Today, we have the privilege of tackling the first eight verses of Zechariah chapter 6. The first few times I read these verses, I thought that there wasn't much there. It seemed confusing, to be sure, but it also seemed like the type of passage where it's difficult to preach a full sermon out of it. From my perspective, by the end of my studying, and learning, and growing, it ended up being something quite different in the end. Hopefully, I leave you today feeling the same way.
Let's start by reading verse 1:
(1) and I again I lifted my eyes,
and I saw,
and LOOK! Four chariots going out from between the two mountains. (chariots: Psalm 68:17; 2 Kings 6:17; Isaiah 66:15)
Now, the mountains [were] mountains of bronze. [1 Kings 7:15-21]
Zechariah has another vision from God. He gets access into spiritual realities, and those spiritual realities are revealed to him in the form of a movie. It's not like a prophetic oracle, where God simply gives him a message to pass on to the people. It's a movie.
So what does Zechariah see?
Four chariots, emerging from two mountains made of bronze.
In the OT, one of God's names, or titles, is often translated as LORD of hosts. What this means, really (probably), is Yahweh of Armies. Our God is a general, who commands a huge angelic host of spiritual warriors. In several passages, this army is described. God has tens of thousands of chariots at his disposal. In the Ancient Near East, chariots were the premier fighting weapon of any army. They were a deadly combo of speed, and lethality-- the ancient equivalent of a fighter jet, or tank, or an attack helicopter in areas where there's total air dominance. It's difficult to win, without chariots. It's difficult to lose, with chariots.
So what we see here are four chariots. God has thousands of chariots. Here, we only see four. But this number four, is a symbolic number, representing a much bigger number (*Mark Boda). To see four chariots, is to see tens of thousands.
Where these chariots are moving out from, is between "the" two mountains. In the OT, mountains are the place where spiritual beings tend to live (except evil ones, who roam the desert?). When you want to have an encounter with Yahweh, the God of Israel, those encounters are often found at mountains. When Israel's neighbors wanted to worship their gods (elohim), or seek advice from them, they would often go to mountains, and offer sacrifices on the high places. And if you've ever been up high in a mountain range, this should make sense to you. When we traveled through Beartooth Pass at Yellowstone, you might be in a car full of family, and you might be worried you're about to die because the temperature is dropping, and the wet roads are going to turn to ice, and you're going to drop thousands of feet off the side of the road. But truthfully, it's hard to focus on any of that, because when you're up in those mountain ranges, all you can really think about is God. To go up in elevation, is to get closer to God. And that's something that people have legitimately understood to be true at least since the tower of Babel.
All of that said, it's unusual here that there are two bronze mountains. Many scholars link the two bronze pillars to Solomon's temple (1 Kings 7:15-21). His temple had two bronze pillars at the entrance. Passing through the pillars meant you were entering God's presence, or leaving it. And since earthly places of worship tend to be a dim mirror of heavenly places of worship, it makes sense that what we are seeing here is a better, bigger version of Solomon's temple. This heavenly temple would be the place where God is enthroned. It's his base of operations. It's like a combo of a military base, and a throne room.
So at the end of the day, the movie we need to let run in our heads, in our imaginations, should look like something out of the Lord of the Rings. We see four chariots streaming out from the place of God's presence. If you can picture the hooves pounding the earth, and angelic beings riding in chariots, guiding the horses, coming out from a Lord of the Rings mountain range, then you'll be very close to having the right movie in mind.
Verse 2-3:
(2) With the first chariot, reddish-brown horses,
while with the second chariot, black horses,
(3) while with third chariot, white horses,
while with the fourth, dappled horses-- powerful,
In these verses, Zechariah's vision zooms in, to focus on the horses. It could've focused on the pillars, or the chariots, or something else. But we see the horses.
Why?
