Dr MJ du Plessis Reformed Church Bellville Date: March 1999 Series revised: 15 January 2006

Our help is in the Name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
Beloved, grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Psalm of praise: 89:1, 10
Prayer
Psalm 2:3

Scripture reading: Zechariah 1
Scripture text: Zechariah 1:21

“What are these men coming to do?” I asked.
The angel replied, “The blacksmiths have come to terrify the four horns that scattered and humbled Judah. They will throw them down and destroy them.” (Zechariah 1:21 NLT)

Zechariah was a very special person. His name actually expresses what the Lord had called him to preach to his people and what he in fact did.

The name Zechariah means: The Lord remembers!
Zechariah preached to the people that the Lord always remembers what He has promised to his people.
The Lord promised that He would release us from everything that has oppressed us in order to let our faith fade under the stressful circumstances.

Let’s have a closer look at the two aspects of Zechariah’s second night vision:

1.   The punishment of the Lord
2.   The deliverance/salvation

1.   The punishment of the Lord

We should never think that Zechariah’s night vision means that it is easy to believe and that the Lord simply forgives and corrects every wrong.

The Lord saves us through punishment, remorse and repentance.
- The Lord also remembers what we should do,
- and He also remembers to punish us when we do not listen to Him.
The most terrible feeling we can ever experience is certainly when we suddenly realise that we are totally crushed. Think of Zechariah’s circumstances.
- When we realise that spiritually we are miserably poor.
- The day we realise that we realise that all the people around us have died.
- When something happens to us and we suddenly realise that we have disgraced ourselves – so badly that we cannot face anybody!
This is the condition in which the people found themselves when Zechariah told them about the vision he had the night before.
- Just imagine their relief when the prophet told them about it, because it meant that their future was no longer bleak.
- In this second night vision the Lord guaranteed the safety of the church.
The people had just been released from their 70-year exile, which was a result of the fact that they did not want to believe in the way the Lord expected of them.

The Lord will allow the church to perish if He wants it to happen as He had proved to the Israelites:

They refused to listen and to repent, and then He let them be destroyed and taken into exile.
An entire nation was destroyed and lost everything.
BUT it was the Lord who did it himself – not the world.

After 70 years the Lord decided to restore his people.

He brought back from Babylonia a small group of people.
Large numbers, lots of money and glittering appearances are not important to the Lord.

These people did not find life easy, because very soon after they had been freed from the people of Babylonia the Persians subjected them.

Their first assignment was to rebuild the temple. At this point in time they had been back in their own country for 20 years, but nothing had been done about the temple because the people who had moved into their country during their exile would not allow them to rebuild the temple.
We could say that all the hardship they experienced was from outside.

But it was not their major problem! The worst problem came from inside:

Their own lack of faith attacked them and made them weak.
Their apathy was a much greater obstacle than the threat of the enemy.

When we now sit back and think, it seems as if the church will perish, because the church is deteriorating.

The church is attacked and threatened from outside as well as inside.
Then – at this critical point in time –Zechariah tells the people that the Lord would not allow the world to destroy the church.
The Lord will save his church.

However, the Lord does not guarantee that we can sit back and do nothing while He ensures the continued existence of the church.

He only gives us the assurance that the church will always be there.
The world will never destroy the church.

Zechariah saw four horns.

These horns certainly did not float around in the air. They must have been attached to the heads of animals.
Zechariah doesn’t mention the animals, because it is of no importance.
The horns made such an impression on him.
He saw these horns approaching and crushing his people to the ground.

Zechariah was terribly frightened by these horns. In the Old Testament horns used to be a sign of brute violence and force.

In Psalm 18:2 (King James version) David sings about God being the horn of his salvation.
In Psalm 75:11 Asaph sings about God who will cut of the horns of the wicked. And the he means that God will destroy their power.

It is in fact true that in visions and prophecies throughout the Bible horns always symbolise supernatural powers and strength.

Sometimes powers of nations who are against God are depicted like this, and in other instances they represent the power of Lord, for example the horns at the altar.
In Zechariah’s vision we do not deal with horns such as those at the altar that effected reconciliation, or those in David’s psalm. Here it is a case of rejection. They are the horns that destroyed Judah.

What Zechariah saw that night was a vision of what was to happen in the very distant future.

