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Zechariah, Prophet of God's remembrance, Part 4

Beginning in Zechariah 1:6, the prophet records eight visions which are linked by parallelism (or chiasm) as follows:

A The 4 Horses who Patrol (1:7-17)

B The 4 Horns (1:18-31)

C Measuring Jerusalem (2:1-13)

D Joshua, The Branch (3:1-10)

C₁ The Plummet (4:1-14)

B₁ External Enemies (5:1-11)

A₁ The Horses (6:1-8)

Such Hebrew parallelisms are common in the Scriptures, and they are meant to provide a link between A and A₁, B and B₁, and finally, C and C₁. So, for example, we see the vision of the horses in A as well as in A₁. When we study any set of two linked visions, we see parallels which give us the full picture and meaning. This is why it is important to understand the structure as well as the text itself.

In these parallelisms, the central focus is always in the middle—in this case, D, “Joshua, the Branch.” As we will see, Joshua the high priest, was a type of Christ in His capacity as our “great high priest” (Hebrews 4:14).

The Four Horses on Patrol

Zechariah 1:7 says,

⁷ On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, as follows:

Zechariah’s first vision was seen about three months after he began to prophesy. (See Zechariah 1:1.) The work of building the second temple, after ceasing for about 12 years due to local opposition, had just restarted upon the accession to the throne of Darius the Great (521 B.C.). The temple would not be finished until March 15, 515 B.C. (Ezra 6:15).

Zechariah 1:8-10 continues,

⁸ I saw at night, and behold, a man [ish, “male”] was riding on a red horse, and he [another angel] was standing among the myrtle trees which were in the ravine, with red, sorrel and white horses behind him. ⁹ Then I said, “My lord [Adonai], what are these?” And the angel who was speaking with me said to me, “I will show you what these are.” ¹⁰ And the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered and said, “These are those whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth.”

An angel was speaking with Zechariah in his night vision (dream?), and he stood ready to explain the vision of the four horses and their riders. This “angel,” then, was distinct from the four riders and was probably the one “standing among the myrtle trees.” The wording of the text seems somewhat confusing, because the translation makes it appear that the man on the red horse was also standing among the myrtle trees. It seems to me that this was a separate angel.

This separate angel, called Adonai, is identified later in verse 12 as “the angel of Jehovah.” In verse 13, he is called “the angel who was speaking with me,” implying the presence of other angels who did not speak. Hence, this angel was a spokesman, and we are told that the other four riding horses were “behind him.” Three of them are mentioned in verse 8: “red, sorrel, and white horses.” The fourth is a black horse, mentioned later in Zechariah 6:2 in the parallel vision.

The sorrel horse is saroq, “sorrel, reddish, tawny, bay.” Though it is “reddish, it is not to be confused with the red horse.

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h8320/nasb95/wlc/0-1/

The angel of Jehovah explained that “these are those whom Jehovah has sent to patrol the earth.” The main purpose of this horse patrol was to monitor the situation and perhaps to gather information, so that when the proper conditions had been met in the fulness of time, they might report back to Jehovah. Then, presumably, Jehovah would issue some sort of decree that might change the situation—i.e., reversing the long captivity of Judah and Jerusalem.

The End of Captivity

Zechariah 1:11, 12, 13 says,

¹¹ So they answered the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees and said, “We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth is peaceful and quiet.” ¹² Then the angel of the Lord said, “O Lord of hosts, how long will You have no compassion for Jerusalem(s) and the cities of Judah, with which You have been indignant these seventy years?” ¹³ The Lord answered the angel who was speaking with me with gracious words, comforting words.

Recall that Jeremiah had often prophesied that Jerusalem would be in captivity to Babylon for seventy years. Zechariah was seeing this vision at the end of the Babylonian captivity. From the captivity of Jerusalem in 604 B.C. to the Edict of Cyrus that set the people free in 534 B.C. was seventy years.

It was also seventy years from the start of Ezekiel’s ministry in 591 B.C. to the start of Zechariah’s ministry in 521 B.C. (Ezekiel’s first prophecy is dated by “the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s exile, which was 591 B.C.).

A third seventy-year period began with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in August of 586 B.C., ending 70½ years later in March of 515 B.C. God often establishes more than one starting point, each of which has its own endpoint. He does this, I believe, to confirm things by two or three witnesses.

Comfort

When the angelic spokesman heard the report of the horsemen, that the earth (or land) was peaceful and quiet (i.e., fully subdued), then he knew that this was the turning point. Hence, he asked Jehovah “how long?” anticipating that this captivity would soon be ended. The answer came with words of grace and comfort. In other words, Jerusalem—that is,, the New Jerusalem—was to be released from being under the judgment of the law, and being given “comforting words” (nihum, from nacham, “comfort”).

This is what Isaiah also prophesied in Isaiah 40:1, 2,

¹ “Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God. ² “Speak kindly to Jerusalem, and call out to her that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed, that she has received of the Lord double for all her sins.”

Nacham refers to the Holy Spirit, which is called the “Comforter” in John 16:7 Those words of “comfort” were spoken on the day of Pentecost in the earthly Jerusalem (Acts 2:1), which launched the Age of Pentecost. They will be spoken again on a greater scale at the outpouring of the Spirit that launches of the Age of Tabernacles.

It seems to me that we must be close to that latter-day outpouring of the Spirit. While Zechariah lived and prophesied at the end of the seventy-year Babylonian captivity, we ourselves have arrived at the end of seventy Jubilees dating from Israel’s Jordan crossing under Joshua. This ended in late 2024, and this Jubilee year extends to the end of 2025.

So perhaps we are living in the time when the angel of the Lord reports that Mystery Babylon has fully subdued the earth. How long, then, shall we wait for deliverance? The angelic report in Zechariah’s day has a greater application to those today who seek the dominion of the heavenly Jerusalem at the end of seventy Jubilees.