When we see these horses, we should find ourselves thinking they are vaguely familiar-- unless we skipped church the wrong week, and missed something really important. :)
Let's turn back to the beginning of Zechariah, to the very first vision Zechariah saw. Zechariah 1:8-15:
(8) I saw at night,
and LOOK! A man! A rider upon a reddish-brown horse,
Now, he [was] standing still among the myrtle shrubs which were in the shadowy place,
and behind him reddish-brown ones, sorrel ones, and white ones,
(9) and I said,
"What are these, my lord?,"
and the angel/messenger speaking with me, said to me,
"I will show you what they are-- these ones,"
(10) and the man standing still among the myrtle bushes answered,
and he (the one standing still, not the interpreting angel) said,
"These [are] the ones who Yahweh has sent out to explore/go to and fro across the land,"
(11) and they responded [to] the angel/messenger of Yahweh-- the one standing still among the myrtle shrubs--
and they said,
"We have explored/gone to and fro the land,
and LOOK! The whole land [is] dwelling in peace/rest,"
(12) and the angel/messenger of Yahweh responded,
and he said,
"Yahweh of Armies, How long [is it that] you won't show compassion to Jerusalem and to the cities of Judah with which you have been angry 70 years?," [Jeremiah 25:8-14; Jeremiah 29:10-14; Jeremiah 50 and 51]
(13) and Yahweh responded to the angel-- the one speaking with me-- with good words-- compassionate/comforting words,
(14) and the angel/messenger-- the one speaking with me-- said,
"Call out, saying, [2nd masc. sing; this is the message Zechariah is to give]
"Thus has said Yahweh of Armies:
"I am passionate toward Jerusalem and toward Zion a great passion,"
(15) while [with] a great anger I [am] angry concerning/against the nations that are at ease,
because I was a little angry,
while they joined together for evil/disaster.
There are two important links between Zechariah 1 and 6, and the similarities and differences are both really important.
In both visions, Zechariah sees horses in full color, but the colors and groups don't quite line up. There are four groups of horses in chapter 6, instead of three. And only two of the colors are the same.
In the first vision, what we are seeing is a secretive patrol. God has sent out scouts on horseback, to explore the land. And in that vision, what we see, is a world at peace, but it's not the type of peace that God is seeking. It's the type, where God's people are still suffering. And it's the type, where those who have harmed God's people have gone unpunished. In verse 15, we see that God is furious against the nations-- and this would mean, against Babylon, in particular.
In our vision today, these four groups of horses have been hooked up to chariots, and our expectation is that they are going to war. They're locked and loaded, ready to battle, emerging from God's heavenly throne room. Very different.
What we see in chapter 6 is close enough to chapter 1, that we find ourselves comparing them, and relating them. But what we see is different enough, that we realize we are seeing God doing a new thing. God is furious with the nations because of how they treated his people, and now, war chariots are on the move. And if you've added background music to your movie, what do you hear? If you're part of God's faithful people, the soundtrack you hear is incredibly uplifting, and hopeful here. If you're living in Babylon, you hear something very dark, and ominous.
Are you all with me? You can hear, and see, Zechariah's vision?
Zechariah isn't quite sure what to make of all of this, and so he asks his friendly interpreting angel who is standing nearby, for some help. What the angel says is helpful, but we will find our movie has changed in big, surprising ways. Verses 4-6:
(4) and I responded/reacted,
and I said to the angel speaking with me,
"What [are] these ones, my lord?,"
(5) and the angel responded,
and he said to me,
"These [are] the four spirits/winds (ruach) of the heavens going out, after presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth" (on "presenting," compare Job 1:6; 2:1; Deuteronomy 31:14; Joshua 24:1; on the four winds, see Jeremiah 49:35-38; Ezekiel 37:9; Psalm 104:4):
(6) [The chariot] which with it [has] black horses-- they [the chariot+horses] are going out to the north country,
while the white ones have gone out after them,
while the dappled ones have gone to the south country,
So the chariots, we now learn, are actually the four spirits, or winds, (or both) of the heavens. The Hebrew word here, ruach, can be used to describe quite a few things in the Old Testament. It can mean breath, or wind, or spirit. It can describe the Holy Spirit. It can describe spiritual beings (2 Chronicles 18:18-20). These four winds seem to be living beings. They are described as God's messengers/agents (Psalm 104:4) who serve God. They have personality. They have desires (see next verse, Zechariah 6:7). But they serve God, above all else. These winds, or spirits, have the power to give life (Ezekiel 37:9), or to do harm. And that should make sense to us. A gentle cooling breeze on a hot day, gives life. A windstorm at the wrong time of year, can wipe out an entire season of crops, or destroy a house.
