Zec 1:1-21  “For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness”

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Zec 1:1-21  “For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness”

[Study Aired June 1, 2023]

Zec 1:1  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, 
Zec 1:2  The LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers. 
Zec 1:3  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. 
Zec 1:4  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. 
Zec 1:5  Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever? 
Zec 1:6  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. 
Zec 1:7  Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sebat, 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, 
Zec 1:8  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. 
Zec 1:9  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. 
Zec 1:10  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.
Zec 1:11  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 still, and is at rest. 
Zec 1:12  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? 
Zec 1:13  And the LORD answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words. 
Zec 1:14  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. 
Zec 1:15  And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction. 
Zec 1:16  Therefore thus saith the LORD; 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 upon Jerusalem. 
Zec 1:17  Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. 
Zec 1:18  Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns. 
Zec 1:19  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. 
Zec 1:20  And the LORD shewed me four carpenters. 
Zec 1:21  Then said 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. 

Zechariah’sH2148 name means “Jah has remembered” and he is the son of BerechiahH1296 whose name means “blessing of Jah” who is the son of IddoH5714 whose name means “timely“.

Historically, the remnant of Judah that was taken into captivity, as we just read about in the last few chapters of 2 Kings, are now come out of this place that typifies spiritual bondage for us in the churches of this world (2Co 6:17), to learn of God’s faithfulness toward His little remnant, the elect of God whom He has remembered [Zechariah’sH2148] and who are blessed to come to know Him [BerechiahH1296] in this age, at a perfectly appointed time [IddoH5714] (Gal 4:2  Joh 6:44, Mat 22:14). 

A look at where this book was written in the chronology of the scriptures: Chronology of the Prophets in the Old Testament – Bible History (bible-history.com)

Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; 
Gal 4:2  But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.

When we read of such conditional statements as this in the book of Zechariah, “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” (Zec 1:3), we are also reminded as God’s weak of the world, unnatural branch (Rom 11:24), that those conditions can only be met within us through Christ, not by might or power but by God’s holy spirit, in other words (Zec 4:6). That is the message the elect are given to see in His word and be admonished from Genesis to Revelation, being blessed to know that there is a dragging that is occurring in our lives (Joh 6:44), as we are judged in this age, believing that all things are for our sakes and there is one event unto all men, which event is that judgment which has begun at the house of God (Ecc 9:1-3, 1Pe 4:17). 

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

With these principles in mind, we can read the book of Zechariah which points to many Messianic prophecies and learn how they apply to Christ and His Christ (1Jn 4:17). The end of the book of Zechariah reveals a time that typifies when God’s elect will have gone on to perfection in the first resurrection to become the vessels of honor whom He will use to bring salvation to the rest of the world. 

Zec 14:20  In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD’S house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Zec 14:21  Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts.

In order to get to this place of being God’s kings and priests typified by those bowls before the altar, there must be a lifetime of much tribulation and carrying of our own cross as we die daily, so we can enter into the temple of God permanently, in a moment and in a twinkling of an eye at the last trump (Rev 15:8, 1Co 15:52). The bowls symbolize where the wrath of God is stored up and poured out upon all unrighteousness of men (Rom 1:18) and the book of Zechariah reveals the inspired order in which all mankind’s heavens will be judged, each man in his own order (1Co 15:23-24).

Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Rom 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven [Heb 9:23] against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 

Zec 4:6  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. 

1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
1Co 15:24  Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

Zec 1:1  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, 
Zec 1:2  The LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers.

These first verses set the stage for us with both the names and numbers involved to tell us where this prophetic book of Zechariah is going to be pointing. It is in “the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah” because the new man, represented by the “eighth month“, can only begin to be formed in us by our hearing the true witness of Jesus Christ “in the second year of Darius” when the word of the Lord came “unto Zechariah.” Darius is a Persian king who represents our fleshly minds against which we will to be witnessed [“in the second year“], where we are told that the LORD has been sore displeased.

In the prophetic timeline of the “great image” revealed to Daniel and spoken to king Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2:31-35, there is a progression of the judgment of our old man or “image of the beast” (Rev 13:15) represented by the nation of Persia whose king was Darius who comes after king Nebuchadnezzar.

There is an inward application of this statute that applies to those who are being judged in this age (1Pe 4:17), and there is a dispensational application of this “great image” and an historical application, which is the natural revealing of these nations and places and their relationships one to another that precedes the spiritual meaning (1Co 15:46). God blesses His children to come to see and understand how these nations and beasts, to which we are likened, apply to their lives today (1Co 10:11, Rom 1:20). 

‘The dream is one’ principle is in play (Gen 41:25) where we learn of the four beasts in the seventh chapter of Daniel, the first “like a lion” representing Babylon, out of which we come, and then Persia the bear being the second beast (Dan 7:4-5). Then the last two beasts are described showing us the whole [4] representation of our beastly nature which must be judged.

