The Four Chariots, Not Horns
Zechariah 6 closes these preliminary visions. “And I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came four chariots out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of brass [or copper]” (vs. 1). Thus we find that God fully maintains His witness of Gentile imperial authority. Israel had ceased to be the place of His direct rule on earth; but He sanctions fully the Gentiles in the government providentially given to them, which the Jew was bound to own, humiliating as it must be to him. The four chariots are an unmistakable reference (mutatis mutandis) to the course of earthly power as already made known in detail by Daniel. There is no more real difficulty here than in the statue or the four beasts seen to emerge together when the winds strove on the great waters there. “These are the four spirits of the heavens which go forth” (vs. 5). They are looked at not so much as powers, but in virtue of their unseen animating agents in providence: and this is the reason why we hear of spirits in this place. The horns in chapter 1, as was said before, show them as kingly powers strictly; the chariots and horses seem to be more intimate and to exhibit God’s purpose, rather than simply to set them out as the powers themselves.
Their Distinctive Qualities
“In the first chariot were red horses; and in the second chariot black horses; and in the third chariot white horses; and in the fourth chariot grisled and bay horses” (vss. 2-3). The main point to observe is that of the red we hear no more than the fact; that the black horses (which were quite absent from chapter 1) seem connected with those who followed the empire of Babylon (vs. 8); that the white are shown to have pursued their way to the north country in the eastern world; and that the fourth or Roman chariot has a twofold description—an earlier and a later. The grisled are seen to push their way southward, which may indicate the full establishment of the empire by the battle of Actium, which decided the fate of the world in that day. But it is the bay or strong horses which sought to go, that they might walk to and fro through the earth. To these especially the word is, “Get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth” (vs. 7). The early powers had the title and aspired after universality of dominion; the third won it by conquest of unexampled rapacity and success; the fourth alone made it good with anything approaching to permanence of power. The context here (I may say in contrast with verse 8) seems plainly to show that we should understand earth and not land in verse 7. How completely all were but carrying out in result the will of God, whatever their own ways, is shown for the comfort of the Jew even now in the close of the vision: much more will it be clear when He takes the kingdom whose right it is.
Zerubbabel Not a Priest nor Joshua a King: Messiah Both
Hence the chapter furnishes then another picture, yet connected with what goes before. “Take from the captivity, from Heldai, from Tobijah and from Jedaiah, who are come from Babylon, and go thou on that day, yea, go into the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah; and take silver and gold, and make crowns, and set them on the head of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and speak unto him, saying” (vss. 10-12). It is a further prophecy of the Branch, the Messiah, and thus confirms thoroughly what we have seen before. “Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and He shall grow up out of His place, and He shall build the temple of Jehovah: even He shall build the temple of Jehovah; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne; and He shall be a priest upon His throne” (vss. 12-13). The building of Zerubbabel was precious in Jehovah’s eyes, but most of all as bringing before His eyes a greater Son of David and abiding glory when He sits a priest upon His throne. In no sense was it true that Zerubbabel was a priest; in no sense was Joshua a king. The Messiah alone can build the glory and will display it to the glory of God here below. He is now the rejected King, a priest, the great high priest undoubtedly, but on His Father’s throne, not yet on His own, as He Himself expressly declares and distinguishes in Revelation 3:21. He is now a priest after the order of Melchisedec; He will then exercise it in all its fullness of meaning (not as now Aaronically in the holiest, but) coming forth with refreshment for the conquerors over the hostile powers of the earth, blessing the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth (manifestly so then), and blessing man, Himself the channel and security of all blessing forever. “Even He shall build the temple of Jehovah; and He shall bear the glory” (vs. 13). It is only prejudice which compels anyone to bring in here the church; for the theme is clearly the kingdom, and embraces the Jews as His people on earth, as the temple is clearly that described in Ezekiel, not the New Testament habitation of God in the Spirit. “And the counsel of peace shall be between them both” (vs. 13). Anything short of the Messiah is altogether inapt. Further, it seems far-fetched and, if intelligible, rather strange doctrine that the priesthood and royalty should be personified, and the last phrase mean that the counsel of peace is “between them, both” (vs. 13). The notion of Jew and Gentile is also intolerable. The only two persons named previously are Jehovah and the Branch.
Provisional Character Confirmed in Ver. 15
The crowns then were to be for Helem and his companions (vs. 14) not as their property but in memorial of the crowning of Joshua as the symbolic representative here of the Messiah; just as Zerubbabel was before, and as both together, sons of oil, were in chapter 4. What strikingly confirmed the provisional character of the then state of things and the symbol of Messiah’s kingdom and the temple of Jehovah in the future is given in verse 15. “And those from afar off shall come and build in the temple of Jehovah; and ye shall know that Jehovah hath sent me to you. And it shall come to pass, if ye will diligently obey the voice of Jehovah your God.” So the passage abruptly terminates. Gentiles should come and help toward the temple of Jehovah which Messiah is to build (which could not be the one then in course of building, nor surely Herod’s); and the Jews are left in this inexpressible solemnity on that hinge of personal responsibility, just indeed but ever fatal to the first man.