Winds are powerful things. So these four winds have presented themselves before God, in God's throne room. They reported for duty, and they were sent out, commissioned by God for some new task.
Two of them go off to the north, toward Babylon. One goes south. And the fourth group? It's not mentioned at all. Perhaps it's held back, as God's reserves (*some scholar). What God is planning, doesn't max out the capability of his army. It's not at the limits of what God can do.
So, the fact that two go north mean that Babylon is God's focus. God has been very angry with Babylon, and now He sends two chariots, two winds, two spirits, north to bring judgment.
With this, we come to verse 7. This is kind of confusing (once you stare at it long enough), because it's a flashback to the moment when the four spirits came before God in God's throne room. They're presenting themselves before God, with a request. And God grants this request:
(7) Now, the powerful ones came forward/went out,
and they sought/desired/requested to go to patrol the earth, ["seeking"= wanting to do something; 1 Kings 20:7; Zephaniah 2:3; Psalm 4:3 "seeking lies"; Psalm 71:13, 24 "seeking hurt"]
and He said,
"Go! Patrol the earth,"
and they patrolled the earth,
In chapter 1, the three groups of horses had come back from patrolling the earth, and all they'd done was observe. They didn't change anything. But when chariots go out to patrol, it has a very different purpose. A war chariot isn't scouting. A war chariot is looking for enemies. It's more like a jet fighter. And these chariots are looking for bad guys in Babylon.
With this, we come to our last, tricky verse of the day. Verse 8:
(8) and He cried out to me,
and He said to me,
"See the ones going out to the north country!
They have satisfied my spirit/anger (ruach) against the land of the north."
God here directly speaks to Zechariah, explaining to him the meaning of all of this. The two winds going north, are the really important ones here. They are bringing God's overdue judgment on Babylon. And this commissioning, does something to God's own spirit.
Up to this point, God had been furious with Babylon. They'd mistreated his people, who were the pupil of his eye (Zechariah 2:8). Up to this point, they'd gotten away with it. We know it bothers us, when people hurt us. What those people did was wrong, and deserves punishment. And when God's people are persecuted, that bothers us too. It should, at least. Does God not care? Does God not know? Is God not antsy to make things right, and avenge his people?
What we see in verse 8, is that God is just as antsy as his four spirits (verse 7), to go out, and give justice to his people. God looks forward to the day when He will bring judgment on everyone who hurts his people. And sometimes, that judgment comes sooner than later. It's not always a "when Jesus comes back on his horse, it's going to be payback time." Sometimes, the payback comes much sooner.
For decades, God had been holding back his hand, and waiting to bring judgment on Babylon-- in part, because his own people had sinned, and were under God's judgment. But the 70 years are up, and God is settling things, giving himself a peace of mind/spirit.
So at this point, when we play this movie in our imaginations, what do we see? Four chariots racing out from God's throne room, two of them heading north to wage war against Babylon? Two mysterious spirits going north? Or two gusts of wind, blowing to the north?
We're left, perhaps, a little unsettled.