Zechariah is the servant of the Lord who comes to declare what God thinks of this marred-in-the-hand-of-the-Potter beast (Jer 18:4) and declares “The LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers.

All these beasts represent specific nations in history with their rulers who have been given their power from Satan to rule and reign, as he is the god of this world (2Co 4:4), that God ordained to rule over the nations exactly in the manner which He purposed from the foundation of the world according to the counsel of His own will for our sakes, revealing what is in every man who needs to be judged (Rev 13:2, Eph 1:11, 2Co 4:15).

Dan 2:31  Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. 
Dan 2:32  This image’s head was of fine gold [Babylon], his breast and his arms of silver [Persia], his belly and his thighs of brass [Greece], 
Dan 2:33  His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay [Rome]. 
Dan 2:34  Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. 
Dan 2:35  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away [2Th 2:8], that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. [The stone (representing Christ and His Christ) fills the whole earth because of the judgment that has taken place]

2Co 4:15  For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

Zec 1:3  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. 
Zec 1:4  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. 
Zec 1:5  Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever? 
Zec 1:6  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. 

The message of our heavenly Father never changes because God does not change (Mal 3:6), and that message is, “Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts” telling those who have been given eyes to see and ears to hear (Mat 13:16) that we need to know we are in a spiritual battle requiring our whole-hearted devotion to Him as we seek the kingdom of God first and His righteousness (Mat 6:33). If that desire is not there, which is of God, He will not turn to us. However, if Christ is working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure, then we will turn to Him and work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, glorifying God in this dispensation of grace (Php 2:12-14, Jas 4:7, Col 1:27-29, 2Co 6:2, Joh 1:17).

Jas 4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 
Jas 4:8  Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Jas 4:9  Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

Col 1:29  Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

2Co 6:2  (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) 

Joh 1:17  For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

Our “fathers” of old who did not hearken to the Lord “unto whom the former prophets have cried” represent our carnal hearts that rejected the message of God at first, and it is only by the death of that old man we become the spiritual fatherless and the widow of James 1:27 who now, by the grace and faith of Christ (Eph 2:8), can take heed to the warnings being given from Christ through the church so that we “Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings.” Without God’s goodness and longsuffering spirit working in our lives (Rom 2:4) we also would “not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD.”

Those prophets of old are dead, “Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?” However, the typical words of eternal life they pronounced live on (Joh 6:68), and we are to consider how patiently they bore that message for our sakes, some even to death to demonstrate how nothing can separate us from the love of God working within the lives of His people today (Rom 8:35, Rom 5:10), and how we must bear our cross today in order for the life of Christ to manifest within the body of Christ (Jas 5:10, 2Co 4:10).

Joh 6:68  Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.

Jas 5:10  Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. 

2Co 4:10  Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

Lessons will be learned for ‘our fathers of old’ who ‘came out of captivity’ typifying what God has started in the elect’s life. They tell us that although something is being learned, this does not mean there is a change of heart: “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” (Zec 1:6).

The nations coming to see that God is a just God who judges us so that we reap what we sow, is only typical of the real deliverance from sin that can only come through Jesus Christ (Joh 8:36). Knowing that “according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us” does not bring about a changed heart, just as the rod of iron the saints rule with throughout the symbolic thousand-year period will not change anyone’s heart. However, people will learn that what they sow they will reap, and God’s judgments will be executed on the earth (Ecc 8:11, Isa 26:9).

Ecc 8:11  Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. 

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Zec 1:7  Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sebat, 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 word of the LORD comes to “Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet” on the 24th day of the 11th month, which is the month SebatH7627, in the second year of Darius. These numbers and names once again set the stage for us regarding what the Lord wants us to know is unfolding at this point in the story. 

We already know that this is about judgment upon the nation of Judah, who typifies the body of Christ, and have looked at these names “Zechariah’sH2148 (Jah has remembered), BerechiahH1296 whose name means “blessing of Jah“, IddoH5714 whose name means “timely” which remind us God has an appointed time to judge all matters.

The time that the word of the Lord comes to Zechariah is a witness to that point. The goal of having a proper foundation in Christ is witnessed by the number 24, which is 2×12=24, and the 11th month reminds us where we are before we can come to obtain a sure foundation founded upon Christ. That foundation is accomplished by “Sebat”H7627 in the second year of Darius, which witnesses to the reality that it takes a rod of iron to bring about that transition from 11 to 12 (Act 14:22).

Zec 1:8  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. 
Zec 1:9  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. 
Zec 1:10  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.

Christ is the one who rides the red horse into our lives as we see through a glass darkly in the night (1Co 13:12) “I saw by night.

