SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/8/2016 4:48 PM
My Worship Time Focus: God Judges the Nations
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Zechariah 6:1-8
Message of the verses: “1 Now I lifted up my eyes again and looked,
and behold, four chariots were coming forth from between the two mountains; and
the mountains were bronze mountains. 2 With the first chariot were red horses,
with the second chariot black horses, 3 with the third chariot white horses,
and with the fourth chariot strong dappled horses. 4 Then I spoke and said to
the angel who was speaking with me, "What are these, my lord?" 5 The
angel replied to me, "These are the four spirits of heaven, going forth
after standing before the Lord of all the earth, 6 with one of which the black
horses are going forth to the North Country; and the white ones go forth after
them, while the dappled ones go forth to the south country. 7 “When the strong
ones went out, they were eager to go to patrol the earth." And He said,
"Go, patrol the earth." So they patrolled the earth. 8 Then He cried
out to me and spoke to me saying, "See, those who are going to the land of
the north have appeased My wrath in the land of the north."”
First I
want to look at Revelation 6:1-8 which also has horses in it: “1 Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the
seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a
voice of thunder, "Come." 2 I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who
sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering
and to conquer.
“3 When He broke
the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, "Come." 4
And another, a red horse,
went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the
earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.
5 When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying,
"Come." I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of
scales in his hand. 6 And I heard something like a voice in the center of the
four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three
quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine." 7
When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living
creature saying, "Come." 8 I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he
who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority
was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with
famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.” Dr. Wiersbe writes “The red horse symbolize
war; the black horse, famine; the while horses, death. There are no dappled
horses in the vision John had in Revelation 6, but they could well symbolize
plagues. During the ‘Day of the Lord,’
God will use wars, famines, plagues, and death to punish the nations of the
earth.” Now I looked up the words
dappled and also ashen thinking that maybe their meanings were similar. Dapple means spotted while ashen means green
so I am not sure these two mean similar things.
Now as we
look at the bronze mountains there are no such things in Israel or any place
else on the earth, but we have studied this word before and it has always
referred as judgment. Remember the description
of Jesus Christ in Revelation chapter one:
“His feet were like
burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His
voice was like the sound of many waters (Rev. 1:15).” Dr. Wiersbe points out that “The altar of
sacrifice in the tabernacle and the temple was made of wood covered with
bronze, and that’s where sin was judged when the sacrifices were burned. The serpent that Moses put on the pole was
made of bronze (Num. 21:9).”
It is believed
that the totality of this vision speaks of God judging the Gentile nations for
their sins and this will occur during the tribulation period, especially during
the last half of it which we know is what is called “The Day of the Lord.” This precedes the return of our Lord Jesus
Christ coming with His mighty angels along with the raptured saints in order to
set up His promised kingdom. Dr. Wiersbe
writes “In the latter chapters of his book, Zechariah will describe many of the
events that will occur during ‘the day of the Lord.’”
As we read
our text in Zechariah it seems that the horses are straining to go where they
are directed to go, but will go when the proper time comes as God will assure
this to happen. (See Revelation 9:15) “And the four angels, who had been
prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they
would kill a third of mankind.” The black horses are assigned to the North
which means they are going to Babylon and the white horses would follow them,
but nothing is said about the destination of the red horses, however the dapple
horses go to the south which is to Egypt.
Now Dr. Wiersbe has an end note that I wish to quote “By making a minor
change in the Hebrew text, the NIV translators have the white horses going to
the west, but the received text has the white horses following the black
horses.”
We have
seen in the past as we study the Scriptures that God uses angels to do His
bidding in judging the nations as we see it in the book of Zechariah. Check out Daniel 4:4-18; 10; 12:1; Rev. 8;
14; 16.
Dr. Wiersbe
concludes “Zechariah’s vision assures us that God is in control of the future
and will judge the Gentile nations during ‘the Day of the Lord.’ God is long suffering (2 Peter 3:9), but
there comes a time when nations ‘fill up the measure of their sins’ (Gen.
15:16; Matt. 23:32; and then God’s judgment must fall.”
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