression of one’s love for his own; a love divinely inspired.

God never condemned David for the tears he wept over Absalom, his wayward son, notwithstanding Absalom’s unworthiness, since Absalom was David’s own. One of the pathetic declarations of the New Testament is that inspired sentence of Joh 1:11,—“He came unto His own, and His own received Him not”. We cannot forget that the great Apostle expressed this same sentiment, “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Romans 9:1-3). If it be true that God requires of a man to provide for his own, or else have lodged against him the indictment of being worse than an infidel, surely we can understand that He moves along the line of natural affection when He raises up a Prophet to plead with his people to return to God; and with God, to pity them, to have compassion upon them; and that is the very first feature of Zechariah’s revelation.This revelation seems to have come in the consequence of prayer.“I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses, speckled, and white, “Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the Angel that talked with me said unto me, I will shew thee what these be, “And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth, “And they answered the Angel of the Lord that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth stilt, and is at rest, “Then the Angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of Hosts, how long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which Thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? “And the Lord answered the Angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words” (Zechariah 1:8-13), Some say this was a dream—I doubt it; I think it rather a vision. If the eyes of the Prophet were closed it was not in sleep; but in prayer. I agree with F. B. Meyer that in all likelihood not far from the Prophet’s home there was a great valley or bottom, filled with graceful myrtle trees amidst which a water-course had its way, and thither he was accustomed to resort for prayer, as our Lord retired among the olive trees outside of Jerusalem. It is probable that ever since the exile’s return from Babylon he had paced this green plot pouring out his heart in cries like those afterward uttered by the Angel,—“O Lord of Hosts, how long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which Thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years”?The man who truly loves God will find Him in the open field, find Him in the shadows of the thick standing trees, and hear His voice in the sound of the passing stream.I remember to have read some years ago the Life of Charles Spurgeon, by Ellis; and to have been profoundly impressed by a reminiscence which that peerless preacher expressed in these words,—“When a little child, I lived some years in my grandfather’s house.

In his garden there was a fine old hedge of yew of considerable length, which was clipped and trimmed till it made quite a wall of verdure. Behind it was a wide grass walk which looked out upon the field, and afforded a quiet outlook.

The grass was kept mown, so as to make pleasant walking. Here, ever since the old puritanic chapel was built, Godly divines had walked, and prayed, and meditated. My grandfather was wont to use it as his study. Up and down he would walk when preparing his sermons, and always on Sabbath Days, when it was fair, he had half an hour there before preaching. To me it seemed to be a perfect paradise, and being forbidden to stay there when grandfather was meditating, I viewed it with no small degree of awe. I love to think of the green and quiet walk at this moment, and could wish for just such a study.”It may be a fancy, but I wonder if it is not a fact, that Moses had a praying place on the back side of the desert, in the mountains of God, in the shadow of a bush, and it was that bush that burst into a flame of fire, “And, behold, the bush burned * * and was not consumed”. Out of the midst of it God spake unto him, “Moses, Moses. * * Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground”.He must therefore have been near it, under its very boughs, and there, where he had been wont to pray, God revealed Himself, and told him how He had seen the affliction of His people in Egypt, and had heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, and knew their sorrow, and had decided to send him to Pharaoh that he might bring forth that people out of Egypt.Ah, men, the reason why so many never hear the voice of God is found in the fact that they have no trysting place where they meet the gracious Father face to face and tell Him their love, speak their petitions, and receive His revelations.Jesus Christ knew the secrets of resisting temptation; Jesus Christ knew how to find the Father; how to secure His favor; and Christ prescribed the meeting place where the soul should be shut in with God, and all the secrets of that holy communion could be spoken in confidence:—“Enter into thy closet, awl when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is m secret; and thy Father which seeth in Secret shall reward thee openly” (Matthew 6:6). Oh, men,—tempted, tried, overturned, torn,— would you not have won many a victory had you known such a meeting place with God as is beautifully symbolized by this cluster of myrtles?That place of prayer was converted into a vision of power. When, on that evening in August, 520 B.C., Zechariah walked into this valley he saw nothing at first but the thick standing myrtles, and the clear flowing stream. It was a resort for his weakness. When he felt most incompetent, most discouraged, most downcast, he ran away there as to a refuge from troubles; as to a place of counsel with a trusted friend.The Apostle said, “When I am weak, then am I strong”. On this night the Prophet’s sense of personal weakness was soon lost in the visions of Divine power revealed to him. Ah, friends, there is more help at hand than the most of us know.

