_The second night vision. The four horns and the four smiths. The
third vision. The man measuring Jerusalem. Restoration and glory of
Jerusalem foretold._
The second night vision of Zechariah is closely connected with the
first. In the first vision the time is given when the Lord will turn
in mercy to Jerusalem--the time when the nations are at ease, and,
having helped forward the affliction of His people, are ripe for
judgment. The scenes have passed away, and now the prophet lifts his
eyes again and he sees _four horns_. The question he asks of the
angel is answered by him, that _these are the horns which have
scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem_. Then _four smiths_ appear,
and the angel informs the prophet that _these are come to fray them_
(the four horns), _to cast down the horns of the nations which lifted
up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it_ (chapter i:
18-21.) The four horns are the powerful and proud enemies of the
people of God. Why four horns? Some have said because the enemies of
Israel have come against the land and Jerusalem from all four
cardinal points of the compass, and have scattered the people east
and west, north and south. Others mention different nations who were
at Zechariah's time in existence and instrumental in scattering
Israel. The horn is a symbol of power and pride, and in prophecy
stands for a kingdom and for political world power. The ten horns
which Daniel saw on the terrible fourth beast rising from the sea
denote ten kingdoms, and in Revelation xvii: 12 we read, "The ten
horns that thou sawest are ten kings." The four horns in this second
vision must be therefore kingdoms--world powers. The number four, as
it is well known to every student of the prophetic Word, is found
twice in the book of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar's great image was divided
into four parts, each standing for a world power, namely: the
Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Graeco-Macedonian and the Roman
power. The latter is still in existence and will be till the stone
smites the image at its feet and pulverizes it. Daniel's vision
(chapter vii) brings before him four mighty beasts, the last having
ten horns, just as the limbs of the image ended in feet with ten
toes. With such a revelation in the book of Daniel it is very easy to
understand that the four horns can mean nothing else than the same
powers of Gentile rule and supremacy existing during the entire time
when the kingdom has been taken from Israel. These four world powers
are horns. They unite strength and pride, and are bent upon
scattering Israel. They are the enemies of Israel, and therefore the
enemies of God. And now the four smiths appear on the scene to fray
them--to cast down the horns of the nations. Four horns are overcome
and broken down completely by four smiths. It does not follow that
the four smiths must be four other powers. The vision seems to teach
two facts: first, the horns will be broken and cast down; and in the
second place, God has for every hostile power which has sinned and
sins against his people a corresponding greater power to overcome it,
break it into pieces and cast it down. However, we believe the vision
will have its fulfillment in the time of Jacob's trouble. The
elements of all the four world powers will then in some way be
concerned in the onslaught on Jerusalem--a confederacy of nations;
representatives of many nations will come up against Jerusalem, and
it will be then that the four horns are broken by the four smiths and
the casting down will be done.
The third night vision is one of the most interesting and
instructive. As the third one, it forms the climax of the good and
comfortable words which were spoken concerning Jerusalem. The number
three stands in the Word of God for resurrection, life from the dead.
Thus in Hosea, concerning Israel, "After two days Thou wilt revive
us, and on the third day Thou wilt raise us up" (Hosea vi: 2). In
this third vision Zechariah sees the glorious restoration of Israel,
which has been the burden of so many prophecies, and the glory which
is connected with that restoration. In this night vision Zechariah
hears of a restoration and of a glory which has never yet been
fulfilled in the history of God's people. Those teachers of the Word
who see in Zechariah's night visions nothing but fulfilled prophecy,
cannot answer certain questions satisfactorily, and their only refuge
must be a spiritualizing of this restoration. Another thought before
we take up this third vision. The vision of restoration comes after
the enemies of Israel have been cast down. That prophecy might be
fulfilled; prophecy about a believing, suffering Jewish remnant;
prophecy concerning Jacob's trouble, etc., a mock restoration,
generally termed a restoration in unbelief, is to take place. There
can be no doubt whatever that we are privileged to see the beginning
of this restoration of part of the Jewish nation to the land of the
fathers in unbelief: It is one of the signs of the nearness of that
event for which the Church hopes, prays and waits--"our gathering
together unto Him." The world and the lukewarm Christian does not see
it, but he who loves the Word and lives in the Word, has eyes to see
and a hearing ear and knows what is soon coming. The true
restoration, however, will only come as it is seen so clearly in
these night visions after the enemies have been overcome, the horns
cast down, the image smashed--in other words, after the Lord has
come.