And to top of it all of (what follows is from Mark Boda, NIVAC Zechariah commentary; unpacked in more depth in his article "Four Horns"), what's really interesting, is when we research what actually happened to Babylon historically. If you were actually there, in Babylon, what you'd see is that your city rebelled against the Persian empire. You tried to break away, and become independent. And Persia, in response, crushed you repeatedly. Your rebellion was put down hard, and you suffered a great deal. If you were a reporter, boots on the ground, filming this, would you see two of God's chariots? Would you see a rushing wind? I don't think you would. All you'd see, is Persian soldiers everywhere, running swords and spears through Babylonians, tearing down walls and buildings.
How do we explain this? How do we link Zechariah's vision, to what literally happened on the ground?
One way to think about it, plays off a different sense of the word "ruach," "spirit." In the OT, sometimes you read about people having a spirit of this, or a spirit of that. A husband can have a spirit of jealousy, and suspect his wife of having an affair (Numbers 5:14, 30). In Hosea, God's people are said to have a "spirit of whoredom" (Hosea 4:12), which led them astray. Later in Zechariah 12:10, God promises that He will pour out on the house of David, and the people of Jerusalem, "a spirit of grace." In a famous passage in Isaiah (Isaiah 11), Isaiah prophecies that there will be a shoot from the stump of David, and the spirit of Yahweh will rest on him-- a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and might, a spirit of knowledge and reverence for God (Isaiah 11:1-2). In Jeremiah 51:1, God says this: "Behold, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer against Babylon." And in 2 Kings 19:7, God puts a spirit into the Assyrian king, to make him go home and stop laying siege to Jerusalem.
So it could be that the two spirits God sent north, are spirits that God put into the Babylonians and Persians. God put a spirit of rebellion into Babylon, and a spirit of hostility and anger and unforgiveness and power into Persia, so that the end result was total carnage.
Even today, we have a president who seems to get certain things in his head, and just can't seem to shake those ideas. Whether they are good ideas, or not, and whether there's some big picture in mind, I leave it up to you. I'll even leave it up to you, to decide how that relates to God. But when I look at Trump, it seems obvious that he's working with some unseen driving force, driving spirit, and that spirit seems to be pushing Trump to threaten people all across the globe-- in Venezuela, Colombia, Cuba, Greenland, Russia, Iran.
And just so I'm clear, let me say this a little differently. In Numbers 5:14, it talks about a spirit of jealousy overcoming a husband. It doesn't mean that the husband has an evil spirit. It doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit is making the husband jealous. There's this driving force, sometimes, that makes a husband insanely jealous, and he can't seem to break out of that. Maybe it's legitimate, and maybe it's not. And what the OT says, is that God can put a spirit into people, that alters their own spirit. You can gain a spirit of wisdom and understanding. You can change, so that your spirit decides to give up besieging Jerusalem, and just want to go home.
So I'm kind of a fan of this explanation of the two wind chariots. But however we explain this, when we compare Zechariah 6, to what actually happened, it should make us pause, and rethink how we interpret biblical imagery and symbolism. What we see, with spiritual realities, might look very different with what we see with earthly eyes. And the really crazy, really cool visions and symbols we see in books like Zechariah, or Daniel, or Revelation, are sometimes not to interpreted in the absolutely most literal way possible.
I once had a pastor give me a slightly backhanded compliment, which I've always relished (to echo James Dunn, in his intro to the Theology of Paul). He said that I have the gift of making the simple seem complicated. I appreciated that, and I feel like this morning's sermon is a good example of that.
But let me leave you today, focused on what I think is the main application. Let's reread Zechariah 6:8:
(8) and He cried out to me,
and He said to me,
"See the ones going out to the north country!
They have satisfied my spirit/anger (ruach) against the land of the north.
When God's people are hurting, and suffering, it's natural to ask questions. Where is God? Does God see my suffering, or has he turned away from me? Is he hiding? Does he care?