The very air about us is tremulous with the flutter of angels’ wings, the tramp of God’s war-chargers, the whirl of God’s chariots of help! Do you not remember that time in Elisha’s life when the king had sent thither horses and chariots—a great host to take him captive, and the Prophet’s servant, seeing them come against him, cried,“Alas, my master! how shall we do? “And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. “And Elisha prayed, and send, Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha” (2 Kings 6:15-17). We are accustomed to think that the very air is surcharged with evil spirits; that they are everywhere. You cannot turn but you are tried; you cannot walk the streets or sit in your offices or find any corner in your own houses but Satan’s whisper will follow you there; and when you think of the whole company of agents at his command, one is tempted to cry with the servant, “Alas * * how shall we do”? But, beloved, our God is not without resources with which to meet the adversary. Christ said to Peter, when that servant was tempted to resist the devil with his own hand, “Put up again thy sword into his place: * * Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels”? In other words, “If I asked it, God would send against these enemies such an overwhelming force as to utterly defeat and destroy them, and give Me deliverance.” I do not know what enemy may have come against you, whether it be a lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life; I do not know what particular form your temptation may take, nor do I know how often it may have overcome you, cast you down; but, oh, I do know, I know out of personal experience, I know from a somewhat extended observation, I know by the promises of God, that the man who meets every temptation on bended knees, pleading with God for help will find the Rider of the red horse come to his aid! The reason so many men fail is that they have forgotten, or neglected the Divine Resources; and, like Peter, have attempted to resist in their own power instead of petitioning the Infinite power of God.

When Augustine walked in the midst of the statuary of great men he remarked, “I notice that most of your conquerors are presented as in standing posture. If ever I am pictured in statuary let it be upon my knees, for there only have I been able to see my enemies vanquished, and secured unto myself victory.”THE RIDER OF THE RED HORSE Doubtless many an unaided student of the Word sees little or nothing in such language as this,—“I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses, speckled, and white. “Then said I, O my Lord, what are these? And the Angel that talked with me said unto me, I will shew thee what these be. “And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth. “And they answered the Angel of the Lord that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We home walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest. “Then the Angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of Hosts, how long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which Thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? “And the Lord answered the Angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words” (Zechariah 1:8-13). What is the significance of such language? This can be answered by reminding you of three assertions.First—He was the angel of carnage; Second— He was the Captain of the Heavenly Hosts; and, Third—He was Israel’s successful Intercessor.The Angel of carnage! “Behold a man riding upon a red horse”. This color denoted blood, and in that very circumstance describes the Person who now appeals to the Prophet. He was the Lamb of God “slain from the foundation of the world”. The very office of Christ calls for blood-stained garments. He was dyed in His own. The promise of conquest against His enemies suggests the same. Two or three centuries before this time Isaiah had written, “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in His apparel, travelling in the greatness of His strength?

I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save”. “Thou shalt call His Name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins”. But the Prophet is not content, and he asks another question, “Wherefore art Thou red in Thine apparel, and Thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine fat”?

The reply is, “I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with Me”:Oh, how true to the experience of Christ! He said of His coming crucifixion, “In that hour I will be alone.” But He is not only to be dyed with that experience, for He adds, concerning His enemies, “I will tread them in Mine anger, and trample them in My fury: and their blood shall be sprinkled upon My garments, and I will stain all My raiment”.Beloved, whether the coming of the Rider of the red horse shall prove to anyone of us a Savior, and hence of unspeakable consolation, or a condemning judge, and hence of unimaginable terror, depends entirely upon whether we surrender to Him, and let His Blood cleanse us from sin; or rebel against Him and feel the tread of His feet in judgment.We might elaborate upon the awful end of rebels against the Rider of the red horse. But we prefer, rather, to speak concerning the efficacy of His atoning Blood. It is only because He has consented to have His own heart opened and to be clothed upon in scarlet, that He can now say to sinners: “Come now, and let us reason together, * * though your sins he as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool”. Having suffered the Just for the unjust, God can remain a God of justice and yet acquit the sinner who surrenders to His Son.An Irishman once said to Charles Spurgeon, “Your Riverence, I have come to ask you a question.” Mr. Spurgeon replied, “I am not a Reverend, nor do I claim the title, but what is your question?”“Well, your honor, I can’t see how God can be just and yet forgive sin.

I have been so guilty that if God Almighty doesn’t punish me, He ought.” And Mr. Spurgeon explained to him, “If a man violated the law and was condemned to be hanged and his elder brother appeared and suffered the penalty for him, then the condemned brother must, in strict righteousness, be set free.” And the Irishman answered, “Sure, and I see it!

They could not hang two for one thing! The day they hanged the brother he could walk out free, and not a policeman that would touch him for it.”“That is so,” said Spurgeon, “and Jesus has stood in our stead; He has died that we might not die. He has consented to have His garments dyed in His own Blood, that by its shedding you might be free.” And the Irishman said, “Oh, faith, and I see it!” Clapping his hands he added, “That is the Gospel! If it is not then I don’t know anything, for no man could have made up that! It is too wonderful! Wonderful!”And as he started down the stairs he said, “Sure and Pat is safe now, for He did die for me and God will not condemn two for the one thing!”Men and women, that is the meaning of the Rider on the red horse!

He is the Angel of carnage; accept His Blood and you are saved; reject it and your own must be shed at the last day, “for the soul that sinneth, it shall die”. But the Rider of the red horse says, “Him that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation”.“There is a fountain filled with Blood, Drawn from Immanuel’s veins; And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains. “The dying thief rejoiced to see That fountain in his day; And there may I, though vile as he, Wash all my sins away.” The Captain of the Heavenly Host. This Rider of the red horse was evidently in command of those who were on the red horses, sorrel and white. They reported to him and he answered for them. That is the office of our Christ! He is “Captain and Leader.” The Word of the Lord is, “Behold, I have given Him for a Witness to the people; a Leader and Commander to the people”. Concerning this One it is written, “Unto Him shall the gathering of the people be”.Oh, what a Captain; what a Leader!

Of whom else could God say, “I have laid help upon One that is mighty; I have exalted One chosen out of the people”. Truly it is wisdom when men accept as their commander and leader, Him, whom God hath appointed to that office!Blaine, in his “Twenty Years of Congress” says, concerning Henry Clay, “In the rare combination of qualities which constitute at once the matchless leader of party, and the statesman of consummate ability, and inexhaustible resources, he has never been surpassed.” While Ridpath, in his “United States History” declares that the choice of John Winthrop as leader of the Puritans who landed in this country in 1630, was a piece of special good fortune, and makes this comment on Winthrop’s character, “Calm, prudent, and peaceable, he joined the zeal of an enthusiast with the sublime faith of a martyr,” but, all such leaders are lost to the public view when brought into the presence of this Captain of the Heavenly host. Truly “He is the Chiefest among ten thousand”. And even the great captains of the past must join with the people in saying—“All hail the pow’r of Jesus’ Name, Let angels prostrate fall! Bring forth the royal diadem, And crown Him Lord of all!” O young men, blush when you follow some one of your sinful fellows into his evil customs and habits; but never be ashamed to rise and call Christ the Captain of your salvation!And, Israel’s successful Intercessor!“Then the Angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of Hosts how long wit Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which Thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? “And the Lord answered the Angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words” (Zechariah 1:12-13). One priest who always prevails with God is the Great High Priest, even Jesus. When Esther went into the presence of the king and pleaded for her own, her petition was granted. How blessed that soul for whom Christ intercedes with God! Oh, sinner, remember His Words to the unworthy Peter,—“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee”, and start up in hope, for Christ prays also for you: and His prayers are not in vain!Wilbur Chapman relates how in 1517, there was a great riot in London in which houses were sacked and a general insurrection reigned; three hundred were arrested, tried and hanged; five hundred more were cast into prison and were to be tried before the king, Henry VIII. As he sat in state on the throne the door opened and in they came, every man with a rope about his neck, but before he could pass sentence three queens appeared,—Catherine of Aragon, his wife; Margaret of Scotland, his sister, and Mary of France. At the feet of his Majesty they fell, pleading the pardon of these five hundred men, and they never left off until the king spake the word which set the sinful, trembling, company free. Blessed be God, His great Son is now making intercession for us; and if we will only accept Him as the High Priest of our souls He will bring to us, from God, the sentence of pardon; and the sense of peace, for He is the successful Intercessor—the one Angel to whom God answers with “good words and comfortable words” for the penitent.Briefly,THE OF ISRAEL “So the Angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy” (Zechariah 1:14). God is jealous for His own. Beloved, that spirit of jealousy, so awful when it exists without occasion, is the best evidence of loyalty and love when it only seeks to guard and save its own; hence God says: “I the Lord thy God am a jealous God”. How many times He complains of His people “They have moved Me to jealousy with their idols”; “They provoke Me to jealousy with their gods”. The Psalmist says concerning apostate Israel, “They * * moved Him to jealousy with their graven images”.Our human experiences ought to teach us how God feels when we consort with sinners, and practice iniquity. Sometime since a man who committed suicide in Chicago wrote a poem in explanation of his awful act, and told the love-story of his life in these words:— “A woman’s lips; a woman’s eyes, A siren all in all; A modern Circe fit to cause The strongest man to fall; A wedded life, some blissful years, And poverty drops in, With care and doubt and liquor From whisky down to gin.