We may divide the third night vision into two parts. In the first
part a man is seen with a measuring line measuring Jerusalem, and the
restoration of the city and its enlargement is promised; and in the
other part promises of blessings are given as well as glimpses of the
glory which will attend the restoration.
Zechariah sees a man with a measuring line in his hand. The prophet
asks him, Whither goest thou? And he answers, _To measure Jerusalem,
to see what is the breadth thereof and what is the length thereof._
There is nothing here which indicates that the man who starts out to
measure the city is identical with the man on the red horse of the
first vision. This man here seems to be only a person appearing to
impress the coming enlargement of Jerusalem upon the prophet's mind.
Similar visions where measuring takes place are found in Ezekiel xli,
where the temple of the Millennium is measured, and in Revelation xi,
where a reed is given to John to measure the temple of God, which is
the temple standing in Jerusalem during the time of Jacob's trouble.
Here in Zechariah's vision it is the measuring of Jerusalem. What
Jerusalem is it? Of course, the Jerusalem in Palestine, which will,
in its restoration, become the centre of the earth. In the new earth,
after the thousand years, there will be another Jerusalem in the
earth, the new Jerusalem come down out of heaven from God (Rev. xxi:
2). Of this new Jerusalem we read, "And the city lieth four square,
and the length thereof is as large as the breadth: and he measured
the city with a reed twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the
breadth and the height thereof are equal" (Rev. xxi: 16). Here is the
measurement of the new Jerusalem: As long as it is broad and
extending upward into the air. What a wonderful city that will be,
the glorious centre of a new heaven and a new earth, our home for all
eternity! The man in Zechariah's third vision measures only the
length and the breadth of the city because in the coming restoration
of Jerusalem there is no height to be measured.
Now follows the appearing of another angel who meets with the one who
had been speaking to Zechariah, and he brings from the throne of God
a message for the prophet. He said, _Run, speak to this young man
saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, by
reason of the multitude of men and cattle therein._ The influx of men
and cattle to Jerusalem will be so enormous that the city must be
enlarged and it will spread out into the plain. Another prophet, the
seer of Israel's glorious future, Isaiah, has spoken likewise of this
enlargement in the following beautiful words: "As for thy waste and
desolate places, and thy land which has been destroyed, surely now
shalt thou be too strait for the inhabitants, and they that swallowed
thee up shall be far away. The children of thy bereavement shall yet
say in thine ears, The place is too strait for me, give place to me
that I may dwell" (Isaiah xlix: 19, 20). Notice the city is to be
inhabited as villages. This denotes the peace which Jerusalem will
then enjoy. A blessed security for the city which for so long a time
was trodden down by the Gentiles. There will be no walls. No need of
walls to shelter men and cattle, for the enemies of Israel have been
scattered and broken down, the warfare of Jerusalem is accomplished.
At the end of the Millennium, which will have been a thousand years
of unbroken peace for the land which for thousands of years knew no
peace, Satan, with Gog and Magog, will come against the land and its
inhabitants. This last final struggle the Holy Spirit revealed
through the prophet Ezekiel (chapters xxxviii and xxxix). It is
interesting to notice there the condition of the land and the people
as the enemy who comes up against the land finds them: Thus says the
Lord God: It shall come to pass in that day, that things shall come
into thy (enemy) mind, and thou shalt devise an evil device: and thou
shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages. I will go
to them that are quiet, that dwell securely, all of them dwelling
without walls, and having neither bars nor gates: to take the spoil
and to take the prey: to turn thine hand against the waste places
that are now inhabited, and against the people that are gathered out
of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the
centre of the earth (Ezekiel xxxviii: 10-12). What a wonderful Word
our God has given us! How everything is harmony! Zechariah's vision
shows what Jerusalem will be in the beginning of the Millennium, and
Ezekiel, by the Spirit of God, puts before us the same conditions at
the end of the thousand years.
The reason of Jerusalem's peace, security and prosperity will be the
glory of the Lord. This glory will be in the midst of the city, and
will also form a wall of fire around the city. For I, saith the Lord,
will be unto her a wall of fire round about the city, and I will be
the glory in the midst of her. Glory and defence are here combined.
