The Second Vision
Zechariah i. 18-21.
The next vision was full of comfort. The good words and comfortable words of the previous chapter are continued, like the long-drawn-out sweetness of a lullaby.
As the little group of returned exiles looked nervously out on the mighty world-empires, which surrounded and threatened them, they were filled with alarm. How could they cope with them? There were Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their companions, of the nations whom Nebuchadnezzar had settled in Samaria; Rehum the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe, so ready in their use of the pen to exert influence on the great kings beyond the river, to make the work of temple-building cease; and the reactionary influences at work in the far-distant court, always adverse to the resuscitation of a subdued nation, like the Jews, which had given such proofs of inevitable independence. Beneath the irresistible pressure of these hostile forces the work of temple-building had already ceased for fifteen years, and there was every fear that the new resolve to arise and build would meet with similar opposition and a similar fate. There was singular appropriateness, therefore, in the prophet’s vision: “Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, four horns.”
In the language of a pastoral people like the Jews, the horn naturally represents the pride and power of the ravager and oppressor of the flock. The Divine Shepherd is heard from the very horns of the wild oxen (Psalm xxii. 21); and Daniel speaks of the horn which made war with the saints and overcame them, until the Ancient of Days came. The wild fury of man against the people of God is aptly described by the irruption of a herd of tusked boars, by the charge of the rhinoceros, or the rush of the wild ox on a harmless, defenceless flock, which has no power of resistance, but only of flight.
The number four reminds us of the cardinal points of the compass, and indicates that, wherever the people turned, there were foes, which were sworn to resist their attempt to renew their national life. On the north, Chaldea, Assyria, and Samaria; on the south, Egypt and Arabia; on the west, Philistia; and on the east, Ammon and Moab. And it is probable that the Spirit of God looked beyond these to the four Gentile monarchies, which have occupied, and still occupy, the “Times of the Gentiles,” and which were represented in the four metals of Daniel’s vision, or in the four great beasts, which one after another emerged from the sea.
As yet Babylon and Medo-Persia alone had arisen; Greece and Rome, the latter including the kingdoms of modern Europe, were to come; but all were included in this one comprehensive glance at the kings of the earth, which set themselves, and the rulers who took counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying:
Let us break their bands asunder
And cast away their cords from us.
We must not forget that God Himself gave these world-powers their authority. He says, in Isaiah, “I was wroth with my people; I profaned mine inheritance, and gave them into thine hand” (Isa. xlvii. 6, 7). And in Daniel He lifts the veil and shows that the world-rulers represent not flesh and blood merely, but malign and mighty spirits that actuate and inspire them (Dan. x. 13-20). As long as God’s people are perfect in their loyalty and obedience towards Him, they need fear the power of no adversary whatsoever; but when there is a break in the holy connection which binds Him and them in an: inviolable safety,.it seems as though all the forces of evil are set free to bear down on and ravage them, until their chastisement is completed, and they return to their first love.
If we were asked to name the four horns which are ravaging the Church in the present day, we should not hesitate to say that they are Priestcraft, Worldliness, Christian Science, and Spiritualism.
Priestcraft, which substitutes the priest for the living Saviour; rites for faith; and the sacrifice of the Mass for that once offered and finished on the cross; and which is corrupting and undermining, by the accursed system of the confessional, the home-life of our country, as it has that of every nation which has fallen under its blighting scourge.
W orldliness, to which our Lord alludes in his description of the lusts, the strong desires for other things, which enter into competition with the seed sown in our hearts, and make it unfruitful.
Christian Science, which, under the specious use of Christian terms, really eviscerates Christianity of its essential doctrines, making sin an illusion and its penalty a mortal dream; denying the Atonement, and the true nature of Jesus Christ; and teaching men to look on sin, sickness, and death, as matters of wrong thinking rather than wrong being and doing.
Spiritualism, which reduces Christ to the level of a medium, and works lying wonders by the aid of seducing spirits.
As we look on these and kindred evils which are
just now invading and ravaging the professing Church, we may well adopt the words of the prophet: “And I said unto the Angel that talketh with me, What are these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”
In every life there are similar experiences. Sometimes, when we lift up our eyes, we find ourselves begirt with opposition and threatened by hostile powers. Think of the martyr-host who have witnessed for God in every age, and who could reiterate the words of the greatest Sufferer of all, “Many bulls have compassed Me, strong bulls of Bashan have beset Me round about; they gape upon Me with their mouth as a ravening and a roaring lion.” Ignatius, who complains that his custodians were like “ten leopards, who only wax worse when they are kindly treated’; Blandina, the girl slave; Germanicus, the noble youth; the Waldenses, whose wrongs roused Cromwell’s wrath and Milton’s muse; the Netherlands, in their long conflict with Philip, when the leaders saw their homes covered again by the ocean from which their ancestors had redeemed them; Madame Guyon, beset by husband, mother-in-law, servants and priests; Samuel Rutherford, and hundreds of his time, harried by the fiercest and most insatiable hate; William Tyndale, the celebrated translator of the English Bible; John G. Paton, beset with savages — these are specimens of a multitude, which no man can number, of every nation, and kindred, and people, who have seen the vision of the four horns.
But there is something beyond; and surely it is not without significance that the prophet says: “The Lord showed me four carpenters” (or smiths, R.v.). We have no difficulty in decrying the sources of alarm for ourselves; but we need a Divine Hand to reveal our assured deliverance. “And Elisha prayed and said: Lord, I pray Thee open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw; and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.”
For Babylon, the “carpenter” was Cyrus; for Persia, Alexander; for Greece, the Roman; for Rome, the Gaul. Very different from each other, very ruthless and unsparing; but very well adapted for their work. Commenting on this passage, the late Gc kas Spurgeon said: “He who wants to open an oyster
ust not use a razor; for some works there needs Jess of daintiness and more of force; Providence) ‘does not find clerks, or architects, or gentlemen, to cut off horns, but carpenters. The work needs a‘man who, when he has work to do, puts his whole strength into it, and beats away with his hammer, or ‘cuts through the wood that lies before him with ‘might and main. Let us not fear for the cause of God; when the horns become too troublesome, the Ppciters will be forthcoming to fray them.”
Remember how in every age He has found his ap-; propriate messenger. Athanasius frayed Arianism, and Augustine, Manicheism; Luther frayed the / power of the Pope in Germnay, as did Hugh, Latimer in England; Wesley and Whitefield frayed, the religious indifference of the last century. When Haldane went to Geneva, he frayed the scepticism which was destroying the Helvetian and Gallic Churches. The Lord knows where to find his servants, and when the predestined hour strikes, there will stand the workman ready. “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head; but these are come to fray them, to cast down the horns of the nations which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.”
O child of God! there have been many horns engaged in scattering thee. Year after year they have wrought sad havoc in thy plans, and cost thee bitter tears. But thine Almighty Friend is greatly displeased that they have hurt thee more than his purposes of chastisement required, and He has resolved that they shall be frayed. He is well able to do this; for He hath sworn that no weapon which is formed
against thee shall prosper, and that every tongue
which shall rise in judgment against thee shall be condemned. Since the discipline has fulfilled its purpose, it shall be stayed; since the refining fire has purged out the dross, it shall lie down; since the winnowing fan has purged the chaff from the wheat, the grain shall no longer be tossed in the breeze. Comfort ye, comfort ye, saith thy God. “For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In overflowing wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.”
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