“The story told by Tolstoi, In comparison with mine, Is moonlight unto sunlight As water unto wine. The jealous pangs I suffered, The hideous nights of woe, I pray no other mortal May ever undergo.” But what can mortal jealousy be to that which the great God, whose love for us is infinite and always undefiled, feels when we consort with the world, indulge the lusts of the flesh, and keep confidences with Satan?If there is any class of people who must give sorrow to God it is those who once named His Name but now play the harlot against Him. Oh, backslider—rebel son, prodigal daughter—I wish that you might know the bitterness that you have brought to the heart of Him who loved you, and laid down His life for you, for I believe that the sight of such sorrow would break your heart and bring you back to Him again who has been jealous with a great jealousy.God is displeased with their opponents.“I am very sore displeased with the heathen * * for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction” (Zechariah 1:15). Men and women, be careful how you oppose God’s people; be careful what sentence you pass upon them; what curses you speak against them. Inasmuch as you do these things unto the least of these His brethren ye do them unto Christ.A good friend of mine, a minister of the Gospel, laid down his clergyman’s permit at a railroad office window and asked for a ticket. Hearing muttered profanity on the part of the agent he inquired of a bystander what it might mean. He answered, “He is swearing at you.” “At me?” “Yes, at you! You are a minister of the Gospel and nothing makes him so mad!”Christ said to His own, “Love one another * * If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. * * He that hateth Me hateth My Father also. * * But this cometh to pass, that the Word might be fulfilled that is written in their Law, They hated Me without a cause”.Oh! man, woman, why do you reject Jesus Christ; why do you resist His Spirit; why do you refuse to have Him rule over you; why do you deny Him your heart’s love? Have you not read, “If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the Truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

He that despised Moses’ Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God”?God pledges prosperity to His oppressed people. This is a true prophetic vision; it concludes with a blessed promise, “I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: My House shall be built in it, saith the Lord of Hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem. * * My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem”.When is God going to comfort Zion? When He comes in the person of that Christ whose presence will be the believer’s joy! When is He going to choose Jerusalem? When He appears a second time in glory and power. No wonder the grand John Newton wrote:— “Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God; He whose Word can ne’er be broken Framed thee for His own abode.”

“Lord, Thy Church is still Thy dwelling, Still is precious in Thy sight; Judah’s Temple far excelling, Beaming with the Gospel’s light.

