Eight Visions of Zechariah

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Overview

  1. Ch 1 – 6 consists of 8 visions Zechariah saw in one night (1:8)
  2. There was an angel who interprets the visions for Zechariah but leaves some of the symbols unexplained.
  3. Zechariah fall as sleep after the fourth vision, the angle had to wake him up (4:1)
  4. These visions mix the work of the Messiah in both advents
  5. Like other prophets, Zechariah sees only the peaks of God’s program without the intervening valleys
  6. These visions had historical meaning for Zechariah’s time, but they also have meaning for all time.

Vision 1 – The Red-Horse Rider among the myrtle (1:7-17)

  1. Meaning: God’s anger against the nations, restoration and and blessing upon Israel
  2. The report of the scout horses angers God as everything apparently is in peace and order while His people Israel is in captivity for 70 years
  3. The Lord proclaims His returning to Jerusalem with mercy.
  4. His house will be built
  5. Prosperity will come again upon Israel
  6. He will confort Zion
  7. He will choose again Jerusalem
  8. The man riding the red horse (1:8) is Jesus Christ. Christ has returned doing His work for redeeming and restoring mankind to God. His red horse represents the ransom sacrifice. Jesus’ blood that satisfies God’s justice and releases man from death.
  9. The angle that stood among the myrtle trees (1:11)
    1. That is the Lord Jesus Christ
  10. Meaning of the horses:
    1. Red represents sinful condition
    2. Sorrel represents spotted, sinful patterns conditions still to be removed
    3. White represents prefect and holy condition
  11. The meaning of myrtle trees:
    1. Holy children of God. The white flowers of the trees signify the righteousness of those who have made his walk in the path of holiness
Angels on horses returning from patrolling the earth

Vision 2 – The Four Horns and the Four Craftsmen (1:18-21)

  1. Meaning: God’s judgment on the nations that afflict Israel
  2. The meaning of the horns:
    1. nations that scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem
    2. They were Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks and Romans
  3. Meaning of the craftsmen:
    1. these are nations who have come to terrify the horns, to throw down the horns of the nations who have lifted up their horns against the land of Judah in order to scatter it (1:21)
    2. They are the Persians, Greeks, Romans and Kingdom of Christ
    3. Horns symbolize power and dominion

Vision 3 – The Surveyor with a Measuring Line (Chapter 2)

  1. Meaning:  God’s future blessing on restored Israel
  2. The vision: A man was measuring the length and width of Jerusalem with a measuring line
  3. Who is the man:
    1. The is the Lord Jesus Christ, whom was riding on the red horse on the first vision
  4. Disperse you

Vision 4 – The Cleansing and Crowning of Joshua the High Priest (Chapter 3)

  1. Israel’s future cleansing from sin and reinstatement as a priestly nation
Cleansing and Crowning of Joshua the High Priest

Vision 5 – The Golden Lampstand and the Two Olive Trees (Chapter 4)

  1. Israel as the light to the nations under Messiah, the King-Priest
Golden Lampstand and Two Olives Trees

Vision 6 – The Flying Scroll (5:1-4)

  1. The severity and totality of divine judgment on individual Israelites

Vision 7 – The Woman in the Ephah (5:5-11)

  1. The removal of national Israel’s sin of rebellion against God

Vision 8 – The Four Chariots (6:1-8)

  1. Divine judgment on Gentile nations

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