CRITICAL NOTES.]
Zechariah 1:16. Returned] to Jerusalem, from whom God had withdrawn. Line] All obstacles removed, the temple completed, and the whole city shall be regular in shape, and exact in its survey.
Zechariah 1:17. Cities] Other cities of Judah belong to God, will prosper and spread] Lit. scattered not by an invading foe, but by growth and abundance (cf. Zechariah 2:4; Zechariah 8:4).
Zechariah 1:18-21.] Four horns] The second vision. The foes of the Jews will be destroyed. Scattered] The people of God surrounded by enemies on all sides. The number four referred to the four quarters of the earth in relation to Palestine [cf. Hend]; by others, to four chief nations.
Zechariah 1:20. Carpenters] Artificers for each horn, indicating the agencies God employs for the destruction of those hostile to his people; “skilful to destroy” (Ezekiel 21:31). Lifted up] Depressed with suffering and fear (Job 10:15). Fray] Terrify and scatter them in their pride and tyranny (Ezekiel 30:9; Psalms 75:4-5).
HOMILETICS
COMFORTABLE WORDS.—Zechariah 1:13-17
Jehovah replied to the intercession of the angel that he loved Jerusalem, and that this love would be displayed in securing its good. If we wait patiently, and commit our trouble to our Intercessor, we shall have “good words” for ourselves, and “comfortable” words for others.
I. God’s love in its objects. He was jealous for his people, and angry with their enemies.
1. He loved Jerusalem. The city had been wronged by others. His honour was involved in its insults. He was zealous for her interests, zealous, “with a great jealousy,” for her good. He had been ill-requited for kindness—had chastised them for deserts—but his love changed not. In the past and in the present he was “a jealous God” (Exodus 34:14).
2. He was displeased with their enemies. “I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease.” He was “but a little displeased,” when he gave them permission to chastise his people. But they afflicted them more than he desired, and sought their extinction to gratify lust and revenge. “They helped forward the affliction.” God’s displeasure is temporary and for good; men’s displeasure is lasting and cruel.
II. God’s love in its consequences. “Therefore, thus saith the Lord,” &c. (Zechariah 1:16). Judgments were designed to restore them to God—that he might return in mercy to them. God hides his face and we are troubled (Psalms 30:7); he returns and we rejoice. We have mercy instead of wrath—mercies repeated and manifold. “I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies.”
1. The capital shall be built. All hindrances shall be removed, and instead of scattered houses, the whole city shall be measured in order and regularity. “A line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem.”
2. The temple shall be restored. “My house shall be built in it.” The worship of God should be the concern of men. Cities without churches are cities without ornaments. The palace of the prince must never take the place of the temple of God.
3. The country shall flourish. “Cry yet,” in addition to foregoing promises, “my cities shall overflow with prosperity.” Not only Jerusalem, but subordinate cities of Judah, shall have abundance of outward and spiritual increase. The produce of the vintage and the fruits of the earth; an extension of trade and an increase of population, shall be given. Whatever be the immediate prospects of the Church, God has great consolation for her. He will yet prosper and comfort Zion. The completion of the temple, the restoration of the city, and the increase of the people, are a declaration of his love, a manifestation of his purpose, and a pledge of his fidelity. “The Lord shall comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord.”
THE FOUR HORNS AND THE FOUR SMITHS, OR THE DANGER AND THE DEFENCE OF THE CHURCH.—Zechariah 1:18-21
This second vision is a fulfilment of the foregoing promise. The horn is an emblem of power. The four mentioned indicate hostile powers on every side, which seek to oppress and crush the people of God. The four smiths signify antagonistic forces which God has raised up and commisioned to destroy. Learn—
I. The Church of Christ exists in the midst of conflict. “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” The Jews, in every age, were opposed by enemies. In Apostolic and succeeding times, the Christian Church had to contend with powers and principalities—persecutions strong and violent. In every quarter of the earth the people of God have been in danger, have had to endure wrath, conflict, and death. Fiery trials await them everywhere. They are left to be tossed by the horns of the enemies, apparently defenceless, though loyal subjects of him who has all power in heaven and earth. It is God’s will that they should struggle and conquer in conflict with evil.
