obeying my voice, as they did that of the earlier prophets, you suffer as did your fathers. It was therefore a most suitable introduction to the discharge of his prophetic functions. The reference of the prophet is to the threatening of conquest and captivity to their fathers, and to the fulfilment of that threatening that was then before their eyes. And how complete was that fulfilment! The land that once flowed with milk and honey was now lying in widowed desolation and barrenness. The hills on whose green terraces once hung the climbing vine and the generous olive, were now bare and rugged. The cities and villages once echoing to the busy hum of a happy people, were now in ruins, and all over their once beautiful land had God written Ichabod. Thus far the meaning is plain. The only difficulty is in the logical coherence of v. 5, with what precedes it. It seems to place the fathers who sinned and the prophets who obeyed on the same footing, as sharing the same fate. Hence some have supposed the reference was to false prophets, a supposition that completely dislocates the whole passage and overlooks the current of thought. The object of the exordium is to show the unchanging permanence of God's word, by contrasting it with the transitory nature of their fathers and the prophets, and it may thus be set forth more fully. Let the fate of your fathers be a warning to you that you avoid the disobedience to the word of Jehovah, which brought upon them evils so desolating. For where are they now? Once they ruled and worshipped here as do you. The song of the Levite rang through the arches of the temple, the smoke of the victim ascended from its altars, their banners waved over these hills, and their armies struck terror into the hearts of their enemies. But where are they now? Some lie in slaughtered heaps, when the banner of Judah was trampled in the dust, and her bravest sons cut down like grass before the mower's scythe, by the fierce cohorts of the Assy rian. Some lie buried in the ruins of the holy city, which they sought to defend from the spoiler. Some are sleeping by the flashing waters of the Euphrates, far from the graves of their fathers, after weeping out a weary life beneath the willows that bend in the land of the stranger. Whilst some in the feebleness of tottering age have returned to lay their bones in the soil that is hallowed by the memories and hopes of Israel. And why has this been their mournful history? Because they refused to listen to the warnings of the prophets. Hence even the prophets themselves were taken away. They warned, and wept, and prayed, but met only with stoning, reviling and hate. They toiled on to stay the coming judgments, but when their efforts were disregarded by the people, God in mercy took them away from the evil to come. Then the last barrier was removed and the torrent of wrath came dire and pitiless in its rush of fury and swept them away in its flood. Now as your fathers and the prophets alike have passed away, according to my word; as neither the wickedness of the one, nor the piety of the other, could arrest my threatened judgments, beware lest a like evil come upon you. that your prophets being disregarded, be also withdrawn, and the judgments you are daring come upon you for your disobedience. This appropriate introduction was probably followed with exhortations to build the temple and restore the worship of God, that are not recorded, as their interest was local and temporary, for its date is three months anterior to the next portion of the prophecy, and we cannot suppose all that time to have elapsed without any prophetic teachings to the people. That there were such instructions, and that they were obeyed by the people, would seem probable from the consolatory character of the next divine utterance that is recorded by the prophet in these visions: II. THE VISIONS. Ch. 1: 7 to end of ch. 6. VISION I. Ch. 1: 7-17. The man among the myrtles. 7. On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Sebat, (February,) in the second year of Darius, came the word of JEHOVAH to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the pro8. phet, saying: I saw that night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtles in the valley, and behind him 9. there were red, bay and white horses. And I said, 'My lord, what are these?' And the angel that talked with me, said unto me, 'I 10. will show thee what they are.' And the man that stood among the myrtles answered and said, These are they whom JEHOVAH hath 11. sent to walk throughout the earth.' And they answered the angel of JEHOVAH that stood among the myrtles, We have walked through12. out the earth, and behold all the earth dwells and is at rest.' Then the angel of JEHOVAH answered and said, OH JEHOVAH of Hosts! how long wilt thou not pity Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against 13. which thou hast been angry these seventy years?' And JEHOVAH answered the angel that talked with me good words and consoling words. 14. And the angel that talked with me said unto me, Cry, saying, Thus saith JEHOVAH of Hosts, I am jealous for Jerusalem, and for Zion, with great jealousy. 