The Second Vision

From: Things Which Must Shortly Come to Pass By: Algernon James Pollock

Zechariah 1:18‑21 • 1 min. read • grade level: 12

Zechariah 1:18-21¹⁸Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns. ¹⁹And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. ²⁰And the Lord showed me four carpenters. ²¹Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, 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 out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it. (Zechariah 1:18‑21)

The prophet sees four horns, and he is told these represent the Gentile powers who have scattered God's ancient people, doubtless answering once more to the four world-empires foretold in Scripture.

Then the prophet sees four carpenters—four being a full answer to the four horns—and is told that they come to cast out the horns of the Gentiles; in other words, the prophet gets the answer to his question, that however impossible it looks, the enemies of God's people shall be destroyed, and His people blessed. This would be humanly impossible one would think, but the answer lies in one word—GOD.

The word “carpenter” is literally “carver or engraver.” The four carvers, it is suggested, carve or fray the four horns, and may represent the “four sore judgments” of Ezekiel 14:21²¹For thus saith the Lord God; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast? (Ezekiel 14:21), namely, the sword, famine, evil beasts, and pestilence, that shall diminish and weaken the great Gentile powers at the end (see also Rev. 6:8⁸And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. (Revelation 6:8)).

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