Excerpt from “Horse” (iswasandwillbe.com): “Christ is the red horse rider. Christ tells us plainly that it is He who has come to take peace away from the earth. It is Christ who rides the red horse through our lives.

Mat 10:34  Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. [What does the ‘red horse’ rider carry with him?]

Rev 6:4  And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.** [end quote]

He is the one who causes us to stand, only made possible because He is in the midst of the myrtle trees, which trees represent men (Mar 8:24), specifically the body of Christ in these verses (Neh 8:15, Isa 41:19, Isa 55:13) who know their marred condition, represented by “red horses [Adam; that is without peace], speckled [marred/sin], and white [leprous in the negative sense]” that will be brought into subjection to the rider, Jesus Christ (2Co 10:5).

The horses being “behind him” assures us that we will be more than conquerors through Christ. By His power we will be able to put behind us all our childish and sinful ways, gaining dominion over them through Christ, going onto perfection on the third day (1Co 13:11, Rom 6:14, Luk 13:32).

1Co 13:11  When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 

Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 

Luk 13:32  And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.

Christ stands among the myrtle trees as the means by which we can bear fruit through the vine (Joh 15:5), which is only possible with God’s spirit being within us (Rev 22:1-2, Gen 3:8, Rev 2:7, Rom 8:9). When Christ is in our midst, we have the power to be witnesses in this world (Rev 11:3) in which we live and are coming out of at the same time (1Co 5:9-10, 2Co 6:17).

We are sent, each one of us in that sense, as apostlesG652 (which word means “sent”), “These are they whom the LORD hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth“, as Christ was sent of His Father (Joh 20:21, 1Jn 4:17) to witness God’s righteousness to this world, the exact opposite of what Satan has been sent to do (Job 1:7, Job 2:2, Gen 3:9). God’s absolute power over the light and darkness, and the peace and evil (Amo 3:6) that He has created, is being demonstrated by both the elect being sent into this world as well as Satan (Job 2:6-7), each fulfilling God’s purpose as He works all things according to the counsel of His own will (Isa 45:7, Eph 1:11).

1Co 13:12  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 

2Co 10:5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Those trees are “in the bottom” revealing that God calls and works with the weak of the world, those who are in the bottom, “the foolish things of the world to confound the wise” (1Co 1:26-27). What is behind the rider represents what God is giving us the power to overcome in our lives through Christ. As mentioned above, the speckled horse and the white horse represent the spotted flesh that cannot inherit the kingdom of God [speckled horse (Jud 1:23)] and leprous condition of our flesh [negative use of white] that also cannot inherit the kingdom. Through Christ we are more than conquerors who can put off that flesh and inherit eternal life (Rom 8:35-37).

Jud 1:23  And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 
Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

It takes the angel of the Lord, the messengers of God, who represent the church, the body of Christ (Col 1:24) to understand the interpretation of this vision of the horses, “Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me (Eph 3:10), I will shew thee what these be.

The man (1Ti 2:5) who stood among the myrtle trees typifies Christ who is our mediator who is able to give us dominion over these powerful beasts that represent our carnal beastly minds (Ecc 3:18) against which we can only make war through Christ (Php 2:12-13, Rev 13:4).

1Ti 2:5  For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

Zec 1:11  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 still, and is at rest.
Zec 1:12  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? 

As we walk “to and for through the earth” we see that “all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest“, and we bring this report to our Lord as we sigh and cry for the abominations of the world which has found its rest in fleshly pursuits (1Co 15:32, Mat 10:39, Eze 9:4) and not in Christ who is the one with whom God’s elect labor to enter into a relationship, so that we can have true Godly rest in Him (Heb 4:11).

Heb 4:11  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

The angel of the Lord, who represents the elect, then says, “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?” That question of the angel is the same one that is posed by the angel in Revelation 6:9-11 which reads, “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” 

God’s elect know that the world must be judged and understand that judgment begins at the house of God, which judgment is described for us as God’s “indignation these threescore and ten years”. Seventy years of judgment tells us that God’s judgment must be complete upon the body of Christ in order for us to enter into the temple of God in the fullness of that relationship at the first resurrection or last trump (Rev 8:6, Rev 15:8). Because God sees the body of Christ as one body, with one spirit, this statement, “And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled” tells us that God knows those who are His, and that we need to possess our souls patiently as God brings the entire body of Christ to a place of maturity where we are made ready for the wedding supper. All those who have physically died in Christ are represented by those symbolic voices crying these words from the grave, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” even as we groan within ourselves the same prayer to our Father (Rom 8:22-24).

Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body
Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

Zec 1:13  And the LORD answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words.
Zec 1:14  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. 
Zec 1:15  And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction. 