Life is often hard. It's often painful. And it is sometimes especially hard and painful, for those of who have chosen to follow Jesus. There's a cost, to following Jesus. Jesus warned us about this-- the world will hate you (John 15:18-22), as it hated Jesus. The world will persecute you, as it persecuted Jesus. Knowing this-- being warned about it-- helps us suffer faithfully. But there will always be moments when we find ourselves asking those questions-- does God care? Does God know? Is God bothered?
What we see in Zechariah, is that God sees exactly how his people are suffering. He knows who is doing it. We also see that there are times when God's spirit is like that of his war horses. It's restless. It's ready to lock and load, to go to war. And sometimes, God has this much bigger plan in mind, and He forces himself to wait. The chariots are going to be released-- but not quite yet. At other times, the chariots have been released, and the judgment on those who harm us is coming very soon-- but the chariots are still on their way.
God is often just as antsy to act, as we are, to have God act. God's spirit is often just as unsettled as ours.
Knowing this gives me comfort. It gives rest to my spirit, satisfies my spirit, to know this: God does care. He sees. And it's as important to God, that He takes vengeance on those who harm us, as it is to me. God's spirit will not be at rest, until He has brought vengeance on everyone who hurt us.
This might sound incredibly bloodthirsty. Not very Christian, perhaps. But it's this knowledge that gives us strength to not repay evil for evil, to not take revenge, but to leave space for God's wrath (Romans 12:17-21). Thinking about God's war horses gives us strength to hold on in persecution, knowing that this time of suffering will one day come to an end (Revelation 4:10-11).
One day, God will send out his war chariots for the last time, and it's on that day, that God's spirit will be satisfied.
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There were a couple of verses that I struggled with for several hours before being happy with my translation/understanding, so some might find it helpful to see some extended notes on the translation:
My translation of Zechariah 6:6:
[The chariot] which with it [has] black horses-- they [the chariot+horses] are going out to the north country,
Verse 6 gives scholars all kinds of fits because of it how it starts with the relative pronoun "asher." Several emend the text here. Thomas McComiskey links to several passages in Jeremiah (14:1; 47:1; a few others) where "asher" is the first word. But in those references, it's more like an unusual word order, and rearranging it in English creates a pretty typical sentence. That's not the case here. Gesenius, 138.b, shows that "asher" sometimes has a inherent subject. Boda in his NICOT commentary talks about the so-called independent relative clause. Basically, sometimes what's built into "asher" isn't just "who/that/which" did/is this or that," but "he/it whom..."
Genesis 24:1: "Yahweh, the God of heaven-- [HE] who took me from the house of my father."
Genesis 1:7: "God made a separation between the waters-- [THOSE] which were under the expanse and the waters which were over the expanse."
Genesis 7:23: "He blotted out all the living creatures-- THOSE that [were] on the face of the earth.
2 Kings 6:16: "More [are THOSE] who [are] with us, than [those] who [are] with them.
I think Zechariah 6:5-6 are one long, complex sentence in the Hebrew-- I like having a colon (:) at the end of verse 5, and seeing verse 6 as an unpacking/elaboration.
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My translation of Zechariah 6:8:
(8) and He cried out to me,
and He said to me,
"See the ones going out to the north country!
They have satisfied my spirit/anger against the land of the north."
Verse 8 is usually translated, "They have set my Spirit to/at rest in the north country."
The verb, "set to rest" sometimes has the sense of, "to pacify/satisfy" (HALOT #3; DCH #2).
HALOT:
—3. to pacify, satisfy: Ezk 5:13 16:42 21:22 24:13 Zech 6:8, to make glad Pr 29:17. †
In several of these examples, the verb is found with the preposition "b" ("against/on"), in connection with "anger." Often, the idea is "satisfy my wrath/anger" (direct object) on/against ("b") a group of people.
Ezekiel 5:13: "And my anger will come to an end, and I will satisfy my wrath on/against them, and I will relent, and they will know that I-- Yahweh-- have spoken in my passion when I fully vent my wrath against them."
