Four Horns And Four Craftsmen

Zechariah 1:18-21

Four Horns and Four Craftsman

Purpose Statement: To show that God is at work throughout history to do

His Sovereign will and plans.

Background: Zechariah immediately sees this second vision. He sees four horns. Horns represent Gentile powers. Usually this is seen as the same powers mentioned in Daniel chapters 2 and 7. It is important to note that it would be dangerous to interpret these visions by themselves. We must look

at the whole counsel of Scripture before reaching conclusions about what these horns and craftsman represent. This is Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece

and Rome. Three of these horns become craftsman.

The four craftsman are: Media-Persian, Greece, Rome, the Millenial Kingdom. (Rev 19:16) Christ returns not on a red horse of judgment, but a white horse of victory, purity and goodness to establish His kingdom as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So, Christ is the last carpenter or craftsman.

It’s noted that the Roman government never did truly die, but it fell from internal corruption. Some believe that the antichrist will come reestablish and

Rome like government in the end times.

The number four is implying completeness both in the extend of their power and fall.

Implications:

1. God is involved in judging the nations that try and harm Israel. He gives them authority for a season and then takes it away. At the time of this

writing, Zechariah is under Media-Persia authority. He has seen two of these kingdoms. God is trying to tell him that he has history under his sovereign

control

2. God is directly involved in world events. Romans 13:1. Ultimately there is no authority except by God.

In a letter from Mils and Sandy Becker, April, 1995.

“In the 1920’s Stalin ordered a purge of all Bibles and believers. In Stavropol, this order was carried out completely. Thousands of Bibles were taken and believers were sent to the gulags, where so many died for being enemies of the state.

Last year (1994), a Commission team was sent to Stavropol. They didn’t know about the history of the city at that time. But when the team had difficulty getting Bibles shipped from Moscow, someone mentioned that they knew a warehouse existed outside of time, where these Bibles had been stored since Stalin’s time.

“The team prayed together and one member had the courage to go to the warehouse and ask the officials if the Bibles could be removed and distribulted again to the people in Stavropol. The answer was “yes”.

The next day the Commissioners returned with a truck and several Russians to help load the Bibles. One helper was a young man- a skeptical, hostile,

agnostic university student who came only for the day’s wages. As they loaded the Bibles one man noticed that the student had disappeared. Finally

they found him in a corner of the warehouse weeping.

He had slipped away, hoping to quietly take a Bible for himself. What he found pierced him deeply. The inside page of the Bible he picked up had the handwritten signature of his own grandmother. It was her personal Bible.

Out of the thousands of Bibles still left in that warehouse, he stole the one that belonged to his grandmother- a woman persecuted for her faith all her

life.

No wonder he wept. God was real. His grandmother had prayed for him and her city. His discovery of the Bible was only a glimpse into the spiritual part

of his person. And now this young student is in the process of transformation by the Bible that his grandmother found so vital. God is making known to

people around the world.

3. God will set up a kingdom in the last days that will never end. His kingdom is the rock that became a mountain that fills the whole earth Dan 2:35. Daniel 7:27 says that the sovereignty, power and greatness of the kingdoms over the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints.