Introduction
This prophet is one of the more compelling prophets in the OT. The ministry that he brings is that which attaches the hearts of a people that have returned from Babylon under the government of God, the 70 years (Jer 25) have been served and a remnant returned. Their hearts grew complacent and they turned to the cares of their own lives and neglected the calling of God. How like so many of us! The apostle Paul wrote to the Phillipians that none care with genuine feeling how they got on (Phil 2:20). The ministry of Haggai was preceeding and contemporary with the utterances and prepared the hearts ground fertile for the reception of the ministry of Zechariah of hope , grace and Messianic glory.
All scripture is quoted using The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright © 2001
Chapter 1
1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying,
The dating here is in the 2nd of the 4 kingdoms of Daniel 2, and the seat of governmental authority remains in the hands of the gentiles , we are in the "Times of the gentiles" . There is little said about Zechariah, the prophecy is 518 BC. he is of the priestly line and is both then prophet and priest.
2 The Lord was very angry with your fathers.
3 Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.
4 Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds. But they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord.
5 Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
6 But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? So they repented and said, As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.
The history of the failure of the people is brought to bear on their conciences. How gracious our God is! Return to me and i will return to you How the Lord longs for each of his own to repent and do the first works, Rev 2. One of the things that strikes me as I read this is the appeal to the conciences of the hearers, that like Jehovah Elohim in the garden calling to Adam, we have here the pleading of a God who desperately desires to have his own intimately with himself. The heart of the Lord , is demonstrated to all who would hear the voice of him that speaks to the churches , as Judah , back to their land in weakness, were restord but not in the power of the millennium. They prided themselves on the Fathers, Jehovah said where were they , the prophets-- do they live forever? But the Lord proper points them and us to that which will never fail -- the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever. 1 Peter 1. The apostle Paul said the to Ephesian elders "I commend you to God and to the word of his grace" Acts 20. How appeals to Godly brethren, their writings , their ministry fall to the ground in the presence of the living powerful Word of God! How many times have brethren in Christ spent hours of precious time, citing men of past generations, seeking to apply “ principles” from Brother ___ ministry to the matter weighing on the conciences of the gathering rather than the Word of God. Do we think we are better than Israel? How powerfully the opening words of this ministry strike at our hearts!
Why the Lord of Hosts? The title has to do with the redemptive power of the Lord. He has dealt with the nation according to the relationship that springs out in redemption. The evaluation of the state of that nation springs from the role of redeemer.
7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying,
1st vision that Zechariah saw, his linage but the vision comes at night, he is privy to it , it is his burden to bring it to his brethren.
8 I saw in the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses.
9 Then I said, What are these, my lord? The angel who talked with me said to me, I will show you what they are.
10 So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, These are they whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth.
11 And they answered the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, and said, We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth remains at rest.
William Kelly wrote
“
And they answered the angel of Jehovah 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." I think that "red" is used symbolically as a sign of devotedness to God, whether in judgment, or in grace as in the rams' skins dyed red of the tabernacle, but even these founded on judgment. He who was on the red horse had been on the Lord's behalf the executor of His judgment, and was now using Persia as His instrument for so dealing and thus favouring the Jews. This was the second of the world powers, and two more were to follow as we see here. It would seem that the symbols here are rather of the angels whom Jehovah employs to overrule than of the kingdoms themselves which follow separately; and it is clear moreover that we have the connection of these powers with the history of the ancient people, but that people now in a strikingly abnormal state. We must remember that all through the last three prophets they are never owned as the people of God. This is of much importance. They are destined to be blessed and exalted more than ever as the people of God, but meanwhile they are seen out of national relationship with God. "They shall be my people," but they are not.
Such was and is then their state. Not that God ceased to care for them: the raising up of these post-captivity prophets, and above all the mission of the Messiah, prove the contrary.”
http://www.stempublishing.com/authors/kelly/1Oldtest/zecharia.html
Also in the Consise Bible Dictionary states.
“
The first vision is in Zech. 1: 7-17. A man, the angel of Jehovah, on a red horse (the horse is a symbol of the energy of God's providential government in the earth) stands in the shade among the myrtle trees, and there were other horses, red, speckled, and white, as symbols of God's agency in the government of the earth: cf. Zech. 6: 5. "The powers that be are ordained of God" and were used by Him. If the 'red' horse signifies Persia (having the same colour as the horse of the angel, possibly because Persia was at that time ruling and was favouring God's people), doubtless the 'speckled' and the 'white' point to the two nations that were to succeed — the Greek and the Roman. All were under the control of God. Babylon is not seen here: it had received its punishment.”
http://www.stempublishing.com/dictionary/818_839.html
Zech. 1: 7-17. This may be called "the vision of the horses among the myrtle-trees." The first of these horses had a rider on it, the others were in the rear, and, as far as we learn, were without riders.* The prophet asks the angel that waited on him what this meant. The rider upon the foremost horse tells him that these unridden horses were the agents of the Lord's pleasure in the earth. The unridden horses, the representatives of the Gentiles, then speak and say that the whole earth was still and at rest; that is, just as they would have it. For such, surely, was the mind of the nations of the earth, whom God had set up upon the degradation and fall of Jerusalem. So would they have it — their exaltation upon the ruin of God's people. *They are without riders, I believe, in order to represent the senseless, brutish force which marked the Gentiles, unguided as they were by the Spirit of God. The first horse was ridden by a man, a symbol of the divine energy that ruled the fortunes of Israel. It was "the angel of the Lord" that was the rider.
http://www.stempublishing.com/authors/bellett/MINORP11.html
The importance of recognizing the working of the powers of the unseen world is unquestioned. ( cmp Dan 10) The comment that the earth is at rest is striking. In the presence of the energies of the nations, the angelic representation in the riders of the horses. God could say the earth is at rest! He who works all things by the counsel of his own will, who the nations are a drop in the bucket, can say that the earth is at rest. Imagine the mind and heart of Zechariah! The sovereignty of God is clearly in view. That all of us could have God’s long view!