They always go together. This has been in a degree already the happy
lot of Israel in the past, for He guided them with His glory. It was
a cloud by day and a fire at night by which the Lord had revealed
Himself to His people, and out of that glory cloud He protected them
and punished their enemies. How much greater will that glory and
defence be in that time of fullness when Israel is no longer a
disobedient, stiff-necked people, but the holy people, the kingly
nation. What a glory that will be when the King comes back with His
kingly glory, attended by the many, many brethren who have suffered
with Him and now share His glory! What a glory that will be when He,
who is our life, will be manifested, and we with Him in His glory! It
will be unspeakable glory. Cry aloud and shout thou inhabitant of
Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. And
it shall come to pass, that He that is left in Zion and he that
remaineth in Jerusalem shall be called holy, even every one that is
written among the living in Jerusalem when the Lord shall have washed
away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the
blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the blast of judgment
and burning. And the Lord will create over the whole habitation of
Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day, and the
shining of a flaming fire by night, for over all the glory shall be
spread a canopy. There shall be a pavilion for a shadow in the day
time from the heat, and for a refuge and for a covert from storm and
from rain. (Isaiah iv.) This glory during the Millennium will no
doubt not only hover over the land, but will be visible over the
entire earth, and the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover
the earth as the waters the sea.
It is interesting to see how Talmudical literature falls in with
these thoughts. A few quotations from these old writings of the Jews
will no doubt be acceptable to the reader. Rabbi Isaac Napcha says:
The Holy One said, I kindled a fire in Jerusalem (in wrath) Lament.
iv: 11, and I am going to build her up again with fire, as it is
said, "I will be unto her, saith the Lord, a wall of fire round
about. He that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution." The
Pesikta Rabethi has this: What is this: "And for a Glory I am in the
midst of her." Is it not the case that the glory of the Holy One is
none other than on high, as it is said, "His glory is above the
heavens." The glory is in order to show every creature in the
universe the superior excellence of Israel, since it is on their
account that the Holy One brings down the Shekinah from the highest
heaven and lets it dwell in the earth.
We have now in the vision a continued description of that happy
condition of Jerusalem and all that is connected with it. First, we
notice the summons for the Jews who are then still in dispersion.
_Ho, ho, flee from the land of the North, saith the Lord, for I have
spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the Lord.
Ho, Zion, escape that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon._
It is not to be expected that when the glory appears and the King of
Glory comes again and His feet stand there on the Mount of Olives,
that the entire Jewish nation will then live in the land. This will
not be the case; only a part of the nation was restored in unbelief,
and in the midst of them a believing remnant, whose faith, suffering
and salvation we hope to describe later. Two-thirds of all the
inhabitants of the land will be swept away in the great tribulation.
After the Lord has come, the others will be restored. It is
significant that the land of the North is mentioned here, Late; in
the eighth chapter, we read: "I will save my people from the East
country and from the West country," but those living in the land of
the North come first. Of course, Babylon was meant as far as this
vision had anything to do with the restoration which had taken place
in part from the Babylonian captivity. The North country, which
figures in the coming restoration, is not Babylon, but another land.
Russia is directly north of Palestine, and in this northern land, the
territory once inhabited by Gog and Magog, about one half of the Jews
now living have their homes. About six millions of Jews are living
to-day in European and Asiatic Russia. Their deplorable condition in
that land of the North is well known, and there, likewise, the
national awakening has been the most marked and Zionism has its most
ardent advocates. A large multitude is getting ready in the North
country for a mighty exodus. Like their forefathers in Egypt, they
will flee from the land of the North, and thus prophecy is literally
to be fulfilled.
Zion is to separate from the daughter of Babylon. What is Babylon? We
hope to answer this question and give a description of her when we
come to consider the seventh night vision, the woman in the Ephah. In
this third vision of restoration we hear next what is to take place
after the glory. The expression "after the glory" means undoubtedly
the glorious appearing of the Lord coming with all His saints,
sitting upon the throne of His glory, and His glory thus manifested.
_After the glory hath He sent Me to the nations which spoiled you:
for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye._ Who is the
one who is being sent to the nations? It is without a question He,
whom the Father sent. He sent Him once, the only begotten, into the
world in the form of a servant, when He made Himself of no
reputation, but Jehovah will send Him again. And when He again
bringeth in the Firstborn into the inhabited earth He saith, And let
all the angels worship Him. (Heb. i: 6, 7.) The Father sends Him
again to establish His glory, and after the manifestation He is sent
to the nations which spoiled Israel. All Scripture speaks of this.
