GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
ZECHARIAH 6:1-6
The Eighth Vision
The eighth vision has some things in common with the first one, the one with the horses under the myrtle trees. This time the horses are not all the same colors or in the same order, and they are pulling chariots. The chariot was an ancient vehicle, but used more for speed and to show prosperity than as a weapon. Early chariots were comparable to the limousine or the earliest airplanes– the toys of the rich. By this time, chariots were common in battle, and their appearance here is as symbols of swift speed in God’s war against unbelief.
6 I turned back and lifted my eyes and saw four chariots coming out from between two mountains– mountains of bronze. 2 The first chariot had bay horses, the second chariot black horses, 3 the third chariot white horses, and the fourth chariot dappled gray horses. They were strong. 4 Then I answered the angel who was talking with me, “What are these, my lord?” 5 The angel answered me, “These are the four spirits of heaven, going out from before the presence of the Lord of all the earth. 6 The chariot with the black horses goes toward the north country, the white ones go toward the west country, and the dappled ones go toward the south country.”
As in the earlier visions, these two mountains could be those closest to Jerusalem: Mount Zion, just up the hill from the City of David, and the Mount of Olives, three hundred yards or so to the east. Bronze was the strongest alloy known in ancient times. A combination of a little tin with a lot of copper, bronze is tough, keeps an edge better than iron does, and resists rust. It was synonymous with strength. The bones of Job’s behemoth were “tubes of bronze” (Job 40:18). With God’s help, the mighty man “can bend a bronze bow” (Psalm 18:34). A stubborn man has “a forehead of bronze” (Isaiah 48:4). The horses are also described as “strong” in verse 3.
The four chariots cannot be the four familiar kingdoms from Daniel’s prophecies. Luther silences this theory with brief words (LW 20:62). It is not really possible to identify any significance to the colors of the horses, especially since there is a difference between this vision and chapter 1. The presence of the angels and the explanation that they are “going out from the presence of the Lord” tells us all we need to know: These angelic chariots represent the ministry of the Word of God. In the first vision, they were returning to the Lord under the myrtle trees after a mission. Now they are going out on another mission. Since there are four chariots, all driven by angels at the command of God and all equal in strength, they have been described as symbolic of the four Gospels. The ancient church saw more than a dozen similar foreshadowings in the Old Testament, and the medieval commentator Nicholas of Lyra lists them in his book on the Gospel of Mark. Some of the more thoughtful observations include the four rivers that flow from Paradise (Genesis 2:10), the four galleries of the house of Solomon (1 Kings 7:2), the four winds that revive the dead (Ezekiel 37:9), the four small things on earth that surpass the rest in wisdom (Proverbs 30:24), the four men who praise God in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:25), the four craftsmen who cast down heresies (Zechariah 1:20), and also the four animals with eyes in front and behind (Revelation 4:6).
The bay horses (“reddish,” meaning the usual brown color of horses, usually with darker manes and tails) and their chariot are passed over, probably headed off to the east, although Zechariah doesn’t say this. The black horses turn north, and the white go “behind,” which seems to say that they follow the black team north, “behind them” (as in 2 Samuel 5:23), except that “behind” is sometimes the word for “west.” A man facing the sunrise has the west behind him. The dappled team turns to the south.
The key words to focus on here are that these teams were “going out from before the presence of the Lord.” They were sent. Jesus says the same thing about the angels when he says that “the angels of God (are) ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51). He means that just as in the vision of Jacob’s ladder (Genesis 28:12), the angels have only one way in or out of heaven, and that is Christ himself. They go where he commands, and they return when he commands or when their errand is completed. And since we see that this is the will of God in heaven, we know that it is true for God’s Word as well as for God’s messengers. God said to Isaiah: “My word will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).
We put our trust in the Word of God. “The Word of the Lord is flawless. His is a shield for all who take refuge in him” (2 Samuel 22:31). All God’s words are true (Psalm 119:160), they comfort us (Psalm 119:52), and when the wicked mock us for this trust, we remain steadfast (Psalm 119:51), because they have turned away from God and they are lost. The louder our enemies shout at us, the clearer the path of God becomes, for they would not be so furious if we followed along after them like meek little kittens. False teachers rob God by not returning to him the deposit they received (Luke 19:23). They teach another doctrine to undo the pure Gospel and undo what God has done, and they should not even be listened to.
Keep steadfast in the Word of God. Pray that God would give you good, faithful, sincere, and honest preachers and teachers who will not lead you astray. Pray for the success of the Gospel in the world, for this is the Gospel that touched your own heart, brought you from unbelief to faith, and from the path of death to the path of forgiveness, holiness, and life through Jesus our Lord.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Zechariah 6:1-6 Four chariots