“On the Rock of Ages founded, What can shake her sure repose?With salvation’s wall surrounded, She can smile at all her foes.“Round her habitation hovering See the cloud and fire appear,For a glory and a covering, Showing that the Lord is near.”So much for the first vision, or dream, of Zechariah. If it was a vision granted to a man walking in the midst of the myrtles with wide-open eyes, may God teach us its true meaning; and if it was a dream, sent to him in a deep sleep, God show us also that it was given for our sakes. God can teach us by dreams.Recently I spent some days in a farmhouse in Kentucky, and the good deacon who dwelt there told me how he had been bereft in the loss of his wife, a woman beautiful to look upon, and whose Christian character made her more beautiful still. Sometime before she went they had suffered together the loss of a little girl, and in their deep sorrow wondered why God should have permitted death to snatch her away. But some months later their oldest son, whose irreligious life had given them deepest sorrow, dreamed that this dear baby sister—who had been his idol—came back to his chamber in angel form and said, as she clung about his neck, “Brother, why have you rejected Christ? Father loves Him, mother loves Him, sister loves Him, my younger brother loves Him, and oh, how I love Him; and remembering that you had rejected Him I asked the Lord to let me come back and plead with you to accept His love!”The experience was so vivid that it awakened him out of his sleep. After a restless remainder of the night he appeared at the breakfast table, told us what had happened, asked us to pray for him, and there and then he was redeemed.Are not the angels our ministering spirits, sent forth to minister unto them who are to be the heirs of salvation?

Zechariah 1:18-21

THE FOUR HORNS AND FOUR Zechariah 1:18-21. IN reading this first chapter of the Book of Zechariah one might be tempted to suppose that these many visions were only the wild work of the mind during a single night’s slumber,—that one followed another in rapid succession—so that when the Prophet awoke he threaded his way through the mazes of his dream, and when the memory had painfully disentangled the visions, he took his pen and wrote quickly what he had seen in the night. But we are fully persuaded that such was not the order at all. In these visions there is a clearness of perception which lifts them from the level of mere dreams, and in some instances the Prophet intimates that long periods of time intervened the visions. These were revelations of such serious concern that it is not at all likely the Prophet could have received them in rapid succession without having been utterly undone. Do you not recall John’s experience when on Patmos ‘the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him’ was vouchsafed; and he saw one like unto the Son of Man? John says, “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead”; and he had to be lifted up by the right hand of the Most High before he could receive the message. If Peter in the presence of Jesus was humbled to the very dust and compelled to cry, “I am an unclean man”, is it not likely that when the Prophet came into the presence of God to receive these visions, God had to proceed slowly that His servant might recover himself from the one before becoming capable of witnessing another?The hours that try men’s souls by way of holy excitement are those in which they consciously stand in the presence of God. The opening phrase of this night’s text “Then lifted I up mine eyes”, conveys the thought that Zechariah is describing now his recovery from the excitement of the last vision, and his ability to receive another.But, to the vision itself. It involves—The Prophet’s Vision; The Angel’s Explanation; The Lord’s Revelation.THE PROPHET’S VISION His eyes were open.“Then lifted I up mine eyes”. That is the figure of the man who has been in the dust before God. He is recovering; lifting himself now from the ground to which he had fallen in humility, to find himself face to face with the God of visions, he opens his eyes. That is what God now wants. There are times when a man ought to smite upon his breast and cry, “God be merciful to me a sinner”, and “not lift up so much as his eyes unto Heaven”. But there are times when that blindness should come to an end, and one’s eyes should be opened. What a marvelous chapter is the ninth of John—from the first word to the last—given to the healing of the blind man!

When Jesus found him his eyes were closed; when Jesus left him he was seeing! And the blessing of it was, not in that he beheld the Pharisees—his critics,— nor even that he looked into the faces of his old father and mother, and studied the features of friends.

The greater joy was in the sight which he had of the Son of God. It was little wonder that with that sight he said, “Lord, I believe”; “and worshipped Him”.There is a spiritual vision which answers to this miracle of physical healing. As there is the view of the bodily eyes, so there is a vision by faith. The unregenerate man sees only what is reflected to the physical retina; but the man of God beholds “wondrous things out of [His] Law”; and, in hours of holy communion, is vouchsafed sights which only those who are born of the Spirit are ever privileged. And, as the natural man is convinced by what he sees more than by what he apprehends through any other faculty, so the man of God reaches conviction by what he spiritually perceives. Think of that narrative in II Kings where Elisha prayed for his timorous servant, “Lord, * * open his eyes, that he may see”. “And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha”.The vision was real, yet the perception of it was spiritual rather than physical. The men who have been the mightiest powers for God are those who have been able to say with John, “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us”.Herbert Clark has a little poem descriptive of the experience of Thomas as he looked upon the nail-prints in the hands of Jesus, and the sword-wound in His side, and he writes,— “Be very sure, Thomas; It may have been Imagination. Nay, I have seen!