While He will in His coming overcome the armies of nations who are
gathered in that day against Jerusalem, He will likewise continue,
after His glory, to judge nations. He will rule in the midst of His
enemies. He will do that among the nations what the second psalm
declares, thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, Thou shalt dash
them in pieces like a potter's vessel. _For, behold I will shake Mine
hand over them, and they shall be a spoil to those that served them._
In this rule and judgment the Lord of glory will be assisted by the
saints. Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world? (1 Cor.
vi: 2.) Israel will likewise be used in that judgment. While He is
the lion of the tribe of Judah who now roars to the dismay of all His
enemies, Israel, His people, becomes the lioness. "Behold the people
riseth up as a lioness, and as a lion does he lift himself up. He
shall not lie down till he eat the prey and drink the blood of the
slain." (Numbers xxiii: 24.) Israel will then no longer be the tail
but has become the head. The true form of government for the earth
has been restored, a Theocracy through His chosen and restored
people, the seed of Abraham. Things will then be changed completely.
The nations shall take them (the children of Abraham) and bring them
to their place, and the house of Israel shall possess them in the
land of the Lord for servants and for handmaids, and they shall take
them captive whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their
oppressors. (Isaiah xiv: 2.) Strangers shall stand and feed your
flocks and aliens shall be your vine dressers. (Isaiah lxi: 5.)
We must not overlook the loving words concerning Israel, He that
toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye. Israel is the apple of
the eye of God. Through Moses God declared the same truth. He kept
him as the apple of His eye. (Deut xxxii: 10.) In Hebrew the pupil of
the eye is called the gate, because through it enters the light. Thus
Israel is the pupil, the gate, through which the light has come and
comes, for salvation is of the Jews. And what is so sensitive, so
delicate and easily injured as the apple of the eye? And against this
apple of the eye of God the nations and Christendom have sinned. May
we believing Gentiles understand more fully that Israel is the
beloved one and may we be kept from doing harm to His people.
The overcoming of the enemies of Israel, the spoiling of these
nations which spoiled Israel, and all that is connected with it by
the sent One of God, the Son of God will be the evidence for Israel
that Jehovah has sent Him. _And ye shall know that the Lord of Hosts
has sent Me._ The same statement is repeated in this vision, but we
shall see in another connection. It is, so to speak, constitutional
with the Jew that he wishes to see and then believe, and surely he
will see and believe, or rather know, when the Lord comes.
In the tenth verse of the second chapter of Zechariah we read now
that the daughter of Zion will sing and rejoice. The reason of her
song and joy is, _For lo, I come and I will dwell in the midst of
thee._ To-day orthodox Jews are chanting in Hebrew the magnificent
psalms which speak of a coming deliverance and manifestation of God's
glory, but it is only with their lips, and the heart is still
hardened and the eye blinded. The dark night is rapidly approaching,
the night in which a believing remnant of Jews will fulfill much of
that suffering, waiting, and blessed assurance of salvation which is
so clearly outlined in the psalms. And after that, the whole nation
will break out in mighty songs of joy, and while there, in the
Father's house, the blood-bought hosts will sing their hallelujah, a
delivered, cleansed and spirit-filled nation in the earth will shout
her hallelujah, in which nation after nation will join, till at last
it has been done what seer after seer saw and heard, the earth as
well as the heavens filled with His glory, the Kingdom come, and His
will done in the earth as it is done in Heaven.
Again, the promise is given that the Lord will dwell in the midst of
her. How is this to be understood? Will the Lord dwell continually in
person, after his second coming, in Jerusalem? Will He be seen there
in His Holy Temple by all who come up to Jerusalem? Some Scriptures
indicate that He will be present in His blessed person at different
seasons. The strongest statement in this direction is Zechariah xiv:
16. In this passage we have the fact of a yearly coming up to
Jerusalem of nations (probably representatives of nations) to worship
the King, and that at the feast of tabernacles. His throne, no longer
His Father's throne, upon which He sits now, but his own throne
during the Millennium, will no doubt be in the New Jerusalem which,
as a bright and glorious vision, will be seen then by all who live in
the earth way up in the firmament, and the angels of God _ascending_
and descending upon the Son of Man. A vice-regent, a Son of David,
will occupy David's throne in Jerusalem. The Glory of the Lord will
appear in the Holy City, and the new name of Jerusalem will be
Jehovah Shamah, the Lord is there. It is impossible to give the
details of these glories, for they are not clearly revealed. It is
enough to know that the Church, His Body, shall truly be united with
her glorified head, and meet her Beloved, her Bridegroom and her
Lord. It is enough to know that Israel will surely see the King in
His beauty and crown Him Lord of all. Even our brightest imaginations
will not reach the glories of that day. Indeed, not half has been
told.
