Out of Babylon to Zion by Prof. Lucas A Reed

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 2, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 30.

Out of Babylon to Zion

By Prof. Lucas A Reed

XVII. The Vision of the Four Horns and the Four Smiths

"And I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, four horns. And I said unto the Angel that talked with me, What are these? And He answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. And Jehovah showed me four smiths. Then said I, What come these to do? And He spake, saying, These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head; but these are come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it." Zech. 1: 18-21.

This is the second vision of the seven given to the prophet Zechariah as recorded in the first six chapters. These visions are seven, and seven means completeness. They reveal in full God's providence for His people at that time, and in type they are God's providence for His people in every age. They are therefore replete with lessons for the church to-day.

The four horns represent four nations, or earthly powers. A horn to represent a kingdom is quite common in the Scriptures. Thus the ten horns of the fourth beast of Daniel 7 represent the ten kingdoms of the latter Roman Empire. The ten horns of the seven-headed beast of Revelation 13:1; 17:3, 12 similarly represent ten kings, or kingdoms; and indeed the very statement made in Zechariah, "These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head," shows clearly enough that earthly powers are meant.

The Meaning of the Four

There has been much needless speculation as to just what four nations are indicated. Four stands here, as in the previous prophecy, to represent all points of the compass, north, east, south, and west, every direction from which trouble for the chosen could arise. Viewing it in this light it may represent Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia, Rome, as these severally come on the stage of action, or it may mean Egypt, Syria, or any other earthly power at any time that threatens the prosperity of God's kingdom and the welfare of His children. The four horns are typical. They are the power of the wild beast, and God uses such an illustration to represent the strength of earthly power.

The ease with which God deals with these powers when they oppose His purposes is shown by the four smiths, or workmen, who frighten and cast out, or cast down, the horns of the nations. They are disposed of by being frightened and cast down. As stated in Zech. 2:9, God has but to wave His hand — that is, shake His hand over them — and they become a spoil to those that serve them.

Let us consider for a moment again the condition of God's people at this time. Prohibited by the earthly power, Persia, from building the temple, God had told them to begin anew that work, and they had done it. At the present time there stood lodged at the court of Darius a complaint against them for thus undertaking this work anew while the royal mandate stood prohibiting the rebuilding. There is therefore a lesson to God's chosen right at the time. God has His means of rebuking earthly power when it interferes with His plans; He assures them that there is a smith, a carpenter, an instrumentality which He can quickly use to despoil any nation that opposes Judah, Israel, or Jerusalem. It is an assurance to them, in that trying hour, that God foresees and knows just how to deal with every perplexity confronting His work.

Various Opposing Powers

In the past, Egypt had lifted up her horn against the horn of Israel; but God had dealt by plague and disaster until all the might and majesty of Egypt were annulled and God's people given complete victory, not only when they came from that land by the path of the Red Sea, but many times after that.

So the Philistines had seemingly wrought their will when they oppressed the people of God; but through Sampson and Saul and David, various instrumentalities, God had cast down the horn of the Philistines. They were a power no longer to be feared.

Likewise the Edomites who dwelt in the mountains, in the fastnesses of the rocks, who had built their mighty city of Petra in the carved stone, who had swept over the land of Israel time and again like the grasshoppers and the locusts, devastating wherever they went, had felt at last the rebuke of God.

Then, too, the Assyrian who had come down "like a wolf on the fold, and his cohorts were gleaming with purple and gold," during one hour of the night had felt the withering blast of the glance of God.

To the children of Israel who were building at Jerusalem under such strenuous circumstances and under fear of the displeasure, especially of the Persian nation, harassed by the Samaritans, their enemies, this lesson came with special hope and comfort.

God's Remedies Sufficient

And you will note that while there were four horns, there were also exactly four smiths, or carpenters, or workmen; and that is the lesson for all God's people to learn,—four against four. For everything that threatens the child of God, there is that which will offset or neutralize it when God so chooses. For every enemy or evil power that may assail, God has already equipped an antagonist to frighten it, to cast it down, to nullify absolutely its effects. And so God's people then building the temple, altho the decree of Darius was not yet given, were to read the lesson that God would check the present opposition in His own good time. History has verified the prophecy. Events have justified the prediction of God. Notwithstanding the many things that might have occurred, notwithstanding all that the Persians or the Grecians or later the Romans might do, God was in command of the situation. The temple went up; the city was builded in spite of all the efforts of all opposing enemies. To-day those enemies are gone, their gorgeous cities are heaps of desolation; and while God could not do for Jerusalem what He planned to do, and tho it failed to stand forever as was His original purpose, His kingdom still prospers, His children are ever cared for. The evil comes and will be allowed to come, as God's servant, to correct and chasten, with certainty at the appointed hour, at the right moment known only to God, the terrifying or frightening artificer will come to vanquish or destroy.

The Vision of God's Purpose for Jerusalem

"And I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then said I, Whither goest thou? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof." Zech. 2: 1, 2.

This vision opens with a picture so clearly like that at the beginning of Ezekiel 40 that we are impressed to believe that the two prophecies cover the same period, represent the same purposes of God toward Jerusalem; but one is the counterpart of the other, and therefore they should be studied together. This view will be confirmed as we proceed to study each verse of the second chapter of Zechariah.

We may as well say at the outset that this vision recorded in the second chapter of Zechariah, and the vision given to Ezekiel as recorded in the fortieth chapter of Ezekiel and onward, were given concerning the future of Jerusalem on condition that God's people put aside their sins and come up to the full measure of children of God. The people of that time, however, failed to come up to this standard; they therefore forfeited the privileges that they might otherwise have had. These prophecies failed for Jerusalem then; but wherein for old earthly Jerusalem they failed, they will be grandly realized in the New City that awaits the true Israel of God.

In Zechariah's vision a man is seen with a measuring line in his hand who measures Jerusalem, its breadth and its length. In the vision of Ezekiel also a man is seen, a man with the appearance of brass, who holds a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed, and who measures the temple and the city of God.

What Might Have Been

In the prophecy as recorded in Ezekiel's vision we have a new city, grander than the old Jerusalem, with a finer temple even than that of Solomon. Some of the things that in Solomon's temple brought in commercialism and unholiness, are eliminated from the temple of Ezekiel. In Ezekiel's temple there was to be anew the Shekinah, the shining

glory of the presence of God. This temple was to be built only on condition that God's people put away their sins. To the prophet was given the instruction, "If they be ashamed of all that they have done, show them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof," etc.; "that they keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them." In the temple of Ezekiel there were to be the sacrifices and the oblations and the priesthood as of old, showing that this all must have applied to the time before Messiah came. There was to be in addition a prince who had a certain gate of entrance, who had certain services to go through. We see at once that he is to stand before Israel until the Prince, the Messiah, come. Last of all the name of that city, according to the last verse of the last chapter of Ezekiel, was to be "Jehovah is there." But God's people failed. Instead of all this glorious rebuilding of the city, this glorious inhabiting of the holy place by the Shekinah of God, instead of a place made sacred by the visible presence, we have a period of over four hundred years in which no prophet speaks the inspired Word of God, in which no inspired record is given us, for there was nothing worthy of the inspired pen.

The light that God would have caused to shine like the glory of the noonday, was eclipsed by the sins of His people and a night of almost midnight darkness for four hundred years, until the voice of John broke the silence, and the light of the Gospel of the Son of God scattered the shadows of that awful darkness.

(To be continued)