“Yet sight is nothing; One’s eyes may be A pair of tricksters. He spoke to me.

“Only a voice, Thomas, A floating word; No meaning had— Christ’s love heard.

“What did the vision, Then, ask of you? ‘Touch Me!’ and held His Torn hand in view.

“Feel Me!’ and straightway My trembling pride, Glad but reluctant. Found out His side.

“You cannot prove, Thomas, These things are so. Why should I question? I know, I know!

“Yet you the Doubter Were wont to be! My Lord has answered All things for me!” His eyes were Heavenward.“Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw”. They were not only open; they were directed upward. That is the attitude of the seer. No man is ever granted a vision of time as in a panorama until he has first had a vision of the Eternal One. When the vision of Patmos was given to John he saw the Son of Man first; afterward the plan of the ages which is written into the twenty-one successive chapters.Has it never occurred to you that in the Book of Daniel others had visions which Daniel interpreted by the Spirit of God; but before his marvelous visions came he had kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed, and the Ancient of Days, on His throne, had appeared to him, and he had seen “in the night vision, * * one like the Son of Man come with the clouds of Heaven”?A year ago we were studying the Book of Isaiah, and we found that early in that volume in the year that King Uzziah died, the Prophet of the Lord was vouchsafed a vision of “the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the Temple”, and it was from Him that he received his commission.Beloved, who can tell what believers might behold if only more often their eyes were Heavenward? Is it not an evident and awful truth, that so many of us are engaged with the muck-rake, our eyes upon the ground, in search of gold and silver and all temporal good, that we miss the vision of the crown—flashing just above us, and that of the hand holding it, whether it be a Seraph or Son of God? The Psalmist knew the secret of Holy experiences and he wrote, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth”.Isaac Watts had adopted a similar custom and knew the blessings thereof, and hence he wrote,— “Upward I lift mine eyes; From God is all my aid; The God who built the skies, And earth and nature made; God is the tower to which I fly: His grace is nigh in every hour.

“My feet shall never slide And fall in fatal snares, Since God, my guard and guide, Defends me from my fears: Those wakeful eyes that never sleep Shall Israel keep when dangers rise.

“Hast Thou not given Thy Word To save my soul from death? And I can trust Thee, Lord, To keep my mortal breath; I’ll go and come, nor fear to die, Till from on high Thou call me home.” His expectation was rewarded.“Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw”. The men who behold visions from God are the men who have looked for God. It is little wonder that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego saw in the furnace the Son of Man in their midst, since they had expected Him. To the threat of the king they answered, “We are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king”.It is little wonder that Elijah beheld a cloud gathering upon a burning world and ready to work its way of refreshing showers, since Elijah had buried his face on his knees to pray for this, and then sent his servant to search the heavens to report on its coming. I have often wondered whether, after all, the disciples of Jesus, caught in that storm on Gennesaret and threatened with imminent death, were not longing for a vision of Christ, and perhaps praying for it, when, at the fourth watch, He came. The fact that they thought Him a spirit and were affrighted and cried out, does not militate against this idea, since the people who prayed for Peter’s deliverance could not believe that it was he, when, in answer, he stood at the door.

God’s answer to our earnest prayers often exceeds our best expectation. It is not unusual for a man whose eyes are Heavenward to behold more than he thought.