Ezekiel 16:42: "And I will satisfy my wrath on/against you, and my passion will turn away from you, and I will calm, and I will be angry no longer."
So also Ezekiel 21:22; 24:13.
In Zechariah 6:8, we find the word "spirit" rather than anger, but with the same overall construction.
"I have satisfied my spirit (direct object) against ("b") the north country."
God's spirit has been angry toward them, or perhaps unsettled. He's had a "spirit of anger." So whether we translate "ruach" straightforwardly as spirit, or as anger, the idea is that God is moving to a place of being calm, and not angry (as in Ezekiel 16:42), through sending this judgment. The idea is not that God is putting his Holy Spirit in the north, and setting up the north as a place for his Holy Spirit to dwell.
Meyers and Meyers, and Mark Boda, note that in Hebrew, the word "spirit" sometimes has the sense of "anger" (so also HALOT, DCH). The clearest examples (and some of these could be argued, if one was so inclined, but English Bibles all accept this as a possibility, and the first one in particular can't really be argued; and the parallelism in the second one is also quite clear):
Judges 8:3: "Then their anger/spirit subsided from against him."
Proverbs 16:32: "Better to be slow to anger ("long of nostrils") than to be a hero/warrior, while [better to be] one controlling his anger/spirit, than one capturing a city."
Proverbs 29:11: "All of his anger/spirit, a fool lets go, while the wise in the end brings it to rest."
Ecclesiastes 10:4: "If the anger/spirit of the ruler rises against you, you mustn't leave your place/post."
Isaiah 33:11: "You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble; your anger/spirit is a fire that will consume you." (BDB).
Job 15:12-13: "Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash, that you turn your spirit/anger against God, and you let such words go out from your mouth?" (BDB).
Ultimately, I decided not to translate it in verse 8 as "satisfying God's anger," instead keeping the word "spirit," but it should be understood that God is in fact very angry with the nations (Zechariah 1:15], and determined to punish them, and that He's not satisfied/mollified until He sends the war horses out in judgment. So the idea of anger needs to be brought into the text from Zechariah 1.
War chariots are going out, to satisfy God's anger. Neither He, nor God's people, had been happy about Babylon seemingly getting away with it. But this moment of action, and sending, has given satisfaction to God's anger. Much, perhaps, like David telling Solomon to come in judgment against those who had wronged him, in his dying words (1 Kings 2:5-9) David died in peace, his spirit quieted/satisfied (though the language isn't used-- it's the idea) , knowing that his son would take vengeance.
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Translation:
(1) and I again I lifted my eyes,
and I saw,
and LOOK! Four chariots going out from between the two mountains. (chariots: Psalm 68:17; 2 Kings 6:17; Isaiah 66:15)
Now, the mountains [were] mountains of bronze.
(2) With the first chariot, reddish-brown horses,
while with the second chariot, black horses,
(3) while with third chariot, white horses,
while with the fourth, dappled horses-- powerful,
(4) and I responded,
and I said to the angel speaking with me,
"What [are] these ones, my lord?,"
(5) and the angel responded,
and he said to me,
"These [are] the four spirits/winds of the heavens going out, after presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth" (compare Job 1:6; 2:1; Deuteronomy 31:14; Joshua 24:1):
(6) [The chariot] which with it [has] black horses-- they [the chariot+horses] are going out to the north country,
while the white ones have gone out after them,
while the dappled ones have gone to the south country,
(7) Now, the powerful ones came forward/went out,
and they sought/desired/requested to go to patrol the earth, ["seeking"= wanting to do something; 1 Kings 20:7; Zephaniah 2:3; Psalm 4:3 "seeking lies"; Psalm 71:13, 24 "seeking hurt"]
and He said,
"Go! Patrol the earth,"
and they patrolled the earth,
(8) and He cried out to me,
and He said to me,
"See the ones going out to the north country!
They have satisfied my spirit/anger against the land of the north."