The Lord cometh to dwell in Zion. _Many nations shall join themselves
to the Lord in that day and shall be My people._ This promise is
likewise followed that this will be evidence from which the people
will know that the Lord of Hosts has sent Him. How often the orthodox
Jew has come to us and told us that when Messiah comes all their
enemies will be cast down--there will be peace for Jerusalem and the
nation Israel; and then saying, Ah, where is that peace?--behold our
enemies! When Messiah comes we shall know Him by what He does for us
in overcoming our enemies. Likewise the orthodox Jew will say, Where
are the many nations who join themselves to the Lord, the nations who
worship the Lord of Hosts? When Messiah has come, he will say, We
will know Him by the fact that nations shall join themselves unto the
Lord. It will hardly do to tell the well informed Hebrew that there
are now Christian nations in existence. Thus the Jew waits for the
fulfillment of these prophecies at some future time, and seeing them
accomplished he hopes to know then his Messiah and King. Only the
small remnant, according to the election of grace, sees Him now by
the eyes of faith--Him who is altogether lovely, and in whom alone
these prophecies can find their fulfillment. To-day individuals from
Jews and Gentiles are joining themselves to the Lord, but in that day
of His appearing and manifestation nations will be converted, and
many nations shall go and say, "Come ye and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will
teach us His ways and we will walk in His paths." "Lift up thine eyes
and see: they all gather themselves together--they come to Thee. Thy
sons shall come from far and thy daughters shall be carried in the
arms. Then thou shalt see and be lightened, and thine heart shalt
tremble and be enlarged, because the abundance of the sea shall be
turned unto thee. The wealth of the nations shall come unto thee, the
multitudes of camels shall cover thee--the dromedaries of Midian and
Ephah, they all shall come from Sheba; they shall bring gold and
frankincense, and shall proclaim the praises of the Lord." (Isaiah
lx:4-7.) Only then will India and China, South America and Africa be
won to Christ and the world converted to God. But the land of Judah
is to be the portion of the Lord (verse 12).
This vision of restoration and the coming of glory ends with one of
the sublimest exhortations in the Word of God. _Be silent, all flesh,
before the Lord, for He is waked up out of His holy habitation._ The
exhortation does not belong really to the restoration. It is an
appeal to all flesh to be silent before the One who is raised up--the
coming One. Now is the time when God is silent. He is silent to the
wicked deeds of men. He is silent in regard to the nations who are
treading down Jerusalem and who are scattering Israel. The flesh
speaks now and is not silent, and the language it speaks is rebellion
against God and against His Anointed. And louder and louder speaks
all flesh, and in the midst of a boasted civilization, at the dawn of
a new century, the days of Noah and the days of Lot are at hand.
Gain, pride, possession, expansion, is the universal cry--a mad hunt
after Mammon is seen in individuals and in nations; and while the
flesh speaks thus, and its language becomes more and more defiant,
God keeps silence. But our God shall come and keep silence no longer.
Rapidly His day--the terrible day of the Lord--is approaching; the
day in which He will roar out of Zion. Oh, what a hush there will
come upon those that dwell in the earth when the darkened sun and the
falling stars will herald the approach of a God who will keep silence
no longer. Oh, dear reader, Jew or Gentile, listen! The signs of the
times truly tell us that the Lord who is to come must have already
_risen_ from His holy habitation. He is coming. Soon He will gather
His saints unto Himself before the day of wrath breaks, when neither
gold nor silver will deliver. Wilt thou not become silent before Him,
the coming One? Will not every reader yield himself to that wooing
spirit of Him, whose power does silence the flesh? Be silent all
flesh! He is waked up out of His holy habitation!