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5 Where are your ancestors now? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6 But did not my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, overtake your ancestors? “Then they repented and said, ‘The Lord Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as he determined to do.’” 7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo. 8 During the night I had a vision, and there before me was a man mounted on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were red, brown and white horses. 9 I asked, “What are these, my lord?” The angel who was talking with me answered, “I will show you what they are.” 10 Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones the Lord has sent to go throughout the earth.” 11 And they reported to the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have gone throughout the earth and found the whole world at rest and in peace.” ~ Zechariah 1:5-11
The Bible is an ancient and complex book, yet it is God’s revelation to us. Interpreting the Bible involves several key steps that we know as hermeneutics. In fact, there are a few key principles of hermeneutics that are musts in order to arrive upon a sound interpretation of a given passage. The first of which is the place of Israel, the nation, in the Scriptures. God has made a clear distinction in the Scriptures between the nation of Israel and the Church. And, even though it appears that when Israel, as a whole, rejected Christ, God appeared to be finished with Israel, this is not the case. Clearly, God has more work to do with the little nation we know as Israel.
The Bible is not a random compilation of unrelated books that were put together. Rather, it is a unified storyline interwoven into every single book. That’s why we must interpret every verse, chapter, and book in light of the entire Bible. One of the musts in interpreting the Bible correctly is making sure that we know who the writer's audience was: Is he addressing the nation of Israel or is he addressing the Church? When we confuse the two, we get into serious trouble while trying to interpret a passage.
So, today, we come back to a passage clearly written to the nation of Israel. And, from this passage we learn a very important principle: When we refused to hear the Scripture, sin will take us to places that we do not want to go, but God can be trusted, if we only heed His word.
In Romans 6:23 we read, “The wages of sin is death.” The Israelites refused to hear and heed God's word and they therefore died. This is why our text today begins with v.5 which reads, "Where are your ancestors now? And the prophets, do they live forever?"
Then in v.6 we read, "But did not my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, overtake your ancestors? 'Then they repented and said, ‘The Lord Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as he determined to do.'"
That which God said would happen, happened. The exile of the nation into Babylon was proof positive that it happened. The death of the nation stood as evidence that it happened. God will always do what He says He will do. He is faithful and He is faithful to His promises. This is why God will never be finished with Israel.
God's message is always: "Here I am. I'm waiting for you to come back to me. And when you return to me, you will find salvation. You will find restoration." The Lord never forces Himself or His ways on us. So, when the people of Israel returned to their homeland, they found themselves standing in the results of the legacy of failure and disobedience.
In v.7-11 of today's text we read, "7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo. 8 During the night I had a vision, and there before me was a man mounted on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were red, brown and white horses. 9 I asked, “What are these, my lord?” The angel who was talking with me answered, “I will show you what they are.” 10 Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones the Lord has sent to go throughout the earth.” 11 And they reported to the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have gone throughout the earth and found the whole world at rest and in peace."
Beginning in today's text, we have a series of visions from God to the prophet. And these visions were used of God to encourage the exiles that returned to their promised land. The first vision is sort of a general vision that speaks of all of the rest of the visions. And those following will add details to the first one. These visions are therefore an unfolding explanation of God's plan for Israel.
In this first vision, God promises to prosper Israel. The vision was given on the date of February 24th, 520 BC. This was three months after the first message calling the people to repent from their way and turn back to God. All of these visions occur on a single night. They're not spread out by any time. It all happens at once.
Now, the prophet Zechariah asked a good question in v.9. He saw something and he had no idea what he was looking at. And so, in v.10, the Lord answers his question which reads, "Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones the Lord has sent to go throughout the earth."
The myrtle tree is a hardy evergreen tree. It is hard to kill it. And, it grows in the lowlands. It doesn't grow to an impressive height. It never gets higher than 18 feet. This speaks of the lowliness of the nation of Israel. It is always when we think more of ourselves that we discover ourselves moving away from the Lord and His ways. When we move away from Him, He must do those things to bring us back to Himself. Though people have come against Israel and attacked her and destroyed her cities and taken her into captivity, God's promise has always been to restore her. This is why the nation of Israel never goes away.
The man in v.8 on the red horse symbolizes the Lord Jesus Christ. Later on in this book He is called the Angel of the Lord. This is a pre-incarnate guest appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. The Lord Jesus shows up often in the Old Testament, not by that name, and not in the same form as we see Him in the New Testament, but He is there to be found nonetheless. In fact, the theme of the entire Bible is Jesus Christ.
But notice, there are other riders, other horses. They seem to report to the pre-incarnate Christ, indicating that He has authority over them. Their arrival proves that God is actively interested in what goes on on the earth, especially when it deals with and includes His own people, the Jews.
Israel, God's people, had been scattered after being oppressed, dispersed, taken in by the nations of the world. And the nations rather liked that. They were at rest with subjugating the Jewish people and causing a rest that was enforced by taking the Jews captive. Well, that was an arrest that God did not approve of.
As written in Jeremiah 31:35-37, "Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord of hosts is his name: 'If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever.' Thus says the Lord: 'If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the Lord.'"
That's why the Jewish people still exist today: They have been miraculously preserved by God, not because of their goodness, but because of His goodness. Thank God that He keeps His promises! Thank God for His grace and mercy and longsuffering!
When we get to heaven we will learn that God was more intricately involved in our lives here on earth than we knew. Therefore, we can trust Him with everything, especially when life is going in a way we prefer not. Proving His love to ourselves only happens in the context of trusting. And, the more impossible the situation, the greater the opportunity for Him to show Himself most faithful.
