No Escape for the Wicked

I The Eight Symbolic Visions

B The Communication of the Visions

8 The Vision of the Heavenly Spirits, Text: 6:1-8

Title: No Escape for the Wicked

Introduction

This vision forms a climax to the whole series. in chapter 1 the nations were at ease and the Lord was angry with them and we read in verses 14 and 15, Then the angel who was speaking to me said, “Proclaim this word: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, and I am very angry with the nations that feel secure. I was only a little angry, but they went too far with the punishment.’” In chapter 6:8 the Lord’s spirit is at rest because the nations have been judged, Then he called to me, “Look, those going toward the north country have given my Spirit rest in the land of the north.” Alongside the many threats of punishment for His own disobedient people God also issued, in His prophets, warnings to the other nations that they too would be punished. There is no element of grace in those punishments. When God chastises His own, He does it to aid in their correction and final salvation, but there is no hope for the wicked and their punishment leads only to further pain and suffering. When Hitler and Naziism were defeated in the Second World War Americans saw themselves and their allies as instruments of God’s judgment and they were not wrong. The Nazis killed six million Jews in the holocaust, but they also murdered eleven million other people including Poles, Slavs, Gypsies, the disabled, political opponents, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Catholics. Who could not rejoice that the Spirit of the Lord had rest when victory was attained. God continually uses some nations to execute judgment on other nations. We should realize that this means that God will also judge the enemies of the Church, the new Israel. Those who insult, persecute, and falsely speak evil will be judged. For now, however we confine ourselves to the judgment of ancient Israel’s enemies and in this section we see the origin, the objective, and the outcome of the judgment.

I The Origin

The origin is of course, God, but the symbolism reminds of that forcefully in verses 1-3. There we read, I looked up again—and there before me were four chariots coming out from between two mountains—mountains of bronze! The first chariot had red horses, the second black, the third white, and the fourth dappled—all of them powerful. The translation of the New International Version is, at this point, about as accurate as we can get. There is some disagreement over the Hebrew adjectives describing the horses, but it is not essential to the passage and if they symbolize anything we would just be speculating. The chariots are instruments of war. On the other hand the place from which they depart is very significant, “between two mountains.” The first mountain is the temple mount, Mount Moriah and the other is the Mount of Olives. The valley of Jehoshaphat lies between and this is pictured in Old Testament prophecy as the place of judgment, and the name means Jahweh’s judgment. Also in Zechariah 14:3 and 4, Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem. Also significant is the fact that the mountains are bronze. This is a fitting description of the hill of Zion. Psalm 125 describes it as a mountain which cannot be moved, and Joel says that in Mount Zion shall be deliverance. Thus we may conclude that the judgment of God begins at the sanctuary of God. From there His wrath moves forth. All the time the foreign nations have invaded and abused His inheritance God has been storing up His wrath for them and now it is being loosed.

II The Objective

Information about the objective is found in verses 4-7, I asked the angel who was speaking to me, “What are these, my lord?” The angel answered me, “These are the four spirits of heaven, going out from standing in the presence of the Lord of the whole world. The one with the black horses is going toward the north country, the one with the white horses toward the west, and the one with the dappled horses toward the south.” When the powerful horses went out, they were straining to go throughout the earth. And he said, “Go throughout the earth!” So they went throughout the earth. Obviously the judgments are spreading out because the horses and chariots are. Yet, there is a problem with the translation in the New International Version which says that the white horses went toward the west. It appears to be an attempt to have the horses go all directions of the compass, and therefore it is assumed though not stated that the red horses went east. The fact is that the Hebrew says that the black horses went north and the white horses “followed.” Thus two chariots went north towards Babylon and one went south towards Egypt the two great enemies of Israel. If you look at Old Testament maps in the era of Zechariah you can see that the territory to the west was the Mediterranean Sea and the territory to the east was controlled by Babylon and later Persia which were centered in the north. Thus the only logical way for enemies to approach was from the north or the south. There is, however, another direction and it is everywhere. “When the powerful horses went out, they were straining to go throughout the earth. And he said, ‘Go throughout the earth!’” This is the really important direction for two reasons. First the four horses represent universality, in other words, judgment that goes in every direction. In Revelation there are four angels at the four corners of the earth holding back the “winds” of judgment. They are like the four winds or spirits of Daniel. In Ezekiel 1 there are four seraphim who are ministers of God’s providential government, as the Lord is coming to wage war on Israel, Judah and the nations. And that is the second reason that this is important because by transcending the geography the vision also transcends time. It leads us to conclude that God is judging pagan nations now just as He did in Zechariah’s time. Yes, the traditional enemies of Israel to the north and south are judged, but so will every enemy of God’s church in every age be weighed and found wanting. It may be presumptuous to attempt to assign a specific reason for every individual instance of God’s judgment as some have done. It is never wrong to recognize that all the judgments in any era are the result of God’s wrath against lawbreakers.

III The Outcome

Verse 8 has a special significance as the outcome of these judgments. We read, Then he called to me, “Look, those going toward the north country have given my Spirit rest in the land of the north.” This means that God’s anger has been made to cease and to rest on the Chaldeans in the north. It was carried there and deposited, and as we read in John 3:36, the wrath of God was abiding on them. Babylon was the final antagonist and subduer of the people of God in the Old Testament. God’s final execution of His anger upon their destroyer was the earnest of the rest to them. Calvin comments on why this was written, “That the Jews might know that God would be propitious to them, he bids them to continue quiet and undisturbed in their minds, until these chariots had run their course through the whole of Chaldea; for what the angel now says would be fulfilled, even that the Spirit of God would be quieted, who seemed before to be disturbed, when he involved all things in darkness, even in Judea itself.” We know that Jesus said this age in which we live would be characterized by wars, rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes, but Jesus also said in John 16:33, In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. If we learn anything from this passage, let it be that God is just and merciful and He is on the throne.