II. In this conflict God raises up men. Enemies and difficulties may surround the Church, but God provides help, and opens our eyes to discern it. “The Lord showed me four (carpenters) smiths.”
1. Men qualified in strength. Workmen are needed. Men of iron hand and resolute will. Smiths who can wield the hammer and smash the horns in pieces. Right kind of men are often wanting. Jeremiah searched in vain (ch. Jeremiah 4:22-25; Jeremiah 5:1), and another cries with a similar result: “I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me, for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none” (Ezekiel 22:30).
2. Men sufficient in number. For every horn there was a smith to fray or destroy it. Strange that a kind of equilibrium between assault and defence should be maintained. But this is no ground for despair. The agencies to foil are as numerous as the enemies themselves. For every evil there is a remedy, and for every danger a deliverer. The horn may do its work, but the smith will follow to take vengeance.
III. Men of the right kind are raised up at the right time. The prophet saw the horns first, but had not long to wait for the carpenters. Just when they wore required they came ready for work. Men will be called and qualified when God has a work for them to do. They may be in the hut of the peasant or in the school of the prophet, preparing for the contest. Moses and Joshua, Paul and Luther, Knox and Whitfield, were raised up at the right time. Have confidence then. A providence silent and unseen works on and prepares the way. Where God has a people, there he is to defend and prosper them. Rutherford wrote to a little church in Scotland, harassed and ready to despair on account of persecution: “So long as there is any of the Lord’s lost money in your town, he won’t put out the candle.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Zechariah 1:15. God’s displeasure.
1. Towards his people only short. “A little displeased.” “Little,” says Pusey, “in comparison with our deserts; little, in comparison with the anger of the human instruments of his displeasure; little, in comparison with their’s who, in their anger, sought their own ends.”
2. Towards his enemies very great. “I am very sore displeased with the heathen.” At ease themselves they persecute others. Though permitted to correct God’s people, they often with revengeful malice exceed their commission, and thus bring mischief upon themselves (Proverbs 24:17-18). The chastisement of believers is temporary, and in love; the punishment of the wicked will be in anger, and for ever. “God uses not the rod where he means to use the sword,” says Bishop Hall.
1. The nature of the mercies. The rebuilding of the temple—restoration of public worship—rebuilding of the metropolis, and increase of the cities.
2. The source of the mercies. “Thus saith the Lord, I am returned.” “Thou hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve” (Ezra 9:13; Lamentations 3:22).
3. The measure of the mercies. In Zechariah 1:17 there are four yets, and all very gracious ones; to break their hard hearts and to raise their faith on his promised mercies. You shall have plentiful increase of men, cattle, and all manner of fruits of the earth, so that it shall no more be said, This is Zion whom no man careth for (Jeremiah 30:17); yea, you shall have a fulness of all things, not only repletive, but diffusive, not only of abundance but of redundance too; your cup shall overflow into the lesser vessels of others [cf. Trapp].
“Surer to prosper than prosperity
Could have assured us” [Milton].
Zechariah 1:18-21. We learn from these verses that the friends of Zion are numerous as her foes; that her defence is equal to her danger; that as the state of his people requires it, the Lord will seasonably raise up means and instruments for their succour and deliverance. The assurance may be derived from four principles: the love of God—the power of God—the faithfulness of God—the conduct of God. In the first, we see that he may be inclined to appear for them, as they are infinitely dear to him. In the second, we see that he is able to save them. In the third, that he is engaged to do it. In the fourth, that he always has done it. Scripture, history, and experience, being witness—
“Then let the would forbear their rage,
The Church renounce her fear;
Israel must live through every age,
And be the Almighty’s care” [Jay].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
Zechariah 1:18-20. Fray. The Church may rest calmly in the assurance that every hostile power shall be judged and destroyed. The primary reference was to the Jews in restoring the city and completing the temple. But it has a wider significance. In the long history of the Church, it is proved that “no weapon formed against her shall prosper” [cf. Lange]. God directs and overrules all counsels and events for the progress and ultimate triumph of his kingdom.