On the contrary it is God’s good custom to exceed our highest expectations.Bancroft tells us that the young Chippewa, on approaching maturity, anxious to behold God, darkens his eyes with charcoal and building a lodge of cedar boughs, it may be on the summit of a hill, begins there his fast in solitude. The fast endures perhaps ten days, sometimes even without water, till, excited by the severest cravings of thirst and famine, he beholds the vision of God and knows it to be his guardian spirit.Beloved, that superstitious folk, accustomed to so many iniquitous rites in the name of religion, did in this instance, hit upon the very plan divinely appointed for the vision of the Holy One. Who of us has ever fasted, prayed, patiently waited and watched, but have been able to say with Zechariah, “I saw”. The world is full of Christians who have had visions of God so sacred that they have shut them up in their hearts, never breathing them even to their best-beloved! To a man they will bear testimony to the fact that these holy hours came when their eyes were Heavenward, and their hearts Were hungry, and their souls waited in expectation. Oh, men, with souls benighted, walking daily in the darkness of moral night, wondering whether any man has ever heard, or seen, or handled the Lord of Life, “Wait [thou] upon the Lord”: “Watch and pray”!THE ANGEL’S “Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns. “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”. Zechariah saw but dared not interpret for himself. Beloved, it is not safe for us to attempt, unaided, the interpretation of even our own visions. Many a man has made grievous mistakes at this point. Some of you may have read Dr. Lorimer’s book, “The Master of Millions” and you will remember how the good, pious soul, Mrs. McGillivary, saw in her chamber a criminal who had fled from the officers to this refuge, and listened to his commands of silence, and took a vow not to tell what she had seen; and supposed that Satan or some evil spirit had appeared to her.We all know how the false faiths of Zoroaster, Mohammed, and Joe Smith rested upon visions that these men claimed to have been vouchsafed to them, which, in every instance, they interpreted according to their own pleasure.Ah, there is a better way! It is the way of the Prophet Zechariah. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him”.Paul never dared to interpret the vision vouchsafed in the highway to Damascus until Jesus spoke to him, and even then he must be further taught its meaning by Ananias—God’s angel—of its explanation.He asked the Angel of the Lord.“I said unto the Angel that talked with me”. We saw in our last study that the Angel who talked with him was the Angel of Jehovah—Christ Himself. He is the One to solve all our difficulties. It was concerning Him God said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him”. He is the One who said, “Whosoever cometh to Me, and heareth My sayings, and doeth them, * * is like a man which built an house * * on a rock”. He is the One who said, “I am the Truth”. As John Watson declares, “Jesus made a claim that separates Him forever from every other teacher—the claim of solitary and absolute infallibility.

The attitude of other masters has been modest and qualifying, ‘This I think is true, but you must not believe it as my word.’ ‘This I think is right but you must not do it after my example; examine and decide for yourself. I am, like yourself, a seeker and a sinner!” Jesus did not effect such humility nor make such admission. He emphasized and asserted Himself, “You have heard that it was said by them of old time” opens one paragraph after another of Jesus’ great sermon; and then follows “But I say unto you”. Ah, beloved, this is the absolute Teacher; this is the One who “spake as never man spake;” this is the One with whom is the explanation of all our visions, the solution of all our difficulties and problems; let us hear Him! “Hushed be the noise and the strife of the schools Volume and pamphlet, sermon and speech, The lips of the wise and the prattle of fools; Let the Son of Man teach!

“Who has the key of the future but He? Who can unravel the knots of the skein? We have groaned and have travailed and sought to be free: We have travailed in vain.

“Bewildered, dejected, and prone to despair, To Him as at first do we turn and beseech: ‘Our ears are all open! Give heed to our prayer! O Son of Man, teach.” The explanation was with wisdom.“These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem”. The one thing of which you may feel sure is this—that when Jesus speaks He will be in accord with the Sacred Scriptures. Of the Old Testament Prophets He says, “I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil”. Here He is only completing what has already been spoken. The horn is the symbol of the nation’s arrogance and power. Long ago by the Psalmist’s pen, He had written, “I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn: lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck” (Psalms 75:4-5).In the flocks the horned one was the strong one, and the dangerous one; and so he became a figure of the destroying nation. Daniel in his visions had seen these same horns.

In the seventh chapter of his Book we find Nebuchadnezzar’s graven image was divided into four parts, each standing for the world powers, and afterward as represented by a horn. Those powers were Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greco-Macedonian and Roman.