The world is helping “forward the affliction” that is coming upon it as God has ordained evil men to wax worse and worse at the end of the age (2Ti 3:13). Without God opening our heavens, we cannot understand that He is the one who is working every aspect of the evil within the city (Isa 45:7, Amo 3:6). God comforts those whom He is dragging to Himself in this age with true prophecy which is 1 Corinthians 14:3. That prophecy is the words God manifests in the church via His messengers, “the LORD answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words.” While God is speaking these comforting words to the body of Christ, we are not to neglect the command of God to, “Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.

God is jealous over the bride of Christ with a great jealousy, and yet the afflictions, persecutions, tribulation and suffering we must endure are needful for the body of Christ to mature and be made ready in the Lord so that no man takes our crown (Rev 3:11). God is using all of the creation in the way that He has ordained to move His plan forward, and He tells us, “I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction” which makes our fleshly minds go to the verses in Romans 9:18-22 which ask the question, “Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?” Why is He “sore displeased” if He’s the one who created the conditions. “Why is He setting us up for failure?” our carnal hearts cry.

Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. 
Rom 9:19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? 
Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? 
Rom 9:22  What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

Zec 1:16  Therefore thus saith the LORD; 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 upon Jerusalem. 
Zec 1:17  Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. 

These two verses can be summarized with what is written in Isaiah 9:6-8. Christ is the “line” that “shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.” That line represents the judgments in our lives that are symbolized by the plummet line in the hand of Zerubbabel, who is a type of Christ [God’s Word] who measures or judges us today against that word (Zec 4:10). The bride being made ready for Christ is possible by the “mercies” of God who sends Christ into our lives, returning to “Jerusalem” above (Gal 4:26), so that His “house“, which we are, can be built (1Co 3:16). 

Isa 9:6  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Isa 9:7  Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. 
Isa 9:8  The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel. 

Zec 4:10  For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.

The “My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad” is speaking of how the word of God will be prospered in the earth during the thousand-year reign (Hab 2:14, Isa 26:9) of the saints, even as it is increasing in the body of Christ today (2Pe 3:18). The difference between learning of God’s judgments and actually being changed by those judgments is only finalized in the great white throne judgment for the rest of the world. There is knowledge being disseminated throughout the thousand-year reign, but it is not a period or dispensation of grace, seeing the spirit of God is still not within humanity to bring about that inward change of heart (Rom 8:9).

Hab 2:14  For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. 

Rom 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Zec 1:18  Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns.
Zec 1:19  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. 
Zec 1:20  And the LORD shewed me four carpenters. 
Zec 1:21  Then said 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. 

The four horns represent the whole resurrected body of Christ, and we only see that body when we look to our head, Jesus Christ, who guides and directs the body, and so we have that first thought being introduced,Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns” (Psa 121:1-2).

Psa 121:1  A Song of degrees. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
Psa 121:2  My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.

God’s elect are represented in this section of His word as “four horns” which symbolize the complete power God will use to judge the world with a rod of iron during the thousand-year reign. The number ‘thousand’ correlates with “Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem“, three places connected to the people of God; in this case the whole world being judged [10x10x10=1000]. 

The judgment which comes from God’s word being in the earth will not return void and will be skillfully placed [carpenters] throughout the earth so that the witness of His truth will be complete (Isa 55:11). The function of those horns is to scatter the “scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” Three places are mentioned as this scattering represents the destroying of Babylon’s false religions through a process of judgment [3] that will unfold with a rod of iron, which we know represents God’s unchanging word. 

Isa 55:11  So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

The “four carpenters” of verse 20 are the same as the “four horns” of verse 18, and it is the angel of God, the messengers, that make up the body of Christ who are commissioned to be “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 [representing God’s elect in this instance] to scatter it.

The goal of God’s elect as those carpenters is “come to frayH2729 them, to cast outH3034 (H853) the horns of the Gentiles” – meaning we are taking away the power of the world that has been against Christ and His Christ “which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it” (Joh 19:11).

Joh 19:11  Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

No man did lift up his head” (vs 21) because false religions won’t be allowed on the earth, but neither will the world have the ability to, Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns” of verse 18. which is first given to God’s elect to do.

The hope-filled imagery of “four carpenters” tells us that God is building something with the church being in the earth as the resurrected body of Christ (Col 1:24). However, it is in stages, and these prophetic words of Zechariah in this first chapter we’ve examined point to that beginning stage for humanity as their power to worship false Gods is taken away, and they learn of God’s righteousness through His judgments in the earth (Isa 26:9), eventually having that faith tried in the lake of fire in the second resurrection where all of humanity will have their minds purified through the great white throne judgment as opposed to the rod of iron judgment throughout the reign of the saints that does not change the heart of mankind without God’s spirit within (Rom 8:9).

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

 

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