16. Therefore thus saith JEHOVAH, I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies, My house (temple) shall be built in it, saith JEHOVAH of Hosts, 17. Cry also, saying, thus saith JEHOVAH of Hosts, My cities shall also be extended by prosperity, And JEHOVAH shall yet comfort Zion, And shall yet choose Jerusalem. The object of this vision, or waking trance, is to comfort the disheartened people in their labor, by showing them the fact that God was with them, although they were very lowly and despised. This done by exhibiting a symbolical picture of the theocratic people, which is explained to the prophet by an interpreting angel, who is not to be confounded with the angel of Jehovah, the central figure of the group. He sees a grove of myrtles, a beautiful shrub, with glossy, dark green leaves, and white, star-like clusters of fragrant flowers, whose leaves exhaled their richest odor only when bruised. This was a symbol of the theocracy, the Jewish church and nation. The church is not a cedar, in its queenly pride, or an oak in its giant strength, but a lowly myrtle, humble, unpretending, and exhaling its sweetest graces when bruised by the weight of affliction. Such was the existing state of the theocracy, and hence the despondency of the people, who thought that so lowly a thing must be wholly overshadowed and destroyed by the proud and godless powers of the world. But in the midst of these myrtles he sees a man on a red horse, whom we afterwards discover to be the angel of Jehovah, that divine person whom we trace all along the history of the Old Testament, in every manifestation of God to man, in visible form, until in the New Testament we find him manifest in the flesh. It is the second person of the mysterious trinity, the great Head of the church. The fact is thus symbolised that he is in the midst of the church, unseen, and hence though seemingly so feeble and lowly, she has this inhabitation as her glory and defence. The celerity and strength of every agency connected with the church, is set forth by the horses, the red color of which signified the fervor of at once the zeal and the wrath of these agencies, as at once sanguine and sanguinary; the white color, their triumphant strength, being the symbol of victory, and the bay, a combination of the two colors, showing the connection between these things in the arrangements made by God for the good of his church. The surrounding angels on horses set forth the fact that God has provided every species of agency for the supply and defence of his church, making the very powers of the world work to the promotion of her interests. The attendant angels are sent to spy out the condition of the whole earth, and bring back the report (v. 11) that all nations were in peace and prosperity. But Judea was lying in desolation, Jerusalem in ruins, and the temple but partially rebuilt. Here was a state of facts that seemed to contradict the promises of God to his people, and the threatenings of God to his enemies, and hence that tended to depress the one with doubt and inflate the other with pride. It was then time for God to work, and hence the divine angel begins (v. 12) to intercede for his people. Here then was an additional fact of great comfort. Not only does Christ dwell in the midst of his people, and watch over all that affects their condition, but he intercedes for them, and his intercession is never in vain. This appears from v. 13, where in answer to these intercessions God speaks comforting words to the angel, who was commissioned to speak to the prophet. These words are there recorded by the prophet in verses 14-17, and constitute the poetic exposition of the vision, in effect as follows. Jerusalem and Zion are laid waste it is true, but not in anger, so much as in chastising love. God still loves them, and is jealous of any estrangement of their affections from him, and when estranged he chastises them to bring them back. This was his object in using the heathen as instruments of chastisement, but the spirit in which they executed this office has provoked his wrath. He designed only to inflict a slight chastisement, but they rioted in the sufferings of his people with wanton cruelty. They mocked their sorrows and taunted them with their abandonment. Hence God will punish these heathen, and will bestow mercy on his people, cause the temple to be built, the city to be enlarged, and prosperity to return to the land. These predictions were not merely promises of temporal prosperity, such as the theocratic people received in the times of Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Maccabees; but of that better prosperity which took place when the spiritual temple was laid on the chief corner stone, and its stately proportions, all garnished with prophets, apostles and martyrs, went slowly up, preparing for its culmination in the New Jerusalem that shall descend from heaven as a bride prepared for her husband. Literally they were fulfilled, but they have a wider VOL. VII.-9 |