It is a prophecy of a time when nations will try to wipe out the church.
The world will walk over the believers like the horns that crushed the people.

Hence this vision hooks up with what is written in Revelations where it describes how the Christians are killed because they believe, and that only those who have the mark of the beast will be able to trade.

The world and the powers of hell will take over – to such an extent that the Christians will not be able to survive.
The number four is the number that usually represents creation.
- It also depicts the four main directions.
- Zechariah also saw four horns. This means that nations from all directions will stand up against the church and scatter it.

This night vision of course also applies to Israel, because the world of the time conquered Palestine in turn: Babylonia, Syria, Persia and Egypt. They were the Great Powers of the time!

2. The deliverance/salvation

Zechariah was so petrified when he saw the horns that he did not notice the appearance of four strong men (blacksmiths). The Lord had to point it out to him.

They preach the redemptive work of the Lord.
This is not the end of this Jerusalem.
The Lord sends another power to destroy the power of the four horns.

Zechariah saw blacksmiths who had come to destroy the iron horns.

The word used here in the Hebrew text only means craftsman.
The NLT uses blacksmiths.
The King James Version uses carpenters.

The Bible teaches us that the world destroyed the people of God so much so that they had no courage to get up again.

The Lord did not like this.
Hence He sent these four artisans to destroy the four horns with their powerful sledgehammers.

Consider this image again:

The world is filled with blasphemy against the church of God.
Suddenly four blacksmiths appear to destroy the world completely.
This shows that God is not powerless, although the church itself is powerless.

In the image of the four horns only brute power and violence are represented. In the image of the four blacksmiths much more than mere power is symbolised:

They represent intellect and craftsmanship.
God uses his power wisely and with expertise.
Against this the world and the devil can offer no resistance.

These craftsmen preach two things to us:

Firstly they tell about the deliverance that God will effect. God sends a power into the world that will stand up to the powers of the world and destroy them completely.

It is clear that this deals with a prophecy regarding Jesus Christ. He came to live on this earth – as a human being – to destroy the power of the world and the hell.
- At the instigation of the devil the people crucified Christ.
  - But with this deed Satan was responsible for his own undoing, because it in fact worked the destruction of his power.
- As a human being Christ struggled with death.
  - Like a human being He was buried – but He is also the first human being whose body, under its own power, conquered death and walked away from the grave – alive.
- This Craftsman produced reconciliation on earth from condemnation.
  - He opened up a new life to people who actually deserved the agony and defilement of hell.
  - He overcame the power of hell and destroyed it. He destroyed the power of the four horns.

But it is not just a matter of grace. Hence the blacksmiths secondly also preach God’s judgement.

In fact the content of the gospel is salvation for those who believe and condemnation for those who reject the salvation through Christ.
On the one hand it is true that Jesus Christ died to save the sinners.
But on the other hand it is also true that He destroys all the people who, together with the devil and his powers, stand up against God.

Now look at us. Whose forces do we join?

Are we going through life like the four horns treading on everything that is sacred to God?
Is it not perhaps true that we do not value pure principles?
How much power has our faith? Faith without depth makes us do wrong than sincerely worship.

This vision strongly emphasises our responsibility.

We must church in the real sense of the word and we must be true believers.
Or rephrased: We should live like redeemed people (sinners) if we want the Lord to protect us, because in the end He only saves the real church.

We must remember that we are protected because of the Lord’s almighty grace.

Hence we must be heaven-graced people!
We should have a thorough understanding of life, because God the Holy Spirit guides us with Divine wisdom through life.

We are not unbelievers. We can accept the demand for responsibility in all spheres of life because we share in the salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Judgment Day is approaching. Let us be ready to await Him – joyfully – and glorify Him forever.

It is true that the Lord Jesus will then, with his tender love, place the faithful on the new earth.
We should however never think that the love of the Lord allows us to be slack and to just plod on in our faith.
He expects us to devote ourselves ardently to his service. He wants us to worship Him sincerely and to the full.

Let us live to the full and turn away from sins that impair our faith.

Let us be a jubilating church that lives to the glory of God.

Amen.

Closing prayer
Closing hymn: Psalm 116:1, 9

The Lord will bless you and keep you.
The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift His countenance to you and give you peace.
Amen.

Dr MJ du Plessis
Reformed Church Bellville
Date: March 1999
Series revised: 15 January 2006