And again, “prophecy has become the mold of history,” for those are the very people that rose to scatter Judah and Israel and Jerusalem, and that Roman power now rules the greater part of the world, and like its predecessors, remains the oppressor of this ancient folk. The Angel of the Lord, then, only confirms what God’s true Prophet had seen, and said!And if you turn to the last Book of the Word, you find that same Angel of the Lord—even Jesus—affirming that these kingdoms—figured in the form of beasts—will remain oppressors until the end (Revelation 17:3; Revelation 17:12-14).Christ knew the Old Testament Scriptures; He knew them as the author knows his own book. He, who now interprets for Zechariah this vision, is the very same who granted the vision to Daniel.Of course there would be accord! James Martineau, though a Unitarian, felt compelled to say of Christ, “Not more clearly does the worship of the saintly soul, breathing through its windows opened to the midnight, betray the secrets of its affections, than the mind of Jesus of Nazareth reveals the perfect thought and inmost love of the all-ruling God. Were He the only born—the solitary selfrevelation—of the creative spirit, He could not more purely open the mind of Heaven; being the very Logos—the apprehensible nature of God— which, long unuttered to the world, and abiding in the beginning with Him, has now come forth and dwelt among us, full of Grace and Truth.”It was this same Jesus who said, “If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free”. That is your way, men!

That is your way, Women! That is our only way! “No man cometh unto the Father, but by [Him]”!THE LORD’S “And, the Lord shewed me four carpenters. “Then send 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”. This revelation was made by Jehovah Himself.The Angel of the Lord steps aside and the great Jehovah answers. Possibly the reason is found in that He now proposes the four smiths—or the four world powers—that shall try or terrify, and cast down the oppressors of His people. It is no sign of success when Satan is in command of the world, for even then Jehovah can speak and raise up what powers He pleases, and “put down all rule and all authority and power” (1 Corinthians 15:24).Oh, what a revelation! Who can be discouraged for the end, when this is once spoken!He confirms the Angel’s word. The Angel of the Lord had said, “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem”.Jehovah says: “These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head”.There is always an agreement between the Angel of the Lord and Jehovah;—perfect accord between Jesus and Jehovah. Christ distinctly affirms with reference to His revelation, “I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak”.In every revelation it is equally true that He and His Father are one.

And now they are in agreement that the oppressors of God’s people shall themselves be oppressed and destroyed.It is said of Hannibal that his strange conviction of being an angel of the gods to destroy his country’s enemies was with him day and night. He once told Silenus that in his sleep he felt that the supreme god of his fathers had called him into the presence of all the gods of Carthage who were sitting on their thrones in council, and gave him the solemn charge to invade Italy; and one of the council went with him, and with his army, to guide him on the way.

As he went on, this Divine One commanded him “See that thou look not behind.” But after a while unable to bear the restraint, he looked back and there he beheld a huge monster before which orchards and houses fell crashing. He asks his god in wonder what this is, and the god answers, “Thou hast seen the desolation of Italy. Go on thy way straight forward and the gods will uphold-thee.”And the man who looks into Zechariah’s vision and listens to the Words of Jehovah, sees the desolation of the four great nations,—the oppressors of God’s people. We ought to see another thing, namely,The sure deliverance of God’s own. Ah, beloved, as God has raised up powers to fray and terrify and cast down the nations that have maltreated His people in the past, so God will continue to preserve His people against the might of the oppressor. Yea, even against the hand of that great oppressor described in Revelation twenty as “the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan”.

There is deliverance for God’s people from him, “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is”. He shall be kept in the hollow of the Divine hand.

The enemy shall in no wise hurt him. “He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep”. What a blessed thought!How many souls there are who say they would like to be Christians but they are afraid they would fail, they would be taken captive again by the adversary. But to all such timorous ones God answers, “Come unto Me”. And to him who comes He says, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee: yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness” (Isaiah 41:10). Speaking through Jude He affirms that He is “able to keep [us] from falling”.Oh, to have such a Keeper! Friends, that is the ground of my confidence: that is also the ground of my appeal to you to-night to give yourself over to God without fear, knowing that His infinite power can preserve you from all danger, from all harm; can keep you from falling, present you faultless: “And, though the world with devils filled, Shall threaten to undo us; We will not fear, for God hath willed His Truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim,— We tremble not for him; His rage we can endure, For lo! his doom is sure,— One little word shall fell him!”