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Zechariah 6:1-8. "And again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of bronze. The first chariot had red horses, the second black horses, the third white horses, and the fourth chariot dappled gray horses. Then I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” And the angel answered me, “These are going forth to the four winds of heaven, after presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth. The chariot with the black horses goes toward the north country, the white ones go toward the west country, and the dappled ones go toward the south country.” When the steeds came out, they were impatient to get off and patrol the earth. And he said, “Go, patrol the earth.” So they patrolled the earth." Then he cried to me, “Behold, those who go toward the north country have set my Spirit at rest in the north country.”"

 

Zechariah is a book concerned with the return of the Jewish people from exile and the rebuilding of the Temple. It gives an idea of what that will look like, and what God has planned for Jerusalem and the nations that conquered her, especially Babylon. God is going to send His judgment against those nations; He says He was angry "but a little", but they furthered the disaster (Zechariah 1:15).

 

When I read this passage, I immediately was reminded of the Book of Revelation, especially the four horsemen of the Apocalypse (Revelation 6:1-8) (even the chapter and verses are the same as in Zechariah!), and the four angels holding back the four winds of the earth (Revelation 7:1), so I began at the beginning of Zachariah, to see if there were other similarities with Revelation, and there are almost too many to count! Zechariah is like a mini-Revelation.

 

Zechariah sees a man with a measuring line measuring Jerusalem (Zechariah 2:1-2); the high priest standing before God in filthy clothes and having them replaced by clean ones (Zechariah 3:3-4); a golden lamp stand with seven lamps and two olive trees beside it (Zechariah 4:2-3); a flying scroll (Zechariah 5:1); an ephah in which sits a woman identified as "wickedness" (Zechariah 5:6-8); the horsemen (Zechariah 1:7-11), and later four different colored horses and chariots (Zechariah 6:1-3). Further, God tell Zachariah that people from all nations will be drawn to the rebuilt Jerusalem (Zechariah 8:20-23), and that "living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem" (Zechariah 14:8). Finally, "the Lord will become king over all the earth." (Zechariah 14: 9).

 

All of this symbolism, the lamp stands, the olive trees, the measuring rod, the clean robes, the horses, the scroll, the female embodiment of wickedness (named Babylon in Revelation 17:5), the living waters flowing from the New Jerusalem, the coming of all nations to Jerusalem, are things that appear again in Revelation. Further, at the end of Revelation, a New Jerusalem has come down from heaven, and God reigns and lives with His people.

 

The exile and return of the Jews, then, are a story in their own, but also a "type" in salvation history that point to what the end of our exile and the coming of God's Kingdom will look like. The symbolism looks the same, because it is the same story. In Zechariah's time, the story concerned the Jews, the earthly Jerusalem, and her earthly enemies. In the final times described in Revelation, the story will concern all of humanity, the heavenly Jerusalem, and our spiritual enemies. But the cycle and symbolism are the same. We can tend to read Revelation as a frightening book, describing times we hope we do not live through, but it is really the story of God bringing us home, and the defeat of all of His enemies. 

 

This is another great example of how salvation history is really different iterations of the same story. The cycle happens in our individual lives, in our families, our nations, our Church, and ultimately in the entire world. We can read Zechariah and come to understand how God will eventually bring all of humanity out of exile, just as He did the Jews; and we can read Revelation and get a sense of what it will look like when that happens. We can also read both to understand how our personal times of darkness and trial are periods in which God is hard at work in our lives, calling us home and battling those of His enemies who have taken us from Him.